WITH THE FLAG TO PRETORIA CHAPTER I. THE EXPLOSION. The Boer Ultimatum--Intrigues against British supremacy--Great Britain's interest in the Dutch Republics--Common interests of the white peoples--Early history of Cape Colony--Unpopularity of the Dutch East India Company--British capture Capetown--"The Great Trek"--England recognizes the Republics--Their attitude towards us--Sir Bartle Frere--Majuba--The Outlanders--The Jameson raid--Kruger--His character--Sir Alfred Milner--The Bloemfontein conference--Transvaal refuses England's demands--War. On October 11, 1899, began what was to prove the greatest struggle in which England has engaged since the peace that followed Waterloo. For at 5 p.m. on that day the forty-eight hours allowed by the Transvaal Government for a favourable answer to its ultimatum expired, and the forces of the two Boer Republics put themselves in motion to carry out their favourite threat of sweeping the English from South Africa into the sea. [Sidenote: The Boer Ultimatum.] Thus came the explosion--the culminating catastrophe of a decade of race-hatred in South Africa, the inevitable and certain result of British moral cowardice and surrender in the past. Twenty years back it had been foreseen and foretold by the prophets; for the last five years before the hour of conflict the British nation had felt instinctively that it was drawing steadily nearer; had watched with apprehension the enormous armaments of the Transvaal, and heard with rage and shame the story of the persistent oppression by the Boers of thousands of loyal British citizens. [Illustration: "A GENTLEMAN IN KHAKI." Khaki, originally used in India only, but now universal in foreign campaigns, is a canvas-like fabric, cool in summer and warm in winter. It is precisely the colour of the dusty, yellow-brown veldt, and its name is derived from the Persian word for dust.] [Sidenote: [1652-1709.] All men had dreaded it; many had striven to avert it; many more had prayed that it might not come in their day. But it had come at last and found Great Britain utterly unprepared, still clinging against hope to the hope of peace, confused and distracted by false predictions that the Boers would never fight, and by the ignorant assurance of partisans who declared that Britain must never resort to force, but must be contented with talk and threats alone, however grave her grievances. [Sidenote: Intrigues against British Supremacy.]