subject. I will only briefly recapitulate here a few of the principal
facts, these being, in part, derived from the annals and reports of the
Aborigines Protection Society, which may be considered impartial, seeing
that that Society has had a keen eye at all times for the faults of
British colonists and the British Government, while constrained, as a
truthful recorder, to publish the offences of other peoples and
Governments. I have also constantly referred to Parliamentary papers,
and the words of accredited historians and travellers.

The first attempt at a regular settlement by the Dutch at the Cape was
made by Jan Van Riebeck, in 1652, for the convenience of the trading
vessels of the Netherlands East India Company, passing from Europe to
Asia. Almost from the first these colonists were involved in quarrels
with the natives, which furnished excuse for appropriating their lands
and making slaves of them. The intruders stole the natives' cattle, and
the natives' efforts to recover their property were denounced by Van
Riebeck as "a matter most displeasing to the Almighty, when committed by
such as they." Apologising to his employers in Holland for his show of
kindness to one group of natives, Van Riebeck wrote: "This we only did
to make them less shy, so as to find hereafter a better opportunity to
seize them--1,100 or 1,200 in number, and about 600 cattle, the best in
the whole country. We have every day the finest opportunities for
effecting this without bloodshed, and could derive good service from the
people, _in chains_, in killing seals or in labouring in the silver
mines which we trust will be found here."

The Netherlands Company frequently deprecated such acts of treachery and
cruelty, and counselled moderation. Their protests however were of no
avail. The mischief had been done. The unhappy natives, with whom
lasting friendship might have been established by fair treatment, had