of beer, and as the seller
still required his 6000 acres: for a Boer considers it beneath his
dignity to settle on less, it is obvious that it required a very large
country to satisfy all demands. To meet these demands, the territories
of the Republic had to be stretched like an elastic band, and they were
stretched accordingly,--at the expense of the natives. The stretching
process was an ingenious one, and is very well described in a minute
written by Mr. Osborn, the late Magistrate at Newcastle, dated 22d
September, 1876, in these words:--

"The Boers, as they have done in other cases and are still doing,
encroached by degrees on native territory, commencing by obtaining
permission to graze stock upon portions of it at certain seasons of the
year, followed by individual graziers obtaining from native headmen
a sort of right or license to squat upon certain defined portions,
ostensibly in order to keep other Boer squatters away from the same
land. These licenses, temporarily intended as friendly or neighbourly
acts by unauthorised headmen, after a few seasons of occupation by
the Boer, are construed by him as title, and his permanent occupation
ensues. Damage for trespass is levied by him from the very man from whom
he obtained the right to squat, to which the natives submit out of fear
of the matter reaching the ears of the paramount chief, who would in all
probability severely punish them for opening the door to encroachment
by the Boer. After a while, however, the matter comes to a crisis in
consequence of the incessant disputes between the Boers and the natives;
one or other of the disputants lays the case before the paramount chief,
who, when hearing both parties, is literally frightened with violence
and threats by the Boer into granting him the land. Upon this the usual
plan followed by the Boer is at once to collect a few neighbouring
Boers, including a field cornet, or even an acting provisional field
cornet, appointed by the field cornet or provisional cornet, the latter
to represent the Government, although without instructions authorising
him to act in the matter. A few cattle are collected among themselves,
which the party takes to the chief, and his signature is obtained to a
written document alienating to the Republican Boers a large slice of all
his territory. The contents of this document are, as far as I can make
out, never clearly or intelligibly explained to the chief who signs and
accepts of the c