released, but of the
remainder twenty-six died within the year. Bad food vile sanitary
arrangements and want of clothing and shelter contributed to this
end. Malaboch was a petty chief against whom an expedition was
organized, ostensibly because he had refused to pay his taxes. The
expedition is chiefly notorious on account of the commandeering of
British subjects which led to the visit of Sir Henry Loch already
described. It resulted--as these expeditions inevitably do--in the
worsting of the natives, the capture of the chief and his headmen,
and the parcelling out of his tribe as indentured servants among the
Boers.

Considerable sympathy was felt with Malaboch among the Uitlanders,
not because of his refusal to pay taxes but because the opinion
prevailed that this refusal was due only to the tyrannical and
improper conduct of the Boer native commissioners; and a number of
Johannesburg men resolved in the interests of the native and also of
the native labour supply on the Rand to have the matter cleared up at
the forthcoming trial of the chief. Funds were provided and counsel
employed, nominally to defend Malaboch, but really to impeach the
native commissioners, who in many cases were and continue to be a
perfect curse to the country. No sooner had this intended course of
action become known than the Government decided to treat their
prisoners under the provisions of martial law--to treat them, in
fact, as prisoners of war, who were liable to be indefinitely
detained without further trial. Under these conditions they were
placed in the Pretoria Gaol, and with the exception of a few
subordinates there they have lived--or died--since. The offences of
these natives, for all anyone knows, may have been similar to those
of Langalibalele, Dinizulu, Secocoeni, Cetewayo, and other native
chiefs whom the British Government have also disposed of without
trial. But it is urged that these men are entitled to a trial,
because it is well known that the provocation under which they
committed their offences against the law--if indeed any were
committed--was such as, in the minds of most people, would justify
their action.{36}

The position of a native in the Pretoria Gaol is indeed an unhappy
one. Sleeping accommodation--that is to say, shed accommodation--is
provided for about one-quarter of the number confined there. During
fine weather it is no hardship upon the natives to sleep in the open
yard provided that they have some c