IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

^.<.<^

1.0

I.I

lii IZS 12.5

■ 50 ^^™ M^H

•^ Uii |2.2

■u

■ 40

2.0

r-2' 1 '' ^

►

.^^

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

«>.

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIKTIR.N.Y. 14510

(716) •73-4S03

U..

f4^

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHM/ICIVIH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Note* techniques et bibliographiques

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographically unique,
which may alter any of the images in the
reproduction, or which may significantly change
the usual method of filming, are checlced below.

D
D

Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur

I I Covers damaged/

Couverture endommagie

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurte et/ou pelliculAe

I I Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

Coloured maps/

Cartes gAographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

Coloured plates and/or illustrations/
Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
Reli6 avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La re Dure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge intArieure

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte,
mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 4tA filmAes.

Additional comments:/
Commentaires supplAmentalres;

L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il iui a 6tA possible de se procurer. Les details
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique. qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la mithode normale de filmage
sont indiquAs ci-dessous.

I I Coloured pages/

D
D

Pages de couleur

Pages damaged/
Pages endommag^es

Pages restored and/oi

Pages restauries et/ou peliiculAes

Pages discoloured, stained or foxec
Pages d^colories. tachet6es ou piquAes

Pages detached/
Pages d^tachies

Showthroughy
Transparence

Quality of prir

Qualit^ inigale de I'impression

Includes supplementary materii
Comprend du materiel suppl^mentaire

[~~1 Pages damaged/

I I Pages restored and/or laminated/

r~n Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/

n Pages detached/
Pages

I I Showthrough/

r~~| Quality of print varies/

r~~| Includes supplementary material/

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont 6t6 fllm6es it nouveau de fapon A
obtenir la meilleure image possible.

This Item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est fiimA au taux de rMuction indiquA ci-dessous.

10X

14X

18X

22X

26X

30X

12X

16X

20X

24X

28X

32X

aire

t details
|ues du
t modifier
iger une
> filmage

The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanlcs
to the generosity of:

National Library of Canada

The Images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

L'exemplaire film* fut reprodult grice A la
gAnArositA de:

BibliothAque rationale du Canada

Las Images suivantes ont AtA reproduites avec le
plus grand soln. compte tenu de la condition et
de la nettet* de l'exemplaire filmA. et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

/
udes

Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or Illustrated impres-
sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.

Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture an
papier est ImprimAe sont filmis en commenpant
par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la
dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte
d'Impression ou d'illustration. soit par le second
plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires
originaux sont filmte en commengant par la
premiire page qui comporte une empreinte
d'Impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par
la derniire page qui comporte une telle
empreinte.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.

Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la
dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, seion ie
cas: le symbols -^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le
symbols V signifie "FIN".

ire

Maps, plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning In the upper left hand corner, le'» to
right and top to bottc-n. as many frames as
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:

Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atre
fllmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents.
Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre
reprodult en un seul clichA. il est film* A partir
de Tangle supArleur gauche, de gauche A droite.
et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre
d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants
illustrent la mAthode.

ly errata
Bd to

ne pelure,

ipon A

32X

Index to

Hvisions, C
oi

Bssut

Arra, 10,293 iiqua

Chiff CUu, Maac

Hechuanal

Area, 213,000 squ

Chiff fUiei, Ma

^ryburK, 1) 6.

Bai>e Colon )r, or C

Arpa, 2M,77S aqi

hift Ctlifs.

acoiii<''el(l,

l|lft()W.l,

uiliH'k.
■kt |j>mlon,
Iruuf Uriiiet,
Irahuiu'H Town,

Gerinnn Mouth

Area, »22.450 nqu
Chitf CUy, Wind
Nat
Area, 88,000 aquai
Chief Cities.
Durban,
Pletennarltzburg

Pot
U',4
83,8
4,3)
6.9
f>.9
10,4

Area, 48,826 aquar
iliief CUv, Bloeii

Portuguese Eai

Area, 397,750 aqua
CMefCity, Lorcas
Rhodesli
Area, 750,000 aqua
Chitf City, Bulu»

South Afr

Area, 119,139 aqua

Chief Citien.

JohaiincRburK,

Klerkmlorp,

Hou-hefstroom,

Pretoria,

mhenleen

J J^i erilpeu Boad
'•Murium

.06 1
..U6 ]
..05 1

^chterUug

Lildii

..F6 1
..0 6 1
.F6 1
..F7 I
..E8 i

klandale

Lll>ert

LltXTIIlia

Alexandra

..C9 1

ilexundrla

nice

..0 7 I
..07 1
..G6 I
..F7 I
.HS I
.C 9 I
..E7 t
.0 7 t
.D7 t
..C8 ^

illccdalc

illwal North .,
JlwulMauth...
klkniaar

Jli'Miaiu

imiillnda

.iiii'rlea ,,.

iitailah

riiiiilel

.F8 <
.04 t
.C9 C
.E9 t
..C8 <
..0 9 t
..F7 (
FB C
..E7 <
.F6 <
.0 6 C
.07 C
.E6 C
.07 f
.OS C
.0 7 t
..C8 t
.R8 t
.E8 C
.1)8 C
.E6 t
.D2 t
.K8 t
..F7 (
.K9 I
.F5 1
.F6 I
.O B I
.07 1
.F 8 I
.K4 I
II.K7 1
,D6 I
.C 8 1
.D8 1
.B6 I
.B7 I
,1)6 I
.1*7 I
.1)6 I

Khlidi

.ViK'a ,, ,

KiKDwan

Bliiinral

ail"Tl(iii

arkly I':a8t...,

anmrdHllalt..
nr.iiiii

arriM'

ailiiirid

faniimfleld.. ,.

niiifovt

"•Hiifort Weat .
iilf.ird

I'IfllHl

•'linout

vnvn

filial

•"lliaiile

'■'IkiMV ,. .

I'lliii'tieni

"•iMiiUe

I<'J| i-poort

laaiiwhan

laiimvlieuvel..

Inn:

l:iiii'y

.'Hhuk...,

•■ nfonleln..

<io< iiiroiitel

>l'"'n liiif

• I'l' itihof

■'"k.Mira

V'-oi'iiinlgaiil,.
•"iii'iiitai

• ■••••I.T

W"-'hrand

P»'l«5

Index to Map of Soutb A&ica.

ivisions. Colonies and Dependencies
of South Africa.

Baautoland. (Dritlith Colony.)

Area, 10,298 »quare miles. Population, 250,000.
C/i/r/C'^i/, Maseru, pop. "62, K 7.

Hechunnaland. (British Protectorate.)
Area, 2I3,tH)0»quBri> mllPS. Populatlou, 200.(K)0.
ChiffUiet, Mafeklog, C 6, I'alapye, or Palachwe, B 7 and
•f) burg.' I) 6.

lape Colony, or Cape of Good Hope. (Brit! <h Colony.'
Area, 2M.775 iouere miles. Population, 1.599,»60.

" ■ ■- Clii^f Citiet. I'op. Index.

Klmberley, 28,718 K6

KlUK Wtlllam'B'.''own, 1,226 G 7
Paarl, 7,66H G8

Port Kllzabeth, 2.3,266 O «
I'lU-uhaKe, 6,331 G 6

Woreester, 5,404 G3

" hifJCiUfa
eac<>iiH''el(l,

||)l'tc)W,l,

niilix'lc,
■st I.i)iiilon,
raiif Ueluet,
ruliaurHTown,

Pop. Index

U',478

83,898

G 3

4,389

6.924

(J 7

5.946

(i6

10,498

German South-WeHt Africa. (German Colony.)

Area, 322.450 square miles. Population. 200,000.
Chitf CUy, Windhoek, B 2.

Natel. (BrltUh Colony.)
Area, 85,000 square miles. Population, 829,005.
Chief CiUM. Pop. Indtx.

Durban. 89 « 5 E 8

Pletermarltzburg, 24,595 E 9

Oranse Free State.
Area, 48,826 square miles. Population. 207,508.
chief CUi/, Bloeuilo'iteln, pop. 5,817, E 7.
Portufruese East Africa. (PortUKaese Colony.)
Area, 297,750 square m 1 les Population, 1 ,500,000.
Chief CUy, Loreazo Marquez. pop. 7,700, C 10.

Rhodesia. (Brltiah Plotectorate.)
Area, 750,000 square miles. Population, 450,000.
Chief City, Buluwayo, pop 5.000, A 8.

South Africa Republic, or Transvaal.
Area, 119,139 square miles Population, 245.397^

Chief Citltf.

.lolianiiesburg.

Klerkadorp.

Pot«'lief8troom.

Pretoria.

