those two main elements were added sparse accessions from
other nations at later intervals, and also a strain of aboriginal blood,
of which a more or less faint tinge is still discernible in some
families, an admixture which many deplore and others consider as most
serviceable, supplying a subtle piquancy for perfecting the general
stock.

The early Cape Governors aimed at the prompt assimilation of those
French people with their own colonists--to make Dutchmen of them. Among
other drastic enactments to enforce that object, no other language but
Dutch was permitted to be used in public of pain of corporal punishment.
Not a few noble Frenchmen were subjected to that indignity for
inadvertent breaches of that draconian law, but, as conscientious
observers of biblical commands which enjoin subjection to all
governmental rule, they willingly submitted and obeyed. Intermarriages
with their Dutch fellow-colonists further promoted assimilation into one
cohesive community. At the same time the Huguenot faith was transmitted
to their descendants, and had a marked influence in sustaining common
religious fervour and consistency. They did not look for a reward or
compensation for the sacrifices endured, for the sake of faith, by those
refugees, though a gracious providence, as the sequel showed, held in
store a most ample restitution--magnificent heirlooms for their later
descendants, heirlooms which are now unhappily staked in this present
war.

In 1814 a payment of six millions sterling received by the Prince of
Orange closed the transfer of the Dutch Cape settlement to Great
Britain. Immigration of English settlers followed and the area of the
colony soon largely extended. As under the Dutch _regime_, the practice
of slavery had continued until its abolition in 1833 by the ransom
payable by the English Government to the owners of slaves. The Boer
colonists deeply resented that act, and especially the next to
impracticable condition which provided that payments could only be
received in England instead of on the spot. Many were cheated of all
their emancipation money by their appointed proxies or agents, or else
had to submit to exorbitant charges and commissions; a great number
voluntarily renounced all in disgust.

By that time the existence had become known of promising tracts of
country lying north of the Orange River beyond the confines of the
British colonies, and a large number of Boers combined with the
intention of