Back 4d Future: The Establishment Of The Protectorate (Part 20) � �The Dikgosi Meet Rhodes�

On the day of their arrival at the Cape, the three received by telegraph news that the heir to the Barolong booRatshidi throne, Besele, accompanied by Stephen Lefenya, was on his way and expected to catch up with them the next day. Although the pair failed to arrive on the said date the Rev. Willoughby nonetheless booked two extra passages on the steamship RMS Tantallon Castle, which was scheduled to depart for Plymouth, England on  August 21, 1895.

On the 20th the three Dikgosi jointly met with the High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson, who tried to bully them into abandoning their travel plans. He demanded that they inform him of the exact purpose of their visit so that he could inform his superiors in the Colonial Office, while at the same time asserting that any political issues should be settled with him. He further observed, accurately, that the Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain was to go on extended leave and would thus not likely be available to see them.