The Project Gutenberg EBook of Swallow, by H. Rider Haggard

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Title: Swallow

Author: H. Rider Haggard

Release Date: April 13, 2006 [EBook #4074]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWALLOW ***

Produced by John Bickers; Dagny

SWALLOW

A TALE OF THE GREAT TREK

BY

H. RIDER HAGGARD

Ditchingham, 20th May, 1898.

My dear Clarke,

Over twenty years have passed since we found some unique opportunities
of observing Boer and Kaffir character in company; therefore it is not
perhaps out of place that I should ask you to allow me to put your name
upon a book which deals more or less with the peculiarities of those
races--a tale of the great Trek of 1836.

You, as I know, entertain both for Dutchman and Bantu that regard
tempered by a sense of respectful superiority which we are apt to feel
for those who on sundry occasions have but just failed in bringing our
earthly career to an end. The latter of these admirations I share to the
full; and in the case of the first of them, as I hope that the dour but
not unkindly character of Vrouw Botmar will prove to you, time softens
a man's judgment. Nor have I ever questioned, as the worthy Vrouw tells
us, that in the beginning of the trouble the Boers met with much
of which to complain at the hands of English Governments. Their
maltreatment was not intentional indeed, but rather a result of
systematic neglect--to use a mild word--of colonies and their
inhabitants, which has culminated within our own experience, only,
thanks to a merciful change in public opinion, to pass away for ever.
Sympathy with the Voortrekkers of 1836 is easy; whether it remains so in
the case of their descendants, the present masters of the Transvaal, is
a matter that admits of many opinions. At the least, allowance should
always be made for the susceptibilities of a race that finds its
individuality and national life sinking slowly, but without hope of
resurrection, beneath an invading flood of Anglo-Saxons.

But these are issues of to-day with which this story has little to do.

Without further explanation, then, I hope that you will accept these
pages in memory of