ers were digging for diamonds in
Griqualand West, and its abandonment was impossible. Brand himself
did not wish to take the responsibility of governing it. But he
continued to press the case for compensation, and the British
Government, which had forced independence upon the Boers, appeared
in the invidious light of shirking responsibility while grasping at
mineral wealth. If it had not been for this untoward incident, the
Dutch Republics would have been more favourable to Lord Carnarvon's
policy than Cape Colony was. The Transvaal was imperfectly protected
against the formidable power of the Zulus, and a general rising of
blacks against whites was the real danger which threatened South
Africa.

That peril, however, was felt more acutely in Natal than in Cape
Colony. The Cape had for two years enjoyed responsible government,
and its first Prime Minister was John Charles Molteno.

Molteno was not in any other respect a remarkable man. He had come
to the post by adroit management of a miscellaneous community,
comprising British, Dutch, and Kaffirs. He was personally
incorruptible, and he played the game according to the rules. He
would have called himself, and so far as his opportunities admitted,
he was, a constitutional statesman, justly proud of the position to
which his own qualities had raised him, and extremely jealous of
interference Downing Street. He had no responsibility, he was never
tired of explaining, for the acquisition of the Diamond Fields, and
he left the Colonial Office to settle that matter with President
Brand. Local politics were his business. He did not look beyond the
House of Assembly at Cape Town, which it was his duty to lead, and
the Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, with whom he was on excellent terms.
His own origin, which was partly English and partly Italian, made it
easy for him to be impartial between the two white races in South
Africa. For the Kaffirs he had no great tenderness. They had votes,
and if they chose to sell them for brandy that was their own affair.
Of what would now be called Imperialism Molteno had no trace. He
would support Federation when in his opinion it suited the interests
of Cape Colony, and not an hour before.

Froude left Dartmouth in the Walmer Castle on the 23rd of August,
1874. He occupied himself during the voyage partly in discussing the
affairs of the Cape with his fellow-passengers, and partly in
reading Greek. The "Leaves from a South African Journal," whi