Appendix.
The Dutch Boer of South Africa.
The term “Boer,” which in English is used to describe a man who is rough, uneducated, and illiterate, means in the Dutch language merely a farmer, or a man who gains his living by rural pursuits. It is not uncommon to hear the Boers speak of their companions as “Mensch” (men), a distinction which they employ especially when referring to the disputes or battles which have taken place between the English “Roe-barges” (red coats) and themselves.
The Boers may be divided into two classes, viz. the “Field Boer,” and the “Town Boer.”
The Field Boer is a man who usually resides on his farm, and breeds cattle, horses, or sheep. He is generally the owner of two or three “spans” of oxen, as the teams are named, of two or three waggons, and several horses for his own riding, which he is at all times ready to sell, if a chance offers. He passes his time principally in looking after his farm, but the amount of ground that he cultivates is usually very small, an acre or two being about the utmost. To hunt and shoot are the great delight of the Field Boer, and he is very expert, both in following game by their tracks, and in knowing where, even in a strange country, are the most likely spots for various kinds of game.
“I think we shall here a rietbok find,” a Dutchman would remark as he rode along the side of a marshy piece of ground covered with long grass and reeds; or “Here—so look for a duikerbok,” as he rides amongst a number of large loose stones near which are low thorny bushes and grass.
The Boer is commonly a large, heavy man, and disposed to become very fleshy as he advances in years. This latter characteristic probably arises from the fact that he eats very largely at his meals, and is disinclined to take walking exercise. Riding becomes to him a sort of second nature, and a man who is found walking from one place to another is considered at once to be either eccentric or very poor.
From some reason the Field Boer is rather disposed to look down upon the sporting prowess of Englishmen, but he not unusually finds himself beaten in a competition with those very men whose inefficiency he considered to be a certainty.