I'op.
109,714
2.V)0
4,000

12,000

Index.
VI
1)7
1)7
C 8

Aberdeen O 6

11 erdeen Road. .G 6

kCHtItt 05

tclilertang K 6

[ddo Q6

ilandale F 6

llhcrt F7

[ibertlna £8

[lexandra C9

Alexandria Q7

Ime G7

[lU't'dale G6

lllwttl North.... F 7

LllwiilSjuth HS

ilkniaar C 9

[llcMians E7

^miillnda O 7

iiiiTlca ,....D7

kiita<lal) C8

[niiiilel F 6

^nliliiu G 4

lira C 9

iHlKiiwan E 9

laliiinral C 8

lai'lHTtiin C 9

larkly l-:aHt F7 |

lariijii'd F 5 i

sriiard8llBlt....E7

■Mdii F 6

arnic (i 6

iBiliiirnt G 7

I'unMiHfleld E6

|raiifi)rt G 7

fiiiifiirt West ...O 6

|iilt.>rd G7

Icifitiil C8

li'liiKMit R6

|r»tcrii K8

li'iliBl D8

Irlliulile Ee

li'ilKiiiv..., D 2

li'iiiii'iiem K8

I'Miuiiie n

lll■J^^llcl(l^t K 9

llttHuvsbnn F 5

lli«iii>vlieuvcl....K 6
►lain I G B

lllllirj O 7

HlH.k... K 6

I'MfoiHciii K 4

l<lo<'iiifonteln.K7

pl'ii'iihof D 6

rtl'ii iiiliof C 8

"le'iirB D8

"iMiiiinlRanI B6

"imi'ltsl B7

|i"i'|.r 1)6

'-iirand 07

'i«» D«

Uotharnia D 7

ButlaDBuie B 7

Bowler B 9

BraakPoort F5

Brandfort E 7

Brandsprult F 7

Bremersdorp D 9

Brunkhorstsprult C 8

BruKsprult C 8

BruHsels D 6

Buluwayo A 8

Burtfhers Dorp. . K 7
BurKhers Fort... 9

Butlia Buthe E8

Butters Kraal F7

Caledon H3

Caledonia C 9

Camper E 9

CarlU)n..., F6

Cape Town.... i 3

Catlivart Q 7

Centllvres 6

ChaiiKanc C 10

Charles Town... ,P 8

Charlw(M)d G 6

Chlloiiiule B lU

Chlqucta B 10

ChlUnm A 9

chrlHtiana 1)6

Clarkbury F8

Clydesdale F8

Coem G 6

CcM'rney G «

Colunso K8

Coleaberg K6

Colworth E 8

Constable G 4

Contat F7

Content K 6

Cookhouse 8tatloiiG6

Courtlands G 6

CradtK'k G6

Cyphergat F J

Daliiiaratha C 9

baniil.auHer K 8

I)e Aar .luiutllon. .K.'i

Dcbi'i'tl II 7

UeeKouteIn F R

Di'put F 5

Uevoudale 1>6

IllkabI B7

I)<)iikfr|H>ort F 6

ItoornberK F 6

Uoornkoni G 6

Dordrecht Fb

DouKlas E 6

Down ...w. ES

Droinfleld E7

DroogUlver GS

Dry IlorU D6

Dundee K9

Durban K5

Dwaal F'6

DwykaUlver.... G4

East Umdon O 7

Ebenezer F 9

Kdenburg E 6

EenUoorn F' 2

Elaiidthouk C9

Elands Laattte E9

Elands l{iver....C 8

Klllotdale G8

Klaburg O 8

Kmfulweni ElO

Engcobo F 7

Erlemo D 9

Eaaez Road F 9

Eatcourt KM

Eureca City C 9

Faure Smith K6

Fk'ksbiirK E6

FIshKatf F«

FlHh Klver F 6

florlda 1)7

Foiitclni'n i: 8

Fort Albert C 8

Kort Elbe B8

Fort Kvllm E 9

Kort Jai'kHon 7

Kort Ni'WdlKalo. .K 9

Koiirli'HbtM'K K 8

Kourlecn StrearaHE 6
Kranclslown .... A 7

Frankfort (l 7

KrazerburK Uoad.G 4

Kredcrlkstad D^

Krere K8

GaoblH KS

Garcia C 9

Oaspan E 6

Gpiaub D3

Geneva I) 7

OcorKeToWn G5

(i'-rab C 3

(iiTMilston D7

Gey D7

Ghanze (Ohanals) A4

Olbeon ca

Glen E7

Gli'iKoe K 9

Gleni-oiiuor G 6

Gohlbas B 3

Giidwan Klver ...C9

Goudinl H3

Giiuif Kelnet G«

Gralwuw H 8

Grahainstown....ti7
Great Mler D4

Great out. t C8

GreyllngsUdt.... D8

Greytowu E »

GriquaTown E5

Grout Cholng or

Doornbult. 1)6

Grootfontyu C 2

GrootVlel D7

Groutne'd E 9

Guarrl CIO

llaasfonteln G6

Hanover F6

llanlcastle E5

Harding F9

llarrlsinlfh KH

Harti-becBt 1)7

Mwtcrsprult C 9

Ilcldt'lberg DG

Hellbron D 8

llellbron Road... I) 7

Helrahabls D 3

IleniitiiK F6

llcrmou E7

Hersi'hel F7

Hex Klver OS

HlghUmls 7

Holfonteln D7

Ho'inansKraal....C8

Honlugncst E6

Honing spruit.. D7

Houterhoek E7

Hoopslad D6

Hopctown K6

llout Kraal F5

Howlck E9

Huinanitdorp H 6

InivanI F 7

Inchanga E 9

Indwe F 7

Ingogo I) 8

Irene C8

iBlplngo F9

.lacubsdal K 6

Jansenvllle G 6

JohannesburK

Jordaan I) 7

.loubert F 6

Kaalfontein C 8

Kaap Muiden C9

Kafllr Klver E6

KalalHM Kraal... G 3

Kalakanl C 7

Kalkput C 8

Kanye C6

Kapoon D 6

Karree E7

Katkop ..F4

Keetiiiannshoop. .D2

Kendrew O 6

Kenhardt E4

Kenkrles E8

Kgi'lloii C 5

Kbanll)e8 D2

Klia'u C 5

Khels E4

Khokoiig C5

Khores D3

KIiohIh D 5

Kholoas E 2

Khowas B 2

Kllduman K2

Klmberley....E6

Klog WIlllanisTown.

KIrkham F6

Klelii|«>ort G 6

Klerkmlorp 1)7

Klipbank G 5

Kllpfontflu C7

KllpplaalH (i6

Klip Klver DH

KliH.f KB

KlopfciMteIn K 6

Knapdiiur F 7

Knfflrkull K 6

Kokstad FH

Koniatli'poort C 9

Konigba G 7

Kopang or Llncli-

Wf C 7

Kopjes D7

Kraal D8

Krankull K 6

Krokndll Point... <' 9

Kronidracbt DH

Krom Klver 5

KniiMiHtad D 7

Kriigermlorp 1)7

Kriildfontein K7

Kullfoutr.iu F 6

Kills D .1

Ktiiiwuna I) A

Kuruman D 5

Ladlsnilth G 4

Ladybrand K7

Ladysmlth E 8

Ulngs Nek DM

Ulngsblg 04

liung Klouf E5

Lat Ukc Kraal... B 5

liaukatarn G 6

Leeuwiprult D 7

Lerlbe E&

Lesaeyton F 7

Lethlaka B S

LetJesboBch OS

Letlakanl A7

Uydls<lorp.. C 9

LIchtenburg D7

Ulyfo.ittln K8

Lindlev D8

MttlePella E3

LobatftI C6

I»ng Hope G 6

Lorenxo

Marques. .0 10

Louis Fouteln F 2

Lundl A 9

Luueberg D9

Luttig G5

Lyndenburg C 9

Mabies Kraal C7

.Mp.bungatsjaba. . .B 9

Macarrela BIO

.Macfariane K6

Machadodorp C 9

Macbawe D 7

Mackay C9

.Macloutale A7

.Madlbl C6

Mafate C 10

.Mafeking C6

.Mafftcng K 7

Maggii|H'l 1)6

Mahellan D 10

Maklaba C6

MalalHeue C9

Malepe C9

Mallngwe B9

.Malniexbury G 8

.Malvern E 9

.Mainedl B 8

Maineni D 10

.Mamn^ G3

iManiusa D6

Muna DIU

Manecrlug D 6

Mangapl A 9

.Mangwe A 7

Mankiune D 6

Mapela C 9

.Mapelas B8

Maploalie B9

.Mai-abastad B 8

.Marlasburg D 7

M'irebaneng K 5

Marlbogo I) 6

Marltzaul D6

Marlow G6

.Martin D6

Marybeng V 6

MuMTii E7

Maithle BS

Masslbl B8

Matlapin D<

MaUtlele F8

Matlbl B8

Matlppa A 9

MatJei<r<>nteln....G 4

Matlabane 1)6

Matolla CIO

Matsap K 5

Maubelle 1)5

.Mazeppa D6

MellRlia C 5

Mvllvllle H 5

Melmoth K9

Merton E6

MeUI C 6

Mi-ycrton D 8

.MIddflbnrg C8

.Miicaniba C 10

Mocbudli- C 6

Modder Klver.... K 6

.Mohongo C 9

Mokopon 05

Molo|Hi|ole C 6

.Molteno F7

Monarch Reef,... A 7

Mo|)anl B 7

Morlll K7

Morlcy F 8

.Moseken (' 6

Moshwane C 6

.MoNlerta Hoek. . .G 4
Mdtlokotloko.,.. B 5

Mountain Top F 7

M.iiint Primpert. ,I)H
Mount .Stewart... G 6

Miidlbing DM

.Miilzenbcrg H 3

Miirraysbury F 5

Moyeiie F 7

Myburg F7

.Mynfiititi'ln F 5

Naaiiwpoort F B

Nabooni .Sprult. . .C 8

Natal Hprult D8

Nelsprult C9

Nelthorpe E8

Newcastle DH

Newlondale G 7

' NoblcH Fiiiitvln. .F4

i NiMdtgedacht C9

i Norubl F8

Nylstroom C8

Oatlands O 6

Oblgaro K2

Okoinbahe Al

Okunyenye A 1

Okozondye A2

Olive F7

(K)grablH. K3

OoiiiniadaKga....G 6

t)ot8l C 6

Orange KlverSta.Ee

OtIoshcMip C 6

(>udt«hoorn G 5

Oiisis D2

Ozlrc AS

I'aarde Kop 1)8

Paarde VIel F5

Paarl G8

Paauwpan F 5

Palapye (Palachwe)

B 7

Palla Road B7

Pan C8

Patersoii G 6 '

Pella C7 I

Petrusbiirg E6 1

Phillppidls F6

PhlllnsTown F6 I

Plccnci.r C 10 I

PiiMiarH Klver.... C 8 |
PletrrmHritE- I

burit E9'

