In the following pages I have endeavoured to present an accurate picture of the Boers in war-time.

My duties as a newspaper correspondent carried me to the Boer side, and herein I depict all that I saw.

Some parts of my narrative may not be pleasing to the British reader; others may offend the sensibilities of the Boer sympathisers.

I have written truthfully, but with a kindly spirit and with the intention of presenting an unbiased account of the struggle as it was unfolded to the view from the Boer side.
I shall be criticised, no doubt, for extolling certain virtues of the Boers, but it must be noticed that their shortcomings are not neglected in these lines.
In referring to Boer deeds of bravery I do not mean to insinuate that all British soldiers were cowards any more than I mean to imply that all Boers were brave, but any man who has been with armies will acknowledge that bravery is not the exclusive property of the peoples of one nation.

The Boers themselves had thousands of examples of the bravery of their opponents, and it was not an extraordinary matter to hear burghers express their admiration of deeds of valour by the soldiers of the Queen.