collect all the king's revenues, including his concession revenues, for an
income of twelve thousand pounds a year.
By that time, the Transvaal government was determined to annex
Swaziland, as a step toward fulfilling the old voortrekker ambition to get
access to the sea. Transvaal and British representatives then settled the fate
of Swaziland in a series of negotiations without consulting the Swazi. In
1895, the Transvaal assumed control of Swaziland, but the British blocked
the Transvaal from the sea by annexing the coastal strip. Sevenyears later,
having conquered the Afrikaner republics, the British detached Swaziland
from the Transvaal and treated it as a separate colony, like Basutoland.
Unlike Basutoland, however, when a commission had sorted out the con-
flicting claims, Whites became the legal owners of nearly two-thirds of the
land in the Swazi kingdom.V
In the northern Transvaal, the Venda had held together in the face of
early Afrikaner encroachments by occupying the Soutpansberg Moun-
tains. In 1867 they had repulsed a commando led by Paul Kruger and
caused the Afrikaners to evacuate their settlements in the area. During the
1880s, however, Afrikaners began to reoccupy the vicinity, and in 1898 a