With the Boer Forces

THE WAY TO THE BOER COUNTRYImmediately after war was declared between Great Britain and the Boersof the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, the two South African re-publics became ostracised, in a great measure, from the rest of the civilisedworld. The cables and the great ocean steamship lines, which connectedSouth Africa with Europe and America, were owned by British companies,and naturally they were employed by the British Government for its ownpurposes. Nothing which might in any way benefit the Boers was allowedto pass over these lines and, so far as it was possible, the British Governmentattempted to isolate the republics so that the outside world could have nocommunication of any sort with them. With the exception of a small stripof coast-land on the Indian ocean, the two republics were completely sur-rounded by British territory, and consequently it was not a difficult matterfor the great Empire to curtail the liberties of the Boers to as great an extentas it was pleasing to the men who conducted the campaign. The small stripof coast-land, however, was the property of a neutral nation, and, therefore,could not be used for British purposes of stifling the Boer countries, but thenation which "rules the waves" exhausted every means to make the Boers'3 HOWARD CLEMENS HILLEGASair-hole as small as possible by placing a number of warships outside the en-trance of Delagoa Bay, and by establishing a blockade of the port of LorenzoMarques.Lorenzo Marques, in itself, was valueless to the Boers, for it had always beennothing more than a vampire feeding upon the Transvaal, but as an outletto the sea and as a haven for foreign ships bearing men, arms, and encourage-ment it was invaluable. In the hands of the Boers Delagoa Bay would havebeen worse than useless, for the warships could have taken possession of itand sealed it tightly on the first day of the war, but as a Portuguese possessionit was the only friend that the Boers were able to find during their long pe-riod of need. Without it, the Boers would have been unable to hold any in-tercourse with foreign countries, no envoys could have been despatched, novolunteers could have entered the country, and they would have been igno-rant of the opinion of the world-a factor in the brave resistance against theirenemy which was by no means infinitesimal. Delagoa Bay was the Boers' onewindow through which they could look at the world, and through whichthe world could watch the brave struggle of the farmer-citizens of the veld-republics.The Portuguese authorities at Delagoa Bay long ago established a reputationfor adroitness in extracting revenues whenever and wherever it was possibleto find a stranger within their gates, but the war afforded them such excel-lent opportunities as they had never enjoyed before. Being the gate of the