ABSTRACT
The main problems of the Cape Colony in 1841 were frontier problems. The Capetown petition of that year for a representative assembly was a mere isolated incident. Stanley inclined to Stephen’s view; but he held that the infractions of the treaties by the Kaffirs absolved the Government from the obligation of a strict adherence to them and gave it the right to insist on their modification; and Sir Peregrine Maitland, who went out in early in 1844 to succeed Napier, was authorized to modify them accordingly. In November 1837 the Boer leader Retief negotiated a large cession of territory with the Zulu chief Dingaan, and Retief’s murder in February 1838 and the Boer revenge at Blood River in December intensified their determination to keep the land.
