E - 
 
 '; ,"***,
 
 THE DUTCH REPUBLICS 
 OF SOUTH AFRICA; 
 
 etters 
 
 
 E. N. FOWLER, ESQ., M.P., AND CHARLES 
 BUXTON, ESQ., M.P., 
 
 F. W. CHESSON. 
 
 1 It would not do to agree that negroes are men, lest it should appear that 
 whites are not," MOXTESQUIETJ. 
 
 Honton: 
 PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM TWEEDIE, 337, STRAND. 
 
 Price Tiro Shillings. 
 1871.
 
 LOKDOK t 
 GILBERT AKD RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 C2, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE first of the following Letters was published, although iu 
 a more extended form, at the close of the year 1868. It is 
 now revised and reprinted, and two other Letters are added, in 
 the hope that they will assist to form a public opinion favourable 
 to the just treatment of the native races of South Africa. Every 
 day the slave-trade is permitted to exist in that region the 
 difficulty of its abolition is increased. It was from equally small 
 beginnings that negro slavery took its rise in America; and 
 unless great efforts be made to arrest its course, that nefarious 
 institution will assuredly prove fatal to civilization in the 
 southern parts of the African continent. 
 
 In advocating the establishment of a Confederation as the 
 best means of putting an end to the two-fold curse of war and 
 slavery, the writer has simply expressed the views of the most 
 enlightened statesmen to whom the destinies of the Cape 
 Colony have been entrusted. Those views have been endorsed 
 by the Legislative Council of Natal, by the influential portion 
 of the colonial press, and by the South African merchants 
 resident in this country. It will of course be understood that the 
 proposed Confederation can only be established with the voluntary 
 consent of the several communities which would be invited to 
 enter it. 
 
 7, ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, 
 1st February, 1871. 
 
 A 2 
 
 2200300
 
 THE DUTCH EEPUBLICS OF SOUTH AFKICA. 
 
 LETTEE I. 
 
 To E. N. FOWLER, Esq., M.P., Treasurer of the Aborigines' 
 Protection Society. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, You have repeatedly brought the subject of 
 the conduct and policy of the Dutch Boers towards the native 
 tribes of South Africa under the notice of the members of 
 the Aborigines' Protection Society, at its annual meetings. 
 This is my apology for addressing you on a question which 
 is perhaps as important as any now claiming the attention 
 of those who are interested in the colonies of Great Britain. I 
 refer to the practice of slavery in the Trans- Vaal Eepublic, to the 
 violation of the treaty of 1852 which it involves, and to the external 
 warfare and domestic tyranny of which it is the fruitful cause. 
 
 The Trans- Vaal Eepublic is bounded on the north by the 
 Limpopo, where gold has recently been discovered ; on the south 
 by the Vaal Eiver, which separates the territory from the Orange 
 Free State ; on the east by a portion of the Drakensberg Moun- 
 tains, and on the west by native tribes which still enjoy their 
 independence. A glance at the map will suffice to show the vast 
 superficial area estimated at 100,000 square miles over which 
 20,000 or 30,000 Boers claim to exercise jurisdiction. The other 
 Dutch Eepublic once known as the Orange Eiver Sovereignty, 
 and now designated the Free State is a rich pastoral country, 
 the southern boundary of which, the Orange Eiver, partly 
 constitutes the frontier line of the Cape Colony. 
 
 The two Eepublics of South Africa have a common origin, 
 and, so far as their relations with the native races are concerned, 
 a common history. The Dutch, in their own country, are the 
 most peaceful and law-abiding of citizens ; and those who have 
 sat by their firesides in Holland find it difficult to understand 
 why it is, that, as colonists, they have ever been cruel and mer- 
 cenary. It is true that in this respect they are not singular ;
 
 6 
 
 for in the northern island of New Zealand, in the pastoral dis- 
 tricts of Queensland, and in the border territories of North 
 America, men of the English race have vied with the Boers of 
 South Africa in their selfish or inhuman treatment of the 
 Aborigines. But, to the honour of the British Government, its 
 influence in the collisions which so often take place between 
 colonists and natives is generally exercised on the side of justice 
 and mercy. It has more than once prevented the extermination 
 of the Maories, and the wholesale confiscation of their lands ; 
 and to it is due the non-recurrence, for a period of fifteen years, 
 of a Kaffir war that gulf into which Chancellors of the Ex- 
 chequer once periodically cast their surplus. As the hands of 
 the Imperial G-overnment are now tolerably clean, there is no 
 inconsistency in appealing to them against the misdeeds of the 
 Boers of South Africa. 
 
 It may be alleged that this is a proposed interference with the 
 internal government of an independent state. It is true that the 
 Dutch Republics of South Africa have enjoyed a separate existence 
 for many years past. In the interval they have been as much 
 masters of their own affairs as if the English had disappeared 
 from the Cape ; but it is not the less a fact, that their indepen- 
 dence is based upon treaties which impose upon them (as well as 
 upon us) certain well-defined obligations. As these obligations 
 are just and reasonable as indeed the non-observance of them 
 involves, as a consequence, the subversion of public morality 
 the lapse of sixteen or of sixty years cannot lessen their force, or 
 diminish the weight of the responsibility they entail. England 
 may fairly consider the expediency of enforcing the treaty which 
 has been broken ; but of her moral right to enforce it there cannot 
 be the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 The story of the wanderings of the Boers in the South- African 
 wilderness is one of the most remarkable in the annals of colo- 
 nization. Owning large numbers of Hottentot slaves, they re- 
 sented the Act of Emancipation as a piece of grievous oppression 
 towards themselves. Their fears were so worked upon by un- 
 scrupulous speculators, that many of them believed they would 
 receive no compensation for the liberation of their slaves, and 
 sold their claims on the Imperial Government at a ruinous loss. 
 In 1835 there was a strong emigration movement among the 
 disaffected, and an advance party, headed by Uys and Maritz, 
 turned their backs upon the old colony, and, after encountering
 
 great hardships, entered Natal, which was then only colonized by 
 a small settlement of Englishmen. In the following year they 
 were joined by a considerable party, who may now be described 
 as "the main body" of their discontented countrymen. The 
 Dutch were soon strong enough to fight pitched battles with 
 Dingaan, the Zulu king (who had massacred many of their 
 number) ; and ultimately, in concert with Panda, they defeated 
 him, and raised his rival to the throne. Upon their proclaiming 
 a Batavian Republic, the Government of the Cape asserted its 
 authority by force, and a state of civil war ensued. In 1843 the 
 Boers formally surrendered their claim to Natal, and retired over 
 the Drakensberg to the country now known as the Free State. 
 There they united with bodies of their countrymen, who, from 
 about the year 1826, had crossed the Orange River in seasons of 
 drought. Some of the Boers, headed by Mr. Andries Pretorius, 
 proceeded still farther into the interior, crossed the Vaal River, 
 and took possession of the territory now known as the Trans- 
 Vaal Republic. But the Imperial Government did not cease to 
 regard them as British subjects, although it was not till 1848 
 that they were actually compelled to submit to the authority of 
 the Governor of the Cape Colony. 
 
 In that year Sir Harry Smith proclaimed the Queen's sove- 
 reignty over the Orange River territory. The Committee of the 
 Privy Council, in their report dated the 5th July, 1850, justify 
 that act in these terms: " In 1836 the emigrant Boers settled 
 " themselves down in many parts of what is now called the Orange 
 " sovereignty ; they assumed absolute independence ; established 
 " a species of government for themselves ; disputed native titles to 
 " land ; disclaimed being amenable to any native jurisdiction, 
 " even when within the acknowledged territory of native chiefs ; 
 " and, in the result, it became apparent, that unless the British 
 " Government interposed its authority, nothing but discord, 
 " violence, and crime, and a total extinction of the rights of the 
 " natives, must follow." The Committee further allege, that " to 
 " adopt any other course than this would, in their opinion, be 
 " productive of scenes of anarchy and bloodshed, probably ending 
 "in the extinction of the African race over a wide extent of 
 " country." Sir Harry Smith's policy was an unfortunate one. 
 It was that of a soldier who, although not without good impulses, 
 was always obstinate and often unteachable, and a stranger to 
 t thatspii-it of conciliation by which alone different races can be
 
 8 
 
 brought into subjection to one government. His proclamation 
 led to a rebellion of the Boer;?, Sir Harry, who was more at 
 home in the field than in the council-chamber, marched against 
 the Boers, and completely routed them at a place called Boem- 
 plaats; but his measures for the internal government of the 
 country were of a most crude and unsatisfactory character, and, 
 on their failure, the British Government resolved to abandon the 
 country. Those Englishmen who,. on the faith of the Governor's 
 proclamations and of orders in Council, had emigrated to, or 
 acquired property in, the territory across the Orange River, pro- 
 tested in vain against the haste with which the Imperial autho- 
 rities ignored principles upon which, only a short time previously, 
 they had considered themselves bound to act. Sir George Clerk 
 was the Commissioner under whose personal direction British 
 authority was withdrawn from the Trans-Orange territory. His 
 arguments in favour of the policy of which he was the instrument 
 were entirely drawn from considerations of self-interest, which 
 might well have operated before the annexation, but which at a 
 subsequent date could not fairly be regarded apart from the 
 general interests of civilization in South Africa. 
 
 Those interests have greatly suffered by the separation of the 
 Free State from the possessions of the British Crown. The Boers 
 have shown how right the Committee of Council were in the 
 special reasons they gave for proclaiming them British subjects. 
 Not only has the country greatly retrograded, but it has engaged 
 in a series of native wars of so pitiless and rapacious a character, 
 that Sir Philip Wodehouse has, with the sanction of the Home 
 Government, consented to acknowledge the Basutos as British 
 subjects as the only means of preserving the remnant of their 
 lands from robbery, and the tribe itself from destruction. And 
 now, after a lapee of fourteen years, public opinion in South 
 Africa is strongly in favour of retracing the backward step which 
 was then taken. 
 
 Two years previously the bands of emigrant farmers who, 
 under the " rebel " Pretorius, had crossed the Vaal Eiver, and 
 traversed a wide range of country (driving back or enslaving the 
 natives), had negotiated a treaty by which they ceased to be 
 British subjects. It is to the history of that treaty and its relation 
 to the events which have followed, that I wish to call particular 
 attention. 
 
 It is easy to sit in judgment on what experience has proved to
 
 9 
 
 be an error of policy ; and, great as the mistake was, it was 
 doubtless from the best possible motives that the independence 
 of the disaffected Boers, who now form the two Republics of the 
 Trans- Vaal and the Free State, was recognized. England found 
 it difficult to govern scattered and distant communities of farmers 
 who had defied her authority, and engaged in petty but vexatious 
 rebellions, and whose country, moreover, promised to be a burden 
 to the revenue. The Gordian knot was therefore cut by the en- 
 tire severance of the territories occupied by the Boers from the 
 British possessions at the Cape. While a constitution was yet 
 denied to the Cape colonists, a handful of turbulent Dutch settlers 
 in the interior obtained not only self-government, but indepen- 
 dence ; and, what was really to be deplored, they succeeded in 
 making treaties with us which they have converted into instru- 
 ments of oppression. 
 
 The convention with the Trans- Vaal Boers was drawn up on 
 the 16th of January, 1852, between Major W. S. Hogge and Mr. 
 C. M. Owen, Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners for settling 
 and adjusting the eastern and north-eastern boundaries of 
 the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and a deputation of 
 emigrant farmers residing north of the Vaal River, the principal 
 member of which was Mr. Andries Pretorius, then Commandant- 
 General, and subsequently first President of the Republic of 
 South Africa. The convention was ratified at Fort Beaufort on 
 the 13th May, 1852, by General Cathcart, her Majesty's High 
 Commissioner and the Governor of Cape Colony. The following 
 are the only articles of the treaty which need be quoted : 
 
 ART. I. " The Assistant-Commissioners guarantee in the fullest manner, on 
 the part of the British Government, to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal 
 River, the right to manage their own affairs, and to govern themselves without 
 any interference on the part of her Majesty the Queen's Government, and that 
 no encroachment shall be made by the said Government on the territory beyond 
 to the north of the Vaal River ; with the further assurance that the warmest 
 wish of the British Government is to promote peace, free trade, and friendly 
 intercourse with the emigrant farmers now inhabiting, or who may hereafter 
 inhabit, that country, it being understood that this system of non-interference is 
 binding upon both parties. 
 
 IIL " Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners hereby disclaim all alliances 
 whatsoever, and with whomsoever, of the coloured natives north of the Vaal 
 River. 
 
 IV. " It is agreed that no slavery is, or shall be permitted or practised in the 
 country to the north of the Vual River by the emigrant farmers.
 
 10 
 
 VI. " It is agreed that no objection shall be made by any British authority 
 against the emigrant Boers purchasing their supplies of ammunition in any of 
 the British colonies and possessions in South Africa, it being mutually under- 
 stood that all trade in ammunition with the native tribes is prohibited, both 
 by the British Government and the emigrant farmers on both sides of the Vaal 
 River." 
 
 I believe that from that day to the present the Boers of the 
 Trans- Vaal have had no reason to impeach the good faith of 
 the British Government. We have fulfilled our part of the com- 
 pact to the letter : it remains to be seen whether they have 
 fulfilled theirs. 
 
 Before consenting that the Boers should no longer be subjected 
 to British authority, we were bound to provide for the security 
 of the natives who were thus to be handed over absolutely to a 
 new set of masters. Lord Grey had a just sense of the duty 
 which our Government owed to the natives beyond the Vaal, to 
 provide them with such assistance against the aggressions of the 
 Boers as might lie in its power. Military aid was, of course, 
 out of the question ; but he was of opinion that the Govern- 
 ment should, through its agents, promote a union of the tribes 
 against their white enemies, and assist them, by the appointment 
 of a suitable officer, to organize measures for their defence, and 
 to settle down to agricultural pursuits. In a despatch addressed 
 to Sir Harry Smith, on the 12th November, 1850, his lordship 
 made this recommendation, but it was never acted upon, and 
 indeed General Cathcart (the successor of Sir Harry) adopted 
 rigidly a policy of non-interference as regarded both the Boers 
 and the natives living to the north of the Vaal River. 
 
 It is true that the English Commissioners explicitly pledged 
 the Boers to the abolition of slavery, and that this article of the 
 treaty gives us, at the present time, an indubitable right to in- 
 terfere with the domestic institutions of " the emigrant farmers." 
 But the antipathy with which these persons regarded the native 
 tribes, and the outrages of which they had been guilty, were too 
 well known to allow it to be supposed that in this particular the 
 treaty would be more than the dead letter it has ever since re- 
 mained. It may, however, be urged that the British authorities 
 did what they could, and that in making the prohibition of slavery 
 one of the conditions upon which the independence of the Re- 
 public was based, they upheld a just principle, and, at the same 
 time, gave to the Imperial Government a perpetual right to in-
 
 11 
 
 terfere in the interest of freedom. But it is not too much to 
 affirm that any value which might be attached to Article IV. 
 was wholly neutralized by the exceptional privileges conceded by 
 Article VI. The Boers were permitted to purchase any quantity 
 of ammunition from the colonial markets, while " all trade in 
 " ammunition with the native tribes " was absolutely prohibited 1 . 
 This was placing the lamb at the mercy of the wolf with a 
 vengeance ; and although it cannot be said that Article VI. has 
 entirely accomplished its object, yet the effect of it has been to 
 place the best weapons in the hands of the Boers, the worst in 
 those of the natives ; to give to the one party an unlimited sup- 
 ply of good ammunition, and to limit the other to a small and 
 uncertain supply of inferior quality. If the Boers had acted 
 justly by the natives, there perhaps would not have been much 
 ground of complaint ; but when it became manifest that they 
 used their power to oppress and enslave the tribes in their neigh- 
 bourhood, it was the duty of the British Government either im- 
 partially to close the markets against both parties, or to place 
 the latter on equal terms. 
 
 The Trans- Vaal Boers signalized their independence by a sys- 
 tematic policy of outrage and violence. They expelled various 
 Missionaries who were believed to be too friendly to the native 
 races, and jealously excluded travellers from their country, even 
 subjecting some of those who ventured to climb over the Chinese 
 wall which Dutch exclusiveness had raised, to the imposition of 
 fines and to yet more intolerable personal indignities. They en- 
 slaved the women and children among their captives under the 
 name of " inboeking," or apprenticeship, and massacred many 
 ancient tribes of Bushmen, whose very helplessness should have 
 commanded that feeling of pity which the more warlike Kaffirs 
 had failed to extort. The case of Dr. Livingstone is a striking 
 example of the truth of these painful charges. In a memorial 
 which that distinguished man addressed to Sir John Pakington 
 on the 12th December, 1852, he stated that for eight years he 
 had laboured among the Bakwains, who inhabited a country 
 which was watered by the Kolobeng, Mariqua, and Limpopo 
 rivers (about 24 Q south latitude and 26 east longitude). The 
 efforts of the Missionary were crowned with success. Petty war- 
 
 1 So thoroughly did the Boers understand the value of this concession, that 
 they attached to the sale of gunpowder to the natives the penalty of death.
 
