The first instalment of the trekkers into Mashonaland have reached
the Limpopo, and have been arrested and turned back by the "police "—that is, soldiers—of the South Africa Com- pany. It is assumed, therefore, that the plan of a great trek has been defeated without any effusion of blood; but that is surely a little premature. Independent pales would be sure to pre- cede a march of that kind; and if large numbers are interested, they will not be dismayed by the repulse of a hundred men. The real difficulty of the situation, moreover, will not arise until a body of trekkers resists the Mashonaland police, and is repulsed with a greater or smaller loss of life. It is in the irritation which such an incident may create, and which may call all the more warlike Boers to arms, that the danger of the position consists. If they bear to be beaten, the "inde- pendence" of the Dutch in the Transvaal is clearly at an end.
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