the
subject, and have studied also the character and earlier career of the
High Commissioner, are disposed to think that war might have been and
ought to have been avoided, and that Sir Bartle Frere, in declaring it,
committed a grave error; but it is right to add that there are persons
in South Africa who still defend his action. The invasion of Zululand
which followed began with a disaster--the surprise at Isandhlwana
(January, 1879) of a British force, which was almost annihilated by a
vastly superior native army. Ultimately, however, Cetewayo was defeated
and made prisoner. Zululand was divided among thirteen petty chiefs
under a British resident, and subsequently, in 1887, annexed to the
British crown as a dependency, to be administered by the Governor of
Natal. Except for some disturbances in 1888, its people have since
remained peaceful, prosperous, and to all appearance contented. It has
now (1897) been decided to annex Zululand to Natal.

We may now return to follow the fortunes of the emigrant Boers of the
far north-eastern interior whose republic, recognized by the Imperial
Government in 1852, was at length, after twenty-five years, to be
brought into a closer connection than ever with the British Colonies by
events which are still fresh in men's memories, and which are exerting a
potent influence on the politics of our own time. The scale of these
events was small, but the circumstances are full of instruction, and
many years may yet elapse before their consequences have been fully
worked out.

The Dutch farmers who had settled beyond the Vaal River were more rude
and uneducated than those of the Free State, had no admixture of English
blood, and remained unaffected by intercourse with the more civilized
people of Cape Colony. Their love of independence was accompanied by a
tendency to discord. Their warlike spirit had produced a readiness to
take up arms on slight occasions, and had degenerated into a fondness
for predatory expeditions. They were, moreover, always desirous of
enlarging the area of their stock farms by the annexation of fresh
territory to the north and west, and thus were constantly brought into
collision with the native occupants of the country. Scattered thinly
over a wide area of pasture land, they were practically exempt from the
control of law courts or magistrates, while at the same time the
smallness of their numbers, and the family ties which linked them into
jealous and mutually d