 IS 
 
 fare had ceased, and in all the regions around and beyond Lake 
 Ngami, the Bakwains, under their chief Sechele, engaged in 
 honest trade with their neighbours. No portion of the country 
 ever belonged to the Boers. The road to it did not touch any 
 of their possessions, and the Mission stations at Kuruman and 
 Kolobeng were both about 100 miles west of the Dutch territory. 
 Englishmen were the sole explorers of this distant region. Dr. 
 Livingstone at the one station, and his not less eminent father- 
 in-law, Mr. Moffatt, at the other, had made Christianity a power 
 in the wilderness ; while English traders and English sportsmen 
 had contributed their share towards rendering the people happy 
 and prosperous. What followed is best described in Dr. Living- 
 stone's own words : " Frequent attempts were made by the 
 " Trans- Vaal Boers to induce the Chief Sechele to prevent the 
 " English from passing him in their way north ; and, because 
 " he refused to comply with this policy, a commando was sent 
 " against him by Mr. Pretorius, which, on the 30th September 
 " last, attacked and destroyed his town, killed sixty of his 
 " people, and carried off upwards of 200 women and children. 
 " I can declare, most positively, that, except in the matter of 
 " refusing to throw obstacles in the way of English traders, 
 " Sechele never offended the Boers by either word or deed. 
 " They wished to divert the trade into their own hands. They 
 " also plundered my house of property which would cost in 
 " England at least 335Z. They smashed all the bottles contaiii- 
 " ing medicines, and tore all the books of my library, scattering 
 " the leaves to the winds ; and, besides my personal property, 
 " they carried off or destroyed a large amount of property be- 
 " longing to English gentlemen and traders. Of the women and 
 " children captured, many of the former will escape, but the latter 
 " are reduced to a state of hopeless slavery. They are sold and 
 " bought as slaves ; and I have myself seen and conversed with 
 " such taken from other tribes, and living as slaves in the houses 
 " of the Boers. One of Sechele's children is among the number 
 " captured, and the Boer who owns him can, if necessary be 
 " pointed out." 
 
 You will perhaps remember that Dr. Livingstone, in conversing 
 with us on this painful episode in his career, mentioned that, 
 when he subsequently travelled through the Republic, he saw in 
 captivity among the Boers large numbers of Bechuana children, 
 who had been educated in his own Sunday-schools, and after-
 
 13 
 
 wards torn from their homes by the ruffians who composed the 
 Dutch commandos. Unfortunately, he was not so famous then 
 as he is now ; and he obtained no redress, General Cathcart 
 being of opinion that " the losses and inconveniences he had 
 " sustained, did not amount to more than the ordinary occurrences 
 " incidental to a state of war." 
 
 The fact was, that with a change of Governors there had come 
 a change of policy, and the word had gone forth that we had 
 nothing to do with the Boers except to maintain friendly rela- 
 tions with them. General Cathcart's unwillingness to involve 
 his country in difficulties with the Trans- Vaal marauders may 
 perhaps be attributed to a pacific disposition. If it were so, it is 
 singular that the same Governor should have been so eager to 
 plunge into a Kaffir war, which was as costly and calamitous as 
 subsequent investigation proved it to have been unnecessary. 
 
 The Boers have not even the excuse of an unproductive soil for 
 their raids upon their neighbours. The editor of the " Natal 
 Mercury" has been good enough to send me an excellent 
 description of the territory, which was written by a keen 
 observer, who emigrated there from Natal seven years ago. 
 This gentleman says that " from Zululand to Mendai, from 
 " Vaal River to Zoutpansberg, it is a country which can produce 
 " in any quantity wool, cattle, butter, corn, skins, feathers, 
 " tobacco, coffee, sugar, cotton, fruit, spirits not to speak of its 
 " mines of coal, lead, iron, and most likely silver and gold." 
 
 It is therefore manifest that Nature has not been chary of her 
 bounty in the territory of the Trans- Vaal, and that the Boers 
 have really come into possession of what the foregoing writer 
 calls " the finest stretch of land in all South Africa." Such a 
 country, peopled by a hardy and industrious race, should be at 
 once prosperous, and growing in prosperity. Instead of this, it 
 is miserably poor, and public credit is at so low an ebb, that the 
 paper currency (which is the only money circulating in the 
 Republic) is worth next to nothing articles being sometimes 
 sold at 500 per cent, above their value, in order to enable the 
 merchants to eke out a profit. A depreciated currency from being 
 a consequence in its turn becomes a cause of poverty and social 
 disorganization. This unhappy state of things takes its root in 
 various causes. There are laws, but obedience to them is far 
 from general. Little, if any, respect for authority exists. There 
 are many high-sounding officials and departments, but there is
 
 14 
 
 no unity of action among them, and they are mostly maintained 
 for show. One or two districts are in a state of open revolt 
 against a Government which is as weak and imbecile as it is 
 notoriously cruel. Education is all but neglected, and the 
 younger race of Boers are likely to be even more illiterate than 
 their fathers. The State does not support more than four public 
 schools, and the teachers in these complain that they cannot get 
 their salaries. Ridiculous stories are told of the sort of persons 
 discharged soldiers and other luckless adventurers who are 
 deemed qualified to teach the young idea how to shoot. But the 
 greatest source of demoralization that, indeed, to which all 
 others are but as tributary streams is the remorseless and fana- 
 tical hatred of the Boers towards the native tribes. Strange to 
 say, this passion has been exalted to a religious duty, and in the 
 Dutch commandos the intolerant spirit of the Crusader has 
 mingled with the cupidity of the buccaneer. To massacre the 
 men because they are heathen, and to enslave the children be- 
 cause they make cheap as well as useful house-servants and 
 farm-labourers these are the chief features that distinguish 
 what may be called " the foreign" or Kaffir policy of the Boers. 
 
 For many years past the attention of the Aborigines' Protec- 
 tion Society has been directed to this subject to the charges 
 preferred against the Boers, and to the denials and evasions 
 which they and their friends at the Cape have put forward in 
 their defence. My own personal connexion with this question 
 is not of recent date. So far back as the year 1856 I drew 
 up an address to Andries Pretorius, the father of the man who 
 now rules the Trans- Vaal. That address was a protest against 
 the violation of the fourth article of the treaty, and accused the 
 Boers of treating women and children " as sheep and oxen, or any 
 " other articles of merchandise." 
 
 During the intervening thirteen years we have repeatedly re- 
 curred to the same subject ; and in December 1867, we forwarded 
 a memorial to Lord Stanley, giving as our reason for addressing 
 the Foreign instead of the Colonial Minister the fact that the 
 Boers had recently appointed a Consul to represent them in 
 London. Feeling that it was desirable to enumerate specific facts 
 rather than to make general allegations, we submitted to his lord- 
 ship the following extract from a letter which was addressed to 
 the Society by Mr. William Martin, a highly-esteemed colonist of 
 Natal :
 
 15 
 
 " Maritzburg, Natal, 
 
 "Juno 7th, 1867. 
 
 "In the year 1864, after a sea voyage to Dolagoa Bay, thirty-six hours from 
 Natal, I took a 700 miles' trip to Zoutpansberg, Trans- Vaal Republic, which 
 you will see on Hall's map. On my return I had charge of two waggons with 
 ivory. I objected to any natives accompanying the waggons, but was told they 
 were going to Xatal for work. When we reached the capital, Pretoria, the 
 natives (six in number) were forcibly seized and taken away from my protec- 
 tion by a Dutchman. I appealed to an official, the field cornet who, I regret 
 to say, was an Englishman who assured me that the boys would run away, and 
 that they were taken from me because they had not a pass, although the waggon 
 had been searched for runaways before we reached the capital. Next day, on 
 coming to the Vaal River boundary of the Free State, I was astonished to find 
 that the brother of the Dutchman, who was a passenger in my cart, actually had 
 one of the boys so forcibly seized. Two days afterwards he sent the poor wretcb, 
 on a Sunday, without allowing him any thing to eat, a long journey ahead, and 
 took away his kaross or covering, although it was very wet. Next day the Vaal 
 River was full when we crossed with a boat. The poor boy came to the bank, 
 said he could swim, and, in coming through the stream, perished before our 
 eyes, although every exertion was made to save him, I contend that this native 
 lost his life by having been taken out of my protection, and I suppose the other 
 five are still in bondage." 
 
 It appears that Lord Stanley did not consider that the subject 
 belonged to his department, for he handed the memorial to, the 
 Duke of Buckingham, who then held the seals of the Colonial 
 Office. It is a singular fact, that although that office professes to 
 regard both the Dutch Republics as independent States, neither 
 Lord Stanley, nor any other Foreign Minister, has ever con- 
 descended to hold diplomatic or political relations with them. 
 These Republics, in fact, are, from the very nature of their posi- 
 tion, mere dependencies of the Cape Colony. The British subjects 
 in them have never been released from their allegiance ; and in 
 the case of the Orange Free State it is more than doubtful 
 whether, from a constitutional point of view, the Crown had the 
 power, without the consent of Parliament, to divest itself of a 
 portion of the national territory. There is, indeed, good reason 
 to believe that if the opinion of competent lawyers were obtained, 
 it would be adverse to the legality of the extraordinary and 
 irresponsible proceedings of the Colonial Office in this matter. 
 I have been told, on high authority, that the late Duke of New- 
 castle did not conceal his opinion that the Government exceeded 
 its powers, and that the only excuse for defending the step which 
 had been taken was the difficulty of retracing it. 
 
 The memorial to which I referred before making this digres-
 
 16 
 
 sion, urged upon the Colonial Minister the duty of requiring the 
 Boers to fulfil the obligation to suppress the slave-trade, which 
 they had voluntarily incurred as contracting parties to the treaty 
 of 1852. Lord Alfred Churchill, a Vice- President of the Society, 
 forwarded the memorial to its destination, and the official reply 
 is worth reproducing : 
 
 "Downing Street, 8th January, 1868. 
 "Mr LORD, 
 
 " I am directed by the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos to acquaint your 
 lordship that his Grace has received from the Foreign Office the memorial 
 signed by yourself and others, on behalf of the Aborigines' Protection Society, 
 dated December, 1867, regarding the practice of Slavery in the Trans- Vaal 
 Republic. 
 
 " He desires me to inform you that Sir P. Wodehouse expressed an opinion 
 against interference in the year 1865, on the particular cases brought to light 
 by Mr. Martin, and referred to in the memorial addressed by the Society to Lord 
 Stanley in August last ; but his Grace has satisfaction in apprising the Society 
 that Sir P. Wodehouse, in the following year, on further facts coming to his 
 knowledge, addressed vigorous remonstrances to the President of the Trans- 
 Vaal Republic against the practices which were alleged of kidnapping children, 
 and holding them in long terms of apprenticeship, tending to their enslavement ; 
 and that the President, in reply, announced that legal proceedings had been 
 taken against certain offenders who had kidnapped children, and conveyed 
 earnest assurances of the intention of his Government to repress slave-dealing 
 and slavery. 
 
 "I am, my Lord, 
 
 " Your Lordship's obedient Servant, 
 
 "FREDERICK ELLIOT." 
 
 Although this letter is an admission that the charges preferred 
 by the Society against the authorities of the Eepublic do not 
 rest upon an isolated case, it yet presents Mr. Pretorius in the 
 too flattering light of a Chief Magistrate who is scrupulously 
 anxious to enforce the law and to ensure the observance of 
 treaties. There is, however, too much reason to fear that in this 
 matter Mr. Marthinus Wessel Pretorius is simply walking in the 
 footsteps of his father, Mr. Andries Pretorius ; and I am also 
 afraid that Sir Philip Wodehouse was far too easily satisfied with 
 " the earnest assurances" of the Trans- Vaal President. It would 
 be some satisfaction to know what was the nature of the legal 
 proceedings which are said to have been instituted against 
 " certain offenders," and whether any body was imprisoned, fined, 
 or even censured for indulging in a practice which the civilized 
 world now condemns as a heinous crime. The fact is that there
 
 17 
 
 is no mystery or concealment about the so-called " apprenticeship" 
 system. How could there be mystery or concealment when 4000 
 Kaffir " children" (many of them grown-up children) are held as 
 slaves although disguised as " apprentices " by the Dutch 
 farmers ? To proceed fairly against " certain offenders " would be 
 to arraign half the country at the bar, and to expect prosecutors, 
 judges, and juries to convict themselves. 
 
 The Boers endeavour to conceal the real character of their 
 institution under the euphemism of " apprenticeship." The theory 
 which they seek to palm off on a credulous public is, that from 
 motives of humanity they apprentice and exercise a paternal 
 supervision over destitute Kaffir children. Tender-hearted Boers ! 
 They do not tell us who make the children destitute, who send 
 out commandos for the express purpose of killing the parents 
 in order to steal the offspring, who fix a price on " the black 
 ivory " according to " the weight " (or age) of " the tusk." It 
 would, perhaps, be too much to expect the Boers to impart infor- 
 mation on these points, but they would at least be a shade or two 
 more respectable if they ceased to play the hypocrite. I repeat 
 that the Boers create the misery which they profess to alleviate ; 
 and I assert, without fear of disproof, that commandos are 
 organized for the express purpose of capturing children to be 
 converted into slaves, and that in all parts of the Republic a 
 traffic in these human chattels is briskly carried on, the prices 
 usually varying from twelve to twenty pounds per head. 
 
 Fortunately for the sake of humanity, the attention of right- 
 minded persons in Natal and at the Cape has been drawn, of 
 late years, to the proceedings of the Dutch settlers of the Trans- 
 Vaal. Nor would it be right to withhold the credit which is due 
 to citizens of the Republic who not without considerable personal 
 risk have raised their voices and employed their pens in condem- 
 nation of the iniquities which have been perpetrated before their 
 eyes. In the worst governed States there is always a minority 
 who are keenly alive to injustice, and anxious to remove it as 
 soon as they can exert the power, and that such a party exists in 
 the Republic of South Africa is a great element of hope for the 
 future of that country. 
 
 I regret that freedom of speech is so little respected in the Trans- 
 Vaal that it would not be safe to mention the names of many of 
 those who are prepared to revolutionize the native policy of the 
 Boers. But Mr. G. W. Steyn, formerly Landdrost of Potchef-
 
 18 
 
 stroom, had the courage to publish his name in connexion with 
 certain disclosures which appeared in the "Friend of the Free 
 State." If the reader will bear in mind the position of the writer, 
 he will not fail to be impressed by the testimony I am about 
 to quote : 
 
 " Haassekraal, near Potchefstroom, Trans-Vaal, 
 "March 13th, 1866. 
 
 "You have already been made aware that loads of 'black ivory' (young 
 Kaffirs) are constantly hawked about the country, and disposed of like so many 
 droves of cattle 
 
 " I challenge President Pretoriua to prove that the several young natives he 
 has in his service are orphans, or that one-fiftieth part of the (at least) 4000 
 natives sold here during the last fifteen years are such, unless they have been 
 deprived of their fathers, and perhaps mothers also, by the bullet of some 
 ruffian of a Boer. Will President Pretorius dare to deny that such is the man- 
 ner in which hundreds of helpless children are annually made orphans, for the 
 sole purpose of benefiting the pockets of some miscreants ? It is often asserted 
 that all these acts of woe are done to civilize the natives, and only amount to 
 the apprenticing of orphan children until they are twenty-five years old. Sup- 
 posing, for the sake of argument, that the hundreds of natives annually sold 
 are all orphans. How are these children to know when they are twenty-five 
 years old ? and the means by which they may seek and obtain their freedom ? 
 Their twenty-five is seldom if ever completed till death relieves them from the 
 bond of slavery. Call it what you will, it is slavery, by compulsory labour and 
 compulsory detention. President Pretorius belongs to a self-called religious 
 people, and he agrees with them in looking on the dark-skinned races as tho 
 'accursed sons of Ham,' who only deserve the name of ' schepsels,' and who are 
 doomed by heaven to perpetual servitude. It is their opinion that by inflicting 
 slavery on the natives they are performing the will of God." 
 
 The statements made in this letter are sufficiently explicit, and 
 if borne out by subsequent inquiry (as they would have been if 
 an inquiry had heen instituted), it is difficult to understand why 
 Governor Wodehouse should have been satisfied with the vague 
 assurances and promises of Mr. President Pretorius, or why the 
 Home Government did not insist upon the fulfilment of the treaty. 
 
 Some idea of the personal experiences of the captives may be 
 derived from four or five simple narratives which were taken down 
 from the lips of certain native women, and forwarded to me by a 
 gentleman in Natal, who has been zealous in his eiforts to expose 
 the misdeeds of the Boers. 
 
 RACHEL'S STOEY. 
 
 " I was taken by the Dutch when quite a babe. Our people 
 lived on the other side of Makapan's port. The Dutch fought
 
 with them. Our fathers were beaten in the fight, and many of 
 them were killed. Our mothers ran away with us, and hid in 
 caves ; but at last thirst compelled them to go in search of 
 water. My mother and others were seen before they reached the 
 water, and were shot, and we children were taken. The very 
 little ones were put on horseback, while the bigger ones had to 
 run on before, until we got to the Laager. At the division I fell 
 
 to the lot of Mynheer *. I stayed with him several years, 
 
 and then he sold me to Mynheer , with whom I stayed 
 
 until I was grown up. The price he gave for me was 61. 
 and a cow in calf. I did not know, however, that I was sold 
 until long afterwards. I was merely told to go and work for 
 him. My first master was kind to me, but my second was very 
 cruel. 
 
