t his decision was not respected by the
Basutos, whom Moshesh could not always control,--for they are much less
submissive to their chiefs than are the Zulus,--and hostilities having
recommenced after a brief interval of peace, the Free State made a
supreme effort, and in 1868 was on the point of destroying the Basuto
power, though it had never been able to capture Thaba Bosiyo, when
Moshesh appealed to the High Commissioner to extend British protection
to his people. Unwilling to see Basutoland annexed by the Free State,
and fearing injury to the Colony from the dispersion of Basuto fugitives
through it, the High Commissioner consented, and declared the Basutos
British subjects. The Free State was suffered to retain a large tract
of fertile land along the north bank of the Caledon River, which it had
conquered; but it was mortified by seeing British authority established
to the south of it, all the way from Natal to the borders of Cape
Colony, and by the final extinction of the hopes which it had cherished
of extending its territories to the sea and acquiring a harbour at the
mouth of the St. John's River.

These events, which befell in 1869, mark the recommencement of British
advance toward the interior. Still more momentous was another occurrence
which belongs to the same year. In 1869 and 1870 a sudden rush began
from all parts of South Africa to a small district between the Modder
and the Vaal rivers (where the town of Kimberley now stands), in which
diamonds had been discovered. Within a few months thousands of diggers
from Europe and America, as well as from the surrounding countries, were
at work here, and the region, hitherto neglected, became a prize of
inestimable value. A question at once arose as to its ownership. The
Orange Free State claimed it, but it was also claimed by a Griqua
(half-breed) captain, named Nicholas Waterboer, son of old Andries
Waterboer, and by a native Batlapin chief, while parts were claimed by
the Transvaal Republic. The claims of the last-named state were disposed
of by the decision of the Governor of Natal, who had been recognized as
arbitrator by the Griquas, the Batlapin, and the President of the
Republic. He awarded the tract in dispute to Waterboer, including in his
award the part claimed by the Free State, which had refused arbitration
so far as regarded the district lying south of the Vaal, holding that
district to have been indubitably part of the old Orange River
sovereign