South Africa and the Boer-British War, Volume I Comprising a History of South Africa and its people, including the war of 1899 and 1900

The main body of the British army on the Modder soon disposed of the reproach of immobility, and the Boers were disconcerted. They were not prepared for "leaps and bounds" to th...

The dismemberment of South Africa, which commenced in the days of the Great Trek, which was made more distinct by the Conventions of 1852-4, and was destined to culminate in the...

The English Blue Books treat the controversy that resulted in the war officially, impartially and exhaustively. The full dispatches are given, and all that the Boers had to say...

One of the most striking and perhaps important historical features of the South African crisis of 1899 was the sentiment of sympathy expressed by other parts of the Empire and t...

Like most of England's Colonial Governors those of the Cape were, from the time of Lord Caledon's arrival in 1807, men of character, standing and ability. They might make mistak...

The physical and mental differences between the three chief native races of South Africa have been very great. The genuine aborigines, or Bushmen, ranked amongst the lowest of h...

Solomon obtained his supplies of gold, it is believed, from the Transvaal. There is something more in this than imagination and conjecture. There are two excellent harbors on th...

The South African War of 1899 grew out of racial conditions and national considerations far apart from, and long precedent to, the growth of Kimberley and Johannesburg or the di...

The siege of Ladysmith began November 2, 1899, the third day after the British disaster at Nicolson's Nek, that is, the affair in which six companies of the Royal Irish Fusilier...

From the date of its discovery by Bartholomew Diaz, in 1486, until the first Dutch settlement by Van Riebeeck, in 1650, the Cape of Good Hope was simply a finger post on the rou...

In the years immediately following 1872 the disorganization and public weakness of the Transvaal Boers became dangerous to themselves and inimical to the peace of all South Afri...

The Dutchmen of South Africa present in character and type one of the most peculiar racial results of all history. They came originally of a people who had proved its love of li...

The abolition of slavery is one of the landmarks in South African history. The motive for the expenditure of a hundred million of dollars in freeing slaves within the bounds of...

During these varied ups and downs of racial life and rivalry the progress of Natal had not been very great. Like Zululand, to the east, it lies on the sea-slope of a mountainous...

The Earl of Rosebery, under date of October 11, 1899, wrote that he could speak "without touching politics, for a situation had been created beyond party polemics, and it was ne...

South Africa has several lines of railroads scoring the country with outline improvements, and there are many bridges easily broken, and then the iron lines are lost and the arm...

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the Transvaal--the other side of the Vaal River, is the name of the country--was born in the Cape Colony, October 10th, 1825. It i...

At the commencement of British rule in Cape Colony (1806) there were in the country 26,000 persons of European descent, chiefly Dutch; 17,000 Hottentots who wandered around the...

From 1854 to 1877 the two Republics developed along very different lines. Their general principle of government was the same, but it was not administrated in the same way. In fo...

The first intelligence from South Africa that plainly promised the success of Lord Roberts was that, after his arrival at the Cape, there was no news of what became of the Briti...

The origin of the war breaking out in the later months of the last year of the nineteenth century between the Boers and the British may be traced to the famous defeat of the lat...

Lord Methuen moved from the Orange River, November 23d. The objective point of his undertaking was the relief of Kimberley, the city of diamond mines. He had at the start a succ...

By the middle of the century there were some twenty thousand emigrant farmers scattered over the region between the Orange and Vaal Rivers and north of the latter. They had no o...

When the Republic of South Africa and the Orange Free State, after a conspiracy of the two Presidents, rushed their armies into what they believed a campaign of conquests, the s...

The first battle of the war was fought October 20th, eleven days after the ultimatum of the South African Republic. General White was at Ladysmith, where there was a large accum...

To measure the South African War of 1899-1900 merely by the population of the two Boer Republics, would necessitate its consideration as an unimportant contest in comparison wit...

Cronje Hard Pressed--Cronje Capitulates--Cronje and Roberts Meet--The Detailed Report of Roberts--Kruger Willing to Compromise--From Modder River to Bloemfontein--Kruger and Ste...

Sentiment in the Colonies Regarding Imperial Defence--Changes within a Few Years--Australians and Canadians in the Soudan--Public Feeling in Canada and Australia concerning the...

A Peculiar Type--Mixture of Huguenot and Netherlands' Dutch--Divergence Between the Permanent Settler at the Cape and the Emigrant Farmer in the Two Republics--Good Qualities an...

The Early Governors of Cape Colony and Their Difficulties--The Colonial Office and its Lack of Defined and Continuous Policy--Growth in England of Public Indifference to Colonie...

The British Abolition of Slavery--The Immediate Effects of the Measure Disastrous to Both Dutch and Natives--The Trek of 1836 Commences--The Emigrant Farmer, Qualities and Mode...

English Policy in South Africa During the Middle of the Century--Non-interference, no Expansion, Limitation of Responsibility--Brief Exception in the Case of the Orange River Bo...

Divergent Lines of Growth in the Republics--The Orange Free State and the Basutos--Early Difficulties and Laws--Rise of President Brand into Power--His High Character and Quarte...

Slow Progress of Natal--Limited White Population--Constitution and General History--Rise of the Zulu Power--From the Days of Tshaka to those of Cetywayo--A Curious British Encou...

British Views of Government and Treatment of Natives Antagonistic to those of the Dutch--No Question of Republicanism versus Monarchy--The Dutch at the Cape Possessed of a Large...

Condition of the Republic in 1877--Dangers Without and Difficulties Within--The British Policy of Confederation--Public Opinion in England not Sufficiently Advanced--Lord Carnar...

Origin, Character and Customs--The Bantu or Kaffirs--Offshoots Such as the Matabele and Zulus--Some Great Chiefs--Tchaka, Dingaan, Moshesh, Cetywayo and Khama--Merciless Charact...

Gradual Growth of Population after the Great Trek--Climate, Resources and Government--Agriculture and the Dutch Settlers--Lack of Progressiveness--The English and the Cultivatio...

The Early Dutch Character--Contempt for Coloured Races--The Commencement of Slavery, Its Nature and Practices--The Wandering Native Tribes Learn to Hate the Dutchman--English an...

The Dark Continent--The Old-time Natives of the South--The Bantu, Hottentots and Bushmen--The Portuguese of South Africa--The Dutch East India Company--A Dutch Colony at the Cap...

Solomon's Ophir--How the Gold was Discovered--Early Gold Finds--Gold Production in 1897 and 1898--A Clear and Impartial Statement--Boss and Caste Government--Boer Intolerance--T...

Difference in Positions of Roberts and Buller--A White Man's War--Each Step Carefully Considered--A Remarkable Cavalry Movement--Kimberley Relieved--Roberts and Buller in Co-ope...

"Tied by the Leg"--American and Boer Revolution Compared--New Conditions of Warfare--Plan of the Fight--Mistaken but Heroic Advance--Attack Fruitless--Boers Capture the Guns--Wh...

Conference With Kruger--Many Points of Difference--Kruger's Objection to Franchise--Qualifications for Citizenship--An Absolutely Fair Proposition--Ireland and Transvaal--What M...

Location of Ladysmith--Timely Arrival of the Naval Brigade--First Serious Reverse--Excitement in London--Symon's Death and Victory--Closing in of Ladysmith--A Narrow Escape--Cav...

Lord Rosebery's Reflections--The Sting of Majuba Hill--The Gordon Highlanders at Majuba Hill--Testimony of an Eye Witness--Proclamation of President Steyn--Reply to the Boer Pro...