hey had been involved through English intrigue would have
been seized as a pretext to annex their country to the British Crown.
They had been remiss in not putting their full force into the field so
as to bring these little wars to a speedy conclusion. And so the Magato
and Socoecoeni campaigns were conducted in a protracted and half-hearted
way, much to the satisfaction of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and those
who were at his back.

The Annexation was brought about. It was announced that the extension of
Her Majesty's sway and protection over the South African Republic could
alone secure unity of purpose and trade, as well as open out a prospect
of peace and prosperity. In these words of Shepstone's proclamation we
see in all its repulsive nakedness the hypocrisy which openly
masqueraded in the guise of the disinterested and pitiful Samaritan,
while its true and secret object was to inflict a fatal wound upon the
burgher Republic.

The third period of our history is characterised by the amalgamation of
the old and well-known policy of fraud and violence with the new forces
of Capitalism, which had developed so powerfully owing to the mineral
riches of the South African Republic. Our existence as a people and as a
State is now threatened by an unparalleled combination of forces.
Arrayed against us we find numerical strength, the public opinion of the
United Kingdom thirsting and shouting for blood and revenge, the
world-wide and cosmopolitan power of Capitalism, and all the forces
which underlie the lust of robbery and the spirit of plunder. Our lot
has of late become more and more perilous. The cordon of beasts of
plunder and birds of prey has been narrowed and drawn closer and closer
around this poor doomed people during the last ten years. As the wounded
antelope awaits the coming of the lion, the jackal, and the vulture, so
do our poor people all over South Africa contemplate the approach of the
foe, encircled as they are by the forces of hatred and revenge, and by
the stratagems and covetousness of their enemies. Every sea in the
world is being furrowed by the ships which are conveying British troops
from every corner of the globe in order to smash this little handful of
people. Even Xerxes, with his millions against little Greece, does not
afford a stranger spectacle to the wonder and astonishment of mankind
than this gentle and kind-hearted Mother of Nations, as, wrapped in all
the panoply of her might, riches, an