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IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA BY JAMES BRYCE AUTHOR OF "'the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE," "TRANSCAUCASIA AND ARAKAT," "the AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH," BTC. With Three Maps. THIRD EDITION, REVISED THROUGHOUT WITH A NEW PREFATORY CHAPTER. AND WITH THE TRANSVAAL CONVENTIONS OF 1881 AND 1884. TORONTO : WILLIAM BRIGGS 1900. AU rightt reserved. J /r.> ri^ TO THE COMPANION OF MY JOURNEY y * » PREFATORY CHAPTER i k I i r This new edition has been carefully revised through- out, and, as far as possible, brought up to date by noting, in their proper places, the chief events of importance that have occurred since the book first appeared. In the historical chapters, however, and in those which deal with recent politics, no changes have been made save such as were needed for the correction of one or two slight errors of fact, and for the mention of new facts, later in date than the first edition. I have left the statements of my own views exactly as they were first written, even where I thought that the form of a statement might be verbally improved, not only because I still adhere to those views, but also because I desire it to be clearly understood that they were formed and expressed before the events of the last few months, and without any reference to the controversies of the moment. When the first edition of the book was published (at the end of 1897) there was strong reason to believe as well as to hope that a race conflict in South Afiica would be avoided, and that the political problems it presents, acute as they had become early in 1896, would be solved in a peaceable way. To this belief and ▼iii PREFATORY CHAPTER hope I gave expression in the concluding chaptorof the book, indicating " tact, coolness and patience, above all, patience," as the qualities needed to attain that result which all friends of the country must unite in de- siring. Now, however, (October 1899), Britain and her South African Colonies and territories find them- selves at war with the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. A new chapter is opened in the history of the country which completely alters the situation, and must necessarily leave things very different from what it found them. Readers of this new edition may reasonably expect to find in it some account of the events which have within the last two years led up to this catastrophe, or at any rate some estimate of that conduct of affairs by the three governments concerned which has brought about a result all three ought to have sought to avert. There are, however, conclusive reasons against at- tempting to continue down to the outbreak of the war (October 11th) the historical sketch given in Chapters II to XII. The materials for the historian are still scanty and imperfect, leaving him with data scarcely sufficient for judging the intention and motives with which some things were done. Round the acts and words of the representatives of the three governments concerned, there rages such a storm of controversy, that whoever places a particular construction upon those acts and words must need support his construction by citations from documents and arguments based on those citations. To do this would need a space much larger than I can command. The most PREFATORY OHAFfER serious difficulty, however, is that when events are close to us and excite strong feelings, men distrust the im- partiality of a historian even when he does his best to be impartial. I shall not, therefore, attempt to write a history of the last two fateful years, but content my- self first, with calling the reader's attention to a few salient facts that have occurred since 1896, and to some aspects of the case which have been little consiaered in England ; and secondly, with describing as clearly and estimating as cautiously as I can, the forces that have worked during those years with such swift and deadly effect. Some of these facts may be dismissed with a word or two, because they lie outside the present crisis. One is the entrance of the Colony of Natal into the South African Customs Union, an event which created one uniform tariff system for the whole of British and Dutch South Africa except the Transvaal. Another is the extension of the two great lines of railway from the coast into the interior. This extension has given Bulawayo and Matabililand a swift and easy com- munication with Cape Town, thereby strengthening immensely the hold of Britain upon the interior, and lessening any risk that might be feared of future native risings. It has also opened up a new and quick route from the coast of the Indian Ocean at Beira into the heart of Mashonaland, and brought the construction of a railway &om Mashonaland across the Zambesi to Lake Tanganyika within the horizon of practicable enter- prises. A scheme of government has been settled for the territories of the British South Africa Company south of the Zambesi (Southern Rhodesia), which is PREFATORY CHAPTER now at work. The prospects of gold mining in that region are believed to have improved, and the increase of gold production in the mines of the Witwatersrand has proved even more rapid than was expected in 1896. An agreement has been concluded between Britain and the German Empire relating to their interests on the soast of the Indian Ocean, which, though its terms have not been disclosed, is generally understood to have removed an obstacle which might have been feared to the acquisition by Britain of such rights at Delagoa Bay as she may be able to obtain from Portugal, and to have withdrawn from the South African Republic any hope that State might have cherished of support from Germany in the event of a breach with Britain. These events, however, great as is their bearing on the future, are of less present moment than those which have sprung from Dr. Jameson's expedition into the Transvaal in December, 1895, and the internal troubles in that State which caused and accompanied his enterprise. It rekindled race feeling all over South Africa, and has had the most disastrous effects upon every part of the country. To understand these effects it is necessary to understand the state of opinion in the British Colonies and in the two Republics before it took place. Let us examine these communities separately. In Cape Colony and Natal there was before December, 1895, no hostility at all between the British and the Dutch elements. Political parties in Cape Colony were, in a broad sense, British and Dutch, but the dis- tinction was really based not so much on racial differ- ences as on economic interests. The rural element PREFATORY CHAPTER which desired a protective tariff and lawB regulating native labour, was mainly Dutch, the commercial ele- ment almost wholly British. Mr. Rhodes, the embodi- ment of British Imperialism, was Prime Minister through the support of the Dutch element and the Africander Bond. Englishmen and Dutchmen were everywhere in the best social relations. The old blood sympathy of the Dutch element for the Transvaal Boers which had been so strongly manifested in 1881, when the latter were struggling for their independence, had been supersede , or at least thrown into the background, by displeasure at. the unneighbourly policy of the Trans- vaal Government in refusing public employment to Cape Dutchmen as well as to Englishmen, and in throwing obstacles in the way of trade in agricultural products. This displeasure culminated when the Transvaal Government, in the summer of 1895, closed the Drifts (fords) on the Vaal River, to the detri- ment of imports from the Colony and the Orange Free State. In the Orange Free State there was, as has been pointed out in Chapter XIX., perfect good feeling and cordial co-operation in all public matters between the Dutch and the English elements. There was also perfect friendliness to Britain, the old grievances of the Diamond Fields dispute (see page 144) and of the arrest of the Free State conquest of Basutoland having been virtually forgotten. Towards the Transvaal there was a political sympathy based partly on kinship, partly on a similarity of republican institutions. But there was also some annoyance at the policy which the Transvaal Government, and especially its Hollander XII PREFATORY CHAPTER advisers, were pursuing ; coupled with a desire to see reforms effected in the Transvaal, and the franchise granted to immigrants on more liberal terms. Of the Transvaal itself I need say the less, because its condition is fully described in Chapter XXV. There was of course much irritation among the Uitlanders of English and Colonial stock, with an arrogant refusal on the part of the ruling section and the more extreme old-fashioned Boers to admit the claims of these new-comers. But there was also a party among the burghers, important more by the character and ability of its members than by its numbers, yet grow- ing in influence, which desired reform, perceived that the existing state of things could not continue, and was ready to join the Uitlanders in agitating for sweeping changes in the Constitution and in administration. The events of December, 1895, changed the face of things swiftly and decisively in all these communities. In Cape Colony Dutch feeling, which as a political force was almost expiring, revived at once. The un- expected attack on the Transvaal evolved an outburst of sympathy for it, in which the faults of its govern- ment were forgotten. Mr. Rhodes retired from office. The reconstructed Ministry which succeeded fell in 1898, and a new Ministry supported by the Africander Bond came into power after a general election. Its majority was narrow, and was accused of not fairly representing the country, owing to the nature of the electoral areas. A Redistribution Bill was passed by a species of compromise, and in the elections to the new constituencies which followed the Dutch party slightly increased its majority, and kept its Cabinet PREFATORY CHAPTER xiii (in /fhich, however, men of Dutch blood are & minority) in power. Party feeling, both inside and ontside the legislature, became, and has remained, extremely strong on both sides. The English gener- ally have rallied to and acclaim Mr. Rhodes, whose connection with Dr. Jameson's expedition has made him the special object of Dutch hostility. There is, according to the reports which reach England, no longer any moderating third party: all are violent partisans. Nevertheless — and this is a remarkable and most encouraging fact — this violence did not diminish the warmth with which the whole Assembly testified its loyalty and affection towards the Queen on the occasion of the completion of the sixtieth year of her reign in 1897. And the Bond Ministry of Mr. Schreiner proposed and carried by a unanimous vote a grant of £30,000 per annum as a contribution by the Colony to the naval defence of the Empire, leaving the application of this sum to the unfettered discretion of the British Admiralty. In the Orange Free State the explosion of Dutch sentiment was still stronger. Its first result was seen in the election of a President. In November, 1895, two candidates for the vacant office had come forward, and their chances were deemed to be nearly equal. When the news of the Jameson expedition was received, the chance of the candidate of British stock vanished. Since then, though there was not (so far as I gather) down till the last few weeks any indication of hostility to Britain, much less any social friction with- in the State, a disposition to draw closer to the threatened sister Republic showed itself at once. This XIV PREFATORY CHAPTER ,. led to the conclusion of a defensive alliance between the Free State and the Transvaal, whereby either bound itself to defend the other, if unjustly attacked. (The Transvaal is believed to have suggested, and the Free State to have refused, a still closer union.) As the Orange Free State had no reason to fear an attack, just or unjust, from any quarter, this was a voluntary undertaking on its part, with no correspond- ing advantage, of what might prove a dangerous liability, and it furnishes a signal proof of the love of independ- ence which animates this little community. We come now to the Transvaal itself. In that State the burgher party of constitutional reform was at once silenced, and its prospect of usefulness blighted. So, too, the Uitlander agitation was extinguished. The Reform leaders were in prison or in exile. The passionate anti-English feeling, and the dogged refusal to consider reforms, which had characterized the ex- treme party among the Boers, were intensified. The influence of President Kruger, more than once threat- ened in the years immediately preceding, was immensely strengthened. The President and his advisers had a golden oppor- tunity before them of using the credit and power which the failure of the Rising and the Expedition of 1895 had given them. They ought to have seen that magnanimity would also be wisdom. They ought to have set about a refjrm of the administration and to have proposed p. moderate enlargement of the franchise such as would have admitted enough of the new settlers to give them a voice, yet not enough to involve any sudden transfe" of legislative or execu- 1 5 ; PREFATORY CHAPTER XV tive power. Whether the qentiment of the Boers generally would have enabled the President to extend the franchise may be doubtful ; but he could at any rate have tried to deal with the more flagrant abuses of administration. However, he attempted neither. The abuses remained, and though a Commission re- ported on some of them, and suggested important reforms, no action was taken. The weak point of the Constitution (as to which see p. 152) was the power which the legislature apparently possessed of interfering with vested rights, and even with pend- ing suits, by a resolution having the force of law. This was a defect due, not to any desire to do wrong, but to the inexperience of those who had originally framed the Constitution, and to the want of legal knowledge and skill among those who had worked it, and was aggravated by the fact that the legislature consisted of one Chamber only, which was naturally led to legislate by way of resolution (besluit) because the process of passing laws in the stricter sense of the term involved a tedious and cumbrous process of bring- ing them to the knowledge of the peopi. throughout the country. Upon this point there arose a dispute with the Chief Justice which led to the dismissal of that official and one of his colleagues, a dispute which could not be explained here without entering upon technical details. There is no reason to think that the President's action was prompted by any wish to give the legislature the means of wronging individuals, nor has evidence been produced to show that its powers have been in fact (at least to any material extent) 80 used. The matter cannot be fairly judged without gT XVI PREFATORY CHAPTER considering the peculiar character of the Transvaal Constitution, for which the President is nowise to blame, and the statements often made in this country that the subjection of the judiciary to the legislature destroys the security of property are much exagge- rated, for property has been, in fact, secure. It was, nevertheless, an error not to fry to retain a man so much respected as the Chief Justice, and not to fulfil the promise given to Sir Henry de Villiers (who had been invoked as mediator) that the judiciary should be placed m a more assured position. The idea which seems to have filled the President's mind was that force was the only remedy. The Republic was, he thought, sure to be again attacked from within or from without ; and the essential thing was to strengthen its military resources for defence, while retaining political power in the hands of the burghers. Accordingly, the fortifications already begun at Pretoria were pushed on, a strong fort was erected to command Johannesburg, and munitions of war were imported in very large quantities, while the Uitlanders were debarred from possessing arms. Such pre- cautions were natural. Any government which had been nearly overthrown, and expected another attack, would have done the like. But these measures of course incensed the Uitlanders, who saw that another insurrection would have less chance of success than the last, and resented the inferiority implied in disarmament, as Israel resented the similar policy pursued by the Philistine princes. The capitalists also, an important factor by their wealth and by their power of influencing opinion in Europe, were angry PREFATORY CHAPTER xvii and restless, because the prospect of securing reforms which would reduce the cost of working the gold reefs became more remote. This was the condition of things in the two Re- publics and the British Colonies when the diplomatic controversy between the Imperial Government and the South African Republic, which had been going on ever since 1895, passed in the early summer of 1899 into a more acute phase. The beginning of that phase co- incided, as it so happened, with the expiry of the period during which the leaders of the Johannesburg rising of 1895 had promised to abstain from interference in politics, and the incident out of which it grew was the presentation to the Queen (in March 1899), through the High Commissioner, of a petition from a large number of British residents on the Witwatersrand complaining of the position in which they found them- selves. The situation soon became one of great tension, owing to the growing passion of the English in South Africa and the growing suspicion on the part of the Transvaal Boers. But before we speak of the negotiations, let us consider for a moment what was the position of the two parties to the controversy. The position of the Transvaal Government, although (as will presently appear) it had some measure of legal strength, was, if regarded from the point of view of actual facts, logically indefensible and materially dangerous. It was not, indeed, the fault of that Government that the richest goldfield in the world had been discovered in its territory, nor would it have been possible for the Boers, whatever they might have wished, to prevent the mines from being worked and the miners from h xviii PREFATORY CHAPTER streaming in. But the course they took was con- demned from the first to failure. They desired to have the benefit of the gold-mines while yet retaining their old ways of life, not seeing that the two things were incompatible. Moreover, they — or rather the President and his advisers — committed the fatal mistake of trying to maintain a government which was at the same time undemocratic and incompetent. If it had been representative of the whole mass of the inhabitants it might have ventured, like the govern- ments of some great American cities, to disregard both purity and efficiency. If, on the other hand, it had been a vigorous and skilful government, giving to the inhabitants the comforts and conveniences of municipal and industrial life at a reasonable charge, the narrow electoral basis on which it rested would have remained little more than a theoretic grievance, and the bulk of the people would have cared nothing for political rights. An exclusive government may be pardoned if it is efficient, an inefficient government if it rests upon the people. But a government which is both ineffi- cient and exclusive incurs a weight of odium under which it must ultimately sink ; and this was the kind of government which the Transvaal attempted to main- tain. They ought, therefore, to have either extended their franchise or reformed their administration. They would not do the former, lest the new burghers should swamp the old ones, and take the control out of Boer hands. They were unfit to do the latter, be- cause they had neither knowledge nor skill, so that even had private interests not stood in the way, they would have failed to create a proper administration. I ■! PREFATORY CHAPTER lit It was the ignorance, as well as the exclusive spirit of the Transvaal authorities, which made them unwilling to yield any more than they might be forced to yield to the demand for reform. The position in which Britain stood needs to be examined from two sides, its legal right of inter- ference, and the practical considerations which justified interference in this particular case. Her legal right rested on three grounds. The first was the Convention of 1884 (printed in the Appendix to this volume), which entitled her to complain of any infraction of the privileges thereby guaranteed to her subjects. The second was the ordinary right, which every State possesses, to complain, and (if necessary) intervene when its subjects are wronged, and especially when they suffer any disabilities not imposed upon the subjects of other States. The third right was more difficult to formulate. It rested on the fact that as Britain was the greatest power in South Africa, owning the whole country south of the Zambesi except the two Dutch Republics (for the deserts of German Damaraland and the Portu- guese East-coast territories may be practically left out of account), she was interested in preventing any causes of disturbance within the Transvaal which might spread beyond its borders, and become sources of trouble either among natives or among white men. This right was of a vague and indeterminate nature, and could be legitimately used only when it was plain that the sources of trouble did really exist and were becoming dangerous. b 2 I XX PREFATORY CHAPTER Was there not also, it may be asked, the suzerainty of Britain, and if so, did it not justify intervention ? I will not discuss the question, much debated by English lawyers, whether the suzerainty over the " Transvaal State," mentioned in the preamble to the Convention of 1881, was preserved over the " South African Re- public " by the Convention of 1884, not because I have been unable to reach a conclusion on the subject, but because the point seems to be one of no practical importance. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that there is a suzerainty, it is perfectly clear from an examination of the Conventions and of the nego- tiations of 1884 that this suzerainty relates solely to foreign relations, and has nothing whatever to do with the internal constitution or government of the Transvaal. The significance of the term — if it be carried over and read into the Convention of 1884 — is exhausted by the provision in Article IV of that instrument for the submission of treaties to the British Government. No argument, accordingly, for any right of interference as regards either the political arrangements of the Transvaal or the treat- ment of foreigners within its borders, can be founded on this real or supposed suzerainty. This view had been too frequently and too clearly expressed by the British Government before 1896, to make it possible for any British official to attempt to put any such construction upon the term ; and the matter might therefore have been suffered to drop, since the right to veto treaties was explicit, and did not need to be supported by an appeal to the pre- amble of 1881. The term, however, though useless to PREFATORY CHAPTER XXI Britain, was galling to the Transvaal, which suspected that it would be made a pretext foi infringements upon their independence in internal affairs ; and these suspicions were confirmed by the talk of the Uitlander spokeiimen in Johannesburg, who were in the habit of appealing to Britain as the Suzerain Power. It has played a most unfortunate part in the whole con- troversy. Suzerainty, which is a purely legal, though somewhat vague, conception, has in many minds become confused with the practical supremacy, or rather predominance, of Britain in South Africa, which is a totally different matter. That predominance rests on the fact that Britain commands the resources of a great empire, while the Dutch republics are petty communities of ranchmen. But it does not carry any legal rights of interference, any more than a preponderance of force gives Germany rights against Holland. As I have referred to the Convention of 1884, it may be well to observe that while continuing to be- lieve that, on a review of the facts as they then stood, the British Government were justified in restoring self-government to the Transvaal in 1881, they seem to me to have erred in conceding the Convention of 1884. Though the Rand goldfields had not then been discovered. Lord Derby ought to have seen that the relations of the Transvaal to the adjoining British territories would be so close that a certain measure of British control over its internal administration might come to be needful. This control, which was indeed but slight, he surrendered in 1884. But the im- providence of the act does not in the least diminish xxil PREFATORY CHAPTER the duty of the country which made the Convention to abide by its terms, or relieve it from the obligation of making out for any subsequent interference a basis of law and fact which the opinion of the world might accept as sufficient. It has not been sufficiently realised in England that although the Transvaal may properly, in respect of British control over its foreign relations, be described as a semi-dependent State, Britain was under the same obligation to treat it with a strict regard to the recog- nised principles of international law as if it had been a great power. She had made treaties with it, and those treaties it was her duty to observe. Apart from all moral or sentimental considerations, apart from the fact that Britain had at the Hague Conference been the warm and efifective advocate of peaceful methods of settling disputes between nations, it is her truest in- terest to set an example of fairness, legality and sincerity. No country, not even the greatest, can aflford to neglect that reasonable and enlightened opinion of thoughtful men in other countries — not to be confounded with the invective and misrepresen- tation employed by the press of each nation against the others — which determines the ultimate judgment of the world, and passes into the verdict of history. Did then the grievances of which the British resi- dents in the Transvaal complained furnish such a basis ? These grievances are well known, and will be found mentioned in chapter XXV. They were real and vexatious. It is true that son.cj of them affected not so much British residents as the European share- holders in the great mining companies ; true also that PREFAIORY CHAPTER xxiii ition ition Jasis light the mining industry (as will be seen from the figures on p. 301 ) was expanding and prospering in spite of them. Furthermore, they were grievances under which, it might be argued, the immigrants had placed themselves by coming with notice of their existence, and from which they might escape by taking a train into the Free State or Natal. And they were grievances which, however annoying, did not render either life or property unsafe,^ and did not prevent the Johannesburgers from enjoying life and acquiring wealth. Nevertheless, they were such as the British Government was entitled to endeavour to have redressed. Nor could it be denied that the state of irritation and unrest which prevailed on the Wit- watersrand, the probability that another rising would take place whenever a chance of success offered, furnished to Britain, interested as she was in the general peace of the country, a ground for firm re- monstrance and for urging the removal of all legiti- mate sources of disaflfection, especially as these re-acted on the whole of South Africa. The British authorities at the Cape seem indeed to have thought that the unyielding attitude of the Transvaal Govern- ment worked much mischief in the Colony, being taken by the English there as a defiance to the power and influence of Britain, and so embittering their minds. Among the grievances most in men's mouths was ^ Whatever may be thought as to the much controverted Edgar case, the fact that such special stress has been laid on it, and that few, if any, other cases have been instanced in which crimes against Uitlanders went unpunished, goes to show that life was exposed only to those dangers which threaten it in all new mining communities. XXIV PREFATORY CHAPTER the exclusion of the new-oomers from the electoral franchise. It must be clearly distinguished from the other grievances. It was a purely internal affair, in which Britain had no right to intermeddle, either under the Convention of 1884 or under the general right of a state to protect its subjects. Nothing is clearer than that every state may extend or limit the suffrage as it pleases. If a British self-governing colony were to restrict the suffrage to those who had lived fourteen years in the oolony, or a state of the American Union were to do the like, neither the Home Government in the one case, nor the Federal Govern- ment in the other would have any right to interfere. All therefore that Britain could do was to call the attention of the South African Republic in a friendly way to the harm which the restriction of the franchise was causing, and point out that to enlarge it might remove the risk of a collision over other matters which did fall within the scope of British intervention. We are therefore, on a review of the whole position, led to conclude that Britain was justified in requiring the Transvaal Government to redress the grievances (other than the limited suffrage) which were com- plained of. Whether she would be justified in pro- ceeding to enforce by arms compliance with her demand, would of course depend upon several things, upon the extent to which the existence of the griev- ances could be disproved, upon the spirit in which the Transvaal met the demand, upon the amount of concessions offered or amendment promised. But before the British Government entered on a course which might end in war, if the Transvaal should prove PaKFATORY CHAPTER XXV Jtoral the . in intractable, there were some considerations which it was bound seriously to weigh. One of these was the time for entering on a con- troversy. The Jameson invasion was only three years old ; and the passions it evoked had not subsided. In it British officers, and troops flying the British flag, if not Britain herself, had been wrongdoers. Suspicions of British good faith were known to pervade the Boer mind, and would give an ominous colour to every demand coming from Britain. The lapse of time might diminish these suspicions, and give to negotiations a better prospect of success. Time, more- over, was likely to work against the existing system of the Transvaal. Bad governments carry the seeds of their own dissolution. The reforming party among the Transvaal burghers would gain strength, and try to throw off the existing rSgime. The President was an old man, whose retirement from power could not be long delayed ; and no successor would be able to hold together as he had done the party of resistance to reform. In the strife of factions that would follow his retirement reform was certain to have a far better chance than it could have had since 1895. In fact, to put it shortly, all the natural forces were working for the Uitlanders, and would either open the way for their admission to a share in power, or else make the task of Britain easier by giving her less united and therefore less formidable antagonists. These considera- tions counselled a postponement of the attempt to bring matters to a crisis. In the second place the British Government had to remember the importance of carrying the opinion of XXVI PREFATORY CHAPTER the Dutch in Cape Colony, and, as far as possible, even of the Orano;e Free State, with them in any action they might take. It has been pointed out how before December, 1895, that opinion blamed the Transvaal Government for its unfriendly treatment of the immi- grants. The Dutch of both communities had nothing to gain and something to lose by the maladministration of the Transvaal, so that they were nowise disposed to support it in refusing reforms. The only thing that would make them rally to it would be a menace to its independence, regarding which they, and especially the Free State people, were extremely sensitive. Plainly, therefore, unless the colonial Dutch were to be in- censed and the Free State men turned to enemies, such a menace was to be avoided. Finally, the British authorities were bound to make sure, not only that they had an adequate casus belli which they could present to their own people and to the world, but also that the gain to be expected from immediately redressing the grievances of the Uitlander outweighed the permanent evils war would entail. Even where, according to the usage of nations, a just cause for war exists, even where victory in the war may be reckoned "on, the harm to be expected may be greater than the fruits of victory. Here the harm was evident. The cost of equipping a large force and transporting it across many thousand miles of sea was the smallest part of the harm. The alienation of more than half the population of Cape Colony, the destruction of a peace- ful and prosperous Republic with which Britain had no quarrel, the responsibility for governing the Trans- vaal when conquered, with its old inhabitants bit- PREFATORY CHAPTER xxvu ; >e in- I, such make '> belli id to from tnder itail. just may ater ent. ? it >art the ce- lad 18- it- • terly hostile, these were evils so grave, that the benefits to be secured to the Uitlanders might well seem small in comparison. A nation is, no doubt, bound to protect its subjects. But it could hardly be said that the hardships of this group of subjects, which did not prevent others from flocking into the country, and which were no worse than they had been for some time previously, were such as to forbid the exercise of a little more patience. It was said by the war party among the English in South Africa that patience was being mistaken for weakness, and that the credit of Britain was being lowered all over the world, and even among the peoples of India, hy her for- bearance towards the Transvaal. Absurd as this notion may appear, it was believed by heated partizans on the spot. But outside Africa, and especially in Europe, the forbearance of one of the four greatest Powers in the world towards a community of seventy thousand people was in no danger of being misunderstood. Whether the force of these considerations, obvious to every unbiased mind which had some knowledge of South Africa, was fully realized by those who directed British policy, or whether, having realized their force, they nevertheless judged war the better alternative, is a question on which we are still in the dark. It is possible — and some of the language used by the British authorities may appear to suggest this explanation — that they entered on the negotiations which ended in war in thQ ^belief that an attitude of menace would suffice to extort submission, and being unable to recede from that attitude, found themselves drawn on to a result which they had neither desired nor contemplated. XXV iii PREFATORY CHAPTER Be this as it may, the considerations above stated prescribed the use of prudent and (as far as possible) conciliatory methods in their diplomacy, as well as care in selecting a position which would supply a legal justification for war, should war be found the only issue. This was the more necessary because the Boers were known to be intensely suspicious. Every weak power trying to resist a stronger one must needs take refuge in evasive and dilatory tactics. Such had been, such were sure to be, the tactics of the Boers. But the Boers were also very distrustful of the English Govern- ment, believing it to aim at nothing less than the annexation of their country. It may seem strange to Englishmen that the purity of their motives and the disinterestedness of their efforts to spread good govern- ment and raise others to their own level should be doubted. But the fact is — and this goes to the root of the matter — that the Boers have regarded the policy of Britain towards them as a policy of violence and duplicity. They recall how Natal was conquered from them in 1842, after they had conquered it from the Zulus; how their country was annexed in 1877, how the promises made at the time of that annexation were broken. They were not appeased by the retro- cession of 1881, which they ascribed solely to British fear of a civil war in South Africa. It should more- over be remembered, — and this is a point which few people in England do remember — that they hold the annexation to have been an act of high-handed lawless- ness done in time of peace, and have deemed them- selves entitled to be replaced in the position their PREFATORY CHAPTER XXIX republic held before 1877, under the Sand River Con- vention of 1852. Since the invasion of December 1896, they have been more suspicious than ever, for they believe the British Government to have had a hand in that attempt, and they think that influential capital- ists have been sedulously scheming against them. Their passion for independence is something which we in modern Europe find it hard to realise. It recalls the long struggle of the Swiss for freedom in the fourteenth century, or the fierce tenacity which the Scotch showed in the same age in their resistance to the claim of England to be their " Suzerain Power." This passion was backed by two other sentiments, an exaggerated estimate o'" their own strength and a reli- ance on the protecting hand of Providence, fitter for the days of the Maccabees or of Cromwell than for our own time, but which will appear less strange if the perils through which their nation had passed be remembered. These were the rocks among which the bark of British diplomacy had to be steered. They were, how- ever, rocks above water, so it might be hoped that war could be avoided and some valuable concession secured. To be landed in war would obviously be as groat a failure as to secure no concession. Instead of demanding the removal of the specific grievances whereof the Uitlanders complained, the British Government resolved to endeavour to obtain for them an easier acquisition of the electoral franchise and rn ampler representation in the legislature. There was much to be said for this course. It would avoid the tedious and vexatious controversies that must have XXX PREFATORY CHAPTER arisen over the details of the grievances. It would (in the long run) secure reform in the best way, viz., by the action of public spirit and enlightenment within the legislature. It would furnish a basis for union between the immigrants and the friends of good govern- ment among the burghers themselves, and so conduce to the future peace of the community. There was, however, one material condition, a condition which might prove to be an objection, affecting the resort to it. Since the electoral franchise was a matter entirely within the competence of the South African Republic, Britain must, if she desired to abide by the principles of international law, confine herself to recommendation and advice. She had no right to demand, no right to insist that her advice should be followed. She could not compel compliance by force, nor even by the threat of using force. In other words, a refusal to enlarge the franchise would not furnish any cashes belli. This course having been adopted, the negotiations entered on a new phase with the Conference at Bloem- fontein, where President Kruger met the British High Commissioner. Such a direct interchange of views between the leading representatives of two Powers may often be expedient, because it helps the parties to get sooner to close quarters with the substantial points of diflference, and so facilitates a compromise. But its utility depends on two conditions. Either the basis of discussion should be arranged beforehand, leaving only minor matters to be adjusted, or else the proceedings should be informal and private. At Bloemfontein neither condition existed. No basis had been pre- viously arranged. The Conference was formal and watc coui Bloe its furtl PREFATORY CHAPTER XXXI (although the press were not admitted) virtually public, each party speaking before the world, each watched and acclaimed by its supporters over the country. The eyes of South Africa were fixed on Bloemfontein, so that when the Conference came to its unfruitful end, the two parties were practically further off than before, and their failure to agree ac- centuated the bitterness both of the Transvaal Boers and of the English party in the Colonies. To the more extreme men among the latter this result was welcome. There was already a war party in the Colony, and voices clamorous for war were heard in the English press. Both then and afterwards every check to the negotiations evoked a burst of joy from organs of opinion at home and in the Cape, whose articles were unfortu- nately telegraphed to Pretoria. Worse still, the cry of " Avenge Majuba " was frequently heard in the Colonies, and sometimes even in England. The story of the negotiations which followed during the months of July, August and September, cannot be told fully here, because it is long and intricate, nor summarized, because the fairness of any summary not supported by citations would be disputed. There are, however, some phenomena in the process of drifting towards war which may be concisely noticed. One of these is that the contending parties were at one moment all but agreed. The Transvaal Govern- ment offered to give the suffrage afterfive years residence (which was what had been asked by the High Com- missioner at Bloemfontein) coupled with certain con- ditions, which had little importance, and were after- wards so explained as to have even less. This was, from their point of view, a great concession, one to xxxn PREFATORY CHAPTER which they expected opposiiiuii rioin the more con- servative section of their own burghers. The British negotiators, though they have since stated that they meant substantially to accept this proposal, sent a reply whose treatment of the conditions was understood as a refusal, and which appeared to raise further questions ; and when the Transvaal went back to a previous offer, which had previously been held to furnish a basis for agreement, the British Government declined to recur to that basis, as being no longer tenable after the later offer. The Boers, who had expected (from informal communications) that the five years offer would be readily accepted, seem to have thought that there was no longer any chance of a settlement, because fresh demands would follow each concession. They ought, however, to have persevered with their five years offer, which they could the more easily have done because they had tacitly dropped the unsustainable claim to be a " sovereign and independent state," and expressed themselves ready to abide by the Convention of 1884. The British Government, on its part, would seem to have thought, when the five years offer was withdrawn because the conditions attached to it were not accepted, that the Boers had been trifling with them, and resolved to exact all they demanded, even though less than all would have represented a diplo- matic victory. Thus a conflict was precipitated which a more cautious and tactful policy might have avoided. The controversy continued through three months to turn on the question of the franchise, nor were any demands for the r-^dress of Uitlander grievances ever formulated and addressed to the Transvaal either under the Convention of 1884 or in respect of the general PREFATORY CHAPTER XXXIU re con- British d that roposal, pns was raise went y been British being Boers, is) that eem to ice of a w each evered e more )ed the endent by the on its * years hed to irifling :i,even diplo- hich a ded. bhs to e any s ever under in oral rights at international law which Britain possessed. When the franchise negotiations came to an impasse, the British Government announced (September 22nd) that their demands and scheme for a " final settlement of the issues created by the policy of the Republic " — a phrase which pointed to something more than the redress of grievances — would be presented to the Republic. These demands, however, never were pre- sented at all. After an interval of seventeen days from the announcement just mentioned, the Trans- vaal declared war (Octobc 9th and 11th). The terms of their ultimatum were oflfensive and per- emptory, such as no Government could have been expected to listen to. Apart, however, from the language of the ultimatum, a declaration of war must have been looked for. From the middle of July the British Government had been strengthening its garrison in South Africa, and the despatch of one body of troops after another had been proclaimed with much emphasis in the English newspapers. Early in October it was announced that the Reserves would be called out and a powerful force despatched. The Transvaal had meantime been also preparing for war, so that the sending of British troops might well, after the beginning of September, be justified as a necessary precaution, since the forces then in South Africa were inferior in numbers to those the Boers could muster. But when the latter knew that an overwhelming force would soon confront them, and draw round them a net of steel, whence they could not escape, they resolved to seize the only advantage they possessed, the advantage of time, and to smite before their enemy was ready. It XXXIV PREFATORY CHAPTER . was, therafore, only in a technical or formal sense that they can be said to have begun the war ; for a weak State, which sees its enemy approach with a power that will soon be irresistible, has only two alternatives, to submit or to attack at once. In such a quarrel the responsibility does not necessarily rest with those who strike first. It rests with those whose action has made bloodshed inevitable. A singular result of the course things took was that war broke out before any legitimate casus belli had arisen. Some one has observed that whereas many wars have been waged to gain subjects, none was ever waged before to get rid of subjects by making it easier for them to pass under another allegiance. The franchise, however, did not constitute a legitimate cause of war, for the British Government always admitted they had no right to demand it. The real c ause of jwar was the menacing language of Britain, cougled „5dtBrHer preparations for war. These led the Boers also to arm, and, as happened with the arming and counter-arming of Prussia and Austria in 1 866, when each expected an attack from the other, war inevitably followed. To brandish the sword before a cause for war has been shown not only impairs the prospect of a peaceful settlement, but may give the world ground for believing that war is intended. By making the concession of the franchise the aim of their eflforts, and supporting it by demonstrations which drove their antagonist to arms, the British Government placed themselves before the world in the position of having caused a war without ever formu- lating a ccmts belli, and thereby exposed their country PREFATORY CHAPTER XXXV sense that for a weak h a power Iternatives, quarrel the I those who n has made took was casus belli Breas many le was ever ig it easier nee. The legitimate mt always The real of Britain, These led with the id Austria the other, ^ord before npairs the ' give the led. e the aim 'nstrations le British ►rid in the er formu- r country to unfavourable comment from other nations. The British negotiators were, it may be said, placed in a dilemma by the distance which separated their army from South Africa, and which obliged them to move troops earlier than they need otherwise have done, even at the risk (which, however, they do not seem to have fully grasped) of precipitating war. But this difficulty might have been avoided in one of two ways. They might have pressed their suggestion for an extension of the franchise in an amicable way, without threats and without moving troops, and have thereby kept matters from coming to a crisis. Or, on the other hand, if they thought that the doggedness of the xransvaal would yield to nothing but threats, they might have formulated demands, not for the franchise, but for the redress of grievances, demands the refusal or evasion of which would constitute a proper cause of war, and have, simultaneously with the presentation of those demands, sent to South Africa a force sufficient at least for the defence of their own territory. The course actually taken missed the advantages of either of these courses. It brought on war before the Colonies were in a due state of defence, and it failed to justify war by showing any cause for it such as the usage of civilized States recognizes. As Cavour said that any one can govern with a state of siege, so strong Powers dealing with weak ones are prone to think that any kind of diplomacy will do. The British Government, confident in its strength, seems to have overlooked not only the need for taking up a sound legal position, but the importance of retaining the good will of the Colonial Dutch, and of c 2 cxxri PREFATORY CHAPTER preventing the Orange Free State fVoni taking sides with the Transvaal. This was sure to happen if Britain was, or seemed to be, the aggressor. Now the British Government by the attitude of menace it adopted while discussing the franchise question, which furnished no cause for war, by the importance it seemed to attach to the utterances of the body calling itself the Uitlander Council in Johannesburg (a body which was in the strongest opposition to the Transvaal authori- ties), as well as by other methods scarcely consistent with diplomatic usage, led both the Transvaal and the Free State to believe that they meant to press matters to extremities, and that much more than the franchise or the removal of certain grievances was involved ; in fact, that the independence of the Republic itself was at stake.