CHAPTER XIV.
IN FLIGHT FROM THE RAND One of the greatest difficulties with which the Imperial Government found themselves confronted when relations between Great Britain and the Transvaal became strained was the influx of refugees who at the first hint of impending trouble left Johannesburg and the Rand, and flocked to Cape Town.
The greater number were aliens.

From Russia in particular they had flocked to the Transvaal when they heard of its treasures.

Adventurers from other parts of Europe, with a sprinkling of remittance men, also deserted Johannesburg.

Only the few were real English residents who, from the time the Rand had begun to develop, had been living and toiling there in order to win sufficient for the maintenance of their families.

All this mass of humanity, which passed unnoticed when scattered over wide areas in the vicinity of Pretoria or Johannesburg, had lived for many years in the expectation of the day when the power of the Transvaal Republic would be broken.