Plftrr McliitJe8..G 4

IMclcrsbnrg B H

I'let Potgleters Rust

Plet IMU-r D9

I'llgrlnis Kust....C 9

I'Inrtown F 9

Plquelltrrg G3

PIqui'tbcrg Koad.(t 3

I'ltsanl C6

I'latraiio D8

PokwanI D6

Pomp K 6

Port Alfnil G 7

Port Ellzabfth...GB

Port Nollolh K 2

Port St. .lohu FH

r((tchefBtroom...D7

Pretoria <'8

Pneska E 5

l''liue Albert

Kond..G4
Prince Alfred..., G 3

Priors F 6

Provldent'e K 6

Pudlliioc D6

OueensTciwn B 7

Kamatlilal)ania...C6

KamoutHa C 6

Kayner F7

Rede.. D8

Rehoboth Ba

Rendaburg F B

Ressano C 9

K>ienosterkop....G 5

Richmond FS

lilchinoiid K9

Klrhmond Road. K 5
KIchiiiciiid Road.. K 9

Klem G5

UlitFonleIn F5

Rdt Spruit D8

Kcltzburg D7

Klvcrton Road... KB
Kobbln iHlaiid... F3

KobcrlHiiii G 3

ICoode Klip D H

Kiioilewal D 7

ItoHmcud .June, ...KB

Uiitterilum BH

Uouxvlllf F 7

KUHteiiburg C 7

St. Marks (J 7

.Salem B I

Saiidfont<-ln B4

Sand River D9

.Saxony G fl

Scaiilcn OB

Scliomble Tfi

Scottburg F «

Sckwaiil C 7

Hi'lekas H 7

Serfoiitcin D 7

scrtbl B 7

ShaHhanl A 7

ShSHhl A 7

shrba (• 9

shcrtMi-iie Ffi

Shiisliung II 7

ShoHliongRoad. . .BT

SIdudu C 10

Slgldliif F7

Mllverton »' 8

81sl B7

Hmaldeel D7

Sokiiblla <'9

HomiTHct F.aM G 6

Somcriict Weiit...M .1
SprliiKbokfontetn.K'.'

Spriiigfontein F 6

Spytfontein E 6

Standcrton DS

8l4>en|iiin 1)3

StelK'iiboHCh G J

Srerkittrooin Jct.F7

8ternkop E7

Stcynitburg Ffi

Stcynsdorp D 9

Htormlierg F 7

StiilUrhciiM 7

SwellcndHin H 4

I'afelberg F 6

Tanger E 9

Tarkastad 07

Talc A7

TaiiMgD 1)6

T'Gham E 8

ThcbHs F 6

Thesprlnga D8

Thli.ts E7

Thompson D6

Thorngrovs O 6

Three Sisters FS

Tiger Kloof D6

Toba E7

Tobos DS

ToiHe itlver G7

Toptil B7

louwM Klver G 4

TowanI B7

Irlaiigle G8

Troiiiptiburg E6

Tw'iilug D 5

Thuu A5

Tiilbagh OS

Twane BB

TwiiHfc B 8

Twccdale F6

Twccfontein 08

Tyldcn O 7

riiabls B 2

flHlp E4

I'ltcniiage G6

riaiid E 9

riiifiillni C 10

I'lnkoko A9

I'nilaiidela E 9

I'muigata D 9

I'mtala F8

I'liizlngwanI A8

I'lnzliito F 9

I'lllZWURH DID

rnloiidale OS

ITpliigtou E4

rtrccht D 9

Val 08

Vaiidcrmerwe....C8
Van l{eciicn'a....B8

VaiiTondcr E7

VunZyl F6

VentcfHhurg E7

Vcnicriiburg ItoadE?

Vernier FS

Vcriilam E 9

Vet River E7

Victoria E»

Victoria West... .FS
Victoria West Koad

VIerfonteIn D 7

VIIJoenHDrift....D7

Virginia E7

Vlakfontcln U7

Vlaklaagte D 8

Volksmst D 9

Vryburg D t

Vrthcld D9

Wablberg BS

Wakkerstroom. ..I>9

Wakn 07

Warnibaii E 8

Waniibath 8

Warrenton ES

Waxchbank K t

Waterval C»

Wuicrval 08

Welgclcgen E'

Wcvcrdlend D'.

Wi'ix-ner B7

WcHHclH Nek E9

Weston or Spring-
vale E8

WIckliam E6

Wllge River 08

Wlllliigton (i 8

Willowiiioie OS

WInlmrg K7

WliibnrgRoad ...K7
WiiiilMirton Itoad.Et

Windhoek Bl

Wllbank 8

WItnios G6

Wllputs K6

Wnlvehoek D8

W.indcrf N 8

Worcester OS

Wyke 04

/ceriint 07

iContpan B 8

Kuiirfonti'ln D8

Zwart Modder... B4
ZwarU O 4

Juliftoif 1

OTTOt

OmtndjrovolioHyltl

K r LA

jMdw^f OmuMiiiKX)

,11 1 „ / vVOKO/fiMO"

o otyliiib"'"'
'brviKANao

f.l'>'''"«V

T>uno
oGhui>(GhiiiiiU>

OROOTfONTYBO Co

n'),alt Ban

U) A ..,

OKtt1M*NN».jOOI' GlWl

U^f 7*^ N'^ '-' # >AbikwM,Spi o TI

Nu'gMib i^aOiKL ^X ^,, A \oKb»'»».'b ol I ' I*

K.rul.bl.^ '^l MlkL^i..

fOO' Gi «lor \ i

>V* RltTfOMtir> J^ Y

tluluillkll ^

Tchoi-

Ko»i

,(,.»i<.i»VBoo«k!»bo / (^ Vy,M'.i./Noro»o« o "=^^^—^1
— — - Vs*N l UooitlbHSJUt ^"(»»lber«Xl s

.. , KORANNA

Xolrf. «•'

Khol
. I ;>.av RIchlarvcM

»bll

i\WAIIMB*0 _

,ajil Fn. \<>Zw„t Modder

;plBgtoa

1 h»ff'^ *'■''"•

^in^t«l-Foiitain

O^SSFN A\^ ^ 9,V.1„ DrwJsvruid „ •*>

°'^\\i<iTOUNitN\6oKitP oVrlMkllp "~»T rtaXuln \

\yV^,^sT '<,SKPm6BOKP0I.IllN LWIUIO ^

oLt«uw«Kllp

til

DmKkMud

[IUNHAIIDT

'tfn

iLans Kloof W

t QKiaUA TO

'''*»-\° H.rdc«ll.

Pllll»K*(U^'

io-

«-

Hondtklip "'X,,^.
AyoBfl<*'°

Koodeiwl Boy

Uro«» i'i<'«''\\ KiuJiom f(i/„'''^'%-

/Junikfn Ba;r

„ CAV.VIHJI

IV Wllliun

QB^nudwKbt V'i

^'Slupg 8irb

\ ^ — ^ Bl»»uY

nicMKoiio^g

Bll»«l*r0e5
^y vJBlllNAi'!!
'V|CTORl»*"»TrM.

Noii.it FSNTimd
isiitt

6Ui.uiK.rt '/iKOTpS^CX' fill- ^''

r^ib^

roM;_lta^EJjr\^M"t»S

CAtHIS!

KROUHIv{_ ^

_-«C«C I,
■r BEAUroMi
-OAOOO Rl» ■"
j-LiPBANR
(tJIIIOtCH
-TIO

«^<-

l4!tUksni

A
N

M
T

Lowklt°

Pall

-L -

'"SmobmoVo

Boiluuii

DEI

GabE RONES ^

r , , RamoutaSi'

KAKYtO °0">f#^^

I (- LOBATSI /a, >.

PITBAW/ '

U'liKwtnt o .

RAMAT^-tABAMAJ

, I'il'M^ijBkoJN

MAUtBl-j!

.LichV

I, - ^^r. .Lie

Ctl:il iii-^ MAHtT/Ah
JUiiMl i"«Vl

otiAdeai

kuRGI

MallAbAiju^
F / TtrmaBf 9

btHftTOif.., ^

(Citijftd: "

LU I i«7roao c ■

IrLCYJ/ VdRlJfoS,".'!*'^'^

1^ ON^(„ijyR«uaiuf|

,, _J»COBtOAL ^ fV
KlOkFONTIIh -■<. X T

yPpMiu

*«?►■,

T tarkj

t'MARLOA^ 'ii— „

^'''1,11
•T^S't.*' u. ( V d,PR,*>.ttRI V

Tmori(

/ SCOOKHdUBt $TH.1

l-tUNVILLl) V A'gi (h

"ho HOtlil'a. *Jf

\ *«-^-\ JJIOOLEtih'tg*
A '•y^VffOMMAOAOtuKi

S * I DOORNHOXH I

1.,'Syw ""-^LicEPALiji-J;^

, JAoop
'Rl»f

«T eiiUvpcT

DORP ^

'oto

.^«::-

TaunO
LihuH(Ghiiiiit>J

SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC
ORANGE FREE STATE

AND

CAPE COLONY.

8o«l« of HUM.

23 M lUO

1»U

A. R. Kallar.

General Lord Roberts.

The Story of South

Africa

AN ACCOUNT OF

THE HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE DARK CONTI-
NENT BY THE EUROPEAN POWERS AND THE CULMI-
NATING CONTEST BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN
AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC
IN THE TRANSVAAL WAR

JOHN CLARK RIDPATW, LL.D.

Author of "Cyclopaedia of Unlveisal History," "Great Races of Mankind,** "Life and

Times of Gladstone," etc., etc.

EDWARD S. ELLIS, A.1VI.

Auttior of tlie "Standard History of America," etc., etc

JOHN A. COOPER,

Managing Editor of tlie Canadian Magazine, Toronto,

AND

J. R AIKEN,

Cape Town, South Africa (London, Ont., pro tern.)

WITH OOIiOBBD MAF8, HALF-TONE PORTRAITS, SKETCHES, SCENES OF WAB PIOTUIIBS,
VX THE BEST STYLE OF UKFRODUCTIQN

WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY,

GUEI.PH. ONT.