^ They cannot have intended this, and indeed they expressly disclaimed designs on the independence of the Transvaal. Nevertheless the Free State, when it saw negotiations stopped after September 22nd, and an overwhelming British force ordered to South Africa while the proposals foreshadowed in the despatch of September 22nd remained undisclosed, became con- vinced that Britain meant to crush the Transvaal. Being bound by treaty to support the Transvaal if the latter was unjustly attacked, and holding the conduct of Britain in refusing arbitration and resorting to force ^ The language of the English newspapers in Cape Colony, and of some in London, did as much to strengthen this belief as the language of the Transvaal papers did to inflpme minds there. Seldom has the press done more to destroy the prosoects of peace. t in ndes with itain was, British adopted furnished emed to itself the vhich was aiithori- sonsistent il and the is matters franchise olved; in itself was eed they idence of !, when it 52nd, and ith Africa spatch of ime con- i'ransvaal. tal if the conduct f to force )e Colony, s belief as nds there, osDects of PREFATORY CHAPTER xxxvu i } i. without a casus belli to constitute an unjust attack, the Free State Volksraad and burghers, who had done their utmost to avert war, unhesitatingly threw their lot with the sister Republic. The act in was desperate, but it was chivalric. The Free State, hitherto happy, prosperous and peaceful, had nothing to gain and everything to lose. Few of her statesmen can have doubted that Britain must prevail and that their Republic would share the ruin which awaited the Transvaal Dutch. Nevertheless honour and the sense of kinship prevailed. It is to be hoped that the excited language in which the passionate feelings of the Free State have found expression will not pre- vent Englishmen from recognizing in the conduct of this little community a heroic quality which they would admire if they met it in the annals of ancient Greece. It has been suggested that the question of responsi- bility for the war is really a trivial one, because the negotiations were all along, on one side or on both, unreal and delusive, masking the conviction of both parties that they must come to blows at last. It is said that a conflict for supremacy between the English and Dutch races in South Africa was inevitable, and it is even alleged that there was a long-standing conspiracy among the Dutch, as well in the Colonies as in the Republics, to overmaster the British element and oust Britain from the country. On this hypothesis several observations may be made. One is that it seems to be an afterthought, intended to excuse the failure of diplomacy to untie the knot. .9^ xxxvUi PREFATORY CHAPTER No one who studies the dcsijatches nan think that either the Transvaal Government or the British Government regarded war as inevitable when the one made, and the other sent a reply intended to accept, the proposals of August 19th. Nothing is easier than to bring charges of bad faith, but he who peruses these despatches with an impartial mind will find little or nothing to justify any such imputation on either party. Another is, that the allegation that a calamity was inevitable is one so easy to make and so hard to refute that it is constantly employed to close an embarrassing discussion. You cannot argue with a fatalist, any more than with a prophet. Nations whose conscience is clear, statesmen who have foresight and insig%t, do not throw the blame for their failures upon Destiny. The chieftain in Homer, whose folly has brought disaster, says, " It is not I who am the cause of this : it is Zeus, and Fate, and the Fury that walketh in darkness." " It could not have been helped anyhow," ** It was bound to come " — phrases such as these are the last refuge of despairing incompetence. The hypothesis that the Dutch all over South Africa were leagued for the overthrow of British power is so startling that it needs to be supported by wide and weighty evidence. Is such evidence forthcoming? It has not been produced. One who has not been in South Africa since 1895 dare not rely on his own observation to deny the allegation. But neither can Englishmen at home accept the assertions of partisans in South Africa, the extravagance of whose language shows that they have been carried away by party passion. m PREFATORY CHAPTER xxxix nk that British the one ' accept, sicr than ses these little or er party, tnity was to refute arrassing my more cience is it, do not ly. The disaster, i is Zeus, arkness." "It was the last ih Africa ^er is so i^ide and coming ? been in his own ;her can >artisans inguage y party The probabilities of the case are altogether against the hypothesis, and support the view of a temperate writer in the Edinhirgh Review for October, who de- scribes it as " a nightmare." What arc these prob- abilities ? The Dutch in the Cape had been loyal till December 1896, and had indeed been growing more and more loyal during the last fifteen years. The Africander Bond had shaken itself free from the suspicions once entertained of its designs. Its leader,Mr. Hofmeyr, was conspicuously attached to the Imperial connection, and was, indeed, the author of a well-known scheme for an Imperial Customs Union. Even after December, 1895, its in- dignation at the attack on the Transvaal had not affected the veneration of the Dutch party for the British Crown, so warmly expressed in 1897. In 1898 the Cape Assembly, in which there was a Dutch majority led by a Ministry supported by the Bond, voted unanimously a large annual contribution to Imperial naval defence. Every effort was made by Mr. Hofmeyr and by the Prime Minister of the Cape to induce the Transvaal to make concessions which might avert war. As regards the Free State, its Dutch burghers had been for many years on the best terms with theii English fellow-burghers and with the British Govern- ment. They had nothing to gain by a racial conflict, and their President, who is understood to have sug- gested the Bloemfontein Conference, as well as Mr. Fischer, one of their leading statesmen, strove hard to secure peace till immediately before war broke out. There was, moreover, no prospect of success for an effort to overthrow the power of Britain. The Dutch PREFATORY CHAPTER i in the Colony were not fighting men like their Trans- vaal brethren, and were, except for voting purposes, quite unorganized. Those of the Free State were a mere militia, with no experience of war, and had possessed, at least down to 1895, when I remember to have seen their tiny arsenal, very little in the way of war munitions. The Transvaal Boers were no doubt v/ell armed and good fighters, but there were after all only some twenty or twenty-five thousand of them, a handful to contend against the British Empire. The Transvaal Government was, moreover, from its structure and the capacity of the men who composed it, if not indisposed to indulge in day-dreams, at any rate unfit to prosecute so vast an enterprise. There seems therefore to be no foundation in any facts which have so far been made public for the belief in this " conspiracy of the Dutch race," or for the in- evitableness of the imagined conflict. The truth would appear to be that the Transvaal people did at one time cherish the hope of extending their Republic over the wide interior. They were stopped on the west in 1884. They were stopped on the north in 1890. They were stopped in their effort to reach the sea in 1894. After that year British territory surrounded them on all sides ex- cept where they bordered the Portuguese on the north-east. Many of them, including the President, doubtless cherished the hope of some time regaining a complete independence such as that of the Free State. Some ardent spirits dreamt of a Dutch South African Republic with Pretoria for its future capital ; and there were probably a few men of the same i % PREFATORY CHAPTER xli Trans- ses, quite a mere sesscd, at een their unitions. aied and y some mdful to ransvaal and the idisposed )roseciite 1 in any )he belief r the in- rransvaal xtendinsr ley were stopped in their lat year ides ex- on the resident, ^gaining he Free h South capital ; e same i I visionary type in the Colony and the Free State who talked in the same wild way, especially after the Jameson invasion had stirred Dutch feeling to its depths. But from such dreams and such talk it is a long step to a " conspiracy of the Dutch over all South Africa." The possibility that the Dutch element would some day or other prevail, a possibility to which the slowness of British immigration and the natural growth of the Dutch population gave a certain substance in it down to 1885, was in that year destroyed by the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand, which brought a new host of English-speaking settlers into South Africa, and assured the numerical and economic preponderance of the English in the progressive and expanding regions of the country. It is also true that the Transvaal Government made military preparations and imported arms on a large scale. They expected a rising even before 1895 ; and after 1895 they also expected a fresh invasion. But there is not, so far as the public know, any shred of evidence that they contemplated an attack upon Britain. The needs of c'efence, a defence in which they doubtless counted on the aid of the Free State and of a section ol their own Uitlanders, sufficiently explain the accumulation of warlike munitions on which so much stress has been laid. The conclusion to which an examination of the matter leads is that no evidence whatever has been produced either that there was any such conspiracy as alleged, or that a conflict between Dutch and English was inevitable. Such a conflict might, no doul)t, have possibly some day arisen. But it is at xlii PREFATORY CHAPTER least equally probable that it might have been avoided. The Transvaal people were not likely to provoke it, and every year made it less likely that they could do so with any chance of success. The British element was increasing, not only around their State, but within it. The prospect of support from a great European Power had vanished. When their aged President retired from the scene, their old dissensions, held in check only by the fear of Britain, would have reappeared, and their vicious system of government would have fallen to pieces. So far as Britain was concerned, the way to avert a conflict was to have patience. Haste had been her bane in South Africa. It was haste which annexed the Transvaal in 1877, when a few months' delay might have given her the country. It was haste which in 1880 wrecked the plan of South African Confederation. It was haste which brought about that main source of recent troubles, the invasion by the South Africa Company's police in 1895. In these reflections upon recent events nothing has been said, because nothing could now be profitably said, upon two aspects of the matter — the character and condt ct of the persons chiefly concerned, and the sub- terranean forces which are supposed to have been at work on both sides. These must be left to some future historian, and they will form an interesting chapter in his book. He will have proof positive of many things which can now only be conjectured, and of some things which, though they may be known to a few, ought not to be stated until proof of them can be produced. i PREFATORY CHAPTER xliii avoided. provoke lat they British |ir State, a great |eir aged isensions, Id have 'ernment tain was to have h Africa, in 1877, her the the plan ;e which bles, the )olice in ling has rofitably cter and 'he sub- been at e future chapter f many of some a few, can be It is right, however, even while war is raging, to consider the circumstances that have led to war, so far as these can be discussed from the information which we all possess, because a fair consideration of those cir- cumstances ought to influence the view which English- men take of their antagonists, and ought to affect their judgment of the measures proper to be taken when war comes to its end, and arrangements have to be made for the resettlement of the coi^ntry. Those who have read the historical chapters of this book, and have reflected on the history of other British colonies, and particularly of Canada, will have drawn the moral, which I have sought to enforce in the con- cluding chapter, that what South Africa most needs is the reconcilement and ultimate fusion of the two white races. Reconcilement and fusion have now, to all appearances, been thrown back into a dim and dis- tant future. That man must be sanguine indeed who expects, as some persons say they do expect, to see the relations of the two races placed on a better footing by a bitter war between them, a war which has many ot the incidents of a civil war, and is waged on one side by citizen soldiers. To most observers it seems more likely to sow a crop of dragon's teeth which will pro- duce a harvest, if not of armed men, yet of permanent hatred and disaffection. Nevertheless, even a^ the darkest moment, men must work with hope for the future, and strive to apply the principles of policy which experience has approved. The first principle which governs the relation of Britain to her self-governing colonies is that she must do all she can to keep them contented and loyal. She cannot hope permanently xliv PREFATORY CHAPTER !■:.- to retain any which have become disloyal, and the defection of one may be the signal for the loosening of the tic which binds the others. The gift of self- government practica' makes the maintenance of the Imperial connection lepbiident on the will of the colony ; and where scL government exists, voting is more powerful than arms. The Transvaal Republic has been often troublesome, but an unfriendly neighbour is less dangerous than a disaffected colony. A wise policy will therefore use with moderation the opportunities which the conclusion of the present war will afford for resettling the political arrangements of the country, remembering that the Dutch and British races have got to live together, looking forward to a time, probably less than a century distant, when the exhaustion of mineral wealth will have made South Africa again a pastoral and agricultural country, and thereby increased the importance, relatively to the town-dwelling English, of that Dutch element which is so deeply rooted in the soil. To reconcile the races by employing all the natural and human forces which make for peace and render the prosperity of each the prosperity of both, and so to pave the way for the ultimate fusion of Dutchman and Englishman in a common Imperial as well as a common Africander patriotism — this should be the aim of every government that seeks to base the world-wide greatness of Britain on the deepest and surest foundations. October 23rd, 1899, and the iening of of self. ! of the of the g is more blic has hbour is 3e policy rtunities fford for country, 3es have 3robably istion of again a ncreased English, d in the all the ace and of both, ision of 3erial as should )ase the 3st and NOTE 1 have to thank Sir Donald Currie and Messrs. A. S. and G. G. Brown for the permission kindly given me to Ubo the maps in the excellent " Guide to South Africa" (published by the Castle Mail Packets Com- pany) in the preparation of the three maps contained in this volume ; and I trust that these maps will prove helpful to the reader, for a comprehension of the physical geography of the country is essential to a comprehension c^ its history. The friends in South Africa to whom I am indebted for many of the facts I have stated and views I have expressed are too numerous to mention : but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of returning thanks for the genial hospitality and unfailing kindness which I re- ceived in every part of the country. September 13lh, 1897. MAPS AT END OF VOLUME Political Map of South Africa. Orooraphical Map of South Africa. Rainfall Map of South Africa. K^ I i CONTENTS PARK PREFATORY CHAPTER vii NOTE (1897) xlv AREA AND POPULATION OF THE SEVERAL COLONIES, REPUBLICS AND TERRITORIES IN SOUTH AFRICA Iv DATES OF SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Ivii INTRODUCTION lix PART I NA TUBE CHAPTER I PHYSICAL FEATURES Thb Coast Strip an.'^ the Cheat Plateau 4 Mountain-ranges fi Climate 8 Tub Absence of Rivers 9 CHAPTER II HEALTH Tempbraturb . '. 12 Dryness of thb Air 13 Malarial Fevers 13 CHAPTER III WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR FATE OUIOINAL AbUNDANCB OF WiLD CREATURES Vj Their Eitincxion : the Lion, Elephant, and Rhino- ceros 18 Recent Attempts at Protection 22 ■*.,» xlviii CONTENTS CHAPTER IV VEGETATIOiS' PAOI Character op thr South African Flora 24 Nativk and Imported Trkes 2fi Changes made by Man in the Landscapk 32 CTIAPTETl V PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE VARIOUS POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY Cape Colony 33 Natal 35 German and Portuguese iVfrica 30 The Orange Free State and the South African Republic 33 Bbchuanaland and thk Territories of iiie British South Africa Company 40 CHAPTER VI NATURE AND HISTORY Influence of Physical Conditions on the Savage Races 44 Slow Progress of Early European Settlement . . , 45 Later Explorations along the Interior Plateau . . 47 CHAPTER VII ASPECTS OF SCENERY Drtnkrs and Monotony of South African Landscape . 50 Striking Pieces of Scenery : Basutoland, Manicaland 51 Peculiar Charm of South Africa : Colour and Soli- tude 53 Influence of Scenkry on Character 67 CONTENTS xlix PAOR 24 26 32 POLITICAL .... 33 • . . . 35 • . . . 30 African • . .38 British • . . . 40 Savage ... 44 NT . . . 45 CEAU . . 47 >SCAPE . 50 ICALAND 61 fD Soli- t 53 • • • t 57 PART II HISTORY CHAPTER VIII THE NATIVES: HOTTENTOTS, BUSHMEN, AND KAFIRS PAoa The Aborigines : Bushmen and Hottentots 63 The Bantu or Kapir Tribes 67 CHAPTER IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS— ZIMBAB WYE Ancient Walls in Matabililand and Mashonaland . 70 -^ Dhlouhlo: Chipadzi's Grave 71 I The Great Zimbabwye 75 Theories as to the Builders of the Ancient Walls . . 78 m CHAPTER X I THE KAFIRS : HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS The Kafirs before their Struggles with the Euro- peans 83 Careers op Dingiswayo and Tshaka 84 Results of the Zulu Conquests 85 Kafir Institutions 87 War, Religion, Sorcery 89 Stagnation and Cruelty of Primitive Kafir Life . . 93 CHAPTER XI THE EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 The Portugubsb at Sofala 99 The Dutch at the Cape : The French Huguenots . . 102 1 The Africander Type of Life and Character .... 104 I Disaffection op the Dutch Settlers 108 ?| British Occupation of the Cape 109 Features of British Administration 110 Boer Discontent and its Causes 112 ^ The Great Trek of 1836 115 d 1 CONTENTS Advektures of the Emigrant Boers 117 The Boers and the British in Natal 119 The Boers in the Interior : Beoinninos of the Two Dutch Republics 122 British Advance : the Orange River Sovereignty . . 129 The Sand River Convention op 1852 : Independence OF THE Transvaal Boers 130 The Bloemfontein Convention of 1854 : Independence OF THE Orange Free State 132 CHAPTER XII THE EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 Progress of Cape Colony : Material anf Political . 134 Grant of Responsible Government in 1872 139 Kafir Wars : Causes of their Frequent Recurrence 139 Renewed British Advance : Basutoland 140 The Dblagoa Bay Arbitration 146 First Scheme of South African Confederation . , . 148 The Zulu War of 1879 ]49 Formation of the Transvaal Republic 151 Annexation of the Transvaal 154 Revolt of the Transvaal : its Independence Restored 160 Boers and British in Bechuanaland 165 The Conventions of 1884 and 1894 : Swaziland . . . 168 German Occupation of Damaraland 169 The British South Africa Company ; Acquisition of Mashonaland and Matabililand 170 Recent History of the Transvaal : the Rising i.e 1895 174 PART III A JOURNEY THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA CHAPTER XIII TRAVELLING AND COMMUNICATIONS Communications along the Coast 179 Lines of Railroad Iqq Travelling by Ox-wjA;;aoN 182 CONTENTS li CHAPTER XIV FROM CAPE TOWN TO BULAWAYO PAOB The Voyage to the Cape 188 Cape Town and its Environs 190 The Journey Inland : Scenery of the Karuoo , , 193 kimberley and its dlamond-fiklds 196 Northward through Bechuanaland 201 Khama : HIS Town and his People 207 Mangwe and the Matoppo Hills 212 CHAPTER XV MATABILTLAND AND MASHONALAND BuLAWAYO AND Lo BeNGULA 216 The Natives : Causes of the Rising op 1806 223 The Native Labour Question 224 Dhlodhlo : Scenery of the Hill-country 227 GWELO AND THE TrACK TO FORT VICTORIA 232 Ruins of Great Zimbabwe 234 Fort Salisbury 240 CHAPTER XVI FROM FORT SALISBURY TO THE SEA— MANIC ALAN AND THE PORTUGUESE TERRITORIES Scenery of Eastern Mashonaland 242 Antiquities at the Lezapi River 245 Among the Mountains : Falls of the Oudzi River . 250 Mtali and the Portuguese Border 251 Chimoyo and the Eastern Slope 257 Descent of the Pungwe River to Beira 261 CHAPTER XVII RESOURCES AND FUTURE OF MATABILILAND AND MASHONALAND General Features of the British South Africa Com- pany's Territories 268 Health, Wealth, and Peace 269 Form of Government recently established 277 Results of British Extension in the North .... 279 d 2 lit CONTENTS CHAPTER XVITI TTTROUGH NATAL TO THE TRANSVAAL PAOI Dklagoa Bay 281 Durban and PiETKRMAiuTZBuno 283 The Goveunment and Politics of Natal 284 Laing's Nbk and Majuda Hill 291 The Witwatersrand and its Gold-fields 296 Johannesburg and Pretoria 304 CHAPTER XIX THE ORVNGE FREE STATE Bloemtontein 313 Constitution and Pf & 'i 4 8 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. summer as Gibraltar and Aleppo, in latitude 36 N Still the summer temperature is high even at Durban, in latitude 30° S., while the northern part of the Transvaal Republic, and all the territories of the British South Africa Company, including Matabililf nd and Mashonaland, lie within the tropic of Capricorn, that is to say, correspond in latitude to Nubia and the central provinces of India between Bombay and Calcutta. The climate is also, over most of the country, ex- tremely dry. Except in a small district round Cape Town, at the southern extremity of the continent, there is no proper summer and winter, but only a dry season, the seven or eight months when the weather is colder, and a wet season, the four or five months when the sun is highest. Nor are the rains that fall in the wet season so copious and continuous as they are in some other hot countries; in many parts of India, for instance, or in the West Indies and Brazil. Thus even in the regions where the rainfall is heaviest, reaching thirty inches or more in the year, the land soon dries up and remains parched till the next v/et season comes. The air is therefore extremely dry, and, being dry, it is clear and stimulating in a high degree. Now let us note the influence upon the climate of that physical structure we have just been considering. The prevailing wind, and the wind that brings most of the rain in the wet season, is the east or south-east. It gives a fair supply of moisture to the low coast strip which has been referred to above. Passing farther inland, it impinges upon the hills which run down Irom the Quathlaraba Range, waters them, and sometimes falls in snow on the loftiest peaks. A certain part of the rain-bearing clouds passes still farther inland, and scatters showers over the eastern part of the tablejand, that is to say, over the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, eastern Becliuanaland, and the territories still ■^ M PHYSICAL FEATURES 9 farther north, toward the Zambesi. Very little humidity, however, reaches the tracts farther to the west. The northern part of Cape Colony as far as the Orange River, the western part of Bechuanaland, and the wide expanse of Damaraland have a quite trifling ramfall, ranging from four or five to ten inches in the whole year. Under the intense heat of the sun this moisture soon vanishes, the surface bakes hard, and the vegeta- tion withers. All this region is therefore parched and arid, much of it, in fact, a desert, and likely always to remain so. These great and dominant physical facts — a low coast belt, a high interior plateau, a lofty, rugged mountain-range running nearly parallel to, and not very far from, the shore of the ocean, whence the rain- clouds come, a strong sun, a dry climate — have deter- mined the character of South Africa in many ways. They explain the very remarkable fact that South Africa has, broadly speaking, no rivers. Rivers are, indeed, marked on the map — rivers of great length and with many tributaries ; but when in travelling during the dry season you come to them you find either a waterless bed or a mere line of green and perhaps unsavoury pools. The streams that run south and east from the mountains to the coast are short and rapid torrents after a storm, but at other times dwindle to feeble trickles of mud. In the interior there are, to be sure, rivers which, like the Orange River or the Limpopo, have courses hundreds of miles in length. But they contain so little water during three-fourths of the year as to be unserviceable for navigation, while most of their tributaries shrink in the dry season to a chain of pools, scarcely supplying drink to the cattle on their banks. This is one of the reasons why the country remained so long unexplored. People could not penetrate it by following waterways, as happened both in North and in South America ; they were obliged to travel by ox-waggon, making only some 10 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ch. i twelve or sixteen miles a day, and finding themselves obliged to halt, when a good bit of grass was reached, to rest and restore the strength of their cattle. For the same reason the country is now forced to depend entirely upon railways for internal communication. There is not a stream (except tidal streams) fit to float anything drawing three feet of water. It is a curious experience to travel for hundreds of miles, as one may do in the dry season in the north- eastern part of Cape Colony and in Bechuanaland, through a country which is inhabited, and covered in some places with wood, in others with grass or shrublets fit for cattle, and see not a drop of running water, and hardly even a stagnant pond. It is scarcely less strange that such rivers as there are should be useless for navi- gation. But the cause is to be found in the two facts already stated. In those parts where rain falls it comes at one season, within three or four months. Moreover, it comes then in such heavy storms that for some hours, or even days, the streams are so swollen as to be not only impassable by waggons, but also unnavigable, because, although there is plenty of water, the current is too violent. Then when the floods have ceased the streams fall so fast, and the channel becomes so shallow, that hardly even a canoe will float. The other fact arises from the proximity to the east coast of the great Quathlamba chain of mountains. The rivers that flow from it have mostly short courses, while the few that come down from behind and break through it, as does the Limpopo, arc interrupted at the place where they break through by rapids which no boat can ascend. CHAPTER TI HEALTH The physical conditions just described determine the healthfuhiess of the country, and this is a matter of so much moment, especially to those who thmk of settling in South Africa, that I take the earliest oppor- tunity of referring to it. The sun- heat would make the climate very trying to Europeans, and of course more trying the farther north toward the Equator they live, were it not for the two redeeming points I have dwelt on — the elevation and the dryness of the interior. To be 3000, 4000, or 6000 feet above the sea is for most purposes the same thing as being in a more temperate latitude, and more than five-sixths in area of the districts which are now inhabited by Europeans have an elevation of fully 3000 feet. Not merely the tablelands of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, but also by far the larger part of Cape Colony and nearly the whole ol Natal (excluding a small strip along the coast), attain this elevation. Thus even in summer, when the heat is great during the day, the coolness of the night re- freshes the system. The practical test of night temper- ature is whether one wishes for a blanket to sleep under. In Madras and Bombay all the year round, in New York through several months of summer, in Paris or sometimes even in London for a few days in July or August, a light blanket is oppressive, and the continu- ,s ■A 1 12 IMPRESSIONS ( ' SOT'"!! AFRICA chap. It'. r ^1 ' s ance of the high day tempeiatAiiv:. ::hrough the hours of darkness exhausts and e:.:':c;bie- -^W but vigorous constitutions. But in South Africa .. is only along the coast, in places like Durban, Delagoa Bay, or Beira, that one feels inclined to dispense with a woollen covering at night, while in Johannesburg or Bloemfontein a good thick blanket is none too much even in November, before the cooling rains begin, or in December, when the days are longest. In fact, the fall of temperature at sunset is often a source of risk to those who, coming straight from Europe, have not yet learned to guard against sudden changes, for it causes chills which, if they find a weak organ to pounce upon, may produce serious illness. These rapid varia- tions of temperature are not confined to the passage from day to night. Sometimes in the midst of a run of the usual warm, brilliant weather of the dry season there will come a cold, bitter south-east wind, covering the sky with gray clouds and driving the traveller to put on every wrap he possesses. I remember, toward the end of October, such a sudden " cold snap " in Matabililand, only twenty degrees from the equator. One shivered all day long under a thick greatcoat, and the natives lit fires in front of their huts and huddled round them for warmth. Chills dangerous to delicate people are apt to be produced by these changes, and they often turn into feverish attacks, not malarial, though liable to be confounded with malarial fevers. This risk of encountering cold weather is a concomitant of that power of the south-east wind to keep down the great heats, which, on the whole, makes greatly for the salubrity of the country ; so the gain exceeds the loss. - But new comers have to be on their guard, and travel- lers will do well, even between the tropic and the equator, to provide themselves with warm clothing. Strong as the sun is, its direct rays seem to be much less dangerous than in India or the easteni United States. Sunstroke is unusual, and one sees few peo- u HEALTH 13 pie wearing, even in the tropical north, those hats of thick double felt or those sun-helmets which are deemed indispensable in India. In fact, Europeans go about with the same head-gear which they use in an English summer. But the relation of sun-stroke to climate is obscure. Why should it be extremely rare in California, w len it is very common in New York in the same latitude ? Why should it be almost un- known in the Hawaiian Islands, within seventeen degrees of the equator ? Its rarity in South Africa is a great point in favour of the healthfulness of the country, and also of the ease and pleasantness of life. In India one has to be always mounting guard against the sun. He is a formidable and ever-present enemy, and he is the more dangerous the longer you live in the country. In South Africa it is only because he dries up the soil so terribly that the traveller wishes to have less of him. The born Africander seems to love him. The dryness of the climate makes very strongly for its salubrity. It is the absence of moisture no less than the elevation above sea-level that gives to the air its fresh, keen, bracing quality, the quality which enables one to support the sun-heat, which keeps the physical frame in vigour, which helps children to grow up active and healthy, which confines to com- paratively few districts that deadliest foe of Europeans, swamp-fever. Malarial fever in one of its many forms, some of them intermittent, others remittent, is the scourge of the east coast as well as of the west coast. To find some means of avoiding it would be to double the value of Africa to the European powers which have been establishing themselves on the coasts. No one who lives within thirty miles of the sea nearly all the way south from Cape Guardafui to Zululand can hope to escape it. It is frequent all round the great Nyanza lakes, and particularly severe in the valley of the Nile from the lakes downward to Khartoum. It prevails u IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. M through the comparatively low country which lies along the Congo and the chief tributaries of that groat stream. It hangs like a death-cloud over the valley of the Zambesi, and is found up to a height of 3000 or 4000 feet, sometimes even higher, in Nyassaland and the lower parts of the Eritish territories that stretch to Lake Tanganyika. The A.dministrator of German East Africa has lately declared that there is not a square mile of that vast region that can be deemed free from it. Even along the generally arid shores of Damaraland there are spots where it is to be feared. But Cape Colony and Natal and the Orange Free State are almost exempt from it. So, too, are all the higher parts of the Transvaal, of Bechuanaland, of Matabili- land, and of Mashonaland. Roughly speaking, one may say that the upper boundary line of malarial fevers in these countries is about 4500 feet above the sea, and where fe^•ers occur at a height above 3000 feet they are seldom of a virulent type. Thus, while the lower parts of the Transvaal between the Quathlamba Moun- tains and the sea are terribly unhealthy, while the Portuguese country behind Delagoa Bay and Beira as far as the foot of the hills is equally dangerous, — Beira itself has the benefit of a strong sea-breeze, — by far the larger part of the recently occupied Britisn territories north and west of the Transvaal is practi- cally safe. It is, of course, proper to take certain pre- cautions, to avoid chills and the copious use of alcohol and it is specially important to observe such precautions during and immediately after the wet season, when the sun is raising vapours from the moist soil, when new vegetation has sprung up, and when the long grass which has grown during the first rains is rotting under the later rains. Places which are quite health- ful in the dry weather, such as Gaberones and the rest of the upper valley of the rivers Notwani and Limpopo in eastern Bechuanaland, then become dan- gerous, because they lie on the banks of streams which m. m ch in" II HEALTH 15 are inundate the lower grounds. Much depends on the local circumstances of each spot. To illustrate the differences between one place and another, I ui^.y take the case of the three chief posts in the territories of the British South Africa Company. Buluwayo, nearly 4000 feet above the sea, is always practically free from malaria, for it stands in a dry, breezy upland with few trees and short grass. Fort Victoria, 3670 feet above the sea, is salubrious enough during the dry season, but often feverish after the rains, because there is some wet ground near it. Fort Salisbury, 4900 feet above the sea, is now healthful at all times, but parts of it used to be feverish at the end of the rainy season, until they were drained in the beginning of 1895. So Pre- toria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic, is apt to be malarious during the months of rain, because (although ^470 feet above the sea) it lies in a well- watered hollow ; while at Johannesburg, thirty miles off, on the top of a high, bare, stony ridge, one has no occasion to fear fever, though the want of water and proper drainage, as well as the quantity of fine dust from the highly comminuted ore and " tailings " with which the air is filled, had until 1896 given rise to other maladies, and especially to septic pneumonia. These will diminish with a better municipal adminis- tration, and similarly malaria will doubtless vanish from the many spots where it is now rife when the swampy grounds have been drained and the long grass eaten down by larger herds of cattle. It is apparently the dryness and the purity of the air Avhich have given South Africa its comparative immunity from most forms of chest disease. Many sufferers from consumption, for whom a speedy death, if they remained in Europe, had been predicted, re- coyer health, and retain it till old age. The spots chiefly recommended are on the high grounds of the interior plateau, where the atmosphere is least humid. Ceres, ninety-four miles by rail from Cape Town, and 16 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AKKIUA CU. II Beaufort West, in the Karroo, have been resorted to as sanatoria; and Kimberley, the city of diamonds, has an equally high reputation for the quality of its air. However, some of the coast districts are scarcely less eligible, though Cape Town has too many rapid changes of weather, and Durban too sultry a summer, to make either of them a desirable place of residence for invalids. Apart from all questions of specific complaints, there can be no doubt as to the general effect of the climate upon health. The aspect of the people soon convinces a visitor that, in spite of its heat, the country is well fitted to maintain in vigour a race drawn from the cooler parts of Europe. Comparatively few adult Eng- lishmen sprung from fathers themselves born in Africa are as yet to be found. But the descendants of the Dutch and Huguenot settlers are Africanders up to the sixth or seventh generation, and the stock shows no sign of losing either its stature or its physical strength. Athletic sports are pursued as eager" in England. as :^ eql atr CU. II d to as ds, has its air. ;ely less changes )o make snce for ts, there climate lonvinces y is well from the lult Eng- in Africa nts of the ers np to Dck shows J physical eagerly as CHAPTER III WILD ANIMAI^ AND THEIR FATE When first explored, South Africa was unusually rich in the kinds