THE GREAT BOER WAR. 
to light in 1886, and gold in plenty from the Uitlanders 
flowed into the public chest, it seemed as if the Fates at last 
had rewarded the Boers for all their wanderings and mis- 
fortunes, and had bestowed on them the means of avenging 
themselves on their enemies. 
A Dream of Dutch Dominion. 
With the money thus almost miraculously provided 
President Kruger proceeded to prepare for the establishment 
of a great Dutch Dominion in South Africa. Every 
Boer is of course a soldier, armed and mounted and ready to 
take the field at a day’s notice. The Boers had hitherto in 
warfare depended only on their rifles. Now the President 
resolved to add artillery to their armament. This arming 
of the Transvaal began long before the Jameson Ra id. 
In 1894 and 1895, £400,000 was spent for artillery in 
Austria and Germany ; but after the events of New Year’s 
Eve, 1895, the orders were redoubled. Maxim batteries, 
Vickers-Maxims, Pom-Poms, and Creusot long-range quick- 
firers were bought in quantity. Trained artillerymen and 
gunnery instructors from Holland, France, and Germany 
were imported with the guns, and they found apt pupils 
among the Boers themselves. The magnitude of these 
armaments was kept a profound secret. Most of the 
military expenditure was put down as Public Works, and 
amounted in 1898 to £1.250,000. 
It was necessary for President Kruger’s plans that he 
should enlist the Orange Free State on his side, and at 
jast he succeeded in forming an offensive and defensive 
Alliance with that Republic. As England was on the most 
friendly terms with the Free State, it was madness on the 
part of President Steyn thus to commit his country to 
sharing the fortunes of his northern neighbour. President,