Von Weber argued that it was the duty of Germany to protest against steps taken by England to realise this ambition; urging in support that Germans had a peculiar interest in the "Boer" territories--"for here dwell a splendid race of people nearly allied to us (Germans)." After going into the history of the Boers, the writer of the article states quite seriously that the Transvaal Boers had "the most earnest longing that the German Empire, _which they properly regard as their parent and mother country_, should take them under its protection." As a matter of fact, except in Government circles in the coterie of continental intriguers who surrounded and misled Paul Kruger, the German is barely tolerated by the Boers, and _vervluchste Deutscher_ (cursed German) is as common a descriptive as _verdomde Rooinek_ (damned Englishman).[E] In the first place, to the Boers every German is a Jew--a gentleman, in his mind, associated with a watch with defective parts or a "last year's ready reckoner." Next, the Boer, while proud of his ancestry, strongly disclaims any loyalty to a European Power; and although a Dutch dialect is in almost universal use, he would indignantly repudiate a suggestion that he is bound by any ties to Holland, even after he has been fully persuaded of the actual existence of that country. The Boer trekkers, besides those of Dutch origin, included the descendants of many noble French families, and their numbers were supplemented by English immigrants who were sent out to the eastern province of the Cape Colony in 1820. Many of these trekked with the Boers owing to dissatisfaction at being denied political and civil rights; and of the original 3053 immigrants who landed in 1820, only 438 remained a few years later, on their original grants in the Cape Colony. While the Boers protested and fought against annexation by great Britain, it was merely because of repugnance to restraint and certainly not out of any love for Germany. After expatiating on the richness of the mineral resources of the Transvaal, von Weber points to the possibilities of the country if Delagoa Bay were acquired. In spite of claiming the Boers as kindred, however, he shows the cloven hoof by stating that "a constant mass immigration of Germans would gradually bring about a decided numerical preponderance of Germans over the Dutch population, and of itself would by degrees effect the germanisation of the country in a peaceful manner." He goes on to recommend that Germany ought "at any price," in order to forestall England, to get possession of points on both the west and east coasts of Africa, where factories could be established, branches of which, properly fortified, could be gradually pushed farther and farther inland and so by degrees form a wide network of German settlements.