both of plants and of animals which it contained; and until forty or fifty years ago the number, size, and beauty of its wild creatures were the things by which it was chiefly known to Euro- peans, who had little suspicion of its minoral wealth, and little foreboding of the trouble that wealth would cause. Why it was so rich in species is a question on which geology will one day be able to throw light, for much may depend on the relations of land and sea in earlier epochs of the <'arth's history. Probably the great diversities of elevai on and of climate which exist in the southern part of the continent have con- tributed to this profuse variety . and the fact that the country was occupied only by savages, who did little or nothing to extinguish any species nature had planted, may have caused many weak species to survive when equally weak ones were perishing in Asia and Europe at the hands of more advanced races of mankind. The country was therefore the paradise of hunters. Besides the lion and the leopard, there were many other great cats, some of remarkable beauty. Besides the elephant, which was in some districts very abundant, there existed two kinds of rhinoceros, as well as the hippo- potamus and the gi ratio. There was a wonderful '**% 18 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. profusion of antelopes —thirty-one species have been enumerated,— including such noble animals as the eland and koodoo, such beautiful ones as the springbok and klipspringer, such fierce ones as the blue wilde- beest or gnu. There were two kinds of zebra, a quagga, and a buffalo, both huge and dangerous. Probably nowhere in the world could so great i variety of beau- tiful animals be seen or a larger variety of formidable ones be pursued. All this has changed, and changed of late years with fatal speed, under the increasing range and accuracy of firearms, the increasing accessibility of the country to the European sportsman, and the increasing number of natives who possess guns. The Dutch Boer of eighty years ago was a good marksman and loved the chase, but he did not shoot for fame and in order to write about his exploits, while the professional hunter who shot to sell ivory or rare specimens had hardly begun to exist. The work of destruction has latterly gone on so fast that the effect of stating what is still left can hardly be to tempt others to join in that work, but may help to show how urgent is the duty of arrest- ing the process of extermination. When the first Dutchmen settled at the Cape the lion was so common as to be one of the every-day perils of life. Tradition points out a spot in the pleasure- ground attached to the Houses of Parliament at Cape Town where a lion was found prowling in what was then the commandant's garden. In 1653 it was feared that lions would storm the fort to get at the sheep within it, and so late as 1694 they killed nine cows within sight of the present castle. To-day, however, if the lion is to be found at all within the limits of Cape Colony, it is only in the wilderness along the banks of the Orange River. He was abundant in the Orange Free State when it became independent in 1854, but has been long extinct there. He survives in a few spots CHAP. Ill WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR FATE 19 ve been as the )ringbok e wilde- quagga, Probably of beau- I'midable jars with curacy of mntry to number Boer of loved the order to al hunter id hardly ,s latterly at is still fhat work, of arrest- Cape the ■day perils pleasure- t at Cape what was was feared the sheep nine cows however, if bs of Cape banks of )he Orange 1854, but a few spots in the north of the Transvaal and in the wilder parts of Zululand and Bechuanaland, and is not unfrequent in Matabililand and Mashonaland. One may, however, pass through those countries, as I did in October, 1895, without having a chance of seeing the beast or even hearing its nocturnal voice, and those who go hunting this grandest of all quarries are often disappointed. In the strip of flat land between the mountains and the Indian Ocean behind Sofala and Beira, and in the Zambesi valley, there remain lions enough; but the number diminishes so fast that even in that malarious and thinly peopled land none may be left thirty years hence. The leopard is still to be found all over the country, except where the population is thickest; and as the leopard haunts rocky places, it is, though much hunted for the sake of its beautiful skin, less likely to be exterminated. Some of the smaller carnivora, especially the pretty lynxes, have now become very rare. There is a good supply of hyenas, but they are ugly. Elephants used to roam in great herds over all the more woody districts, but have now been quite driven out of Cape Colony, Natal, and the two Dutch republics, save that in a narrow strip of forest country near the south coast, between Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay, some herds are preserved by the Cape govern- ment. So, too, in the north of the Transvaal there are still a few left, also specially preserved, It is only on the east coast south of the Zambesi, and here and there along that river, that the wild elephant can now be found. From these regions it will soon vanish, and unless something is done to stop the hunting of elephants the total extinction of the animal in Africa may be expected within another half-century ; for the foolish passion for slaughter which sends so-called sportsmen on his track, and the high price of ivory, are lessening its numbers day by day. A similar fate c 2 . f * 'l^fi 80 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. awaits the rhinoceros, once common even near the Cape, where he overturned one day the coach of a Dutch governor. The white kind, which is the larger, is now all but extinct, while the black rhinoceros has become scarce even in the northern regions between the Limpopo and the Zambesi. The hippopotamus, protected by his aquatic habits, has fared better, and may still be seen plunging and splashing in the waters of the Pungwe, the Limpopo, and other rivers in Portuguese East Africa. But Natal will soon know this great amphibian no more ; and within Cape Colony, where the creature was once abundant even in the swamps that bordered Table Bay, he is now to be found only in the pools along the lower course of the Orange River. The crocodile holds his ground better, and is still a serious danger to oxen who go down to drink at the streams. In Zululand and all along the east coast, as well as in the streams of Mashonaland and Matabililand, there is hardly a pool which does not contain some of these formidable saurians. Even when the water shrinks in the dry season till little but mud seems to be left, the crocodile, getting deep into the mud, maintains a torpid life till the rains bring him back into activity. Lo Bengula sometimes cast those who had displeased him, bound hand and foot, into a river to be devoured by these monsters, which he did not permit to be destroyed, probably because they were sacred to some tribes. The giraffe has become very scarce, though a herd or two are left in the south of Matabililand, and a larger number in the Kalahari Desert. So, also, the zebra and many of the species of antelopes, especially the larger kinds, like the eland and the sable, arc disappearing, while the buffalo is now only to be seen (except in a part of the Colony where a herd is preserved) in the Portuguese territories along the Zambesi and the east coast. The recent cattle-plague tl w ni b( ;.§* CHAP. ni WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR FATE 81 ear the 3h of a ) larger, 3ros has between )otamus, iter, and 3 waters ivers in m know in Cape j even in )w to be 36 of the id better, down to ilong the ihonaland I does not ven when but mud I into the 3ring him ;ast those )ot. into a ch he did they were , a herd or d a larger the zebra ecially the sable, arc to be seen a herd is along the .ttle-plague has fallen heavily upon him. So the ostrich would probably now remain only in the wilds of the Kalahari had not large farms been created in Cape Colony, where young broods are reared for the sake of the feathers. On these farms, especially near Graham's Town and in the Oudtshorn district, one may see great numbers ; nor is there a prettier sight than that of two parent birds running along, with a numerous progeny of little ones around them. Though in a sense domesticated, they are often dangerous, for they kick forward and claw downward with great violence, and the person whom they knock down and begin to trample on has little chance of escape with his life. Fortunately, it is easy to drive them off with a stick or even an umbrella ; and we were warned not to cross an ostrich-farm without some such defence. Snakes, though there are many venomous species, seem to be less feared than in India or the wilder parts of Australia. The python grows to twenty feet or more, but is, of course, not poisonous, and never assails man unless first molested. The black momha, which is nearly as large as a rattlesnake, is, however, a dangerous creature, being ready to attack man without pro- vocation, and the bite may prove fatal in less than an hour. One sees many skins of this snake in the tropical parts of South Africa, and hears many thrilling tales of combats with them. They are no longer common in the more settled and temperate regions. x\lthough even in Cape Colony and the Dutch re- publics there is still more four-footed game to be had than anywhere in Europe, there remain only two regions where large animals can be killed in any considerable numbers. One of these is the Portuguese territory between Delagoa Bay and the Zambesi, together with the adjoining parts of the Transvaal, where the lower spurs of the Quathlamba Range descend to the plain. This district is very malarious during and after the -^ — ^~^> I 22 TMPEESSTONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohai'. rains, and most of it unhealthy at all seasons. The other region is the Kalaliari Desert and the country north of it between Lake Ngami and the Upper Zambesi. The Kalahari is so waterless as to offer con- siderable difficulties to European hunters, and the country round Lake Ngami is swampy and fe\erish. So far the wild creatures have nature in their favour ; yet the passion for killing is in many persons so strong that neither thirst nor fever deters them, and if the large . game are to be saved, it will clearly be necessary to place them under legal protection. This has been attempted so far as regards the elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, and eland. In German East Africa Dr. von Wissmann, the Administrator of that territory, has recently (1896) gone further, and ordained restrictions on the slaughter of all the larger animals, except predatory ones. The governments of the two British colonies and the two Boer republics, which have already done well in trying to preserve some of the rarest and finest beasts, ought to go thoroughly into the quesuion and enact a complete protective code. Still more necessary is it that a similar course should be taken by the British South Africa Company and by the Imperial Government, in whose territories there still survive more of the great beasts. It is to be hoped that even the lion and some of the rare lynxes will ultimately receive consideration. Noxious as they are, it would be a pity to see them wlio) iy ex' erminated. When I was in India, in the year 188b', 1 Vvas told that there were only seven lions then left in >at vast area, all of them well cared for. The work of :>l9.iighter ought to be checked m South Africa before Hi» Diunber ^'.-^ts quite so low as this, and though thev- i.-\k,y he difficulties in restraining the natives from kilLv'^ il"o Hg ^ame, it must be remembered that as regards ma-r:^ RxmnvAa it is the European rather than the nasi A \\l) > is the chief agent of destruction. The prcc.'.:.ary creatures which are now most harmful OH A I III WILD ANIMALS AND THEIR FATE 23 The ountry Upper ^r con- id the erish. to the farmer are the baboons, which infest rocky dis- tricts and kill the lambs in such great numbers that the Cape government offers bounties for their slaughter. But no large animal does mischief for a moment com- parable to that of the two insect plagues which vex the eastern half of the country, the white ants and the locusts. Of these I shall have something to say later. ^ * ■%». m CriAPTER IV VEGETATION The flora of South i^frica is extremely rich, showing a number of genera, and of species which, in proportion to its area, exceeds the number found in most other parts of the world. But whether this wealth is duo to the diversity of physical conditions which the country presents, or rather to geolwjical causes, that is, to the fact that there may at some remote period have been land connections with other regions which have facili- tated the immigration of plants fi'om various sides, is a matter on which science cannot yet pronounce, for both the geology and the flora of the whole African continent have been very imperfectly examined. It is, however, worth remarking that there arc marked affinities be- tween the general character of the flora of the south-western corner of South Africa and that of the flora of south-western Australia, and similar affini- ties between the flora of south-eastern and tropical Africa and the flora of India, while the i-elations to South America are fewer and much less marked. This fact would seem to point to the great antiquity of the South Atlantic Ocean. To give in such a book as this even the scantiest account of the plants of South Africa would obviously be impossible. All I propose is to convey some slight impression of the part which its vegetation > and par- ticularly its trees, play in the landscape and in the i OH. IV VEGETATION 26 '-'•'5:''' economic conditions of the country. Even this I can do but imperfectly, because, like most travellers, I passed through larffc districts in the dry season, when three-fourths of the herbaceous plants arc out of flower. No part of the country is richer in beautiful flowers than the immediate neighbourhood of Cape Town. This extreme south-western corner of Africa has a climate of the south temperate zone ; that is to say, it has a real summer and a real winter, and gets most of its rain in winter, whereas the rest of South Africa has only a wet season and a dry season, the latter coming in winter. So, too, this corner round Capo Town has a vegetation characteristically its own, and differing markedly from that of the arid Karroo regions to the north, and that of the warm subtropical regions in the east of the Colony and in Natal. It is here that the plants flourish which Europeans and Americans first came to know and which are still to them the most familiar examples of the South African flora. Heaths, for instance, of which there are said to be no less than three hundred and fifty species in this small district, some of extraordinary beauty and brilliance, are scarcely found outside of it. I saw two or three species on the high peaks of Basutoland, and believe some occur as far north as the tropic on the tops of the Quathlamba Range; but in the lower grounds, and even on the plateau of the Karroo they are absent. The general aspect of the vegetation on the Kan-oo, and eastward over the plateau into Bechuanaland and the Transvaal, is to the travel- ler's eye monotonous — a fact due to the general uniformity of tho geological formations and the general dryness of the surface. In Natal and in Mashonaland types different fiom those of either the Cape or the Karroo appear, and I have never seen a more beautiful and varied alpine flora than on a lofty summit of Basutoland which I ascended in early summer. But even in Mashonaland, and in Matabililand still more, 20 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. - the herbi. jous plants make, at least in the dry season, comparatively little show. I found the number of conspicuous species less than I had expected, and the diversity of types from the types that prevail in the southern part of tlie plateau (in iJcchuanaland and the Orang(3 Free State) less marked. This is doubtless due' to the general similarity of the con- ditions that prevail over the plateau. Everywhere the same hot days and cold nights, everywhere the same dryness. However, I must avoid details, especially details which would be interesting only to a botanist, and be content with a few words on those more conspicuous features of the vegetation which the traveller notes, and which go to nake up his general impression of the country. Speaking broadly. South Africa is a bare country, and this is the more remarkable because it is a new country, where man has not had time to work much destruction. There are ancient forests along the south coast of Cape Colony and Natal, the best of which are (in the former colony) now carefully preserved and administered by a Forest Department of Government. Such is the great Knysna forest, where elephants still roam wild. But even in these forests few trees exceed fifty or sixty feet in height, the tallest being the so-called yellow-wood, and the most useful the sneeze- wood. On the slopes of the hills above Gniham's Town and King William's Town one finds (besides real forests here and there) immense masses of dense scrub, or " bush," usually from four to eight feet in height, some- times with patches of the prickly-pear, an invader from America, and a formidable one ; for its spines hurt the cattle and make passage by men i troublesome busi- ness. It was this dense, low scru which constituted the great difficulty of British trooT in the fierce and protracted Kafir wars of fifty yea? a.,o; for the ground which the scrub covers \sas impassable except by nar- IV VEGETATION 27 row and tortuous paths known only to the natives, and it afforded them admirable phices for ambush and for retreat. Nowadays a large part of the bush-covored land is used for ostricli-farins, and it is, indeed, fit for little else. The scrub is mostly dry. while the larger forests are comparatively damp, and often beautiful with flowering trees, small tree-ferns, and tlexile climbers. But the trees are not lofty enough to give any of that dignity which a European forest, say in England or Germany or Norway, often possesses, and as the native kinds are mostly evergreens, their leaves have comparatively little variety of tint. One of the most graceful is the curious silver-tree, so called from the whitish sheen of one side of its leaves, which grows abundantly on the slopes of Table Mountain, but is found hardly anywhere else in the Colony. If this is the character of the woods within reach of the coast rains, much more conspicuous is the want of trees and the poorness of those scattered here and there on the great interior plateau. In the desert region, that is to say, the Karroo, the northern part of Cape Colony to the Orange River, western Bechu- analand, and the German territories of Namaqualand and Damaraland, there are hardly any trees, except small, thorny mimosas (they are really acacias, the commonest being Acacia Jiorrida), whose scanty, light- green foliage casts little shade. On the higher moun- tains, where there is a little more moisture, a few other shrubs or small trees may be found, and sometimes beside a watercourse, where a stream runs during the rains, the eye is refreshed by a few slender willows; but speaking generally, this hugo desert, one-third of South Africa, contains nothing b'lt low bushes, few of which are fit even for fuel. Farther cast, where the rainfall is heavier, the trees, though still small, are more frequent and less thorny. Parts of the great plain round Kimberley were tolerably well wooded thirty years ago, but the trees have all been cut down 1- flt IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohaf. fco make mine props or for fire-wood. North of Mafe- king the rolling flats and low hills of Bechuanaland are pretty fairly wooded, and so to a less degree are the adjoining parts of the Transvaal and Matabililand. The road going north from Mafeking passes through some three hundred miles of such woodlands, but a less beautiful or interesting woodland I have never seen. The trees are mostly the thorny mimosas I have men- tioned. None exceed thirty, few reach twenty-five, feet. Though they grow loosely scattered, the space between them is either bare or occupied by low and very prickly bushes. The ground is parched, and one can get no shade, except by standing close under a trunk some- what thicker than its neighbours. Still farther north the timber is hardly larger, though the general aspect of the woods is improved by the more frequent occur- rence of flowering trees, some sweet-soented, with glossy leaves and small white flowers, some with gorgeous clusters of blossoms. Three are particularly handsome. One, usually called the Kafir-boom, has large flowers of a brilliant crimson. Another {Lonchocarpits speciosits ^), for which no English name seems to exist, shows lovely pendulous flowers of a bluish lilac, resembling in colour those of the wistaria. The third is an arboraceous St. John's wort (Hypericum Schimpcri'^), which I found growing in a valley of Manicaland, at a height of nearly 4000 feet above the sea. All three would be great ornaments to a south European shrubbery could they be induced to bear the climate, which, in the case of the two latter (for I hardly think the Kafir-boom would suit a colder air), seems not impossible. In ^ I owe these names to the kindness of the authorities at the Royal Gardens at Kew, veho have been good enough to look through fifty -four dried specimens which I collected and pre- served as well as I could while travelling through Mashonaland and Basutoland. Eleven of these fifty-four were pronounced to be species new to science, a fact which shows how much remains to be done in the way of botanical r. ploration. OHAl*. It VEGETATION Mafe- nd are •e the liland. irough ; a less ? seen. J men- e, feet. etween prickly get no a some- ir north I aspect t occur- h glossy yorgeoua mdsome. owers of eciosus ^), ws lovely in colour ceous St. I found of nearly be great ould they le case of 'afir-boom sible. In Hities at the igh to look jd and pre- lashonaland onounced to luch remains Manicaland, among the mountains which form the eastern edge of the plateau, the trees are taller, hand- somer, and more tropical in their character, and palms, though of no gicat height, are sometimes seen. But not even in the most humid of the valleys and on the lower spurs of the range, where it sinks into the coast plain, nor along the swampy banks of the Puncwe River, did I see any tree more than sixty feet high, and few more than thirty. Neither was there any of that luxuriant undergrowth which makes some tropical forests, like those at the foot of the Nilghiri Hills in India or in some of the isles of the Pacific, so impressive as evidences of the power and ceaseless activity of nature. The poverty of the woods in Bechuanaland and Matabililand seems to be due not merely to the dryness of the soil and to the thin and sandy character which so often marks it, but also to the constant grass-fires. The grass is generally short, so that these fires do not kill the trees ; nor does one hear of such great forest conflagrations as are frequent and ruinous in Western America and by no means unknown in the south of Cape Colony. But these fires doubtless injure the younger trees sufficiently to stunt their growth, and this mischief is, of course, all the greater when an exceptionally dry year occurs. In such years the grass- fires, then most frequent, may destroy the promise of the wood over a vast area. The want of forests in South Africa is one of the greatest misfortunes of the country, for it makes timber costly ; it helps to reduce the rainfall, and it aggravates the tendency of the rain, when it comes, to run off rapidly in a sudden freshet. Forests have a powerful influence upon climate in holding moisture,^ and not ' It has been plausibly suggested that one reason why many English rivers which were navigable in the tenth century (be- cause we know that the Northmen traversed them in vesssls which had crossed the German Ocean) but are now too shallow IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 1^128 |25 li^ Uii 122 IS 1^ |2.0 li& 1.4 11.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation c.^-; 23 west MAIN STREn WfBSTH.N.Y. USM (71«)S72-4S03 6^ 30 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA CHA^. only moisture, but soil also. In South Africa the violent rain-storms sweep away the surface of the ground, and prevent the deposition of vegetable mould. Nothing retains that mould or the soil formed by de- composed rock as well as a covering of wood and the herbage which the neighbourhood of comparatively moist woodlands helps to support. It is much to be desired that in all parts of the country where trees will grow trees should be planted, and that those which remain should be protected. Unfortunately, most of the South African trees grow slowly, so v/here planting has been attempted it is chiefly foreign sorts that are tried. Among these the first place belongs to the Australian gums, because they shoot up faster than any others. One finds them now everywhere, mostly in rows or groups round a house or a hamlet, but some- times also in regular plantations. They have become a conspicuous feature in the landscape of the veldt plateau, especially in those places where there was no wood, or the little that existed has boen destroyed. Kimberley, for instance, and Pretoria are beginning to be embowered in groves of eucalyptus; Buluwayo is following suit ; and all over Matabililand and Mashona- land one discovers in the distance the site of a farm- steading or a store by the waving tops of the gum-trees. If this goes on these Australian immigrants will sensibly affect the aspect of the country, just as already they have affected that of the Riviera in south-eastern France, of the Campagna of Rome, of the rolling tops of the Nilghiri Hills in Southern India, from which, unhappily, the far more beautiful ancient groves ("sholas") have now almost disappeared. Besides those gums, another Australasian tree, the thin-fcliaged and unlovely, but quick-growing " beefwood," has been largely planted at Kimberley and some other places. The to let a row-boat pass, is to be found in the destruction of the forests and the dminiiig of the marshes which the forests sheltered IV VEGETATIOJi 81 ..^ of the foreets stone-pine of Southern Europe, the tiuster-pine {Pimts Pinaster), and the Aleppo or Jerusalem pine {Pinus Halepensis), have all been introduced and seem to do well. The Australian wattles have been found very useful in helping to fix the soil on sandy flats, such as those near Cape Town, and the bark of one species is an important article of commerce in Natal, where (near Maritzburg, for instance) it grows profusely. But of all the immigrant trees none is so beautiful as the oak. The Dutch began to plant it round Cape Town early in the eighteenth century, and it is now one of the elements which most contribute to the charm of the scenery in this eminently picturesque south-west corner of the country. Nothing can be more charming than the long oak avenues which line the streets of Stellenbosch, for instance ; and they help, with the old-fashioned Dutch houses of that quaint little town, to give a sort of Hobbema flavour to the foregrounds. The changes which man has produced in the aspect of countries, by the trees he plants and the crops he sows, are a curious subject for inquiry to the geographer and the historian. These changes sometimes take place very rapidly. In the Hawaiian Islands, for instance, discovered by Captain Cook little more than a century ago, many of the shrubs which most abound and give its tone to the landscape have come (and that mostly not by planting, but spontaneously) from the shores of Asia and America within the last eighty years. ].n Egypt most of the trees which fill the eye in the drive from Cairo to the pyramids were introduced by Mehemet Ali, so that the banks of the Nile, as we see them, are different not only from those which Herodotus saw, but even from those which Napoleon saw. In >» urth Africa the Central American prickly- pear and the Australian gum make the landscape quite different from that of Carthaginian or even c^ Roman ^PKESSXO«S 0. 80T.TH A^aiOA CH. IV ci. South Africa is ctianging--cban|mg^ *^"^'\oiuse mly of the immigrant trees t^^^^^^ ^^^ it now presents. CHAPTER V PHYSICAT. ASPECTS OF THE VARIOUS POLITICAL DIVISIONS Hitherto I have spoken of South Africa as a natural whole, ignoring its artificial division into Colonies and States. It may be well to complete the account of the physical characteristics of the country by giving the reader some notion of the aspects of each of the political divisions, and thereby a notion also of their relative importance and resources as wealth-producing regions. CAPE colony Cape Colony is a huge territory more than twice as large as the United Kingdom. But very little of it is available for tillage, and much of it is too arid even for stock-keeping. The population, including natives, is only seven to the square mile. Nearly the whole of it is nigh country. All along its westerly coast and its southerly coast there is a strip of low ground bordering the ocean, which in some places is but a mile or two wide, and in others, where a broad valley opens spreads backward, giving thirty or forty square miles of tolerably level or undulating ground. The rich wine and com district round Stellenbosch and Faarl and northward towards Malmesbury is such a tract. Behind this low strip the country rises, sometimes in 34 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. ■•J steep acclivities, up which a road or railway has to be earned in curves and zigzags, sometimes in successive terraces, the steps, so to speak, by which the lofty interior breaks down towards the sea. Behind these terraces and slopes lies the great table- land described in a preceding chapter. Though I call it a tableland, it is by no means flat, for several long, though not lofty, ranges of hills, mostly running east and west, intersect it. Some tracts are only 2000 feet, others as much as 5000 feet, above the sea, while the highest hilltops approach 8000 feet. The part of this high country which lies between longitude 20* and 25° E., witn the Nieuweld and Sneeuwberg moun- tains to the north of it, and the Zwarte Berg to the south, is called the Great Karroo. (The word is Hot- tentot, and means a dry or bare place.) It is tolerably level, excessively dry, with no such thing as a running stream over its huge expanse of three hundred miles long and half as much wide, nor, indeed, any moisture, save in a few places shallow pools which almost dis- appear in the dry season. The rainfall ranges from five to fifteen inches in the year. It is therefore virtually a desert, bearing no herbage (except for a week or two after a rainstorm), and no trees, though there are plenty of prickly shrubs and small bushes, some of these succulent enough, when they sprout after the few showers that fall in the summer, to give good browsing to sheep and goats. The brilliancy of the air, the warmth of the days, and the coldness of the nights remind one who traverses the Karroo of the deserts of Western America between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, though the soil is much less alkaline, and the so-called " sage-brush " plants characteristic of an alkaline district are mostly absent. To the north of the Karroo and of the moun- tains which bound it, a similar district, equally arid, dreary, and barren, stretches away to the banks of the Orange River, which here in its lower course has less AP. be sive ofty ible- L call long, east 2000 while art of le 20° moun- to the LS Hot- •lerably running id miles loisture, lost dis- yes from Jierefore .pt for a 3, though bushes, .y sprout r, to give lUiancy ot Adness of •00 of the ,e Bocky the soil is [ge-brush " a,re mostly [the moun- lually arid, iiks of the le has less THE VART0T7S POLITICAL DIVISIONS 35 n M water than in its upper course, because, like the Nile, it receives no affluents and is wasted by the terrible aun. In fact, one may say that from the mountains dividing the southern part of the Karroo from the coast lands all the way north to the Orange River, a distance of nearly four hundred miles, nature has made the country a desert of clay and stone (seldom of sand), though man has here and there tried to redeem it for habitation. The north-eastern part of the interior of Cape Colony is more generally elevated than the south- western. From Graaf-Reinet northward to Kimberley and Mafeking, and north-eastward to the borders of Basutoland, the country is 4000 feet or more above sea-level ; much of it is nearly level, and almost all of it bare of wood. It is better watered than the western districts, enjoying a rainfall of from ten to twenty-five inches in the year, and is therefore mostly covered with grass after the rains, and not merely with dry thorny bushes. Nevertheless, its general aspect in the dry season is so parched and bare that the stranger is surprised to be told that it supports great quantities of cattle, sheep, and goats. The south-eastern part, in- cluding the Quathlamba Range, and the hilly country descending from that range to the sea, has a still heavier rainfall and is in some places covered with forest. Here the grass is richer, and in the valleys there is plenty of land fit for tillage without irri- gation. THE COLONY OF NATAL Much smaller, but more favoured by nature, is the British colony of Natal, which adjoins the easternmost part of Cape Colony, and now includes the territories of Zululand and Tonga land. Natal proper and Zululand resemble in their physical conditions the south-eastern corner of Cape Colony. Both lie entirely on the sea slope of the Quathlamba Range, and are covered by mountains D 2 "D^+Vi OK CHAF. „ :»r.^»«- Both are hilly ov undulating, vfith » TJf?. |ell watM«d, with a peren ?hev are also comparatively wei^ ^^ /<•'"'{ it which hordersi the sea hecome latitude. It is S d- f ^e -Pi- r ^Hchteat. the Ocean a vast body of warm ^g^^jg the shires of Georgia and the ^a ^^^^ "'^'.fjfm- from it the »o«°*FI*'^wern the Indian Ocean and Nek (the watershed Betwe^" ^o reached, and fhTMlantic), the height of 5300 feet ^^ ^ tSe winter cold ^^^JZjmly *»« ^« '*^?™"' S Ind four-fifths o*Z"^^^^f Europeans can thrive and temnerate country, where a y ^ y^^ „(,j,est as mSply- «?tKiP ofUnthAfriea. Tonga- rand;: :Zlt »: 'i^s lower and is less healthy. GERMAN SOUTH-WESi- AFRICA Very different ^^.f^^^t^::^^^''^^^ square miles) ?''^«^, f^ty riie Orange Biver, on Colony, hounded »« ^^^^^"Citories of Portugal the north by the Wes^Afncant jj^^aaualand on the e««t ^y,®,"^Se an enormous wilderness, and Daniaraland constitute ■^ lAV. ,y or and jren- tyof while irmer strip Kor It is which Indian ,t9 the its the jffect of i would not for in that [y some b though evel, and t Laing's cean ai^d ched, and of Katal leemed a irive and richest as a. Tonga- healthy. .y (322,000 from Cape e Kiver, on ,f Portugal, imaqualand wilderness, THE VARIOUS POLITICAL DIVISIONS 37 very thinly peopled, because the means of life are very scanty. This wilderness is, except the narrow and sandy coast strip, a high country (3000 to 4500 feet above sea-level) and a dry country, drier even than the Karroo, and far too dry for any kind of cultivation. Some parts, especially those in the south-west, arc hopelessly parched and barren ; others have small bushes or grass ; while on the higher grounds and generally in the far northern parts, where the Ovampo tribe dwell, grass is abundant, and as cattle can thrive there is also population. Copper has been discovered in considerable quantities, and other minerals (including coal) are believed to exist. But the country, taken all in all, and excepting the little explored districts of the north- east, toward the Upper Zambesi, — districts whose resources are still very imperfectly known, — is a dreary and desolate region, which seems likely to prove of little value. Germany now owns the whole of it, save the port of Walfish Bay, which has been retained for and is administered by Cape Colony. PORTUGUESE SOUTH-EAST AFRICA On the opposite side of the continent Portugal holds the country which lies along the Indian Ocean from British Tongaland northward to the Zambesi. Close to the sea it is level, rising gently westward in hills, and in some places extending to the crest of the Quathlamba Mountains. Thus it has considerable variety of aspect and climate, and as the rain falls chieflj/^ on the slopes of the mountains, the interior is generally better watered than the flat seaboard, which is oftoa sandy and worthless. Much of this region is of great fertility, capable of producing all the fruits of the tropics. But much of it, including some of the most fertile parts, is also very malarious, while the heat is far too great for European labour. When plantations are established throughout it, as they have been in a few — but only a ■Me^i-,)v,'V*<^iatm-'M.t-'jii>aii,m-:>ij»A^it6y 38 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. few — spots by the Portuguese, it will be by natives that they will be cultivated. The Kafir population is now comparatively small, but this may be due rather to the desolating native wars than to the conditions of the soil. So much for the four maritime countries. There remain the two Dutch republics and *'ie British territories which have not yet been formed into colonics. THE ORANGE FREE STATE The Orange Free State (48,000 square miles) lies entirely on the gieat plateau, between 4000 and 5000 feet above sea-level. It is in the main a level country, though hills are scattered over it, sometimes reaching a height of nearly 6000 feet. A remarkable feature of most of these hills, as of many all over the plateau, is that they are flat-topped, and have often steep, even craggy escarpments. This seems due to the fact that the strata (chiefly sandstone) are horizontal ; and very often a bed of hard igneous rock, some, kind of trap or greenstone, or porphyry, protects the summit of the hill from the disintegratmg influences of the weather. It is a bare land, with very little wood, and that small and scrubby, but is well covered with herbage, affording excellent pasture during two-thirds of the year. After the first rains, when these wide stretchesj* of gently un- dulating land are dressed in their new vesture of brilliant green, nothing can be imagined more exhilarat- ing than a ride across the wide expanse ; for the air is pure, keen, and bracing, much like that of the high prairies of Colorado or Wyoming. There are fortunately no blizzards, but violent thunderstorms arc not un- common, and the hailstones — I have seen them as big as bantams' eggs — which fall during such storms sometimes kill the smaller animals, and even men. Dry as the land tippears to the eye during the winter, the largjr streams do not wholly fail, and water can IP. tiat the the tierc Ltish into I lies 5000 intry, ling a are of jau, is ), even lat the y often [rap or the hill er. I^ lall and fording After tly un- ture of hilarat- c air is he high bunately not Un- as big storms Bn men. 3 winter, rater can THE VARIOUS POLITICAL DIVISIONS 39 a generally be cot. The south-eastern part of the Free State, especially along the Caledon River, is extremely fertile, one of the best corn-ffrowing parts of Africa. The rest is fitter for pasture than for tillage, except, of course, on the alluvi^l banks of the rivers, and nearly the whole region is in fact occupied by huge grazing farms. As such a farm needs and supports only a few men, the population grows but slowly. The Free State is nearly as big as England and iust as big as the State of New York ; but it has only 77,000 white inhabitants and about 130,000 natives. THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC Somewhat larger, — about as large as Great Britain and nearly two-thirds the size of France — is the South African Republic, which we commonly talk of as the Transvaal. Of its white population, which numbers some 170,000, two- thirds are in the small mining district of the Witwatersrand. All the Transvaal, except a strip on the eastern and another strip on the northern border along the river Limpopo, also belongs to the great plateau and exhibits the characteristic features of the plateau. The hills are, however, higher than in the Free State, and along the east, where the Quathlamba Range forms the outer edge of the plateau, they deserve to be called mountains, for some of them reach 7000 feet. These high regions are healthy, for the summer heats arc tempered by easterly breezes and copious summer rains. The lower parts lying toward the Indian Ocean and the Limpopo River are feverish, though drainage and cultivation may be expected to reduce the malaria and improve the conditions of health. Like the Free State, the Transvaal is primarily a pasture land, but in many parts the herbage is less juicy and wholesome than in the smaller republic, and belongs to what the Dutch Boers call " sour veldt." There are trees in the more 10 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA chap. sheltered parts, but except in the lower valleys, they are small, and of no economic value. The winter cold is severe, and the fierce sun dries up the soil, and makes the grass sear and brown for the greater part of the year. Strong winds sweep over the vast stretches of open upland, checked by no belts of forest. It is a country whose aspect has little to attract the settler. No one would think it worth fighting for so far as the surface goes ; and until sixteen years ago nobody knew that there was enormous wealth lying below the surface. BRITISH TERRITOIUES — BECHUANALAND Of one British territoiy outside the two colonies, viz., Basutoland. I shall have to speak fully hereafter. A second, Bechuanaland, including the Kalahari Desert, is of vast extent, but slender value. It is a level land lying entirely on the plateau between 3,000 and 4000 feet above the sea, and while some of its streamlets drain into the Limpopo, and so to the Indian Ocean, others flow westward and northward into marshes and shallow lakes, in which they disappear. One or two, however, succeed, in wet seasons, in getting as far as the Orange River, and find through it an outlet to the sea. It is only in the wet season that the streamlets flow, for Bechuanaland is intensely dry. I travelled four hundred miles through it without once crossing running water, though here and there in traversing the dry bed of a brook one was told that there was water underneath, deep in the sand. Notwithstanding this superficial aridity, eastern Bechuanaland is deemed one of the best ranching tracts in South Africa, for the grass is sweet, and the water can usually be obtained by digging, though it is often brackish. There is also plenty of wood — tnin and thorny, but sufficiently abundant to diversify the aspect of what would otherwise be a most dreary and monotonous region. THE VARIOUS POLITICAL DIVISIONS 41 t A THE TERRITOIUES OF ^^UE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY North of Bochuanaland and the Transvaal, and stretching all the way to the Zambesi, are those immense territories which have been assigned to the British South Africa Company as the sphere of its operations, and to which the name of Rhodesia has been given. Matabililand and Mashonaland, the only parts that have been at all settled, are higher, more undulating, and altogether more attractive than Bechuanaland, with great swelling downs somewhat resembling the Steppes of Southern Russia or the prairies of Kansas. Except in the east and south-east, the land is undulating rather than hilly, but in the south-west, towards the Upper Limpopo, there lies a high re^on, full of small rocky heights often clothed with thick bush — a country