“Some of you were among the old pioneers, many of whom I knew as acquaintances, and not a few as friends. Others of you are children of those who belonged to that adventurous band, but who have passed away.
“Practically, I am an Africander, as you are proud to call yourselves. I can speak in your language, and have spoken to hundreds of you on the subject of my mission. I therefore know the feelings of those who are against it as well as those who are for it.
“Has not the war with Sekukuni, whom you all consider to be but an insignificant enemy, and which is not yet settled as was supposed, dealt a fatal blow to the prestige of the Republic, to its financial condition, to its government, and to the credit of the country, and has it not caused disaster and ruin to many families which your government found itself powerless to remedy? You all know as well as I do, that it has.
“You are surrounded inside and outside your boundaries by at least one and a half million of natives, none of whom have been made firm friends by your past intercourse with them, and of these one of the weakest has dealt you a deadly blow. It follows, therefore, that you can neither sow nor reap except by the tacit permission of the native population, and they have lost the respect for you which they had for the pioneers.”
This plain unvarnished language had its effect. He was cordially received, and Her Majesty, in her prorogation speech, addressed to Parliament on the 14th of August, was able to say, “The Proclamation of my Sovereignty in the Transvaal has been received throughout the province with enthusiasm. It has also been accepted with marked satisfaction by the native chiefs and tribes; and the war, which threatened in its progress to compromise the safety of my subjects in South Africa, is happily brought to a close.”[[104]]
But concerning Sir Owen Lanyon, who followed Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the Boers knew nothing, and regarded him with suspicion. Then again his training was against him—he was too autocratic, too self-willed, his military style of discipline too severe, and these qualities, which were rapidly rendering him unpopular even as Administrator in Griqualand West, he still retained, and manifested in his new and larger sphere.
Sir Owen Lanyon was sworn in as Administrator of the Transvaal on March 4th, 1879, and during the very next month he begged Sir Bartle Frere, then in Natal, to come to Pretoria, and assist him in arranging affairs which were beginning to look serious. In fact from his arrival to his departure on April 8th, 1881, he was over-handicapped. Sir Owen Lanyon, to judge from his conduct in the Transvaal, seemed to think it necessary to remove all those who had supported Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and put his own men in their place.
The Hollanders, an important element, were exasperated by the removal of their countryman, Dr. Kissik, from the post of District Surgeon, to make room for an old Diamond Field favorite; the barristers were insulted by the appointment of an Attorney General ignorant of the Dutch language, and a man upon whom they looked down as merely a newspaper reporter, and an attorney’s clerk; and lastly, the entire country was aroused when, in face of direct promises to the contrary, Mr. De Wet, Recorder of Griqualand West, was raised to the post of Chief Justice over the head of Mr. Kotzé, who had the confidence and admiration of all parties.