rOQ THE riAG OR Lays and Incidents OP The South African War BY MPS. MACLEOD, Authoress of Carols of Canada, life. ^^%ZA^^ Entered according to Act of Parliament, in the year 1901. By Euzabeth S. MacLeod, In the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. '0 I I , -I Ci )\ V "M^ ^ OUR EMPIRE'S FLAG. Dedicated to our Patriots. Ho fairest light on land or wave I Ho brightest gleam of glory ! Shine forth that all beneath thy rays May read thy wondrous story. How Freedom rose when rose thy dawn And, though the way was gory, Passed on ereH., with unbou7id hands, To climb the heights of glory. To climb the heights of glory. Beneath thy beams. Oh guiding star ! From off the hills of heather, Fiom western plains, from southern seas Leal sons, troop on together. That sword which sought the mother-heart Hath nerved her every daughter; Now all the world shall learn that blood Is thicker far than water. Is thicker far than water. Thou droopest not 'neath summer sun; Thou heed'st not winter hoary; Nor years shall dim that steadfast light Which gilds thy path of glory. Then on! lead on thou conquering Flag! Wave out for aye thy story! Since none but Heaven may link the bars Across thy march of glory. Across thy march of glory. TKe BritisK Cabinet. 1900-1901. PRIME MINISTER—MARQUIS OF SALISBURY. Secy of State—Foreign Marquis of Lansdowne Lord Pres. of the Council Duke of Devonshire I St Lord of Treasury and Leader in House of Commons Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour Lord High Chancellor Lord Halsbury Secy for India Lord G. Hamilton Home Sec3'. Sir Mat. White Ridley Secy, for the Colonies Rt. Hon. J. Chamberlain Secy, for War Rt. Hon. W. St. John Broderick Secy, for Scotland Lord Balfour of Burleigh Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Matt. Hicks-Beach 1st Lord of the Admiralty Earl of Selborne Pres. of the Board of Trade Rt. Hon. Gerald Balfour Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Lord James Lord Privy Seal Lord Salisbury- Pres. Local Government Board Rt. Hon. H. Chaplin Lord Lieut, of Ireland Earl Cadogan Lord Chancellor of Ireland Lord Ashbourne Pres. Board of Agriculture Rt. Hon. W. Long ist Commissioner of Works Rt. Hon. Ackers Douglas PREFACE. THERE is no attempt in this little book to give a detailed sketch of the war; the pen of the gifted historian may do that. I have merely endeavored to set before "those who sit at home at ease' ' an ever present reminder of the great and varied sufferings and sacrifices endured, and of the daunt- less deeds accomplished b>- those patriot hearts who went forth to fight and, if need be, to die for freedom's and for country's cause in a far, unkindh- clime—the oft-tried veteran of the old home-land and his youthful comrade-in-arms from the islands and continents of either sea. The day has departed when civilians spoke with contempt cf the private in the arnty and fawned upon the officer of the same. Even the rustic simpleton who, in a dazed and drunken mood, accepted the "shilling" and left the paternal acres amid the lamentations of a mourning hamlet, has so often dignified by his after prowess, de-\'eloped in the storms of war, the humble \'illage of his birth, that British valour has come to be respected and feared wherever British feet have trod, or British hearts have bled. Even France, yet smarting under the defeat of Waterloo, during the Crimean war produced in Charivari a picture of a Highlander standing sentinel at his post with a precipice over-looking the sea at his back ; a French soldier and a Tartar peasant regarding him from below. " What folly," says the Tartar, " to place a sentry in such a position!" To which replied the Chasseur, " There's no danger; ces soldats la ne reade?it jamais." Again, it is somewhat of an amelioration to our grief over the horrors of war to know that our heroes, our substitutes in the path of danger, are better attended to in these later days during the mishaps of battle or disease, and that there need PREFACE be no repetition of the cruelly thoughtless neglect experienced in former campaigns. To those who believe the war to have been of un- necessary duration, I would recommend the perusal of one of Lord Roberts' despatches, in which he points out the magnitude of the area over which hostilities were carried on; and if this despatch fails to carry conviction, then the reader thereof must be either profoundly opaque or hopelessly pre- judiced. The verse matter, etc. , in these pages are original. The incidents are gleaned from the public press of the period. Owing to the kindness of His Lordship I am enabled to laj- before his many friends a copj- of " Strathcona's" latest photograph, also of his autograph; and for figures in relation to Canadian Contingents I am