But with this exception the two Boer States are closely shut in by British colonies. Hence of necessity the British Empire must always have been profoundly interested in the internal condition of these two Dutch republics. Had they been peaceful and orderly States, as was the Orange Free State up to that evil day when it became demoralised by the gold lavished from the Transvaal secret service funds, they might have existed in perfect amity. Had they been content to accept things as they were, there could have been no quarrel. In the British colonies of Natal and Cape Colony, the one to the south-east of the Boer Republics, the other to the west and south-west, were many thousands of Dutch, closely connected by family and by race with the inhabitants of those republics. It was the one desire of the Government of the Transvaal to unite these Dutch against the English, and to sap their loyalty, though they had no grievances and had been given in every respect the same privileges as the Englishmen. No other theory will explain the conduct of the Transvaal. It had assumed the title of "South African Republic," and taken to itself a four-coloured flag as emblem of the future union of Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, and Natal under its sovereign influence. [Illustration: O'NEILL'S HOUSE. Temporary hospital for wounded men brought from Majuba; the house where the Anglo-Boer Convention was held in 1881 and the treaty signed.] [Illustration: O'NEILL'S HOUSE. The room in which the Convention of 1881 was signed.] [Illustration: VIEW ON THE ORANGE RIVER, FROM THE RAILWAY BRIDGE. The Orange River divides Cape Colony from the Orange Free State. This view is taken from a railway bridge connecting the two, and looking up stream. The Orange River is one of the few South African rivers that rarely, if ever, dries up.] [Sidenote: [1652-1709] The conflict of races in South Africa was complicated by the presence of the Bantu peoples, who gradually overcame the original inhabitants of South Africa, the Hottentots and Bushmen, and are themselves a conquering race, who increase in numbers with the peace which civilisation brings, and who do not suffer, as do many dark-skinned peoples, from the white man's vices and diseases.[1] [1] Bantu is the generic name for the native tribe, of which the Zulus, Swazies, Amatongas, and Matabele are the off-shoots. There are no pure Bantus left in South Africa, but it is the root-race from which all the more warlike tribes have sprung. [Sidenote: Common Interests of the White Peoples.]