difficult to traverse, as has been found during the recent native outbreak ; for it was there that most of the Kaffirs took shelter and were found difficult to dislodge. Towards the south- east, along the middle course of the Limpopo, the country is lower and less healthy. On the northern side of the central highlands, the ground sinks towards the Zambesi, and the soil, which among the hills is thin or sandy, becomes deeper. In that part and along the river banks there arc great possibilities of agricultural development, while the uplands, where the subjacent rock is granite or gneiss, with occasional beds of slate or schist, are generally barer and more dry, fit rather for pasture than for tillage. More rain falls than m Bechuanaland, so it is only at the end of the dry season, in October, that the grass begins to fail on the pastures. The climate, though very warm, — for here we are well within the tropics, — is pleasant and in- vigorating, for nowhere do brighter and fresher breezes blow, and the heat of the afternoons is forgotten in the IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohajp. cool evenings. It is healthy, too, except along the swampy river banks and where one descends to the levels of the Zambesi, or into the Limpopo Valley. The reader will have gathered from this general sketch that there are no natural boundaries severing from one another the various political divisions of South Africa. The north-eastern part of Cape Colony is substantially the same kind of country as the Orange Free State and Eastern Bechuanaland ; the Transvaal, or at least three-fourths of its area, is physically similar to the Free State ; the boundary between Cape Colony and Natal is an artificial one ; while Matabili- land and Mashonaland present features resembling those of the Northern Transvaal, differing only in being rather hotter and rather better watered. So far as nature is concerned, the conditions she prescribes for the life of man, the resources she opens to his energies, are very similar over these wide areas, save, of course, that some parts are much richer than others in mineral deposits. It is only along the frontier line which divides Natal and the Portuguese dominions from the Transvaal and the territories of the British South Africa Company that a political coincides with a physical line of demarcation. Even German South- west Africa difters scarcely at all from the Kalahari Desert, which adjoins it and which forms the western part of Bechuanaland, and differs little also from the north-western regions of Cape Colony. If the reader will compare the two physical maps contained in this volume with the map which shows the political divisions of the country he will notice that these political divisions do not correspond with the areas where more or less rain falls, or where the ground is more or less raised above the sea or traversed by mountain chains. The only exception is to be found in the fact that the boundary of Natal towards Basutoland and the Orange Free State has been drawn along the watershed be- tween the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, and that the THE VARIOUS POLITICAL DIVISIONS 43 boundary line between the Portuguese territories and those of the Transvaal Republic and of the British South Africa Company, is in many places the line of division between the mountains and the low country. The Orange River and the Limpopo have, in parts of their courses, been taken as convenient political frontiers. But rivers, though convenient for this purpose to tho statesman and the geographer, are not natural boundaries in the true sense of the term. And thus we may say that the causes which have cut up South Africa into its present Colonies and States have been (except as aforesaid) historical causes, rather than differences due to the hand of nature. CHAPTER VI 11 NATURE AND HISTORY Now that some general idea of how nature has shaped and moulded South Africa has been conveyed to the reader, a few pages may be devoted to considering what influence on the fortunes of the country and its inhabitants has been exerted by its physical character. The history of every country may be regarded as the joint result of three factors — the natural conditions of the country itself, the qualities of the races that have occupied it, and the circumstances under which their occupation took place. And among savage or barbarous people natural conditions have an even greater impor- tance than they have in more advanced periods of civilisation, because they are more powerful as against man. Man in his savage state is not yet able to resist such conditions or to turn them to serve his purposes, but is condemned to submit to the kind of life which they prescribe. This was the case with the first inhabitants of South Africa. They seem to have entered it as savages, and savages they remained. Nature was strong and stern ; she spread before them no such rich alluvial plains as tempted cultivation in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. Intellectually feeble, and without the patience or tiicj foresight to attempt to till the soil in a land where droughts are frequent and disastrous, the Bushmen were content with killing game, and the Cfl. VI IdATUKB AND HISTORY 45 Hottentots with living on the milk of their cattle. Such a life, which was one of uncertainty and often of hardship, permitted no accumulation of wealth, gave no leisure, suggested no higher want than that of food, and was in all respects unfavourable to material pro- gress. Even the Bantu people, who probably came later and were certainly more advanced, for they carried on some little cultivation of the soil, remained at a low level. Nature gave them, except in dry years, as much com as they needed in return for very little labour. Clothing they did not need, and their isolation from the rest of the world left them ignorant of luxuries. When the European voyagers found them at the end of the fifteenth century, they were making little or no advance in the arts of life. Upon the growth of European settlements the influence of the physical structure of the country has been very marked. When the Portuguese had followed the long line of coast from the mouth of the Orange River to that of the Zambesi, and from the mouth of the Zambesi northward to Zanzibar, they settled only where they heard that gold and ivory could be obtained. Their forts and trading stations, the first of which dates from 1505, were therefore planted on the coast north- ward from the Limpopo River. Sofala, a little south of the modern port of Beira, was the principal one. Here they traded, and twice o^ thrice they made, always in search of the gold-producing regions, expeditions inland. These expeditions, however, had to traverse the flat and malarious strip of ground which lies along the Indian Ocean. A large part of the white troops died, and the rest arrived at the higher ground so much weakened that they could achieve no permanent con- quests, for they were opposed by warlike tribes. In the course of years a small population speaking Portuguese, though mixed with native blood, grew up along the coast. The climate, however, destroyed what vigour the whites had brought from Europe, and by degrees ;' 46 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. they ceased to even attempt to conquer or occupy the interior. The heat and the rains, together with fever, the offspring of heat and rains, checked further progress. Three centuries passed, during which the knowledge of south-eastern Africa which the civilised worid had obtained within the twenty years that followed the voyages of Vasco da Gama, was scarcely increased. , , • , i j During those three centuries, America, which had not been discovered till six years after Bartholomew Diaz passed the Cape of Good Hope, had been, all except a part of the north-west, pretty thoroughly explored and partitioned out among five European powers. Large and prosperous colonies had sprung up and before the end of the eighteenth century one great independent state had established itself. The discovery of Australia and New Zealand carne much later than that of America ; but within one century from the first European settlement in Australia (a.d. 1787) the whole continent, though its interior is unin- viting, had been traversed along many lines, and five prosperous European colonies had grown to importance. The slow progress of exploration and settlement in South Africa during so long a period is therefore a noteworthy phenomenon which deserves a few ob- servations. As regards the Portuguese part o^ the East African coast, the explanation just given is sufficient. As regards that part of the West coast which lies south of the Portuguese colony of Angola, the natural features of the country make no explanation needed. No more arid or barren coast is to be found anywhere, and in its whole long stretch there is but one tolerable port, that of Walfish Bay. The inland region is scarcely better. Much of it is waterless and without herbage. No gold nor ivory nor other article of value was obtainable. Accordingly, nobody cared to settle or explore, and the land would probably be still lying unclaimed had not VI NATURE AND HISTORY 47 the settlement of Herr Luderitz and a vague desire for territorial expansion prompted Germany to occupy it in 1884. The south coast, from the Cape to the Tugela River, was much more attractive. Here the climate was salu- brious, the land in many places fertile, and everywhere fit for sheep or cattle. Here, accordingly, a small European community, first founded in 1652, grew up and spread slowly eastward and northward along the shore during the century and a half from its first establishment. The Dutch settlers did not care to penetrate the interior, because the interior seemed to offer little to a farmer. Behind the well-watered coast belt lay successive lines of steep mountains, and behind those mountains the desert waste of the Karroo, where it takes six acres to keep a sheep. Accordingly, it was only a few bold hunters, a few farmers on the outskirts of the little maritime colony, and a few missionaries, who cared to enter this wide wilderness. When exploration began, it began from this south- west comer of Africa. It began late. In 1806, when the British took the Cape from the Dutch, few indeed were the white men who had penetrated more than one hundred miles from the coast, and the farther interior was known only by report. Foi* thirty years more progress was slow ; and it is within our own time that nearly all the exploration, and the settlement which has followed quickly on the heels of exploration, has taken place. Just sixty years ago the Dutch Boers passed in their heavy waggons from Cape Colony to the spots where Bloemfontein and Pretoria now stand. In 1854- 56 David Livingstone made his way through Bechuana- land to the falls of the Zambesi and the w*est coast at St. Paul de Loanda. In 1889 the vast territories between the Transvaal Republic and the Zambesi began to be occupied by the Mashonaland pioneera. All these explorers, all the farmers, missionaries, hunters, and mining prospectors, came up into South Central 48 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohah. Africa from the south-west extremity of the cont^'^ent over the great plateau. They moved north-eastward, because there was more rain, and therefore more grass and game in that direction than toward the north. They were checked from time to time by the warlike native tribes ; but they were drawn on by finding every- where a country in which Europeans could live and thrive. It was the existence of this high and cool plateau that permitted their discoveries and encouraged their settlement. And thus the rich interior has come to belong, not to the Portuguese, who first laid hold of South Africa, but to the races who first entered the ?latoau at the point where it is nearest the sea, the )utch and the English. Coming a thousand miles by land, they have seized and colonised the country that lies within sixty or eighty miles of the ocean behind the Portuguese settlements, because they had good healthy air to breathe during all those thousand miles of journey ; while the Portuguese, sunk among tropical swamps, were doing no more than maintain their hold upon the coast, and were allowing even the few forts they had established along the lower course of the Zambesi to crumble away. The same natural conditions, however, which have made the plateau healthy, have kept it sparsely peopled Much of this high interior, whose settlement has occu- pied the last sixty years, is a desert unfit, and likely to be always unfit, for human habitation. Even in those parts which are comparatively well watered, the grazing for sheep and cattle is so scanty during some months of the year that farms are large, houses are scattered far from one another, and the population remains extremely thin. The Wilderness of the Karroo cuts oflP Cape Town and its comparatively populous neigh- bourhood from the inhabited, though thinly inhabited, pastoral districts of the Orange Free State. Between these two settled districts there are only a few villages, scattered at intervals of many miles along a line of ▼I NATURE AND HISTORY 49 railway four hundred miles in length. In the Free State and the Transvaal the white population ia extremely sparse, save in the mining region of the Witwatersrand, because ranching re(][uires few hands, and only a few hundred square miles out of many thousands have been brought under cultivation. Thus, while the coolness of the climate has permitted Euro- peans to thrive in these comparatively low latitudes, its dryness has kept down their numbers and has retarded not only their political development, but their progress in all those arts and pursuits which imply a tolerably large and varied society. The note of South African life, the thing that strikes the traveller with increasing force as he visits one part of the country after another, is the paucity of inhabitants, and the isolated life which these inhabitants, except in six or seven towns, are forced to lead. This is the doing of nature. She has not severed the country into distinct social or political communities by any lines of physical demarcation, but she has provided such scanty means of sustenance for human life and so few openings for human industry un- aided by capital, that the settlers (save where capital has come to their aid) remain few indeed, and one may call the interior of South Africa a vast solitude, with a few oases of population dotted here and there over it. E I H ;.. : . CHAPTER VII ASPECTS OF SCENERY The sketch I have given of the physical character of South Africa will doubtless have conveyed to the reader that the country offers comparatively little to attract the lover of natural scenery. This impression is true if the sort of landscape we have learned to enjoy in Europe and in the eastern part of the United States be taken as the type of scenery which gives most pleasure. Variety of form, boldness of outline, the presence of water in lakes and running streams, and, above all, foliage and verdure, are the main elements of beauty in those landscapes ; while if any one desires something of more imposing grandeur, he finds it in snow-capped mountains like the Alps or the Cascade Range, or in majestic crags such as those which tower over the fiords of Norway. But the scenery of South Africa is wholly unlike that of Europe or of most parts of America. It is, above all things, a dry land, a parched and thirsty land, where no clear brooks murmur through the meadow, no cascade sparkles from the cliff, where mountain and plain alike are brown and dusty except during the short season of the rains. And being a dry land, it is also a bare land. Few are the favoured spots in which a veritable forest can be seen ; for though many tracts are wooded, the trees are almost always thin and stunted. In Matabililand, for instance, though a great part of the surface is covered I i« yi CH. VII ASPECTS OF SOKKKRY 61 rams. with wood, you see no trees forty feet high, and few reaching thirty; while in the wilderness of the Kalahari Desert and Dam.iraland nothing larger than a bush is visible, except the scraggy and thorny mimosa. These features of South Africa — the want of water and the want of greenness — are those to which a native of Western Europe finds it hardest to accustom him- self, however thoroughly he may eiyoy the brilliant sun and the keen dry air which go along with them. And it must also be admitted that over very large areas the aspects of nature are so uniform as to become monotonous. One may travel eight hundred miles and see less variety in the landscape than one would find in one-fourth of the same distance anywhere m Western Europe or in America east of the Alleghany Mountains. The same geological formations prevail over wide areas, and give the same profile to the hill- top, the same undulations to the plain ; while in travel- ling northward toward the Equator the flora seems to change far less between 34° and 18° south latitude than it changes in the journey from Barcelona to Havre, through only half as many degrees of latitude. There are, nevertheless, several interesting bits of scenery in South Africa, which, if they do not of them- selves repay the traveller for so long a journey, add sensibly to his enjoyment. Tue situation of Cape Town, with a magnificent range of precipices rising behind it, a noble bay in front, and environs full of beautiful avenues and pleasure-mrounds, while bold mountain-peaks close the more distant landscape, is equalled by that of few other cities in the world. Constantinople and Naples, Bombay and San Fran- cisco, cannot boast of more perfect or more varied prospects. There are some fine pieces of wood and water scenery along the south coast of Cape Colony, and one of singular charm in the adjoining colony of Natal, where the suburbs of Durban, the principal port, though they lack the grandeur which its craggy K 2 52 TMPT^KSSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ouap. I il heights give to the neighbourhood of Cape Town, have, with a warmer ofimate, a richer and more tropically luxuriant vegetation. In the great range of mountains which runs some seventeen hundred miles from Cape Town almost to the banks of the Zambesi, the scenery becomes striking in three dis- tricts only. One of these is Basutoland, a little native lenitory which lies just where Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and Natal meet. Its peaks are the highest in Africa south of Mount Kilimanjaro, for several of them reach 11,000 feet. On the south-east this mountain-land, the Switzerland of South Africa, faces Natal and East Griqualand with a long range of formidable precipices, impassable for many miles. The interior contains valleys and glens of singular beauty, some wild and rugged, some clothed with rich pasture. The voice of brooks, a sound rare in Africa, rises from the hidden depths of the gorges, and here and there toiTents plunging over the edge of a basaltic cliff into an abyss below make waterfalls which are at all seasons beautiful, and when swollen by the rains of January majestic. Except wood, of wh'ch there is unhappily nothing more than a little scrubby bush in the sheltered hollows, nearly all the elements of beauty are present ; and the contrast between the craggy summits and the soft rich pasture and cornlands which lie along their northern base, gives rise to many ad- mirable landscapes. Two hundred miles north-north-east of Basutoland the great Quathlamba Range rises in very bold slopes from the coast levels behind Delagoa Bay, and the scenery of the valleys and passes is said to be extremely grand. Knowing it, however, only by report, I will not venture to describe it. Nearly five hundred miles still farther to the north, in the district called Manica- land, already referred to, is a third mountain region, less lofty than Basutoland, but deriving a singular charm from the dignity and variety of its mountain 1 vn ASPECTS OP SCENERY 53 land )pes the bely [will liles jica- [ioii, liar bain -"A foiuis. The whole country is so elevated that Hummits of 7000 or even 8000 feet do not produce anv greater effect upon the eye than does Ben Lomon(l as seen from Loch Lomond, or Mount Washington from the Glen House. But there is a boldness of lino about these granite peaks comparable to those of the west coast of Norway or of the finest parts of the Swiss Alps. Some of them rise in smooth shafts of appar- ently inaccessible rock; others form long ridges of pinnacles of every kind of shape, specially striking when they stand out against the brilliantly clear morn- ing or evening sky. The valleys are well wooded, the lower slopes covered with herbage, so the effect of these wild peaks is heightened by the softness of the surroundings which they dominate, while at the same time the whole landscape becomes more complex and more noble by the mingling of such diverse elements. No scenery better deserves the name of romantic. And even in the tamer parts, where instead of moun- tains there are only low hills, or " kopjes " (as they are called in South Africa), the slightly more friable rock found in these hills decomposes under the influence of the weather into curiously picturesque and fantastic forms, with crags riven to their base, and detached pillars supporting loose blocks and tabular masses, among or upon which the timid Mashonas have built their huts in the hope of escaping the raids of their warlike enemies, the Matabili. Though I must admit that South Africa, taken as a whole, offers far less to attract the lover of natural beauty than does Southern or Western Europe or the Pacific States of North America, there are two kinds of charm which it possesses in a high degree. One is that of colour. Monotonous as the landscapes often are, there is a warmth and richness of tone about them which fills and delights the eye. One sees comparatively little of that whitish-blue limestone which so often gives a hard and chilling aspect to the scenery of the lower 4 :sii^' i;' ! ! I i t i 54 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA ohaf. ridKes of the Alps and of large parts of the coasts of the Mediterranean. In Africa even the grey granite or gneiss has a df^eper tone than these limestones, and it 18 frequently covered by red and yellow lichens of wonderful beauty. The dark basalts and i)orphyries which occur in many places, the rich red tint which the surface of the sandstone rocks often takes under the scorching sun, give depth of tone to the landscape ; and though the flood of midday sunshine is almost overpowering, the lights of morning and evening, touching the mountains with every shade of rose and crimson and violet, are indescribably beautiful. It is in these morn .ig and evening hours that the charm of the pure dry air is snecially felt. Mountains fifty or sixty miles away stand out clearly enough to enable all the wealth of their colour and all the delicacy of their outlines to be perceived ; and the eye realises, by the exquisitely fine change of tint between the nearer and the more distant ranges, the immensity and the harmony of the landscape. Europeans may think that the continuous profusion of sunlight during most of the year may become wearisome. I was not lon^ enough m the country to find it so, and I observed that those who have lived for a few years in South Africadeclare they prefer that continuous profusion to the murky skies of Britain or Holland or North Germany. But even if the fine weather which prevails for eight months in the year be monotonous, there is compensation in the extraordinary brilliancy of the atmospheric effects throughout the rainy season, and especially in its first weeks. During nine days which I spent in the Trans- vaal at that season, when several thunderstorms occurred almost every day, the combinations of sunshine, light- ning, and cloud, and the symphonies — if the expression may be permitted — of light and shade and colour which their changeful play produced in the sky and on the earth, were more various and more wonderful than a whole year would furnish forth for enjoyment in Europe. VII ASPECTS OF SOENFRY 66 I I ■■', s' 1 The other peculiar oharm which South African scenery possesses is that of primeval solitude and silence. It is a charm which is differently felt by different minds. There are many who find the presence of what Homer calls " the rich works of men " essential to the perfection of a landscape. Cultivated fields, gardens, and orchards, farmhouses dotted here and there, mdications in one form or another of human life and labour, do not merely give a gi'eater variety to every prospect, but also impart an element which evokes the sense of sympathy with our fellow-beings, and excites a whole group of emotions which the contemplation of nature, taken by itself, does not arouse. No one is insensible to these things and some find little delight in any scene from which they are absent. Yet there are other minds to which there is something specially solemn and impressive in the untouched and primitive simplicity of a country which stands now iust as it came from the hands of the Creator. The self-sufficingness of nature, the insignificance of man, the mystery of a universe which does not exist, as our ancestors fondly thought, for the sake of man, but for other purposes hidden from us and for ever undiscoverable — these things are more fully realised and more deeply felt when one traverses a boundless wilderness which seems to have known no change since the remote ages when hill and plain and valley were moulded into the forms we see to-day. Feelings of this kind powerfully affect the mind of the traveller in South Afnca. They affect him in the Karroo, where the slender line of rails, along v.'hich his train creeps all day and all night across wide stretches of brown desert and under the crests of stern dark hills, seems to heighten by contrast the sense of solitude — a vast and barren solitude inter- posed between the busy haunts of men which he has left behind on the shores of the ocean and those still busier haunts whither he is bent, where the pick and hammer sound upon the Witwatersrand, and the ■M »il I m IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA OHAP. 66 palpitating engine drags masses of ore from t^e depths of the crowded mine. They attect him still more m the breezy highlands of Matabililand, where the eye ranges over an apparently endless succession of undulations clothed with tall grass or waving wood, till they sink in the blue distance toward the plain through which the great Zambesi takes its seaward course. The wilderness is indeed not wholly unpeopled. Over the wide surface of Matabililand and Mashona- land— an area of some two hundred thousand square miles— there are scattered natives of various tribes, whose numbers have been roughly estimated at from 250,000 to 400,000 persons'. But one rarely sees a native except along a few well-beaten tracks, and still more rarely comes upon a cluster of huts in the woods along the streamlets or half hidden among the fissured rocks of a gi'anite kopje. The chief traces of man's presence in the landscape are the narrow and winding footpaths which run hither and thither through the country, and bewilder the traveller who, having strayed from his waggon, vainly hopes by following them to find his way back to the main track, or the wreaths of blue smoke which indicate the spot where a Kafir has set the grass on fire to startle and kill the tiny creatures that dwell in it. Nothing is at first more surprising to one who crosses a country inhabited by savages than the few marks of their presence which strike the eye, or at least an unpractised eye. The little plot of ground the Kafirs have cultivated is in a few years scarcely dis- tinguishable from the untouched surface of the sui'- rounding land, while the mud-built hut qnickl} disappears under the summer rains and the scarcely less destructive eflforts of the white ants. Here in South Africa the native races seem to have made no progress for centuries, if, indeed, they have not actually gone backward; and the feebleness of savage man ■ A (, -.a I Ofl AP. jpths |re in eye of ^ood, [plain I ward >pled. lona- vii ASPECTS OF SCENERY 57 m ^■ f intensifies one's sense of the overmastering strength of nature. The elephant and the buffalo are as much the masters of the soil as is the Kafir, and man has no more right to claim that the land was made for him than have the wild beasts of the forest who roar after their prey and seek their meat from God. These features of South African nature, its silence, its loneliness, its drear solemnity, have not been with- out their influence upon the mind and temper of the European settler. The most peculiar and characteristic type that the country has produced is the Boer of the eastern plateau, the offspring of those Dutch Africanders who some sixty years ago wandered away from British rule into the wilderness. These men had, and their sons and grandsons have retained, a passion for solitude that even to-day makes them desire to live many miles from any neighbour, a sturdy self-reliance, a grim courage in the face of danger, a sternness from which the native races have often had to suffer. The majesty of nature has not stimulated in them any poetical faculty. But her austerity, joined to the experiences of their race, has contributed to make them grave and serious, closely bound to their ancient forms of piety, and prone to deem themselves the special objects of divine pro- tection. I 3 ^ •4 i PAET II A SKETCH OF SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ?V1 ' '*1 is CHAPTER VIII I THE NATIVES : HOTTENTOTS, BUSHMEN, AND KAFIRS By far the most interesting features in the history of South Africa have been the relations to one another of the various races that inhabit it. There are seven of these races, three native and four European. The European races, two of them, especially the Dutch and the English, are, of course, far stronger, and far more important as political factors, than are the natives. Nevertheless, the natives have an importance too, and one so great that their position deserves to be fully set forth and carefully weighed. For, though they are in- ferior in every point but one, they are in that point strong. They are prolific. They already greatly out- number the whites, and they increase faster. The cases of conflict or contact between civilized European man and savage or semi-civilized aboriginal peoples, which have been very numerous since the tide of discovery began to rise in the end of the fifteenth century, may be reduced to three classes. The first of these classes includes the cases where the native race, though perhaps numerous, is comparatively weak, and unable to assimilate European civilization, or to thrive under European rule (a rule which has often been harsh), or even to survive in the presence of a European population occupying its country. To this class belong such cases as the extinction of the natives of the Antilles by the Spaniards, the disappearance of IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH APRTCA chap. the natives of Southern Australia and Tasmania before British settlement, the dying out, or retirement to a few reserved tracts, of the aborigines who once occupied all North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The Russian advance in Siberia, the advance of Spanish and Italian and German colonists in the territories of La Plata in South America, may be added to this class, for though the phenomena are rather those of absorption than of extinction, the result is practically the same. The country becomes European and the native races vanish. An opposite class of cases arises where Europeans have conquered a country already filled by a more or less civilized population, which is so numerous and so prolific as to maintain itself with ease in their presence. Such a case is the British conquest of India. The Europeans in India are, and must remain, a mere handful among the many millions of industrious natives, who already constitute, in many districts, a population almost too numerous for the resources of the country to support. Moreover, the climate is one in which a pure European race speedily dwindles away. The position of the Dutch in Java, and of the French in Indo-Chinu, is similar ; and the French in Madagascar will doubtless present another instance. Between these two extremes lies a third group of cases — those in which the native race is, on the one hand, numerous and strong enough to maintain itself in the face of Europeans, while, on the other hand, there is plenty of room left for a considerable European popu- lation to press in, climatic conditions not forbidding it to spread and multiply. To this group belong such colonizations as those of the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru, of the Russians in parts of Central Asia, of the French in Algeria and Tunis, of the Spaniards in the Canary Isles, and of the English and Americans in Hawaii. In all these countries the new race and the old race can both live and thrive, neither of them killing .5 vm HOTTENTOTS, BUSHMEN, AND KAFIRS 63 off or crowding out the other, though in some, as in Hawaii, the natives tend to disappear, while in others, as in Algeria, the immigrants do not much increase. Sometimes, as in the Canary Isles and Mexico, the two elements blend, the native element being usually more numerous, though less advanced ; and a mixed race is formed by intermarriage. Sometimes they remain, and seem likely to remain, as distmct as oil i» from water. South Africa belongs to this third class of cases. The Dutch and the English find the country a good one and become fond of it. There is plenty of land for them. They cTijoy the climate. They thrive and multiply. But ilicy do not oust the natives, except sometimes from the best lands, and the contact does not reduce the number of the latter. The native — that is to say, the native of the Kafir race — not merely holds his ground, but increases far more rapidly than he did before Europeans came, because the Europeans have checked intertribal wars and the slaughter of the tribesmen by the chiefs and their wizards, and also because the Europeans have opened up new kinds of employment. As, therefore, the native will certainly remain, and will, indeed, probably continue to be in a vast majority, it is vital to a comprehension of South African problems to know what he has been and may be expected to become. The native races are three, and the differences between them are marked, being differences not only of physical appearance and of language, but also of character, habits, and grade of civilization. These three are the Bushmen, the Hottentots, and those Bantu tribes whom we call Kafirs. The Bushmen were, to all appearance, the first on the ground, the real aborigines of South Africa. They are one of the lowest races to be found any- where, as low as the Fuegians or the " black fellows " of Australia, though perhaps not quite so low as the Veddahs of Ceylon or the now extinct natives of 64 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA chap. Tasmania. They seem to have been originall^^ scattered over all South Africa, from the Zambesi to the Cape, and so late as eighty years ago were almost the only inhabitants of Basutoland, where now none of them are left. They were nomads of the most primitive type, neither tilling the soil nor owning cattle, but living on such wild creatures as they could catch or smite with their poisoned arrows, and, when these failed, upon wild fruits and the roots of plants. For the tracking and trapping of game they had a marvellous faculty, such as neither the other races nor any European could equal. But they had no organization, not even a tribal one, for they wandered about in small groups ; and no religion beyond some vague notion of ghosts, and of spirits inhabiting or connected with natural objects ; while their language was a succession of clicks inter- rupted by grunts. Very low in stature, and possibly cognate to the pygmies whom Mr. H. M. Stanley found in Central Africa, they were capable of enduring great fatigue and of travelling very swiftly. Untamably fierce unless caught in childhood, and incapable of accustoming themselves to civ^ilized life, driven out of some districts by the European settlers, who were often forced to shoot them down in self-defence, and in other regions no lon^^er able to find support owing to the disappearance of the game, they are now almost extinct, though a few remain in the Kalahari Desert and the ad- joining parts of northern Bechuanaland and western Ma- tabililand, toward Lake Ngami. I saw at the Kimberley mines two or three dwarf natives who were said to have Bushmen blood in them, but it is no longer easy to find in the Colony a pure specimen. Before many years the only trace of their existence will be in the remarkable drawings of wild animals with which they delighted to covei' the smooth surfaces of sheltered rocks. These drawings, which are found all the way from the Zambesi to the Cape, and from Manicaland westward, are exe- cuteu in red, yellow, and black pigments, and are often A CHAP. originally i Zambesi ere almost w none of primitive attle, but catch or en these For the larvellous European lot even a )ups ; and iosts, and objects ; ks inter- possibly ley found ng great itamably [pable of ti out of ere often in other to the extinct, the ad- ern Ma- naberley to have f to find ears the arkable hted to These ambesi re exe- 3 often viii HOTTENTOTS, BUSHMEN, AND KAFIRS 65 full of spirit. Rude, of course, they are, but they often convey the aspect, and especially the characteristic attitude, of the animal with great fidelity. The second native race was that which the Dutch called Hottentot, and whom the Portuguese explorers found occupying the maritime region in the south-west corner of the continent, to the east and to the north of the Cape of Good Hope. They are supposed to have come from the north and dispossessed tne Bushmen of the grassy coast lands, driving them into the more arid interior. But of this there is no evidence ; and some have even fancied that the Hottentot race itself may have been a mixed one, produced by intermarriage between Bushmen and Kafirs. Be this as it may, the Hottentots were superior to the Bushmen both phy- sically and intellectually. They were small men, but not pygmies, of a reddish or yellowish black hue, with no great muscular power in their slender frames. Their hair, very short and woolly, grew, like that of the Bushmen, in small balls or tufts over the skull, just as grass tufts grow separate from one another in the drier parts of the veldt. They possessed sheep and also cattle, lean beasts with huge horns ; and they roved hither and thither over the country as they could find pasture for their animals, doing a little hunting, but not attempting to till the soil, and unacquainted with the metals. Living in tribes under their chiefs, they fought a little with one another, and a great deal with the Bushmen, who tried to prey upon their cattle. They were a thoughtless, cheerful, good-natured, merry sort of people, whom it was not difiicult to domesticate as servants, and their relations with the Dutch settlers, in spite of two wars, were, on the whole, friendly. Within a century after the foundation of Cape Colony, their numbers, never large, had vastly diminished, partly from the occupation by the colonists of their best grazing-grounds, but still more from the ravages of small-pox and other epidemics, which ships touching F BIPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. u : ;. on their way from the East Indieo brought into the country. In A.D. 1713 whole tribes perished in this way. I speak of the Hottentots in the past tense, for they are now, as a distinct race, almost extinct in the Colony, although a good deal of their blood has passed into the mixed coloured population of Cape Town and its neighbourhood — a population the other elements of which are Malays from the Dutch East Indies, and the descendants of slaves brought from the West Coast of Africa in the seventeenth and eigliteenth centuries. From unions between Hottentot women and the Dutch sprang the mixed race whom the Dutch call Bastards and the English Griquas, and who, though now dying c.t, like the French and Indian half-breeds of Western Canada, played at one time a considerable part in colonial politics. Along the south bank of the Orange River and to the north of it, in Great Namaqualand, small tribes, substantially identical with the Hottentots, still wander over the arid wilderness. But in the settled parts of the Colony the Hottentot, of whom we used to hear so much, and whom the Portuguese, remembering the death of the viceroy D'Almeida (who was killed in a skirmish in A.D. 1510), at one time feared so much, has vanished more completely than has the Red Indian from the Atlantic States of North America. And the extinction or absorption of the few remaining nomads will probably follow at no distant date. Very different have been the fortunes, very different are the prospects, of the third and far more numerous South ^ frican race, those whom we call Kafirs, and who call themselves Abantu or Bantu (" the people "). The word "Kafir" is Arabic. It has nothing to do with Mount Kaf (the Caucasus), but means an infidel (literally, " one who denies "), and is applied by Mussul- mans not merely to these peorle, but to other heathen also, as, for instance, to the idolaters of Kafiristan, in the Hindu-Kush Mountains. The Portuguese doubt- CHAP. viii HOTTENTOTS, BUSHMKN, AND KAFIRS into the d in this tense, for ct in the las passed Town and enicnts of s, and the 1 Coast of centuries, the Dutch Bastards low dying f Western 3 part in he Orange mqualand, [ottentots, lit in the of whom ortuguese, leida (who one time tely than of North on of the no distant different numerous Cafirs, and people "). ling to do an infidel )y Mussul- r heathen iristan, in se doubt- less took the name from the Arabs, whom they found established at several points on the East African coast northward from Sofala, and the Dutch took it from the Portuguese, together with such words as " kraal " (corral), and " assagai." The Bantu tribes, if one may include under that name all the blacks who speak languages of the same general type, occupy the whole of East Africa southward from the Upper Nile, where that river issues from the great Nyanza lakes, to^a^cther with the Congo basin and most of South-west Africa. They include various groups, such as the Ama-Kosa tribes (to whicn belong the Tembus and Pondos), who dwell on the coast of Cape Colony eastward from the Great Fish River; the Ama-Zulu group, consisting of the Zulus proper (in Natal and Zululand), the Swazis, the Matabili, farther to the north, and the Angoni, in Nyassaland, beyond the Zambesi River ; the Amatonga group, between Zululand and Delagoa Bay; the Bechuana group, including the Bamangwato, the Basuto and the Barolongs, as well as the Barotse, far oif on the middle course of the Zambesi ; the Makalaka or Maholi, and cognate tribes, inhabiting Mashonaland and Manicaland. The linguistic and ethnical affinities of these groups and tribes are still very imperfectly known, but their speech and their habits are sufficiently similar to enable us to refer them to one type, just as we do the Finnic or the Slavonic peoples in Europe. And they are even more markedly unlike the Hotten- tots or the Bushmen than the Slavs are to the Finns, or both of these to those interesting aborigines of northern Europe, the Lapps. The Bantu or Kafirs — I use the term as synonymous — who dwell south of the Zambesi are usually strong and well-made men, not below the average height of a European. In colour they vary a good deal ; some are as black as the Gulf of Guinea negro, some rather brown than black. All have the thick lips, the woolly hair, and the scanty beard of the negro, and