Afrikaner citizens. In January 1877, Shepstone entered the Transvaal with
a small police escort and settled in Pretoria. There he played a skillful
waiting game. Interviewing leading citizens, he exploited their fears of the
Zulu, their factionalism, and their dislike of President Burgers and de-
manded that the Volksraad make financial and administrative
reforms.
When it had done so, he declared that the reforms were not good enough.
The Volksraad eventually adjourned, and so demoralized were the citizens
that on April 12, 1877, Shepstone was able peacefully to proclaim the
Transvaal a British colony.
In Pretoria, nobody resisted annexation,
but in its final session the
Executive Council of the republic appointed
a delegation led by Paul
Kruger, the senior military officer of the republic,. to go to London and
protest. Refused an audience by Carnarvon, the delegation returned to the
Transvaal, organized petitions against the annexation signed by 6,591
Transvaalers, and traveled back to England, where Carnarvon's successor
in the Colonial Office declined to reopen the question. British officials,
meanwhile, had mismanaged the affairs of the Transvaal, alienating their
Afrikaner subjects and failing to create an effective coalition in support of
their administration.