John Y. Fillmore Blake

“ Yes, they are noble women, brave and patriotic women, the very women whom the English strove so hard to exterminate and whom they did murder by thousands in those prison camps.
So long as the Boer woman lives so long will there be a race of liberty-loving people in South Africa, so long will there be great Boer generals and fighting patriots daily born, and sure it is that such fighting blood will assert its independence. No one is more certain of this than Roberts, Kitchener, Joe Chamberlain, Alfred Milner and the thousands of other women-fighters in England. ”

“ Will the Boers ever forget the sufferings and torture heaped upon their forefathers in Cape Colony? Will they ever forget what their fathers and mothers had to endure in Natal? Will they ever forget what they themselves have had to suffer in the Transvaal and Free State? Will they ever forget the 3,723 patriots who were killed or died of wounds during the late South African War? Will they ever forget the 22,000 women and children who were murdered in the English prison camps? Will they ever forget the many martyrs who were tied hand and foot, and deliberately shot in cold blood? ”

“ Now I come to the point where the two little Republics are brought face to face with the military forces of war-prepared England; when war is inevitable, when the immortal gods could not prevent a clash of arms; when the first shot is fired in a struggle destined to stir the world, humiliate the English officer and lord, and destroy the name and prestige of the great degenerate British Empire. ”

“ I say all this with the best intentions, General Botha, for you are a young man, and in the future possibly your services will be needed. To your tact, courage and generalship, add energy and foresight, and I assure you that you will prove yourself a star of the first magnitude in the eyes of the military world; but remember that you can not ignore and allow to remain undestroyed the enemy's line of communications, when all is in your own hands. Make your plans to win, but also prepare for disaster, and your name will go down in history as a great general. ”

“ At any rate England is praying for continued peace and will not go to war unless actually driven to it. For 700 years she has tried to crush out the very life of the Irish people by thrusting them in prison, by starvation and by actually murdering them, yet, in the end she found them invincible and not to be destroyed. Now her King and Queen go to Ireland and fairly kiss the Irish people's feet and tell them what a good, noble people they are and how dearly they love them. To be sincere, they should have added, "Now won't you enlist in for army, for we can't possibly fight without your help?" ”

“ But I must say of General Cronje that he is a man wrapped up in his own conceit. He considered himself the only great fighter in South Africa, and, when captured, he is the very man to say that the Boers should surrender because the great Cronje can no longer lead them. In this respect he is a fool, but fools often become wise men by experience. If I should hear that General Cronje was condemning his fellow countrymen for prolonging the war after his capture, I should not be surprised, because he is so eaten up with his own importance. ”

“ So our English Government in Washington waited some eighty-five years for the opportunity to apologize to the British Government for the terrible thrashing that the famous Andrew Jackson gave General Pakenham and his English army at Chalmette, New Orleans.
It seems to me that this is enough to bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of every true American. If the people of the United States of America cannot find enough true Americans to fill the highest office in their gift, then the time has arrived when they should change their name and cease to call themselves Americans. ”

“ To read a British commander's glowing report, describing how thoroughly he has swept the Boers from a certain district, one is not apt to be much amused, but following on his heels is another British commander, and to read his report, relating how thoroughly he has been wiped up by an overwhelming force of Boers, one feels very much inclined to laugh. Not a week passes but that some of the English commanders are guilty of just such amusing contradictions. ”

“ Every one asks "why didn't the Boers follow up this pell-mell retreat of the English into Ladysmith?" The fact is that the Boer is too pious, too religious and, therefore, too humane to battle with such an unscrupulous people as the English. Commandant General Piet Joubert was a grand man, grown old and mellow in the service of his country, a most religious and humane man, who looked upon the English as a Christian people, and he felt that it would be unchristian-like to follow up and shoot down his retreating enemy. ”

“ Judging by what I read and hear, I am led to believe that President Roosevelt claims to be of Irish and Dutch extraction, but judging him by his conduct and the English proclivities of some of those who are his chief advisers, I should say that real English blood predominates over all others he may claim. Whatever the composition of his blood may be, certain it is that he helped England destroy two little republics in South Africa. The American people will wake up by and by and see to it that none but true Americans will hold office under the United States Government. ”

“ Cronje stopped just where he was for several weeks, looking for another advance of Methuen, or some other English army. He did not care how many came, for he was there to fight. I must say this about General Cronje that he may be thoroughly understood. He is stubbornness itself, will take advice from no one, is absolutely fearless, and constantly craves a fight with the English. I do not believe the world's history can show his equal as a commandant, but as a general he is an absolute failure. He must have some one over him, and under no circumstances must he be allowed to command. ”

“ May the day be not far distant when a humane and God-fearing people can erect a monument on that bloody battle field to perpetuate, from generation to generation, the memory of those loathsome deeds of pelf and murder committed by self-convicted British officers and soldiers on the plains of Elandslaagte! ”

“ When the English run up against three such old farmers as Oom Koos de la Rey, Chris de Wet and Louis Botha, many are liable to find a grave, while he who reaps honors must have shown his running ability to be most excellent. With their numerous maxims and guns and their great preponderance in men, all thoroughly trained, the English should have easily won all the important fights of the war, but, thanks to British stupidity and incompetency, the Boers were almost invariably the victors. ”

