t in their field of work, hoping
and expecting for the missionary work the happiest fruits. Their hope
has not been deceived by the results."

The clash of opposing principles, and even the violence of party feeling
continued to send its echoes to the far regions of South Africa,
confusing the minds of the various populations there, and preventing any
real coherence and continuity in our Government of that great Colony. A
good and successful Administrator has sometimes been withdrawn to be
superseded by another, equally well-intentioned, perhaps, but whose
policy was on wholly different lines, thus undoing the work of his
predecessor. This has introduced not only confusion, but sometimes an
appearance of real injustice into our management of the colony. In all
this chequered history, the interests of the native races have been too
often postponed to those of the ruling races. This was certainly the
case in connexion with Mr. Gladstone's well-intentioned act in giving
back to the Transvaal its independent government.

It has been an anxious question for many among us whether this source of
vacillation, with its attendant misfortunes, is to continue in the
future.

* * * * *

The early history of the South African Colony has become, by this time,
pretty well known by means of the numberless books lately written on the
subject. I will only briefly recapitulate here a few of the principal
facts, these being, in part, derived from the annals and reports of the
Aborigines Protection Society, which may be considered impartial, seeing
that that Society has had a keen eye at all times for the faults of
British colonists and the British Government, while constrained, as a
truthful recorder, to publish the offences of other peoples and
Governments. I have also constantly referred to Parliamentary papers,
and the words of accredited historians and travellers.

The first attempt at a regular settlement by the Dutch at the Cape was
made by Jan Van Riebeck, in 1652, for the convenience of the trading
vessels of the Netherlands East India Company, passing from Europe to
Asia. Almost from the first these colonists were involved in quarrels
with the natives, which furnished excuse for appropriating their lands
and making slaves of them. The intruders stole the natives' cattle, and
the natives' efforts to recover their property were denounced by Van
Riebeck as "a matter most displeasing to the Almighty,