First Annexation by Great Britain

Shepstone was now replaced by Col. Owen Lanyon, administra tor of Griqualand West, an able, active man, but not persona grata to the Boers. Then in April 1879 Frere himself visited the Trans vaal; and found assembled to meet him on the road to Pretoria an armed commando of recalcitrant Boers who had established a laager and looked threatening. Frere induced them to disperse; he set Lanyon to work to effect real reforms. And again he repeated the assurances that the Transvaal would be granted home rule. Just at this time however Frere received news that he had been censured for his Zulu policy by the home Government (the Disraeli cabinet), and he returned to Cape Town. As high com missioner for South-East Africa he was succeeded by Sir Garnet Wolseley. The Zulu War ended, Wolseley in Sept. 1879 came to Pretoria and told the malcontent Boers (by this time the ma jority of the burghers) in grandiose words that the sun would forget to shine and the Vaal flow backwards sooner than the British flag would cease to fly over the Transvaal. Wolseley gave the country relief in one direction; he reduced to submission (Dec. 1879) Sikukuni (Secocoeni), a chief who had long given the Transvaal trouble. Instead of granting a liberal constitution he mocked the Boers' hopes by setting up (March 188o) a nomi nated legislative council. In May 188° Wolseley returned home.

Meanwhile events in Great Britain had taken a turn which gave encouragement to the Boers. Gladstone became prime min ister and on being directly appealed to by Kruger and Joubert, he replied that the liberty which they sought to manage their own affairs, and which it was the desire of the British Government they should possess, might be "most easily and promptly conceded to the Transvaal as a member of a South African Confederation." That was in June 1880.

The Majuba Campaign.

In November matters were brought to a head by the wagons of a farmer named Bezuidenhout being seized in respect of the non-payment of taxes, and promptly retaken from the sheriff by a party of Boers. Lanyon began to recognize that the position was becoming grave, and telegraphed to Sir George Colley, the high commissioner of South-East Africa, for military aid. This, however, was not immediately available, and on Dec. 13 the Boers in public meeting at Paardekraal resolved once more to proclaim the South African Republic, and in the meantime to appoint a triumvirate, con sisting of Kruger, Pretorius and Joubert, as a provisional gov ernment. Formal proclamation of the republic was made on Dec. 16 (Dingaan's Day) at Heidelberg. Hostilities forthwith began. The first shots fired were outside Potchefstroom, which was then occupied by a small British garrison. On Dec. 20, some 24o men under Col. Anstruther, chiefly belonging to the 94th Regiment, while marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria, were surprised at Bronkhorst Spruit, and cut up by the Boer forces. Pretoria, Rus tenberg, Lydenburg and other smaller towns had been placed in a position of defence under the directions of Col. Bellairs. Sir George Colley, with 1,400 men, marched towards the Transvaal frontier, but before reaching it he found, on Jan. 24, 1881, that the Boers had already invaded Natal and occupied Laing's Nek. He pitched his camp at Ingogo. Having been defeated at Laing's Nek, and suffered considerable loss in an engagement near Ingogo, Colley took a force to the top of Majuba, a mountain overlooking the Boer camp and the nek. He went up during the night, and in

the morning was attacked and overwhelmed by the Boers (Feb. 27). Of the 554 men who constituted the British force on Majuba, 92 (including Sir George Colley) were killed and 134 wounded.

For a considerable time before hostilities began efforts had been made in South Africa to adjust the differences between the Transvaalers and the British, notably by President Brand of the O.F.S. Early in December Brand sent an urgent warning to Cape Town, which reached London only three weeks later and was dis regarded. At the opening of parliament on Jan. 6, 1881, the queen's speech spoke of the duty of vindicating her majesty's authority; on Jan. 26 the first intimation was made—to Cape Town, not to Colley—that the British Government was prepared to negotiate. It was not until the day of the reverse at Ingogo (Feb. 8) that Colley was told of the negotiations. Kruger only received the day after Majuba a despatch from Colley of Feb.

21,

stating that on the Boers ceasing armed opposition, the British Government would be prepared to appoint a commission with large powers. Kruger's reply, construed as a virtual ac ceptance of the British offer, did not reach Sir Evelyn Wood (Colley's successor) until March 7; the previous day a truce had been arranged. These negotiations were kept entirely from the knowledge of the British people, who only knew that Sir Fred erick Roberts and ro,000 men had been ordered out to South Africa. When they learned that negotiations for peace were proceeding without an attempt to "avenge" Majuba there was great indignation. Gladstone insisted that that incident should not be allowed to interrupt negotiations. The fact remains that it was only after the British arms had suffered reverses that the British cabinet opened negotiations. Alike by the Boers and by the "loyalists" in South Africa the peace shortly afterwards con cluded was regarded as a British surrender. The bitterness felt by the British over their "betrayal" was intense; so intense that it turned to hatred in many cases. Nor would it be easy to exaggerate the feeling of disgust felt by the Natalians over Glad stone's action. Nevertheless in view of the "loitering unwisdom" shown by the British almost from the day of annexation the retrocession of the Transvaal was the proper end of the episode.

A convention signed at Pretoria on Aug. 3, 1881, regulated the new relations between the Transvaal and the British Govern ment. The Boers were granted internal self-government, but British suzerainty was explicitly maintained; a British Resident was appointed to Pretoria; the country was to be called the Trans vaal State ; the frontiers (for the first time) were defined. In drawing up the convention Wood had as colleagues Sir Hercules Robinson (the new high commissioner) and Chief Justice de Villiers, of the Cape bench, an Afrikander who, like President Brand, had done much to keep in check Dutch feeling in South Africa generally. The government of the Transvaal was handed over to the Boer triumvirate on Aug. 8; it was continued in their name until May 1883 when Kruger was elected president—an office he held until the Transvaal again lost its independence.