The Fact Is In Itself A Final
Answer To The Ill-Natured Critics Of The Continent.
Men do not so
easily grasp a hand which is reddened with the blood of women and
children.
From all parts as the commandos came in there was welcome
news of the fraternisation between them and the soldiers; while the
Boer leaders, as loyal to their new ties as they had been to their
old ones, exerted themselves to promote good feeling among their
people. A few weeks seemed to do more to lessen racial bitterness
than some of us had hoped for in as many years. One can but pray
that it will last.
The surrenders amounted in all to twenty thousand men, and showed
that in all parts of the seat of war the enemy had more men in the
field than we had imagined, a fact which may take the sting out of
several of our later mishaps. About twelve thousand surrendered in
the Transvaal, six thousand in the Orange River Colony, and about
two thousand in the Cape Colony, showing that the movement in the
rebel districts had always been more vexatious than formidable. A
computation of the prisoners of war, the surrenders, the
mercenaries, and the casualties, shows that the total forces to
which we were opposed were certainly not fewer than seventy-five
thousand well-armed mounted men, while they may have considerably
exceeded that number. No wonder that the Boer leaders showed great
confidence at the outset of the war.
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