With the Boer Forces | Page 9

Boers' expression of
faith in foreign mediation or intervention. At the outset of hostilities it
seemed unreasonable that any European nation or America would risk a
war with Great Britain for the purpose of assisting the Boers, yet there
was hardly one burgher who did not cling steadfastly to the opinion that
the war would be ended in such a manner. The idea had evidently been
rooted in their mind that Russia would take advantage of Great Britain's
entanglement in South Africa to occupy Herat and Northern India, and
when a newspaper item to that effect appeared it was gravely presumed
to indicate the beginning of the end. Some over-zealous Irishmen
assured the Boers that, in the event of a South African war, their
fellow-countrymen in the United States would invade Canada and
involve Great Britain in an imbroglio over the Atlantic in order to save
British America. For a few weeks the chimera buoyed up the Boers, but
when nothing more than an occasional newspaper rumour was heard
concerning it the rising in Ashanti was then looked upon as being the
hoped-for boon. The departure of the three delegates to Europe and
America was an encouraging sign to them, and it was firmly believed
that they would be able to induce France, Russia, or America to offer
mediation or intervention. The two Boer newspapers, the Pretoria
Volksstem and the Johannesburg _Standard and Diggers' News_, dwelt
at length upon every favourable token of foreign assistance, however
trifling, and attempted to strengthen hopes which at hardly any time
seemed capable of realisation. It was not until after the war had been in
progress for more than six months that the Boers saw the futility of
placing faith in foreign aid, and afterwards they fought like stronger
men.
The consuls who represented the foreign Governments at Pretoria, and
through whom the Boers made representations for peace, were an
exceptionally able body of men, and their duties were as varied as they
were arduous. The French and German consuls were busied with the
care of the vast mining interests of their countrymen, besides the partial
guardianship of the hundreds of French and German volunteers in the

Boer army. They were called upon to entertain noblemen as well as
bankrupts; to bandage wounds and to bury the dead; to find lost
relatives and to care for widows and orphans. In times of peace the
duties of a consul in Pretoria were not light, but during hostilities they
were tenfold heavier. To the American consul, Adelbert S. Hay, and his
associate, John G. Coolidge, fell more work than to all the others
combined. Besides caring for the American interests in the country,
Consul Hay was charged with the guardianship of the six thousand
British prisoners of war in the city as well as with the care of the
financial interests of British citizens. Every one of the thousands of
letters to and from the prisoners was examined in the American
Consulate so that they might carry with them no breach of neutrality;
almost twenty thousand pounds, as well as tons of luxuries, were
distributed by him to the prisoners; while the letters and cablegrams
concerning the health and whereabouts of soldiers which reached him
every week were far in excess of the number of communications which
arrived at the Consulate in a year of peaceful times. Consul Hay was in
good favour with the Boer Government notwithstanding his earnest
efforts to perform his duties with regard to the British prisoners and
interests, and of the many consuls who have represented the United
States in South Africa none performed his duties more intelligently or
with more credit to his country.
One of the most interesting and important events in Pretoria before the
British occupation of the city was the meeting of the Volksraads on
May 7th. It was a gathering of the warriors who survived the war which
they themselves had brought about seven months before, and, although
the enemy to whom they had thrown down the gauntlet was at their
gates, they were as resolute and determined as on that October day
when they voted to pit the Boer farmer against the British lion. The
seats of many of those who took part in that memorable meeting were
filled with palms and evergreens to mark the patriots' deaths, but the
vierkleur and the cause remained to spur the living. Generals,
commandants, and burghers, no longer in the grimy costumes of the
battlefield, but in the black garb of the legislator, filled the circles of
chairs; bandoliered burghers, consuls and military attachés in
spectacular uniform, business men, and women with tear-stained

cheeks filled the auditorium; while on the official benches were the
heads of departments and the Executive Council, State Secretary Reitz
and General Schalk Burger. The Chairman