nearly all the F 2 « •I 08 IMl'llKSSI()N8 OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. broad, low noso ; yet in some the nose is fairly high, and tho cast ol" foaturos .siigp;est.s a?i admixture of Semitic blood— an admixture which could be easily explained by the presence, from a pretty remote time, of Arab settlers, as well as traders, along the coast of the Indian Ocean. As the Bantu vary in aspect, so do they also in intelligence. No tribe is in this respect conspicuously sujKTior to any other, though the Zulus show more courage in fight than most of the others, tho Fingos more aptitude for trade, the Basutos more dis- {)osition to steady industry. But, while the general evel of intellect is below that of the Red Indians or tho Maoiis or the Hawaiians (if rather above that of the Guinea negroes), individuals are now and then found of considerable talents and great force of character. Three such men as the Zulu Tshka, the Basuto Moshesh, and the Bechuana Khama, not to speak of those who, like the eloquent missionary Tiyo Soga, nave received a regular European education, are sutficient to show the capacity of the race for occasionally reaching a standard which white men must respect. And in one regard tho Bantu race shows a kind of strength which the Red Indians and Polynesians lack. They are a very prolific people, and under the conditions of peace which European rule secures they multiply with a rapidity which some deem alarming. How long the various Bantu tribes have been in South Africa is a question on which no light has yet been thrown, or can, indeed, be expected. Some of them have a vague tradition that they came from the north ; but the recollections of savages seldom go back more than five or six generations, and retain little ex- cept the exploits or the genealogy of some conspicuous chief. When the Portuguese arrived in the end of the fifteenth century, they Ibund Kafirs already inhabiting the country from Natal northward. But apparently they did not then extend as far to the west of Natal as they do now; and there is no reason to think that con- CHAP. \y high, xturo of le easily ite time, coast of ct, so do I respect le Zulus hers, the lore dis- gcncral ns or the t of the found of , Three esh, and *vho, like ceived a ihow the standard gard the the Red ^ prolific which rapidity been in has yet 3ome of om the go back ttle ex- picunus a of the labiting larently Nfatal as lat con- viir HOTTENTOTS, BUKHMEN, AND KAFfRS AO siderable parts of the interior, such as the n^gion which is now the Orange Free State and Basutoland, were not yet occupied, but left to the wandering Bushnion. The Kafirs were then, and continued down to our own time, in a state of incessant tribal warfare ; and from time to time one martial tribe, under a forceful chief, would exterminate or chase away some weaker clan and reduce wide areas to a wilderness. Of any large conquests, or of any steady progress in the arts cither of war or of peace, there is no record, and indeed, in the general darkness, no trace. The history of the native races, so far as ascertainable, begins with the advent of the whites, and even after their advent remains extremely shadowy until, early in this cen- tury, the onward march of settlement gave the Dutch and English settlers the means of becoming better ac- quainted with their black neighbours. Across this darkness there strikes one ray of light. It is a very faint ray, but in the absence of all other light it is precious. It is that which is supplied by the prehistoric ruins and the abandoned gold-workings of Mashonaland, CHAPTER IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS — ZI5IBABWYE The ruined buildings of Mashonaland and Mata- bililand have excited in recent years an amount of interest and curiosity which is disproportionate to their number, size, and beauty, but by no means dis- proportionate to their value as being the only record, scant as it is, we possess of what has been deemed an early South African civilization. I will describe in the fovest v/ords such of these buildings as I saw, leaving the reader of archajological tastes to find fuller details in the well-known book of that enterprising explorer, the late Mr. Theodore Bent. Some short account of them seems all the more needed, because the first de- scriptions published gave the impression that they were far more considerable than they really are. Scattered over the plateau of southern Mashonaland and Matabililand, from its mountainous edge on the east to the neighbourhood of Tati on the west, there are to be found fragments of walls built of small bLcks of granite resembling paving stones (usually about a foot long by six inches high), but often larger, not cut smooth, but chipped or trimmed to a fairly uniform size. These walls are without mortar or other cement- ing material, but the stones are so neatly set together, and the wall usually so thick, that the structure is compact and cohesive. The walls are mostly thinner at the top than at the base. The only ornamentation 1 Mata- lount of nate to sans dis- 1^ record, Bmed an )e in the . leaving r details orer, the of them rst de- ley were onaland on the 5t, there bljcks about a jer, not uniform jemcnt- Dgether, ;ture is nner at ntation ctt. IX OUT OF THE t>ARKNESS-:??IMBABWYE 71 consists in placing some of the layers at an acute angle to the other layers above and below, so as to produce what is called the herring-bone pattern. Occasionally a different pattern is obtained by leaving spaces at intervals between the horizontal stones of certain layers, making a kind of diaper. In some cases this ornamentation, always very simple, occurs only on one part of the wall, and it has been said that it occurs usually if not invariably on the part which faces the cast. I heard of ten or twelve such pieces of wall in different parts of the plateau, and saw photographs of most of these. Probably others exist, for many dis- tricts, especially in the hills, have been imperfectly explored, and trees easily conceal these low erections. One was described to me, where the walls are the facings of seven terraces, rising one above another to a sort of platform on the top. This I have not seen ; but it is probably similar to one which I did see and examine at a place called Dhlodhlo, about fifty miles south-east of Bulawayo. This group of ruins, one of the most interesting in the country, stands high among rocky hills, from which a superb view is gained over the wide stretches of rolling table-land to the north and north-west, a charming situation which might have attracted the old builders d'd they possess any sense of beauty. On a low eminence there has been erected such a wall of such hewn, or rather trimmed, stones as I have just described. It is now about twenty feet in height, and may have originally been higher. On the eastern side this wall consists of three parts, each about six feet high, with two narrow terraces, each from five to six feet wide, between them, the second wall rising from the first terrace, and the third or highest wall from the second terrace. On i>his side some of the stone courses have the simple forms of ornamental pattern already mentioned. On the oppo- site, or western and north-western, side only one terrace and a low, unornamented wall of trimmed stones are 72 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. now discernible. To the north, still within what seems to have been the main inclosing wall, are small inclosures built of trimmed stone, which may have been chambers originally roofed with wood or bushes. At the top of the highest wall there is at the north- north-west end a small level platform of earth or rubble, which seems to have been filled in behind the terraced walls. This platform is approached by a narrow passage between walls of trimmed stone, at one point in which there appears to have been a sort of narrow gateway barely wide enough for two persons to pass. There is no trace of any stone building on the top of the platform, and the remains of clay huts which one finds there may well be quite modern. To the south of this principal structure there is a second small hill or boss of granite, pro- tected on three sides by steep sheets of granite rock. Its top is inclosed by a low wall of trimmed stones, now in places quite broken away, with no trace of any stone building within. All round on the lower ground are large inclosures rudely built of rough stones, and probably intended for cattle-kraals. They may be quite modern, and they throw no light on the purpose of the ancient buildings. Nor is much light lo be ob- tained from the objects which have been found in the ruins. When I was there they were being searched by the Mashonaland Ancient Ruins Exploration Com- pany, a company authorized by the British South Africa Company to dig and scrape in the ancient buildings of the country for gold or whatever else of value moy be there discoverable, an enteri^rise which, though it may accelerate the progress of archaeological inquiry, obviously requires to be conducted with groat care and by competent persons. So far as I could observe, all due care was being used by the gentleman in charge of the work at Dhlodhlo ; but considering how easy it is to obliterate the distinctive features of a ruin and leave it in a condition unilwourable to 'i UHA.P. IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS- ZIMBABWYE 73 1 what e small ,y have bushes. north- arth or behind ihed by I stone, ve been igh for y stone remains le quite brncture ite, pro- te rock. stones, 3 of any ■ ground nes, and may be purpose ) be ob- d in the searched m Com- 1 South ancient ' else of 3 which, 3ological bh groat I could ntleman isidering turcs of rable to future examination, it seems desirable that the com- pany should, as a rule, await the arrival of trained archaeologists rather than hurry on explorations by amateurs, however zealous r.nd well intentioned. Of the objects found, which were courteously shown to me, some are modern, such as the bits of potteiy, apparently Indian or Chinese, the bits of glass, the bullets and fragments of flint-lock muskets, a small cannon, and an iron hammer. These are doubtless of Portuguese origin, though it does not follow that any Portuguese expedition ever penetrated so far inland, for they may have been gifts or purchases from the Portuguese established on the coast four or five hun- dred miles away. So, too, the silver and copper orna- ments found, and some of the gold ones (occasionally alloyed with copper), which show patterns apparently Portuguese, may be recent. There are also, lowever, some gold ornaments, such as beads, bangles (a skeleton was found with bangles on the legs and a bead neck- lace), and pieces of twisted gold wire, which may be far more ancient, and indeed as old as the structure itself A small crucible with nuggets and small bits of gold goes to indicate that smelting was carried on, though the nearest ancient gold-workings are six miles distant. Probably here, as at Hissarlik and at Car- thage, there exist remains from a long succession of centuries, the spot having been occupied from remote antiquity.^ At present it is not only unmhabited, but regarded by the natives with fear. They believe it to be haunted by the ghosts of the departed, and are un- willing, except in the daytime and for wages paid by the Exploration Company, to touch or even to enter the ruins. They can hardly be persuaded even to ^ Mr. Neal, man-agitig diiector of the Company, has been good enough to inform me that sinco my visit lie satisfied liimself that there had heon occupations by ditFcrcnt races and probably at widely distant dates. Many skeletons have been found, with a good deal of gold jewelry, and some bronze implements. -u»- 74 IMI'IIESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. relate such traditions as exist regarding the place. All that has been gathered is that it was the dwelling of a line of ? mhos, or chiefs, the last of whom was burned here M ilikatze, the Matabili king, when he conquered le country sixty years ago. (The place does show marks of fire.) But the buildings were here long before the mambos reigned, and who built them, or why, no one knows. The natives come sometimes to make offerings to ancestral ghosts, especially when they ask for success in hunting ; and if the hunt be successful, strips of meat are cut off and placed in cleft sticks for the benefit of the ghosts. Three hypotheses have been advanced regarding the Dhlodhlo building. One regards them as a fortress. The objection to this is that the terraced and ornamented wall is so far from contributing to defence that it actually facilitates attack ; for, by the help of the ter- races and of the interstices among the stones which the ornamental pattern supplies, an active man could easily scale it in front. Moreover, there is hard by, to the north, a higher and more abrupt hill which would have offered a far better site for a fort. The second view is that Dhlodhlo was a mining station, where slaves were kept at work ; but if so, why was it not placed near the old gold- workings instead of some miles off, and of what use were the terraced walls ? The inquirer is therefore led to the third view — that the building was in some way connected with religious worship, and that the ornament which is seen along the eastern wall was placed there with some religious motive. There is, however, nothing whatever to indicate the nature of that worship, nor the race that practised it, for no objects of a possibly religious character (such as those I shall presently mention at Zimbabwyc) have been found here. I visited a second ruin among the mountains of Mashonaland, near the Lczapi River, at a place called Chipadzi's grave, a mile from the kraal of a chief named i CHAP. IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE 75 s place, ^veiling 3m was g, when le place jre here t them, Qetimes ly when lunt be in cleft ling the fortress, imented that it the ter- hich the .!d easily y, to the lid have [ view is ves were near the I of what therefore in some that the wall was [here is, lature of b, for no as those ^ve been ptains of ce called ief named Chipunza. Here a rocky granite kopje, almost inacces- sible on two sides, is protected on one of the other sides by a neatly built wall of well-trimmed stones, similar to that of Dhlodhlo, but without ornament. The piece that remains is some fifty yards long, five feet thick at the base, and eleven feet high at its highest point. It is obviously a wall of defence, for the only erections within are low, rough inclosures of loose stones, and three clay huts, one of which covers the grave of Chipadzi, a chief who died some twenty years ago, and v^ho was doubtless interred here because the place was secluded and already in a fashion consecrated by the presence of the ancient wall. That the wall is ancient hardly admits of doubt, for it is quite unlike any of the walls — there are not many in the country — which the Kafirs now build, these being always of stones entirely untrimmcd and very loosely fitted together, though sometimes plastered with mud to make them hold.^ There is nothing to sec beyond the wall itself, and the only interest of the place is in its showing that the race who built Dhlodhlo and other similar walls in Matibili- land were probably here also. Much larger and more remakable is the group of ruins (situated seventeen miles from Fort Victoria, in southern Mashonaland) which goes by the name of the Great Zimbabwye. This Bantu word is said to denote a stone building, but has often been used to describe the resi- dence of a great chief, whatever the materials of which it is constructed. It is a common noun, and not the name of one particular place. Europeans, however, con- fine it to this one ruin, or rather to two ruined buildings Mr. Selous in his interesting; ^ This place is described by book, A Hvnier's Wanderings in Africa, pp. 339-341. He thinks the wall as well built as those at the Grreat Zimbabwye. To me it seemed not so good, and a little loughev oven than the work at Dhlodhlo. Hard by is a modern Kafir fort, Chitiktte, with a plastered and loop-holed rough stone wall, quite unlike this wall at Chipadzi's grave. This place is further described in Chapter XVI. 76 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA cuAr. near each other. One of these is uii the top of a rocky and in parts precipitous hill, the other in a valley halt a mile from the foot of the hill. ■ , n The first, which wo may call the Fort, consists ot a line of wall, in parts double, defendiiig the more accessible parts of the eastern and south-eastern end of the hill or koj.'jc, which is about 500 feet high, and breaks down on its southern side in a nearly vertical sheet of granite. The walls, which in some places arc thirty feet high, are all built of small trimmed blocks of granite such as I have already described, without mortar, but neatly fitted together. They are in excellent preservation, and are skilfully constructed in a sort of labyrinth, so as to cover all the places Avhere an enemy might approach. From the openings in the wall, where doors were probably placed, passages are carried in- ward, very narrow and winding, so that only one person at a time can pass, and completely commanded by the high wall on either side. Everything speaks of defence, and everything is very well adapted, considering the rudeness of the materials, for efficient defence. There is no sort of ornament in the walls, except that here and there at the entrances some stones are laid transversely to the others, and that certain long, thin pieces of a slaty stone, rounded so that one might call them stone i)olos — they are about five to seven feet long — project from the top of the wall. Neither is there any trace of an arch or vaulted roof. None of what look like chambers has a roof. They were doubtless covered with the branches of trees. Very few objects have been found throwing any light on the object of the building or its builders, and these have been now removed, except some small pieces of sandstone, a rock not found in the neighbour- hood, which (it has been conjectured) may have been brought for the purposes of mining. The other building is much more remarkable. It stands on a slight eminence in the level ground be- tween the hill on which the Fort stands and another IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE 77 a rocky ley half 3ts of a 3 more 1 end of gh, and vertical aces arc )locks of mortar, xccllent sort of 1 enemy 1, where ried in- 3 person the high ice, and 'udeness ; no sort there at y to the by stone, js — they the top arch or rs has a inches of ving any iers, and le small ighbour- tve been Mo. It >und bc- another somewhat lower granite hill, and is about a third of e mile from the Fort. It consists of a wall, rather ellip- tical than circular in form, from thirty to forty feet high, fourteen feet thick near the ground, and from six to nine thick at the top, where one can walk along a considerable part with little difficulty. This wall is built of the same small, well-trimmed blocks of granite, nicely fitted together, and for more than half the circumfer- ence is in excellent preservation, although shrubs and climbing vines have here and there rooted themselves in it. The rest of it is more or less broken, and in one place quite overthrown. There are two gates, at the west and the north. The wall is quite plain, except for about one-third (or perhaps a little less) of the outer face, where there is such an ornament as I have already described, of two courses of stones set slantingly at an acute angle to the ordinary flat courses above and below. These two courses are the fifth and seventh from the top. In the space surrounded by the wall, which is about three-quarters of an acre, are some small inclosures of trimmed stone, apparently chambers. There ic also a singular wall running parallel to the inner face of the great inclosing wall for some twenty yards, leaving between it and that inner face a very narrow passage, which ac one point must have been closed hy a door (probably of stone), for at that point steps lead up on either side, and hollow spaces fit for receiving a door remain. At one end this passage opens into a small open space, where the most curious of all the erections are to be found, namely, two solid towers of trimmed stones. One of these is quite low, rising only some five feet from the ground. The other is more than forty feet high, overtopping the great inclosing wall (from which it is eight feet distant) by about five feet, and has a bluntly conical top. It reminds one a little of an Irish round tower, though not so high, save that the Irish towers are hollow and this solid, or of a Buddhist tope, save that the topes ■ -.^.^ ,....<.. 78 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA (jhap. '■■a which are solid, are very much thicker. There is nothing whatever to indicate the purpose of this tower, but the fact that the space in which it and the smaller tower stand is cut oft" from the rest of the enclosed area by a pretty high wall seems to show that it was meant to be specially protected or was deemed to be specially sacred. Outside the main inclosing wall are several small inclosures of irregular shape, surrounded by similar walls of trimmed stones, but all low and broken and with nothing inside. One of these joins on to the main wall of the great inclosure. This is all that there is to see at Zimbabwye. What I have described seems little, and that little is simple, even rude. The interest lies in guessing what the walls were built for, and by whom. Comparatively little has been discovered by digging. No inscriptions whatever have been found. Some figures of birds rudely carved in a sort of soapsto..e were fixed along the top of the walls of the Fort, and have been removed to the Capo Town museum. It is thought that they represent vultures, and the vulture was a bird of re- ligious significance among some of the Semitic nations. Fragments of soapstone bowls were discovered, some with figures of animals carved on them, some with geo- metrical patterns, while on one were marks which might possibly belong to some primitive alphabet. There were also whorls somewhat resembling those which occur so profusely in the ruins of Troy, and str ae objects which may be phalli, though some at least of them are deemed by the authorities of the British Museum (to whom I have shown them) to be probably pieces used for play- ing a game like that of fox-and-geesc. The iron and bronze weapons which were found may have been com- paratively modern, but the small crucibles for smelting gold, with tools and a curious ingot-mould (said to resemble ancient moulds used at tin workings) Avero apparently ancient. What purpose were these buildings meant to serve ? ^ CHAP. nothing but the »r tower •ea by a nt to be y sacred, al small similar ken and he main What 1 simple, hat the iratively ;riptiona )f birds id along removed lat they d of re- nations, id, some dth geo- h might ere were occur so ts which deemed whom I br play- iron and !cn com- smelting (said to ys) were serve? IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS— ZIMBABW YE 79 That on the hill was evidently a stronghold, and a stronghold of a somewhat elaborate kind, erected against an enemy deemed formidable. The large build- ing below can hardly have been a place of defence, because it stands on level ground with a high, rocky hill just above it, which would have afforded a much stronger situation. Neither was it a mining station, for the nearest place where any trace of gold has been found is seven miles away, and in a mining station, even if meant to hold slave workers, there would have been no use for a wall so lofty as this. Two hypotheses remain : that this was the residence of a chief, or that it was erected for the purposes of religious worship. It may have been both — a palace, so to spealj, with a temple attached. The presence of the inner inclosure, guarded by its separate wall, and with its curious tower, IS most plausibly explained by supposing a religious pur- pose ; for as religion is the strangest of all human things, and that in whicli men most vary, so it is naturally called in to explain what is otherwise inexplicable. What, then, was the religion of those who built this shrine, if shrine io was ? The ornamentation of that part of the outer wall which faces the rising sun sug- gests sun-worship. The phalli (if they are phalli) point to one of the Oriental forms of the worship of the forces of nature. The birds' heads may have a religious significance, and possibly the significance which it is said that vultures had in the Syrian nature-worship. These data give some slight presumptions, yet the field for conjecture remains a very wide one, and there is nothing in the buildings to indicate the particular race who erected the Fort and the Temple (if it was a temple). However, the tower bears some resi aiblance to a tower which appears within a town wall on an ancient coin of the Phoenician city of Byblus ; and this coincidence, slight enough, has, in the dearth of other light, been used to support the view that the builders belonged to some Semitic race. 80 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFJIIOA chap Had \\c nothing but the ruined walls of Ziuibub wye Dhlodhlo, and tliu other spots wliero snniiar ruins navo been observed, the problem would be insoluble. We could only say that the existing native races had at some api»arcntly distant time been more civilized than they are now and capable of building walls they do not now build, or else we should supjjose that some now extinct race had built these. But there are other facts known to us which suggest, though they do not establish, an hypothesis regarding the early history of the country. In very remote times there existed, as is known from the Egyptian monuments, a trade from South-east Africa into the Red Sea. The remarkable sculptures at Deir el Bahari, near Luxor, dating from the time of Queen Ilatasu, sister of the great conqueror Thothmes III. (B.C. 1600?), represent the return of an expedition from a country called Punt, which would appear, from the objects brought back, to have been somewhere on the East African coast.^ Much later the Book of Kings (1 Kings ix. 20-28 ; x. 11, 15, 22) tolls us that Solomon and Hiram of Tyre entered into a sort of joint adventure trade from the Red Sea port of Ezion-geber to a country named Ophir, which pro- duced gold. There are other indications that gold used to come from East Africa, but so far as we know it has never been obtained in quantity from any part of the coast between Mozombique and Cape Guardafui. Thus there are grounds for believing that a traffic between the Red Sea and the coast south of the Zam- besi may have existed from very remote times. Of its later existence there is of course no doubt. We know from Arabian sources that in the eighth century an Arab tribe defeated in war established itself on the African coast south of Cape Guardafui, and that from the ninth century onward there was a considerable ^ Maspero (Ilistoire ancienne des Peuplea d'Chient, p. 169) con- jectures Somaliland " i'l I :iOA CHAP IX OUT OF THE DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE 81 f Ziiubiibwye jir ruins havo isolublc. We races had at civilized than r walls they )se that some liere are other 1 they do not irly history of is known from m South-east :)le sculptures i'om the time at conqueror the return of ), which would to have been Vluch later the 1, 15, 22) tells red into a sort 1 Sea port of Ir, which pro- ons that gold r as we know from any part ape Guardafui. that a traffic h of the Zam- times. Of its bt. We know th century an i itself on the and that from a considerable iient, p. 169) con- trade between South-east Africa and the Red Sea ports — a trade which may well have existed long before. And when the Portuguese began to explore the coast in 1496 they found Arab chieftains estab- lished at various points along it as far south as Sofala, and found them getting gold from the interior. Three things, therefore, are certain — a trade between South- east Africa and the Red Sea, a certain number of Arabs settled along the edge of the ocean, and an export of gold. Now all over Mashonaland and Matabililand an- cient gold-workings have been observed. Some are quite modern, — one can see the wooden supports and the iron tools not yet destroyed by rust, — and it would seem from the accounts of the natives that the mining went on to some small extent down to sixty years ago, when the Matabili conquered the country. Others, however, are, from the appearance of the ground, obviously much more ancient. I have seen some that must have been centuries old, and have been told of others apparently far older, possibly as old as the buildings at Zimbabwye. I was, moreover, informed by Mr. Cecil Rhodes (who is keenly interested in African archoBoiogy) that he had seen on the high plateau of Inyanga, in eastern Mashonaland, some remarkable circular pits lined with stone, and approached in each case by a narrow sub- terranean passage, which can best be explained by supposing them to have been receptacles for the confinement of slaves occupied in tilling the soil, as the surrounding country bears mark, in the remains of ancient irrigation channels, of an extensive system of tillage where none row exists. The way in which the stones are laid in these pit-walls is quite unlike any modern Kafir work, and points to the presence of a more advanced race. Putting all these fauts together, it has been plausibly argued that at some very distant period men more civilized than the Kafirs oame in search of gold into Mashonaland, opened these mines, and obtained from them the gold which found its way 82 Tl\rrRKSSTONS OF SOUTH AFTITCA ch. ix to the lloil Sea portw, and that the buildings whose ruina wc see were their work. ITow long ago this happened we cannot tell, but if the strangers came from Arabia they must have done so earlier than the time of Mohanmied, for there is nothing of an Tslamio character about the ruins or the remains found, and it is just as easy to suppose that they came in the days of Solomon, fifteen centuries before Mohammed. Nor can we guess how they disappeared : whether they were overpowered and exterminated by the Kafirs, or whether, as Mr. Selous conjectures, they were gradually absorbed by the latter, their civilization and religion perishing, although the practice of mining for gold remained. The occasional occurrence among the Kafirs of faces with a cast of features approaching the Semitic has been thought to confirm this notion, though nobody has nr yet suggested that we arc to look here for the lost Ten Tribes. Whoever these people were, they have long since vanished. The natives seem to have no traditions about the builders of Zimbabwye and the other ancient walls, though they regard the ruins with a certain awe, and fear to approach them at twilight. It is this mystery which makes these buildings, the solitary archaeological curiosities of South Africa, so impressive. The iiiins are not grand, nor are they beautiful ; they are simple even to rudeness. It is the loneliness of the landscape in which they stand, and still more the complete darkness which surrounds their origin, their object, and their history, that gives to them their unique interest. Whence came the builders? What tongue did they sipeak ? What religion did they practise ? Did they vanish imperceptibly away, or did they Ry to the coast, or were they massacred in a rising of their slaves ? We do not know ; probably we shall never know. We can only say, in the words of the Eastern poet : "They came like water, and like wind they went." 4 4 .%,i 'i "^ :a CH. IX ings whose ^ ago this ! came from I the time III Tsluinio id, and it is :he days of med. Nor r they were or whether, y absorbed perishing, remained, rs of faces emitic has nobody has JT the lost they have o have no c and the ruins with wilight. Idin^s, the Africa, so are they It is the stand, and iinds their es to them builders ? >n did they ay, or did in a rivsing y we shall rds of the ■cnfc." CIIAPTE:; x THE KAFirS: TIIEIII HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS The curtain rises upon the Kafir peoples when the Portuguese landed on the east coast of Africa in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Arab sheiks then held a few of the coast villages, ruling over a mixed race, nominally Mohammedan, and trading with the Bantu tribes of the interior. The vessels of these Arabs crossed the Indian Ocean with the nioiisoon to Calicut and the Malabar coast, and the Indian goods they carried back were exchanged for the gold arid ivory which the natives brought down. The principal race that held the country between the Limpopo and the Zambesi was that which the Portuguese called Makalanga or Makaranga, and which we call Makalaka. They are the progenitors of the tribes who, now greatly reduced in numbers and divided into small villages and clans, occupy Mashonaland. Their head chief was called the Monomotapa, a name interpreted to mean "Lord of the Mountain" or "Lord of the Mines." This personage was turned by Portuguese grandilo- quence into an emperor, and by some European geo- graphers into the name of an empire ; so Monomotapa came to figure on old maps as the designation of a vast territory. When, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Dutch at the Cape began to learn something of the Kafirs who dwelt to the eastward, they found that a 2 84 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. there was no large dominion, but a great number of petty tribes, mostly engaged in war with one another. Some were half nomad, none was firmly rooted in the soil ; and the fact that tribes who spoke similar dialects were often far away from one another, with a tribe of a different dialect living between, indicated that there had been many displacements of population of which no historical record existed. Early in the present century events occurred which showed how such dis- placements might have been brought about. In the last years of the eighteenth century Dingiswayo, the exiled son of the chief of the Abatetwa tribe, which lived in what is now Zululand, found his way to the Cape, and learned to admire the military organization of the British troops who were then holding the Colony. Returning home and regaining his throne, he began to organise and drill his warriors, who before that time had fought without order or discipline, like other savages. His favourite officer was Tshaka, a young chief^ also exiled, who belonged to the then small tribe of Zulus. On the death of Dingiswayo, Tshaka was chosen its chief by the army, and the tribes that had obeyed Dingiswayo were thenceforward known under the name of Zulus. Tshaka, who united to his intel- lectual gifts a boundless ambition and a ruthless will, further improved the military system of his master, and armed his soldiers with a new weapon, a short, broad-bladed spear, fit for stabbing at close quarters, instead of the old light javelin which had been there- tofore used. He formed them into regiments, and drilled them to such a perfection of courage that no enemy could withstand their rush, and the defeated force, except s'^ch as could escape by fleetness of foot, was slaughtered on the spot. Quarter had never been given m native wars, but the trained vr'our of the Zulus, and theirhabit of immediately engaging theenemy hand to hand, not only gave them an advantage like that which suddenly made the Spartan infantry superior CHAP. lumber of e another. )ed in the ar dialects tribe of a )hat there of which e present such dis- In the wayo, the be, which ay to the janization le Colony. began to Lhat time ike other a young mall tribe haka was that had wn under his intel- iless will, s master, , a short, Q'iarters, 3n therc- mts, and that no defeated 3 of foot, iver been r of the he enemy :agc like superior X THE KAFIRS : THEIR HISTORY 85 to all then neighbours, but rendered their victories far more sanguinary than native battles had previously been Tshaka rapidly subjected or blotted out the clans that lived near, except the Swazis, a kindred tribe whose difficult country gave them some protection. He devastated all the region round that of his own subjects, while the flight before his warriors of the weaker tribes, each of which fell upon its neighbours with the assagai, caused widespread slaughter and ruin all over South-east Africa. Natal became almost a desert, and of the survivors who e-^caped into the mountains, many took to human flesh for want of other food. To the north of the Vaal River a section of the Zulu army, which had revolted under its general, MosilikatzG, carried slaughter and destruction through the surrounding country for hundreds of miles, till it was itself chased away beyond the Limpopo by the emigrant Boers, as will be related in the following chapter. To trace the history of these various native wars would occupy far more space than I can spare. I will sum up their general results. A new and powerful kingdom, far stronger than any other native monarchy we know to have existed before or since, was formed by the Zulus. It remained powerful under Dingaan (who murdered his half brother Tshaka in 1828), Panda (brother of Tshaka and Din- gaan), and Cetewayo (son of Panda), till 1879, when it was overthrown by the British. Various offshoots from the Zulu nation were scattered out in different directions. The Matabili occupied Matabililand in 1838. The Angoni had before that year crossed the Zambesi and settled in Nyassaland, where they are still formidable to their native neighbours and troublesome to the whites. Kafir tribes from the north-east were chased south- ward into the mountain country now called Basutoland, most of which had been previously inhabited only by 86 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA cui.p. I Bushmen, and here the Bcasuto kingdom was built up out of fugitive clans, by the famous chief Moshesh, between 1820 and 1840. Some of the Bech-:ana tribes were driven from the east into their present, seats in Bechuanaland, some few far north-west to the banks of the Zambesi, where Livingstone found them. Not only what is now Natal, but most of what is now the Orange Free State, with a part of the Trans- vaal, was almost denuded of inhabitants. This had the important consequence of inducing the emigrants from Cape Colony, whose fortunes I shall trace in the following chapter, to move toward these regions and establish themselves there. The Gaza tribe, of Zulu race, but revolters from Tshaka, broke away from that tyrant, and carried fire and sword among the Tongas and other tribes living to the west and north-west of Delagoa Bay. In 1833 they destroyed the Portuguese garrison there. In 1862 a chief called Mzila became their king, and established his dominion over all the tribes that dwell on the eastern slope of the Quathlamba Mountains, between the Limpopo and the Zambesi. He and his son Gungunhana, who in 1896 was seized and carried off by the Portuguese, were for a time at the head of the third great native power in Sc>uth Africa, the other two being that of Cetewayo, which perished in 1879, and that of Lo Bengula, overthrown in 1893. All three chiefs were Zulus in blood. Originally small in number, this race has played by far the greatest part in the annals of the native peoples. The career of Tshaka has deserved some description, because it chanfed the face of South Africa in a somewhat similar way, allowing for the difference of scale, to that in which the career of Tshaka's contem- porary. Napoleon Bonaparte, changed the face of Europe. But iTi 1836, eight years after Tshaka's death, the white man, who had hitherto come in contact witlj -v^ CHAP. THE KAFIRS: THEIR HISTORY 87 built np Moshesh, from the some few ii, where what is Trans- 'his had migrants e in the ions and ?rs from [•ried fire living to In 1833 re. In ig, and lat dwell )untains, and his i canied head of he other n 1879, '3. All y small iest part 5ription, 5a in a ence of !outem- ace of 5 death, ct witlj the Kafirs only on the Zambesi and at a few points on the south-eastern and southern coast, began that march into the interior which has now brought him to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Thenceforward the wars of the natives among themselves cease to be important. It is their strife with the European conqueror that is of consequence, and the narrative of that strife belongs to the history of the European colonies and republics, which will be given in the two succeeding chapters. This, however, seems the right place for some re- marks on the government and customs of the Kafir tribes, intended to explain the conditions under which these tribes have met and attempted to re- sist the white strangers wlio have now become their rulers. The Kafirs were savages, yet not of a low type, for they tilled the soil, could work in metals, spoke a highly developed language, and had a sort of customary law. The south-east coast tribes, Zulus, Pondos, Tembus, Kosas, inhabiting a fairly well-watered and fertile country, were, as a rule, the strongest men and the fiercest fighters ; but the tribes of the interior were not inferior in intellect, and sometimes superior in the arts. Lower in every respect were the west-coast tribes. They dwelt in a poor and almost waterless land, and their blood was mixed with that of Hottentots and Bushmen. In every race the organization was by families, clans, and tribes, the tribe consisting of a number of clans or smaller groups, having at its head one supreme chief, belonging to a family whose lineage was respected. The power of the chief was, however, not everywhere the same. Among the Zulus, whose organization was entirely military, he was a despot whose word was law. Among the Bechuana tribes, and their kinsfolk the Basutos,Tie was obliged to defer to the sentiment of the people, which (in some tribes) found expression in a public meeting where every freeman had a right to speak and might differ from the 88 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. chief.i Even such able men as the Basuto Moshesh and the Bechiiana Khama had often to bend to the wish of their subjects, and a further check existed in the tendency to move away from a harsh and unpopular chief and place one's self under the protection of some more tactful ruler. Everywhere, of course, the old customs had great power, and the influence of the old men who were most conversant with them was considerable. The chief of the whole tribe did not interfere much with affairs outside his own particular clan, and was a more important figure in war-time than during peace. Aided by a council of his leading men, each chief administered justice and settled disputes ; and it was his function to allot land to those who asked for a field to till, the land itself belonging to the tribe as a whole. The chiefs act gave a title to the pier^ allotted so long as it was cultivated, for public opinion resented any arbitrary eviction ; but pasture-land was open to all the cattle of the clansmen. It was in cattle that the wealth of a chief or a rich man lay, and cattle, being the common measure of value, served as currency, as they serve still among the more remote tribes which have not learned to use British coin. Polygamy was practised by all who could afford it, the wife being purchased from her father with cattle, more or fewer according to her rank. This practice, called lobola, still prevails universally, and has caused much perplexity to the missionaries. Its evil effects are obvious, but it is closely intertwined with the whole system of native society. A chief had usually a head wife, belonging to some important house, and her sons were preferred in succession to those of the inferior wives. In some tribes the chief, like a Turkish sultan, had no regular wife, but only concubines. Among the coast tribes no one, except a chief, was suffered to marry any one of kin to him. There was great pride of birth among the * See further as to this primary assembly the remarks on the Basuto Pitso in Chapter XX. 1 CHAP. THE KAFIRS: THEIR HISTORY 89 m head chiefs, and their jrenealogies have in not a few cages been carefully kept for seven or eight generations. Slavery existed among some of the tribes of the interior, and the ordinary wife was everywhere little better than a slave, being required to do nearly all the tillage and most of the other work, except that about the cattle, which, being more honourable, was performed by men. The male Kafir is a lazy fellow who likes talking and sleeping better than continuous physical exertion, and the difficulty of inducing him to work is the chief difficulty which European mine-owners in South Africa complain of. Like most men in his state of civilization, he is fond of hunting, even in its lowest forms, and of fighting. Both of these pleasures are being withdrawn from him, the former by the extinc- tion of the game, the latter by the British Government ; but it will be long before he acquires the habits of steady and patient industry which have become part of the character of the inhabitants of India. War was the natural state of the tribes toward one another, just as it was among the Red Indians and the primitive Celts, and indeed generally everywhere in the early days of Europe. Their weapons were the spear or assagai, and a sort of wooden club, occasionally a crescent-shaped battle-axe, and still less frequently the bow. Horses were unknown, for the ox, sheep, goat and dog were over all South Africa the only domesticated quadrupeds. One tribe, however, the Basutos, now breeds horses extensively, and has turned them to account in fighting. The rapid movement of their mounted warriors was one of the chief difficulties the colonial forces had to deal with in the last Basuto war. The courage in war which distinguished the tribes of Zulu and Kosa race was all the more credit- able because it had not, like that of the Mohammedan dervishes of the Sudan, or of Mohammedans anywhere engaged in a jehad, a religious motive and the promise of future bliss behind it. The British army has en- 9Q IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. ■K countered no more daring or formidable enemies. Nine wars were needed to subjugate the Kafirs of the southern coast, although till recently they had few firearms. But the natives had no idea of the tactics needed in ftxcing a civilized foe. As in their battles with the Boo- they were destroyed by the fire of horsemen riding up, delivering a volley, and riding off before an assagai could reach them, so in the great war with Cetewayo in 1879 they fought in the open and were mowed down by British volleys ; and in 1893 the Matabili perished in the same way under the fire of riflemen and Maxim guns sheltered behind a laager of wagons. Religion was a powei'ful factor in Kafir life; but religion did not mean the worship of any deity, for there was no deity. Still less had it any moral signifi- cance. To the Kafirs, as to most savage races, the world was full of spirits— spirits of the rivers, the mountains, and the woods. Most important were the ghosts of the dead, who had power to injure or to help the living, and who were therefore propitiated by offerings at stated periods, as well as on occasions when their aid was specially desired. This kind of worship, the worship once most generally diffused throughout the world, and which held its ground among the Greeks and Italians in the most flourishing p3riod of ancient civilization, as it does in China and Japaix to-day, was and is virtually the religion of the Kafirs. It was chiefly rendered to the ghosts of the chiefs, who retained in the spirit world the exceptional importance they had held among the living ; and it had much weight in maintaining loyalty to a chief, because revolt against him was an insult to a power- ful set of ghosts. The ghost dwelt at the spot where the body was buried, and it was therefore at the grave that the offerings, mostly of cakes and Kafir beer, were made. Occasionally animals v/ere killed, not so much by way of sacrifice a*] for th(3 sake of providing the i. CHAP. THE KAFIRS: THEIR HISTORY 91 enues. af the d few iactics >attles re of ng off great open 1893 ;e fire ghost with a specially precious kind of food, though the two ideas run close together in most primitive worships.