 "When I was grown up, my master sold me to a man (a 
 native) who wanted me for a wife. He gave 61. for me, but as he 
 was a drunken fellow, and used me very cruelly, I ran away from 
 him, and went back to my master. After some time I was again 
 sold to the man with whom I now live. He also gave 61. for me. 
 Neither he nor the other were Kaffirs living up there, but were 
 waggon-drivers from Natal. My master thus got 12Z. for me. 
 After taking me, my husband lived about two years amongst the 
 Dutch, during which time I worked for different people, traders 
 and others, up that way, and earned a cow ; but when I came 
 away with the man I am living with, I was not allowed to take 
 
 it with me. It was kept by Mynheer . When with 
 
 Mynheer , we lived in Pretoria, and during my stay there I 
 
 saw many children brought down from beyond Zoutpansberg, and 
 sold about town at from SI. to 81., according to size. Some were 
 sold for horses and cattle. 
 
 " At last my husband came down to Natal as waggon-driver, 
 and we have lived here ever since. When at the Vaal River, on 
 our way down, my husband's master told a little (black) boy to 
 stay with a Dutchman living there until his return ; and it was 
 not till we were more than half-way down that we learnt that the 
 boy had been sold. Children are very dear down at the Vaal 
 River, as it is so far from where they are got. Children are what 
 they call apprenticed out to the different people for a number of 
 years, or until grown up. I never saw my papers, nor the papers 
 
 3 The names of the -woman's two masters are in my possession.
 
 20 
 
 of any one else. When we are bartered or sold from one to 
 another, we are not told of it, but are told that it is to stay for a 
 little while. It is not until afterwards that we find we have been 
 sold. When we think we have stayed long enough, and ask to 
 be set free, we are whipped. I do not know of any one having 
 got their liberty except by marriage to men not resident there. 
 We are told that after we have served our time we will get paid 
 for our work, but that we never do." 
 
 ADELA'S STORY. 
 
 "The country in which we lived before our people were 
 scattered by the Dutch is near Zoutpansbsrg. I remember when 
 I was taken, although very young at the time. There were 
 others taken besides myself, some older and some younger. The 
 Dutch surrounded our kraal while it was yet day, and set fire to 
 the huts. The noise of the fire awoke us, and we ran out just as 
 we were. The grown-up people who attempted to run out of the 
 kraal were shot down, and the rest huddled together, surrounded 
 by the Dutch on horseback. The children were then put 
 together in one place, while the rest were made to go into 
 the cattle kraal, which was built of stone, and were there shot 
 at till they all fell down dead or dying. The Dutch then took us 
 to their waggons, and we were divided amongst them. I fell to 
 the lot of Mr. Van Zweel. My master often lived in town, and 
 while there I used to see children brought down from Zoutpans- 
 berg, and sold for money or cattle. They did not use to hawk 
 children about in this way when I was taken : this practice has 
 taken place since; but one would sell to another, as occasion 
 required. When I was about fourteen years of age my master 
 sold me to a Natal Kaffir waggon-driver for 30Z. I came down 
 here with him, and have lived with him ever since. He was at 
 that time, and still is, waggon-driver to the Messrs. Barrett of 
 this city." 
 
 SOPHIA'S STOET. 
 
 " I was born in Zululand. When I was still quite young the 
 Dutch came and made war against our king. They were generally 
 victorious, and then did their best to capture the children and 
 cattle. I remember the time I was taken captive. There had 
 been a great fight, and our fathers were beaten. Our mothers 
 fled with us, and hid in the kloofs, but the white men saw 
 where we went to, gave chase, and we were taken. Our mothers
 
 were very sorrowful, and cried very much. They attempted to 
 follow on behind, but the Dutch told them to go back, or 
 they would shoot them. My mother followed for some distance, 
 but at last I lost sight of her. She could not keep up with 
 the horses. As we grew up and began to understand the 
 Dutch and their ways, we were told that we had to serve an 
 apprenticeship, and would then get wages. After we had served 
 many years their President told us that we had served long 
 enough, and ought to be set free or get wages; but we did 
 neither. Finding that I never would be free so long as I lived 
 with the Dutch, I made up my mind to try and escape to where 
 the English lived, as I had heard of them from the Natal Kaffir 
 waggon- drivers and leaders, who came into the country with 
 their masters to trade or hunt. So one evening I ran away, 
 and travelled during the night, until I got to where an English- 
 man lived, near the border. He had a Dutch wife, who knew 
 me. She was a good woman, and hid me until her husband 
 was ready to go down to Natal with his waggon, and then I 
 came with him. I am a member of the Wesleyan Society, and 
 was converted under the late Rev. Mr. Pearse." 
 
 ODELA'S STOET. 
 
 " Odela says, when she was very little the Dutch came before 
 day-break, and those who ran away were shot down. Old people 
 were shot down, the Dutch not waiting to see whether they were 
 living or not. The big people were separated from the others, 
 and driven into stone kraals. Since living amongst the Dutch 
 she often saw commandos go out, and the people return with 
 children taken from their homes in the same way as she was. 
 She often saw Commandant Schoeman and President Pretorius 
 at Zoutpansberg. Another woman from Zoutpansberg, who 
 resided last at Pretoria, also alleges, in addition to the fore- 
 going, that whilst at Pretoria she often saw waggons with 
 children, who were sold to the people about there, 61. and 121. 
 
 being the price asked for children, according to their age 
 
 If the people are sent by the chief at the order of the commandant, 
 they get a sheepskin a month, or a heifer a year. If the chief 
 could not prevail on the people to come, or from some other 
 cause, the Dutch would say he was getting impudent, and 
 required a lesson. This was their excuse for assembling a 
 commando. .' ;
 
 22 
 
 ''By Utrecht (adjoining Natal) the Dutch buy children for 
 
 LEAH'S STORY. 
 
 "I was born in the Trans-Vaal, in the district of Marico, a fine 
 country, where we lived happily. But when I was about seven 
 years of age the Dutch made war on our people, and I and many 
 other children were taken captive. 
 
 " My father was one of Mozilikatse's people, and I left Zulu- 
 land with him, in company with a great many others. This 
 was in the days of the great king Chakar, who then ruled in 
 Zululand. The Dutch fought often with our chief, Mozilikatse. 
 I remember the time when I and others were taken. It was 
 about noon when we heard the firing, or the thunder as we 
 called it. We children did not know what it meant, but our 
 mothers told us that it was the white people come to kill us, 
 and that they had come on horses, although we young people did 
 not know what horses were. In a short time we fled. I and my 
 sister went away with a young woman, and hid ourselves in a 
 bush. The country was a large plain, covered with thorn-bush, 
 with mountains in the background. We had not been long in 
 our hiding-place when two young men from our army came to us, 
 and sought to hide from their pursuers ; but it was too late, as 
 they had been seen to enter, and immediately after three white 
 men rode up and ordered us to come out. We at once obeyed. 
 The two young men were shot as soon as they were seen. 
 We two children were taken up on horseback, while the young 
 woman was made to run on in front. We were then taken to 
 the waggons. After a few days the white men inspanned their 
 oxen and started on their way to Laager, taking a great number 
 of cattle, so many as not to be counted, and a very great number 
 of children, great and small. On the way cattle were killed for 
 our consumption, but we had no heart for it. Some ate a little, 
 some ate nothing, and some vomited what they did eat. A few 
 made their escape by the way and hid themselves, but I can't 
 say what became of them, whether they met with friends or wild 
 animals, it being a country where lions abounded. After many 
 days (perhaps fifteen) we arrived at the Laager, and there the 
 Dutch found their wives and children. They were living in tents 
 and waggons, and rejoiced very much to see their husbands 
 return with so many children and cattle. In the evening I went
 
 23 
 
 to seek my little sister, but they would not let me go. I was very 
 unhappy, being alone amongst strangers, for here the Dutch 
 separated, each family going to their own home. My master had 
 several others besides myself as his share, also cattle, sheep, and 
 goats. I lived with my master about six years, and got food and 
 clothes. The dress we wore was a single one of cotton, reaching 
 from the shoulder to below the knees. Some got no dress at all, 
 only a piece of old stuff tied round the breast, and a narrow strip 
 round the loins. 
 
 "At the end of this time my master came down to Pieter- 
 maritzburg with produce, and brought me with him. The 
 night before his return home I ran away, and have continued to 
 live free ever since. I was converted under the late Rev. Mr. 
 Pearse, of the Wesleyan Society, and have since married. I am 
 now the mother of five children. I take in washing. 
 
 " Pietermaritzburg, Natal. 22nd Jan., 1868." 
 
 No language of mine could add to the pathetic interest of these 
 narratives. They bear the impress of truth, and are by no 
 means the most harrowing that might have been selected. 
 
 A gentleman whose name has been communicated to me states 
 that on visiting a Boer village last year he was shown the books 
 of a storekeeper in which he read the following entry : " One 
 " large ivory tusk, 12Z." " This is the plan adopted for booking 
 " the purchase or sale of little boys and girls, commonly called 
 " ' black ivory,' or ' little goods.' An amount of 12Z. was owing 
 " by a young man from Natal, who had removed his purchase 
 " 300 miles, and a brisk trade was going on." The same gentle- 
 man was asked one day to purchase some " black ivory." The 
 children in this instance were owned by a German trader, who 
 had placed them alongside his waggon in the main street, and 
 was openly offering them for sale at a short distance from the 
 Landdrost's house. These children, ten in number, had been 
 exchanged for horses. 
 
 The practice of slavery by the Boers has naturally arrested 
 the attention of the Cape Parliament ; and in July, 1868, Mr. 
 Godlonton moved for the production of all the correspondence 
 on the subject which had passed between the Governor and in- 
 habitants of the Trans- Vaal Eepublic and Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment. Mr. ' Godlonton strongly condemned the traffic, and 
 especially urged that as the majority of the people in the Trans-
 
 24 
 
 Vaal Republic were British subjects, it was the duty of the 
 Imperial Government to interfere. 
 
 At the same time Mr. John Robinson 8 made a similar motion 
 in the Natal Legislature. This gentleman emphatically declared 
 that slavery existed in the Trans- Vaal with the knowledge and 
 connivance of the Government. He ridiculed the notion that it 
 was a system by which benevolent farmers made provision for 
 destitute children, and declared that " war parties were despatched 
 " expressly to get these children, and plunder the tribes against 
 " whom they went out." Mr. Robinson, in proof of his state- 
 ment, appealed to a report of a Commission which had been 
 appointed by the Volksraad at the close of the year 1867, and 
 to a remarkable meeting which was held at Potchefstroom in 
 May last. 
 
 The proceedings of this meeting confirm in every essential par- 
 ticular the allegations which have been made in the Cape and Natal 
 papers with reference to the pretended apprenticeship of destitute 
 children, and certainly there could be no better evidence of the 
 truth of these statements than the testimony of respectable 
 citizens of Potchefstroom, who could have no possible interest 
 in misleading the public. The Rev. Mr. Ludorf dwelt on the 
 injury which was done to commerce by the incessant levying 
 of commandos. " Our door-posts," he said, "were polluted with 
 " blood, and nothing could efface those stains but the punishment 
 " of the guilty." Mr. James Evans, the member forPotchefstroom, 
 said that " the murders and plunderings reported in the ' Staats 
 " Courant ' as having been committed were but a fractional part 
 " of the crimes that had been perpetrated." Mr. Steyn remarked 
 that " he had in former days fearlessly met the enemy, but he 
 " must candidly own that in such a cause he was a coward, for 
 " it was an unrighteous cause, and we could not expect that the 
 " blessing of Providence would rest on our arms." An impor- 
 tant speech was made by Mr. J. H. Roselt, the editor of the 
 " Trans- Vaal Argus," which is the only newspaper published in 
 the Republic. This gentleman, who with noble indifference to 
 personal consequences, has refused to serve on commandos which 
 have been organized for kidnapping purposes, and who, for calling 
 a spade a spade, has more than once exposed himself \o the risk 
 
 * It is no secret that Mr. Robinson is the author of two admirable articles 
 in the " Westminster Review," which have given the British public a view of 
 South African politics as comprehensive as it is accurate.
 
 25 
 
 of a prosecution for treason, observed that " when Majatje, the 
 " Meidkaptem, and a friendly tribe, was lately attacked by 
 " Schoeman's commando, no less than 103 children were found 
 " destitute, together with seven belonging to another kraal ; that 
 " of these children he had been informed thirty-seven had been 
 " disposed of by lot ; and he would therefore like to know what had 
 " become of the remaining sixty-six, for they had disappeared in 
 " a most miraculous and mysterious manner." There was some 
 difference of opinion in the meeting as to whether the law should 
 prohibit Landdrosts from apprenticing destitute children to 
 the burghers who served in the commandos. In other words, 
 many of those who raised their voices against slave-hunting, as 
 now carried on, were not averse to slave-holding, if it could be 
 practised in a less objectionable manner. One old Dutchman, 
 Jan Taljaard by name, was for destroying the whole system root 
 and branch ; but Daniel Van Vooren, a Boer of the sanguinary 
 school, grimly remarked that, " if they had to clear the country 
 " (het land schoonmaken), and could not have the children they 
 " found, he would shoot them." Mr. Eobinson was surely 
 justified in regarding these statements as conclusively proving 
 that slavery was an established institution in the Republic ; and 
 in calling on the government of Natal to repudiate the iniquitous 
 proceedings of the Boers, especially as he said he had reason to 
 know that some of our countrymen were encouraging the 
 system. 
 
 I wish now to ask your attention to a portion of the territory 
 which has gained an unenviable notoriety for its turbulence, its 
 wars with the natives, and its kidnapping expeditions. 
 
 Zoutpansberg is one of the finest districts in South Africa : it 
 is the chief source of " the black ivory" trade, and the key to the- 
 traffic with the interior in ivory, ostrich feathers, and other 
 valuable commodities. For years past this district has been the 
 scene of constant warfare. In the end the tables have been 
 turned, and the Boers have sustained a series of reverses. Owing 
 to the military incompetence of their leaders, as well as to the 
 pusillanimity of some of the men and the disgust of others who 
 have been pressed into the service, they have been repeatedly 
 forced to retreat, and have seen some of their outlying settlements 
 devastated and abandoned. In consequence of these reverses, 
 the Volksraad appointed a Commission to institute an inquiry. 
 Their report has been published in the " Argus," and it is no
 
 26 
 
 exaggeration to say that it convicts the Boers on their own 
 testimony of having committed the very worst excesses. It 
 appears that the government is represented at Zoutpansberg by 
 several superintendents of native affairs, one of whom is a certain 
 Signor Albasini, the Portuguese Consul, who is described as the 
 evil genius of that part of the country. The great chief Mozela 
 made a demand on Albasini for the delivery up to him of a lesser 
 chief named Monene, whom he accused of having robbed some of 
 his people. Although it was notorious that Mozela's purpose 
 was to murder Monene, the Dutch authorities were quite pre- 
 pared to surrender him, Mozela having prohibited elephant- 
 hunting in the district of Chinquini, until his enemy had been 
 delivered into his hands. Monene was apparently fast in the 
 grip of one Field Cornet Stephanus van Eensenburg, but he 
 succeeded in making his escape, and after having fled from ono 
 tribe to another, found a refuge with the chief Swaas. The Boers, 
 in his flight, with suicidal recklessness, turned their arms against 
 various tribes on the mere suspicion of having sheltered 
 him. For example : " Commander Venter states that he attacked 
 " Paco and Lahotto because he had heard that Monene had taken 
 " refuge there, but after having routed these chiefs, he discovered 
 " that Monene had gone to Swaas." A commando was sent 
 against Magor, another Kaffir chief, on the false pretext (so the 
 Commissioners declare it to have been) that he was implicated in 
 a plot to massacre the whites. " Magor was told to come down 
 " from the mountain and bring his taxes with him. Unless he 
 " came of his own accord he could not be reached; but as his 
 " personal safety had been promised him, and relying as he did 
 " upon that promise, he came down from the mountain, thus 
 " placing himself in the lion's den, bringing his taxes with him, 
 " which consisted of between 200 and 300 head of cattle. No 
 " sooner, however, had these taxes been secured, and the victim 
 " in their power, than he was placed in confinement, and the same 
 " night murdered, whilst his tribe was destroyed by those blood- 
 " hounds, the Knobnoses, who are exclusively under the command 
 " of Albasini, and ready at any time to carry out his orders, 
 " whatever their nature." Another victim was Tabaan (or 
 Tabuna), who, it is said, regularly paid his taxes to the govern- 
 ment. He, too, was murdered, his cattle carried off, and the 
 women and children of his tribe made captive. This is the mode 
 by which the latter generally become destitute and are reduced
 
 27 
 
 to such straits that, according to the benevolent theories of 
 Mr. Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, it is an act of charity to enslave 
 them. The Commissioners offer strong testimony as to the com- 
 plicity of the government in these misdeeds, and as to their 
 having successfully shielded the evil-doers against the punishment 
 due to their offences. The Commission further alleges as the 
 cause of the present deplorable state of Zoutpansberg, " that 
 " certain officials and officers, who have from time to time broken 
 " the law, by wilful neglect of duty, abuse of the power entrusted 
 " to them, and other misdemeanours, have not been punished 
 " for so doing, as also that by adopting a wrong course of treat- 
 " ment of the native tribes at that time both peaceable and subject 
 " to the government, many of these Kaffir tribes at length became 
 " insubordinate." 
 
