nal rule of a certain Captain Gardiner, a missionary, who had formerly been an officer of the royal navy, and who was much favoured by Dingaan, the ruling sovereign of the Zulus.

Dingaan had granted to Captain Gardiner, as the chief of the white men in Natal, all the land from the Drakensberg to the sea, a grant far in excess of the wants of the few inhabitants.

Pieter Retief, in order

to avoid disputes, determined to proceed to Umgungundlhloon (the place of elephants), Dingaan's chief military kraal, and obtain from him a grant of some portion of this territory. Dingaan received him graciously, and promised to meet his wishes, provided the Dutch would recover certain cattle for him taken by a hostile chief. This Retief and his party did, and returned shortly to Umgungundlhloon with the cattle, and an escort of some sixty followers. A treaty was drawn up and signed by both parties, according to which Dingaan gave the whole of Natal to the emigrant farmers for ever.1

Everything had thus far gone smoothly, far too smoothly; and the farmers entered the king's kraal in high spirits to bid him farewell. At his request they left their arms outside, in deference to a law of the country, which makes death the penalty of passing through the king's fence armed. Here they found two or three favourite regiments drawn up in their war dress, but with nothing but short sticks in their hands. The stirrup-cup had been drunk, and the farmers were preparing to depart, when Dingaan, rising from his seat, called aloud, "Bulala matagati," "Slay the wizards." In a moment, raising their fearful war-cry, some four thousand Zulu warriors precipitated themselves on the little knot of white men. During half an hour the hideous struggle lasted. The Dutch, armed only with clasp knives, fought as strong men driven to despair do fight; but one by one they were beaten down,

1 This treaty was afterwards found in a leathern bag attached to Retief's skeleton.

66

and dragged out to a spot called Aceldama,' or the hill of death. Then Dingaan sent out ten regiments to complete the work he had begun. They fell on the helpless women and children who were waiting in the neighbourhood of the Blue Kraus River for the return of their relatives, and massacred them with relentless fury, so that within the week of Retief's murder, 600 more victims went down beneath the Zulu assegai. All that portion of Natal has ever since been known by the name of "Weenen," or "the place of weeping."

An impartial judge must admit from this and many similar instances that the Boers have grand cause for dislike and distrust of the native races: seeing that they are associated in their minds with bloodshed and murder in their most fearful forms, and there are but few Boer families who cannot count several of its members dead by their fierce hands. It is natural that minds thus prejudiced should be little inclined to admit the justice of any claims advanced by the natives, or the necessity of their treating them with that candour and truth with which they would approach dealings with white men. But looking at the matter from a judicial point of view, it must also be admitted that if the Boer has a strong case against the native, the native has a still stronger one against the Boer. The only thing that can excuse the annexation of lands, belonging by nature and by right to savage races, is the introduction of a just and merciful policy towards the original owners, the prevention of unnecessary bloodshed, and the assurance, in return for their birthright, of safety from foreign aggression, and of peace and security at home. The warmest defender of the Boers cannot assert that they have even approached the fulfilment of these conditions. They have not pursued a merciful policy, they have shed unnecessary blood; and not only have they not shielded others from aggression, but they have themselves pursued a most aggressive course. This feeling

of mutual contempt, hatred, and defiance does therefore exist, and has, in the minds of either party, excellent reasons for existence.

After the Weenen massacre, the Boers engaged in a long and retributive war with the Zulus, and finally succeeded in breaking that nation's power, forcing the despot Dingaan to flee, and establishing his brother Umpanda, a man of more peaceful temperament, as king in his stead. During the continuance of this war, Sir G. Napier, the Governor of the Cape, had sent a detachment of Highlanders to occupy Port Natal, in order to "put an end to the unwarranted occupation of ports of the territories belonging to natives, by certain emigrants from the Cape Colony, being subjects of her Majesty."

Captain Jarvis, of the 72nd Regiment, who was left in command of the expedition, received very vague and ill-defined instructions as to the seizure of arms and ammunition, a proceeding which, if carried out to the letter, would probably have excited an outbreak of hostilities, but which his good sense taught him to avoid. This detachment appears to have remained in the country for more than a year, and then to have been recalled. On the occasion of his departure Captain Jarvis directed a farewell letter to Landdroot Boos at Durban, in which he wishes him and the community generally "every happiness, sincerely hoping, that aware of your strength, peace may be the object of your councils; justice, prudence, and moderation be the law of your actions; that your proceedings may be actuated by motives worthy of you as men and Christians, that hereafter your arrival may be hailed as a benefit; having enlightened ignorance, dispelled superstition, and caused crime, bloodshed, and oppression to cease, and that you may cultivate these beautiful regions in quiet and prosperity, ever regardful of the rights of the inhabitants, whose country you have adopted, and whose home you have made your own!"

