The natives make a fermented drink from mealies (Indian corn) which is known as Kaffir beer. It is carried from one kraal to another by strings of women walking in Indian file and carrying on their heads great yellow gourds containing their favourite drink.
1652-1709.] Conflict of Races in South Africa.
Great Britain's Interest in the Dutch Republics.
But with this exception the two Boer States are closely shut in by British colonies. Hence of necessity the British Empire must always have been profoundly interested in the internal condition of these two Dutch republics. Had they been peaceful and orderly States, as was the Orange Free State up to that evil day when it became demoralised by the gold lavished from the Transvaal secret service funds, they might have existed in perfect amity. Had they been content to accept things as they were, there could have been no quarrel.
In the British colonies of Natal and Cape Colony, the one to the south-east of the Boer Republics, the other to the west and south-west, were many thousands of Dutch, closely connected by family and by race with the inhabitants of those republics. It was the one desire of the Government of the Transvaal to unite these Dutch against the English, and to sap their loyalty, though they had no grievances and had been given in every respect the same privileges as the Englishmen.
No other theory will explain the conduct of the Transvaal. It had assumed the title of "South African Republic," and taken to itself a four-coloured flag as emblem of the future union of Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, and Natal under its sovereign influence.
O'NEILL'S HOUSE.
Temporary hospital for wounded men brought from Majuba; the house where the Anglo-Boer Convention was held in 1881 and the treaty signed.
