Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/524

 There has hitherto been an erroneous impression in Europe that the English are greedy to devour all the land in South Africa on which they can lay their hands; but the opponents and critics of their colonial policy do not seem to understand that in well nigh every case the cession of the territory has been made by voluntary surrender on the part of the native rulers. Before I undertook my third journey I entertained a very sanguine hope that there would be a highway of commerce opened into Central Africa, but my expectation all centred on the idea that this was impossible until the entire district between the Vaal and the Zambesi should be subjected to British rule. I see things now very differently, and am consequently gratified to know that in several instances Great Britain has declined to annex native territories, even although they have been ready to submit to her authority.

Just at the time when my pamphlet was written, several of the native princes were, it was said, on the point of making their spontaneous cession; and it was my desire to warn the Government to act with caution in every transaction of the kind. I said: “Here is Mankuruane, the Batlapin king, with one tribe, and here is Montsua, the Barolong king, with another. They tell us that they want to be numbered among our subjects, but before their request is complied with they should be made to declare whether it is by their own wish or by that of their people that they seek to be reckoned as British subjects; they should be forced to confess whether it was their friendship to the English or their fear and hatred of other white men that prompted them to make the proposal; they should