In a letter to Secretary Glenelg on 18 May 1838, Napier recommended that Port Natal be militarily occupied to protect the natives of Natal (the Zulus) from extermination or slavery by the Boers.[769] On 21 May 1838, he issued a public proclamation to the Boers: "His Excellency warns all those who have already emigrated or, may still be disposed to emigrate,... as her Majesty's subjects, that their migration into the interior cannot absolve them from their allegiance as British subjects...".[770]
