Umyethile said:  “We have no heart for talking.  I have returned to the country from Sechelis, where I had to fly from Boer oppression.  Our hearts are black and heavy with grief to-day at the news told us.  We are in agony; our intestines are twisting and writhing inside of us, just as you see a snake do when it is struck on the head.  We do not know what has become of us, but we feel dead.  It may be that the Lord may change the nature of the Boers, and that we will not be treated like dogs and beasts of burden as formerly; but we have no hope of such a change, and we leave you with heavy hearts and great apprehension as to the future."[3] In his Report, Mr. Shepstone (Secretary for Native Affairs) says, “One chief, Jan Sibilo, who had been personally threatened with death by the Boers after the English should leave, could not restrain his feelings, but cried like a child.”

In 1881, the year of the retrocession of the Transvaal, a Royal Commission was appointed from England to enquire into the internal state of affairs in the South African Republic.  On the 9th May of that year, an affidavit was sworn to before that Commission by the Rev. John Thorne, of St. John the Evangelist, Lydenburg, Transvaal.  He stated:  “I was appointed to the charge of a congregation in Potchefstroom when the Republic was under the Presidency of Mr. Pretorius.  I noticed one morning, as I walked through the streets, a number of young natives whom I knew to be strangers.  I enquired where they came from.  I was told that they had just been brought from Zoutpansberg.  This was the locality from which slaves were chiefly brought at that time, and were traded for under the name of ‘Black Ivory.’  One of these slaves belonged to Mr. Munich, the State Attorney.”  In the fourth paragraph of the same affidavit, Mr. Thorne says that “the Rev. Dr. Nachtigal, of the Berlin Missionary Society, was the interpreter for Shatane’s people, in the private office of Mr. Roth, and, at the close of the interview, told me what had occurred.  On my expressing surprise, he went on to relate that he had information on native matters which would surprise me more.  He then produced the copy of a register, kept in the Landdrost’s office, of men, women, and children, to the number of four hundred and eighty (480), who had been disposed of by one Boer to another for a consideration.  In one case an ox was given in exchange, in another goats, in a third a blanket, and so forth.  Many of these natives he (Mr. Nachtigal) knew personally.  The copy was certified as true and correct by an official of the Republic."[4]

On the 16th May, 1881, a native, named Frederick Molepo, was examined by the Royal Commission.  The following are extracts from his examination:—­

“(Sir Evelyn Wood.) Are you a Christian?—­Yes.

“(Sir H. de Villiers.) How long were you a slave?—­Half-a-year.

“How do you know that you were a slave?  Might you not have been an apprentice?—­No, I was not apprenticed.