To prevent a repetition of the rebellion, and of their retaking possession of their former almost inaccessible stronghold, the native tribe was broken up (as per precedent established by the English administration in former years), and homes given them elsewhere. The result of all this was that the Government was abused more than ever before. It was affirmed that the grossest cruelties had been perpetrated on the poor, innocent natives; the Boers made slaves of the natives, etc., etc. The most ridiculous statement of all was that the Boers ravished the native women! Anybody knowing a Boer would know how impossible this is! A Boer shrinks from touching the hands of the dirty, oily, reeking native; how much more would he shrink from _embracing_ a native woman! As we have said, Steve had been to the Malaboch war himself. He had seen for himself the treatment accorded the natives, and the lying statements published all over the world made him shiver with disgust and anger. The following year, with the Magoeba campaign, the same thing was repeated all over. The causes were the same, the effects were the same. Sir E. Ashmead Bartlette and others of his stamp (either deceiving, or being deceived by others here) made ridiculous and untruthful statements in the House of Commons, in public speeches, or in the daily papers. All this was the result of the wire-pulling, worked by the secret organisation for ‘painting Boers black.’ Finally, another grand opportunity came for a general carnival of abuse and lies against the Government of the country--the festivities in connection with the opening of the Delagoa Railway. Not that we mean to state that these were the only times when the Government was abused and libelled; daily opportunities were found to distort facts; an anthill was made into a mountain; a good deed into one of the blackest imaginable. And when no facts could be found to distort, something was invented by some fiendish imagination. But the festivities offered a grand opportunity for exaggerations and distortions. The Government was made to spend thousands of pounds sterling on favourites, contracts for decorations were given to favourite Hollanders, money was wasted, the Volksraad vote was greatly exceeded, and goodness knows what besides. It is too sickening to enter into all the petty lying faults that were found. In this way the Government and people of the country had daily to tamely and quietly hear themselves belittled and besmeared with the lying libels of their foes; it was all patiently and quietly borne; they wished for peace, and were always conciliating. This was taken by the opposition as signifying fear and conscious weakness. Matters went on in this way until December 1895 was reached. Steve was watching the approaching clouds. He could hear the distant thunder. He could see that a storm was coming, gathering force as it approached. A crisis was at hand.