Hume Nesbit

“ Yet I dare say no real Briton can doubt but that the end must be the triumph of our glorious Empire and the ultimate civilisation of those ignorant savages, the Boers.
It has cost us dearly—it may cost us more—yet never let a true lover of liberty be biased by the friends of the oppressors. Africa must be a free country, as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are. Like those great countries, Africa must become a loyal and faithful daughter to her beneficent mother, our Empire, and enjoy the fruits of emancipation as those other sisters do. ”

“ Kruger, the man who could spoof Great Britain, and drive his own people like a flock of sheep, appeared, before they saw him in their imagination, to be almost as colossal a character as their ideal hero, Cecil Rhodes. Throughout Africa these two giants stood facing each other, while the rest of the world watched and waited the result of their deadly duel. Kruger, the champion of everything that was despicable, oppressive, and false; Rhodes, the champion of chivalry, humanity, and progress. ”

“ They made sport of their work, and, unless silence was necessary, turned their daily march into a Christy Minstrel serenade. Repartee, song, and jest were the orders of the hours, and never had Ned seen a moody brow about him since Cocoeni brought the sorrowful tidings back from the rapids about the saurian and the valise.
Splendid-looking fellows the natives were, also; the flower and chivalry of their tribes. Deep brown eyes that could melt with emotion, flash with courage, and sparkle with fun; lips full, and ever on the ripple with appreciation of a joke ”

“ They could see an intricacy of snaky rope work and leaves intermingling, the creepers crossing and recrossing in all directions as they drooped or sprung up from the dank undergrowth, or threw themselves from tree to tree in bewildering arches. Through these tough tendrils they were forced to cut their path.
The compass was their only guide, and Ned carried it in his hand and kept his eyes upon it constantly while they were on the march.
Under their feet they squashed through oozy slime and rank vegetation, or tripped over spreading roots. ”

“ The boons which we are at present fighting for will cause many a hearth to mourn for the brave sons who lie under the cold stars and the fierce suns of Africa. But as the human parts of these sons enrich the veldt, so will their heroic actions cause countless generations of Boers to bless their coming. They have fought—not out of revenge, but for duty and love of their brothers. They have died for a noble cause, and Africa will yet think of them with pride. ”

“ The leopards are fed recklessly, and rush along madly as if they were free. With long bounds they cover yards of ground at a time. Their eyes blaze fearfully, and bloody froth flies from their gaping jaws. They want no driving now; they are possessed with the most savage fury.
“They will reach the mountain. We dare feed them no longer; they are mad,” cried Pylea, looking only at the cliffs.
Ned was looking behind. ”

“ Never had our heroes looked upon anything so profusely beautiful and mysterious.
Yet it was not the carving only that made them gasp with admiring wonder. All over the sculptures gleamed sparkles of gold, chased and burnished. These glittered in all parts, sometimes in broad veins and clusters, in other places in star-like specks or thready lines. Going over to one of these clusters, Ned discovered that they had not been inlaid, as he at first supposed, but were natural veins of virgin ore, utilised as they occurred, by the cunning artificers. ”

“ As the last of the chariots, except that one which had turned back, passed beneath the lintel of the archway, Ned saw a white-robed, bald-headed little man steal out of a side-window, and glide rapidly across the moonlight to the shadow side of the road. As he did so, Pylea again touched Ned with her foot.
“My aunt will be a widow sooner than she intended,” she whispered. “There goes my uncle to meet his death.”
Almost immediately afterwards the amazonian aunt came out of the guard-house door, clad in light chain armour, and with only a scarf tied tightly round her waist. ”

“ From the desert came a hoarse roar like the sound of waves breaking on shingle.
It was the army of Karnadama urging on their lions and leopards.
“Quick!” panted Pylea, no longer calm.
Ned got up and ran, as he had never done before, through the hall, and up the long stairway that led to freedom.
“Run on for your lives, and look not back; we will follow,” cried Pylea, as she ranged her warriors in front of the stairs. ”

“ Again Kruger chuckled, while he shook his ponderous head and pointed his clumsy finger at them.
“Far too young to be mixed up in conspiracy and treason. Young gentlemen like you ought to stay in your own country, and not come here breaking the laws and making riots.”
“We have done nothing, your Excellency,” said Ned.
“Do you call it nothing to knock down four honest burghers, smash the nose of one and the jawbone of another? Do you call it nothing to threaten my police with a revolver, and use the insolent language you have done?” ”

