of pages can be examined without any allusion whatever to it. Nowhere
is there a single word to be found in favour of slavery as an
institution; the view of the emigrants, with hardly an exception,
being fairly represented in the following sentence, taken from a
letter of the Volksraad at Natal to Sir George Napier: 'A long and
sad experience has sufficiently convinced us of the injury, loss, and
dearness of slave labour, so that neither slavery nor the slave trade
will ever be permitted among us.'

[The allusions to the emancipation of slaves, and to slavery as an
institution, will be considered by many to need some modification or
explanation. The Dutch even to-day speak of the emancipation as the
real cause of the great exodus; and the system of indenture, and
the treatment of natives generally by the Boers, cannot fairly be
regarded as warranting the view expressed by Mr. Theal in connection
with this letter to Sir George Napier.]

It is alleged, however, that the emancipation, as it was carried out,
was an act of confiscation. It is stated that most of the slaves were
brought to the colony in English ships, and sold by English subjects;
that when, in 1795, the colony was invited by English officers of
high rank to place itself under the protection of England, one of the
inducements held out was security in slave property; at the same time
those officers warning the colonists that if France obtained
possession she would liberate the slaves, as she had done in
Martinique, thereby ruining this colony as she had ruined that
island; that the English Government had recently and suddenly changed
its policy, and required them to conform to the change with equal
alacrity, whereas they were convinced that gradual emancipation, with
securities against vagrancy, was the only safe course. The