S-7

232185

6^S/9

1 07^

a num

soon a]

deeds £

lowed

the crii

erate h

progres

Tri

the stal

licists, t

great ci

in Chris

Thi]

itself th

of the g

until th

of war ]

down, a:

and to i

In t

the prob

ment of

the twer

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

The recent startling events in Southern Africa have already evoked
a number of publications, and it is certain that many others will
soon appear. The history-making instinct finds expression in both
deeds and books. Among civilized races the event is speedily fol-
lowed by the written record. In proportion to the importance of
the crisis is the eagerness of enlightened peoples to read in the delib-
erate language of history the transcript of the latest episode in human
progress.

Truly, the African game is great. The players are the nations;
the stake is a continent. Strange that the historians and the pub-
licists, the statesmen of Europe and America, have not foreseen the
great crisis which broke into war between the most powerful empire
in Christendom and the republic of the Boers beyond the Vaal !

Thus it is, however, that the endless chain of events lengthens
itself through the ages. History slowly prepares the antecedents
of the greatest transformations and no man lays it to heart. Not
until the storm of revolution actually descends — not until the roar
of war is heard and the institutions of the past begin to topple
down, are men able to percieve what is going on around them,
and to inquire into the causes of the catastrophe.

In the case of Africa, centuries of time have been beating out
the problem, the solution of which has been settled by the arbitra-
ment of battle. It were not surprising if the historical interest of
the twentieth century should center in that continent which once

had for its conspiciuous actors the Egyptians aud the Carthaginians,
and whic. now had for its contestants the Briton on the one hand
and tht lioer jn the other.

In a '\ OT k of this nature the aim of the authors has been to do
justice t( » yth sides in the conflict. It is the proud boast of Great
Britain that she extends the fullest protection to her citizens, even
to the remotest corners of the earth. She claimed that such pro-
tection and such justice were denied her subjects in the Transvaal.
The temperate views of one of her leading citizens are set forth in
this work, in order that the}' may be fully considered by the reader.
Great Britain could hardly have expected that which she has re-
ceived — the ardent support of Canada, whose offers of volunteers
were so eager that the mother country was obliged to decline some
of them, and of Australia and her other colonies, unless the loyal
and conscientious subjects in each and all believed that right and
justice were on the side of the Empire,

This record, therefore, aims to be fair to both parties to the
war in the Transvaal, and to record the achievements of each with-
out favor or prejudice.

In this volume the effort has been made to present in outline
the historical transformation of Africa during the last four centuries.
To this subject, the first section of the work has been given. The
narrative in this part extends to the year 1895, and to the event of
Dr. Leander S. Jameson's raid upon the Boer town of Johannesburg.
The second part of the work begins with that incident and follows
the record from the progress of events, first to the outbreak of
hostilities in October of 1899, and then through the vicissitudes of
the war to the date of publication.

inians,
e hand

n to do
i Great
s, even
h pro-
nsvaal.
orth in
reader,
has re-
unteers
le some
le loyal
jht and

to the
h with-

outline
Qturies.
11. The

vent of
esburg.
follows
reak of
udes of

CONTENTS

CHAPTKH 1

Portugal Colonizes the African Coast. Old Africa — Circmniiavigntion— Hamite.s First to Form
Nation— Aryans— Alexander, the Great — Semites — Omar, the (Jreat -DecliiiQ of Moham-
medan Power — Medieval Africa — I-Iarly Maps — I-'ifteenth Century I^xplorations — Portu-
guese First to Colonize — Stoiniing of Geuta — Raising of Flag — Prince Henry's \'oyage—
Discovery of Cape Verde Islands — Tangier — I'^inding of the Indies- Da (Jama — Hegin-
ning of Slave Trade -Natives Deceived — San Salvador Founding of St. Paul de I^)anda
— East Coast Annexed — Colonization Goes Forward — Cape of (io«>d Hope Neglectefl 17

CHAPTKFt II

The Portuguese Ascendency. Alfons*) du Albuqueniue — Conuiii.ssioned Viceroy of India —
Discovers All Water Route to Coa^t of Malabar — Goa Captured— Portugal Supreme in

, Sixteenth Century— Angola — Portuguese Discoveries— Portugal I'ortifies .\rguin and
Cape Verde Islands— Large Commerce Developed — Slave Trade— Patent of Charles V —
Encourages Slavery — African Gold Found — Mines — Cupidity of Nations Aroused —
English Fleet Fitted Out — Appears in (Jiulf of Guinea — Captain Windham— Capt. John
Ix)k — G jld and Ivory Finds — English Driven Away^First African Company — RLsing of
Natives against Portuguese—Decline of Portuguese Power— John de Cavstro — English,
Dutch and French Active — English Sack Faro — PortuguevSe Trade on West Coast De-
stroyed — Remnant of Possessions Saved — Treaty of Vienna — Stations Established Along
the Zaml)esi— Present Portuguese Possessions 31

CHAITER III

The Dutch Enter Africa. Holland— Her Maritime Power— Ri.se of the Netherlands— Hold
Navigators — Dutch Attack Portuguese Posse,s.sions— We.st Africa Hecomes Prey of Dutch
— Purchase of the Island of Goree — They Fortify It -Dutch West India Company- Cap-
ture of I']l Mina — Axim Taken— Gold Coa.st Seized and I'ortiliivl Opening of Dutch Trade
-Dutch Take Up Slavery — Slave M(mopolLsts -Netherlands and England Join Hand.s —
Louis XIV of FVancc— Compact Hroken After Death of William Ill-Holland Ilxtends
Her Influence — Dutcli E.stabli.sli Themsclv&s at Cape of Good Hope in lt)52 Cape Town
Settle*!— Hottentots— Natives Driven into Interior -luist India Company -Dutch Desire
to be Let Alone — Taxati»m— Treatment of Natives -Hugenots of I'Vaiice .loin Dutch —
Boers Hecome Restive— Exactions of East India Company -Dutch Push I'orward—
Clash With Kallirs— Orange Free State— South African Hepu'i.lic — Great Hritain Takes
P(xs.session of Cape -Treaty of Amiens— Cape Colony Given to Holland -Hritish Again

, , Take Pos.session— Congress of Vienna— Status of the Hoers— Lose their Stateluxxi 47

(lU)

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

Great Britain Gains a Footing. English Colonization Interrupted — Charter of King Charles I —
Trade in Gambia — Charles II — English Enterprise Revived — Great Britain Gets a F"irm
Hold— Trouble With the Natives— First Kaffir War — British at Alg* i Bay — Grahams-
town and Elizabeth Foundeil— Elizabeth Founded — Great Britain Abolishes Slavery —
Boers Incensed— G reat Financial I^)ss — Opening of the Breach— Boers Trek to Natal —
Peter Retief— Failure to Escape English Domination— English Invade iXatal — Boers
Resent Their Arrival— Petitions of English — Allegations of Dutch Injustice — British
Authority Extended Over .Natal — Rebellion — Sir Harry Smith — Boers Defeated at Boem
Plaats — Spirit Unbroken — Trek Again to North — Pretorious — Retreat to the Vaal —
English More Considerate— Dissatisfaction With Sir Harry Smith — Boers Obtain Control
of Cape Colony— Founding of the Orange Free State — Convicts Sent to Africa — Colonists
Protest — On Verge of Rebellion— Home Government Recedes— Strange Mania Among
Kaffirs- Thousands Commit Suicide — Opening of British KafTraria— I^rst South African
Railway — Public Improvements — Diamonds — Kimberley — Cecil Rhodes— His Ambition
— Basutos — East Gri(|ualand — Stanley and Livingstone — Philosophy of African Devel-

• opment 59

CHAPTER V

The Share and Sphere of Germany. Slow in Colonization — Geographical Conditions Opposed —
P'rance F'ar Ahead — Great Imnugration — Insignificant Settlements in Seventeenth Cen-
tury — Alxjrtive Efforts of (Germans to Invade British Territory— Formation of Societies-
Exploration of Interior Africa — Vast Areas Penetrated — Bismarck's I Ian — Great
Dependency in Congo \'alley — Colony Agitation — Germany Afraid of Special Privileges —
German F'leets Sent Out — England and France Re.sist Germany — Settlements .Nlade in
Lil)eria and Benguela- -German Factory on Bight of Benin — Treaty With Sultan of Zan-
zibar — West Coast Ivstal'ishments — Missionary Posts— Clash Between Great Britain
and Gernmny— Better Understanding Brought About — Daniaraland— Walfish Bay —
Germany Asks I-]ngland's Assistance— Angra Pecjuena— Germany Hoists Flag —
England Warned Away — Development of (iierman Southwest Africa — Germans on East
Coast- Doctor .Nachtigal- (Jcrmany Aiuiexes the Cameroons and Tongaland — luigland
Recognizes Germany'r. Claims 83

CHAPTER VI

France and Italy Claim Their Portions. Count De Brazza— His Explorations — M. Marche and
Doctor Bailey Settlement of Ogovo— Stanley and De Brazza Meet— De Brazza Makes
Successful Treaties With Native Chiefs— Kintamo Founded by French— King of lielgiiun
Enters the Field— Ijijual Rights for All — Belgium Sends Out an Ivxpedition- Authentic
Revelation astotiie Interior— Berlin Conference Made Necessary-Portuguese Pretentions
Ignored — FVench Pressure .Narrows English Claims — French (Jet P(»ssession of tiie Upper
Niger — I'rench Plans —Railway Sdiemes— Engineers Sent Out— Natives Attack Them —
Tunis Seized by France — French Protectorate Declared— Banunako and Kita Taken by
tiie French — Native Chiefs Concjuered — Italian and Frencl) Achievements- Italy Given a
Share of Africa by Berlin Conference— Italians .\ttempt to Take Island of Socotra —
English Ftesi.st — Gets lM)oting in Bay of Assab— Italians Approach Massowah and Sua-

' kim— Clasii With Abysinnians -War — Menelek — Conflicting Claims— European Sym-
pathy -l'>\trea Established -Controversy Between Italy and Great Britain— Jub Con-
ceded to Italy 99

