and that, in the event of a servant having reasonable ground of complaint against his master for ill-usage, and not being able to bear the expense of a summons, one should be issued to him free of charge.  By this ordinance a stop was put, as far as the law could be enforced, to the bondage, other than admitted and legalized slavery, by which through nearly two centuries the Dutch farmers and others had oppressed the natives whom they had deprived of their lands."[11]

The Boers who had trekked resented every attempt at interference with them on the part of the Cape Government with a view to their acceptance of such principles of British Government as are expressed above.  Wearied by its hopeless efforts to restore order among the emigrant farmers, the British Government abandoned the task, and contented itself with the arrangement made with Andries Pretorius, in 1852, called the Sand River Convention.  This Convention conceded to “the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River” “the right to manage their own affairs and to govern themselves, without any interference on the part of Her Majesty the Queen’s Government.”  It was stipulated, however, that “no slavery is or shall be permitted or practised in the country to the north of the Vaal River by the emigrant farmers.”  This stipulation has been made in every succeeding Convention down to that of 1884.  These Conventions have been regularly agreed to and signed by successive Boer Leaders, and have been as regularly and successively violated.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 5:  South Africa, Past and Present (1899), by Noble.]

[Footnote 6:  Adolphe Mabille, Published in Paris, 1898.]

[Footnote 7:  These and other details which follow are taken from Dutch official papers, giving a succinct account of the treatment of the natives between 1649 and 1809.  These papers were translated from the Dutch by Lieut.  Moodie (1838).  See Moodie’s “Record.”]

[Footnote 8:  Thunberg.  “Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, between 1770 and 1779.”]

[Footnote 9:  Sir John Barrow (Travels in South Africa, 1806.) Vol ii. p. 165.]

[Footnote 10:  Mr. Fox Bourne, Secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society.]

[Footnote 11:  Parliamentary paper quoted by Mr. Fox Bourne.  “Black and White,” page 18.]

III.

     DR. LIVINGSTONE’S EXPERIENCES IN THE TRANSVAAL AND IN SURROUNDING
     NATIVE DISTRICTS.  LETTER OF DR. MOFFAT IN 1877.  LETTER OF HIS SON,
     REV.  J. MOFFAT, 1899.  REPORT OF M. DIETERLEN TO THE COMMITTEE OF
     THE MISSIONS’ EVANGELIQUES OF PARIS.

The following is an extract from the “Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,” of the venerable pioneer, David Livingstone.[12]