e allowed to stay and share the rights and
privileges of British subjects. But the evil did not stop there. Ere
long some political refugees, defeated in battle, fled before the
avenging hand of the conqueror, and craved place and protection from the
Government of Natal. It was granted; and the principle once established,
body after body of men poured in: for, in stepping over the boundary
line, they left the regions of ruin and terrible death, and entered
those of peace, security, and plenty.

Thus it is that the native population of Natal, fed from within and
without, has in thirty years increased enormously in number. Secluded
from the outside world in his location, the native has lived in peace
and watched his cattle grow upon a thousand hills. His wealth has become
great and his wives many. He no longer dreads swift "death by order
of the king," or by word of the witch-doctor. No "impi," or native
regiment, can now sweep down on him and "eat him up," that is, carry off
his cattle, put his kraal to the flames, and himself, his people, his
wives, and children to the assegai. For the first time in the story of
the great Kafir race, he can, when he rises in the morning, be sure that
he will not sleep that night, stiff, in a bloody grave. He has tasted
the blessings of peace and security, and what is the consequence? He has
increased and multiplied until his numbers are as grains of sand on the
sea-shore. Overlapping the borders of his location, he squats on private
lands, he advances like a great tidal wave, he cries aloud for room,
more room. This is the trouble which stares us in the face, looming
larger and more distinct year by year; the great over-growing problem
which thoughtful men fear must one day find a sudden and violent
solution. Thus it comes to pass that there hangs low on the horizon of
South Africa the dark cloud of the Native Question. How and when it will
burst no man can pretend to say, but some time and in some way burst it
must, unless means of dispersing it can be found.

There is now at work among the Kafir population the same motive power
which has raised in turn all white nations, and, having built them up
to a certain height, has then set to work to sap them until they have
fallen--the power of civilisation. Hand in hand the missionary and the
trader have penetrated the locations. The efforts of the teacher have
met with but a partial success. "A Christian may be a good man in his
way, but he