Meanwhile, Sir George Grey had been distinguishing himself by a singularly wise administration between the years 1854 and 1859. He conciliated the Hottentots of the Colony by granting certain claims which had been long and fruitlessly pressed upon the authorities. He settled tor a time the native troubles in Kaffraria, and founded a great hospital for natives, in which, by 1890, more than 130,000 cases had been treated, and the resulting cures heralded in many corners of "Darkest Africa" as a proof of the Englishman's power and unexpected beneficence. He despatched troops to India at a critical period of the Mutiny and upon his own responsibility, settled the German Legion from the Crimea in the Colony, and brought out a number of German families for its members to marry into. Finally, during his first Governorship, he urged the union of the Legislatures of the Cape, Natal and Orange Free State in a common federal system, and at a time when the Free State might easily have been persuaded to accept the policy. But the Colonial Office would have none of it. Unfortunately, and to the lasting injury of South Africa, the Home Government distrusted him, and in 1858 he was recalled. [Sidenote: Sir George Grey Reappointed] The Derby Administration, however, met with defeat while Sir George Grey was on the sea, and when he reached London it was to find that he had been reappointed to his position. It long afterwards became known that this was done by the personal command of the Queen, who had appreciated the policy he pursued and had sympathized with his proposed federal scheme.[1] But despite this fact the new Government, as a whole, was so strongly opposed to the much-feared increase of responsibilities, under a federation in South Africa, that Sir George Grey was obliged to forego the hope of even attempting to carry his schema further. During his second administration, which only lasted until 1861, he entertained Prince Alfred (the Duke of Edinburgh), and traversed with him a great part of Cape Colony, Kaffraria and Natal; improved to an immense extent the splendid natural Harbor at Cape Town; visited the Orange Free State and established at Bloemfontein, as a token of friendship, the Grey Institute, in which so much has since been done for the higher education of the youth of that State. [Sidenote: Annexation of Basutoland] In 1861 he accepted the Governorship of New Zealand, and was succeeded by Sir P. E. Wodehouse, whose administration was chiefly distinguished for the annexation of Basutoland. In 1870 Sir Henry Barkly took charge of affairs and assumed possession for Great Britain of the Diamond Fields. With the coming of Sir Bartle Frere, in 1877, arose new developments along the lines of Sir George Grey's disappointed hopes and hampered policy. This time, however, a check was to be given from within the Colony instead of by the Colonial Office. The wheel of fate refused to reverse itself.