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annexation。 Ultimately he accepted a pension from our Government; and died in the Cape Colony in 1881。
6 See Sir Bartle Frere’s letter to Mr。 J。 M。 Maclean; “Life of Frere;” vol。 ii; p。 183。
The great danger with which the Transvaal was threatened in 1877 was that of a Zulu attack。 Secocoeni had all along been acting more or less under the inspiration and orders of Cetewayo; who; when he saw that this Basuto chief could defeat the Dutch; thought; not unnaturally; that the time was ripe for him to strike。 The Zulus; who had never forgotten their defeat at Blood River in the thirties; had many old scores to settle with the Boers。 Moreover; Cetewayo’s great standing army of fifty or sixty thousand warriors were clamouring to be allowed “to wash their spears;” and as he did not wish to fight the English and we would not allow him to fight the Swazis; only the Boers remained。 In considering the history of the annexation of the Transvaal it should never be forgotten that Shepstone was aware of this fact。 Indeed not long after we reached Pretoria the news came to us that the Zulus were waiting in a chain of “impis;” or armies along the frontier; prepared when the signal was given to sweep in and put man; woman and child to the assegai。 It was his fear that this bloody design would be carried out which pushed on Shepstone to place the land under the protection of the Queen; knowing as he did that in their penniless and utterly disorganised condition; without an effective government; or cannon; or reserves of ammunition; the Boers had not the slightest chance of resisting the Zulu hordes。 They would have been wiped out up to or perhaps beyond Pretoria。
While I am dealing with this subject I a letter which was written to me in November 1906 from Ireland by t