It is melancholy to read this eloquent advice, and to think in what a very opposite manner it has been carried out. After such an address from the officer commanding her Majesty's troops on the occasion of their withdrawal, and judging from the general tenor and bearing of other communications and events, as well as from the well-known aversion of the British Government to take upon

itself any fresh responsibilities in South Africa, the emigrant Boers naturally supposed that they would be left to follow their own way of life, and to form their own government, undisturbed by any British interference. They accordingly elected a species of representative representative legislative assembly, called the Volksraad, in which was vested all powers-legislative, executive, and judicial; and appointed magistrates or field-cornets in the various districts; and in the beginning of 1840 they addressed a letter to Sir George Napier, in which they asked to be formally recognised as an independent state by her Majesty's Government. To this letter a temporising answer was returned.

There existed, doubtless, at this time very considerable vacillation in the minds of the members of her Majesty's Government, both at home and at the Cape, as to the course to be pursued with reference to Natal. The Colonial authorities, for the most part, foresaw the evil results of leaving it in the hands of the emigrants, and represented the desirability of its annexation to the Colonial office. But the Home Government looked at the matter in a different light. South Africa had, in their opinion, already cost quite as much money as it was worth, in the way of expensive and unproductive Kafir wars. there was at that time a strong feeling in England against further additions being made to our new Colonial dominions. Under these circumstances, it is very possible that the Boers might have been left for some considerable time to the enjoyment or to the mis

Besides,

fortune of their own government, had it not been that a Commando, sent towards the end of the year against the Amaballa tribe, under the leadership of Pretorius, did its work with great barbarity, killing many men and women, and taking children into captivity. When this story reached the Cape, the result was a burst of public indignation; in compliance with which Sir George Napier issued, on 2nd December, 1841, a proclamation announcing his intention, in the name of the British Government, “of resuming military occupation of Port Natal, by sending thither without delay a detachment of her Majesty's forces."

In accordance with this proclamation Captain Smith arrived at Port Natal six months later in command of a force of two hundred men and two guns. So small a body of men was speedily repulsed with heavy loss by the Boers, and closely blockaded. The English residents were taken prisoners, and marched sixty miles in chains to Maritzburg, the newly-founded capital of the country. But reinforcements arriving, the Boers were forced to submit, and hostilities came to an end. In May, 1843, Commissioner Cloete was sent by the Cape Government to arrange matters, which task he performed so well, that in August of the same year Natal was declared a British colony, with the Drakensberg Mountains for a border line. Many of the more turbulent and dissatisfied Boers who bore, however, too deep-rooted an aversion to the English rule to consent to live under its wing, treked away to join their friends and relations across the Vaal River and in the Orange River district, there to live in untutored freedom.

Soon, however, the complaints of misrule, anarchy, and oppression from the Orange River country became so loud and so frequent, that the Home authorities determined on making it "into a separate and distinct government," under the name of the Orange River Sovereignty. This was not till

the year 1851, or three or four years before its final abandonment, whereas a sort of undefined authority had been exercised over this territory, under 6 and 7 William IV., cap. 57, ever since about 1830. On the 2nd February, 1848, Sir H. Smith issued a proclamation, declaring all this country subject to her Majesty, and the result was that the Dutch again attempted to match themselves against the English, and, under the command of A. W. J. Pretorius, fought the battle of Boom Plaats, in which they were signally defeated.

Such is a brief outline of the history of the emigrant farmers from the time of their first exodus to that of the annexation of the Orange River district, an outline which, if not very interesting, is necessary in order to explain the existence of the Transvaal Republic.

In 1851 Major Hogge and Mr. Owen were appointed a commission to inquire into and report upon all matters connected with the sovereignty, and the result of their inquiry was a recommendation that the Boers should be allowed to establish a separate and independent government to the north of the Vaal River, a recommendation which accorded well with the wishes of the Home Government, and, seemed to be an easy solution of a troublesome question. Accordingly, early in 1852, a convention was concluded between the commissioners and the farmers, by which full liberty of selfgovernment was granted to the latter, and from that time to this the history of the Republic has been nothing but an oft-told tale of disputed boundaries and petty aggressions. It seems curious at the first sight that a few thousand people, occupying a territory which must equal France in size, should desire to add to their possessions, but the fact is that these aggressions spring from several perfectly explicable causes. The first of these is the old nomadic spirit of the people, which seems to have as strong a mastery over them now as ever.

As

civilization draws near, they retire, and occupy new tracts, which of course belong to some one or other of the native tribes. This land they in time claim as their own, and, it is reported, establish a right to it in the following convenient if peculiar manner. The Boer sees a fine tract of country belonging to some native tribe, and his heart yearns towards it to possess it. He accordingly cultivates the friendly acquaintance of the nearest headman of the tribe, and requests permission to graze a few cattle on it, as it is a pity it should lie so useless. The unsuspicious headman gives his assent, and all goes smoothly for a year or two, till he finds the Boer has settled himself there to watch his cattle graze. He remonstrates without effect, and, afraid of reporting the matter to his chief lest he should get himself into trouble, lets things go on for a year or two longer, till at length it comes to the ears of the chief, who appoints a day to have the question explained to him. The Boer then collects a few of his fellow Boers, including a representative of the government, in the shape of a landdrost, or a deputy-landdrost, or a deputy-deputy-landdrost, and proceeds to the kraal of the chief, with a few head of cattle, and a deed in his pocket making the land over to him and his heirs for ever. The point in dispute is amicably discussed, and the chief decides that the Boer has no right whatsoever to the land, and civilly but firmly requests him to evacuate it, and hints that it is desirable some rent should be paid for the pasturage his cattle have already had. The Boer acquiesces in so just a decision, presents him with ten or twenty head of cattle, in acknowledgment of which he requests him to put his mark to this bit of paper. This he does, and soon discovers that in return for a few oxen he has signed away many square miles of his territory. He remonstrates, he storms, but, individually, he is not strong enough to resist, and the thing is done in a perfectly ortho

This method is at once

dox manner.
simple and effective.

