But The Details Of The Measure Were Less Honourable Than The
Principle.
It was carried out suddenly, so that the country had no
time to adjust itself to the new conditions.
Three million pounds
were ear-marked for South Africa, which gives a price per slave of
from sixty to seventy pounds, a sum considerably below the current
local rates. Finally, the compensation was made payable in London,
so that the farmers sold their claims at reduced prices to
middlemen. Indignation meetings were held in every little townlet
and cattle camp on the Karoo. The old Dutch spirit was up - the
spirit of the men who cut the dykes. Rebellion was useless. But a
vast untenanted land stretched to the north of them. The nomad life
was congenial to them, and in their huge ox-drawn wagons - like
those bullock-carts in which some of their old kinsmen came to
Gaul - they had vehicles and homes and forts all in one. One by one
they were loaded up, the huge teams were inspanned, the women were
seated inside, the men, with their long-barrelled guns, walked
alongside, and the great exodus was begun. Their herds and flocks
accompanied the migration, and the children helped to round them in
and drive them. One tattered little boy of ten cracked his sjambok
whip behind the bullocks. He was a small item in that singular
crowd, but he was of interest to us, for his name was Paul
Stephanus Kruger.
It was a strange exodus, only comparable in modern times to the
sallying forth of the Mormons from Nauvoo upon their search for the
promised laud of Utah.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 12 of 842
Words from 2960 to 3234
of 225456
