I had a good many opportunities of chatting with Boers during the time which elapsed between my capture and liberation, and had a long talk with the President of the Orange Free State, Mr. Steyn; also with several of his ministerial colleagues. Their ministers of religion, whom they call pridikants, also chatted to me freely, as occasion offered. I had more than one interview with their fighting generals. Medical men in their service I found very much akin to medical men the world over. They patched up the wounded and asked no questions concerning nationality, just as our own medicos do. Personally, I must say that I found the Boers first-class subjects for Press interviews. They did not know much about journalists and the ways of journalism. Possibly had they had more experience in regard to "interviews," I should not have found them quite so easy to manage, but it never seemed to enter their heads that a man might make good "copy" out of a quiet chat over pipes and tobacco. One of their stock subjects of conversation was their great General, the man of Magersfontein--General Cronje. "What do you Britishers and Australians think of Cronje?" was a stock question with them. "Do you think him a good fighter?" "Well, yes, unquestionably he is a good fighting man." "Do you think him as good as Lord Roberts?" "No. We men of British blood don't think there are many men on earth as good as the hero of Candahar." "Do you think him as good a man as Lord Kitchener?" "No. Very many of us consider the conqueror of the Soudan to be one who, if he lives, will make as great a mark in history as Wellington." At this a joyous smile would illuminate the face of the Boer. He would reply, "Yes, yes; Roberts is a great man, a very great man indeed. So is Kitchener, so is General French, so is General Macdonald, so is General Methuen. Yet all those five men are attempting to get Cronje into a corner where they can capture him. They have ten times as many soldiers as Cronje has, ten times as many guns; therefore, what a really great man Cronje must be on your own showing." That was before the fatal 27th of February on which Cronje surrendered.