Another reason for this continual stretching of boundary lines is that the government, though ruling over vast extents of country, has few reserves, and is constantly in want of land to sell, or pledge, or grant to new comers, and finds it in many ways more convenient to take it than to buy it. The limits of the Republic never having been accurately defined, it can do this with comparative impunity, and it is curious in each successive map that is published to observe the rapid and vigorous growth of the infant state.

It is from these peculiar territorial relations towards the native chiefs that the present war with Secocoeni has arisen. Secocoeni is, after Cetywayo, the king of the Zulus, perhaps the most powerful chief on the eastern border of the Transvaal Republic, and is able, it is said, to place 20,000 fighting men in the field. The real rights of the border question between the two contending parties are most complicated and difficult to arrive at. One thing is however certain, that the claim of the Transvaal government is enveloped in mystery, whereas Secocoeni has held this land since his accession, and his father Sekwati before him, and his fathers before him for 200 years; and it is not likely that either of them would have willingly and knowingly ceded it to the Boers.

The war arose, however, more immediately from the refusal of a brother of Secocoeni, named Johannes, to quit a stronghold he occupied within the Transvaal Republic, near to the borders of Secocoeni's territory. What political connection existed between them is not at all clear, or why the Republic in declaring war against Johannes included Secocoeni; but the fact remains, that about the month of June, 1876, a Commando was called out which proceeded to attack both these chieftains. Now if one of the South African communities engage in a contest with the native tribes, it is a matter of much greater concern to all the

others than would be at first supposed. The native mind is so peculiarly constituted that the news of war with the white man sensibly and perniciously agitates it, and as it happens they have a special and additional interest in this contest. About forty miles from Secocoeni's city is situated the town of Pilgrim's Rest, the inhabitants. of which are nearly all Englishmen, amounting in number to some 400 souls. These poor people have found themselves in a most unfortunate position between the hammer in the shape of the Republic, and the anvil in the shape of Secocoeni. It is true that President Burgers has expressed his willingness to protect them, but the old antipathy to anything and anybody British has revived to such an alarming extent, that if the truth were known the Boers would much rather expel or destroy English residents than protect them. Unable to quit the country, since such a proceeding would involve the loss of their means of sustenance, these unfortunate people, subjected to heavy taxation and all the losses of a war with which they had no connection, have formed a Defence Committee, through which they have transmitted numerous and piteous applications for protection to the governments of the Cape and Natal.

Secocoeni has also found means to assure them that he is their friend, and has no wish to make war on the English, whom he loves. But unfortunately he is not able to restrain the passions of his young men, and their bloodthirsty spirit once aroused, the Kafir Impis or regiments are not very discriminating as to the nation of the white man they attack. Already several Englishmen have been barbarously murdered, though in fairness to the chief it must be owned, contrary to his strict orders.

When the war, the first regular war the Republic has been engaged in, broke out, the old Commando system was brought to bear, and some five or six hundred men raised to prosecute it. The war being a popular one,-any

aggression on the natives is popular in the Transvaal,-the men were easily raised, and an alliance having been made with the Amaswazis, the expedition set out under the command of President Burgers-to conquer or to die. But the Dutch farmers have now to deal with a very different enemy to that they fought and conquered thirty years ago. Then the natives were at the outset half dispirited by their superstitious dread of the white man and his terrible weapons. Now familiarity has bred contempt, and fire-arms are the common property of both parties. The Boers find that they can longer sally forth, sure of slaying thousands of their antagonists, whilst they, on their swift horses and with their far-reaching guns, remain in almost absolute safety; such a discovery has naturally affected their willingness to engage, for no man sets a higher value on his personal safety than a Boer. In fact, white man and native now meet on more equal grounds, and consequently the latter, with the advantages of fire-arms and knowledge added to his own reckless bravery and numerical superiority, stands a far better chance of success.

no

The conduct of the main Commando in their attack on Secocoeni's city on the 7th August amply fulfilled the promise of their fellows. They proved themselves to be arrant cowards. As usual, the native allies, were allowed to advance; but the greater part of the Boers refused to stir, except in a retrogressive fashion. Finally the whole Commando was seized with a panic and took to its heels as fast as their slow waggons would let them, leaving Secocoeni master of the situation. Since this signal defeat the affairs of the Transvaal country have gone from bad to worse. The state itself is completely bankrupt, and is even unable to pay the salaries of its officials or the interest of the borrowed money. Dissatisfaction is rampant, and it is only the old antipathy of the Dutch to the English rule that prevents the