horities in altering
(between 1825 and 1828) the old system of local government (with the
effect of reducing the share in it which the citizens had enjoyed), and
in substituting English for Dutch as the language to be used in official
documents and legal proceedings. This was a serious hardship, for
probably not more than one-sixth of the people understood English. A
third source of trouble arose out of the wars with the Kafirs on the
eastern border. Since the first hostilities of 1779 there had been four
serious struggles with the tribes who lived beyond the Fish River, and
in 1834 a host of savages suddenly burst into the Colony, sweeping off
the cattle and killing the farmers. After some hard fighting the Kafirs
were reduced to sue for peace, and compelled by the governor to withdraw
beyond the Keiskama River. But the British government at home,
considering that the natives had been ill-treated by the colonists, and
in fact provoked to war, overruled the governor, and allowed them to
return to their old seats, where they were, no doubt, a source of danger
to the border farmers. Thinking the home authorities either weak or
perverse, the farmers bitterly resented this action, and began to look
on the British Colonial Office as their enemy.

But the main grievance arose out of those native and colour questions
which have ever since continued to trouble South Africa. Slavery had
existed in the Colony since 1658, and had produced its usual
consequences, the degradation of labour, and the notion that the black
man has no rights against the white. In 1737 the first Moravian mission
to the Hottentots was frowned upon, and a pastor who had baptized
natives found himself obliged to return to Europe. The current of
feeling in Europe, and especially in England, which condemned the
"domestic institution" and sought to vindicate the human rights of the
negro, had not been felt in this remote corner of the world, and from
about 1810 onward the English missionaries gave intense offence to the
colonists by espousing the cause of the natives and the slaves, and
reporting every case of cruel or harsh treatment which came to their
knowledge. It is said that they often exaggerated, or made charges on
insufficient evidence, and this is likely enough. But it must also be
remembered that they were the only protectors the blacks had; and where
slavery exists, and a weak race is dominated by a strong one, there are
sure to be many abuses of p