future, and who, in the then state of kindly feeling towards the Boers,
could wish to leave them, and all the English mixed up with them, to
undergo, unprepared as they were, the terrible experience of a Zulu
invasion? Besides, what guarantee was there that the slaughter would
stop in the Transvaal, or that the combat would not have developed into
a war of races throughout South Africa? Even looking at the matter in
the light of after events, it is difficult to regret that humanity
was on this occasion allowed to take precedence of a more cold-blooded
policy. If the opponents of the Annexation, or even the members of the
Transvaal Independence Committee, knew what a Zulu invasion meant, they
would scarcely have been so bitter about that act.

From the time of the Annexation it was a mere matter of opinion as to
which direction the Zulu explosion would take. The safety-valves were
loaded whilst the pressure daily increased, and all acquainted with the
people knew that it must come sooner or later.

Shortly after the Transvaal became British territory the old Zulu
boundary question came to the fore again and was made more complicated
than ever by Sir T. Shepstone, who had hitherto favoured the Zulu
claims, taking the Boer side of the controversy, after examination of
the locality and of persons acquainted with the details of the matter.
There was nothing wonderful in this change of opinion, though of course
it was attributed to various motives by advocates of the Zulu claims,
and there is no doubt that Cetywayo himself did not at all like it, and,
excited thereto by vexation and the outcry of his regiments, adopted
a very different and aggressive tone in his communications with the
English authorities. Indeed his irritation against the Boers and
everybody connected with them was very great. Probably if he had been
left alone he would in time have carried out his old programme, and