It was after dinner, in the smoking-room, that our hero found himself in the midst of a party of men hotly discussing politics. The conversation was led by a colonial, who was taking the part of the Government, and a Jingo of the first water, who was as hotly defending the freebooters and rebels.
‘It is no use talking,’ said the latter, who was burdened with the name of Bock; ‘the Boers will ultimately have to go under. They are in the minority; they are illiterate; they are only half civilised! They are Boors, and it is presumptuous to hold that they will continue to rule this country—still less that they will ever rule South Africa! Englishmen are bound to chuck them out in the end.’
‘Anyone can see that you are using the hackneyed arguments of the Jingoistic enemies of the Government, and that you are not speaking from your own knowledge or experience, but from what you have read in Jingo papers. It is true the Boers are illiterate, or the majority of them are; but it is also true that those few who have had the benefit of education have proved that the Afrikander is as capable to learn, and as susceptible to education, as any race in the world. As to civilisation—they are more civilised, as civilisation is taught in the Christian code, than many of their European contemporaries.’
‘If you call Bible reading and psalm singing, civilisation, I won’t argue the matter with you; in any case, they are bound to bend before the English race, sooner or later.’
‘By your faith shall ye be saved!’ interposed Steve.
‘By which you mean, sir?’ inquired Bock.
‘I mean that the Boers do not believe that salvation lies in superior learning, in high civilisation, or in superiority of numbers or arms, but in right and justice and the blessing of God?’
‘Cant!’ was the sneering reply of Bock.
‘You may call it cant if you like. But it was such cant that gave Dingaan and his twelve thousand warriors into the hands of five hundred Boers. It was such cant that enabled the Boers to carry on the war of independence against mighty England to a successful issue. It was such cant that brought the elaborate plots of Rhodes, Jameson and the Johannesburg revolutionists to utter failure. It will be such cant that will make South Africa a free and united Republic, in which all the races of the world shall live free and united! The Boers believe in the efficacy of prayer: they believe that by prayer and through faith they can move mountains, and—England itself.’
‘Bah! do you believe in such nonsense? Do you really believe that you have only to ask God, if God there be, for anything you want, from a needle to an anchor, to receive it?’