explain
his own share in supplying rifles to the Zulus in consequence of the
revelations in a late trial of a Durban gun-runner, avows that he did so
with the knowledge, if not the consent, and at the suggestion of (naming
a high Colonial official) in Natal. There can be no doubt that Natal
sympathy was strongly with the Zulus as against the Boers, and, what is
worse, is so still."

Under such circumstances did the Annexation take place. The English did
not scruple to make use of Kaffir aid against the Boers, as at
Boomplaats, and it was brought home in every possible way to the British
Nation that a great wrong had been committed here; but even the High
Commissioner, though he heard the words issue from our bleeding hearts,
wished that he had brought some artillery in order to disperse us, and
misrepresented us beyond measure.

Full of hope we said to ourselves if only the Queen of England and the
English people knew that in the Transvaal a people were being oppressed,
they would never suffer it.

[Sidenote: The War of Freedom.]

But we had now to admit that it was of no use appealing to England,
because there was no one to hear us. Trusting in the Almighty God of
righteousness and justice, we armed ourselves for an apparently hopeless
struggle in the firm conviction that whether we conquered or whether we
died, the sun of freedom in South Africa would arise out of the morning
mists. With God's all-powerful aid we gained the victory, and for a time
at least it seemed as if our liberty was secure.

At Bronkorst Spruit, at Laing's Nek, at Ingogo, and at Majuba, God gave
us victory, although in each case the British troopers outnumbered us,
and were more powerfully armed than ourselves.

After these victories had given new force to our arguments, the British
Government, under the leadership of Gladstone, a man whom we shall never
forget, decided to cancel the Annexation, and to restore to us our
violated rights.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 23: Molesworth.]

[Footnote 24: Theal, 305.]

[Footnote 25: 30th April, 1877, Letter to the Rev. La Touche.]

[Footnote 26: Martineau, _The Transvaal Trouble_, page 76.]

[Footnote 27: Martineau, _The Transvaal Trouble_, page 69.]

[Footnote 28: _The Transvaal Trouble_, page 76.]

CONVENTIONS OF 1881 AND 1884.

[Sidenote: Pretoria Convention.]

An ordinary person would have thought that the only upright way of
carrying a policy of restitution into effect would ha