THE GREAT BOER WAR. 
CHAPTER XIV 
THE GREAT BOER WAR 
Looking Back. 
In common with other parts of South Africa in the years 
1899—1900, Natal was the scene of the grematest war ın 
which England has been engaged since her struggle with 
Napoleon. 
From the year 1881, when the deplorable mistake was 
made of giving the Transvaal back to the Boers, President 
Kruger set himself steadfastly to the great design of throw- 
ing off the suzerainty of England, and of establishing a 
Dutch Dominion from Capetown to the Zambesi. The 
majority of the Boers, knowing nothing of the outside world 
or of the power of the Empire which had given them back 
their country, quite believed that the surrender had been 
due to fear, and that the hated English, their hereditary 
enemies, had been finally crushed and humiliated at Ama- 
juba. Both President and people had an inborn hatred and 
distrust of the English, and the desire to oust them from 
supremacy in South Africa strengthened year by year. To 
accomplish this, however, an army was required, and 
arms and ammunition could not be procured without money. 
The Transvaal, between 1881 and 1886, was a poverty; 
stricken State fast drifting, through the incompetence of 
Kruger and his advisers, into the condition of bankruptcy 
and chaos which compelled the interference of Kngland in 
1876. But when the hidden wealth of the Rand came