id, could not
agree with Mr. Paul Kruger, and had failed in his efforts to establish
friendly relations with him. Mr. Kruger, quite as stubborn and
ambitious as Mr. Rhodes, placed no faith in the latter's amiable
proposals, and the result was that fierce hatred was engendered
between the two Gideons, a racial rancour spreading to fanatical
lengths.

Dr. Jameson's stupid raid is now a matter of history; but from that
fateful New Year's Day of 1896 we Boers date the terrible trials and
sufferings to which our poor country has been exposed. To that
mischievous incident, indeed, we directly trace the struggle now
terminated.

This invasion, which was synchronous with an armed rebellion at
Johannesburg, was followed by the arrest and imprisonment of the
so-called gold magnates of the Witwatersrand. Whether these
exceedingly wealthy but extremely degenerate sons of Albion and
Germania deserved the death sentence pronounced upon their leaders at
Pretoria for high treason it is not for me to judge.

I do recall, however, what an appeal for mercy there went up, how
piteously the Transvaal Government was petitioned and supplicated, and
finally moved "to forgive and forget." The same faction who now press
so obdurately for "no mercy" upon the Colonial Afrikanders who joined
us, then supplicated all the Boer gods for forgiveness.

Meantime the Republic was plagued by the rinderpest scourge, which
wrought untold havoc throughout the country. This scourge was preceded
by the dynamite disaster at Vrededorp (near Johannesburg) and the
railway disaster at Glencoe in Natal. It was succeeded by a smallpox
epidemic, which, in spite of medical efforts, grew from sporadic to
epidemic and visited all classes of the Rand, exacting victims
wherever it travelled. During the same period difficulties occurred in
Swaziland necessitating the despatch of a strong commando to the
disaffected district and the maintenance of a garrison at Bremersdorp.
The following year hostilities were commenced against the Magato
tribe in the north of the Republic.

After an expensive expedition, lasting six months, the rebellion was
quelled. There was little doubt that the administration of unfaithful
native commissioners was in part responsible for the difficulties, but
there is less doubt that external influences also contributed to the
rebellion. This is not the time, however, to tear open old wounds.

Mr. Rhodes has disappeared from the stage for ever; he