In 1882 measures were passed in the Cape Parliament which gave equal rights throughout Cape Colony to the Dutch language. In the same year the “Afrikander Bond” was established, an institution with the avowed object of building up an Afrikander Dutch-speaking nation which should eventually be independent of the British flag. Its principal creators and supporters were Mr J. H. Hofmeyr of Cape Town, Mr Borckenhager of the Orange State, and Mr Reitz of the Transvaal. Measures for bringing about a federation of the British and Dutch states had failed (as will be subsequently narrated), and an annexation of the Transvaal had been reversed. British influence in South Africa seemed on the wane and the Dutch element in the ascendant. British missionaries during the thirties and forties had crossed the Orange river and settled in Bechuanaland, a sterile plateau between the Namakwa and Kalahari deserts on the one hand, and the relatively well-watered regions of the Transvaal and Matebeleland on the other. By 1851, British sportsmen, roving afield after big game, and the great missionary-explorer Livingstone had reached the Zambezi, which till then was only known from the sea upwards for about 500 miles inland. Livingstone’s exploration of the Zambezi attracted the attention of the British Government, which at that time was more interested (from philanthropic motives) in acquiring territories in Tropical Africa than in extending its influence over more valuable regions enjoying a temperate climate. Livingstone was sent back as a consul to the mouth of the Zambezi in 1858 with a well-equipped expedition to explore Zambezia and discover the reported Lake Nyasa, then known as Lake Maravi. For five years his expedition traversed these countries, adding immensely to our geographical knowledge; but its members suffered terribly from ill-health. Although the Portuguese treated them with kindness and put no obstacle in their way, still Portuguese political susceptibilities were aroused. For this and other reasons, Livingstone was recalled, and his proposals in regard to Lake Nyasa quashed. Nevertheless, the seed had been sown, and produced a sparse crop of adventurers, elephant hunters, missionaries and traders, who found their way to Nyasaland. Livingstone himself resumed his explorations there (in 1866); and an expedition, under Lieutenant Edward Young, R.N., which was sent to obtain news of him (1868), kept the British in favourable remembrance amongst the natives. Finally, Livingstone’s death revived missionary enthusiasm; and two strong Scotch missions in 1875-6 occupied the Shiré Highlands and the west coast of Lake Nyasa, putting a steamer on that lake. Two years later the African Lakes Trading Company sprang from missionary loins, and the