BACKGROUND
Chief Moshweshewe of Basutoland, wrote to the Sir George Grey, the governor of Britain's Cape Colony (modern-day Republic of South Africa), to ask for help dealing with descendants of Dutch settlers in the region. In 1858, these settlers, known as Boers were claiming parts of Basutoland as their own. Moshweshewe's letter is an appeal to Grey's sense of justice. He asks the governor to restore the lands to their rightful owners and to bring peace to the region.

LETTER:
Your Excellency—it may scarcely appear necessary to lay before Your Excellency any lengthened details of what has taken place between the Orange Free State and myself. I know that you have followed with interest the transactions which have led to the commencement [start] of hostilities, and you have heard with pain of the horrors occasioned by the war, at present suspended in the hopes that peace may be restored by Your Excellency's mediation [negotiation].

Allow me, however, to bring to your remembrance the following circumstances: About twenty-five years ago my knowledge of the White men and their laws was very limited. . . . People who had come from the Colony . . . called themselves Boers. I thought all white men were honest. Some of these Boers asked permission to live upon our borders. I was led to believe they would live with me as my own people lived, that is, looking to me as to a father and a friend….

Then came Sir Harry Smith, and he told me not to deprive any chief of their lands or their rights, he would see justice done to all, but in order to do so, he would make the Queen's Laws extend over every white man. He said the Whites and Blacks were to live together in peace. I could not understand what he would do. I thought it would be something very just, and that he was to keep the Boers in my land under proper control, and that I should hear no more of their claiming the places they lived on as their exclusive property. But instead of this, I now heard that the Boers consider all those farms as their own, and were buying and selling them one to the other, and driving out by one means or another my own people...

I tried my utmost to satisfy them and avert war …

I had given orders that no farms should be burnt, and my orders were obeyed till my people saw village after village burnt off, and the corn destroyed, they then carried destruction among the enemy's homes. On coming to my mountain, the Boers found I was prepared to check their progress, and they consequently retired. My intention was then to have followed them up, and to have shown them that my people could also carry on offensive operations, believing that having once experienced the horrors of war in their midst, I should not soon be troubled by them again. My bands were getting ready to make a descent upon them, when the Boers thought proper to make request for a cessation [end] of hostilities. I knew what misery I should bring upon the country by leaving the Basutos to ravage the Boer places, and therefore I have agreed to the proposal of Mr. J.P. Hoffman. I cannot say that I do with the consent of my people, for many of those who suffered by the enemy were anxious to recover their losses. If they have remained quiet, it has been owing to my persuasions and my promises that they might have good hope of justice – Your Excellency having consented to act as arbitrator between the Boers and Basutos. With the exception of soon meeting you, I remain, etc., etc.

Mark X of Moshweshewe, Chief of the Basutos.