 It must not be supposed that these facts represent a condition 
 of society which has passed away. That the contrary is the case 
 is shown by a letter dated July 25, 1868, in which one Mr. Michael 
 Lynch describes the attempted storming of Mapela's mountain, 
 and the disastrous retreat of the Boers on that occasion. He 
 adds: 
 
 " At Mapela's a number of women and children came into the pos- 
 " session of the commando ; the number, however, I am unable to 
 " state, nor do I know what afterwards became of them. We 
 " were well supplied with ammunition up to the time the com- 
 " mando left, when the surplus was handed over to the different 
 " field-cornets. To the best of my knowledge and belief, not 
 " more than 100 Kaffirs were killed at Mapela's. Most of the 
 *' wounded men on our side were so wounded in their disgraceful 
 " retreat." 
 
 Mr. Michael Lynch does not know what became of the women 
 and children. A correspondent of mine, writing from the Trans- 
 Vaal territory on the 26th of August 1868, leaves little doubt as 
 to their ultimate destination. He says that, for the present, they 
 will remain in the hands of a friendly chief, but that when matters 
 become a little more settled the Boers will go and fetch them, 
 and make them slaves. He states that, besides these captives, 
 other children were also taken. " An inquiry was instituted to 
 " ascertain whether the parents of these children were alive. 
 " Much to the disappointment of many of the officers who com- 
 " posed the krysgraad (council of war), the parents were dis- 
 " covered in a neighbouring kraal, and at a short distance from
 
 " the camp ; but this did not signify. It was alleged that the 
 " distance was too great to send the children to their parents. 
 " They will, therefore, either become ' prisoners of war,' or ' des- 
 " titute apprentices ' in reality, slaves." The same correspon- 
 dent calls my attention to a letter from a Dutch Boer, published 
 in the "Argus," in which reference is made to the case of a 
 native woman who was deliberately shot dead, that some ruffian 
 might gain possession of her child, " who now falls under the 
 " class called ' destitute,' and as such becomes an apprentice or 
 " slave." 
 
 No wonder that the farmers in this region have deserted their 
 homesteads ; that the expenses of these miserable commandos 
 have ruined the exchequer ; that, in the language of a petition 
 to the Volksraad, " whilst the mechanic is compelled to accept 
 " a pound note at twenty shillings, he has to pay it away for 
 " goods at one-third to one-half less 4 ;" and that, in a word, the 
 whole country is going down the hill. 
 
 " So pays the devil his liegeman brass for gold." 
 
 It is manifest from these various statements, and from many 
 others which might be quoted, that the Boers are constantly 
 engaged in aggressive warfare with the natives, and that their 
 kidnapping propensities have made them more savage than the 
 savages more ruthless than the native owners of the soil, whom 
 they are doing their best to destroy or to enslave. It is equally 
 clear that slavery is not an isolated practice, but it is supported 
 by all classes of the people, from the President down to the most 
 uncouth Boer residing on the uttermost borders of civilization. 
 It is therefore marvellous that Mr. Pretorius should have found 
 it so easy to throw dust into the eyes of Sir Philip Wodehouse, 
 and that Mr. Cardwell should have so readily acquiesced in that 
 " do nothing " policy, which is not always honourable because it 
 is convenient. 
 
 I have already quoted Dr. Livingstone's memorial to Sir John 
 Pakington, in which he gives an account of the attack which the 
 Boers made on his Mission station ; and the reader who desires 
 to know the doctor's latest testimony on this subject would do 
 well to refer to the first volume of his travels. Mr. Chapman is 
 
 4 The Boers cannot say with Mrs. MacCandlish in " Guy Mannering," " As 
 lang as siller's current, folk maunna look owor nicely at what king's head's on't;" 
 for neither silver nor gold has any place in the Trans- Vaal currency.
 
 29 
 
 another traveller who speaks with the authority derived from a 
 lengthened residence in the Trans-Vaal country. His testimony 
 is of great value : 
 
 " The Boers from time to time organized against them [the native tribes] 
 commandos, as they are termed, being levies in arms of all the able-bodied men 
 under the command of the field-cornet of the district. It was easy work for 
 those men, well-mounted, mured to hardships in their hunting expeditions, and 
 expert in the use of fire-arms, to carry devastation wherever they went. The 
 cattle were swept off, villages burnt, the inhabitants massacred, and what was 
 perhaps the worst feature in the case, the women and children, and often the 
 men, were dragged away to become forced labourera in fact, slaves on the 
 Dutchmen's farms. Against such attacks the natives could offer little resistance ; 
 but they retaliated, when opportunity offered, by waylaying and murdering 
 small parties of the Boers, and frequently by lifting their cattle. The root 
 of the evil now lies in the assumption of the Trans-Vaal Boers that all the 
 country from the Orange River north, to an extent unlimited, and from sea to 
 sea, belongs to them, and only waits the occupation which their roving propen- 
 sities, and the increasing demands of pasture for their cattle, will necessitate. 
 The Boers also purchase many native children, who, with those cap- 
 tured in their wars with the tribes, remain in a condition of slavery until re- 
 leased by death. / have had many of these unfortunate beings offered me, either 
 in exchange for a horse, a quantity of merchandize, or in liquidation of a debt, and 
 have often been tempted to purchase one or other to redeem it, for charity's sake ; 
 but, on the other hand, there was something so repulsive to my feelings in the 
 very idea of such a transaction, that I was compelled to refrain from doing the 
 good I had intended. Two of these wretched little creatures were sold and re- 
 sold, and afterwards redeemed by an agent of Messrs. Young and Co. (Jung and 
 Co.) of Natal. .... But not only are children thus acquired : men and women 
 of any age, taken by illegitimate means, are sold or exchanged for cattle or 
 goods." 
 
 When I come to quote the resolutions which have been passed 
 by the Legislative Council of Natal, it will be found that the 
 statements I have made are supported by the strongest official 
 testimony ; for nothing could be more emphatic than the declara- 
 tions of this branch of the Colonial Legislature. It will be seen 
 that Sir Philip Wodehouse has never called the facts in question, 
 but that, in reply to the appeal which was addressed to him, he 
 made the humiliating confession that he could not interfere with 
 any prospect of success. Sir Philip's view of the impossibility 
 of putting down a trade " which the Boers must find to be very 
 " tempting and profitable," would have justified a feeling of 
 exultation in the breast of every owner of a slave barracoon 
 on the East Coast of Africa. 
 
 But the official evidence goes much farther back than the
 
 30 
 
 month of August last year. So long ago as December, 1855, 
 Mr. Surtees, the Arbitrator in the Mixed Commission Court at 
 the Cape, addressed Lord Clarendon as follows : " In 1852 a 
 "treaty was concluded between Sir George Cathcart and the 
 " Trans- Vaal Boers, when their independence being recognized* 
 " one of the articles stipulated that slavery should not exist in 
 " the Trans- Vaal territory ; but the treaty omitted to provide any 
 " mode by which the stipulation was to be enforced. Since the 
 " conclusion of that treaty, as before, it has been constantly ru- 
 " moured throughout this colony that the children of the Bush- 
 " men and other natives were kept in slavery by the Boers, some- 
 " times being obtained by barter, but often by force. The pro- 
 " clamation of Pretorius has now established the truth. I am 
 " bound to state to your Lordship my conviction that this evil, so 
 " long unchecked, and at length openly acknowledged, as it is 
 "of no light character, is one that calls for a speedy remedy ! " 
 In these views he was sustained by the high authority of Mr. 
 Shepstone, and subsequently by that of Sir George Grey, who 
 was instructed by Mr. Labouchere to make a full report on the 
 subject to the home government. His Excellency, in a despatch 
 dated the 22nd May, 1866, writes like a statesman, and also dis- 
 plays a sagacity which is not far removed from prescience. 
 
 " ' On another point,' said the Governor, ' connected -with this subject, I have 
 formed opinions which I ought to express. The treaties at present existing be- 
 tween ourselves and the Trans- Vaal Republic and the Orange Free State amount 
 in fact to this that we must enter into no treaties with native tribes ; that wa 
 must allow no native tribes to obtain arms and ammunition ; that we must allow 
 the two Republics to obtain such arms and ammunition as they require. I think 
 that power ought to be given to me in some measure to modify these treaties, if 
 a necessity for my doing so arises. In my mind these treaties amount, on our 
 part, to a declaration that we abandon the coloured races to the mercy of the 
 two Republics. If, from a determination to embark in no further operations in 
 South Africa, we had resolved to remain strictly neutral, I could understand it. 
 But in this case we do much more than remain neutral, and if, as is now asserted 
 by many well-informed persons, a general combination of the coloured tribes is 
 being attempted to be formed against us, I fear that these treaties have naturally 
 had some influence upon the chiefs who have joined the confederacy. It would 
 be well, I think, to consider how far such stipulations consist with the honour 
 and greatness of Great Britain ; or, at least, whether there are not many cir- 
 cumstances under which such stipulations ought not to be maintained,' " 
 
 Sir George Grey was right. Our own interests, as well as those 
 of the natives have suffered from the engagements which we 
 recklessly entered into in 1852 and 1854 ; and in thus " abandon-
 
 31 
 
 " ing the coloured races to the mercy of the two Republics " we 
 became morally responsible for the evil that ensued. To with- 
 draw the restraints of law and authority from communities which 
 were so largely composed of ignorant and unprincipled men was 
 bad enough ; but to hold no political relations whatever with the 
 natives to the north either of the Orange or of the Vaal River, 
 was simply to announce to the Boers that they were at liberty to 
 follow the bent of their own inclinations, and to commit murder 
 and rapine at will. That this interpretation has been put upon 
 the two Conventions is manifest from the fact, that since we have 
 interfered in Basutoland to save the natives from destruction, 
 the Free State Volksraad has protested against our conduct as a 
 breach of the treaty. While ignoring every principle of morality 
 themselves, they are not slow to hold us to the letter of our bond. 
 I do not know whether Sir Philip Wodehouse replied to the 
 charge ; but without being a master of invective, or of the art 
 of satirical writing, he might have confounded his adversaries 
 with such an answer as would have stung them to the quick 5 . 
 
 The truth is that Great Britain has assumed duties and respon- 
 sibilities in South Africa which she cannot abandon. She cannot, 
 with honour, cease to protect the natives whom she has conquered, 
 and whose territories so far as it has suited her own pleasure 
 and interest she has seized. From the time that she subjugated 
 the Kaffirs and extended her dominion into the interior of that 
 great continent, which is no longer a terra incognita, she came 
 under a bond to impart to them a superior civilization. She had 
 a perfect right to consult her own ideas of policy when the ques- 
 tion simply was whether she should continue to recognize the 
 Boers as subjects of the British Crown. But when she surren- 
 dered her sovereignty over her Dutch subjects she could not with 
 justice withdraw her protecting arm from the native tribes when 
 they were assailed by the lawless violence of men whom she had 
 released from their allegiance. The fact that, in the treaties 
 which she entered into with the two Dutch Republics, she directly 
 stipulated with them that the enslavement of the coloured race 
 should for ever be prohibited was in itself a recognition on her 
 part of this paramount duty. The treaty has been shamelessly 
 violated: it is her duty to enforce it, and to insist that the 
 plighted words of nations shall not become " false as dicers' 
 
 5 Vide a valuable pamphlet entitled " British Rule in Africa ; a Collection of 
 Official Documents and other Correspondence, &c." Cape Town, 1868.
 
 82 
 
 " oaths." The Trans- Vaal Boers are in league with the Portu- 
 guese slave-traders on the East Coast. Together they foment 
 those inter- tribal wars which are the great feeders of the external 
 slave-trade, and make the European " soul merchant " a far more 
 revolting being than the lowest type of the negro race. The 
 Trans- Vaal slaveholders have been accustomed to buy a portion 
 of the " black ivory" from the Portuguese, who are well content 
 to find a convenient market for their human chattels. It is pos- 
 sible that Portugal may assist her accomplice to obtain a port in 
 Delagoa Bay, but at present the Boers can only carry on their 
 intercourse with the outer world through British territory. We 
 are masters of the sea, and masters also of those markets (at 
 least of powder and shot) from which the Boers draw their sup- 
 plies. Long ago Dr. Livingstone pointed out that we might soon 
 bring the offenders to terms by prohibiting, under heavy penal- 
 ties, the sale to them of arms and ammunition, or by declaring 
 free trade in those articles as respects the natives, and no longer 
 giving to the stronger party a monopoly of the means of destruc- 
 tion. It is probable that so extreme a measure would be un- 
 necessary if England, in the person of her representative, the 
 Governor of the Cape Colony, would only exert her moral in- 
 fluence on the side of justice. If the facts are denied, let her 
 Majesty's representative despatch a Commission of Inquiry to 
 Potchefstroom, where abundant evidence to prove the truth of 
 the allegation against the authorities and people of the Ee- 
 public will be forthcoming. But the facts are not denied. The 
 plea set up by the Boers is, that the children they enslave are 
 destitute, and their enforced labour prompted by motives of 
 humanity. The facts which the Boers conceal are, that the 
 children have been made orphans by Dutch rifles, and that the 
 Kaflir cattle (which might have supplied them with food) have 
 been carried off to swell the colonial herds. 
 
 The discovery of gold in the country which lies beyond the 
 north-west boundary of the Trans- Vaal Republic promises to 
 revolutionize this region of Africa. If half that is said concern- 
 ing the extent and productiveness of the new gold-fields be true, 
 and if the physical difficulties consequent upon labouring in so 
 remote a region are overcome, the establishment of a British 
 colony in a part of Africa hitherto known only to a few adven- 
 turous explorers, is a matter of tolerable certainty. That gold is 
 to be had on the banks of the Tatin (a tributary of the Lim-
 
 33 
 
 popo) is proved by the report of the miners who have already 
 commenced operations ; and it is also certain that the quartz is 
 rich in the proportion of the precious metal which it will yield 
 to machinery. It is true that the journey is 700 or 800 miles 
 from Natal, but there are few perils to encounter by the way, and 
 new and more direct routes will probably be opened. It seems 
 probable that gold exists in large quantities to the eastward and on 
 other tributaries of the Limpopo. It is notoriously worked on a 
 river called the Bepi, where the natives pound the quartz, and 
 then convey the precious residuum to Sofala and barter it with 
 the Portuguese for cattle, beads, and blankets. To Herr Mauch, 
 the enterprising German traveller, belongs the credit of the im- 
 mediate discovery of these gold-fields, but numerous old workings 
 testify to the antiquity of the knowledge now newly regained. 
 The Natal journals believe that Sofala is identical with the Ophir 
 of Solomon, and concerning which another sacred writer has said, 
 " Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as 
 " the stone of the brooks." It is worthy of remark that Milton 
 thus fixed the locality of the famous port 
 
 " And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm of Congo." 
 
 Tradition, however, only points to Sofala as it has pointed to 
 Arabia, Malacca, and India. Herr Mauch has gone to explore 
 the ancient ruins which are said to exist to the west of Sofala, 
 and if the old story, that there is in that country a strong fortress 
 of unknown origin and pre-historic antiquity, should prove to be 
 well founded, he may chance to shed some light on the claim 
 of Sofala to the honour of identity with the Ophir of the Bible. 
 Be this as it may, the courageous German, like many contem- 
 porary travellers, is doing his best to wipe away the old reproach 
 to which a great satirist gave witty expression : 
 
 " Geographers in Afric mapa 
 With savage pictures fill their gaps ; 
 And o'er uninhabitable downs 
 Place elephants for want of towns." 
 
 It is curious that, during a recent visit to Europe, Father 
 Sabon, of Durban, discovered in one of the libraries of Paris a 
 Jesuit Missionary work of the date of 1620, in which the precise 
 situation of the Victoria gold-fields is indicated. But whether 
 Sofala and Ophir are the same or not, it cannot be denied that 
 the discovery of a gold region beyond Natal and the Trans- Vaal 
 Republic marks a new era in the history of African civilization. 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 The manner in which Mr. President Pretorius received the 
 intelligence of the discovery was characteristic. He at once 
 issued a proclamation, annexing a vast tract of country, as far 
 to the north-west as Lake Ngami, and of course including the 
 entire area in which the precious metal is likely to reward the 
 patient labour of the digger. The Portuguese Cousul- General 
 at Cape Town complained that the proclamation added to the 
 Trans- Vaal a slice of territory which had formed part of the domi- 
 nions of Portugal since 1546. Sir Philip Wodehouse has also 
 asked Mr. Pretorius for an explanation, and the chiefs, whose 
 territories are thus coolly taken possession of on paper, are even 
 more entitled to one. Nothing could more forcibly illustrate 
 the temper of the Boers towards the natives than this proceeding. 
 When Mr. Pretorius took up his pen to write his proclamation, 
 he probably had no more idea of there being a right and a wrong 
 in the transaction than Ahab had when he laid hands on 
 Naboth's vineyard. The Maories have a saying, that the Euro- 
 pean rat has already devoured the Maori rat, but the European 
 rat in New Zealand is a creature of moderate appetite compared 
 with the Trans- Vaal vermin. 
 
