Some three hundred of the principal native chiefs were called together in the Square at Pretoria, and there the English Commissioner read to them the proclamation of Queen Victoria.  Sir Hercules Robinson, the Chief Commissioner, having “introduced the native chiefs to Messrs. Kruger, Pretorius, and Joubert,” having given them good advice as to indulging in manual labour when asked to do so by the Boers, and having reminded them that it would be necessary to retain the law relating to Passes, which is, in the hands of a people like the Boers, almost as unjust a regulation as a dominant race can invent for the oppression of a subject people, concluded by assuring them that their “interests would never be forgotten or neglected by Her Majesty’s Government.”  Having read this document, the Commission hastily withdrew, and after their withdrawal the Chiefs were “allowed” to state their opinions to the Secretary for Native Affairs.

In availing themselves of this permission, it is noticeable that no allusion was made by the Chiefs to the advantages they were to reap under the Convention.  All their attention was given to the great fact that the country had been ceded to the Boers, and that they were no longer the Queen’s subjects.  I beg attention to the following appeals from the hearts of these oppressed people.  They got very excited, and asked whether it was thought that they had no feelings or hearts, that they were thus treated as a stick or piece of tobacco, which could be passed from hand to hand without question.

Umgombarie, a Zoutpansberg Chief, said:  “I am Umgombarie.  I have fought with the Boers, and have many wounds, and they know that what I say is true.  I will never consent to place myself under their rule.  I belong to the English Government.  I am not a man who eats with both sides of his jaw at once; I only use one side.  I am English.  I have said.”

Silamba said:  “I belong to the English.  I will never return under the Boers.  You see me, a man of my rank and position; is it right that such as I should be seized and laid on the ground and flogged, as has been done to me and other Chiefs?”

Sinkanhla said:  “We hear and yet do not hear, we cannot understand.  We are troubling you, Chief, by talking in this way; we hear the Chiefs say that the Queen took the country because the people of the country wished it, and again, that the majority of the owners of the country did not wish her rule, and that therefore the country was given back.  We should like to have the man pointed out from among us black people who objects to the rule of the Queen.  We are the real owners of the country; we were here when the Boers came, and without asking leave, settled down and treated us in every way badly.  The English Government then came and took the country; we have now had four years of rest, and peaceful and just rule.  We have been called here to-day, and are told that the country, our country, has been given to the Boers by the Queen.  This is a thing which surprises, us.  Did the country, then, belong to the Boers?  Did it not belong to our fathers and forefathers before us, long before the Boers came here?  We have heard that the Boers’ country is at the Cape.  If the Queen wishes to give them their land, why does she not give them back the Cape?”