e was finally ceded to
England, it had been twice acquired and held by conquest. The
colonists were practically all Dutch, or Huguenots who had adopted
Dutch as their language, and South Africa as their home. In any case
they were people who, by tradition, teaching and experience, must
have regarded the English as their enemies; people in whom there must
have been roused bitter resentment against being handed over with the
land to their traditional enemies. Were they serfs or subjects? has
been asked on their behalf. Had Holland the right, the power, over
freemen born, to say to them, 'You are our subjects, on our soil, and
we have transferred the soil and with it your allegiance to England,
whose sovereignty you will not be free to repudiate.' The Dutch
colonist said 'No.' The English Government and the laws of the day
said 'Yes.'

Early in the century the Boers began to trek away from the sphere of
British rule. They were trekkers before that, indeed. Even in the
days of Van Riebeck (1650) they had trekked away from the crowded
parts, and opened up with the rifle and the plough new reaches of
country; pioneering in a rough but most effective way, driving back
the savage races, and clearing the way for civilization. There is,
however, a great difference to be noted between the early treks of
the emigrants and the treks 'from British rule.' In the former (with
few exceptions) they went, knowing that their Government would follow
them, and even anxious to have its support and its representatives;
and the people who formed their migrating parties were those who had
no or insufficient land in the settled parts, those who were starting
life on their own account, or those whose families could not be
located and provided for in the cramped circumstances of the more
occupied parts. In the other case, rich and poor, old and young,
went off as in the days and in the fashion of Moses or Abraham. They
went without leave or help of the Government; secretly or openly
they went, and they asked nothing but to be left alone. They left
their homes, their people, the protection of an established
Government and a rough civilization, and went out into the unknown.
And they had, as it appeared to them, and as it will appear to many
others, good reasons for taking so grave a step. For, although the
colonists of South Africa enjoyed better government, and infinitely
more liberty, under British rule, than they had under the tyrannical
_regim