Preface.
The preparation of a history of South Africa has occupied my almost undivided attention during the last fifty years. I kept it constantly in view while connected in different capacities with Bantu tribes, and while keeper of the archives of the Cape Colony and subsequently I have made the closest possible research among official documents of all kinds. Of printed books upon the country I have one of the best collections in existence, and though I have not made many extracts from them, they have often served me as guides. To the utmost of human ability I have striven to write without fear, favour, or prejudice, to do equal justice to all with whom I had to deal. I can, therefore, without laying myself open to the accusation of vanity, place my work confidently before the public as not alone the only detailed history of South Africa yet prepared, but as a true and absolutely unbiassed narrative.
