“ Shepstone went to Pretoria in January 1877, and on the 12th of April issued a proclamation announcing the establishment of British authority over the Transvaal. Shepstone’s force consisted of twenty-five mounted policemen only, but no overt opposition was made to the annexation; the republic at the time was in a condition bordering on anarchy. “Nothing but annexation,” wrote Sir Theophilus to the Colonial Office, “will or dan save the state, and nothing else can save South Africa from the direst consequences. ”

“ All the thinking and intelligent people know this, and will be thankful to be delivered from the thraldom of petty factions by which they are perpetually kept in a state of excitement and unrest because the government and everything connected with it is a thorough sham” (Martineau’s Life of Sir Bartle Frere, ch. 18) . ”

“ In 1874 and again in 1876 Shepstone was in London on South African affairs, and to his absence from Natal Cetywayo’s failure to keep his promises is, in part, attributed. When in London in 1876 Shepstone was entrusted by the 4th earl of Carnarvon, then secretary of state for the colonies, with a special commission to confer with the Transvaal executive on the question of the federation of the South African states, and given power, should he deem it necessary, to annex the country, subject to the confirmation of the British government. ”