 Mr. Pretorius, however, is powerless to give effect to his 
 proclamation, and its only result has been to expose the weak- 
 ness and cupidity of the Boers. The British flag has been raised 
 at the Victoria gold-fields, and Macheng, the chief to whom 
 the country belongs, has expressed his desire to have the 
 benefit of British protection. His tribe the Bamangwato 
 are said to be "a quiet and kindly people," among whom 
 " the traveller, the trader, and the hunter find no dangers, and 
 " expect no heavy losses." Macheng, in a letter to Sir Philip 
 Wodehouse, invites his Excellency to come and occupy the gold 
 country, and to govern the gold-diggers in the name of the Queen 
 of England. He says that the Trans- Vaal Government, through 
 Commandant Jan Viljoen, had desired him to hand over the 
 district to the Eepublic, but that he had declined to consider 
 these overtures until he had heard from Sir Philip. Macheng 
 has a laudable fear of the Boers, and would greatly prefer to see 
 English authority established in his gold-fields. It is still more 
 gratifying to know that our conduct towards the Kaffirs for many 
 years past justifies the good opinion in which we are held by the 
 Bechuana chief. 
 
 It is perhaps as easy to exaggerate as it is to undervalue what
 
 35 
 
 are called " the signs of the times ;" but it really seems as if events 
 were now conspiring to realize the dream of a South- African con- 
 federation. Formerly the expansion of British power was inse- 
 parably associated with a levelling policy of annexation, and one 
 stereotyped system of government. To find rich farms for needy 
 colonists, and to rule the natives after a strictly British fashion, 
 were the two ideas which filled the brains of even able adminis- 
 trators. The theory was, that the natives must either submit to be 
 so governed or die, and, in fact, thousands of them actually pre- 
 ferred death to this sort of submission. Writing of a period by no 
 means very remote, Lord Macaulay says, " The only barbarian 
 " about whom there was no wish to have any information was the 
 " Highlander." The Kaffirs were regarded with a somewhat dif- 
 ferent manifestation of the same hateful prejudice. To prove that 
 this feeling was hateful, it is not necessary to paint the untutored 
 savage in roseate hues. The Kaffirs, like the Highlanders, have a 
 higher capacity for improvement than too many of the colonists 
 suppose. It also unfortunately happened that many of the earlier 
 rulers of the Cape, who were military men, took a professional 
 view of these warlike tribes, and considered them as only fit to be 
 food for powder. Old errors are passing away with the generation 
 whose selfish purposes they served. Peace now reigns, as it has 
 long reigned, on the British frontier. How much of this is due to 
 the efforts of men like Mr. Shepstone, the Native Secretary of 
 Natal, and Mr. Charles Brownlee, the Gaika Commissioner, it 
 would be hard to say ; but these enlightened officials belong to 
 a class of colonial statesmen who prefer to rule by reason rather 
 than by force, and who manage to avert danger by the keenness 
 with which they scent it from afar, and by the promptitude and 
 energy with which they guard against its approach. Great 
 Britain is now sometimes magnanimous as well as just ; for it is 
 not too much to affirm, that by her timely interference on behalf 
 of the Basutos and the devoted French Missionaries in Basuto- 
 land she has prevented the torch of Christianity from being ex- 
 tinguished in a heathen land, and, at the same time, saved many 
 thousands of natives from enslavement or extermination. In 
 Natal, since the Zulus were beaten in open fight, the colonists 
 have been at peace with the natives, and the latter have, in their 
 turn, exhibited an amenability to restraint, and a willingness to 
 labour, which might have taught the Boers a useful lesson if they 
 had been willing to learn. To unite the diverse tribes and com- 
 
 c2
 
 36 
 
 munities of South Africa in one confederation may appear a 
 Quixotic enterprise, but the attempt is worth the best efforts of 
 the wisest statesmanship we can command. It will, however, 
 prove impracticable if, without regard to differing circumstances, 
 the whole country is sought to be governed on one model. The 
 wise ruler will endeavour to discover the means by which English, 
 Dutch, and native institutions may continue in operation while 
 the authority of British law and the supremacy of the Crown are 
 inflexibly maintained. It would take time and patience, and 
 great administrative skill, to carry out so great an undertaking, 
 but the achievement would be worthy of many trials and 
 sacrifices. 
 
 At present the functions of the G-overnor of the Cape Colony 
 as High Commissioner are as anomalous as those of a French 
 Minister would be, who attempted to regulate the affairs of the 
 Algerian frontier without the intervention of a Governor-General. 
 Living a thousand miles from Natal, his knowledge of what is 
 going on in the Trans- Vaal Republic is ignorance itself, as com- 
 pared with the information which is constantly within the reach of 
 the officials and people of that colony. He is also otherwise ham- 
 pered in the discharge of his important functions. Sir Philip 
 recently expressed his inability, for want of funds, to send an 
 agent to the gold-fields, the discovery of which has occasioned so 
 much stir among the white populations of South Africa ; and 
 even if the Natal legislature found the means, it is doubtful 
 whether the government of that colony would not exceed its 
 powers if it despatched an embassy on its own account. It is 
 therefore not surprising that the people of Natal should be dis- 
 satisfied, and their legislature prompt to give expression to the 
 public discontent. The resolutions passed by the Legislative 
 Council on the 10th of August, 1868, are so important that it is 
 necessary to give them in extenso : 
 
 " 1. That in the opinion of this House the office of High Commissioner, as 
 exercised at present in relation to this colony, is inimical to the maintenance of 
 the prestige and influence of her Majesty's Government amongst the native 
 tribes of South-East Africa, and the House is guided to this conclusion by the 
 following considerations : 
 
 " a. The High Commissioner, as Governor of the Cape Colony, resides at 
 
 Capetown, which is about 700 miles from the northern frontier of the 
 
 Eastern Province, where alone independent native tribes are to be met 
 
 with. 
 
 " b. That Natal is surrounded on three sides by territories chiefly occupied
 
 37 
 
 by large and powerful independent tribes, with whom the local autho- 
 rities cannot deal irrespective of the consent of the High Commissioner 
 at Capetown. 
 
 " c. That in times of disturbance amongst the surrounding communities, 
 the Government of Natal is deprived of that power of timely and effec- 
 tual action which it might otherwise exercise with great benefit to the 
 interests of peace and civilization. 
 
 "d. That ever since the annexation of the Orange River Sovereignty 
 (since abandoned) hi 1848, the emigrant fanners who settled over the 
 Vaal River, and formed a government of their own, under the style 
 of the South- African Republic, have carried on a system of slavery, 
 under the guise of child-apprenticeship such children being the result 
 of raids carried on against native tribes, whose men are slaughtered, but 
 whose children and property are seized, the one being enslaved and sold 
 as ' apprentices,' the other being appropriated. 
 
 " e. That hi 1862 this system of slavery was brought to the notice of the 
 High Commissioner and the Secretary of State by Lientenant-Governcr 
 Scott, hi the form of a statement made by a Bushman woman named 
 Leya, who had been captured and enslaved by the Boers of the Trans- 
 Vaal Republic, but no steps were then taken to put an end to the prac- 
 tice hi question. 
 
 "f. That on the 25th April, 1865, Lieutenant-Governor Maclean for- 
 warded to the High Commissioner a statement made by Mr. W. Martin, 
 of Maritzburg, dated June 1st, 1865, hi which clear and positive evidence, 
 acquired during two visits to the country hi 1852 and 1864, was given at 
 length, and hi which certain wrongs suffered by the writer, in direct 
 contravention of the treaty entered into between her Majesty's Special 
 Commissioners, Hogge and Owen, hi 1852, were set forth. 
 
 " g. That the existence of this system of slavery, attended as it is by in- 
 describable atrocities and evils, is a notorious fact to all persons acquainted 
 with the Trans- Vaal Republic ; that these so-called ' destitute children ' 
 are bought and sold under the denomination of ' black ivory ; ' that these 
 evils were fully admitted by persons officially cognizant of them at a 
 public meeting held hi Potchef stroom, the chief town of the Republic, in 
 April, 1868, and that the whole subject has been brought fully under the 
 notice of the High Commissioner. 
 
 " h. That the following reply was sent to Lieutenant-Governor Maclean, 
 by the High Commissioner: 'I can assure you that I fully sympathize 
 with you hi your anxiety to put a stop to what is so strongly described 
 by Mr. Martin, but I am really quite at a loss to discover hi what manner 
 I could interfere with any prospect of success. There can scarcely be a 
 doubt that the President, if referred to, would strenuously deny the 
 existence of such traffic. A bonafide inquiry would be almost impracti- 
 cable, and, moreover, it would be beyond the power of the Trans- Vaal 
 Republic, admitting it to have the inclination, to put down a trade which 
 the Boers must find to be very tempting and profitable. Under all the 
 circumstances, I trust that you will, on further consideration, be prepared
 
 38 
 
 to acquiesce in my desire to abstain from addressing Mr. Pretorius on the 
 subject.' 
 
 " t. That as a bonafide inquiry to be instituted by the Government of the 
 Trans- Vaal Republic would be, under the circumstances, ' quite imprac- 
 ticable,' it is highly important that her Majesty's Government should 
 take other steps to ascertain the truth, and to put a stop to a trade which, 
 however ' tempting and profitable to the Boers,' is a direct breach of the 
 treaty entered into with her Majesty's Commissioners, is an outrage on 
 humanity and civilization, and is an aggravation of the traffic which 
 her Majesty's Government has so long sought to suppress upon the East 
 Coast. 
 
 11 j. That so long as this traffic in children is suffered to exist, there can 
 be little hope for the progress of civilization amongst the native tribes 
 living in the Trans- Vaal Republic, while the prevalence of such prac- 
 tices in the immediate neighbourhood of independent and colonial tribes, 
 has a most pernicious and injurious effect, and tends to lower the position 
 and influence of the whole race. 
 
 " k. That it is impossible for the High Commissioner, living as he does so 
 far from the scene of these atrocities, to judge clearly and fully of their 
 character and tendencies ; but it would be in the power of the Govern- 
 ment of Natal, had it the right to act, to interfere in the matter, without 
 entailing any troublesome or costly complications on the Home Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " /. That the state of peace which the colony of Natal has enjoyed ever 
 since its establishment, combined with the constant recognition here of 
 all the just rights and claims of the natives, have secured for the local 
 government the confidence of the neighbouring independent tribes, and 
 would enable the representatives of her Majesty's authority here, were 
 they freed from the control of the High Commissioner, to exercise a most 
 salutary and beneficent influence over the natives of South-Eastern 
 Africa. 
 
 " 2. That a respectful address be presented to the Lieutenant-Governor, 
 forwarding a copy of above resolution ; and praying his Excellency to transmit 
 the same to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies 
 for his consideration, together with copies of all documents bearing upon the 
 subject." 
 
 It is seldom that resolutions have been passed by a Colonial 
 Assembly surpassing these in the gravity of their statements, or 
 of the issues which they raise. Even those who might be dis- 
 posed to call in question reports in the newspapers, will be con- 
 strained to admit that the deliberate impeachment of the Boers 
 by the Legislative Council of a British colony is a fact which cannot 
 be dismissed with a sneer. Serious charges have been preferred 
 against the Trans- Vaal slaveholders by a body whose right to a 
 voice in the matter cannot be impugned. To these charges no 
 answer has been returned. The Boers maintain a judicious
 
 39 
 
 silence; but England has a duty to perform, which, whether 
 they defend themselves, or allow judgment to go by default, she 
 cannot neglect without peril. At all events, it cannot be tole- 
 rated, that while a costly squadron is vainly striving to suppress 
 the slave-trade on the East Coast of Africa, the traffic should be 
 allowed to continue unchecked, and without an effort being made 
 to put it down, in a country whose right to enjoy a separate 
 Government is contingent on the fidelity with which it abstains 
 from the practice of slavery and slave-trading. 
 
 Of equal importance are the resolutions in favour of the 
 annexation to Natal of the Free State and the Trans- Vaal, which 
 were adopted by the House of Assembly on the 19th of August 
 last. These resolutions declare that a union between the British 
 colonies and the Dutch Republics would be mutually beneficial, 
 and that the dependence of the latter on the Cape Colony and 
 Natal " favours the belief that, sooner or later, they will be 
 " desirous of coming under the dominion of the British Go- 
 " vernment." 
 
 The author of this plan of a South African Confederation is 
 really Sir George Grey, who, in a remarkable despatch which was 
 addressed to Sir Edward Lytton, on the 19th November, 1858, 
 elaborated the policy which the Natal Legislature has now revived. 
 The resolutions raise a very large and momentous question one 
 which cannot be decided superficially or by theoretical con- 
 siderations, however reasonable. One thing is certain, that a 
 Federal union will not meet with the approval of the statesmen 
 of this country, unless it be self-supporting ; and this, therefore, 
 is a point to which its advocates should at once direct their atten- 
 tion. There is good reason to believe that the movement pro- 
 ceeds from within as well as from without ; that a powerful party 
 in both Republics are tired of commandos, sick of the ruinous 
 insecurity of their position, alarmed at the moral deterioration of 
 their own race, disgusted with the brutalities of the Boers of the 
 old school. Let, however, the decision on the larger question be 
 what it may, it is impossible that any European community in 
 South Africa can be permitted to build up the institution of 
 slavery in territories which are within the jurisdiction, or subject 
 to the just influence of Great Britain. 
 
 I am, my dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 
 
 P. W. CHESSON.
 
 LETTEE II. 
 To E. N. FOWLEB, Esq. M.P. 
 
 MT DEAB SIB, Two years have elapsed since I addressed my 
 first Letter to you on the subject of slavery in the Trans-Vaal 
 Eepublic, and I regret to state that I have since received an 
 amount of additional evidence confirming the truth of the state- 
 ments I then made, which, if published in extenso, would swell 
 this pamphlet into volumes. The numerous letters which I have 
 received from the Cape and Natal, and from the Dutch territory 
 itself, fully establish the fact that the old Hollander party 
 in the Eepublic is resolutely bent upon enslaving or destroying 
 the neighbouring tribes, and that it cannot offer to the world 
 even the sorry excuse that, if its object is successful, it will have 
 set up civilization in the place of barbarism. It has been too long 
 assumed that wherever the white man goes he necessarily carries 
 civilization with him. The time has surely come when this species 
 of cant should no longer be allowed to minister to the self-love of 
 the stronger race, and when Europeans should be made to feel that 
 they too are barbarians when they practise the vices and crimes 
 of barbarians. 
 
 When, shortly after the assembling of Parliament the year before 
 last, you brought this subject in an able and temperate speech before 
 the House of Commons, Mr. Monsell, with characteristic frankness, 
 admitted the absolute truth of the allegations which you had made, 
 and reprobated in feeling language the cruel proceedings of the 
 Boers. " Every statement," he said, " made by the hon. gentle- 
 " man he was obliged to endorse. Her Majesty's Government had 
 " not any precisely official information, because we had no diplomatic 
 " agentin the Trans-Vaal Eepublic; but at thesame time the Govern- 
 " ment had received, both from the Governor of the Cape and the 
 "Governor of Natal, and from her Majesty's Commissioner to the 
 " Mixed Court held at the Cape, statements fully corroborating all 
 " that had been said by the hon. member." There could be no more
 
 41 
 
 unqualified testimony than that which fell spontaneously from the 
 lips of the Under-Secretary for the Colonies. 
 
 I might, indeed, allow our case to rest where it has been placed 
 by Mr. Monsell's emphatic declaration ; but a speech is soon for- 
 gotten, and it is necessary that the subject should be recurred to 
 again and yet again, until the fairest territories of South Africa are 
 rescued from the domination of men who, if they are allowed to 
 pursue their evil course without protest or interruption, will 
 assuredly do for South Africa what was done for the North American 
 Continent by those who landed the first cargo of negro slaves on 
 the banks of the James river. 
 
 It is satisfactory to know that in reopening this controversy one 
 is now not exclusively dependent on newspaper reports or private 
 sources of information. A Blue Book 6 published in the last session 
 contains the official view of these matters, as well as the lamentable 
 series of statements which ultimately induced the Imperial Govern- 
 ment to revoke that odious clause of the treaty with the Boers which 
 permitted the sale of ammunition to them while prohibiting it to 
 the native tribes. The Blue Book opens with a correspondence in 
 which Mr. Gr. W. Steyn and other inhabitants of the Trans-Vaal 
 Republic make Sir Philip Wodehouse acquainted with details " of 
 " the wholesale slavery that is daily carried on in these remote 
 "regions." Mr. Steyn, in a letter dated Potchefstroom, South 
 " African Eepublic, 4th December, 1865, says, 
 
 " On the 1st inst. Messrs. Corel Smith and Hayman arrived here from ' Zont- 
 pansberg ' with two loads of young Kaffirs (thirty -one in number), males and 
 females, varying in ages from three to twelve years ; these were publicly dis- 
 posed of here at from 151. to 221. 10*. per head, or, in some instances, exchanged 
 
 for cattle I need not tell your Excellency that it is a 
 
 matter of serious regret as well as disgust to every civilized inhabitant of the 
 Trans-Vaal that the horrors of slavery are daily increasing here without any 
 prospect of our government taking any measures to prevent it. This way of 
 disposing of Kaffirs is called here ' selling indentureship/ bat I could point out 
 several cases where Kaffirs have been kept in the bonds of slavery for more than 
 thirty years. Your Excellency may be a stranger to the fact that we are at 
 present, and are almost every year, at war with several small native tribes near 
 Zoutpansberg. I hesitate not in saying that these annual wars are solely 
 caused by several of our frontier Boers making unprovoked commandos on 
 some Kaffir kraals, shooting the men, and in some instance's the women, and 
 capturing the children, which they soon turn over to the profitable account of 
 
 Correspondence relating to the alleged Kidnapping and Enslaving of 
 young Africans.
 