^ Among the Matabili, for instance, there was once a year a great feast in honour of : !ie king's ancestors, who were supposed to come antl join in the mirth. It was also to the grave that those who wished to call up the ghost by spells went to effect their nefarious purpose, and the real place of interment of a great chief was for this reason sometimes concealed, I found at Thaba Bosiyo, the famous stronghold ot the Basuto chief Moshesh, that his body had been secretly removed from the place where he was buried to baffle th3 wizards, who might try to use his ghost against I'ue living. The ghost is, of course, apt to be spiteful, that of an uncle (I was told) particularly so ; and if he is neglected he is extremely likely to bring some evil on the family or tribe. Sometimes the spirit of an ancestor passes into an animal, and by preference into that of a snake, not that it lives in the snake, but that it assumes this form when it wishes to visit men. A particular kind of green snake is revered by the Matabili for this reason. And most, if not all, tribes had an animal which they deemed to be of kin to them, and which they called their " sibuko" a term ap- parently corresponding to the totem of the North American Indians. Creatures of this species they never killed, and some tribes took their name from it. Thus the Ba-Taung are the people of the lion ; the Ba-Mangwato have the duyker antelope for their totem ; and in the Basuto pitso (public meeting) an orator will begin by addressing his audience as " sons of the crocodile." Of human sacrifices there seems to be no trace. Men were killed for all possible reasons, but never as offerings. And, indeed, to have so killed * Those who are curious on this subject may consult ]Mr. Frazei's Golden Bought and the late Mr. Robertson Smith's Beliyion of the Semites, where many interesting and profoundly eujiieslivti facts regarding it are collected. 92 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. I i 1". them would have been to treat the ghosts as cannibals, a view foreign to native habits, for though human flesh has been resorted to in times of severe famine, it he s never been regularly eaten, and the use of it excites disgust. Whether the Kafirs hud any idea of a supreme being is a question which has been much discussed. In several tribes the word, differently spelled "Umlimo" or " Mlimo " or " Molinio " (said to mean " hidden " or " unseen "), is used to denote either a power apparently different from that of the nature sprites or ghosts of the dead, or else the prophet or soothsayer who delivers messages or oracles supposed to emanate from this power. The missionaries have in their native versions of the Bible used the term to translate the word " God." Sometimes, among the Tongas at least, the word tilo (sky) is used to describe a mysterious force; as, for instance, when a man dies without any apparent malady, he is said to be killed by the tilo} On the whole, after many inquiries from missionaries and others who know the natives well, I was led to the conclusion that the Kafirs have a vague notion of some power transcending that of common ghosts, and able to affect the opera- tions of nature (as, for instance, to send rain), but far too dimly conceived to be properly describable as a divine being.^ Or to put the thing in other words, the ordinary and familiar nature-sprites and ghosts of the departed do not exhaust the possibilities of super- human agency; for there remains, as among the Athenians whose altar St. Paul found (Acts xvii. 23), an " Unknown God," or rather unknown power, probably associated with the heavens above, whose interference * As in Homer's day suddon deaths were attributed to the arrows of Apollo or Artemis. ^ M. Junod, a Swi-^s missionary at Dclagoa Bay, who made a careful study of th Tonga tribes, told me that they sometimes use the word shikimbo, which properly denotes the ghost of an ancestor, to denote a higher unseen power. And I was informed that the Basutos will pray to the "lesser Molimos," the ghost of their nncestors, to ask the great Molimo to send rain. CHAP, inibals, a flesh liuH c s never iisgust. lie being ed. In ''mlimo " den " or parently hosts of delivers 3m this v^ersions " God." ord tilo as, for malady, le, after know lat the sending opera- but far le as a words, losts of super- ig the ii. 23), obably erence to the nmdo a letimes fc of an formed [host of THE KAFIRS : THEIR HISTORY 08 may produce results not attainable through inferior spiritual agencies. One of the difficulties in reaching any knowledge of the real belief of the people is that they are usually examined by leading questions, and are apt to reply affirmatively to whatever the querist puts to them. Their thoughts on these dark subjects are either extremely vague and misty or extremely material ; the world of abstract thought, in which European ir-'^ds have learned to move with an ease and confidence produced by the possession of a whole arsenal of theological and metaphysical phrases, being to them an undiscovered country. Since there were no deities and no idols, there were no priests; but the want of a priesthood was fully compensated by the presence of wizards ; for among the Kafirs, as among other primitive peoples, there was and is an absolute belief in the power of spells, and of sorcery generally. These wizards, like the medicine men among the Red Indians, were an important class, second only to the chiefs. They were not a caste, though very often the son of a wizard would be brought up to the profession. The practitioners were on the lookout for promising boys, and would take and train one to witchcraft, imparting their secrets, which in- cluded a remarkable knowledge of the properties of various plants available for poison or healing. Somc- tiuies the wizard acted as a physician ; sometimes ho would attempt to make rain ; sometimes he would profess to deliver messages from the unseen world, and in these cases he might become a terrible power for mischief. Such a revelation made to the Kosa clans on the south coast in 1856-57, directing them to kill their cattle and destroy their grain, because the ghosts of their ancestors were coming to drive out the whites, led to the death by famine of more than 30,000 people. Such a revelation proceeding from a soothsayer, occasionally called the Mlimo, who dwelt in a cavern among granite rocks in the Matoppo 91 TlMPPvESSlONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. Hills at a place called Matojeni, south-east of Bula- wayo ^ (oracles have always tended to cume from caves), had much to do with the riair.g of the Matabili in 1896. But the most frequent and most formidable work done by the wizara was that of " smelling out " persons who were bewitching others so as to cause sickness or misfortune. In this branch of his profes- sion the wizard often became the engine of the jealousy or rapacity) of the chief, who would secretly promjjt him to denounce a prominent or a wealthy man. Suspicion being once roused, the victim had little chance : he was despatched, and his property seized by the chief Witchcraft, and the murders it gave rise to, have been the darkest side of native life. The sorcerer has usually been the enemy of the mis- sionary, who threatens his gains ; but his power is now generally declining, and the British Government forbids the practice of smelling out witches, as well as many other shocking and disgusting rites which used to accompany the admission of boys and girls to the status of adults, or were practised at sundry festivals. Of the faith in minor and harmless spells one finds instances everywhere. In Ivlatabililand, for instance, a boy was pointed out to me who had just been occupied in putting a charm into the footprint of a lion, in order to prevent the unwelcome visitor from returning; ana nearly every native wears some kind of amulet.^ These beliefs will take a long time to die, but the missionaries have now usually the good sense to see that they do little harm. 1 This Mlimo~^vhether the name is properly applicable to the divinity, whatever it was, or to the prophet, seems doubtful belonged to the Makalakas, but was revered by the Matabili, who conquctod them. 2 It need hardly be said that they have a full belief in thn power of certain men to assume the fovrns of beasts. 1 was told that a leading British off ial was held to bo in the habit, when travelling in the veldt, of changing himself, after his morning tub, into a rat, and ciocpiiig into liis waggon, whence ho 'ue- sently re-cmorged in human shape. r 1-.... 'S^- CHAP. THE KAFIRS; TTIETR HISTORY 9b As their religious customs were rather less san- guinary than those of the Guinea Coast negroes, so the Kafirs themselves were, when the whites first saw thein, somewhat more advanced in civilization. Com- pared with the Red Indians of America, they stood at a point lower than that of the Iroquois or Cherokees, but superior to the Utes or to the Diggers of the Pacific coast. They could work in iron and copper, and had some notions of ornament. Their music is rude, but not wholly devoid of melody, and they use instruments of stone, wood, and iron, by strikiiig which a Innd of tune can be played. Some tribes, such as the Tongas, have good voices, and a marked taste for music. They have some simple games, and a folk-lore which consists chiefly in animal tales, resembling those collected by Mr. Harris in his Uncle Remus, save that the hare plays among the Bantu peoples the part of Br'cr Rabbit.^ To poetry, even in its most rudimen- tary forms, they do not seem to have attained. Yet they arc by no means wanting in intelligence, and have, with less gaiety, more sense of dignity and more persistence in their purposes than the Guinea negro. When the Portuguese and Dutch first knew the Kafirs, they did not appear to be making any progress toward a higher culture. Human life was held very cheap ; women were in a degraded state, and sexual morality at a low ebb. Courage, loyalty to chief and tribe, and hospitality were the three prominent virtues. War was the only pursuit in which chieftains sought distinction, and war was mere slaughter and devasta- tion, unaccompanied by any views of policy or plans of administration. The people were — and indeed still ' Several collections have been made of these talcs. The first is that of Bishop Callaway, the latest that of my friend Mr. Jacottet, a Swiss missionary in Basutoland, Avho has published a number of Basuto stories in his (Inntcs Fopvlairea des Bussontos, and of Barotsc stories in another book. M IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA cnAP. are — passionately attached to their old customs, which even a king rarely ventured to disturb (though Tshaka is said to nave abolished among his subjects the rite of circumcision, which is generally practised by the Kafirs) ; and it was probably as much the unwilling- ness to have their customs disturbed as the apprehen- sion for their land that made many of the tribes oppose to the advance of the Europeans so obstinate a resistance. Though thev feared the firearms of the whites, whom they called wizards, it was a long time before they realized their hopeless inferiority, and the impossibility of prevailing in war. Their minds were mostly too childish to recollect and draw the necessary inferences from previous defeats, and they never realized that the whites possessed beyond the sea an inexhaustible reservoir of men and weapons. Even the visit of Lo Bengula's envoys to England in 1891, when they were shown all the wonders of London, in order that through them the Matabili nation might bo deterred from an attack on the whites, failed to produce any effect upon the minds of the young warriors, who were fully persuaded that they could destroy the few strangers in their country as easily as they had over- thrown the Mashonas. The only chiefs who seem to have fully grasped the relative strength of the Europeans, and thus to have formed schemes of policy suitable to their inferior position, were Moshesh, who profited by the advice of the French missionaries, and Khama, who was himself a Christian and the pupil of missionaries. Nor did any chief ever rise to the conception of forming a league of blacks against whites. The natives, as we shall see, have had harsh treat- ment from the Europeans. Many unjust things, many cruel things, many things which would excite horror if practised in European warfare, have been done against them. But whoever tries to strike the balance of good and evil due to the coming of th: whites must CHAV. THE KAFIRS : THEIR HISTORY 97 which L'shaka 10 rite by the ^illing- )rehen- tribcs inatc a of the g time nd the Is were cessary never sea an Even a 1891, idon, in light be produce )rs, who the few ,d over- ;eem to of the f policy ;sh, who •ies, and pupil of to the against h treat- rs, many 3 horror n done balance ;es must remember what the condition of the country was before the whites came. As between the different tribes there was neither justice nor pity, but simply the rule of the strongest, unmitigated by any feehng of religion or morality. In war non-combatants as well as com- batants wore ruthlessly slaughtered, or reserved only for slavery; and war was the normal state of things. Within each tribe a measure of peace and order was maintained. But the weak had a hard time, and those who were rich, or had roused the enmity of some powerful man, were at any moment liable to perish on the charge of witchcraft. In some tribes, such as the Matabili, incessant slaughter went on by the orders of the king. Nothing less than the prolific quality of the race could have kept South Africa well peopled in the teeth of such a waste of life as war and murder caused. Of the character of the individual native as it affects his present relations with the whites and the probable future of the race, I shall have to speak in a later chapter (Chapter XXI), as also of the condition and prospects of the Christian missions which exist among them, and which form the main civilizing influence now at work. a CHAPTER XI THE EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 It is no less true of South Africa than it is of the old countries of Europe that to understand the temper of the people, the working of their government, the nature of the political problems which they have to solve, one must know something of their history. South Africa has had a great deal of history, especially in the present century, and there are few places in which recollections of the past are more powerful factors in the troubles of the present. In the short sketch I propose to give I shall advert only to the chief events, and particularly to those whose importance is still felt and which have done most to determine the relations of the European races to one another. The constitutional and parliamentary history of the two British colonies and the two Boer republics has been short and not specially interesting. The military history has been on a small scale. The economic and industrial history has been simple and remarkable only so far as the mines are concerned. But the history of the dealings of the white races with one another and with the blacks is both peculiar and instructive, and well deserves a fuller narrative and more elaborate treatment than I have space to give. Four European races have occupied the country. Of those, however, who came with Vasco da Qama from Lisbon in 1497 we shall have little to say, and of the M CH. XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 99 of the emper it, the ave to listoiy. )ecially Bices in owerful B short le chief ance is ine the The Ihe two ,s been ilitary [lie and •le only Istory of Iher and [ve, and laborate firy. Of \a from of the handful who followed Herr Liideritz from Bremen in 1883 still less. The interest of the tale lies in the struggles of two branches of the same Low-German stock, the Dutch and the English. The first to appear on the scene were the men of Portugal, then in the fresh springtime of its power and with what seemed a splendid career of discovery and conquest opening before it.^ Bartholomew Diaz, whose renown has been unjustly obscured by that of Vasco da Gama, discovered the Cape of Storms, as he called it, — the name of Good Hope was given by King John II., — in 1486, and explored the coast as far as the mouth of the Great Fish River. In 1497-98 Da Gama, on his famous voyage to India, followed the southern and eastern coast to Melinda; and in 1502, on his second voyage, after touching at Delagoa Bay, he visited Sofala, which was then the port to which most of the gold and ivory came from the interior. Here he found Arabs established in the town, as they were in other maritime trading places all the way north to Mombasa. At what date they first settled there is unknown; probably they had traded along the coast from times long before Mohammed. They were superior to the native blacks, though mixed in blood, but of course far inferior to the Portuguese, who overthrew their power. In 1505 the Portuguese built a fort at Sofala, and from there and several other points along the coast prosecuted their trade with the inland regions, using the conquered Arabs as their agents. For a century they remained the sole masters not only of the South-east African seaboard, but of the Indian Ocean, no vessel of any other European country appearing to dispute their pre-eminence. They might, had they cared, have occupied and appropriated the ^ The best recent account of the doings of the Portuguese w to be found in Dr. Theal's book, The Portuqnesein South Africa, published in 1896. II 2 100 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohap. ■■? whole southern half of the continent; but in the sixteenth century it was not of colonization, nor even so much of conquest, that monarchs, governors, and navigators thought, but of gold. Portugal had no surplus population to spare for settling her new terri- tories, and — not to speak of Brazil — she had a far richer trade to develop in western India than anything which Africa could offer. It may now excite surprise that she should have taken no step to claim the long stretch of country whose shores her sailors had explored, from the mouth of the Orange River on the west to that of the Limpopo on the east. But there was no gold to be had there, and a chance skirmish with the Hottentots in Table Bay, in which the viceroy D'Almeida, returning from India, was killed in 1510, gave them a false notion of the danger to be feared from that people, who were in reality one of the weakest and least formidable among African races. Accordingly, the Portuguese, who might have pos- sessed themselves of the temperate and healthy regions which we now call Cape Colony and Natal, confined their settlements to the malarious country north of the tropic of Capricorn. Here they made two or three attempts, chiefly by moving up the valley of the Zambesi, to conquer the native tribes, or to support against his neighbours some chieftain who was to become their vassal. Their numbers were, however, too small, and they were too feebly supported from home, to enable them to secure success. When they desisted from these attempts, their missionaries, chiefly Dominican friars, though some Jesuits were also en- gaged in the work, maintained an active propaganda among the tribes, and at one time counted their converts by thousands. Not only missionaries, but small trading parties, penetrated the mysterious in- terior ; and one or two light cannons, as well as articles which must have come to Africa from India, such as XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 18B4 101 fragments of Indian and Chinese pottery, have been found many hundred miles from the sea.^ But on the whole the Portuguese exerted very little permanent influence on the country and its inhabitants. The missions died out, most of the forts crumbled away or were abandoned, and all idea of further conquest had been dropped before the end of last century. There were, indeed, two fatal obstacles to conquering or civilising work. One was the extreme unhealthiness both of the flat country which lies between the sea and the edge of the great interior plateau, and of the whole Zambesi Valley, up which most of the attempts at an advance had been made. Fever not only decimated the expeditions and the garrisons of the forts, but enervated the main body of settlers who remained on the coast, soon reducing whatever enterprise or vigour they had brought from Europe. The other was the tendency of the Portuguese to mingle their blood with that of the natives. Very few women were brought out from home, so that a mixed race soon sprang up, calling themselves Portuguese, but much inferior to the natives of Portugal. The Portuguese, even more than the Spaniards, have shown both in Brazil and in Africa comparatively little of that racial contempt for the blacks, and that aversion to intimate social relations with them, which have been so characteristic of the Dutch and the English. There have, of course, been a good many mulattos born of Dutch fathers in Africa, as of Anglo-American fathers in the West Indies and in the former slave States of North America. But the Dutch or English mulatto was almost always treated as * I have heard from Lord Wolseley that in his expedition against Sikukuni, a Kafir chief in the north-east of the Trans- vaal, he was told by a German trader who acted as guide that the natives had .' ' >wn to him (the trader) fragments of ancient European armour which were preserved in a cave among the mountains. The natives said that this armour had been worr by white men who had come up from the sea many, many years ago, and whom their own anoestors had killed. 102 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohaA r.' t belonging to the black race, and entirely below the level of the meanest white, whereas among the Portuguese a strong infusion of black blood did not necessarily carry with it social disparity.^ In the beginning of the seventeenth ceiitury the Dutch, prosecuting their war against the Spanish monarchy, which had acquired the crown of Portugal in 1581 and held it till 1640, attacked the Portuguese forts on the East African coast, but after a few yours abandoned an enterprise in which there was little to gain, and de^'oted their efforts to the more profitable field of the East Indies. With this exception, no European power troubled the Portuguese in Africa. They had, however, frequent conflicts with the natives, and in 1834 were driven from their fort at Inhambane, between Sofala and Delagoa Bay, and in 1836 from Sofala itself, which, however, they subsequently re- covered. It was not till the progress of inland discovery, and especially the establishment of a Boer republic in the Transvaal had made the coast seem valuable, that two new and formidable rivals appeared on the scene. Under the combined operation of these causes such power as Portugal possessed on this coast declined during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Except on the deadly banks of the Zambesi, she never had a permanent settlement more than fifty miles from the sea, and very few so far inland. The population that spoke Portuguese and professed Christianity did not exceed a few thousands, and of these the large majority were at least half Kafir in blood. It became plain that such life and force as the nation once possessed had, at any rate in Africa, died out, and that if ever the continent was to be developed it would not be by the race that had first explored it. Here, therc- ^ Maceo, the well-known leader of the Cuban insurgents who was killed in 1896, was a half-breed, in whose band there were plenty of pure whites. In no Southern State of North America Would white men have followed a mulatto. XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA T.LL 1854 103 fore, we may leave the eastern coaHt and the feeble settlers who shivered with ague in its swamps, and turn our eyes to the far south, where a new and more vigorous race began, a century and a half after the time of Vasco da Gama, to lay the foundations of a new dominion. The first Teutonic people that entered the African continent were the Vandals in the fifth century. They came across the Straits of Gibraltar as conquerors, but they soon established a powerful fleet and acquired a maritime empire in the western Mediterranean. The second band of Teutons to enter were the Dutch. They were already a sea power active in the far East, whither they had been led by their war with Spain. But it was not as conquerors that they came, nor even as settlers intending to build up a colonial community. They came to establish a place of call for their vessels trading to India, where fresh water and vegetables might be obtained for their crews, who suffered terribly from scurvy on the voyage of six months or more from the Netherlands to the ports of Farther India. From the early years of the seventeenth century both Dutch and English vessels had been in the habit of putting in to Table Bay to refit and get fresh water. Indeed, in 1620 two English commanders had landed there and proclaimed the sovereignty of King James I., though their action Avas not ratified either by the king or by the English East India Company. In 1648 a ship- wrecked Dutch crew spent six months in Table Valley, behind the spot where Cape Town now stands, and having some seeds with them, planted vegetables and got a good crop. They represented on their return to Holland the advantages of the spot, and in 1652 three vessels despatched by the Dutch East India Company disembarked a body of settlers, under the command of Jan van Riebeek, who were directed to build a fort and hospital, and, above all, to raise vegetables and obtain from the Hottentots supplies of fresh meat for passing 104 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA ohap. ships. It is from these small beginnings of a kitchen- garden that Dutch and British dominion in South Africa has grown up. The history of this Dutch settlement presents a singular contrast to that of the Portuguese During the first quarter of a century the few settlers kept themselves within the narrow limits of the Cape peninsula. In 1680 an outlying agricultural com- munity was planted at Stellenbosch, twenty-five miles from Cape Town, but not till the end of the century was the first range of mountains crossed. Meantime the population began to grow. In 1658 the first slaves were introduced, — West African negroes, — a deplorable step, which has had the result of making the South African whites averse to opcj-air manual work and of practically condemning South Africa to be a country of black labour. Shortly afterwards the Company began to bring in Asiatic convicts, mo£^\v Mohammedan Malays, from its territories in the East Indian Archipelago. These men intermarried with the female slaves, and to a less extent with Hottentot women, and from them a mixed coloured race has sprung up, which forms a large part of the population of Cape Town and the neighbouring districts. The influx of these inferior elements was balanced by the arrival in 1689 of about three hundred French Huguenots, a part of those who had taken refuge in Holland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. They were persons ot a high stamp, more intelligent LAd educated than most of the previous settlers had been, and they brought with them a strong attachment to their Protestant faith and a love of liberty. From them many of the best colonial families are sprung. At first they clung to their language, and sought to form a distinct religious community; but they were ultimately com- pelled to join the Dutch Reformed Church, and the use of French was forbidden in official documents or religious services. Before the middle of the eighteenth <» XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 18B4 105 century that language had disappeared, and the new- comers had practically amalgamated with their Dutch neighbours. The Company's government was im- partially intolerant, and did not until 1780 permit the establishment of a Lutheran church, although many German Lutherans had settled in the country. From the time when the settlers began to spread out from the coast into the dry lands of the interior a great change came upon them, and what we now call the distinctive South African type of character and habits began to appear. The first immigrants were not, like some of the English settlers in Virginia, men of good social position in their own country, at- tached to it by many ties, nor, like the English settlers in the New England colonies, men of good education aud serious temper, seeking the freedom to worship God in their own way. They came from the humbler classes, and partly because they had few home ties, partly because the voyage to Holland was so long that communication with it was difficult, they maintained little connection with the mother country and soon lost their feeling for it. The Huguenot immigrants were more cultivated, and socially superior to the rude adventurers who had formed the bulk of the Dutch settlers, but they had of course no home country to look to. France had cast them out ; Holland was alien in blood and speech. So it befell that of all the colonists that Europe had sent forth since the voyage of Columbus, the South African whites were those who soonest lost their bond with Europe, and were the first set of emigrants to feel themselves a new people, whose true home lay in the new knd they had adopted. Thus early in South African annals were the foundations laid of what we now call the Africander sentiment — a sentiment which has become one of the main factors in the history of the country. Nor was this all. When the comparatively small area of fertile land which could be cultivated without 106 IMPRESSIOl. or ;,)UTH AFRICA chap. irrigation had been tai n ivv the keeping of cattle suggested itself as an eab^ mear of livelihood. The pasture, however, was so thin that ..t was necessary to graze the cattle over wide stretches of ground, and the farther they went into the interior the scantier was the pasture and the larger therefore did the area of land become over which a farmer let his oxen or sheep run. This process of extending cattle-farms — if farms they can be called — over tne interior was materially accelerated through the destruction of the nearer Hottentot tribes by the frightful outbreak of smallpox which begun in A.D. 1713, followed by another not less virulent in 1755. The Europeans suffered severely from it, the negroes, slave and free, still more, but the Hottentots most of all. In fact, it cleared them away from all the southern and western parts of the Colony and left these regions open to Europeans. Only the Bushmen remained, whose more solitary life gave them comparative immunity from contagion. Thus from the beginning of the eighteenth century, and during the whole of it, there was a constant dispersion of settlers from the old nucleus into the circumjacent wilderness. They were required to pay a sum amounting to five pounds a year for the use of three thousand morgen (a little more than six thousand acres) of grazing ground, and were accustomed at certain seasons to drive their herds up into the deserts of the Karroo for a change of feed, just after the time when the summer rains stimulate the scrubby vegetation of that desert region. These settlers led a lonely and almost nomadic life. Much of their time was passed in their tent-waggons, in which, with their wives and children, they followed the cattle from spot to spot where the pasture was best. They became excellent marksmen and expert in the pursuit of wild beasts. Some made a living by elephant-hunting in the wilderness, and those who tended cattle learned to lace the lion. They were I : Xt EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 107 much molested by the Bushmen, whose stealthy at- tacks and poisoned arrows made them dangerous enemies, and they carried on with the latter a constant war, in which no quarter was given. Thus there de- veloped among them that courage, self-reliance, anr^ passion for independence which are characteristic fi the frontiersman everywhere, coupled with a love .^' solitude and isolation which the conditions of western America did not produce. For in western America, ^e numbers and ferocitv of the Red Indians, and those j- sources of the land which encouraged the formation of agricultural and timber-producing communities, made villages follow the march of discovery and conquest, while in pastoral Africa villages were few and extremely small. Isolation and the wild life these ranchmen led soon told upon their habits. The children grew up ignorant ; the women, as was natural where slaves were employed, lost the neat and cleanly ways of their Dutch ancestors ; the men were rude, bigoted, indifferent to the comforts and graces of life. But they retained their religious earnestness, carrying their Bibles and the practice of daily family worship with them in their wanderings; and they retained also a passion for freedom which the government vainly endeavoured to restrain. Though magistrates, called landdrosts, were placed in a few of the outlying stations, with assessors taken from the people, called heemraden, to assist them in administering justice, it was found impossible to maintain control over the wandering cattle-men, who from their habit of *' trekking " from place to place were called Trek Boers.