While Swaziland was being entoiled the Transvaal Government were not idle elsewhere.  Matabeleland was looked upon as the heritage of the Boer, because of the ‘old friendship’ with the Matabele,—­whom they had driven out of their country, now the Transvaal; and Mashonaland was theirs because it was their ancient hunting-ground.  That the Boers did not abandon their old schemes merely because they had agreed by treaty to do so is shown by a letter which was found at Lo Bengula’s kraal by Mr. F. Thompson when he went up to negotiate for Mr. Rhodes.  The stealthy grovelling of the Commandant-General before a savage native chief, the unctuous phraseology, the hypocritical assurances of an undying friendship between Boer and Matabele so long as there are living one of each race, throw a lurid light upon the conduct of Boer diplomacy with native tribes, and explain much of the ineradicable fear and distrust which are felt on the native side in all dealings with the aggressive Boer.  The letter reads: 

  MARICO,
  THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC,
  March 9, 1882.

To the great ruler the Chief Lo Bengula, the son of Umzilikatse, the great King of the Matabili nation.

GREAT RULER,

When this letter reaches you, then you will know that it comes from a man who very much desires to visit you, but who, being a man of the people, cannot get loose to make such a long journey.  Therefore he must now be satisfied with writing a letter to carry his regards to the son of the late King of the Matabele, our old friend Umzilikatse.  When I say that I desire to see you, it is not to ask for anything, but to talk of something, and to tell Lo Bengula of the affairs and things of the world, because I know that there are many people who talk and tell about these matters, whilst there are but few who tell the truth.  Now, when a man hears a thing wrong, it is worse than if he had never heard it at all.  Now, I know that Lo Bengula has heard some things wrongly, and for this reason would I tell him the real truth.  Now, you must have heard that the English—­or as they are better known the Englishmen—­took away our country, the Transvaal, or, as they say, annexed it.  We then talked nicely for four years, and begged for our country.  But no; when an Englishman once has your property in his hand, then is he like a monkey that has its hands full of pumpkin-seeds—­if you don’t beat him to death, he will never let go—­and then all our nice talk for four years did not help us at all.  Then the English commenced to arrest us because we were dissatisfied, and that caused the shooting and fighting.  Then the English first found that it would be better to give us back our country.  Now they are gone, and our country is free, and we will now once more live in friendship with Lo Bengula, as we lived in friendship with Umzilikatse, and such must be our friendship, that so long as there is one Boer and one Matabele living these two must