vernor, in his capacity of High
Commissioner for South Africa; and in that capacity he is not required
to consult the Cape ministry and legislature, but acts under the
directions of the Colonial Office in London.

The grant of cabinet government tended to stimulate political life among
the Dutch farmers, hitherto the more backward part of the population,
and in 1882 their wishes secured a reversal of the ordinance made sixty
years before for the exclusive use of English in official documents and
legal proceedings. Dutch was now placed on a level with English as an
official language in Parliament and the law courts. But this assertion
of Dutch sentiment was due to causes which will be better understood
when we come to the events of 1880 and 1881.

Most of the peaceful growth which has been described would have been
more rapid but for the frequent vexation of native wars. Twice under the
rule of the Dutch Company and seven times under the British crown have
there been sanguinary conflicts with the fierce Kafir tribes of the Kosa
group, who dwell in the east of the Colony. On the north there had been
only Hottentots, a weak nomad race, who soon vanished under the attacks
of smallpox and the pressure of the whites. On the north-east the
deserts of the Karroo lay between the colonists and the Kafirs who
inhabited the plains of the Upper Orange and Vaal rivers. But on the
east the country was comparatively well watered, and supported a large
Kafir population full of courage and fighting spirit. Collisions between
them and the whites were inevitable. The country they occupied was
mostly rugged, and covered with a dense low wood, or rather scrub,
traversed by narrow and winding tracks, which were of course familiar to
them, and difficult for white troops. They had always the advantage in
point of numbers, and though they were usually beaten and compelled to
sue for peace, the obvious anxiety of the colonial government to
conclude a peace emboldened them to fresh outbreaks. To civilized men,
who know the enormous superiority of discipline and of firearms, it
seems strange that these natives, who in the earlier wars had no
firearms, should have so often renewed what we can see was a hopeless
struggle. But it must be remembered that the natives, who saw only small
white forces brought against them, and knew that the whole number of
whites in the Colony was small, have never realized, and do not realize
even to-day, the enormous r