Steve went as a volunteer on the expedition (he having privately got the field cornet to commandeer him). He saw with surprise with what consideration the rebels were treated. They were regarded as a civilised nation; and repeated offers of mercy were made them if they would submit. An invitation was sent them to send out their women and children for safety, which was done, thereby prolonging the siege of the native stronghold, as the provisions held out so much longer.
After the submission of the tribe, they were treated with all kindness. They were conducted to Pretoria and well provided for.
To prevent a repetition of the rebellion, and of their retaking possession of their former almost inaccessible stronghold, the native tribe was broken up (as per precedent established by the English administration in former years), and homes given them elsewhere.
The result of all this was that the Government was abused more than ever before. It was affirmed that the grossest cruelties had been perpetrated on the poor, innocent natives; the Boers made slaves of the natives, etc., etc.
The most ridiculous statement of all was that the Boers ravished the native women! Anybody knowing a Boer would know how impossible this is! A Boer shrinks from touching the hands of the dirty, oily, reeking native; how much more would he shrink from embracing a native woman!
As we have said, Steve had been to the Malaboch war himself. He had seen for himself the treatment accorded the natives, and the lying statements published all over the world made him shiver with disgust and anger.
The following year, with the Magoeba campaign, the same thing was repeated all over. The causes were the same, the effects were the same. Sir E. Ashmead Bartlette and others of his stamp (either deceiving, or being deceived by others here) made ridiculous and untruthful statements in the House of Commons, in public speeches, or in the daily papers. All this was the result of the wire-pulling, worked by the secret organisation for ‘painting Boers black.’
Finally, another grand opportunity came for a general carnival of abuse and lies against the Government of the country—the festivities in connection with the opening of the Delagoa Railway.
Not that we mean to state that these were the only times when the Government was abused and libelled; daily opportunities were found to distort facts; an anthill was made into a mountain; a good deed into one of the blackest imaginable. And when no facts could be found to distort, something was invented by some fiendish imagination. But the festivities offered a grand opportunity for exaggerations and distortions.
The Government was made to spend thousands of pounds sterling on favourites, contracts for decorations were given to favourite Hollanders, money was wasted, the Volksraad vote was greatly exceeded, and goodness knows what besides. It is too sickening to enter into all the petty lying faults that were found.