Congress o
Jeal
App
Berl
Act
Hem
Vail,
D(M)r
Vast

: -Pr
State
-Fn
Elepl
-Ar
road-
Trou

Minor Clain
Britai
Pharf
Seize?
Miles
Dervif
Kipliii
Kitchi
The ;
M. V.
Intern
Protec
acter <

The Epoch of
Stanle
Societ;
BrussE
Germa
Map in

The Two Ref
Slave 1
-The
Philip

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII

Congress of Berlin and the Congo State. Claims of Germany Make Congress Nocossary —
Jealousy of Nations — General Grab Made for African Territory -Portugal Makes First
Appeal for a Conference — France Agrees — Bismarck Consents — C'jngress Organized at
Berlin Nov. 15, 1884— Sittings Continued Until Jan. 30, 1885— Document Called "(k-ncral
Act of the Conference of Berlin" — Results — Most of Great Nations Sign Document —
Henry M. Stanley an Important Figure— Enthusiasm at Congre.ss— All Eyes on the
Valley of the Congo — Commercial \'antage the Impelling Motive of Conferesicc— "Open
Ykior" Decided Upon — Neutrality of the Congo and tiie Niger -Agreements as to Trade —
Vast Territory Thrown Open— What Constitutes Colonization— Congo Free State I'ormed

; — Protectorate of the King of the Belgians Declared — Recognition (Jiven by the United

States — Colonel Strauch — France's Claim Inadmissible Leojxdd the Rightful Possessor
— France and Belgium Strike an Agreement — Area of Congo Free State — White
Elephant for Leopold — Large Ivxpenditures Made Neccssarx Parliament Helps Leopold
— Arabs and F'ree State Forces Clash — Arabs Repelled- Negroes Refuse to Build Rail-
road—Chinese Imported— They Die -Bclgiiun in Dire Straits- Ta.\ on Licjuors— Slave
Troubles— .Vdministration of Congo — Conuiiercial Progress— Actual .African Changes. . .

Ill

CHAPTER VI !I

Minor Claimants and Remoter Influences. Influence of Egypt -Suez Canal - Interest of Great
Britain — Turkey — English Investments — Great Improvement in I'^gypt- Country of the
Pharaohs Begins to Pay— ^Agriculture Developed -Mahdi.st lnsurrecti<m — England
Seizes Suakim — Egyptian Railway I'ndertaken — Telegraph Introduced - Thou.sands of
Miles of Wire Strung — General Sir Herbert Kitchener- Effects of (Jordon's Death —
Dervishes Lie I»w for a While— (Jreat Britain Creates an Arm\ of .Native l-^gyptians —
Kipling's Poem — Dervishes Arise— Defeated at FirKeh -l)«>ngola Captured -Hands of
Kitchener and Cecil Rhodes Meet Across Africa — The Soudan Meaning of the Wort! —
The Al)origines — Territory of the Soudan — Dcx'tor Schweinfurth's l^.xpiorations— Dr.
M. V. l)ylx)wski— M. Maistre— .Natal— Its Annexatitm—Territorial Limits of .Natal-
Internal Improvements— More About (iri(|ualand East— KafTraria- Tiic Bechuanaland
Protectorate— BavSutoland— British Ascendency — Zululand— British I'rotectorate— Char-
acter of the .Natives- -Diamond and Gold Industries

129

CHAPTI-R IX

The Epoch of Partition. King Leopold's Work — His Invitation to a Conference .All Watching
Stanley — Representatives meet at Bru.s.sels -Fornmti(m of t!." International .African
Society- -l/Hidon Forms an I'lxpioration I'und Joseph ThoMi|)son .Second Meeting in
Brussels— Germany and Great Britain at Work— Emin Pasha Dr. Karl Peter.s Anglo
German Agreement— Bru.s.sels .Anti-Slavery Conference The .Agreement— The African
Map in 1895— The Nations and Their Spheres of Influence 143

chapti:r X

The Two Republics. The Orange Free State— South African Repui)lic Their Settlement -
Slave HoMing— Characteristics of the Inhabitants— Uncertain Stali.stics as to Population
— The Trek -.Native Dis.satisfaction With the Boers (iriijims .\ppeal to I'nglaiid Sir
Piulip Maitland Acts— Boor Independence Hecognized-^Finding of Precious Metals—

CONTENTS

Suzerainty Claimed— Boers Resist Claim — Sand River Convention — Kruger Elected
President— Uitlanders Protest Against Injustice — Demand the Franchise — Boers Make
Prohibitive Laws — Claims of Taxation Without Representation — Reform Party Orgnn-
ized— The Culmination 167

CHAPTER XI

The Jameson Raid. Demands of the Uitlanders— Chamberlain's Message — Sir Hercules
Robinson — The Raid— Start from Mafcking — BritLsh Government Warns Jameson — His
Reply — Krugersdorp— The Battle— Boers Compel a Surrender— Prisoners Taken to
Pretoria — Condenuied to Death — Kruger Declines to Enforce Sentence — Prisoners Sent to
England— Their Trial— The Finding 189

CHAPTER XII

Leaders in South Africa, Stcphanus Johannes Paulus Kruger— Bismarck's Opinion — Appear-
ance of Oom Paul — His Personal Life — His Birth — Youthful Days — Refusal to Speak
English— Family — Salary — Barney Barnato's Gift — An American's Interview With the
Soath African Chief — Kruger's Proclamation — Tribute From Emperor William of Ger-
many — A Bad Omen— Pictrus .iacobus Joubert, Vice-President of the Republic — His
Duties— Characteristic Story— Cecil J. Rhwles— The Man— His Work in Africa — Peculi-
arities — His Dream — Indonutable Courage — Ambition 209

CHAPTER XIII

A Country of Boundless Possibilities. Foreigners Flocking There — American Consul General
Stowe's Report — Description of His Journey— Stock on Hills — Enterprise of United
States — Americans Getting Portion of BusineSvS— Kimberley Mines — Orange Free State —
Johannesburg — Description of the Wonderful City — Gold Statistics— Hunt for the Mother
Vein — Durban — Labor of the Boers— Diamonds in Orange Free State — Government
Revenue— Climate

The Engli.«
.\ce<
Sout
Briti
.^]ng
Fata
Situj
vet o
by
Blow
Year
Place

Cape

239

CHAI'TER XIV

A Royal Hunting Ground. Ideal Place for Sportsmen— Gordon Cinnming's Exploits — Gorilla
Discovered by De Chaillu— Wild Bea.st.s — Kruger as a Lion Killer — Game of All Kinds —
Kimberley the Starting Point — Dogs Necessary — Ostriches — Antelopes- Gemslwk- •
HartebeCvSt— lilephants — Hippopotanuis— GiralTes — Hunting by the Boers 261

CHAPTER XV.

The Transvaal Point of View. Dr. F. V. Engelenburg's Paper— Editor of the Pretoria Volksstcm
South Africa Poor in Re«l Wealth— Dilliculties Besiege the Settler— Dearth of Water—
PcvSts Sweep the Land- Boer Courageous in the Midst of .Ml— Modest in his Wants — Uit-
landers Only Come for Wealth -Live in the Mining Centers- Boers Desire to Continue
Their Pastort^, Life -Their Fight .Against the Blacl^.s — Country Cannot Sup{)ort a Large
Population -Food StufTs Have to I)e Importetl Only Hardy Boers licjual to the Task of
Building a Stalwart Nation- England's, Moments of Gencro.sity— Hi.story of the Boer
Struggle to Conquer the I^nd— Belief in Ultimate Dutch Triumph 271

Colon
gress
Orani
Kotz(
Engli
Boers
Their

Darkening S
Mr. C
Propo
Remo
Dema
Make:
on Su

The Issue is
ment-
Make
Ultimi
Queen
Engia

Contestants i
I^nglif
Get F
Cecil I

CONTENTS

Vll

167

189

209

CHAPTKK XVI

Tlie English Point of X'icw. Paramount Power Nccessary—Ci reat Hritain's Claims- Present
Need— Edward Kicey Presents the British Side— .\e<essary to Consolidate Territory
South of Zambesi— A Common Confederation Demanded— Boers Averse to Change-
British Have Education, Science and Wealth— Sure of Ultimate British Triiuiiph—
English Must Dominate — Otherwise a South African United States — Latter Contingency
Fatal Blow to British Empire — Conglomerate Population in South Africa — Anai> sis of
Situation— Boers on Equal F'ooting With British in Colonies— Declaration of the (iriutd-
vet of 1855- All Men to Have Equal Rights— This Rule Enforced — Johannesburg Built
by British Lalxir — Volksraad Disfranchises Uitlanders — President Kruger's Scheme—^
Blow at British Subjects — Boers Have Political Monopoly — Uitlanders Petition for Ten
Years — From Bad to Worse — Labor Grievance— Corruption in the Transvaal- l*]xactions
Placed Upon the Miners— Wrongs Must be Righted 299

CHAPTER XVH

Cape Colony. Franchise — Parliament of Cape Colony— Military Forces— Railways— Pro-
gressive Party — Population — Franchise — Educational Test — Mr. Rhodes as a I'^actor —
Orange Free State Government — Constitutional Conflict — A Mining Decision — Justice
Kotze Resigns— Goes to England — Claim that Boers Rob Uitlanders of Their Mines —
England Opposed to Alien Expulsion Law — Contention Over Siizerainty- English and
Boers at Logger Heads— What Both Sides Claim— Swaziland— DifTerent Territories —
Their Wealth— Possibilities 337

239

CHAPTER XVni

Darkening Skies. Petition of British Subjects — Counter Petition— President Kruger's Speei-h —
Mr. Chamberlain — The London Times' Remarks— The Franchise — Sir Alfred Milner —
Proposals and Counter Proposals — Dispatches Between .South Africa and I^ndon—
Remedies Proposed— British Claim of Suzerainty— Kruger and Milner Meet — Milner's
Demands — Kruger's A swer — They Fail to Agree— Milner Sums Up the Ca.se — Kruger
Makes Concessions Under Great Pre.ssure — Race War Threatened— Chamerlain Insi.sts
on Suzerainty — Kruger Withdraws Conccssion.s — Chamlwrlain Hopes for Peace 355