“ It was Ned who had been at fault in his haste. In any other place he would have apologised, but seeing that they were Boers, he pushed them off the footpath and then turned to abuse them. It was the natural protest of a free man against unaccustomed tyranny. With those Krupp guns behind them, politeness looked like submission and fear. Fortunately for the safety of that billet in Ned’s boot, which he had for the moment forgotten, these burghers were good-tempered and stolid Dutchmen, who didn’t mind either a push or a cross word. ”

“ They never could have been trusted out of sight—not our men, who are good for nothing honourable, true, or brave.”
“Yet you marry them,” observed Ned.
“Oh yes; that is the custom. When we feel ourselves getting too stiff to fight or run, we take a man to keep our house and look after us and our children. We are always strong enough to make them obedient, and we never expect too much from them. They are poor things, who do not know what honour and truth are; only a little more to be tolerated than the slaves. They like to babble about their paltry pastimes, which they call work.” ”

“ The slaves were a square, dwarfish, and repulsive set of bestial wretches, yet Ned began to view these placid and soulless tormentors with greater repugnance and loathing; they were like venomous, icy, and cowardly yellow snakes. Their features, however, were sharp and fine, and of a sameness in profile if cast from one mould. He had seen those calm, bird-like, relentless profiles in prints of the Egyptian sculptures and paintings, with long, straight noses, protruding and short upper lips, and receding small chins,—the true signs of a used-up decadent race. ”

“ Their hopes were all depending upon the self-restraint of this hopeless drunkard, and Pylea. Would she succeed?
The full moon shone over the city, so beautiful and stately, with its carved and painted walls, delicious gardens, deep canals, arches, and wide steps; on its monuments, obelisks, sphinxes, and mighty temples; on its crowded, broad avenued streets and gleaming lake beyond, where floated the sloping-prowed barges, with their awnings and gilded saloons. ”

“ The acts of the new claimants would be criticised and compared with what had been done before by those doughty heroes. Then the hour would arrive when their successors appeared to overtop them in the eyes of the young censors; then they would fade into oblivion with the majority, and be remembered by a few as demi-gods. In every school there are minds formed to lead and natures made to admire. Wisely, the majority of mankind are those who exist for the present, and trouble themselves neither with the past nor the future. Their hero is the one who serves their interests for the time. ”

“ The citizens of Johannesburg had given over asking for their rights, and accepted each fresh insult and oppression quietly, and without outward remonstrance. They knew such were utterly futile with that obstinate bigot, who regarded himself as an avenging instrument in the hands of the Lord.
Neither was it any secret what all these warlike preparations were aiming at. If the Home Government shut its eyes, not a man, woman, or child in Africa but knew that the old man of Pretoria intended nothing less than the subjugating of Africa to the Boers, as soon as matters were ripe enough. ”

“ Our objects are threefold: first, to uphold the power and honour of our Empire, which means the spread of civilisation and humanity; secondly, the harmony and unity of Africa, and the federation of all our colonies under the protection of this Empire of Great Britain; thirdly, the downfall of all tyrants and traitors to the Empire. Experience has taught us that the Boer Government is an impossibility, and that while they, the Boers, have authority, there can be no peace or progress in Africa. They have denied us all the rights of human beings, and disgraced our name. ”

“ Look yonder at the peaceful herds of giraffes and zebras. I bet no white man has been here, this generation at least, with his gun,” cried Clarence, who had now quite recovered his spirits.
The Kaffirs leaned on their weapons, and looked round them with glittering eyes. Here, indeed, seemed a country worth trekking to.
“By George! I do verily believe we are the first discoverers. Let us christen it at once. What shall it be?” asked Ned, turning to his companions.
“Jameson Land, if anything,” cried Fred. “He risked his life to rescue us from prison. He deserves this at least from us.” ”

“ It was a new and a disagreeable experience to those proud young Britons to find their countrymen in the condition of serfs and door-mats, with clumsy and ignorant clowns tramping over them ruthlessly. As they walked through the streets of Johannesburg, and saw at every step evidences of the misrule of that hypocritical and false tyrant, Kruger, they felt a natural and deep disgust towards the Englishmen who had permitted such a condition of things to exist.
They met gangs of Boers swaggering about fully armed, and jeering at the unarmed citizens. ”

“ Heroes have risen and carved their names on the monument of history, but mankind has not suffered by their passing away. It benefited, perchance, through their living, as the grain-fields benefit by the passing rains; yet as the moisture returns to the clouds, and comes down again and again, so do great deeds repeat themselves amongst men as in nature. The drop of rain is nothing after it has done its work; the man is of no more consideration after the emergency has passed for which his strength was produced.
For a time the renown of those three champions would hover over Shebourne Academy. ”