Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/54

34 court, found guilty, and fined in accordance with Bantu law.

The next event of importance in the territory was the establishment of colonial authority in Adam Kok's district. The Griquas had moved there at the instance of her Majesty's high commissioner in South Africa, but they had never received protection, or been in any way interfered with. Adam Kok was getting old, and was without an heir. In 1874 he had nominally some thirty-six thousand subjects, but only four thousand one hundred were Griquas, the remainder being aliens, Fingos, Basuto, Bacas, and others who had settled on ground given to him by Sir Philip Wodehouse. The demands made upon him by Mr. Orpen for assistance, first against the Pondos, and next against Langalibalele, showed him the anomalous position in which he was placed. He asked that he should either be recognised as an independent chief, or be granted the rights and privileges of a British subject.

On the 16th of October 1874 Governor Sir Henry Barkly, who was making a tour through the territories, met the Griqua chief and the members of his council at Kokstad. Mr. Orpen, the British resident in Nomansland, was with the governor. The question of Adam Kok's position was discussed, and a provisional agreement was made for the assumption of direct authority over the country by the colonial government. The official books and documents were transferred to Mr. Orpen by the Griqua secretary, and the territory was added by the governor to that already under the resident's charge, with the understanding that all existing institutions were to remain undisturbed for the time being.

In February 1875 Messrs. Donald Strachan, who had been a magistrate under Adam Kok, and Mr. G. C. Brisley, secretary of the Griqua government, arrived in Capetown as representatives of the Griqua chief and people, and concluded the arrangements. Kok was to