ore or less what he said:--

"Information? No, I shall not give you any; you are the enemy, you see.
Ha, ha! They call me rebel. But I ask you, my friend, is it natural that
I--I, Hollander born, Dutch Afrikander since '60--should be as loyal to
the British Government as a Britisher should be? No, I say; one can be
loyal only to one's own country. I am law-abiding subject of the Queen,
and that is all that they can ask of me.

"How will the war go? That it is impossible, quite impossible, to say.
The Boer might run away at the first shot and he might fight to the
death. All troops are liable to panic; even regular troop; much more
than irregular. But I have been on commando many times with Boer, and I
cannot think him other than brave man. Fighting is not his business; he
wishes always to be back on his farm with his people; but he is brave
man.

"I look on this war as the sequel of 1881. I have told them all these
years, it is not finish; war must come. Mr Gladstone, whom I look on as
greatest British statesman, did wrong in 1881. If he had kept promises
and given back country before the war, we would have been grateful; but
he only give it after war, and we were not grateful. And English did not
feel that they were generous, only giving independence after war,
though they had a large army in Natal; they have always wished to
recommence.

"The trouble is because the Boer have never had confidence in the
English Government, just as you have never had confidence in us. The
Boer have no feeling about Cape Colony, but they have about Natal; they
were driven out of it, and they think it still their own country. Then
you took the diamond-fields from the Free State. You gave the Free State
independence only because you did not want trouble of Basuto war; then
we beat the Basutos--I myself was there, and it was very hard, and it
lasted three years--and then you would not let us take Basutoland. Then
came annexation of the Transvaal; up to that I was strong advocate of
federation, but after that I was one of founders of the Bond. After that
the Afrikander trusted Rhodes--not I, though; I always write I distrust
Rhodes--and so came the Jameson raid. Now how could we have confidence
after all this in British Government?

"I do not think Transvaal Government have been wise; I have many times
told them so. They made great mistake when they let people come in to
the mines. I told them, 'This gold will be your ruin; to remain
i