186 SOUTH AFRICA. 



and other trifles. But to go into details of the 

 isolated cases of sheer barbarity of which parties 

 of Kaffirs travelling home after a spell of work 

 either on the sugar plantations of Natal or from 

 the gold fields have been made the victims, would 

 be to write a series of " shockers " differing only 

 from those usually published under that title as 

 being narratives of fact as distinguished from 

 fiction. For many reasons I decline the task in 

 favour of the historian of the future, should such 

 an individual turn up. 



It must be borne in mind, too, that any narrative 

 of mine would be strictly confined to circumstances 

 within my personal cognisance, and therefore in- 

 complete, and would relate to events of past times 

 occurring some time between 1 870 and 1 890. If 

 we may judge from current reports and occasional 

 newspaper paragraphs, the system has been per- 

 petuated although possibly the more flagrant acts 

 of barbarity may have been eliminated as a rule. 



In fact, the animus and actions of the Transvaal 

 Government are a disgrace to civilisation, and that 

 it is allowed to control the lives and fortunes of 

 the British and other Uitlanders upon whom it 

 preys is discreditable to use a mild term to the 



