The covenant - James A. Michener [451]
The other Boer grievance was less complex. Because of their stern religiosity, they tried to avoid any activity on Sundays, and once during a protracted engagement, when General de Groot had his men at Sunday prayer, their guns silent, one of the Venloo men rushed into the service, shouting, 'They're playing cricket!'
De Groot stalked to a vantage point and looked through his glass at the green field upon which the English officers were having a merry game. He was appalled at this sacrilege and ordered a heliographer to send a message commanding the game to halt, this being the Sabbath. When the English signaled back the score, 'Eighty-seven for three wickets,' he fell into a dark fury and ran breathlessly to a large gun.
'Fire on them!' When the Creusot monster was loaded and aimed he cautioned: 'But not too close.' The shell landed well off the cricket field and killed no one. Phlegmatically the officers continued their game, so a second shell had to be launched, and this came so close that the young men flew helter-skelter. When white-flagged emissaries came to protest the breaking of a tacit truce, De Groot replied, 'On Sundays you are to pray like us, not play at cricket like heathens.'
This matter of religion always perplexed De Groot and Van Doorn. They knew they were men dedicated to God and were convinced that He looked after them with special regard; they also knew that since the English were indifferent to the Bible, God must despise them, yet there were contradictions, as De Groot pointed out in a report to the council:
I cannot understand it. The English have what they call a chaplain attached to every unit, and braver men I have never seen. To aid a fallen comrade or give last prayers to a dying man, they will cross open areas of gunfire with such fortitude that our men sometimes cheer them in admiration. But we Boers, who live and die under a special covenant with God, have some predikants who jump if even a pistol shot goes off. Our spiritual welfare was being looked after by Predikants Nel and Maartins, but not for long. As soon as the first gun fired, both these dominees quickly found that commando life was not for them. No member of my commando felt their loss, as we provide our own prayers.
One bitter point was never discussed in public; it appeared in no news dispatches from the front, but it caused the harshest animosities, as General de Groot learned one morning when his commando captured six Englishmen. The young officer, a blond lad from Oriel College with his first commission, protested grievously: 'Sir, why do you Boers stoop so low as to use dumdum bullets?'
De Groot did not change his expression. 'Did we use them?'
'Yes! Yes!' the young man cried in near-hysteria. 'Chalmers was struck in the jaw. Should have been merely a nasty wound. Dumdum expands, makes a mess of his head. Atkins hit in the abdomen. Normally might pull through. Dumdum opens up his whole belly.' When De Groot made no response, the young fellow shouted, 'It's monstrous, Meneer.'
Quietly De Groot nodded to Van Doorn: 'Hand him three.' And from a special pouch Jakob produced three dumdum bullets, tossing them into the young man's lap. The Englishman studied them and blanched. In consternation he looked at De Groot and asked, 'Is this correct, Meneer? Our own Woolwich Arsenal?'
'Tell him where we got them,' De Groot said, and Van Doorn said, 'You heard about our raid against the cavalry? The seven big horses we kept? Those bullets you hold came from this pouch, found attached to one of the saddles.'
The young man apologized: 'They were intended for the Afghan frontier. Not for civilized warfare.'
In the autumn of 1900 such incidents receded in importance, for the massive strength of the English began to tell. They now had about two hundred fifty thousand men in the field against a maximum of sixty-three thousand Boers, and there was no way that the few, however gallant, could continue to hold off the many. With bold yet carefully prepared strikes, Generals