oo elated by such good tidings, they are, however, reminded that it
will be necessary to retain the law relating to passes, which is, in
the hands of a people like the Boers, about as unjust a regulation as
a dominant race can invent for the oppression of a subject people, and
had, in the old days of the Republic, been productive of much hardship.
The statement winds up by assuring them that their "interests will never
be forgotten or neglected by Her Majesty's Government." Having read the
document the Commission hastily withdrew, and after their withdrawal
the Chiefs were "allowed" to state their opinions to the Secretary for
Native Affairs.

In availing themselves of this permission, it is noticeable that no
allusion was made to all the advantages they were to reap under
the Convention, nor did they seem to attach much importance to the
appointment of the British Resident. On the contrary, all their
attention was given to the great fact that the country had been ceded
to the Boers, and that they were no longer the Queen's subjects. We
are told, in Mr. Shepstone's Report, that they "got very excited," and
"asked whether it was thought that they had no feelings or hearts, that
they were thus treated as a stick or piece of tobacco, which could be
passed from hand to hand without question." Umgombarie, a Zoutpansberg
Chief, said, "I am Umgombarie. I have fought with the Boers, and have
many wounds, and they know that what I say is true. . . . I will never
consent to place myself under their rule. I belong to the English
Government. I am not a man who eats with both sides of his jaw at once;
I only use one side. I am English, I have said." Silamba said, "I belong
to the English. I will never return under the Boers. You see me, a man
of my rank and position, is it right that such as I should be seized
and laid on the ground and flogged, as has been done to me and other
chiefs?"

Sinkanhla said: "We hear and yet do not hear, we cannot understand. We
are troubling you, Chief, by talking in this way; we hear the Chiefs say
that the Queen took the country because the people of the country wished
it, and again that the majority of the owners of the country did not
wish their rule, and that therefore the country was given back. We
should like to have the man pointed out from among us black people who
objects to the rule of the Queen. We are the real owners of the country;
we were here when the Boers came, and without asking leav