“At Kimberley he had been sworn in as Governor of Griqualand West.  Fifteen thousand people, it was estimated, turned out to meet and welcome him.  From thence to Cape Town his journey was like a triumphal progress, the population at each place he passed through receiving him in flag-decorated streets, with escorts, triumphal arches, illuminations, and addresses.  At Worcester, where he reached the railway, there was a banquet, at which Sir Gordon Sprigg was also present.  At Paarl, which was the head-quarters of the Dutch Afrikander league, and where some of the most influential Dutch families live, a similar reception was given him.  Finally, at Cape Town, where, if anywhere, his policy was likely to find opponents among those who regarded it from a provincial point of view, the inhabitants of all classes and sections and of whatever origin, gave themselves up to according him a reception such as had never been surpassed in Capetown.

“In England, complimentary local receptions and addresses to men in high office or of exalted rank do not ordinarily carry much meaning.  Party tactics and organization account for a proportion of such manifestations.  But the demonstration on this occasion cannot be so explained.  There was no party organization to stimulate it.  It was too general to confer notoriety on any of its promoters, and Sir B. Frere had not personally the power, even if he had had the will, to return compliments.  And what made it the more remarkable was that there was no special victory or success or event of any kind to celebrate."[21]

On reaching Cape Town, a telegraphic message was handed to him, preparing him for his recall, by the statement that Sir H. Bulwer was to replace him as High Commissioner of the Transvaal, Natal, and all the adjoining eastern portion of South Africa, and that he was to confine his attention for the present to the Cape Colony.

To deprive him of his authority as regarded Natal, Zululand, the Transvaal—­the Transvaal, which almost by his single hand and voice he had just saved from civil war—­and expressly to direct Colonel Lanyon to cease to correspond with him, was to discredit a public servant before all the world at the crisis of his work.

Sir Bartle Frere’s great object had been to bring about a Confederation of all the different States and portions of South Africa, an object with which the Home Government was in sympathy.

What was wanting to bring about confederation was confidence, founded on the permanent pacification and settlement of Zululand, the Transvaal, the Transkei, Pondoland, Basutoland, West Griqualand, and the border generally.  How could there, under these circumstances, be confidence any longer?  There was no doubt what he had meant to do.  By many a weary journey he had made himself personally known throughout South Africa.  His aims and intentions were never concealed, never changed.  In confederating under his superintendence all men knew what they were doing.  But he was now to be superseded.  Was his policy to be changed, and how?[22]