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set the treaty aside, however; we had been seizing territory and then abandoning it, and fighting and killing and getting bad de­feats, and we were now going into a fresh adventure, in my eyes equally unpromising. The peace to which we consented after the victory of the Dutch at Majuba Hill was an act of high magnanimity. Our acquiescence had been misinterpreted, and some step might be necessary to show that we intended, not­withstanding, to assert our authority in South Africa; but in what we were now doing we were running the risk of plunging the whole country into civil war; and success would leave the essential problem as far from settlement as ever.

Having, as I said, been at one time connected with Cape affairs, and having some knowledge of the inner bearings of them, before I describe our arrival there, I will give a brief account of the colony, how we came by it, and how we have conducted ourselves in the management of it.

CHAPTER III.

The Cape Colony.—The Dutch Settlement.—Transfer to England.—Abolition of Slavery.— Injustice to the Dutch.— Emigration of the Boers.— Efforts at Reconquest.—The Orange River Treaty.—Broken by England.—The War.— Treaty of Aliwal North.—Discovery of Diamonds.—Treaty again broken.— British Policy at Kimberley.—Personal Tour in South Africa.—Lord Carnar­von proposes a Conference.—Compensation paid to the Orange Free State.— Annexation of the Transvaal.—War with the Dutch.—Peace. —Fresh diffi­culties.—Expedition of Sir Charles Warren.

The Cape Colony, as we ought to know, but in practice we always forget, was originally a Dutch colony. Two cen­turies ago, when the Hollanders were the second maritime power in the world—perhaps not even second—they occupied and settled the southern extremity of Africa. They easily con­quered the Hottentots and Bushmen, acting as we ourselves also acted invariably in similar circumstances. They cleared out the wild beasts, built towns, laid out roads, enclosed and ploughed the land, planted forests and vineyards. Better colonists or more successful did not exist than the Dutch. They throve and prospered, and continued to thrive and prosper till the close of the last century. If we compare the success of the Dutch in the management of uncivilised tribes