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EUROPE AND AFRICA
Cape in the eighteenth century bear a striking resemblance
to those of the “Boers” of the nineteenth. The unjust and
oppressive rule of the Dutch East India Company and its
hard-headed and selfish governors had aroused in the people
a desire for independence and freedom from control. This,
coupled with an innate love for the open, free life, a disregard
for the conventionalities of life and the rights of others, a
proud spirit of self-reliance, and a narrow religious morality,
made them a difficult people for the British to handle. The
long isolation of South Africa from European intercourse,
due to the great distance and the lack of direct and close
communication for so many years, placed them completely
out of touch with Continental developments and movements
down quite to the middle of the nineteenth century. And,
while Europe progressed, the Cape practically stood still.
Unfortunately the British Government did not grasp the
salient features of the situation at the Cape when it took
over the control of affairs. It did not approach the problem
with sympathy, intelligence, and firmness at the start, or ap-
preciate the paramount necessity of preserving social and
political equality and of cultivating the respect and confi-
dence of its South African subjects. In fact, the Home Gov-
ernment never evolved any continuous and enlightened pol-
icy till the days of the Boer War; but preferred to follow a
sort of “hit or miss’ plan, adjustable to circumstances. “I
have never been able to discover any principle in our policy
in South Africa,” said Sir Bartle Frere, one of the ablest and
most popular British representatives in that country in the
last half of the nineteenth century, “except that of giving
way whenever opposition or trouble is encountered.” The
intentions of the English authorities were usually excellent;
but they had the happy faculty of doing those things most
likely, not only to destroy every vestige of confidence in the
justness and wisdom of their rule, but also to antagonize the
