“Very well, ask General De la Rey, then, what you had better do.”
“No, I shall ask him nothing of the kind. He has his own work, and I shall decide and make shift for myself.”
“Very good; then I shall send and ask Commandant Vermaas to take you away from here.”
“I can send one of my boys if you will only give him a pass through your troops. Then he can go to Commandant Vermaas and ask him to send me a span of oxen so that I can get away from here.” This was agreed to. Later on it was said that the officers had decided to let me stay on in the village, but that I had refused to do so, and had declared that I was going away as soon as my oxen arrived.
They kept coming to see me the whole time, and were always talking about the war, saying that the Boers had far better give it up.
I used to reply, Yes, it would be a good thing to see an end to the war; but it is no small matter for a people to give up their country, and that it would cost them a very great deal before they could put an end to it.
I asked them, “How strong are the forces that the English have sent to South Africa to fight us?”
“Nearly 300,000 strong,” was the officer’s answer.
“We have about 60,000 Transvaalers and Free Staters,” I said, “and we have been fighting with you now for over fourteen months; how can you possibly expect that we are going to give up our arms of our own free will? No! You will have a great deal of trouble before you bring that about.”
I was waiting meanwhile in great anxiety for the coming of my oxen, so that I should be able to make a start. It was five days more before they arrived, for the oxen were kept far away from the village. I got everything ready in the meantime to be able to go off as soon as they came, for I dreaded every moment that a fresh order would come and that I should not be able to go. At last the oxen arrived. When our friends saw that they were there, they came hastening from every side to wish us God-speed. It was a hard thing for our friends to see us sent away in this manner to wander without a home. I said that no, I was beginning my travels willingly, but all unknowing where they were going to end or what the future had in store for me. One thing I knew, and that was, if all my friends were left behind, my Heavenly Father would yet be with me.