indebted to the politeness of Colonels Irving, of Halifax, and Moore, of Charlottetown, respectively Commanders of the Militia of Nova Scotia and P. E. Island. It would seem invidious to prefer a few likenesses of famous generals to the exclusion of others; thus I choose the one. par excellence , the Chief, Earl Roberts; while in bounden loyalty, as also in token of the distinction of having this book entered for publication on the first day of the reign of King Edward VII., I have the honor to insert therein, as frontis- piece, a photo of his Most Gracious Majesty. While lamenting the loss of the great and good Queen Victoria, we have reason to be thankful that her successor by inheritance is also her successor by choice of the people. May the love and the loyalty which has ever surrounded His Majesty and the peerless Queen Alexandra live on, untarnished, through the years; and nowhere else will they exist more generously than in this our great and wide Dominion, our beautiful and hopeful Canadian land, wherein " God bless our own dear Canada!" With heart and voice we sing; " God bless Britannia far and near! God bless our Sovereign King!" E. s. M. CONTENTS. PAGE. Introclijction — ; INTRODUCTION. Statistics of South Africa. THE nine states and protectorates of South Africa were, in the year 1899, as follows: Basutoland, (British Colony) area 10,293 square miles, population 250,000; chief city, Maseru, 862. Bechuanaland, (British Protectorate) area 213,000 square miles, population 200,000 ; chief cities, Mafeking, Palapye, Palachwe, Cape Colony or Cape of Good Hope, (British Colony) area 266,775 square miles, population 1,559,960; chief cities, Beaconsfeld, population 10,479; Cape Town 83,898; Cradock 4,389; East London 6,924 ; Graaf Reinet 5,946; Graham's Town 10,498; Kimberley 28,718; King William's Town 7,226; Paarl 7,668; Port Elizabeth 23,266; Uitenhage 5,331; Worcester 5,404. German South-West Africa, (German Colony) area 322,450 square miles, population 200,000 ; chief city Windhoek. Natal, (British Colony) area 36,000 square miles, population 829,005; chief cities Durban 39,245; Pietermaritzburg 24,595. Orange Free State, area 48,326 square miles, population 207,503 chief city Bloemfontein 5,817. Portuguese East Africa, (Portuguese Colony) area 297,750 square miles, population 1,500,000; chief city Lorenzo Marquez, 7,700. Rhodesia, (British Protectorate) area 750,000 square miles, population 450,000; chief city Buluwayo 5,000. South Africa Republic or Transvaal, area 119,139 square miles, popu- lation ; chief cities, Johannesburg, 102,714 ; Klerksdrop, 2,500 245,697 ; Potchefstroom, 4,000 ; Pretoria, 12,000. Recapitulation: 2,062,733 square miles, population 5,481,865. A Warning. In July, 1879, the late Sir Bartle Frere, who was High Commissioner in South Africa from April, 1877, to August, 1880, placed on record the following prophecy : "Any attempt to give back or restore the Boer Republic in the Transvaal must lead to anarchy and failure, and probably, at no distant period, to a vicious imitation of some South American " a 2 FOR THE FLAG Republic, in which the more uneducated and misguided Boers, domi- nated and led by better educated foreign adventurers—Germans, Hollanders, Irish Home Rulers, and other European Republicans and Socialists—will become a pest to the whole of South Africa, and a most dangerous fulcrum to any European power bent on contesting our naval supremacy or on injuring us in the colonies. There is no escaping from the responsibility which has been already incurred, ever since the English flag was planted in the Castle here. All our real difficulties have arisen, and still arise, from attempting to evade or shift this responsibility. ... If you abdicate the sovereign position, the abdication has always to be heavily paid for in both blood and treasure. Testimonies against the Boer. I. It is because I fear that a considerable section of the Christian world of England, because of its tender sympathy with present suffering and its yearning after a present peace, is being led by writers, who have appealed only to these sentiments, into an attitude with regard to this war which is out of harmony with the Divine purpose at this time, that I am driven to write this appeal. In the name of the Lord Jesus, and for His dear sake, I appeal to the Christian people of England to suspend the judgment they have been led to form on the question of the war in which Great Britain is now engaged. If ever there was a war for the Lord of hosts, if ever there was a war for truth and right, for the putting down of oppression and wrong, for the deliverance of a people powerless to deliver themselves, whose wrongs have cried up to heaven until the Lord has come down to deliver them, this is the war.