hat if I go they will burn my house and drive
off all my stock? Assure me that we are not to be deserted by the
English Government, and left to the mercy of these malcontent
adventurers, and I and my people will gladly turn out to assist
Colonel Wood.'

_I find that this idea that the English Government will give up the
Transvaal, as it formerly did the Orange Free State, has been
industriously propagated, and has taken a great hold on the minds of
the well-disposed Boers, and is, I believe, one main cause of
reluctance to support the Government actively_.

_They argue that what has been done before may be done again, and
they have no feeling of assurance that if they stand by the English
Government to-day they will not be left to bear the brunt of the
malcontents' vengeance when a Republic is established_.

And again on the 9th, from Heidelberg:

_The idea that we should somehow be compelled or induced to abandon
the country had taken great hold on the minds of some of the more
intelligent men that I met_. It has been seduously written up by a
portion of the South African press, English as well as Dutch. I
marked its effect particularly on men who said they had come from the
old Colony since the annexation, but would never have done so had
they believed that English rule would be withdrawn, and the country
left to its former state of anarchy....

_But there is great practical difficulty in conveying to the mass of
the people any idea of the real power of Government_.

It is not possible to pen a more severe and pregnant comment on the
after-policy of England than that suggested by the italicized lines,
written as they were by England's Plenipotentiary--an idea reported
to headquarters, not as a feeler, but as a suggestion so absurd that
it called for no expression of opinion. But he lived to find that it
was not too absurd to be realized; and perhaps, after all, it was
written as a warning, and the wise and cool-headed old statesman in
his inmost soul had a premonition of what eventually occurred.

Sir Bartle Frere met the Boers in their camp, and discussed with them
their grievances. He informed them that he had no power to revoke the
annexation, nor would he recommend it, as, in his judgment, such a
course would be a reversion to chaos and ruin. The Boers pressed
steadily for nothing less than repeal. Sir Bartle Frere reported
the historical meeting at Erasmus Farm to Sir M. Hicks Beach:

_April 14, 1879.