The red tide of war surged backward and forward over the land in the ’sixties, and deeds of appalling cruelty were perpetrated. The Hereros fought to secure their independence from the Hottentots, and they were at length victorious, but a guerilla war again broke out in the ’seventies, and the country was in a state of chronic unsettlement. In 1868 the harassed missionaries connected with the Rhenish Missionary Society, whose stations were either plundered or destroyed during these wars, sent an urgent appeal to the British Government for intervention and requested that the whole of Hereroland should be “declared British territory, under British protection.” The appeal was backed up by Bismarck, but the Secretary of State for the Colonies was “unable to adopt the German views on the subject.” Efforts were made, however, to restore peace among the tribes by a special commissioner sent up from the Cape. The matter of annexation was not allowed to rest, and in 1875 the Cape Parliament passed a resolution in favour of the extension of the limits of the Colony so as to include Walvis Bay and as much country inland as it was considered expedient to acquire. With a view to ascertaining the feelings of the native chiefs in Namaqualand and Damaraland, Mr. W. C. Palgrave was sent on a commission of inquiry. He was cordially received by the chiefs, with whom he made treaties which placed the country under British jurisdiction, and he also arranged that a European magistrate or diplomatic adviser should reside among the people at Okahandja. The missionaries were in hearty agreement, as were the German and Swedish traders. Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor at the Cape, strongly favoured annexation, and urged it upon the Home Government, but all that they would agree to was the acquisition of Walvis Bay with some 400 miles of land around it. Formal possession of this area was taken in 1878. The Guano Islands off the coast, which had enjoyed an odorous celebrity for some time, had been annexed in 1867. Sir Bartle Frere renewed his representations at a latter time, but the British Government still adhered to the opinion that it was inexpedient to encourage any scheme of extension of territory in South-West Africa.