SEVEN BULLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

SEVEN BULLS.

i:o,;i: i'i;oi'iii;rs vision. A FOOTNoTK To UlSl'ollV. nine Itooks, as a rule, are dry as dust, reading, but one issued by the Briti-k Hov eminent at the end of April contains a footnote, to history which is of absorbing interest, in the shape of a lull and authentic narrative of the rising in South Africa, so speedily quelled bv Cenerals Botha and Smuts. 'due of the most intiuesling things in this storv of a. rebellion is the revelation of the fact that in the twentieth centurv numbers of people can he swayed by' Ihe prophetic utterances of one of their number who saw visions and dreamed dreams. Nicholas \an •'Kensburg is described as a "simple illiterate farmer." Had he lived some centuries carlicr, he. 'might have taken an equal place with John of llcvdeii. »r cvo|i Mahomet himself. There, were only a b-mlful of liners who had anv pro-Herman sympathies. I g before 'the. war broke out "Hum Xiklaas" bad a. vision, in which lie be held seven bulls lighting, and one, a grev bull, had emerged vi(;torions from the conflict. Van Ken-burg seems to have interpreted his own visions, for he declared that the grey bull was Hcrinanv. His reputation was built up on happy guesses, one of which was a correct 'foretelling of the events which led up to (he Peace of Voroeiiiging. One of the seer's visions hud been known to denoral De la Key fur some vears. He had beheld the number IS on ii dark cloud, out of which blood issued, and then the Celieral leturiiiug home without his hat. Immediately afterwards ca 11 carriage covered with llo.vers. (leneral De la. Key, it will be recalled, was actually shot at Johannesburg on September 1">, and a whole carriage was taken up by the wreaths at hi- funeral. The number of his room at Johannesburg was I.V

DKATIi OK UK I.A KKV. The narrative clearly shows what a hold those prophecies had secured on the minds of the burghers of the Western Tranvaal, and how they aided the machinations of Maritz. (■oniniandiug the. defence forces in the north-west of the Cape, and Beyers, commanding the citizen forces of the Cnion. At, this moment the Oernians were sweeping on to Paris, and lieiislmrg sawvisions of 411,000 dcrmaii troops parading London. Then the I'ninu (loyernineiit unfolded its. plans for the attack upon deriuan South-West Africa. The news was received with anger by the old "Doopcr" Boers, some of whom had taken shelter with the Hermans after the war of I,SO!)-1002. The leaders of the conspiracy made the most of this feeling. Beyers' one object was to inveigle Ue la Hey into the plot. This was to be managed by getting him to I'otschcfstrooin, where a meeting of burghers was to be held. It was arranged that Beyers and De la Key should go by motor car from Pretoria to Potchef-trooni. via Johannesburg. The journey cast De hi Key his life, and leaves lor ever in doubt whether he had a "iiiltv knowledge of the conspiracy. The police, at, Johannesbill" were on the look-out for three desperadoes named Foster, and they had orders to stop all motors. The car id Beyers was repeatedly challenged by the police, and lie. quite unaware of the real reason for the challenge, and believing himself to be trapped, refused to slop. The police tired, and Dr la Key was killed After Maritz hail stalled his revolt in the Cape. Bevels and De Wei raised the standard of'rebellion. "Now is (he time for us Afrikanders to gel our independence back," ran a proclamation posted at Kleinfontein. "Tliov need not 1.-e afraid, as there will be no blood shed, onr independence is guaranteed bv the Herman Kaiser, deueral Bevels has the treaty in his pocket."