^ The only organization that brought them together was that which their ceaseless strife with the Bushmen en- joined. Being all accustomed to the use of arms, they formed war-parties, which from time to time attacked and rooted out the Bushmen from a disturbed area ; and the government recognized these military needs and methods by appointing field-commandants to each dis- * The word Boer means farmer or peasant (German Bauer), 108 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA ouap. Irict-, and subordinate officers, called field-cornets, to each sub-district. Those functionaries have become the basis of the system of local government among the South African Dutch, and the war-bands, called com- mandos, have i)lay^d a great part in the subsequent military history of the country. The eastward progress of expansion presently brought the settlers into contact with more formidable foes in the Bantu tribes, who dwelt beyond the Great Fish River. In 1779 some Kafir clans of the Kosa race crossed that river and drove off the cattle off the farmers to the west of it, and a war, the first of many fiercely fought Kafir ii?ars, followed, which ended in the victory of the ijolonists. All this while the Colony had been ruled by the Dutch East India Company through a governor and council, appointed by the directors in Holland, and re- sponsible to them only — a system roughly similar to that which the English established in India during the eighteenth century. The administration was better or worse according to the character and capacity of the governor for the time being, but it was on the whole unpopular with the colonists, not merely because they were excluded from all share in it (except to some small extent in the courts of justice), but also because the Company kept in its own hands a monopoly of the trade, and managed trade with a view to its own com- mercial interests rather than to those of the community. Thus discontent grew, and this discontent was one of the causes which led to the dispersion of the people into the wilderness, whose remoteness secured to them a practical freedom. In 1779 disaffection had been so much stimulated by the maladministration of a weak governor, and by the news of the revolt of the American colonies against Great Britain, that delegates were sent to Holland to demand redress for their commercial and other grievances, as well as a share in the government of the Colony. The Company was by this time in fin- I XI EUROPEANS TN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1864 109 ancial straits, and less powerful with the States-general of the Netherlands than it had formerly been. Long negotiations followed, reforms were promised, and at last, in 1792, two commissioners were sent out to investigate and frame measures of reform. The measures they promulgated were, however, deemed inadequate by the more ardent spirits, and by those especially who dwelt in the outlying districts, where the government had exerted, and could exert, little control. In 1795, first at Qraaf-Reinet and then at Swellendam, the people rose in revolt, not, as they stated, against the mother country, but against the Company. They turned out the landdrosts, and set up miniature republics, each with a representative assembly. It would not have been diflficult for the government CO have reduced these risings by cutting off supplies of food. But now South Africa was suddenly swept into the great whirlpool of European politics, and events were at hand which made these petty local movements insignificant, save in so far as they were evidences of the independent spirit of the people. From 1757, when the battle of Plassey was fought, the English power in India had been rapidly growing, and the Cape, which they had not cared to acquire in 1620, had now become in their eyes a station of capital importance. When war broke out between Britain and Holland in 1781, the English had attempted to seize the Colony, but retired when they found a strong French force prepared to aid the Dutch in its defence. Now they were again at war with Holland, which, over- run by the armies of revolutionary France, had become the Batavian Republic. In 1795 an English expedi- tion, bearing orders from the Stadholder of the Nether- lands, then a refugee in England, requiring the Com- pany's officers to admit them, landed at Simon's Bay, and after some slight resistance obliged Cape Town and its castle to capitulate. Within a few months the insurgents at Swellendam and Graaf-Reinet submitted, 110 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. and British troops held the Colony till 1802, when it was restored to the Batavian Republic on the conclusion of the peace of Amiens. Next year, however, war broke out afresh ; and the English government, feeling the extreme importance, in the great .struggle which they were waging with Napoleon, of possessing a naval stronghold as a half-way house to India, resolved again to occupy the Cape. In 180C a strong force was landed m Table Bay, and after one engagement the Dutch capitulated. In 1814 the English occupation was turned into permanent sovereignty by a formal cession of the Colony on the part of the then restored Stadholder, who received for it and certain Dutch pos- sessions in South America the sum of £6,000,000. The European population of the Colony, which was thus finally transferred to the lule of a foreign though a cognate nation, consisted in 1806 of about 27,000 persons, mostly of Dutch, with a siiialler number of German or French descent. They had some 30,000 black slaves, and of the aboriginal Hottentots about 17,000 remained. Nearly all spoke Dutch, or rather the rude local dialect into which tne Dutch of the original settlers (said to have been largely Frieslanders), had degene- rated. The descendants of the Huguenots had long since lost their French. No people find it agreeable to be handed over to the government of a different race, and the British administration in the Colony in those days was, though restrained by the general principles of English law, necessarily autocratic, because representative institu- tions had never existed at the Cape. Still things promised well for the peace and ultimate fusion of the Dutch and English races. They were branches of the same Low-German stock, separated by fourteen hundred years of separate history, but similar in the fundamental bases of their respective characters. Both were attached to liberty, and the British had indeed enjoyed at home a much fuller measure of it than had XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 111 the Dutch in the settled parts of the Colony. Both f)rofe8sed the Protestant religion, and the Dutch were ess tolerant toward Roman CatholioH than the English. The two languages retained so nnich resemblance that it was easy for an Englishman to learn Dutch and for a Dutchman to learn English. An observer might have predicted that the two pcopkvs would soon, by inter- course and by intermarriage, molt int' one, as Dutch and English had done in New York. For a time it seemed as if this would certainly come to pass. The first two British governors were men of high character, whose administration gave little ground for complaint to the old inhabitants. The Company's restrictions on trade had been abolished, and many reforms were intro- duced by the new rulers. Schools were founded, the administration of justice was reorganised under new courts, the breed of cattle and horses was improved, the slave-trade was forbidden, and missions to the natives were largely developed. Meanwhile local in- stitutions were scarcely altered, and the official use of the Dutch language was maintained. The Roman- Dutch law, which had been in force under the Com- pany's rule, was permitted to remain, and it is to-day the common law f all the British colonies and terri- tories, as w ell as of the Boer Republics, in South Africa. Intermarriage begai , and the social relations of the few English who had come in after 1806, with the many Dutch were friendly. In 1820 the British gov- ernment sent out about five thousand emigrants from England and Scotland, who settled in the thinly occu- pied country round Algoa Bay on the eastern border of the Colony ; and from that time on there was a steady, though never copious, influx of British settlers, through whose presence the use of the English language in- creased, together with a smaller influx of Germans, who soon lost their national individuality and came to speak either English or the local Dutch. Before long, however, this fair promise of peace and 112 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA chap. union was overclouded, and the causes which checked the fusion of the races in the Colony, and created two Dutch Republics beyond its limits, have had such momentous results that they need to be clearly stated. The first was to be found in the character of the Dutch population. They were farmers, a few dwelling in villages and cultivating the soil, but the majority stock-farmers, living scattered over a wide expanse of country, for the thinness of the pasture had made and kept the stock-farms very large. They saw little of one another, and nothing of those who dwelt in the few towns which the Colony possessed. They were ignorant, prejudiced, strongly attached to their old habits, im- patient of any control. The opportunities for intercourse between them and the British were thus so few that the two races acquired very little knowledge of one another, and the process of social fusion, though easy at Capetown and wherever else the population was tolerably dense, was extremely slow over the country at large. A deplorable inndent which befell on the eastern border in 1815 did much to create bad blood. A slight rising, due to the attempted arrest of a farmer on a charge of maltreating his native servant, broke out there. It was soon suppressed, but of the prisoners taken six were condemned to death and five were hanged. This harsh act, which was at the time justified as a piece of " necessary firmness," produced wide-spread and bitter resentment, and the mention of Slagter's Nek continued for many years to awaken an outburst of anti-British feeling among the Boers. A second cause was the unwisdom of the British authorities in altering (between 1825 and 1828) the old system of local government (with the effect ot reducing the share in it which the citizens had en- joyed), and in substituting English for Dutch as the language to be used in official documents and legal proceedings. This was a serious hardship, for probably not more than one-sixth of th^ people understood V XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 113 i \ English. A third source of trouble arose out of the wars with the Kafirs on the eastern border. Since the first hostilities of 1779 there had been four serious struggles with the tribes who lived beyond the Fiwsh River, and in 1834 a host of savages suddenly burst into the Colony, sweeping off the cattle and killing the farmers. After some hard fighting the Kafirs were reduced to sue for peace, and compelled by the governor to withdraw beyond the Keiskama River. But the British government at home, considering that the natives had been ill-treated by the colonists, and in fact provoked to war, overruled the governor, and allowed them to return to their old seats, where they were, no doubt, a source of danger to the border farmers. Thinking the home authorities either weak or perverse, the farmers bitterly resented this action, and began to look on the British Colonial Office as their enemy. But the main grievance arose out of those native and colour questions which have ever since continued to trouble South Africa. Slavery had existed in the Colony since 1658, and had produced its usual conse- quences, the degradation of labour, and the notion that the black man has no rights against the white. In 1737 the first Moravian mission to the Hottentots was frowned upon, and a pastor who had baptized natives found himself obliged to revurn to Europe. The current of feeling in Europe, and es-.pecially in England, which condemned the " domestic institution " and sought to vindicate the human rights of the negro, had not been felt in this remote corner of the world, and from about 1810 onward the English missionaries gave intense offence to the colonists by espousing the cause of the natives and the slaves, and reporting every case of cruel or harsh treatment which came to their knowledge. It is said that they often exaggerated, or made charges on insufficient evidence, and this is likely enough. But it must also be remembered that they were the 114 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. f' only protectors the blacks had; and where slavery exists, and a weak race is dominated by a strong one, there are sure to be many abuses of power. When, in 1828, Hottentots and other free coloured people were placed by governmental ordinance on an equal footing with whites as regards private civil rights, the colonists were profoundly disgusted, and their exasperation was increased by the enactment of laws restraining their authority over their slaves, as well as by the charges of ill-treating the natives which continued to be brought against them by the missionaries. Finally, in 1834, the British Parliament passed a statute emancipating the slaves throughout all the British colonies, and awarding a sum of twenty million pounds sterling as compensation to the slave-owners. The part of this sum allotted to Cape Colony (a little more than three millions sterling) was considerably below the value of the slaves (about 39,000) held there, and as the com- pensation was made payable in London, most slave owners sold their claims at inadequate prices. Many farmers lost the bulk of their property, and labour became in many districts so scarce that agriculture could hardly be carried on. The irritation produced by the loss thus suffered, intensifying the already existing discontent, set up a ferment among the Dutch farmers. Their spirit had always been independent, and the circumstances of their isolated life had enabled them to indulge it. Even under the government of their Dutch kinsfolk they had been restless, and now they received, as they thought, one injustice after another at the hands of alien rulers. To be watched and denounced by the missionaries, to have black people put on a level with them, to lose the fruits of their victory over the Kafirs — all these things had been bad enough. Now, however, when their property itself was taken away and slavery abolished on grounds they could neither understand nor approve, they determined to endure no longer, and sought for some means of M' XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1864 116 deliverance. Rebellion against so strong a power as that of Britain was evidently foredoomed to failure. But to the north and east a great wild country lay open before them, where they could lead that solitary and half-nomadic life which they loved, preserve their old customs, and deal with the natives as they pleased, un- vexed by the meddlesome English. Accordingly, many resolved to quit the Colony altogether and go out into the wilderness. They were the more disposed to this course, because they knew that the wars and conquests of Tshaka, the ferocious Zulu king, had exterminated the Kafir population through parts of the interior, which therefore stood open to European settlement. Thus it was that the Great Trek, as the Dutch call it, — the great emigration, or secession, as we should say, — of the Dutch Boers l30gan in 1836, twenty-five years before another question of colour and slavery brought about a still greater secession on the other side of the Atlantic. If the reader will here refer to the map, and measure from Cape Town a distance of about four hundred and fifty miles to the east (to the mouth of the Great Fish River), and about the same distance to the north-north- east (to where the towns of Middelburg and Colcsberg now stand), he will obtain a pretty fair idea of the limits of European settlement in 1836. The outer parts of this area toward the north and east were very thinly peopled, and beyond them there was a vast wilderness, into which only a few hunters had penetrated, though some farmers had, during the last decade or two, been accustomed to drive their flocks and herds into the fringe of it after the rains, in search of fresh pastures. The regions still farther to the north and east were almost entirely unexplored. They were full of wild beasts, and occupied here and there by native tribes, some, like the various branches of the Zulu race, eminently fierce and warlike. Large tracts, however, were believed to be empty and desolate, owing to the devastations wrought during his twenty years of reign by I 2 116 IMPR15SSI0NS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap Tshaka, who had been murdered eight years before. Of the existence of mineral wealth no one dreamed. But it was believed that there was good grazing land to be found on the upland that lay north of the great Quathlamba Range (where now the map shows the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic). More to the south lay the territory we now call Natal. It was described by those very few persons who had ex- plored it as fertile and well-watered, a country fit both for tillage and for pasture ; but wide plains and high mountains had to be crossed to reach it by land from the nortr.-west, and close to it on the north-east was the main body of the Zulu nation, under King Dingaan, the brother and sucessor of Tshaka. Into this wilderness did the farmers set forth, and though some less laudable motives may have been mingled with the love of independence and the resent- ment at injustice which mainly prompted their emigra- tion, it is impossible not to admire their strenuous and valiant spirit. They were a religious people, knowing no book but the Bible, and they doomed themselves, like many another religious people at a like crisis of their fortunes, to be under the special protection of Heaven, as was Israel when it went out of Egypt into a wilder- ness not so vast nor so full of perils as was that which the Boers were entering. Escaping from a sway which they compared to that of the Egyptian king, they probably f -cpecter' to be stopped or turned back. But Pharaoh, thcuoli ho had turned a deaf ear to their complaints, was imbue 1 with the British spirit of legality. He consulted his aC^orTir.y-general, and d'd not pursue them. The co).oii:.HJ go/crnmr]:]t saw wich concern the departure of so a; iiy useful subjects. But it was advised that it had no lofrrl riorht to stop them, so it stood by silently while party .:fi,?v piily of emigrants— each householder with his w >*'<', ami lis little ones, his flocks and his herds and all his gc ods — took its slow way from the eastern or northern parts of the Colony, up the slopes of the coast t t f XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 117 range, and across the passes that lead into the high plateau behind. Within two years from 6,000 to 10,000 persons set forth. They travelled in large covered wagons drawn by ten or twelve yoke of oxen, and they were obliged to travel in parties of no great size, lest their cattle should exhaust the pasture along the track they followed. There was, however a general concert of plan among them, and most of the smaller groups united at spots previously fixed upon for a rendezvous. All the men were armed, for the needs of defence against the Bushmen, and the passion for killing game, had made the farmers expert in the use of the rifle. As marksmen they were unusually steady and skilful, and in the struggles that followed nothing but their marksmanship saved them. Few to-day surv^ivc of those who took part in this Great Trek, but among those few is Paul Kruger, now President of the South African Republic, who followed his father's cattle as they were driven forward across the prairie, being then a boy of ten. I have not space to tell, save in the briefest outline the striking and romantic story of the wanderings ol the emigrant Boers and their conflicts with the native tribes. The first party, like the first host of Crusaders that started for the East in the end of the eleventh century, peris) led miserably. It consisted of nin y- eight persons travelling with thirty wagons. They penetrated far to the north-east, into what is now the territory of the Transvaal Republic. Some were cut off by the natives ; some, reduced to a mere handful by fever and by the loss of their cattle, — for they had ventured into the unhealthy lower country to the south ■ east of the mountains, where the tsetse-fly abounds,- - made their way to the coast at Delagoa Bay. Another party, formed by the union of a number of smaller bodies at Thaba 'Ntshu, a rocky peak in the Orange Free State, visible on the eastern horizon from the present town of Bloemfontein, advanced thence to the il '■? 118 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA chap. north, and presently came in contact with a redoubt- able branch of the Zulu race, famous in later history under the name of Matabili. This tribe was then ruled by the chief Umzilikazi, or Mosilikatze, a warrior of great energy and talent. He had been one of Tshaka^s favourite generals, but, having incurred that king's displeasure, had fled, about A.D. 1817, with his regi- ment to the north-west, and established his head- quarters near a place called Mosega (between Pretoria and Mafeking), in what is now the Transvaal Republic. Thence he raided and massacred the Bechuanas and other tribes of this region, though himsel^ unable to withstand the main Zulu nation, which, under Dingaan, was living farther to the south. The Matabili pro- voked war by falling upon and destroying a detachment of the emigrants. Intruders the latter doubtless were, but, as the Matabili themselves had slaughtered with- out mercy the weaker Kafir tribes, the Boers might think they need not feel any compunction in dealing out the like measure to their antagonists. And, in point of fact, the emigrants rfcem all through to have treated the natives much as Israel treated the natives of Canaan, and to have conceived themselves to have Old Testamont authority for occupying the territories of the heathen, and reducing them by the sternest methods to serfdom or submission. Here they had an unprovoked massacre to avenge, and they showed equal promptitude and courage. Pouncing upon Mosilikatze, they defeated his vastly superior force with so great a slaughter that he fled no^ih- west ward far away beyond the Limpopo River, and fell like a thunderbolt upon the tribes who dwelt between that stream and the Zambesi, killing many and making slaves of the rest. Here, with the king's kraal of Buluwayo for its capital, was established the kingdom of the Matabili, which remained as a terror to its neighbours till, in its turn, destroyed by Dr. Jameson and the British South Africa Company in 1893. It was a ' # nous % '^ XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 119 that brought fire and slaughter so suddenly, in 1837, upon the peoples of the Zambesi Valley. As the con- flicts of nomad warriors along the great wall of China in the fourth century of our era set a-going a move- ment which, propagated from tribe to tribe, ended by precipitating the Goths upon the Mediterranean countries, and brought Alaric to the Salarian Gate of Rome, so the collapse of the French monarchy, inducing the Revolution and the consequent war with England, carried the English to the Cape, brought the Boers into collision with the Matabili, and at last hurled the savage host of Mosilikatzc on the helpless 1V1 tka- lakas. The defeat and expulsion of the Matabili left the vast territories between the Orange River and the Limpopo in the hands of the Boer immigrants. Within these territories, after much moving hither and thither, those small and rude communities began to grow up which have ripened, as we shall presently see, into the two Dutch republics of our own time. But, meanwhile, a larger and better organized body of Boers, led by a capable and much-respected man named Pieter Retief, marched first eastward and then southward across the Quathlamba watershed, and descended from the plateau into the richer and warmer country between those mountains and the Indian Ocean. This region had been in 1820 almost depopulated by the invasions of Tshaka, and now contained scarce any native inhabit- ants. A few Englishmen had since 1824 been settled on the inlet then called Port Natal, where now the prosperous town of Durban lies beneath the villas and orchards of Berea, and (having obtained a cession of the maritime slip from King Tshaka) were maintaining there a sort of provisional republic. In 1835 they had asked to be recognised as a colony under the name of Victoria, in honour of the young princess who two years afterwards mounted the throne, and to have a legislature granted them. The British government, 120 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. h -i in H 1 * howe ■ ^r, was still hesitating whether it should occupy the port, so the emigrants did not trouble themselves about its rights or wishes. Thinking it well to pro- pitiate the Zulu king, Dingaan, whose power over- shadowed the country, the Boer leaders proceeded to his kraal to obtain from him a formal grant of land. The grant was made, but next day the treacherous tyrant, offering them some native Deer as a sort of stirrup-cup before their departure, suddenly bade his men fall upon and " kill the wizards." The excellent Retief perished with his whole party, and a body of emigrants not far distant was similarly surprised and massacred by a Zulu army of overwhelming strength. These cruelties roused the rest of the emigrants to reprisals, and m a fierce battle, fought on December 16, 1838, the anm crsary of which is still celebrated by the people of the Transvaal, a handful of Boers overthrew Dingaan's host. Like the soldiers of Cortes in Mexico, they owed this, as other victories, not merely to their steady valour, but to their horses. Riding up to the line of savage warriors, they delivered a volley, and rode back before an assagai could reach them, repeating this manoeuvre over and over again till the hostile ranks broke and fled. Ultimately their forces, united with those of a brother of Dingaan, who had rebelled against him and had detached a large part of the Zulu warriors, drove Dingaan out of Zululand in 1840. Panda, the rebel brother, was installed king in his stead, as a sort of vassal to the Boer government, which was now entitled the republic of Natalia, and the Boers founded a city, Pietermaritzburg, and began to portion out the land. They deemed the British authori- ties to have abandoned any claim to the country by the withdrawal of a detachment of troops which had been landed at Port Natal in lb, A But their action, and in particular their ejection fv m the country of a' niass of Kafirs whom they j )l >sed to place in a district already occupie I by another tribe, had mean- in Hi w It XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 121 while excited the displeasure of the government of Cape Colony. That government, though it had not followed them into the deserts of the interior, had never renounced, and indeed had now and then re- asserted its right to consider them British su1)jccts. They, however, repudiated all idea of subjection, hold- ing British sovereignty to be purely territorial, so that when they had passed out of the region which the British crown claimed they had become a free and independent people, standing alone in the world. Their attempt to establish a new white state on the coast was a matter of serious concern^ because it might affect trade with the interior, and plant in a region which Britain deemed her own the germ of what might become a new maritime power. And as the colonial government considered itself the general protector of the natives, and interested in maintaining the Kafirs between the Boer state and Cape Colony, the attacks of the Boers on the Kafirs who lived to the west of them toward the Colony, could not be permitted to pass unchecked. The British government, though still unwilling to assume fresh responsibilities, for in those days it was generally believed that the colonial posses- sions of Britain were already too extensive, neverthe- less ultimately concluded, for the reasons given above, to assert its authority over Port Natal anc the country behind as far as the crest of the mountains. A small force was accordingly sent to Port Natal in 1842. It was there besieged by the Boer levies, and would have been forced to surrender but for the daring ten days' ride through the whole breadth of Kafifraria of a young Englishman, Richard King, who brought the news to Graham's Town, six hundred miles distant. A force sent by sea relieved the starving garrison after a siege of twenty-six days. The Boer forces dispersed, but it was not till a year later that the territory of Natal was formally declared a British colony. Lord Stanley, then colonial secretary, was reluctant to take over the IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA oh '.p. responsibilities of a new dominion with a disaffected white population and a mass of savage inhabitants, and only yielded to the urgent arguments of Sir George Napier, then governor of the Cape. In 1843, after long and angry debates (sometimes interrupted by the women, who passionately denounced the British govern- ment), the Volksraad, or popular assembly of the tiny republic, submitted to the British crown, haying de- livered a warm but ineffectual protest against the principle of equal civil rights for whites and blacks laid down by the British government. The colony of Natal was then constituted, first (1845) as a dependency of Cape Colony, afterward (1856) as a separate colony. A part of the Boers, estimated at five hundred families, remained in it; but the majority, including all the fiercer spirits, recrossed the mountains (some forthwith, some five years later), with their cattle, and joined the mass of their fellow-emigrants who had remained on the plateaus of the interior. Meanwhile an immense influx of Kafirs, mostly from Zululand, although many belonged to other tribes whom the Zulus had conquered, repopulated the country, and in it the blacks have since been about ten times as numerous as the whites. Thus ended the Dutch republic of Natalia, after six years ot troubled life. While it was fighting with the Zulus on the east, and other Kafirs on the west, it was torn by incessant intestine quarrels, and unable either to levy taxes, or to compel for any other purpose the obedience of its own citizens. But its victories over Dingaan's armies were feats of arms as remarkable as any South Africa has seen The English are not generally slow to recognize the fine qualities of their adversaries, but they have done less than justice to the resolution and the daring which the Boers displayed in these early campaigns against the natives.^ * A clear and spirited account of these events may be found in Mr. R. Rassell's book, Natal, the L^fid and its Story, published in 1894. ^ I* J t If ■■rA m XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 18B4 123 With the British annexation of Natal ended the first of the attempts which the emigrant Boers have made to obtain access to the sea. It was a turning-point in the history of South Africa, for it secured to Great Britain tHat command of the coast which has ever since been seen to be more and more vital to her pre- dominonce, and it established a new centre of English settlement in a region till then neglected, from whence large territories, including Zululand and, recently, Southern Tongaland, have been acquired. Although Britain purported to act, and, indeed, in a certain sense did act, in self-defence, one cannot repress a feeling that the Boer settlers, who had occupied a temtory they found vacant and had broken the power of the savage Zulu king, were hardly used. They ought, at any rate, to have had earlier notice of British intentions. But against this may be set the fact that the internal dissensions which rent the infant republic would have sooner or later brought it to the ground, compelling British intervention, and that the native races have fared better under British control than they seemed likely to do under that of the Boers, whose behaviour towards them, though little more harsh than that of the English colonists, has been much less considerate than that of the Imperial Government. Hardly less troubled was the lot of the emigrants who had scattered themselves over the wide uplands that lie between the Orange River and the Limpopo. They, too, were engaged in incessant wars with the native tribes, who were, however, less formidable than the Zulus, and much cattle lifting went on upon both sides. Only one native tribe and one native chief stand out from the confused tangle of petty raids and forays which makes up (after the expulsion of the Matabili) the earlier annals of the Boer com- munities. This chief was the famous Moshesh, to speak of whose career I may digress for a moment from the thread of this narrative. The Kafir races IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I £ US. 120 i L25 i_u |ij6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M5M (716)872-4303 ^°>\ '^^ ^ 4r 124 IMPRESSIONS OP SOUTH AFRICA chap. have produced within this century three really re- markable men— men who, like Toussaint I'Ouverture in Hayti, and Kamehameha I. in Hawaii, will go down in history as instances of the gifts that sometimes shov^ themselves even among the most backward races. Tshaka, the Zulu, was a warrior of extraordinary energy and ambition, whose power of organization enabled him to raise the Zulu army within a few years to a perfection of drill and discipline and a swiftness of movement which made them irresistible, except by Europeans. Khama, the chief who still reigns among the Bechuanas, has been a social reformer and ad- ministrator of judgment, tact, and firmness, who has kept his people in domestic peace and protected them from the dangerous influences which white civilization brings with it, while at the same time helping them onward toward such improvements as their character admits. Moshesh, chief of the Basutos, was born in the end of the eighteenth century. He belonged to a small clan which had >3uffered severely in the wars caused by the conquest of Tshaka, whose attacks upon the tribes nearest him had driven them upon other tribes, and brought slaughter and confusion upon the whole of South-eastern Africa. Though only a younger son, hSe enterprise and courage soon made him a leader. The progress of his power was aided by the skill he showed in selecting for his residence and citronghold a flat topped hill called Thaba Bosij'o, fenced round by cliffs, with pasture for his cattle, and several springs of water. In this impregnable stronghold, from which he drew his title of " chief of the mountain," he resisted reiDeated sieges by his native enemies and by the emigrant Boers. The exploits of Moshesh against his native foes soon brought adherents round him, and he became the head of that powerful tribe, largely formed out of the fragments of other tribes scattered and shattered by war, which is now called the Basuto. Unlike # XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 125 •' j-.i' most Kafir warriors, he was singularly free from cruelty, and ruled his own people with a mildness which made him liked as well as respected. In 1832 he had the foresight to invite missionaries to come and settle among his people, and the following year saw the establishment of the mission of the Evangelical Society of Paris, whose members, some of them French, some Swiss, a few Scotch, have been the most potent factors in the subsequent history of the Basuto nation. When the inevitable collision between the Basutos and the white men arrived, Moshesh, partly through counsels of the missionaries, partly from his own prudence, did his best to avoid any fatal breach with the British Government. Nevertheless, he was several times engaged in war with the Orange River Boers, and once had to withstand the attack of a strong British force led by the governor of Cape Colony. But his tactful diplomacy made him a match for any European opponent, and carried him through every political danger. Moshesh died, full of years and honour, about twenty-eight years ago, having built up, out of the dispersed remnants of broken tribes, a nation which has now, under the guiding hand of the missionaries, and latterly of the British Government also, made greater progress in civilizatj^n and Christi- anity than any other Kafir race. Of its present con- dition I shall speak in a later chapter. We may now turn back to pursue the story of the fortunes of the emigrant Boers who had remained on the landward or northerly side of the Quathlamba Range, or had returned thither from Natal. In 1843 they numbered not more than 15,000 persons all told, possibly less; for, though after 1838 fresh emigrants from the Colony had joined them, many had perished in the native wars. Subsequently, down to the end of 1847, these numbers were increased by others, who returned from Natal, displeased at the land settlement made there ; and while these Natalians settled, some 126 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. to the south-west, round Winburg, others farther north, in the region between Pretoria and the Vaal River, the earlier Boer occupants of the latter region moved off still farther north, some to Lydenburg, some to the Zoutpansberg and the country sloping to the Limpopo River. Thus the emigrant Dutch were now scattered over an area seven hundred miles long and three hundred miles wide, an area bounded on the south-east by the Quathlamba mountain-chain, but on the north and west divided by no natural limit from the great plain which stretches west to the Atlantic and north to the Zambesi. They were practically independent, for the colonial government did not attempt to interfere with their internal affairs. But Britain still claimed that they were, in strict intendment of law, British subjects,^ and she gave no recognition to the govern- ments they set up. To have established any kind of administration over so wide a territory would have been in any case difficult for so small a body of people, probably about four thousand adult males; but the characteristics which had enabled them to carry out their exodus from Cape Colony and their campaigns of conquest against the natives with so much success made the task of organization still more difficult. They had in an eminent degree " the defects of their qualities." They were self-reliant and individualistic to excess; they loved not only independence, but isolation; they were resolved to make their govern- ment absolutely popular, and little disposed to brook the control even of the authorities they had themselves created. They had, in fact, a genius for disobedience ; their ideal, if one can attribute any ideals to them, was that of Israel in the days when every man did that ^ Sir P. Maitland's proclamation of August 21, 1845, expressly reserved the rights of the crown to consider those who had gone beyond Natal as being still its subjects, notwithstanding the establishment of a settled government in that Colony. (See Bird's Annals of Natal, vol. ii., p. 468.) I A i i. i:'-' I XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 127 which was right in his own eyes. It was only for war- like expeditions, which they had come to enjoy not only for the sake of the excitement, but also because they were able to enrich themselves by the capture of cattle, that they could be brought together, and only to their leaders in war that they would yield obedience. Very few had taken to agriculture, for which, indeed, the dry soil was seldom fitted, and the half-nomadic life of stock-farmers, each pasturing his cattle over great tracts of country, confirmed their dissociative instincts. However, the necessities of defence against the natives, and a common spirit of hostility to the claims of sovereignty which the British government had never renounced, kept them loosely together. Thus several small republican communities grew up. Each would have preferred to manage its affairs by a general meeting of the citizens, and sometimes tried to do so. But as the citizens dispersed themselves over the country, this became impossible, so authority, such slight authority as they could be induced to grant, was in each vested in a small elective assembly called the Volksraad or Council of the People. These tiny republics were held together by a sort of faintly federative tie, which rested rather in a common understanding than upon any legal instrument, and whose observance was always subject to the passion of the moment. The communities which dwelt to the north-east, beyond the Vaal River, while distracted by internal feuds chiefly arising from personal or family enmities, were left undisturbed by the colonial govern- ment. They lived hundreds of miles from the nearest British outpost, and their wars with the Kafirs scarcely affected those tribes with whom the British authorities came in contact. Those authorities, as I have already observed, were in those days, under orders received from home, anxious rather to contract than to extend the sphere of imperial influence, and cared little for what happened far out in the wilderness, except 128 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. whenever the action of the Boers induced troubles among the natives. It was otherwise with the emigrants who lived to the south-west, between the Vaal River and the frontier of Capo Colony, which was then at the village of Colesberg, between what is now De Aar Junction and the upper course of the Orange River. Here there were endless bickerings between the Boers, the rapidly growing native tribe of the Basutos, and the half-breeds called Griquas, hunting clans sprung from Dutch fathers and Hottentot women, who, intermixed with white people, and to some extent civilized by the missionaries, were scattered over the country from where the town of Kimberley now stands southward to the junction of the Orange and Caledon rivers. These quarrels, with the perpetual risk of a serious native war arising from them, distressed a succession of governors at Cape Town and a succession of colonial secretaries in Downing Street. Britain did not wish (if I may use a commercial term not unsuited to her state of mind) " to increase her holding " in South Africa. She regarded the Cape as the least prosperous and promising of her colonies, with an arid soil, a popula- tion largely alien, and an apparently endless series of costly Kafir wars. She desired to avoid all further annexations of territory, because canh annexation brought fresh responsibilities, and fresh responsibilities involved increased expenditure. At last a plan was proposed by Dr. Philip, a prominent missionary who had acquired influence with the government. The missionaries were the only responsible persons who knew much about the wild interior, and they were often called on to discharge fimctions similar to those which the bishops performed for the barbarian kings in western Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era. The societies which they represented commanded some influence in Parliament; and this fact also disposed the Colonial Office to consult them. Dr. CHAP. troubles lived to 1 frontier llagc of bion and re there rapidly If-breeds Dutch ted with by the ;ry from iward to These itive war overnors cretaries may use of mind) ca. She )us and popu la- series of [ further nexation isibilities plan was lary who Qt. The ons who Ley were to those kings in js of our nmanded fact also 3m. Dr. r I XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 129 Philip suggested the creation along the north-eastern border of a line of native states which should sever the Colony from the unsettled districts, and should isolate the more turbulent emigrant Boers from those who had remained quietly in the Colony. This plan was adopted. Treaties were made in 1843 with Moshesh, the Basuto chief, and with Adam Kok, a Griqua captain living on the Orange River, as a treaty had been made nine years before with another Griqua leader named Waterboer, who lived farther north (near the present site of Kimberley) ; and these three states, all recog- nized by Britain, were intended to cover the Colony on the side where troubles were most feared. But the arrangement soon broke down, for the whites would not recognize a Griqua captain, while the whole troubles between them and the natives continued. Accordingly, a forward step was taken in 1846 by placing a few British troops under a military resident at Bloemfontein, half-way between the Orange and Vaal rivers, to keep order there. And in 1848 the whole region from the Orange to the Vaal was formally annexed under the name of the Orange River Sovereignty. The country had been without any government, for the emigrants who dwelt in it had no organization of their own, and did not recognize the republics beyond the Vaal. This formal assertion of British authority provoked an outbreak among those of the emigrants, all, or nearly all, of Boer stock, who clung to their indepen- dence. Roused and reinforced by their Boer brethren from beyond the Vaal, who were commanded by Andries Pretorius, the most energetic and capable of the emigrant leaders, and the same who had besieged the British troops at Port Natal, they attacked Bloemfontein, obliged the Resident's small force to capitulate, and advanced south to the Orange River. Sir Harry Smith, then Governor of the Cape, promptly moved forward a small force, defeated the Boers in a sharp skirmish at Boomplats (August 29, 1848), and 130 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. f y re-established British authority over the Sovereignty, which was not, however, incorporated with Cape Colony. The Boers beyond the Vaal were left to themselves. Peace, however, was not yet assured. Fresh quarrels broke out among the native tribes, ending in a war between the Basutos and the British Resident. Unsupported by a large section of the local farmers, who remained disaffected to the government, and preferred to make their own terms with the Basutos, and having only a trifling armed force at his command, the Resident fared ill ; and his position became worse when Pretorius, still powerful beyond the Vaal, threatened to move in and side with the Basutos. Cape Colony was at that moment involved in a serious war with the Kafirs of the south coast, and could spare no troops for these northern troubles. So when Pretorius intimated that he and the northern Boers wished to make some permanent and pacific arrange- ment with Britain, which, though it did not claim their territory, still claimed their allegiance, commissioners were sent to negotiate with him and those of the northern or Transvaal group of emigrants who recognized his leadership, for there were other factions who stood apart by themselves. Thus in 1852 a convention was concluded at Sand River with "the commandant and delegates of the Boers living beyond the Vaal," by which the British government " guaranteed to the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs, and to govern them- selves according to their own laws without any interference on the part of the British government," with provisions " disclaiming all alliances with any of the coloured nations north of the Vaal River," permitting the emigrants to purchase ammunition in the British colonies, and declaring that " no slavery is or shall be permitted or practised by the farmers in the country north of the Vaal River." CHAP. XI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1864 131 From this Sand River convention the South African Republic, afterward slowly formed out of the small communities which then divided the country, dates its independence ; and by the same instrument it practically severed itself from the Boer emigrants who were left in the Orange River Sovereignty south of the Vaal, conduct which the republican party among these emigrants deemed a betrayal. That Sovereignty remained British, and probably would have so continued but for an unex- pected incident. It was still vexed by the war with the Basutos, and when General Cathcart, who had now come out as Governor of the Cape, attacked Moshesh with a considerable force of British regulars, he was drawn into a sort of ambush in their difficult country, suffered a serious reverse, and would have been com- Eelled to invade Basutoland afresh with a larger army ad not Moshesh prudently asked for peace. Peace was concluded. But the British government was weary of these petty and apparently unending native wars, and soon after the news of the battle with Moshesh reached London, the Duke of Newcastle, and Lord Aberdeen's government, in which he was colonial secre- tary, resolved to abandon the Sovereignty altogether. To those who look back on 1853 with the eyes of 1899 this seems a strange determination, for the British crown had ruled the country for eight years and recently given it a regular new constitution. Moreover, whereas the farmers beyond the Vaal were nearly all of pure Boer stock, those in the Orange River Sovereignty were mixed with English settlers, and from their proximity to the Colony were much less averse to the British connection. In fact, a large part of them — though it is not now easy to discover the exact propor- tion — warmly resisted the proposal of the British government to retire, and independence had to be forced on them against their will. In Cape Colony, too, and among the missionaries, there was a strong repugnance to the policy of withdrawal. The authorities of the 132 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. Colony and the Colonial Office at home were, however, inexorable. They saw no use in keeping territories which were costly because they had to be defended against native raids, and from which little benefit was then expected. Hardly any notice had been taken in Britain of the Sand River convention, which the Conservative ministry of t!.at day had approved, and when, at the instance of delegates sent home by those who, in the Orange River territory, desired to remain subject to the British crown, a motion was made in the House of Commons asking the Queen to reconsider the renunciation of her sovereignty over that territory, the motion found no support and had to be withdrawn. Parliament, indeed, went so far as to vote forty-eight thousand pounds by way of compensation, in order to get rid of this large territory and a great number of attached subjects. So little did Englishmen then care for that South African dominion which they have subsequently become so eager to develop and extend. By the convention signed at Bloemfontein on February 23, 1854, the British government "guaran- teed the future independence of the country and its government," and its mhabitants were " declared, to all intents and purposes, a free and independent people." No slavery or trade in slaves was to be permitted north of the Orange River. The Orange River government was to be free to purchase ammunition in the British colonies, and liberal privileges in connection with import duties were to be granted to it. These two conventions of 1852 and 1854 are epochs of supreme importance in South African history, for they mark the first establishment of non- British inde- pendent states, whose relations with the British colonies were thereafter to constitute the central thread in the annals of the country. As that of 1852 recognised the Transvaal State, so from that of 1854, which is a more explicit and complete declaration of independence than had been accorded to the Transvaal people two years be* SI EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA TILL 1854 133 fore, dates the beginning of the second Boer republic, the Orange Free State, which, subsequently increased by the conquest from the Basutos of a strip of fertile territory in the south, has over since remained perfectly independent and at peace with the British colonies. Its only serious troubles have arisen from native wars, and these have long ago come to an end. In 1854 an assembly of delegates enacted for it the republican constitution under which it has ever since been quietly and peace- ably governed. It had the good fortune to elect, as its president, in 1865, a lawyer from Cape Colony, of Dutch extraction, Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Brand, who guided its course with great tact and wisdom for twenty-four years, and whose favourite expression, " All shall come right," now inscribed on his tombstone at Bloemfontein, has become throughout South Africa a proverbial phrase of encouragement in moments of difficulty.