"Take a community of Dutchmen of the type of those who defended themselves for fifty years

against all the power of Spain at a time when Spain was the greatest power in the world.

Intermix with them a strain of those inflexible French Huguenots who gave up home and

fortune and left their country for ever at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The product

must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth.

Take this formidable people and train them for seven generations in constant warfare against

savage men and ferocious beasts, in circumstances under which no weakling could

survive, place them so that they acquire exceptional skill with weapons and in

horsemanship, give them a country which is eminently suited to the tactics of the huntsman,

the marksman, and the rider. Then, finally, put a finer temper upon their military qualities by a dour

fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming patriotism.

Combine all these qualities and all these impulses in one individual, and you have the

modern Boer — the most formidable antagonist who ever crossed the path of Imperial Britain.”

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"