ng the Kafirs. Some
of his chief men had been urging him, after he had become powerful, to
take vengeance upon certain cannibals who were believed to have killed
and eaten his grandparents. Moshesh replied: "I must consider well
before I disturb the sepulchres of my ancestors."

Basutoland remained quiet till 1879, when the Cape Government, urged, it
would appear, by the restless spirit of Sir Bartle Frere (then
Governor), conceived the unhappy project of disarming the Basutos. It
was no doubt a pity that so many of them possessed firearms; but it
would have been better to let them keep their weapons than to provoke a
war; and the Cape Prime Minister, who met the nation in its great
popular assembly, the Pitso, had ample notice through the speeches
delivered there by important chiefs of the resistance with which any
attempt to enforce disarmament would be met. However, rash counsels
prevailed. The attempt was made in 1880; war followed, and the Basutos
gave the colonial troops so much trouble that in 1883 the Colony
proposed to abandon the territory altogether. Ultimately, in 1884, the
Imperial Government took it over, and has ever since administered it by
a Resident Commissioner.

The Basuto nation, which had been brought very low at the time when
Moshesh threw himself upon the British Government for protection, has
latterly grown rapidly, and now numbers over 220,000 souls. This
increase is partly due to an influx of Kafirs from other tribes, each
chief encouraging the influx, since the new retainers, who surround him,
increase his importance. But it has now reached a point when it ought to
be stopped, because all the agricultural land is taken up for tillage,
and the pastures begin scarcely to suffice for the cattle. The area is
10,263 square miles, about two-thirds that of Switzerland, but by far
the larger part of it is wild mountain. No Europeans are allowed to hold
land, and a licence is needed even for the keeping of a store. Neither
are any mines worked. European prospectors are not permitted to come in
and search for minerals, for the policy of the authorities has been to
keep the country for the natives; and nothing alarms the chiefs so much
as the occasional appearance of these speculative gentry, who, if
allowed a foothold, would soon dispossess them. Thus it remains doubtful
whether either gold or silver or diamonds exist in "payable
quantities."

The natives, however, go in large numbers--in 1895-6 as