[Sidenote:  The Dutch language.]

But it was not only in regard to the Natives that the Boers were oppressed and their rights violated.  When the Cape was transferred to England in 1806, their language was guaranteed to the Dutch inhabitants.  This guarantee was, however, soon to meet the same fate as the treaties and conventions which were concluded by England with our people at later periods.

The violator of treaties fulfilled its obligation by decreeing in 1825 that all documents were for the future to be written in English.  Petitions in the language of the country and complaints about bitter grievances were not even acknowledged.  The Boers were excluded from the juries because their knowledge of English was too faulty, and their causes and actions had to be determined by Englishmen, with whom they had nothing in common.

[Sidenote:  The Great Trek.]

After twenty years’ experience of British administration it had become abundantly clear to the Boers that there was no prospect of peace and prosperity before them, for their elementary rights had been violated, and they could only expect oppression.  They were without adequate guarantees of protection, and their position had become intolerable in the Cape Colony.

They decided to sell home, farm, and all that remained over from the depredations of the Kaffirs, and to trek away from British rule.  The Colony was at this time bounded on the north by the Orange River.

[Sidenote:  Legality of the Trek.]

[7] At first, Lieutenant-Governor Stockenstrom was consulted; but he was of opinion that there was no law which could prevent the Boers from leaving the Colony and settling elsewhere.  Even if such a statute existed, it would be tyrannical, as well as impossible, to enforce it.

The Cape Attorney-General, Mr. Oliphant, expressed the same opinion, adding that it was clear that the emigrants were determined to go into another country, and not to consider themselves British subjects any longer.  The same thing was happening daily in the emigration from England to North America, and the British Government was and would remain powerless to stop the evil.

The territory to the north of the Orange River and to the east of the Drakensberg lay outside the sphere of British influence or authority, and was, as far as was then known, inhabited by savages; but the Boers decided to brave the perils of the wilderness and to negotiate with the savages for the possession of a tract of country, and so form an independent community rather than remain any longer under British rule.

[Sidenote:  The Manifesto of Piet Retief.]

In the words of Piet Retief, when he left Grahamstown:—­

We despair of saving the Colony from those evils which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in a country thus distracted by internal commotions.

     We complain of the severe losses which we have been forced to
     sustain by the emancipation of our slaves, and the vexatious laws
     which have been enacted respecting them.