261

CHATTER XLX

The Lssue is Made Up. The Diplomatic ContCvSt — Franchise Demands - Boers Skillf\il in .Argu-
ment—Mr. Chamberlain's In.si.stence— Threat to Send Tr(X)p.s Boers Okstinate They
Make a .Mistake — Sacrifice Friendly Feeling in I'Jiglani Queen .\gain.st the War —
Ultimatum of Reitz — Final Notes Interchanged — Engli.sh Parliament Sununoned —
Queen's Address — Debate in Parliament— I/)rd Salisbury's Renuirks Opposition in
England — United States Consuls Asked to .Act for England — Ivondon Meetings 377

271

CHAITER XX

Contestants and First BIow.s. Resources of (Jreat Britain- .Military Strength of the Boer.s —
English Fear of Intervention — Joulwrt's E.\pres,sion of the .Majuba Hill Victory Boers
Get First Advantage — Strike Hard BIow.s- ChanilHTJain Denies Conmiunication With
Cecil Rhodes .Synions and .Meyer Death of (Jeneral Symon.s (ilencoe Fighting at

VIU

CONTENTS

LMyMlllllli — Liom I toseberry's Address — England's Warning to Dther 1 'towers— Holland
Active for the Boers -Raise a Heginient — Criticism of Hoer Hi>spital Service — Boers I»se
a Good Chance — Yule Escapes— Whjte Meets With l)isaster--His Manly Stand — Com-
ment of English Newspapers o97

CHAPTER XXI

Doubtful and Certain Allies. Basutos— Factor in South Africa— Over 30,00(> Warriors —
Basutoland— Inhabitants Christians — Represent Best of the Natives— Chief Lerothodi —
His Skill in War— Origin of tiie Basutos— Contest With Zulus for Supremacy— Real
Founders of the Transvaal Republic— Rebellion Against Boers—The Battle— England
Annexes Basutoland — MaUes a Treatv — William Maxwell's Views of the Boers

The

CHAin^ER XXII

CHAPTER XXIV

Orange I-'rec State. I-'lag of the Transvaal— Orange Free State— Motto of South African
Republic -Rulers of the Orange Free State— Its Development — Obligatory Defense
Treaty Willi Transvaal President Steyn's Manifesto— Calls the Orange Free Staters to
Arms -.Naming of Pretoria — Orange Free State Heroes — The Transvaal \'olkslied or
.National .Vnthem

CHArrER XXV

Disa
En(
Pee
-B
Con
Rev

417

Lyddite and Boer Marksmanship. Protest by General Joubert — L\ddite What the Word
Means— Composition of the Ivxplosive- Its .Method of Killing Boers as Riflemen —
Interview With Expert A. P. IngalLs— His Opinion as to Boer Dexterity-Boers Marvelous
Shots— Trained as Frontiersmen — Archibald Forbes' Conuuei't on Boer Shooting —
Every Boer a Hunter— The .Mannlicher Ride— Description— Its Power 429

CHAITER XXIII

Great Britain and Cokmial Loyalty. Colonies Manifest Enthusia;:m — Thousands of \'olunteers
OITered -lilngland Accepts the Token of (jcmhI Will -.Sets . Limit on Colony Troops —
Canada Quick to the I'ront — Other Coloni&s — Volunteers — Marvelous Scenes Witnessed
in lingland -.Moves of European .Nation.s — Intrigues of France and Russia — England's
Warning— Count MouraviefT at Work Ru.s.sia Has Much to Gain — Crawling Toward
Herat — I<]ngland*s Re.solve— I)e.signs in China — I'rance's Ambition — Afraid of Germany
—Her My.sterious .\greement With luigland— Smaller Powers — .\u.stria — Spain —
Turkey .V World War -Terrible lilfTects— United States in the Struggle— A Glance Into
a Pos.sible l-'uturc

The Tug c
of
Tug
Maf
—A

On Christr
Defe
Led
Lose
Com
Situi
tage
Fierc

439

The

463

Hope Deferred. I^xsses at Reinfontain— Capture of Royal Irish Fusiliers— Da.sh of the Lady-
smitii (iarri.son Afrikander Uprising Fearod-Estcourt— Generals White and Joubert —
Whites Manly .\(lmis.sion- l']iigland .Mobilizes Another Division — Lord Salisbury's
Speech- .Not Afraid of Other Powers Interfering— Colenso Occupied by Boer.s— British
(Jarrison at D'AarStreiigthened- vSir RedversBuilcr Sent to South Africa — His Arrival —
Censorsiiip .Vngers People— J. B. Robin.son's lustimato of Boer Strength — The Siege at
Kimberley-Pietermaritzburg Threatened -Critical Condition at Ladysmith — Unrest
Among Natives 473

Pendu
Amei
Man!
Engl
ing-
fying
Mars
Ad mi
by F(
Then
Jtate
to Ac

Stories froii
Genei
I^)ng
To .\
grapl

CONTENTS

397

CHAI'TKII XXVI

The Disadvantages of Victory. Amerizan Revolution — 1812 — Sepoy Rebellion — China —
English Victorious— L'inbeyla Pass — Natives Slaughtered — Lord Roberts- Wins His
Peerage in Afghanistan — Abyssinians Whipped — Fighting in .New Zealand — The Maoris
— Brilliant Knglish Feats — More Trouble in Afghanistan- Russian Intrigue — Peace
Concluded — Zulus Rise— Cetawayo Defeated and Captured— Drought to I-]nglan(l —
Revolt of Ahmed Arabia— He is Defeated — Iihartoinn — Ix)ng List of l^nglish \'ictories. . .

489

417

CHAPTER XXVn

The Tug of War. England's UnpreparedneSvS— Necessity of Transp<irting Troops Thousands
of Miles— Preliminary Reverses Expected — Initial Moves — Doers Destroy Dridge at
Tugela River — Elandslaagte— Delmont — General Methuen's Dispatch-Modder River—
Mafeking — Kimberley — England vSends Reinforcements— Messages by Carrier Pigeons
— Armored Train Destro ved 509

429

CHAPTER XXVDI

On Christmas Day, 1899. Dutch DisafTection- General Duller Starts for Frere Gatacre's
Defeat — Shock to England— Details of Stormberg Attack — Guides Deceive lilnglish —
Led into Ambush — Magersfontein— Methuen's Report — Another Reverse— Doers Also
Lose Heavily — Colenso — Duller Sends Dad News — I^igland Thorougliiy Aroused —
Commentsof London Dailies — Tugela River — Work of Naval Drigadc — (Jeneral Survey of
Situation— Dritish I^)sses— England Calls Out Reserves and Colonial Forces— Advan-
tage of Long Range Artil'^^ry— Doers Have a Little the Dest of it— England Proceeds With
Fierce Deternunation

531

439

463

CHAPTER XXIX

The Pendulum of Battle. Considerable Doer Sympathy— liluropc Against England— The
American Attitude— Interests of United States Bound Up with I-'ngland— Disaster to
Mankind in Overthrow of the Empire — Decision Should be Withheld — Mistakes of the
English — Doers Make Many l'>rors — Fail to Follow Up X'ictory — Prefer Defensive I'^ight-
ing— An "American Soldier's" Criticism — Buller's Tactics at Tugela River I'ight Mysti-
fying — His Fine Record as a SoUlier- Dritish Reinforcements — Appointment of I'ield
Marshal Rolwrts — Career of the \'eteran — Death of His Son — liinglisii General Never
Admits Defeat— Born in Ireland — His Personality — Bclove<l by the Army— Doers Aided
by Foreign Ollicers --.Vustrians and I-'rench Plan Defenses — Colonial Troops Distinguish
Themselves - Dritish Warships Make Seizures Representaticms Made by the United
Jtates — Dritain Makes Satisfactory Reply K'ruger Refuses to Allow American Consuls
to Act for England— Wants no I'^nglish Representatives Prisoners Well "rcated 555

473

CHAPTER XXX

Stories from the Dattlelield. Strict Censorship -Dilliculty of Getting Immediate Reports —
Generals Don't Like to Tell of Defeats Suppressing News — No (Jood Achieved Kruger
Ix)ng Prepared- Tremendous Defenses — (Jun.s— Forts— Siege Trains Deiiig Prc|)ared —
To .\ttack Pretoria Ladysniith Doer Tactics — Comment of Correspondent of "Tele-
grapii"- Dattle of Modder River- A Soldier's Fight— J. H Robinson -He Describes

CONTENTS

liiiI)ortancpof Good Marksmanship — Tells of Boer Metho<ls — Fierce Fight with Kallirs —
How Thirty Boer Scouts Stood Off an Army of Natives — Boer Trenches— Cannot be
HnTdaded — FMiglish Must Change Methods — Useless Sacrifice of Life-Englisli too Slow
- Mobility of Boers— A Prisoner's Story— Woes of the Privates -Letters Written Hoine. . .

