GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE . 325 
legislature, and entitled "the Cape of Good 
Hope Punishment Bill," which he proceeded 
to promulgate there, they at once repudiated 
his interference, and maintained their indepen- 
dence from all authority except from such as 
would emanate from themselves, in consequence 
of the then Secretary for the colonies, Lord 
Glenelg, having expressly " disclaimed in the 
most distinct terms, any intention on the part 
of His Majesty's Government to assert any 
authority over any part of this territory." This 
mutual feeling of independence, seemed to serve 
as a bond of union between them, and there 
can be no doubt that, if a person like Eetief 
had continued to be the acknowledged head of 
the Dutch emigrants, a more firm and lasting 
tie would have bound them together. 
"Pieter Eetief, however, in the conscientious 
view which he had always taken of these mat- 
ters, felt that as both Chaka and Dingaan had 
nominally given away this territory to various 
other persons before his arrival, the occupa- 
tion of this country by him and his followers, 
might hereafter subject them to disputes, either 
with the Zoolah chiefs, or with such Eng- 
lish emigrants as had received such ill-defined 
grants from the Zoolah Sovereigns, he therefore 
determined to proceed in person to Dingaan' s 
capital, and to negociate with him a treaty of 
