at this day, in the face of innumerable witnesses to the contrary, that
slavery exists in the Transvaal. Now, this may be considered to be
verbally true. Slavery, they say, did not exist; but apprenticeship did,
and does exist. It is only another name. It is not denied that some
Boers have been kind to their slaves, as humane slave-owners frequently
were in the Southern States of America. But kindness, even the most
indulgent, to slaves, has never been held by abolitionists to excuse the
existence of slavery.

Mr. Rider Haggard, who spent a great part of his life in the Transvaal
and other parts of South Africa, wrote in 1899: "The assertion that
Slavery did not exist in the Transvaal is made to hoodwink the British
public. I have known men who have owned slaves, and who have seen whole
waggon-loads of Black Ivory, as they were called, sold for about L15 a
piece. I have at this moment a tenant, Carolus by name, on some land I
own in Natal, now a well-to-do man, who was for twenty years a Boer
slave. He told me that during those years he worked from morning till
night, and the only reward he received was two calves. He finally
escaped to Natal."

Going back some years, evidence may be found, equally well attested with
that already quoted. On the 22nd August, 1876, Khama, the Christian King
of the Bamangwato (Bechuanaland), one of the most worthy Chiefs which
any country has had the good fortune to be ruled by, wrote to Sir Henry
de Villiers the following message, to be sent to Queen Victoria:--"I
write to you, Sir Henry, in order that your Queen may preserve for me my
country, it being in her hands. The Boers are coming into it, and I do
not like them. Their actions are cruel among us black people. We are
like money; they sell us and our children. I ask Her Majesty to pity
me, and to hear that which I write quickly. I wish to hear upon what
conditions Her Majesty will receive me, and my country and my people,
under her protection. I am weary with fighting. I do not like war, and I
ask Her Majesty to give me peace. I am very much distressed that my
people are being destroyed by war, and I wish them to obtain peace. I
ask Her Majesty to defend me, as she defends all her people. There are
three things which distress me very much--war, selling people, and
drink. All these things I find in the Boers, and it is these things
which destroy people, to make an end of them in the country. The custom
of the Boers has always been