Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/51

1873] enforcing order, and that implied the extension of its authority over the various tribes.

War between the Galekas under Kreli and the Tembus proper under Gangelizwe forced the ministry to act, in order to extend colonial influence to the rear of those tribes, and in July 1873 Mr. Joseph Millerd Orpen, previously a member of the house of assembly and an ardent advocate of the extension of authority over the border tribes, was appointed magistrate with a little party of colonial blacks who had settled at the Gatberg, in the present district of Maclear, and with the Hlubis under Zibi, the Batlokua under Lehana, and the Basuto under Lebenys, who had been located by Sir Philip Wodehouse on the high plateau under the Drakensberg. These people were then so entirely at the mercy of more powerful neighbours that they expressed satisfaction with the appointment of a magistrate to exercise jurisdiction over them, because it implied their protection. Mr. Orpen was also appointed British resident for the whole of the territory then termed Nomansland, now Griqualand East.

Upon his arrival in the territory, he found that war was being carried on by the Pondo chief Ndamasi against the Pondomsis under Umhlonhlo, and that the rival sections of the Pondomsis were as usual fighting with each other. The Pondos were gaining an ascendency over their divided opponents, and there seemed a likelihood that they would be able to crush them at no distant date. Mr. Orpen immediately organised the Hlubi, Batlokua, and Basuto clans under him into a military force, and called upon Adam Kok, the chief of the Griquas, for assistance. In September he visited Umhlonhlo and Umditshwa, both of whom again made overtures to be received under British protection, and promised to lay down their arms. Then, feeling confident that the Pondos, seeing the force that could be brought against them, would hesitate before coming into