- Joined
- Feb 1, 2015
The Boer has three rare qualities, hospitality, bravery, and a sense of humour. He is the most vigorous, resourceful, and intelligent peasant in the world. There is an old time courtesy and chivalry about him, due to his birth, which takes off his hat when he salutes you; yet at the same time he will not pamper idle women, nor follow the vagaries of a society that less readily forgives an offence against etiquette than an act of dishonor. He is law abiding and has a reverent regard for custom, and certainly has the best blood in the colonies.
In circumstances where most peoples would have lapsed to barbarism he kept alive the instinct of freedom, the tradition of civilization, and his knowledge of the Book of Books, and he did not to any great extent mingle his blood with that of the coloured races. I cannot find another example of people similarly situated who were so little subdued to savagery. Instance the case of Spain and Portugal whose best blood in their colonies was dissipated and frittered away in half castes.
The Boer's chief characteristics are his love of liberty, whereto almost all ends are subservient, and on a minor grade, his love for his steed, in which no Arab could excel him. I have seen him share his last handful of mealies with his horse and tear his only blanket in half to cover it. The immense spaces were his home, and strangely individualistic, he loved loneliness as a bride. His sense of locality and his knowledge of the veld had the unerringness of instinct, and among the limitless and unvarying savannas, and the sparse and arid trees of the bushveld, he was as keen a tracker and as much at home as the most crafty bushman. In the trackless and featureless savannas the most trivial marks were his trysting spots, which from great distances could be found by him in the darkest night. The one long emergency in which he lived, evolved the qualities of self-reliance and individualism, horsemanship, and marksmanship, and fitted him to the changing conditions and equipped him for the strenuous struggles of his daily life.
-R.W. Schikkerling, "Commando Courageous"
In circumstances where most peoples would have lapsed to barbarism he kept alive the instinct of freedom, the tradition of civilization, and his knowledge of the Book of Books, and he did not to any great extent mingle his blood with that of the coloured races. I cannot find another example of people similarly situated who were so little subdued to savagery. Instance the case of Spain and Portugal whose best blood in their colonies was dissipated and frittered away in half castes.
The Boer's chief characteristics are his love of liberty, whereto almost all ends are subservient, and on a minor grade, his love for his steed, in which no Arab could excel him. I have seen him share his last handful of mealies with his horse and tear his only blanket in half to cover it. The immense spaces were his home, and strangely individualistic, he loved loneliness as a bride. His sense of locality and his knowledge of the veld had the unerringness of instinct, and among the limitless and unvarying savannas, and the sparse and arid trees of the bushveld, he was as keen a tracker and as much at home as the most crafty bushman. In the trackless and featureless savannas the most trivial marks were his trysting spots, which from great distances could be found by him in the darkest night. The one long emergency in which he lived, evolved the qualities of self-reliance and individualism, horsemanship, and marksmanship, and fitted him to the changing conditions and equipped him for the strenuous struggles of his daily life.
-R.W. Schikkerling, "Commando Courageous"
