surrender — Professional sentimentalists  — The Transvaal Independence Committee — Conclusion of the armistice  — The preliminary peace — Reception of the news in Natal — Newcastle after the declaration of peace — Exodus of the loyal inhabitants of the Transvaal — The value of property in Pretoria — The Transvaal officials dismissed — The Royal Commission — Mode of trial of persons accused of atrocities — Decision of the Commission and its results  — The severance of territory question — Arguments pro and con — Opinion of Sir E. Wood — Humility of the Commissioners and its cause — Their decision on the Keate Award question — The Montsioa difficulty — The compensation and financial clauses of the report of the Commission — The duties of the British Resident — Sir E. Wood's dissent from the report of the Commission — Signing of the Convention — Burial of the Union Jack — The native side of the question — Interview between the Commissioners and the native chiefs — Their opinion of the surrender — Objections of the Boer Volksraad to the Convention — Mr. Gladstone temporises — The ratification — Its insolent tone — Mr. Hudson, the British Resident  — The Boer festival — The results of the Convention — The larger issue of the matter — Its effect on the Transvaal — Its moral aspects — Its effect on the native mind

156-202 CHAPTER VII. Extract from Introduction to new edition of 1888 203 APPENDIX. I. The Potchefstroom Atrocities, &c. 231 II. Pledges given by Mr. Gladstone's Government as to the Retention of the Transvaal 239 III. A Boer on Boer Designs 241

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THE TRANSVAAL.

  CHAPTER I.

ITS INHABITANTS, LAWS, AND CUSTOMS.

The Transvaal is a country without a history. Its very existence was hardly known of until about fifty years ago. Of its past we know nothing. The generations who peopled its great plains have passed utterly out of the memory and even the tradition of man, leaving no monument to mark that they have existed, not even a tomb.

During the reign of Chaka, 1813-1828, whose history has been sketched in a previous chapter, one of his most famous generals, Mosilikatze, surnamed the Lion, seceded from him with a large number of his soldiers, and striking up in a north-westerly direction, settled in or about what is now the Morico district of the Transvaal. The country through which Mosilikatze passed was at that time thickly populated with natives of the Basuto or Macatee race, whom the Zulus look upon with great contempt. Mosilikatze expressed the feelings of his tribe in a practical manner, by massacring every living soul of them that came within his reach. That the numbers slaughtered were very great, the numerous ruins of Basuto kraals all over the country testify.

It was Chaka's intention to follow up Mosilikatze and destroy him, but he was himself assassinated before he could do so. Dingaan, his successor, however, carried out his brother's design, and despatched a large force to punish him. This army, after marching over 300 miles, burst upon Mosilikatze, drove him back with slaughter, and returned home triumphant. The invasion is important, because the Zulus claim the greater part of the Transvaal territory by virtue of it.

About the time that Mosilikatze was conquered, 1835-1840, the discontented Boers were leaving the Cape Colony exasperated at the emancipation of the slaves by the Imperial authorities. First they made their way to Natal, but being followed thither by the English flag they travelled further inland over the Vaal River and founded the town of Mooi River Dorp or Potchefstroom. Here they were joined by other malcontents from the Orange Sovereignty, which, though afterwards abandoned, was at that time a British possession. Acting upon