 42 
 
 slavery. The following are as near as possible the words spoken to me a few 
 days ago by one of the young Kaffirs who has just been sold, a boy of about 
 twelve years old : ' The Boers shot my father. I was busy milking a buck when 
 one of them took me away. My mother wept bitterly to have a parting look 
 at me, but she was driven away by one of the Boers with a whip.' This is only 
 one of the many instances I could illustrate to prove to your Excellency that 
 whatever the Boers may term it, it is the most unmitigated slavery that is carried 
 on here, and loudly calls for some interference on the part of your Excellency." 
 
 A local paper " De Republikein " while endeavouring to pro- 
 duce the impression that the government had no desire to encou- 
 rage the traffic, admitted that the slave trade was " fast becoming 
 " a lucrative branch of commerce," and that " whole waggon-loads 
 " of children are being continually hawked about the country, the 
 " most of which are procured from Zoutpansberg, where several men 
 " have for years past made it a regular trade, most of these children 
 " being bought by them from the natives at low prices, who kidnap, 
 " and often in less merciful manner obtain them from tribes in the 
 " hunting veld; and small parties of natives are even fitted out with 
 " goods and sent down as far as Delagoa bay to traffic for ' black 
 " ivory.' " 
 
 For representing to the Governor of the Cape Colony the exist- 
 ence of this state of things, Mr. Steyn was threatened with a trial 
 for high treason, and indeed President Pretorius told him that 
 " it was high time he was banished from the country for cor- 
 " responding with foreign powers about political matters." As 
 the Convention, by virtue of which the Eepublic enjoys its 
 independence, forbids the practice of slavery, the matter was 
 assuredly one with regard to which it was highly important 
 that the High Commissioner should receive accurate infor- 
 mation ; and Mr. Steyn, in calling his Excellency's attention to 
 the infraction of the treaty, discharged a duty to the Republic 
 no less than to the cause of human freedom. To do him 
 justice, he was not at all intimidated by the vapourings of Mr. 
 Pretorius, or by the prosecution with which he was threatened at 
 the hands of the state attorney. He was, moreover, supported by 
 several citizens of Potchefstroom as humane and courageous as 
 himself. Both the Kev. J. Ludorf and the Rev. G. T. Jeffreys 
 deposed to the fact that black children had been offered for sale in the 
 streets of Potchefstroom, and that they were eye-witnesses of one 
 of these transactions. " We could not learn," says Mr. Jeffreys, 
 " how these children had become ' orphans,' or under what circum-
 
 43 
 
 " stances they had been taken to the kantoor at Schomansdal. Under 
 " the waggon were three or four Kaffir children which he (the owner) 
 " represented as his property. On looking about the erf adjacent we 
 " found, behind a pile of dried thatch which hid them from the road 
 " the children themselves, nineteen in number, varying in age from 
 * : seven to eleven years. They were naturally very shy, but one or 
 " two of them, in answer to questions put by Mr. Ludorf, who 
 " spoke to them in their own language, gave us to understand that 
 " their fathers had been shot down at their kraals whether by white 
 " or by coloured people I did not learn and that they had been 
 " forcibly torn away from their mothers. This may have applied, 
 " however, only to some of them, not to all." " Inboeking," or so- 
 called apprenticeship, is recognized by the Law of the Republic ; 
 but although that law is wide enough to admit every kind of abuse, 
 it was in this instance technically violated. Mr. Pretorius there- 
 fore made a show of doing something. He fulminated a procla- 
 mation against the slave trade, recited the article of the Constitution 
 prohibiting it, and ordered the Landdrosts to investigate all cases 
 of slave dealing which might be brought before them. 
 
 Sir Philip Wodehouse responded to Mr. Steyn's appeal by 
 addressing a despatch to the President, in which he called his 
 attention " to the public sale at Potchefstroom and its vicinity of 
 " native children under circumstances which warrant a belief that 
 " they came into the possession of the dealers by means of the 
 " murder of their parents," and demanded the punishment of the 
 criminals. This requisition Mr. Pretorius promised to comply with. 
 Such acts, he assured his Excellency, would not be allowed to pass 
 unpunished. But there was one demand in Sir Philip's letter 
 which the President entirely passed over. His Excellency 
 said, 
 
 " I cannot close this communication without inviting your most serious and 
 immediate attention to those provisions of the laws of the South African 
 Republic under which, as I am informed, native children and youths, called 
 orphans, or perhaps made so by the murder of their parents, can be registered 
 as apprentices for a term of twenty -one years, and can, during that term, be sold 
 from hand to hand as a marketable commodity. I must plainly state that such 
 arrangements, no matter under what name they may be disguised, can only be 
 regarded as sanctioning practical slavery, and as being therefore a clear viola- 
 tion of one of the most important stipulations of the Convention between the 
 government and that of her Majesty. It is my duty, therefore, to seek, at the 
 hands of your government, a plain and positive repeal of any such laws, and 
 the enactment of. such penalties as will effectually put a stop to any further
 
 41 
 
 traffic in human beings, and will satisfy her Majesty's Government that the 
 terms of the Convention will be honourably adhered to." 
 
 This was going to the very root of the question. Of what avail 
 was the punishment of one or two miserable wretches who had 
 only just exceeded the limits of the law, while the law itself 
 afforded every possible facility for the kidnapping and enslaving 
 of children, so long as they were declared to be orphans and 
 made to pass through a form of apprenticeship. It is not sur- 
 prising that Mr. Pretorius should have endeavoured to evade 
 the question which was addressed to him ; and that, although 
 the Governor renewed his demand, he failed to obtain that 
 satisfaction to which, as the representative of Great Britain, 
 he was entitled. As the sequel showed, " the assurances " in 
 which the President dealt so largely were not worth the paper on 
 which they were written ; while Sir Philip Wodehouse, instead of 
 insisting that vague promises should be followed by acts which 
 would prove the good faith of the authorities, abruptly closed the 
 discussion. 
 
 The Governor's correspondence on the subject with the Home 
 Government was re-opened by his Excellency on June 3rd, 1 868, 
 who then enclosed two letters " describing the cruelties practised 
 " by the people of the Trans- Yaal Republic on the native tribes in 
 "their neighbourhood, and the systematic reduction of their mem- 
 " bers to a state of slavery." These letters are not printed, lest 
 their publication should compromise the writers ; but his Excellency 
 plainly hinted that, in his judgment, the time had arrived when 
 the policy of continuing to supply the Boers with ammunition to 
 be used against the natives should be abandoned ; and on the 24th 
 November following the Duke of Buckingham gave him authority 
 to act upon his views an authority which, if it had been granted 
 two years earlier, might have prevented much bloodshed, and 
 would, at all events, have saved this country from the stigma of 
 furnishing material aid to a cause which it knew to be an 
 unrighteous one. 
 
 In my former Letter I adverted to the extraordinary proclamation 
 which the Trans- Vaal President issued after the discovery of the 
 gold-fields in the country of Moselekatse, and which, in the words 
 of Sir Philip Wodehouse, " carries the boundaries of that State on 
 " the west about half way to the Atlantic, including the gold-fields 
 " and assuming the complete control of all the trade between this
 
 45 
 
 " colony and the tribes in the interior, and on the east claims 
 " access to the sea in Delagoa Bay." In the interior, as the Eev. 
 John McKenzie has pointed out, the grasping Boers pretended 
 that not only were the southern gold-fields within their boundary, 
 but that so were " Lechulathebe at Lake N'Gami, Macheng, Sechele, 
 " Mosreleele, Mokhosi, Mangope, Gasiitsirve, Montsiive, Maikecwe, 
 " Makobe, Mahura, Jantje, and the chiefs at and near Kuruman, 
 " and more than a dozen native chiefs who have never owed 
 " allegiance to the Boers ;" while they actually claimed the southern 
 portion of Delagoa Bay, which was ceded by the chiefs of the 
 country to Captain Owen in the year 1825, and which is recognized 
 as English territory in a treaty between Great Britain and 
 Portugal. Mr. Pretorius, when asked for an explanation, made 
 no attempt to justify his indecent act of aggression. His motive 
 undoubtedly was a desire both to command the whole trade of the 
 interior and to open up a route to the sea which should be inde- 
 pendent of British territory. Of course so far as we were con- 
 cerned he gained nothing by his paper annexation, for the British 
 Government at once asserted its rights over the southern half of 
 Delagoa Bay. Since then he has been negotiating with the 
 Portuguese for a port at the mouth of the Usutu. If the Trans- 
 Vaal people confined themselves to legitimate commerce, we might 
 sympathize with their efforts to obtain an outlet ; but so long as 
 they practise kidnapping, and the East African slave-trade is carried 
 on, so long will it be a public calamity if the Boers should gain a 
 footing on the coast. 
 
 Mr. Viljoen was the envoy chosen by the Trans-Vaal Govern- 
 ment to negotiate for the cession of the gold-fields in the territory 
 of Macheng, the Chief of the Bamangwato. Jan Viljoen had endea- 
 voured, but in vain, to persuade Macheng to make a present of the 
 gold-fields to the Boers. The chief, who knew well the kind of 
 people the Boers are, refused, and was persistent in his refusal. 
 What effect his obstinacy had upon the mind of the Dutch 
 emissary Mr. Viljoen himself has confessed with singular ingenuous- 
 ness. Here is a letter which he wrote on the occasion : 
 
 [Translation.] 
 
 " Machentfs Town. 
 
 " THE WORTHY AND BELOVED NEPHEW, J. LEE, 
 
 " I cannot neglect again to write a few lines to you, my worthy friend. 
 We have got to this place in good health through the goodness of our Lord, 
 hoping that these, few lines may find you and your family in good health.
 
 46 
 
 Worthy Jonnie, as to news there Is little. I had yesterday a great dispute with 
 Macheng. It is so as we had heard. Macheng says that Selkaats (Moselekatse) 
 has no country here ; that it is his country where Moselekatse lives. Please to 
 say all this to Moselekatse. Worthy Jonnie, I trust it all to you. If you can 
 manage it, set the fire on the vagabonds (vagebonden), if you can manage it. 
 This is not an opportunity for writing all to you. I will write circumstantially 
 by another opportunity. Be greeted by us all, &c. 
 
 " J. W. VILJOEN, Sen," 
 
 This letter illustrates the religious hypocrisy with which the 
 Boers garnish even their worst deeds. This man is " in good 
 " health through the goodness of our Lord ;" but yet in the same 
 breath he says, " If you can manage it, set the fire on the vaga- 
 " bonds," the sole offence which " the vagabonds " had committed 
 being their determination to keep their own country out of the 
 clutches of the freebooters, and their desire to become British 
 subjects. 
 
 The history of this letter is thus told by Mr. McKenzie, the 
 London Society's missionary : 
 
 " This letter was never sealed, was read by those to whom Viljoen confided it, 
 was afterwards handed over to Macheng, and so never reached its destination. 
 It is surely a very disgraceful production as coming from a public officer of a 
 'Christian' government. Had it succeeded in its object, the lives of the 
 missionary and his family, the lives of some twelve Englishmen trading in 
 Macheng's Town, some of them married, would have been placed in the utmost 
 danger, not to mention the Bamangwato whom Viljoen devoted to the ' fire' of 
 the savage Matebele, because their chief had sought the protection of the 
 British Government. Macheng's Town is an important centre for the trade of 
 the interior. English goods to the colonial value of many thousand pounds are 
 there exposed for sale ; and on all this Viljoen sought to bring destruction. I 
 send you the above as an item of news, but should your Excellency desiderate a 
 formal complaint from British subjects against this letter, what I have now 
 written may be regarded as such, and as written in behalf of myself and family, 
 of the Englishmen, hunters, traders, and gold-diggers in Macheng's Town and 
 country, and also in behalf of the Bamangwato who are thus betrayed on account 
 of their partiality for the English. There is no doubt that the letter in 
 Macheng's possession is genuine. Several Boer hunters have already testified 
 to this, and I myself recognize it as his handwriting." 
 
 But the recent achievements of the Boers in the interior do not 
 end with this episode in the diplomatic career of Herr Viljoen. On 
 the 28th of August, 1868, Montsioa Taoane, Chief of the Baralong, 
 writes to Governor Wodehouse that, although his people has 
 treated the Boers, when they were suffering great hardships, with 
 the utmost kindness and hospitality, and had subsequently assisted
 
 47 
 
 them to defeat Moselekatse and the warlike Matabele, they had 
 yet in return suffered the grossest injustice at the hands of their 
 quondam allies. But let the chief speak for himself: 
 
 " In 1853 by the most crying injustice the Boers attacked us, and after fight- 
 ing a whole day they found out that ' there existed no grounds whatever for such 
 bloodshed ;' calling themselves ' the Hind commando,' they left. All the 
 farmers of Mariko then fled, fearing we would retaliate. Several seasons passed, 
 till at last the Boers made some overtures for a settlement. On coming to 
 terms with Commandant Jan Viljoen and President M. Pretorius, the old 
 boundary-lines were agreed to on both sides. But, knowing how little the 
 promises of the Boers could be trusted, we would not go back to our old resi- 
 dence Lotlakana, but continued to sojourn with the Bangoaketsi tribe, to keep 
 somewhat out of the Boers' reach. 
 
 "And now, without the least provocation on our side (though the Boers 
 have from time to time murdered some of my people and enslaved several small 
 villages of our Balala), the Trans- Vaal Republic deprive us by the said procla- 
 mation of our lands and liberty, against which we would protest in the strongest 
 terms, and entreat your Excellency, as her Britannic Majesty's High Commis- 
 sioner, to protect us." 
 
 Comment on the ingratitude, as well as the immorality of 
 these proceedings, is unnecessary ; but, lest the reader should 
 still be tempted to imagine that the Boers may perhaps, after 
 all, carry some kind of civilization into the interior, let him read 
 the following extract from the letter of a German missionary 
 which Governor Wodehouse sent to the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies : 
 
 " You will be surprised to hear that we have a visit of Trans-Vaal Boers. We 
 do not believe them to be only elephant-hunters, but also slave-traders. They 
 have bought many children at Ngamisca and elsewhere, whereof they make no 
 secret. They give a (paviaanhout) rifle, therefore from 21. or 31., for each 
 child. If it will come to the knowledge of the Herero, then the bane of the 
 slave-trade will have come also over this land, and principally the poor Berg 
 Damra will have to suffer under it. But no doubt the Herero will sell also the 
 children of the poor of their own nation, of which there are thousands 
 living in the open field." 
 
 Thus far the Governor of the Cape Colony. If, however, we 
 turn to the despatches of Mr. Keate, the Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Natal, we find a repetition of the same kind of testimony. So 
 greatly had the Boers alarmed the natives, that tribes dwelling 
 many days' journey in the interior have sent embassies to Natal, 
 to implore the protection of the British Government. No higher 
 tribute could be paid to the prestige of this country in South
 
 48 
 
 Africa, or to the success with which the Colony of Natal has 
 managed its own native affairs. The reputation of Mr. Shepstone 
 appears to have gone forth to these distant tribes as that of a man 
 whose inflexible love of justice may be relied upon in every 
 emergency. The embassies from the Amandebele, the Amaswazi, 
 and the Umzila tribes have not been sufficiently appreciated in 
 this country ; but in reality they form a bright chapter in the 
 history of South Africa. Natal has never been afflicted with a 
 native war. Since the British flag has waved there it has proved 
 the synonym of peace and justice. The colonists have never sought 
 to reap where others sow, and the natives have been treated as 
 men, not as vermin. Yet more than 200,000 of them reside 
 in the colony, thus outnumbering the handful of English people in 
 the proportion often or twelve to one. They make good servants and 
 industrious labourers, contribute their quota towards the taxes, and 
 are a source of strength, instead of weakness, to the community. 
 It might be thought that even the Boer would learn the lesson 
 which the example of Natal teaches ; but he unfortunately 
 closes his ears and shuts his eyes to all experience by which he 
 might profit : in a word, he is unteachable. 
 
 This is the statement of Ntekwane, alias Jonas Zililo Mushwan, 
 and Makulimela, messengers from the Chief Malamlela Nonkupuna 
 Langa, of the Amandebele tribe, residing on the river Umhalagweni, 
 a tributary of the Limpopo Oori Ululi or Bembe river, the Ubemba 
 of the Zulus : 
 
 " Our chief rules over many people of different languages and habits, and over 
 a large extent of country, on both banks of the Limpopo river j he and the 
 majority of his people belong to the Zulu race and speak the Zulu language ; and 
 he has occupied the country he rules over for many generations, his father Bolile, 
 and his grandfather Umbiluna, and their ancestors, were born in it. Every 
 chief takes the name of Langa, although it is necessary he should have his 
 distinctive name as well. 
 
