On the initiation of Native "own-laws" policy in Natal, the Imperial Government took steps to see that it was followed in the letter as well as in the spirit. The officer selected as the principal exponent thereof was Theophilus Shepstone, a young man of but twenty-eight years of age, who, having arrived in the Cape Colony with his father in 1820, with the Albany Settlers, had lived nearly the whole of his life in Native areas north-east of Grahamstown. The proficiency attained by him in the Native dialects was remarkable, so much so, that he was able, on the one hand, materially to assist the Rev. W.B. Boyce in discovering the underlying philological principle of the Bantu languages known as the _euphonic concord_, and, on the other, to be employed by the Imperial Government in the Cape Colony at the age of eighteen as interpreter and negotiator of treaties with important Native Chiefs, during a critical period. No more competent officer could have been found for the post of Diplomatic Agent, as it was at first called, especially as he had recently and for seven years been in personal charge at Peddie of various Zulu tribes--locally known as amaMfengu or Fingos--who had, since 1820, been driven out of Natal and Zululand by Tshaka and Dingana's inhuman tactics. The story of Shepstone's early connection with the tribes on the then eastern frontiers of the Cape Colony is itself matter of history, and we cannot stay to consider it, it being enough to note the experience brought by this brilliant young officer to the discharge of the peculiarly difficult duties of his new post.[26] Shortly after his arrival, he, along with Dr. William Stanger, Lieutenant Charles J. Gibb, R.E., and Messrs. N. Adams and D. Lindley (American Missionaries), were commissioned to lay off tracts of country known as "locations," suitable for Native occupation, and conveniently situated in respect of areas inhabited, or in the near future to be inhabited, by Europeans.[27] At first, six or seven locations of about 50,000 acres each, were laid off, followed later on by others, until, in 1906, the aggregate area so set apart amounted to 2,262,066 acres. Arrangements were made for the whole of these lands to be vested in trustees appointed under Letters Patent.[28] A singularly wise provision by the Imperial Government was that such trustees should be the officer-administering-the-government for the time being, together with the members of the executive council. By this means, Native interests were effectually protected against any pressure that might be brought on the Government in the future by would-be European or Asiatic purchasers.