id to have reached one
united government till 1864, when the then president, Mr. M. W.
Pretorius (son of the old antagonist of the English), was recognized by
all the communities and factions as their executive head.

Even in 1864 the white population of the South African Republic was very
small, probably not more than 30,000 all told, giving an average of less
than one person to three square miles. There were, however, hundreds of
thousands of natives, a few of whom were living as servants, under a
system of enforced labour which was sometimes hardly distinguishable
from slavery, while the vast majority were ruled by their own chiefs,
some as tributaries of the Republic, some practically independent of it.
With the latter wars were frequently raging--wars in which shocking
cruelties were perpetrated on both sides, the Kafirs massacring the
white families whom they surprised, the Boer commandos taking a savage
vengeance upon the tribes when they captured a kraal or mountain
stronghold. It was the sight of these wars which drove Dr. Livingstone
to begin his famous explorations to the north. The farmers were too few
to reduce the natives to submission, though always able to defeat them
in the field, and while they relished an expedition, they had an
invincible dislike to any protracted operations which cost money. Taxes
they would not pay. They lived in a sort of rude plenty among their
sheep and cattle, but they had hardly any coined money, conducting their
transactions by barter, and they were too rude to value the benefits
which government secures to a civilized people. Accordingly the treasury
remained almost empty, the paper money which was issued fell till in
1870 it was worth only one-fourth of its face value, no public
improvements were made, no proper administration existed, and every man
did what was right in his own eyes. In 1872 Mr. M. W. Pretorius was
obliged to resign the presidency, owing to the unpopularity he had
incurred by accepting the arbitration mentioned above (p. 144), which
declared the piece of territory where diamonds had been found not to
belong to the Republic, and which the Volksraad thereupon repudiated.
His successor was Mr. Burgers, a Cape Dutchman who had formerly been a
clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church and afterwards an advocate at the
Cape, a man of energy, integrity, and eloquence, but deficient in
practical judgment, and who soon became distrusted on account of his
theological o