en to the Boers by the Queen. This is a thing
which surprises, us. Did the country, then, belong to the Boers? Did it
not belong to our fathers and forefathers before us, long before the
Boers came here? We have heard that the Boers' country is at the Cape.
If the Queen wishes to give them their land, why does she not give them
back the Cape?"

Umyethile said: "We have no heart for talking. I have returned to the
country from Sechelis, where I had to fly from Boer oppression. Our
hearts are black and heavy with grief to-day at the news told us. We are
in agony; our intestines are twisting and writhing inside of us, just as
you see a snake do when it is struck on the head. We do not know what
has become of us, but we feel dead. It may be that the Lord may change
the nature of the Boers, and that we will not be treated like dogs and
beasts of burden as formerly; but we have no hope of such a change, and
we leave you with heavy hearts and great apprehension as to the
future."[3] In his Report, Mr. Shepstone (Secretary for Native Affairs)
says, "One chief, Jan Sibilo, who had been personally threatened with
death by the Boers after the English should leave, could not restrain
his feelings, but cried like a child."

In 1881, the year of the retrocession of the Transvaal, a Royal
Commission was appointed from England to enquire into the internal state
of affairs in the South African Republic. On the 9th May of that year,
an affidavit was sworn to before that Commission by the Rev. John
Thorne, of St. John the Evangelist, Lydenburg, Transvaal. He stated: "I
was appointed to the charge of a congregation in Potchefstroom when the
Republic was under the Presidency of Mr. Pretorius. I noticed one
morning, as I walked through the streets, a number of young natives whom
I knew to be strangers. I enquired where they came from. I was told that
they had just been brought from Zoutpansberg. This was the locality from
which slaves were chiefly brought at that time, and were traded for
under the name of 'Black Ivory.' One of these slaves belonged to Mr.
Munich, the State Attorney." In the fourth paragraph of the same
affidavit, Mr. Thorne says that "the Rev. Dr. Nachtigal, of the Berlin
Missionary Society, was the interpreter for Shatane's people, in the
private office of Mr. Roth, and, at the close of the interview, told me
what had occurred. On my expressing surprise, he went on to relate that
he had information on native matters which