^ Beyond the Vaal river things have gone very differ- ently. The farmers of that region were more scattered, more rude and uneducated, and more prone to factious dissensions than those of the Free State proved to be after 1854 ; and while the latter were compressed within definite boundaries on three sides, the Transvaal Boers were scattered over a practically limitless area. During the next twenty-five years the Transvaal people had very little to do with the British govern- ment. But they were distracted by internal feuds, and involved in almost incessant strife with the natives. These two sources of trouble brought their govern- ment, in 1877, to a condition of virtual collapse. But that collapse and the annexation which followed it belong to a later phase of South African history, and we must now turn from them to trace the progress of events in other parts of the country between 1852 and 1877. 1 Some further account of the Orange Free State will ba found in Chapter XIX. CHAPTER XII THE EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 Between the years 1862 and 1866 the history of A.nglo-Dutch South Africa K^aks up into four distinct streams. The Transvaal and South African Republic pursues its own course from 1852 onward, the Orange Free State from 1864, and Natal from 1866, in which year that district was separated from the Cape and constituted as a distinct colony. Between 1876 and 1880 the South African Republic and Natal are again brought into close relations with the march of events in Cape Colony. But before we trace the three last mentioned streams in their several courses it is well to return to the Cape, by far the largest and most populous of the four communities, and sketch in outline the chief events that mark the development of that Colony down to the memorable epoch of 1877-81. These events group themselves into three divisions — the material progress of Cape Colony, the changes in the form of its government, and those wars witn the Kafir tribes which, while they retarded its growth in population, steadily increased its area. The departure of some eight or ten thousand Boers, the most discontented part of the population, in the years following 1835, not only removed an element which, excellent in other respects, was politically at once unrestful and old-fashioned, but left plenty of vacant I on. XII EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1864-95 136 space to 00 occupied by new immigrants from Europe. New immigrants, however, came slowly, because at that time the tide of British emigration was setting mainly to America, while German emigration had hardly begun. The Kafir wars had, moreover, given South Africa a bad name, and the settlers of 1820 (see above, p. Ill) had suffered several years of hardship before prosperity came to them. However, between 1845 and 1850 four or five thousand British immigrants were brought in, with the aid of the government, and a little later a number of Germans who had served England in the German Legion during the Crimean War. Again, in 1858, more than two tnousand German peasants were settled on the south coast in lands which had been previously held by Kafirs. These people made ^ood colonists, and have now become merged in the British population, which becan to predominate in the eastern province as the Dutch still does in the western. As the country filled there was a steady, though slow, progress in farming and in export trade. The merino sheep had been introduced in 1812 and 1820, and its wool had now become a source of wealth ; so, too, had ostrich farmin^, which began about 1865 and developed rapidly after the introduction of artificial incubation in 1869. The finances, which had been in disorder, were set right, roads began to be made, churches and schools were established, and though the Kafir raids caused much loss of life and of cattle on the eastern border, the cost of these native wars, being chiefly borne by the home government, did not burden the colonial revenue. In 1859 the first railway was constructed, and by 1883 more than one thousand miles of railway were open for traffic. There were, however, no industries except stock-keeping and tillage until 1869-70, when the discovery of diamonds (of which more anon) brought a sudden rush of immigrants from Europe, stimulated trade so powerfully that the revenue of the Colony doubled within five years, and began that surprising 136 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA CHAP. development of mineral resources which hap been the most striking feature of recent years. With the. growth of population, which had risen under British rule from about 26,000 Europeans in 1805 to 182,000 in 1865 and 237,000 in 1875, there came also changes in the form of government. At first the Governor was an autocrat, except so far as he was controlled by the fear that the colonists might appeal to the Colonial Office in London against him : and the administration was therefore wise or foolish, liberal or severe, according to the qualities of the individual Governor. Some serious mistakes were committed, and one Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, has left the reputation of arbitrary rule ; but the officials sent out seem, on the whole, to have pursued a more judicious policy and shown more respect to local opinion than the representatives of the Dutch East India Company had (with one or two brilliant exceptions) done in the pre- vious century. The blunders which preceded the Great Trek of 1836 were attributable rather to the home government than to its agents on the spot, and in the years that followed colonial feeling complained more often of Downing-street than it did of Government House at Cape Town. The irritation which from time to time broke out sprang chiefly from questions con- nected with the natives. Like all Europeans dwelling among inferior races, the mass of the colonists, English as well as Dutch, looked upon the native population as existing for their benefit, and resented the efforts which the home government made to secure for the blacks equal civil rights and adequate protection. Their wrath was specially kindled' by the vehemence with which a few among the missionaries denounced any wrongs deemed to have been suffered by the natives within the Colony, and argued the case of the Kafir tribes who were from time to time in revolt. I do not attempt to apportion the blame in these disputes ; bub any one who has watched the relations of superior and xii EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 137 risen more inferior races in America or India or the Pacific islands will think it probable that many harsh and unjust things were done by the colonists, as every one who knows how zeal tends to mislead the judgment of well- intentioned men will think it no less probable that there was some exaggeration on the part of the philan- thropic friends of the blacks, and that some groundless charges were brought against the colonists. The mis- sionaries, especially those of the London Society, had a certain influence with the Colonial Office, and were sup- posed to have much more than they had. Thus from 1820 to about 1860 there was a perpetual struggle between the colonists and the missionaries, in which struggle the Governor tended to side with the colonists, whose public opinion he felt round him, while the Colonial Office leaned to the philanthropists, who could bring political pressure to bear through the House of Commons. Unfortunate as these bickerings were, they had at least the result of tending to unite the Dutch and English elements in the population, for on native questions there was little difference of attitude between those elements. In 1834 a Legislative Council was created, consist- ing, however, of officials and of members nominated by the Governor, and not, as the colonists had petitioned, chosen by election. Twenty years later, when the population had greatly increased and the demand for representative institutions could no longer be resisted, a regular two-chambered legislature was set up, con- sisting of a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, both elected on a wide franchise, with no distinction of race or colour, though of course the coloured voters were comparatively few, because the tribal Kafirs living under their chiefs were excluded, while of other blacks there was only a small proportion who held property even to the limited extent required for the suffrage. This legislature met for the first time in 1854. Four years previously an event had occurred 9.. f I' ^ 138 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA OHAP. which showed how desirable it was that constitutional means should be provided for the expression of the people's wishes. The home government had sent out a vessel carrying a number of convicts to be landed and ^i^ kept in the Colony, where no convicts had been seen ^^ since the days of the Dutch Com pany. A strong and 0^ unanimous feeling aros^afonce agatnst this scheme, which was regarded as likely to prove even more harmful in South Africa than it had proved in Aus- tralia, because there was at the Cape a large nativo population, among whom the escaped or released con- vict, possessing the knowledge and capacity of a white man, but unrestrained by any responsibility or sense of a character to lose, would be able to work untold mis- chief The inhabitants of Cape Town and its neigh- bourhood held meetings of protest, sent remonstrances to England, and mutually pledged themselves to supply no food to the convict ship. This pledge they carried out, and during the five months that the convict ship lay in Simon's Bay, it was from the naval squadron there that she had to receive provisions. The Colonial Office at last yielded ; and the people, while rejoiced at the success they had achieved, and at the heartiness with which Dutch and English had co-operated for a common object, were more than ever disposed to desire some control over their own affairs. Although after 1854 the sole power of legislation was vested in the colonial Parliament, subject to the right of the British crown to disallow an act, — a right which is of course very rarely used, — the executive power still remained with the Governor and his council, who were appointed by the home government, and not responsible to the Cape legislature. It has, however, become a settled principle of British colonial policy to grant to each and every colony not only legislative power, but responsible executive government so soon as the white population of the Colony has become rela- tively large enough and settled enough to enable that CHAP. ni EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 139 stitutional on of the sent out anded and ^J^*^ been seen ^^ trong and J iS scheme, ven more i in Aus- •ge native jased con- of a white 3r sense of itold mis- its neigh- onstrances I to supply ey carried mvict ship [ squadron le Colonial rejoiced at heartiness ated for a d to desire legislation ect to the b, — a right executive bis council, nt, and not s, however, il policy to legislative nt so soon jcome rela- mable that kind of constitution to be properly worked. In 1872 the whites of Cape Colony had come to exceed 200,000, and the need for a change had been emphasized shortly before by a conflict of opinion between the Governor and the legislature as to the best means of setting right the finances of the Colony. Parliament having been dis- solved, the new houses declared for responsible govern- ment, and the home government wisely assented to their wish. Accordingly, the " cabinet system " of Britain was established, the Governor's executive council being turned into a ministry responsible to the legislature, and the Governor himself becoming a sort of local constitutional sovereign on the model of the British crown, that is to say a sovereign who reigns but does not govern, the executive acts done in his name being done by the advice and on the responsibility of the ministry, who hold office at the pleasure of the legislature. Thus from 1872 onward the Colony has enjoyed complete self-government, and has prospered under it despite the antagonism which has frequently shown itself between the eastern and western provinces, an antagonism due partly to economic causes, partly to the predominance of the English element in the former and of the Dutch in the latter region. The working of the cabinet system has been even smoother than in most of ti. ~ other British colonies ; but while setting this to the credit of the good sense and moderation of the people, it must also be noted that the most exciting crises which have arisen in South Africa have lain out- side the scope of the colonial ministry and legislature, being matters which have touched the two Dutch republics or the relations of British territories to foreign Powers. These matters, being international, belong to the British crown, and to its local representative, the Governor, in his capacity of High Commissioner for South Africa ; and in that capacity he is not required to consult the Cape ministry and legislature, but acts under the directions of the Colonial Office in London. 140 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. m: The grant of cabinet government tended to stimulate political life among the Dutch farmers, hitherto the more backward part of the population, and in 1882 their wishes secured a reversal of the ordinance made sixty years before for the exclusive use of English in official documents and legal proceedings. Dutch was now placed on a level with English as an official language in Parliament and the law courts. But this assertion of Dutch sentiment was due to causes which will be better understood when we come to the events of 1880 and 1881. Most of the peaceful growth which has been described would have been more rapid but for the frequent vexation of native wars. Twice under the rule of the Dutch Company and seven times under the British crown have there been sanguinary conflicts with the fierce Kafir tribes of the Kosa group, who dwell in the east of the Colony. On the north there had been only Hottentots, a weak nomad race, who soon vanished under the attacks of smallpox and the pressure of the whites. On the north-east the deserts of the Karroo lay between the colonists and the Kafirs who inhabited the plains of the Upper Orange and Vaal rivers. But on the east the country was comparatively well watered, and supported a large Kafir population full of courage and fignting spirit. Collisions between them and the whites were inevitable. The country they occupied was mostly rugged, and covered with a dense low wood, or rather scrub, traversed by narrow and winding tracks, which were of course familiar to them, and difficult for white troops. They had always the advantage in point of numbers, and though they were usually beaten and compelled to sue for peace, the obvious anxiety of the colonial government to conclude a peace emboldened them to fresh outbreaks. To civilized men, who know the enormous superiority of discipline and of firearms, it seems strange that those natives, who in the earlier wars had no firearms, should i CHAP. stimulate [lerto the in 1882 nee made English in 'utch was n official But this 368 which lie events described frequent lie of the J British with the 3II in the )een only vanished ^ re of the 3 Karroo nhabited rs. But watered, ■ courage and the occupied 3w wood, winding em, and ays the ley were ace, the !onclude ks. To iority of it these i, should XII EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 141 have so often renewed what we can see was a hopeless struggle. But it must be remembered that the natives, who saw only small white forces brought against them, and knew that the whole number of whites in the Colony was small, have never realized, and do not realize even to-day, the enormous reserve of the white f)opulation in Europe. Their minds cannot take in arge numbers, cannot look far forward, cannot grasp large issues, and are swayed by sudden gusts of feeling which overcome all calculation of results. Accordingly, the Kafirs returned over and over again to the contest, while the colonial government, not wishing to extend its frontiers, and hating the expense of this unprofitable strife, never grappled with the problem in a large way, but tried on each occasion to do just enough to restore order for the time being. It would probably have been better to have spent once for all a large sum in a thorough conquest of the Kosas, planting strong forts here and there through their country, and organizing a regular gendarmerie. But until the annexation ot Natal in 1843 placed British power on the other side of these turbulent tribes, the process of conquest might well seem interminable, for it was plain that as soon as one clan had been brought to submission troubles would break out with the next that lay beyond it, and fresh wars have to be undertaken to reduce each of these in its turn. Some allowance must therefore be made for the tendency of the government to take short views and do no more than was needed for the moment, especially as nearly every new war brought upon the Governor for the time being the dis- pleasure of the Colonial Office, and brought upon the Colonial Office the censure of economists and philanthropists at home. The theatre of these wars was the country along the south coast between Algoa Bay and the Kei River, and an important step forward was made when, after the wars of 1846-47 and 1851-5^, the province of British 142 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. Kaflfraria, extending to the Kei River.was created, placpd under imperial officials, and garrisoned by British regi- ments. Four years afterwards, in 1857, the Kafirs of this province, at the bidding of their chiefs, prompted by a wizard v^o professed to have received messages from the world of spirits, destroyed their cattle and their stores of grain, in the belief that the dead ancestors of the tribe would reappear and join them in driving out the white men, while herds of cattle would issue from the ground and crops would suddenly spring up and cover the soil. Many of the clans were already on the verge of famine when the promised day arrived, and when it had passed starvation began, and within a few months, despite the efforts of the colonial authorities to supply food, some 30,000 Kafirs perished of hunger or disease. This frightful catastrophe, which carried many thousands westward into Cape Colony in search of work, and left large tracts vacant, led to the establishment in those tracts of white settlers, and ultimately, in 1865, to the union of British Kaffraria with the Colony. It also so much weakened the Kosas that for the unprecedentedly long period of twenty years there was no Kafir war. In 1877 and 1880 some risings occurred which were suppressed with no great difficulty ; and in 1894 the boundaries of the Colony, which had been advancing by a series of small annexa- tions, were finally rounded off on the eastern side by the addition of the territory of the Pondos, which made it conterminous in that direction with the Colony of Natal. To complete the chronicle of native wars, we ought now to turn to Natal, on whose borders there arose, in 1879, a conflict with the greatest native power — that of the Zulus — which the British had yet encountered. Before that year, however, a momentous change in British colonial policy had occurred, and I must go a little way back to describe the events which gave rise to it. The reader will recollect that in 1852 and 1854 I A OHAP. ited, placpd Iritish regi- 6 Kafirs of rompted by ssages from and their mcestors of driving out issue from ng up and ;ady on the irrived, and dthin a few authorities I of hunger ich carried y in search ed to the jttlers, and 1 Kaffraria 1 the Eosas of twenty 1880 some ih no great ihe Colony, lall annexa- ern side by idos, which the Colony s, we ought )re arose, in er — that of ncountered. change in st go a little } rise to it. and 1854 XII EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1864-95 143 Britain had abjured all purpose of extending the boandaries of her dominion towards the interior by recognizing the independence of the two Dutch re- publics, which date their legal rise from the two con- ventions concluded in those years. She had done so quite honestly, desiring to avoid the expense and re- sponsibility which further advances must entail, and with the wish of leaving the two new republics to work out their own salvation in their own way. For some years nothing occurred to create fresh difficulties. But in 1858 a war broke out between the Orange Free State and the Basuto chief Moshesh, who claimed land which the Free State farmers had occupied. The Free State commandos attacked him, and had penetrated Basutoland as far as the stronghold of Thaba Bosiyo, when they were obliged to return to protect their own farms from the roving bands of horsemen which Moshesh had skilfully detached to operate in their rear. Being hard pressed they appealed to the Governor of Cape Colony to mediate between them and Moshesh. Moshesh agreed, and a new frontier was settled by the Governor. However, in 1865 fresh troubles broke out, and there was again war between Moshesh and the Free State. The Governor of Cape Colony was again invoked, but his decision was not respected by the Basutos, whom Moshesh could not always control, — for they are much less submissive to their chiefs than are the Zulus, — and hostilities having recommenced after a brief interval of peace, the Free State made a supreme effort, and in 1868 was on the point of destroying the Basuto power, though it had never been able to capture Thaba Bosiyo, when Moshesh appealed to the High Commissioner to extend British protection to his people. Unwilling to see Basutoland annexed by the Free State, and fearing injury to the Colony from the dispersion of Basuto fugitives through it, the High Commissioner consented, and declared the Basutos British subjects. The Free" State was suffered to 144 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. V I retain a large tract of fertile land along the north bank of the Caledon Riv^r, which it had conquered; but it was mortified by seeing British authority established to the south of it, all the way from Natal to the borders of Cape Colony, and by the final extinction of the hopes whichrit had cherished of extending its terri- tories to the sea and acquiring a harbour at tne mouth of the St. John's River. These events, which befell in 1869, mark the recom- mencement of British advance toward the interior. Still more momentous was another occurrence which belongs to the same year. In 1869 and 1870 a sudden rush began from all parts of South Africa to a small district between the Modder and the Vaal rivers (where the town of Kimberley now stands), in which diamonds had been discovered. Within a few months thousands of diggers from Europe and America, as well as from the surrounding countries, were at work here, and the region, hitherto neglected, became a prize of inestim- able value. A question at once arose as to its ownership. The Orange Free State claimed it, but it was also claimed by a Gnqua (half-breed) captain, named Nicholas Waterboer, son of old Andries Water- boer, and by a native Batlapin chief, while parts were claimed by the Transvaal Republic. The claims of the last-named state were disposed of by the decision of the Governor of Natal, who had been recognized as arbitrator by the Griquas, the Batlapin, and the President of the Republic. He awarded the tract in dispute to Water- boer, including in his award the part claimed by the Free State, which had refused arbitration so far as regarded the district lying south of the Vaal, holding that district to ha^'e been indubitably part of the old Orange River sovereignty, which was in 1854 turned into the Orange Free State. As Waterboer had before the award offered his territory to the British govern- ment, the country was forthwith erected into a Crown Colony under the name of Griqualand West. This was t OA CHAP. e north bank quered; but y established STatal to the extinction of inu' its terri- tne mouth the recom- the interior, rence which 70 a sudden I to a small ivers (where ch diamonds IS thousands well as from ere, and the of inestim- as to its ed it, but it ed) captain, iries Water- 3 parts were laims of the cision of the as arbitrator dent of the e to Water- ned by the Q so far as aal, holding ' of the old 854 turned ' had before ish govern- to a Crown This was xn EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 146 in 1871. The Free State, whose case had not been stated, much ' ss argued, before the umpire, protested, and was after a time able to appeal to a judgment delivered by a British court, which found that Waterboer had never enjoyed any right to the territory. However, the new Colony had by this time been set up and the British flag displayed. The British government, without either admitting or deny- ing the Free State title, declared that a district in which it was difficult to keep order amid a turbulent and shifting population ought to be under the control of a strong power, and offered the Free State a sum of ninety thousand pounds in settlement of whatever claim it might possess. The acceptance by the Free State in 1876 of this sum closed the controversy, though a sense of injustice continued to rankle in the breasts of some of the citizens of the Republic. Amicable relations have subsisted ever since between it and Cape Colony, and the control of the British government over the Basutos has secured for it peace in the quarter which was formerly most disturbed. These two cases show how various are the causes and how mixed the motives which press a great power forward even against the wishes of its statesmen. The Basutos were declared British subjects partly out of a sympathetic wish to rescue and protect them, partly because policy required the acquisition of a country naturally strong and holding an important strategical position. Griqualand West, taken in the belief that Waterboer had a good title to it, was retained after this belief had been dispelled, partly perhaps because a population had crowded into it which consisted mainly of British subjects, and was not easily con- trollable by a small state, but mainly because colonial feeling refused to part with a region of such exceptional mineral wealth. And the retention of Griqualand West caused, before long, the acquisition of Bechuanaland, which in its turn naturally led to that northward 146 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. 14 ¥l-^ extension of British influence which has carried the Union Jack to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The wish to restrict responsibility, which had oeen so strong twenty years before, had now died out of the British public at home, and had grown feebler even in the minds of the statesmen whose business it was to find the money needed for these increasing charges on the imperial treasury; while the philanthropic interest in the native races, stimulated by the discoveries of Livingstone, now took the form not of proposing to leave them to themselves, but of desiring to protect them against the adventurers, whether of Boer or of English blood, whom it was found impossible to prevent from pressing forward into the wilderness. It IS remarkable that the change, as yet only an incipient change, in the public opinion of the English people, who now began to feel the desire not merely to retain but to expand their colonial dominion, should have become apparent just at the time when there occurred that discovery of diamonds which showed that this hitherto least progressive of the larger Colonies possessed unsuspected stores of wealth. The discovery brought a new stream of enterprising and ambitious men into the country, and fixed the attention of the world upon it. It was a turning point in South AMcan history. That change in the views of the British Government on which I have been commenting found at this moment a fresh expression in another quarter. In 1869 the Portuguese Government concluded a com- mercial treaty with the South African Republic, under which it seemed probable that a considerable trade might spring up between the Portuguese coast of the Indian Ocean and the interior. This called attention to the port of Louren^o Marques, on the shore of Delagoa Bay, the best haven upon that coast. Great Britain claimed it under a cession which had been obtained from a native chief of the country by a British ''RIGA CHAP. has carried the nganyika. The 1 been so strong of the British er even in the it was to find charges on the )pic interest in discoveries of of proposing to ring to protect •of Boer or of siblo to prevent !SS. IS yet only an of the English ? not merely to )minion, should ne when there which showed larger Colonies The discovery and ambitious Mention of the I South African ih Government bund at this ' quarter. In luded a com- epublic, under iderable trade e coast of the lied attention the shore of coast. Great ch had been 7 by a British xii EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 147 naval exploring expedition in 1822. Portugal, however, resisted the claim. In 1872 it was referred to the arbitration of Marshal MacMahon, then President of the French Republic, and in 1875 he awarded the territory in dispute to Portugal. Both cases were weak, and it is not easy to say which was the weaker, for, although the Portuguese had undoubtedly been first on the ground, their occupation, often disturbed by the native tribes, had been extremely precarious. The decision was a serious blow to British hopes, and has become increasingly serious with the further develop- ment of the country. Yet it was mitigated by a provision contamed in the agreement for arbitration that the Power against whom the decision might go should have thereafter from the successful Power a right of preemption as against any other state desiring to purchase the territory.^ This provision is momentous as giving Britain the right to prevent not only the South African Republic, but any European power, from acquiring a point of the utmost importance both commercial and strategical. Rumours have often been circulated that Britain would gladly acquire by purchase the harbour of Delagoa Bay, but the sensitive patriotism of the Portuguese people is at present so strongly opposed to any sale of territory that no Portuguese ministry is likely to propose it.^ At the very time when the attempt to acquire Delagoa Bay revealed the new purposes which had begun to animate Great Britain, another scheme was suggested to the Colonial Office by the success which had lately attended its efforts in Canada. In 1867 the passing of the British North America Act drew the * It has been stated (see Mr. Molteno's Federal South Africa, p. 87) that Portugal was then prepared to sell her rights for a small sum — according to report, for £12,000. ^ In 1891 the southern boundary of Portuguese territory was fixed by a treaty with Great Britain at a point on the coast named Kosi Bay, about seventy miles south of Lourengo Marques, L 2 148 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA CHAP. theretofore isolated provinces of the Dominion into a confederation, relieving the home government of some grave responsibilities, and giving to the whole country the advantages of common administration and legisla- tion in matters of common concern. Lord Carnarvon, then colonial secretary, threw himself into the idea of similarly uniting the different Colonies and States of South Africa. It had been advocated by Sir George Grey, when Governor in 1858, and had even received the support of the Orange Free State, whose Volksraad passed a resolution favouring it in that year. Many c( isiderations of practical convenience suggested this scheme, chief among them the desirability of having both a uniform policy in native affairs (the absence of which had recently caused trouble) and a common commercial policy and tarifif system. Accordingly, in 1875 Lord Carnarvon addressed a despatch to the Governor of Cape Colony, recommending such a scheme as fit to be adopted by that Colony, which three years before had received responsible government, and Mr. J. A. Froude was sent out to press it upon the people. The choice did not prove a fortunate one, out even a more skilful emissary would probably have failed, for the moment was inopportune. The Cape people were not ready for so large and far- reaching a proposal. The Orange Free State was exasperated at the loss of Griqualand West. The Transvaal people, though, as we shall see presently, their republic was in sore straits, were averse to anything that could aflfect their independence. How- ever, Sir Bartle Frere, the next Governor of the Cape, who went out in 1877, entered heartily into Lord Carnarvon's plan, which continued to be pressed till 1880, when it was rejected by the Cape Parliament, largely at the instance of envoys from the Transvaal Boers, who urged the Cape Dutch not to accept it until the Transvaal (which, as shall be presently set forth, had been annexed in 1877) should have regained its 1 CHAP. 1 into a of some country legisla- rnarvon, idea of States of Georgo received ^Iksraad Many ed this having lence of sommon ^gly, in to the scheme e years nd Mr. on the be one, •obably . The d far- e was The aently, ■se to How- Cape, Lord d till ment, isvaal until forth, d its Xfi RUR0PEAN8 IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854 06 149 independence. This failure of the proposals of the home government seriously damaged the prospects of future federation schemes, and in only one of several instances in South African history that show how much harm impatience may do, even when the object is itself laudable. The next step in the forward march of Britiwh rule took place far to the south-west, on the borders of Natal. That territory had, in 1856, become a separate Colony, distinct from the Cape, and with a legislative council three-fourths of whoso members were elective. It had still a relatively small white population, for many of the Boer immigrants had quitted it between 1843 and 1848, and though a body of English settlers arrived soon after the latter vear, there were in 1878 only some 26,000 white residents, while the natives numbered fully 300,000. The Zulu kingdom, which adjoined it on the east, had passed (in 1872) from the sluggish Panda to his more energetic son Cetewayo (pronounced " Ketshwayo "), whose ambitious spirit had revived the military organization and traditions of his uncle Tshaka. Cetewayo had been installed as king by a British official, and had lived ever since at peace with the Colony ; but the powerful army which he possessed roused disquiet among the Natalians, and alarmed the then Governor of the Cape and High Commissioner for South Africa, Sir Bartle Frere. Differences had arisen between him and Cetewayo, and when the latter refused to submit to the demands which the High Commissioner addressed to him, including a requirement that he should disband his regiments and receive a British resident, war was declared against him. This act was justified at the time on the ground that the Zulu military power constituted a standing menace to Natal and to South Africa in general, and that the vast majority of the natives living in Natal itself might join the Zulu king were he to invade the colony. Whether this risk was .' .■■« 160 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. sufficiently imminent to warrant such a step was then, and has been since, warmly debated in England. Most of those who have given impartial study to the subject, and have studied also the character and earlier career of the High Commissioner, are disposed to think that war might have been and ought to have been avoided, and that Sir Bartle Frere, in declaring it, committed a grave error; but it is right to add that there are persons in South Africa who still defend his action. The invasion of Zululand which followed began with a disaster — the surprise at Isandhlwana (January, 1879) of a British force, which was almost annihilated by a vastly superior native army. Ultimately, however, Cetewayo was defeated and made prisoner. Zululand was divided among thirteen petty chiefs under a British resident, and subsequently, in 1887, annexed to the British crown as a dependency, to be administered by the Governor of Natal. Except for some disturbances in 1888, its people have since remained peaceful, prosperous, and to all appearance contented. It has now (1897) been decided to annex Zululand to Natal. We may now return to follow the fortunes of the emigrant Boers of the far north-eastern interior whose republic, recognized by the Imperial Government in 1852, was at length, after twenty-five yeai-s, to be brought into a closer connection than ever with the British Colonies by events which are still fresh in men's memories, and which are exerting a potent influence on the politics of our own time. The scale of these events was small, but the circumstances are full of instruction, and many years may yet elapse before their consequences have been fully worked out. The Dutch farmers who had settled beyond the Vaal River were more rude and uneducated than those of the Free State, had no admixture of English blood, and remained unaffected by intercourse vith the more civilized people of Cape Colony. Their love of inde- pendence was accompanied by a tendency to discord. : CHAP. xii EUROPEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1854-95 151 P 3 Their warlike spirit had produced a readiness to take up arms on slight occasions, and had degenerated into a fondness for predatory expeditions. They were, more- over, always desirous of enlarging the area of their stock farms by the annexation of fresh territory to the north and west, and thus were constantly brought into collision with the native occupanv^s of the country. Scattered thinly over a wide area of pasture land, they were practically exempt from the control of law courts or magistrates, while at the same time the smallness of their numbers, and the family ties which linked them into jealous and mutually distrustful groups, gave rise to personal rivalries among the leaders and bitter feuds among the adherents of each faction, resembling those which used to distract a city republic in ancient Greece or medieval Italy. The absence of any effective govern- ment had attracted many adventurers from various parts of South Africa, who wandered as traders or hunters through the wilder parts of the country and along its borders, men often violent and reckless, who ill-treated the natives, and constituted not only a public scandal, but, by the provocations which they gave to the Kafir chiefs, a danger to the peace of the adjoining British territories, as well as to that of the Transvaal itself From their first settlement beyond the Vaal in the years immediately following the Great Trek of 1836, the farmers, though considering themselves to form one people, had been grouped in several small communities. In 1852 there were four such, those of Potchefstroom, Utrecht, Lydenburg, and Zoutpansberg, each having its Volksraad (people's council) and president or ex- ecutive head, while a sort of loosely federative tie linked them together for the purposes, not of internal admin- istration, but of defence against common foes. In 1857 the Potchefstroom people tried to conquer the Orange Free State, then in the third year of itf; life, but desisted on finding that the infant Republic 152 IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA chap. was prepared to defend itself. A single Volksraad for all the communities beyond the Vaal had been chosen as far back as 1849; but respect for authority grew very slowly, and for a time it could not be said to represent more than a party. In 1852, however, it ratified the Sand River Convention, and in 1855 it ap- pointed a commission to draft a complete body of law. Finally, in 1858, an instrument called the " Grondwet," or Fundamental Law, was drawn up by a body of dele- gates named (by a " Krygsraad," or War Council) for that purpose. This instrument was revised and adopted by the Volksraad, and presently received the adhesion of two of the semi-independent communities, those of Potchestroom and Zoutpansberg,and in 1860 also of those at Lydenburg and Utrecht, which had by that time united. It has been since several times modified, and the question whether it is to be deemed a truly rigid constitution, like that of the United States or that of the Swiss Confederation, has given rise to much con- troversy.^ A civil war broke out in 1862, and the country can hardly be said to have reached one united government till 1864, when the then president, Mr. M. W. Pretorius (son of the old antagonist of the English), was recognized by all the communities and factions as their executive head. Even in 1864 the white population of the South African Republic was very small, probably not more than 30,000 all told, giving an average of less than one person to three square miles. There were, how- ever, hundreds of thousands of natives, a few of whom were living as servants, under a system of enforced labour which was sometimes hardly distinguishable ^ See especially the case of Brown vs. Leyds,