Boers

Boers (Dutch, 'agriculturists,' 'farmers'), the name applied to the Dutch colonists of South Africa who are engaged in agriculture and the care of cattle. The first settlement of the Boers at the Cape of Good Hope dates from the 16th century, and they have since been reinforced by Huguenots from France, but they retain in a pronounced form the old Dutch character, especially the old Dutch love of freedom. After the final cession of the Cape to England in 1814 they disliked the new government, especially its friendly policy to the natives and the emancipation of the slaves in 1833. Accordingly, in 1835, bands of them 'trekked' northwards. In this way they occupied Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, seizing the lands of the natives as pasture-ground, and reducing them to a form of servitude. Some of the Boers who trekked from the Transvaal during English rule in 1874, settled in Portuguese territory. The Boers, though often ignorant and by no means scrupulous or humane towards the natives, are remarkable for their courage and powerful physique, and are good horsemen and splendid marksmen. See G. M. Theal's History of the Boers in Southern Africa (1887); A. H. Keane, The Boer States (1900); Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War (1900); also the articles NATAL, ORANGE RIVER COLONY, and TRANSVAAL, and books there cited.