 " Langa's country produces grain of different kinds in great abundance, cattle, 
 sheep, and goats, four metals, one of which is iron, and another copper, the other 
 two are white metals, one of which is like that used for bullets, but whiter, and 
 the other whiter still and harder. The country abounds also in game of all 
 descriptions, snch as the elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, sea-cow, lion, buffalo, 
 eland, hartebeeste, gnu, blesbok, and many others, such as the impala and watcr- 
 bok ; it contains every thing necessary to make its inhabitants happy, and it is 
 besides very healthy j but our chief says, ' What are all these, if peace cannot be 
 had, and if the people are not sure that their children will be left to them ? ' His 
 people live four days' walk west of Zoutpansberg, the Boers are their neighbours, 
 but not close, and they are always finding some excuse for exacting tribute and
 
 49 
 
 carrying off their children into slavery ; they shoot the parents and take the 
 children, and the children are never heard of again. The fear of the Boers has 
 caused all the people to abandon the level country, and it is a common practice 
 for the Boers to make raids during the planting season and carry off all the 
 children they find with their parents in the fields, shooting all those who are 
 too old to forget their homes ; they have several times tried to get possession 
 of the person of our chief, to put him to death, as they have other chiefs, or to 
 extort ransom from his people. Langa is afraid of them, and will not meet 
 them. He was once in their power, and was not released until his people gave 
 them one hundred guns, thirty elephants' tusks, and a large number of cattle, 
 and this was justified by no charge whatsoever against him ; they invited him 
 to go and see them, and on his complying such was the treatment he received. 
 They have also encouraged one of his sons, named Masibi, to rebel against bis 
 father, and hope by means of this young man to destroy him and scatter his 
 people as dogs among them to work for them. Langa has been specially care- 
 ful to avoid giving any cause of offence : he allows hunting parties of Boers to 
 pass through his country unmolested, and when they lose their oxen has them 
 taken back to them. 
 
 " Lately another chief, named Umgombana, was compelled by war with the 
 Boers to abandon his country : he with his people took refuge with Langa, and 
 brought with them waggons and horses which they had captured from the Boers. 
 Langa immediately restored to the Boers all the property he could collect which 
 had been captured from them, so as to avoid offending them ; but he hears that 
 they intend to take measures against him. Langa will defend himself, but he 
 says he is tired of war, and of rearing children to be taken by others." 
 
 Perhaps the most touching part of the statement is that which 
 I have yet to quote. The chief says that " he cannot send 
 " elephants' tusks, or any thing bulky, to show his sincerity, because 
 " the Boers would not permit the passage of any such present, if 
 " they knew it was for the English Government ;" but he, however, 
 sends " a few feathers," which his messengers were able to conceal. 
 Could any thing more conclusively prove the existence of the 
 reign of terror which the Boers have established in the interior ? 
 
 Mr. Keate, in a very interesting despatch, dated the 24th 
 September, 1868, makes some suggestive remarks on the evil in- 
 fluence which is exerted by the European slave-traders upon the 
 native tribes. He says, " It is very much to be Beared, however, 
 " that owing to the example set by the Portuguese for so long a 
 " time past, and to the later practice of some of the subjects of the 
 " Trans- Vaal Government, all these tribes, or nearly all, with the 
 " marked exception of the Zulus, pursue a policy which is favour- 
 " able to the prosecution of the slave-trade. Captives taken in war, 
 " children, or adults, are valuable property. The slave-ships take 
 " the adults because, when carried beyond the seas, they cannot by
 
 50 
 
 " absconding return to their homes. The subjects of the Trans- 
 " Vaal take the children, because their infancy renders their ever 
 " reaching their homes hopeless. This slavery in the Trans-Yaal 
 " territory, on the native soil of the slave, gives rise to the most 
 " atrocious crimes. It requires and leads to the extermination of 
 " the parents and friends whenever possible of the captured children, 
 " who otherwise might be sought for and be inveigled away. It 
 " makes desirable, too, for its purposes the annihilation of the very 
 " commonest instincts of human nature." 
 
 If Sir T. P. Buxton were in the House of Commons he could 
 now present the question of the East African slave-trade in a new 
 aspect. Portugal may abolish that nefarious trade, and new 
 treaties with the Sultan of Zanzibar may mitigate its horrors, and 
 contract the area in which it is carried on, but there will be little 
 hope of its entire suppression so long as the Boers employ their 
 influence in the interior to bolster up the traffic in human flesh. 
 
 But the official evidence does not close with the despatches of 
 Governor Keate. In 1868 Mr. E. L. Layard, of the Mixed Com- 
 mission Court, Cape Town, called Lord Stanley's attention to the 
 subject. After epitomizing the facts which had been submitted to 
 him by the inhabitants of the Trans- Vaal territory, he says, " I fear 
 
 " from the records of former transactions that Mr. is right in 
 
 " saying that unless a Commission is sent to investigate the subject 
 " on the spot, no information will be got from the authorities, as 
 " witness the conduct of the officials sent by the Free State, osten- 
 " sibly for the purpose of aiding the British Commissioner to in- 
 " vestigate the charges preferred in 1855 (see Despatch from Mr. 
 " Surtees, No. 15, of December 3, 1855). These very men purchased 
 " children while on their mission, and threw every impediment in 
 " the way of the truth being ascertained." 
 
 It is not surprising that Boers from the Orange Free State a 
 Republic which has not scrupled to despoil the Basutos and other 
 tribes of many thousands of square miles of fertile territory should 
 have been unable to resist the temptation to lay felonious hands 
 upon Kaffir children ; but it is well that the fact should be put on 
 record by British officials so justly esteemed as are Mr. Surtees 
 and Mr. Layard. 
 
 Mr. Layard forwarded to Lord Stanley a copy of a letter 
 which had been addressed to the Hon. K. Godlonton by a Mr. 
 M. S. Fitzgerald, on his return from " a most wretched and
 
 51 
 
 miserable existence" of five years' duration in the Trans- Vaal 
 country. He says, 
 
 " The scenes of cruelty and crime, blood and murder, that I have 
 " witnessed are beyond the power of words to delineate ; friendly 
 " and helpless, unarmed and unprotected natives massacred in cold 
 " blood, and without the slightest provocation, their misfortune being 
 " that they possessed that which excited the cupidity and avarice of 
 " those white savages, whose very nature and thirst for rapine and 
 " plunder far exceeded any excesses ever committed by their 
 " sable brethren. Yes ; they possessed cattle, produce, and children." 
 
 He then goes on to mention the names of office-holders in the 
 Republic who do not scruple to profit by these odious crimes of 
 one especially who, on obtaining leave of absence, accompanied a 
 band of marauders who were absent two months, and then returned 
 " with their ill-gotten spoil and a large number of native children." 
 " Even ministers of religion," he says, " do not scruple or disdain 
 " to sully their cloth with the odious traffic." 
 
 Your motion for the publication of papers had the effect of in- 
 ducing Mr. Pratt, the Consul of the Trans- Yaal Eepublic in Lon- 
 don, to address a letter to Lord Clarendon, in which he requested 
 his Lordship to include in the official correspondence the following 
 extract from the proceedings of the Volksraad on March 16th, 
 1866 : 
 
 " The report from the Commission for examining the law against slavery was 
 read and adopted on the ground that the people of the South African Republic 
 wish strictly to adhere to the terms of the Convention of January 16th, 1852, 
 between her Majesty's Commissioners and the emigrant Boers, in order to 
 avoid slavery : 
 
 " Art. 1. It is determined that all persons having destitute orphan children 
 shall in future be looked upon as their guardians, and be held responsible as such 
 to the Government who are co-guardians. The government shall strictly see 
 that no further registration or transfer of children shall take place, save and 
 except through the death of their guardian, in which case the widow or next of 
 kin shall be held responsible for their guardianship. If there are no next of kin, 
 then the government shall appoint another guardian, the government still 
 remaining the co-guardians. 
 
 "Art. 2. All destitute native orphan children shall be looked after, and 
 brought up, and be well treated according to law. 
 
 "Art. 3. All officers and officials are strictly ordered to uphold and enforce 
 the law as narrowly as possible whereby it is forbidden that any hunter, trader, 
 or person whatsoever shall bring into the Republic any Kaffir children, unless the 
 same can be proved to be orphan and destitute (as in Art. 2). 
 
 "Art. 4. Whenever any official or officer is careless, or shall neglect to enforce 
 
 D 2
 
 52 
 
 the law in this respect, he shall be punished by a fine of 2000 dollars, or, in 
 default, be committed to prison for the term of two years. 
 
 "Art. 5. Parties acting against or breaking the law to be punished by a fine 
 of 5001., or, in default, five years' imprisonment with hard labour. 
 
 "Any official acting in collusion with the chief offender in breaking the law 
 shall be punished equally with the said offender." 
 
 What did the Consul for the South African Republic hope to 
 accomplish by the production of this law ? Nobody supposes 
 that any but orphan and destitute children are held in servitude ; 
 the contention being that they are made orphan and destitute by 
 Dutch bullets. The Foreign Secretary saw this, for Mr. Otway, 
 in reply, states that Lord Clarendon would be glad if Mr. Pratt 
 " could inform him how it comes to pass that there are so many 
 " ' destitute native orphan children' in the territories of the Eepublic 
 ".as to require legislation on their behalf by the authorities, and also 
 " how the citizens of the Eepublic came to be possessed of them." 
 Mr. Pratt, however, does not answer this question. Commandos, 
 he says, have generally been organized " to repress frequent depre- 
 " dations committed on the cattle by the blacks ; and the Boers are 
 " so strongly opposed to these commandos, that in a recent session 
 " of the Volksraad a resolution was passed to entirely discontinue 
 '' them." He also says, 
 
 " I do not deny that isolated cases of ill-treatment may have occurred in out- 
 lying districts, or that the Boers in the early days of trekking, with their wives 
 and families, may have been driven to hostile measures in order to protect 
 themselves from constant attacks of natives, particularly as they had no stand- 
 ing army of their own ; but with reference to charges reflecting discredit on the 
 government and people alike, such as obtaining 6000 children annually, and 
 the burning of children alive, I have every reason to believe that the former will, 
 on investigation in the Republic, prove to be a gross exaggeration, and the latter 
 if it occurred at all, was not the act of the Boers, but of the Kaffirs themselves 
 against Kaffirs. The chief seat of native disturbances has been at Zoutpansberg, 
 and these appear to have been caused by Kaffir superintendents, who, it would 
 seem, have fostered ill-feeling between the native tribes, in consequence of which 
 they have lately been exposed and dismissed." 
 
 Let the Boers have the benefit of this defence, and what then ? 
 Nobody alleges that the commandos are ostensibly despatched on 
 kidnapping expeditions; but the charge is, that the commandos, 
 after killing the men, capture the women and children, and make 
 slaves of them. This Mr. Pratt does not deny ; but he falls back 
 on the plea of "exaggeration," as if a thousand witnesses, com- 
 prising the best men of the Republic and of the two British
 
 53 
 
 colonies, had all conspired, for some mysterious purpose, to paint 
 the Boers in colours blacker than the night. 
 
 "When Mr. Pratt wrote his letter he could not have heard of the 
 women who, a few months previously, had been publicly flogged at 
 Rustenburg. The details were published in the Cape and Natal papers. 
 They had deserted from the service of their master because, as they 
 told the Landdrost, " he would not permit them to attend the 
 " mission school." If any thing in this world marks the lowest stage 
 of barbarism, it is the maltreatment of women physically incapable 
 of defending themselves. The flogging of these unhappy Kaffir 
 girls inflicts a stain on the Boers which all the waters of the 
 Atlantic could not wash out. Nor was it an exceptional atrocity ; 
 for a correspondent of my own, who writes from the Trans- Yaal, 
 informs me that " woman-flogging in public is by no means an 
 " extraordinary occurrence in that country." 
 
 Mr. Pratt, moreover, surely could not have read the report of 
 the Commission of Inquiry from which I quoted in my first 
 letter. It will be seen from that document that the cases of ill- 
 treatment are by no means " isolated," and that, whatever may 
 have been done in " the early days of trekking," these cases form 
 part of the history of the present time. In no respect is it in 
 my power to soften the picture which I have already presented 
 to the public ; its darkest features being amply borne out by 
 official evidence. 
 
 When Mr. Pratt addressed his letter to Lord Clarendon he 
 could not have known that in the district of Utrecht the Dutch 
 exchange dogs for children. No portion of my previous state- 
 ment has excited greater indignation than this ; yet it has since 
 been confirmed by perfectly independent evidence. The Rev. P. 
 Huet, a Dutch clergyman, who formerly resided in the Re- 
 public, declares that children are bartered for dogs, or even for 
 objects of less value 7 ; and in the last letter I received from the 
 lamented Mr. William Martin, of Natal, who sacrificed his valu- 
 able life in the cause of philanthropy, he says, " It is only fair 
 " to say that I now know being in the vicinity of the Amas- 
 " wazi country that some of that tribe wickedly sell their 
 " children to the Boers for dogs." His comment on this is that 
 " the Boers are not to blame for all the slavery in the Trans- 
 
 7 Het lot der zwarten in Transvaal mededeelingen omtrent de slavernij en 
 Wreedhcden in de Zuid. " Afrikaansche Republick." Door P. Huet. Utrecht 
 (Holland). 1869.
 
 54 
 
 " Vaal, and that there are therefore two sides to every question." 
 I am quite willing to give them the benefit of this qualification. 
 They may be no worse than the ruffians who sell children for 
 dogs ; but can any one pretend that they are better ? It is diffi- 
 cult even thus to divide the blame ; for these heathen know 
 nothing of that religion of justice and charity which the Boer 
 professes to regard as the law of his life. 
 
 But Mr. Pratt appeals to the laws passed by the Volksraad. 
 Mr. Huet's testimony on this subject is entirely to the point : 
 
 " 'One will ask,' he says, ' Whether there are no laws to prevent ill-treat- 
 ment and to guarantee liberty to the poor captives, at least after some time of 
 servitude?' Certainly, with a truly hypocritical philanthropy, certain laws 
 are made, for instance, that, in case of transgression, the master has to bring 
 his servant to the field-cornet to have him punished; but the master cares 
 little for the law, and the field-cornet just as little, and the servant does not even 
 know the existence of the law. 
 
 " The same is true of the apprenticeship. Till their twenty-second, or in 
 some places till their twenty-fifth year, they are apprenticed. All this time they 
 have to serve without payment. The Boers say, ' This is right, because we 
 want compensation for the expense and trouble spent in their education.' 
 Expense and|trouble and education ! As soon as the poor creatures are able 
 to walk they have to look after the cattle, or to carry the youngest child of tho 
 mistress, which is often as big and twice as heavy as themselves. Till the 
 twenty-second or twenty-fifth year ! And all this time without any reward, 
 but perhaps a thoroughly worn-out piece of clothing, invectives, curses, whip- 
 pings ! And when the time of servitude is over, are they then free ? Who 
 will give them freedom ? Who will make them acquainted with the law ? 
 Nobody. It is slavery in the fullest sense of the word with this exception, 
 that slave states have their laws and overseers, who at least keep the ill- 
 treatment within certain limits ; whilst here nobody, I say nobody, cares for 
 their lot, and they are thoroughly given over to the caprice of their cruel 
 masters and often yet more cruel mistresses. 
 
 "When the servant maid becomes marriageable the master's permission 
 must be obtained for her taking a husband, which permission it is unnecessary 
 to say is in most cases refused, and, if granted, the applicant must pay for the 
 girl either with money or with work. 
 
 "After all this let nobody say that slavery or the slave-trade is abolished in 
 any part of the Trans- Vaal Republic, as has been stated by some news- 
 papers." 
 
 The truth is that laws become a simple mockery and pretence 
 if a government is unable or unwilling to enforce them ; or if 
 there be not a public opinion just and powerful enough to com- 
 pel their execution. The laws of the Trans- Vaal, so far as they 
 are supposed to discourage slavery, or to mitigate the evils of the 
 system, have been, and are intended to be, a dead letter. They
 
 55 
 
 were made to throw dust in the eyes of a British Governor, to 
 hoodwink the British Government, to be quoted in Europe as 
 a proof that the Boers are a civilized people, who may be trusted 
 with even more power and more territory than they have yet 
 obtained. 
 
 These people deserve to be pitied as well as condemned. 
 Trained in the school of slaveholding they migrated into the 
 wilderness at a time when the right of the strong to enslave the 
 weak was still widely recognized as the law of nature. They had 
 been taught that slavery was the normal condition of the black 
 man ; that the curse which was pronounced upon Ham justified 
 the perpetual enslavement of every dusky tribe which inhabited 
 the African continent ; and that, in the order of Providence, 
 Kaffirs and Hottentots, and every mixed and intermediate race, 
 were destined to share the fate of the negroes who toiled in 
 Carolina rice-swamps and on Cuban sugar-plantations. In 
 passing judgment upon them it therefore becomes us to temper 
 justice with mercy. They have suffered the penalty which 
 always follows the evil-doer a penalty which no community 
 that violates the moral law can escape. Their fertile country 
 is undeveloped, because freemen will not till the land which slaves 
 water with their tears ; it is impoverished, because the blight of 
 war is more deadly than any pestilence ; it is torn by miserable 
 factions, because it is impossible that order can be maintained in 
 a country where law is despised. The words which Schiller puts 
 into the mouth of Wallenstein are pregnant with truth 
 
 "Who sows the serpent's teeth, let him not hope 
 To reap a joyous harvest. Every crime 
 Has, in the moment of its perpetration, 
 Its own avenging angel." 
 