CHAPTER XXXI

570

Told Between Battles. Delagoa Bay — Its Importance to the British — Real Seaport of the Trans-
vaal — Germany Opposes England's Designs— Boers Import War Munitions Through the
Bay — Millions of Dollars Expended— Doctor Lcyd's Statement— Material Sufficient for
Years— Ivorenzo Marquez — Rise of the Portuguese Town — Portugal Refuses to Sell —
Defenses of Pretoria — The Mauser Bullet— Its Effects— Sir William MacCormack's
• Investigations — His Report — Hollanders Urge President McKinley to Mediate— United
States Declines — The Campaign Around Ladysnuth — Some Desperate Fighting —
Arrival of General Kitchener and Staff at Cape Town — Methuen Practically Retired—
The Wauchope Story — Portugal Warned to Be More Careful in Her Neutrality — Sorties —
Kruger Sees tlie Hand of God — Admonishes His People to be Brave of Heart— Mrs.
Kruger— G limpse of Her Home Life and Character 603

CHAPTER XXXII

The Struggle for Laiiysnuth. Fierce Attack of the Boers— Desperate Rally of the British —
Cu\s«^r's Camp— Wagon Hill— Death of Colonel Cuhyingham — The Earl of Ava— Boers
Meet with Defeat — British Losses — Story of the Fight — General BuUer's Advance — Lord
Dundonpld Seizes the Springfield Bridge — Swartz Kop — Potgeitcr's Drift— British Cross
the Tugela — South African Light Horse — A Brave Deed — General Buller's F'orces — Boers
Bombarded Daily — Fight at Acton Homes— Boers Di.spersed— Buller's Caution— Dispo-
siticm of Forces— General Warren's Attack — Spion Kop — Warren Takes the Position —
News Delayed — Compelled to Abandon the Hill — Buller's Army Retreats Across the
Tugela — Boers Victorious — British Losses- Story of the Bloody Engagement — Opening
of Parliament— General Buller's Actions — Death of Conunandant Joubert, General
Shttlkenberg in Conmiand— Reverses of Genefal Buller on the Tugela — Lord Roberts
Moves on Kiinberley — Relief of Ladysmith 623

CHAPTER XXXIII

Lord Roberts in Command, tlie Relief of Kimberley, Capture of Cronje and Occupation of Bloem-
fontein. Ixird Kitchener Starts from Capetown — Patriotism Displayed by the Colonies —
(Jeneral French Distinguishes Himself — Retreat of the Boer Riflemen from Magersfontein
—Relief of Kimberley— Flight of Cronje — Surrounded at Paardeburg Drift — Surrcnderof
Cronje— I^rd Roberts Moves on Bloemfontein— President Steyn Fled to Kroonstadt —
Surrender of Bloemf on tein— Peace Proposals by the B((ers — Reply of Ix)rd Salisbury —
New Zealand Offers Tr(K)ps -i)oath of Piet .loubert 645

Car
Rei
Bat
Qui
tliei
Det<
Lu(i
HoK
Sigl

The Tram
Colo
Rctr
Aba
Elof

Three Sieg
Gene
and
Mart
Prev;
Garri
Color

Johannesbii
Nortl
Armi;
the B
Krug
Endt
Canac
Horse
Huttc
Contii
— Tre
Prinsl

CHAPTER XXXIV

The Battle of Paardeburg -War is a (iame of Chess — French Hoodwinke<l Cronje -Attack on
Cronje by Kitchener -Bluniler of Cronje — Place Where Battle was Fought on Sunday-
Arrival of Colonel Sniith-Dorrien's Brigade and the Canadians— Enthusiasm of the
Canadians Going into Battle — Cronje Completely Surrounded -Bayonet Charge by

The Canadia
Goto;
Contii
tingen
Africa

CONTENTS

575

Canadians and the Coriiwalls — Death of Harry Arnold— Inip<)ssiliilit\' of Rearers to
Remove tlic Wounded Witliin the Deadly Zone — Scene at Night at I'aardehurK On the
Battlefield After the Bayonet Charge— Continued Resistance of the Boers — Rernarkahle
Quickness of the Boer in Kntrenching Himself — Cronje Asks for 24-hour Arnustice, and
then Rescinds It — Cronje's Position I3ombarded With Shells -Third Day of the Siege-
IX'termiiiation of Roberts to Crush the Boers — Advance of Smith Dorien—Anuising and
Ludicrous Sights— Repulse of Reinforcements for Cronje— Majuha Day, and Cronje Still
Holding Out— Mne Fighting Qualities of the Canadians— Surren<ier of Cronje- - Strange

Among the Boers — Dismal Appearance Within the Laager 663

603

CHAPTER XXXV

The Tramp of the British Lion— President Removes the Capital to Krcxwistadt -Ambush of
Colonel Broadwood's Horse Artillery — Commandant Botha Retires Before Ix)rd Roberts —
Retreat of Boers— List of Casualties — Move on Dundee — Conditions at Mafeking —
Abandonment of Siege of Mafeking — Colonel Mahon's March — As.sault of Commandant
ElofT — The Famous Spion Kop Despatches ,

(«

CHAPTER XXXVI

623

645

Three Sieges and Three Heroes — Three Generals' Pluck— Calling out of British Reserves-
General BuUcr Starts Out to Relieve Ijadysmith: General Mcthuen to Free Kimlnjrley
and Mafeking — Kimbcrley First Town Relieved — Scantiness of FckkI Supply— Under
Martial Law — Shelled Continuously — Horseflesh Scrvai Out Typhoid and Scurvy
Prevalent -Inferiority of British Artillery to the Boers' — Cheerful E(|uanimity of Bcsiegeti
Garrisons— Locusts Afford a Change of Diet — Biographical Sketch of the Three Heroes,
Colonel Kckewich, Sir George White, Colonel Baden-Powell 703

CHAPTER XXXVII

Johannesburg, Pretoria and the End. Flight of the Boers at Rhenostcr River— Steady Advance
Northward by I^rd Roberts — Disaster to Bethuen's Horse— Surrender of Johannesburg-
Armistice Asked by I3otha — Battles Before Pretoria — Surrender of Pretoria — Activitj- of
the Boers — Advance of Lord Roberts — Lord Kitchener Meets De Wet's I-'orces- President
Kruger at Machadodorp — Desultory Fighting Around Pretoria- I x)rd Roberts Proposes to
End the War — End of the Rebellion in Cape Colony — Petty Annoyances of the Boers-
Canadians in a Fight With De Wet's Forces — Kruger at Machadodorj) -Strathcona's
Horse Baptism of Fire— Conditions of Troops, and the Climate— Boers Attack General
Hutton — Canadian Casualties— A Touching Incident — Effectiveness of the Canadian
Contingents— Daring Exploits of the C. M. R. — Commandant Oliver EludCxS I^ord Ri)l)erts
— Treachery of the liocrs — Dissolution of Boer Resistance- -Surrender of Commandant
Prinsloo — Petty Skirmishes in Machadodorp District 723

CHAITER XXXVIII

The Canadian Contingents — The Colonies Cease to be Dead W^eights — Nearly 3,0<K» Canadians
Go to South Africa — Re\iew of the First Contingent at Quebec— Embarkation of tlie I'irst
Contingent— Offer of a Sec«nd Force to Colonial Office — Embarkation of the Second Con-
tingent — Extra Comforts Provided by Citizens — Arrival of First Contingent in South
Africa — At the Battle of Paardeburg — Bivouac on Bloemfontein Common— First Infantry

Xll

CONTENTS

to I'^nter the Transvaal — The Mounted Infantry — Important Kngagenient at Hosch-
nian's Kop — March Through Pretoria — The Canadian Artillery— Strathcona's Horse —
Kmharkation— In South Africa — Marched ICM) Miles in Three Days— The Praise — Ix)rd
Roberts Cables to the Governor-General of Canada

779

CHAPTER XWIX

A Trip to and Tiirough South Africa — The (Jold Fields — Popular Impression of South Africa-
First Journey to South Africa — On the Docks at Cape Town — Population — Malay Char-
acteristics — Wealth and Buildings of Cape Town — Climate -Amusements — The Old
Dutch Town of StellenlK)sch — Description of the Country to the North — The Karoo—
Kiml)crlcy— O'Reilly's Pebble Toy— Advent of Right Hon. Cecil J. Rhodes in the Dia-
mond Fields — Port I^lizabeth— Ostrich Farming— The KalFirs — Durban — On the Way to
Johannesburg — Society in Johannesburg -Pretoria — Buildings and Instituti(ms —
Meeting With President Kruger — Society in Pretoria — Aflluence of the Government
OfliciaLs 809

Annexaticm Proclamaticm of Orange River Colony 757

Annexation Proclamation of the Transvaal 758

Conunon Boer Names and Their Meaning 759

Government Officials at the Begiiuiinp; of the War 761

Table of Distances 762

Officers of the Urst Canadian Contingent of \'olunteers for South Africa 833

Non-Coiiunissi(mcd Officers and Men of the l-'irst Canadian Contingent of Volunteers for South

Africa 836

Reinforcements for the I'^irst Canadian Contingent in South Africa 854

Officers of the Second Canadian Contingent of Wduntecrsfor South Africa 855

Non-Commissioned Officers and Men of the Second Canadian Contingent of \"olunteers for South

Africa 858

Nominal Roll of Officers, Non-Conunissioned Officers and men of Strathcona Horse 870

Complete List of Casualties 878

Date of Embarkationof Troops 889

Lord Ro
Her Maj
Colonial
Paul Kr
General
Presiden
Map of 1
Cecil Rh
General
Parliami
A "Bit" N
Cape Tom
Darling
Opening 1
Three Cii
Capitol-
Chamber
Zulu Wai
Natives J
West Str
Market t
Zulu Kra
Beer Dri:
Native Oi
Civilized
Interior
Native Ci
Zulu Figi
Zulu Wel
Diamond ^
The Wess
The MARt
Mine Own
Down in a
A Meetin(
Presi
In an Incl

779

Full Page Half-Tone Illustrations

809

757
758
759
761
762
833

836
854
855

858
870
878
889

Lord Roberts (Colored Plate) .

Her Majesty, the Qieen

Colonial Mlmster Chamberlaln

Paul Kruger . ...

General Joibert ....

Preside.nt Kruger Preachlng in the Church at Pretori

Map of Transvaal and Orange Free Sta

Cecil Rhodes

General Sir Redvers Buller

Parliament House, Cape Town

A "Bit" \ear Cape Town .

Cape Town and Table Mountain

Darling Street, Cape Town

Opening Railroad to Buluwayo, Nov. 10, 1897, 1,500 Miles

Three Cheers for the Queen .

Capitol— Pretoria

Chamber of Volksraadt

Zulu Warrior

Natives Smoking "Insango" (Indian Hemp)

West Street, Durban

Market Square, Johannesburg

Zulu Kraal or Homestead

Beer Drinking ....

