Already the settlers were showing that independence of control and that detachment from Europe which has been their most prominent characteristic.

Even the sway of the Dutch Company (an older but weaker brother of John Company in India) had caused them to revolt.
The local rising, however, was hardly noticed in the universal cataclysm which followed the French Revolution.

After twenty years, during which the world was shaken by the Titanic struggle between England and France in the final counting up of the game and paying of the stakes, the Cape Colony was added in 1814 to the British Empire.
In all our vast collection of States there is probably not one the title-deeds to which are more incontestable than to this one.

We had it by two rights, the right of conquest and the right of purchase.

In 1806 our troops landed, defeated the local forces, and took possession of Cape Town.