 I cannot believe that the Imperial Government will, by adopt- 
 ing craven councils, abandon its duty in this matter a duty 
 which it owes no less to the Boers, and to our own countrymen 
 whose fate is bound up with theirs, than to the native tribes of 
 South Africa. If we had shown more forbearance towards them, 
 even in Sir Harry Smith's time, perhaps they might have with- 
 drawn from their evil path. It is, however, foolish to indulge in 
 vain regrets over the past when we may yet control the future. 
 That future we cannot but regard with dismay if we permit the 
 establishment of a new slave-state in the interior of South 
 Africa.
 
 56 
 
 I feel confident that your best efforts, and those of the other 
 members of the Society in the House of Commons, will be exerted 
 to prevent this great calamity. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 F. W. CHESSON. 
 
 LETTER HE. 
 To CHARLES BUXTON, Esq., M.P. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I ask permission to address these concluding 
 observations to you, because you have manifested a deep interest 
 in one of the questions upon which it is my intention to touch, 
 and because, moreover, I am sure that you will be disposed to 
 take a large view of our responsibilities in South Africa. 
 
 In the two preceding letters I have dealt mainly with the ques- 
 tion of slavery in the Trans- Vaal Eepublic ; but incidentally I 
 have made repeated allusions to the affairs of the Orange Free 
 State. This Dutch Eepublic, like its neighbour, is bound hand 
 and foot to the old Hollander party. Seventeen years ago, 
 although it was then inhabited by a population the majority of 
 whom were loyal to the Crown, it ceasd to be a British posses- 
 sion. The late Sir George Clerk, her Majesty's Special Commis- 
 sioner, was the agent employed to carry out the policy of Downing 
 Street. He at first veiled his ulterior designs, but it soon ap- 
 peared that he was sent out expressly to accomplish the separa- 
 tion of the Orange River Sovereignty from our South African 
 territories. As it was necessary that his policy should be sup- 
 ported by a show of popular consent, he was instructed to go 
 through the farce of appearing to consult the people ; and there- 
 fore we find him holding private, not public, meetings of the 
 inhabitants, and even getting his proposals adopted by a so- 
 called Assembly of Delegates. It is, however, a fact that the
 
 57 
 
 only delegates who were elected by the people refused to be a 
 party to his scheme for the dismemberment of the empire, and 
 that, in consequence, he practically ignored then* existence as a 
 representative body. He found it convenient to recognize as 
 delegates a number of persons who had been always hostile to 
 British rule ; and with them he concluded the Convention which 
 secures to the Free State such title to the enjoyment of its in- 
 dependence as it can be said to possess. " The Committee of 
 Delegates," who were chosen by the people, declare in their pro- 
 test (dated 17th February, 1854), that " Sir George Clerk entered 
 "into negotiations with these persons (the self-elected delegates), 
 " with the view of resigning the Government of this portion of 
 " her Majesty's dominions into their hands, or to a government 
 " about to be formed by them, and refused to acknowledge or 
 " treat with us, the lawfully-elected representatives of the people, 
 " without even deigning to give any public notice of his intention 
 " to ignore us, or recognize others as such." Although large 
 public meetings were held in the principal towns of the Sove- 
 reignty, and in those of the Cape Colony, to protest against the 
 Convention, the Commissioner would not even give time for a 
 reference to England. His instructions, no doubt, were very 
 imperative, and he fulfilled them to the letter. All the evidence 
 on this subject combines to establish the truth of the serious 
 allegations made in the memorial presented by the Cape mer- 
 chants in London to the Duke of Buckingham in August 1868. 
 The memorialists, who were headed by Mr. George Thompson and 
 other well-known ex- colonists, allege that "the abandonment of the 
 " Sovereignty was effected in opposition to the declared opinions 
 " of all the English residents, and of by far the largest and most 
 " influential residents of all other races ; it was earnestly remon- 
 " strated against by all classes of the Cape Colonists ; it was in 
 " despite of the urgent entreaties of the surrounding native 
 " chiefs, even those with whom we had been recently at war ; 
 " and in stern opposition to the opinion and advice of every 
 " missionary who resided in the country or knew any thing of 
 " its affairs." 
 
 Nor can it be argued that these remonstrances were not 
 justified by subsequent events. When a weak government was 
 substituted for a strong one ; when " rebels," for whose capture 
 large rewards had been offered, suddenly found that rebellion was 
 at least profitable to them ; when the old Dutch party, whose
 
 58 
 
 path in the interior had been stained with violence and blood, 
 discovered that the only obstacle to their aggressions was at last 
 removed, it was impossible that the Free State could enter upon 
 a career of peaceful prosperity. Every one of the conditions 
 necessary to ensure such a future were wholly wanting. 
 
 Next to the English, the most powerful neighbours of the Free 
 State Boers are the Basutos, who once occupied a considerable 
 part of the Orange River Sovereignty, but have been driven east- 
 wards by successive waves of colonization. At a remote period 
 the ancestors of this tribe swept down from the north in fact 
 they derive their name from the Lesuto river, which flows into 
 the Indian Ocean not far from Delagoa Bay. Until my friends, 
 MM. Casalis (of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society) and 
 Arbousset visited Basutoland in 1833, that country was a terra 
 incognita. The fame of the French missionaries had reached 
 Moshesh, the paramount chief of the Basutos, and, through some 
 Griqua hunters, he invited them to visit Thaba Bosigo his 
 capital and to establish missions among his people. They 
 accepted his invitation, and the result will not surprise those who 
 are acquainted with the practical wisdom, as well as the disin- 
 terested zeal, of these missionaries. They taught the natives 
 habits of industry by personal example. They not only weaned 
 them from cannibalism, but so completely stamped out that bar- 
 barous custom, that only the memory of it was left in the land. 
 Christianity made many converts, whilst those who still clung to 
 idolatry were yet induced to acquire some of the blessings of 
 education, and to become industrious graziers and farmers. Mr. 
 Chapman, the African traveller, remarks that " the strength of 
 " the Mission lies in the schools. The natives, though they may 
 " not care for Christianity, have great respect for, to them, the 
 " wonderful arts of reading and writing. They send their chil- 
 " dren to the mission schools to learn these accomplishments. 
 " The books used there have been written by Europeans, and 
 " convey European ideas. The minds of the youthful savages 
 " are thus introduced to civilized thoughts, feelings, and customs, 
 " and in this way the missionaries are laying the foundation of 
 " future civilization." Moshesh himself learnt to read in a 
 Sunday School. Two of his sons were educated at Cape Town 
 under the direction of Sir George Grey ; and one of them, who 
 speaks English tolerably well and French fluently, is now shut 
 up in Paris, where he is fighting for the lund of his adoption.
 
 59 
 
 Many years ago a third son, who had been sent here for his 
 education, died at Canterbury. 
 
 It might have been thought that the spectacle of an uncivilized 
 tribe, gradually but surely emerging from the darkness of its 
 normal condition, would have created a feeling of sympathy on 
 the part even of the Boers. It might have been thought that 
 they would have regarded the elevation of this native race as afford- 
 ing a ground of hope for the future security of their own borders, 
 and as a pledge that civilized white men were not for ever to live 
 in immediate contact with a mass of irreclaimable barbarism. 
 Unfortunately, however, the Basutos were offensive to the Boers, 
 not merely because they were black men whose intelligence 
 rendered them more eager to defend their rights, but also because 
 they lived in what has been called " the garden of Africa." This, 
 in the eyes of their covetous neighbours, was " the head and 
 " front of their offending ;" and until they had been forced to 
 give up their pleasant corn-fields and orchards to the west of the 
 Caledon river, there could be no peace between them and the 
 Boers. 
 
 When people are determined to commit aggression, a pretext 
 is never wanting. The pretext in South Africa was, that the 
 Basutos were cattle-stealers. How to preserve law and order on 
 remote frontiers is one of those difficult problems which even 
 Indian administrators have been unable effectually to solve. 
 Cattle-stealing is an offence which ought to be repressed and 
 punished, but in a country where the frontier is an extensive 
 one, and cattle are very numerous, detection of the thieves is 
 peculiarly difficult. If it were necessary, one might fairly argue 
 that a people who had repeatedly plundered the Basutos of land 
 had no right to complain if, in return, the Basutos stole their cattle. 
 But what if both parties are cattle-stealers ? Surely no hypocrisy 
 can be baser than that which prompts one man to affect indignation 
 at the misconduct of another who is not more culpable than him- 
 self. Tet if we may accept the authority of Sir Philip Wode- 
 house, this is the position in which the Boers are placed. The 
 late Governor of the Cape Colony, writing to the President of 
 the Free State on the 21st of May, 1868, says, " It will probably 
 " be within your knowledge that about the year 1861 the Gro- 
 " vernment of the Free State agreed, in concert with Moshesh, to 
 " appoint a joint Commission to inquire into the border robberies. 
 " That Commission, I believe, reported to your government,
 
 60 
 
 " that, BO far aa the district of Smithfield was concerned, the 
 " thefts of stock from the Basutos very far exceeded those which 
 " they had committed on subjects of the Free State." The 
 Boers and the Basutos having both stolen cattle, what difference 
 is there between them P I know of none, except that, to quote a 
 line from Hannah More, the latter " stand convicted of a darker 
 skin." 
 
 The war between the Orange "Free State and the Basutos was 
 concluded by the intervention of the British Government, who 
 received Moshesh and his tribe as British subjects, and then 
 signed a Convention with the Boers, by which they were placed 
 in possession of the very territory concerning which Sir Philip 
 Wodehouse had said that the cession of it "would deprive 
 the tribe of a great portion of " the land best suited to them, 
 " and would coop them up in comparatively barren tracts." 
 The Basutos being British subjects at the time it may well 
 be doubted whether the ignoble plea of " necessity" justified 
 a British Governor in being a party to this extensive con. 
 fiscation of their land ; and it is equally doubtful whether the 
 destruction or abandonment of four of the French Missionary 
 stations which has resulted from the convention of North Aliwal 
 can be said to redound to the honour of the British name. 
 The Rev. F. Daumas, the senior missionary in Basutoland, 
 and a man to whose energy and zeal Sir Philip "Wodehouse him- 
 self has paid a high tribute, came to England, as you know, in 
 the hope that the Colonial Office would rescue his mission and 
 the Basuto people from spoliation ; but his efforts, as well as our 
 own 8 , unfortunately failed to modify a policy which, while it 
 entailed grievous losses on our native allies and on the enlight- 
 ened men who had promoted the cause of peace and civilization 
 amongst them, rewarded the aggressive Boers with the spoils of 
 an unhallowed victory. 
 
 The attempt which has been recently made by the Trans-Vaal 
 Republic, and more especially by the Orange Free State, to esta- 
 blish their jurisdiction over a portion of the territories of the 
 Griqua chief Waterboer is a yet more recent illustration of the 
 aggressive tendency of the Dutch governments. These territories 
 include the most valuable of the diamond-fields, and therefore the 
 
 8 Mr. Charles Gilpin and Mr. Fowler also brought this subject before tho 
 House of Commons, and at an earlier period of the session Mr. Eastwick 
 delivered an admirable speech on our relations with tho Republics.
 
 61 
 
 Boers did not hesitate to lay hands upon the particular districts 
 which they coveted. In the year 1838 the Griqua territory was 
 divided between the two chiefs Andries Waterboer and Adam 
 Kok. The boundary-line was clearly defined by treaty, and no 
 impartial person who has read the documents and studied the 
 maps which have been published by the Cape government can for 
 a moment doubt that the land which the Free State Boers now 
 claim to have purchased from Adam Kok belongs to Nicholas, 
 the son and successor of the late Andries Waterboer. It is not 
 necessary to enlarge on this subject, because General Hay, the 
 Acting Governor of the Cape Colony, has fully vindicated the 
 native title to these lands, and has appointed, at the request 
 of Waterboer, a British magistrate to preserve order at the 
 diamond-fields. It is impossible to read the despatches which 
 General Hay has addressed to Mr. Brand, the President of the 
 Free State, without feeling that the interests of law, order, and 
 morality have been effectually upheld by that gallant officer, and 
 that he has taken one important step towards establishing in the 
 interior a government which the whole world may respect, and 
 which all good citizens should obey. 
 
 In my letter to Mr. Fowler, which was first published two years 
 ago, I said that " it really seems as if events were now conspiring 
 "to realize the dream of a South- African confederation." 
 More than twelve years have elapsed since Governor Grey's 
 despatch on this subject was written. In that document he dis- 
 played prophetic insight as well as practical statemanship. He 
 vividly described the evils which resulted, and would continue to 
 result, from the dismemberment of the empire in South Africa. 
 As the only practical means of averting those evils he proposed 
 the establishment of a Federal system of government, which 
 should unite the British colonies, the two Dutch Eepublics, and the 
 native territories under one central authority, while securing to 
 each its own local government and institutions. He entered 
 into many details to show the great advantages which all the 
 members of such a confederacy would derive from their common 
 union, and he more especially enlarged upon the value of that 
 measure as a means of preventing internal wars, and of securing 
 the permanent peace of the country. One passage will sufficiently 
 explain his argument on this point 
 
 The defects of tho system thus described ('. e. the system which separates 
 South Africa into rival states) appear to be, that the country must be always at
 
 62 
 
 war in some direction, as some one of the several states, in pursuit of its 
 supposed interests, win be involved in difficulties, either with some European 
 or native state. Every such war forces all the other states into a position of an 
 armed neutrality or of interference. For if the state is successful in the war it 
 is waging, a native race will he broken up, and none can tell what territories its 
 dispersed hordes may fall upon ; nor can the other states be assured that the 
 coloured tribes generally will not sympathize in the war, and that a genera] 
 rising may not take place. Ever since South Africa has been broken np in the 
 manner above detailed, large portions of it have always been in a state of con- 
 stant anxiety and apprehension from these causes." 
 
 The truth of these remarks will be borne out by every one who 
 is acquainted with the history of South Africa during the period 
 which has intervened since they were written. Take, for example, 
 the case of the last Basuto war. To say nothing of the de- 
 struction of life, the injustice perpetrated on a native ally, or the 
 alarm and demoralization created on our own frontier, the dis- 
 turbance to peaceful colonization and industry which was 
 occasioned by this war rendered it most injurious to the com- 
 mercial interests of the Cape Colony. The climax of anarchy was 
 reached when the Free State closed its courts, and Cape mer- 
 chants, to whom the Boers owed hundreds of thousands of pounds, 
 were unable to recover their debts by ordinary process of law. 
 Of course the Free State, although containing all the natural 
 resources which are necessary to the creation of a wealthy and 
 prosperous state, suffered far more ; and it is more than doubtful 
 whether even " the fat lands of the Basutos " will compensate it 
 for the heavy expenses, direct and indirect, entailed by the war. 
 Since Sir G-eorge Grey wrote, the evils upon which he expatiated 
 have grown more and more intolerable ; and indeed a policy 
 which secured the independence of small communities, whose only 
 bond of cohesion was that supplied by a mutual contempt for 
 the rights of the weaker races, could not fail to generate war and 
 anarchy, and to prove most injurious to their own welfare, as 
 well as to that of the Cape Colony and of Natal. 
 
 It cannot, I think, be doubted that the proposed Confederation 
 would greatly lessen the danger of internecine war in South 
 Africa. The discovery of gold and diamonds has again forced 
 the subject upon the attention of the British Government. 
 Fifteen thousand diggers, composed of very mixed elements, are 
 now encamped on the banks of the Vaal Kiver. They, like the 
 inhabitants of the Orange Free State, cannot be released from 
 their allegiance to the Crown without the authority of an Act of 
 Parliament, and, taking all the circumstances into account, it is
 
 63 
 
 impossible that we can with honour shirk the responsibility of 
 bringing them under the authority of a settled government. It 
 is, however, impossible to deal adequately with this question 
 except in connexion with the larger one of Confederation. It is 
 therefore satisfactory to know that Sir Henry Barkley has 
 assumed the governorship of the Cape Colony, with an earnest 
 desire to establish a South African Dominion modelled upon that 
 of Canada. 
 
 If I have appeared to write too hopefully of the future of a 
 Federal system of government, it is not because I shut my eyes 
 to the difficulties which must always attend the administration 
 of affairs in a country inhabited by different races. Those 
 difficulties will, in some shape or other, continue to exist so 
 long as civilized nations practically reject the Christian doctrine 
 of the essential brotherhood and equality of the human race. 
 But the political union, on equal terms, of men, whether black 
 or white, whether English or Dutch, would be a great step 
 towards softening and, in time, destroying the hateful antipathies 
 of race. Although in the present state of the world it is hopeless 
 to look for the early dawn of the golden age, there is reason to 
 believe that in South Africa, at least, the people are learning the 
 truth of the classic apophthegm, that "nothing can be profitable 
 " which is either dishonest or cruel." Let us, too, endeavour to 
 learn the same lesson. 
 
 I am, my dear Sir, 
 
 Tours faithfully, 
 
 F. W. CHESSON.
 
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