orthodox party in a certain branch of the Dutch Reform Church on the other, began to co-operate against the Government of the Republic and myself personally. . . . The Raad, filled up to a large extent with men of ill-repute, who, under the cloak of progress and favour to the Government view, obtained their seats, was too weak to cope with the skill of the conspirators, and granted leave to the acting President to carry out measures diametrically opposed to my policy. Native lands were inspected and given out to a few speculators, who held large numbers of claims to land which were destined for citizens, and so a war was prepared for me on my return from England which I could not avert."]

JUNE 12. Kaffraria.-Three large tracts of Kaffraria (Fingoland, Idutywa Reserve, and Noman's Land) annexed to Cape Colony, on condition that the Cape Parliament provide for their government. [Act to that effect passed 1877. Territories formally incorporated Oct. 1, 1879.]

- JULY. £90,000 compensation to the Orange Free State.-Convention signed in London by Lord Carnarvon and President Brand, under which the Orange Free State withdraws all claims to the disputed territory forming the diamond fields of Griqualand West. [President Brand urged that the title of the chief Waterboer to the land which he ceded to us in 1871 was bad; but Lord Carnarvon declined to acknowledge either the Dutch title to it or the commission of any wrong by the English settlers. He found, however, in certain peremptory proceedings which had given offence to the Government of the Free State an excuse for offering in compensation a sum of £90,000, that amount to be paid by West Griqualand itself as the

country which benefited by the assumption of British rule there.]

AUG. 22. Boer treatment of natives: the prevalence of slavery.-Khama, King of the Bamangwato, writes to Sir Henry Bulwer :

"I write to you, Sir Henry, in order that your Queen may preserve for me my country, it being in her hands. The Boers are coming into it, and I do not like them. Their actions are cruel among us black people. We are like money; they sell us and our children. I ask Her Majesty to pity me, and to hear that which I write quickly. I wish to hear upon what conditions Her Majesty will receive me and my country and my people under her protection. I am weary with fighting. I do not like war, and I ask Her Majesty to give me peace. I am very much distressed that my people are destroyed by war, and I wish them to obtain peace. I ask Her Majesty to defend me, as she defends all her people. There are three things which distress me very much-war, selling people, and drink. All these things I shall find in the Boers, and it is these things which destroy people to make an end of them in the country. The custom of the Boers has always been to cause people to be sold, and to-day they are still selling people. Last year I saw them pass with two wagons full of people whom they had bought at the river at Tanane."

[Abundant evidence was forthcoming from other quarters that these statements as to the slavery carried on by the Boers, whether openly or under the form of "apprenticeship," were not exaggerated. In 1869, for instance, in a book published in Holland, a clergyman of the Dutch Church described the apprenticeship system in the Transvaal as "slavery in the fullest sense of the word." Again, in 1875, a German missionary who had been engaged by President Burgers to report

on the condition of the natives wrote, after giving his definition of what constituted slavery: "If I am now asked to say conscientiously whether such slavery has existed since 1852, and been recognised and permitted by the Government, I must answer in the affirmative." See also President Burger's admissions, March 3, 1877.]

- SEPT. 22. Sir Theophilus Shepstone's mission to the Transvaal.-Lord Carnarvon writes to Sir Henry Barkly describing the war against Secocoeni, carried on under the conditions adopted by the Boers, as a menace to the peace of all South Africa, referring to the general position of affairs in the Transvaal, and adding :

"Should the people of the Transvaal Republic consider it advisable, under all the circumstances, to invite Her Majesty's Government to undertake the government of that territory on terms consistent with the now well-known policy of Her Majesty's Government, I am of opinion that the request could not properly or prudently be declined."

[This letter was followed up by the despatch of Sir Theophilus Shepstone to the Transvaal to confer with the President on the question of confederation, discretionary power being given to him to annex the country if circumstances rendered such a course expedient. See 1877, Jan. 22.]

Boer tactics and native territories. Mr. Osborne, magistrate at Newcastle, writes :—

"The Boers, as they have done in other cases and are still doing, encroached by degrees on native territory, commencing by obtaining permission to graze stock upon portions of it at certain seasons of the year, followed by individual graziers

obtaining from native headmen a sort of right or licence to squat upon certain defined portions, ostensibly in order to keep other Boer squatters away from the same land. These licences, temporarily intended as friendly or neighbourly acts by unauthorised headmen, after a few seasons of occupation by the Boer are construed by him as title, and his permanent occupation ensues. Damage for trespass is levied by him from the very man from whom he obtained the right to squat, to which the natives submit out of fear of the matter reaching the ears of the paramount chief, who would, in all probability, severely punish them for opening the door to encroachment by the Boer. After a while, however, the matter comes to a crisis in consequence of the incessant disputes between the Boers and the natives; one or other of the disputants lays the case before the paramount chief, who, when hearing both parties, is literally frightened with violence and threats by the Boer into granting him the land. Upon this the usual plan followed by the Boer is at once to collect a few neighbouring Boers, including a field cornet, or even an acting provisional field cornet appointed by the field cornet or provisional cornet, the latter to represent the Government, although without instructions authorising him to act in the matter. A few cattle are collected among themselves, which the party takes to the chief, and his signature is obtained to a written document alienating to the Republican Boers a large slice of all his territory. The contents of this document are, as far as I can make out, never clearly or intelligibly explained to the chief, who signs and accepts of the cattle under the impression that it is all in settlement of hire for the grazing licences granted by his headmen. This, I have no hesitation in saying, is the usual method by which the Boers obtain what they call cessions to them of territories by native chiefs."

- Nov. Sir Bartle Frere sent to the Cape.-Sir Bartle Frere appointed Governor of the Cape and High Commissioner for South Africa. [Lord Carnarvon, in offering Sir Bartle Frere this appointment, wrote:

"We have been on the edge of a great native war. The war between the Transvaal Republic and the natives has had this further effect: it has rapidly ripened all South African policy. . . . It brings us near to the object and end for which I have now for two years been steadily labouring-the union of the South African Colonies and States."

Lord Carnarvon further expressed the hope that Sir Bartle would be "the first Governor-General of the South African Dominion." See 1877, March 31.]

- 2. A native conspiracy against the whites. -Sir H. Bulwer, writing to Lord Carnarvon respecting a reply from Cetewayo to a protest against a massacre of girls who had married without permission, says :

...

"It is evident . . . that he (Cetewayo) . . . has not only been preparing for war, but that he has been sounding the way with a view to a combination of the native races against the white man."

- DEC. 18. Boer treatment of natives.-In a despatch to Lord Carnarvon Sir Henry Barkly, High Commissioner, refers to the brutal massacres carried out by von Schlickmann, and expresses a hope that Her Majesty's Government will be able to take such steps "as will terminate this wanton and useless bloodshed, and prevent the recurrence of the scenes of injustice, cruelty, and rapine which abundant evidence is every day forthcoming to prove have rarely ceased to disgrace the Republics beyond the Vaal ever since they first sprang into existence."

1877. Griqualand West.-Griqualand West, after having been a separate province since 1871, is now annexed to the Cape. [Actual incorporation did not take place until 1880.]