ell knows that the gold mines of the Rand were only
discovered in 1886, and he himself states that the annexation of the
Transvaal took place on April 12th, 1877. The annexation therefore was
prompted by other motives than the possession of the gold mines, but Dr.
Kuyper is careful not to suggest these to his readers.

He informs us that Sir Theophilus Shepstone "entered Pretoria at the
head of a small army." In reality, he had with him five-and-twenty
policemen. Why then did the Boers, "so essentially men of war and
politics," permit this?

"Once again, the fate of the natives served as pretext," Mr. Kuyper adds
"but the wheel of fortune turns; two years later the English,
themselves, were at daggers drawn with the natives, and massacred 10,000
men, women and children." That is how Dr. Kuyper writes history! The
pretext was not the fate of the natives, but the fate of the Boers, who,
having gone to war with Sekukuni, had been beaten. This is admitted in
the "Petition of Rights": "At first, our operations were not very
successful, our opponents declare that we were unable to defend
ourselves against the natives."

[Footnote 6: _Le Siecle_, March 26th, 1900.]

2.--_Boer Anarchy._

The truth is, that after the Sand River Convention, the most complete
anarchy existed among the Transvaal Boers; and that as much after the
promulgation of their Constitution of 1857 as before. The republicans of
Potchefstroom had taken the title of _The South African Republic_, but
their Raad maintained authority only over a small district; Lydenburg,
Zoutpansberg, Utrecht, formed themselves into independent republics. It
is estimated that, at that time, the entire population of the Transvaal
consisted of 8,000 Boers; admitting that this number comprised only the
young men and adults capable of bearing arms, and old men, then each
republic would be composed, approximately, of 2,000 men. On the death of
Andries Pretorius and of Potgieter, who hated each other like poison,
the son of Pretorius conceived the design of making himself master of
the Orange Free State, so as to secure to himself later on the foremost
position in the Transvaal. A war was on the point of breaking out, but
came to nothing, as Pretorius hastily recrossed the frontier in the face
of an advance by Boshof, the Free State President, at the head of a
commando. This action, which demonstrated that his courage and resource
were less lofty than his ambition, did not howev