“ Having driven the Boers from pillar to post, hounded them, preyed upon them and robbed and murdered them for 250 years, and then deprived them of their liberty and independence, England now expects them to forgive and forget because there is no longer any reason for ill-feelings. ”

“ Commissary Departments kill more soldiers than are killed by bullets. When living on nothing but "mealie pap" and fresh meat, all are healthy, strong, energetic and full of fight. The Boer war has proved this; for during the last two years of the war we had nothing else to eat, and we lost but one man from sickness; and did the hardest work and best fighting, and in the end, when the general surrender came, the world had never seen 24,000 stronger, healthier and more dashing patriots than those who laid down their faithful rifles to save their women and children from extinction. ”

“ Boers with fast horses from all the commandos were there. Athletes representing all commandos; generals, commandants and veldtcornets were there; young ladies and old ones, too, from Pretoria, Johannesburg, Dundee and other towns, were entertained by the Irish boys. All gazed in admiration at the colors that waved to and fro with the breeze, for they saw the Vierkleur, the Green Flag with the Harp, the Star and Stripes, the Tricolor of France, and the German and Holland flags that floated over the Irish camp. ”

“ People from all parts of the world poured into the country and the Boers suddenly jumped from poverty into affluence. These fields became world known, all was flourishing in the Transvaal, and Boers and foreigners alike were all happy and prosperous. England, through the subsidized press soon manufactured an excuse to make war upon the Boers and rob them of their gold fields.
With the material assistance rendered by the English Government in Washington, D.C., she managed to succeed in her highway robbery and at the same time deprive two little republics of their independence. ”

“ Now a few words on the Anglo-Boer, a class of men in my opinion far more contemptible than such men as Roberts, Kitchener, Milner and Chamberlain who had burned down the Boer homes and left the Boer women to starve to death, because they did not make their men come in and surrender. The Anglo-Boers deserted their people, took up arms with the British and materially helped them to destroy their own people's farms and make the women and children suffer death, if possible. These Anglo-Boers were organized into a military force and christened by Lord Kitchener as National Scouts. ”

“ Here he found a fellow Scotchman and another white man, and expressed himself as much astonished to see them safe and sound among a people so bent on war. Strange to say, they knew nothing about a war till Jameson arrived. He learned from them, that Lobengula was not in old Buluwayo, so having nothing to fear, he proceeded to slaughter about 800 old men, women and children.
Now they hoisted the British flag on top of a tree, to wave in peace and love over the many hundred women and children whom they had murdered, in the name of humanity. ”

“ It was not a day for a titled figurehead, not a day for dissolute lords, not a day for an unscrupulous Colonial Secretary, a weak, High Commissioner of South Africa, or the moneyed rascals of Kimberley. For them the day must smell of rottenness, and therefore be celebrated in London. With one horse the Irish boys easily won in all the races, while the Boers captured nearly all the prizes in athletics. The Irish, however, played an English trick in the races on the unsuspecting Boers. ”

“ Plain it is that we are drifting towards imperialism, that is, corruption and crime. The records of our action towards the Philippines and of the conduct of our army towards the Filipinos will mark the darkest pages in our history and prove loathsome to posterity. The Filipinos long to be free, and our motto seems to be to kill or enslave them. It is unnecessary to give reasons, for the daily papers fairly teem with accounts of barbarous and murderous acts on the part of several army officers towards the people, black and white, of those far away and sorely afflicted islands. ”

“ When two civilized nations go to war, each strains every nerve to mow the other down, to cut his throat, to mutilate and kill him,—by fair means or foul,—and when the battle is lost and won, they commiserate and sympathize with them, and grieve to see so many hundreds of their fellowmen writhing in agony on the battlefield. ”

“ Now we will see what General de la Rey is doing in the Western Transvaal. The English are numerous everywhere and protected by forts in all parts. At Zeerust a large command is tied up by General de la Rey's men, not one of them shows his head above the wall. They cry for food and relief, but in vain. Only a small number of General de la Rey's men are there, but the number seems quite sufficient. The English are hard pushed and much worried, yet they do not dare to leave their walls and face the Boers. ”

“ My pack mule always followed me, and although she fell far behind and the English hurled a storm of bullets at her, yet she came through all right, and joined me. These 600 armed Kaffirs were on the English left flank and fought in line with the Tommies; yet Chamberlain, Kitchener, Roberts, and Milner all swore that they had no armed Kaffirs with them in the war. Now, when any man tells me that such Englishmen as these are capable of telling the truth, I know at once that man is either an Englishman himself or an Anglo-American. ”

“ The Great Indian tribes, before they were corrupted and polluted by the presence of white men, were proud, high-spirited, well governed, happy and contented, but now they are low, degenerate, immoral and miserable. The great Kaffir nations of South Africa, the Zulus, the Basutos, and the Swazies, probably the finest races of people in the world, are far more free and independent, better governed, more moral and contented than the people of the so-called civilized nations on the globe. ”

“ I do not believe that in the history of the world, one could find more acts of barbarity and brutality committed by any people in any land than by the English in the two little republics of the Transvaal and the Free State. ”

“ Little good it would do them, but all those who claim they were forced by the British to take up arms against the Boers, should at least vindicate themselves to the extent of laying their complaints with the proper officials in Washington City. Those who confess that they were duly hired by the English to take up arms against the Boers should be made to feel the stigma of their disgrace by being disfranchised and deprived of the rights of American citizenship. ”