Native Ornaments and Utensils

Civilized Native Women

Interior of a Kaffir Hut

Native Chiefs and Boers

Zulu Fighting ....

Zulu Wedding Dance

Diamond Washing Machine— Kimbehley

The Wesselton Diamond Mine— Kimdeulev

The Market Square— Klviberley

Mine Owners and Kaffir Workmen

Down in a Mine— Kimberley

A Meeting at the Liberty Monument, Paarde Krall, that Dec

President Kruger to Stand Firm Against Fncjland
In an Incline Shaft '^,ight Hundred Feet Below the Surface

TO Cape Town

iDED to Petition

Paob

Frontispiece

105

106

115

116

125

126

135

136

145

146

155

156

165

166

175

176
185

(xili)

XIV

FULL PAGE HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS

Minks

V^ncw ON Tiiic Main Hkkf at Simmons an.) Jack Minfs

TiiK Docks, Cai'h Town

English Hauuacks at Lauysmith

CoMMissioNKH Stkret, Joiiannksiu:h« .....

PiKTEUMAUITZUURO, KUOM ToWN HALL

Tin-: Summit of Majuba— Lookinc Xohth ....
Vii:w ON BoNTinoK Flats, Catiicaut Disthict, with Glvka's Kop in ti
Distanck

THANSVAAL DRFKNSES, JOHANNESniR(J, FOUT OVEHLOOKING TOWN AND

I)H. Leandeh Jameson •

Cafe Hifles Gun Detachment at I'ield Kxercise

BuiTisH Ahtilleuy Pkacticing Within Kau-Shot of Majuua Hill

Arrival of Hritish Troofs at Durban .....

Maxim Detachment, Natal Carbineers

Armored Train .........

Artillery Crossin(; the Klip River

The Transvaal Crisis— Ladvsmith Camp, Natal, March, 1899
The Transvaal Crisis— How the Doers Practice Shooting
A Complete Standstill— Stuck Fast in the Crocodile River
General Joubert, Commander of the Army of the Transvaal

War Balloon

Gen. Sir Red\ ers Duller and Staff Going on Board Dunottar Castle,

October 14, 1899

Sir GoER(iE Stewak'.' Wiu' ", V. C

Drakensbuiuj, on the Transvaal Border, Where the Boers are in

A Boer Reconnaissance

Boer Artillery Going to the Front

A Mixed Body of Boers, Wild With Excitement, Entering Johannesbi rg

The First I^n(jlish Prisoners

The Charge of the Gordons at Elands Laagte

SiMONSTowN— Headquarters of the Cape Squadron

Boers Destroying Natal Railway Tracks ....

After the Battle at Glbncoe

The Death of the Boer General, Viljoen ....
Advance of the British at Lombard's Kop ....
Elands Laagte— The Final Charge of the Gordons and 1mperial!Li
Charge of the Fifth Lancers at Elands Laagte .
An Armored Train Shelling a Boer Bai^ery at Night
Blue Jackets Battering the Boers at I-adysmith
Native Dispatch Carrier Overtaken by Boers

Charge of the Guards at Belmont

The Light Side of Warfare— Drawing the Enemy's Fire

In the Armored Train Near Frere

Trying to Recover the Guns at the Tuoela River

A Hot Chase— British Cavalry Driving Back a Boer Outpost

An Incident at Nicholson's Nek

Lord Roberts

General Lord Kitchener

Laager

iGHT Horse

Paok
186
195
196
205
2()6
215

216
225
226
235
236
245
246
255
256
256
265
266
275
276

285
286
295
296
305
306
315
316
325
326
335
336
353
354
371
372
389
390
407
408
425
426
443
444
461
462

Lieut. -Ge
Gen. Sir.
Lieut.-Ge
Major-Ge
Gen. Sir

LlEUT.-COI

The Tow>

.\N INCIDE

THE
In THE .\l

Troops Ri
"The Men
Attack
Canadian
First Ma:
The Retri
After thi

A COLONIAl

The Quee:

ACTVA

A. I). WoL>

Stev

Lord Duni

Gen.

Charge of

Committee

Lord Mint

Dr. B

Major-Geni

Long Cecil

BOMB-PROOl

wort:
Major Giro
First Cana

LlEUTENAN'

Officers o
Sir Wilfre

vaal
The Victoe
The Fredei
The Sardin
A Review c
The Troop
The Sardin

Vanc(
Colonel L.
Major V. A.
Major S. B.

FULL PAGE HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS

Paub

Lieut. -Gen. Sm F. W. i:. Fohrstieh-Wai.kkr 479

Gen. Sir. Cornelius Francis Ci.ery 479

Lieut. -Gen. Loan Metiiuen 480

Major-Gex. Sm William Gatacre 480

Gen. Sir A. Hunter 497

Lieut. -Col. R. S. S. Baden-Powell 497

The Town Hali., Laoysmith, Converted Into a Hospital . . . .498

An Lncident in the Bombarumen r of Ladysmith— A Smell in the Kitchen of

THE 18th Hl'SSARS 498

L\ the iNicK OF Time— Saving the Wire 515

Troops Returning to Ladysmith After a Sortie .... . . 516

"The Men with the Long Knives Were .Among L's"~Fro.m a Boer Dispatch . 533

Attack from Farm House on Modder River 534

Canadian Contingent Leaving Toronto 551

First Manitoba Canadian Contingent 552

The Retreat at the Tugela River 569

After the Battle— Anxious Inquirers at the War Office . . . .570

A Colonial Trooper and the Present of the Queen 587

The Queen's Gift to Her Troops in South Africa— The Tin of Chocolate,

Actual Size 588

A. D. WOLMARANS, ABRAHAM FiSCHER, DR. W. J. LEYDS, GEN. PiET CRONJE, M. J.

Steyn 669

Lord Dundonald, Lieut. Gen. Sir Charles Warren, General Ian Hamilton,

Gen. Sir Wm. Penn Symons, Major-^en. H. A. McDonald .... 670

Charge of Canadians at Paardeburg 687

Committee of National Defense of Great Britain 688

Lord Minto, Sir Wilfred Laurier, Lord Strathcona, Sir Charles Tupper,

Dr. Borden 705

Major-General Hutton 706

Long Cecil, and Tyburn Street Dugouts at Kimberley 715

Bomb-proof Dugouts— Beaconsfield, ^.nd Mr. Rhodes at Fort Rhodes, Kenil-

worth 716

Major Girourd, the Canadian Engineer 725

First Canadian Contingent in Camp AT Cape Town 726

Liel"tenant-Colonel Otter 763

Officers of the Canadian Transvaal Contin(jent 764

Sir Wilfred Laurier and His Excellency Addressing the Canadian Trans-
vaal Contingent 765

The Victoria, London and Ottawa Quota to the Co.ntingent .... 766

The Frederickton and Prince Edward Island Quota to the Contingent . 767

The Sardinian Leaving the Wharf at Quebec 768

A Review on the Esplanade at Quebec 768

The Troops All Ready to Embark 769

The Sardinian, Where the Men Eat and Sleep, Special Badge of Contingent,

Vancouver Contingent 770

Colonel L. W. Herchmer 771

Major V. A. S. Williams, R. C. D., Winnipe(J 772

Major .S. B. Steele of the N. W. M. Police 772

XVI

FULL PAGE HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS

Paok

Winnipeg Section and Officers from \Vinmpe(j 773

Kingston Artili-ery Section and Officers With Kingston Artillery Section 774

Toronto Section 775

T:iE Hamilton Qiota 775

A Groip OF Canadian Mounted Rifles ON Halifax Common 776

Troof of Canadian Mounted Rifles Embarking on the Pomeranian, Halifax

HAitnoR 776

Officicrs With First C(>NTiN(JENT . . . . 777

Northwest Mointed Police on Par \dic \t Recwn a, Northwest Territories . 778

Officers of the Strathcona Horse 787
Northwest Mointed Police as Part of Second CoNTiNciENT Heing Reviewed

AT Ottawa 788

Rev. G. W. Lane, Capt. H. B. Stairs, Lielt. R. H. Willis, I>iei't. H. Rorden, Lieut.

J. C. Oland 789

Capt. Frederick Cavehill Jones, Coiu'oral John H. Parks, Capt. Reveirlev R.

Armstrong, B. A., B. C. L., Lieit. R. F. Markham, Capt. C. F. Harrison 790

J. I'. An KEN 801

Lndian I'^amilv, Umzinto, Natai 802

Vale of Desolation, Graaf-Reinet 803

BlauW' Krautz Bridge, Grahamstown 804

Bloemi<'ontein, Former Capitol Orange Free State 805

HowiCK Falls, L'mgein River, Natal 8()6

French and D'Esteere Washing Gear, Bulfontein Mine 8(i7

Ostrich Camp, South Africa 8o8

W. S. Brady, Private C. T. Thomas, Private 0. T. Burns, F. J. Uvisu ... 881
Private J. H. Donegan, Private Walter Wiirn:, Private R. Smith, Private

1)ou(;las Moouic 882

Julius Sievert, Corporal R. Goodi'ellow, Privatic R. Lindsay, Zachary R. E.

Lewis 883

W. A. RiGos, Private R. I). Taylor, Cap r. H. M. Arnold, Si:H(i i . W. Scott . . 884

883
884

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.

COLONIAL MINISTER CHAMBERLAIN.

One

recent tn

effected ir

The work

cial, and i

The

The modif

of the con

ticon. Ye

until the j

the map o

the immov

cross-purpc

nineteenth

Africa

zation of n

The Story of South

CHAPTER I

PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE AFRICAN COAST

One of the most striking facts in Modern History has been the
recent transformation of Africa. A marvelous change has been
effected in that continent by the impact of the European nations.
The work has been partly racial, partly political, largely commer-
cial, and incidentally social and reliyious.

The old order in Africa is already supplanted by a new order.
The modification has been effected with such celerity that the map
of the continent has resembled the dissolving views of the stereop-
ticon. Year by year, decade by decade, the changes have progressed
until the political aspect is no longer recognizable by him who knew
the map only as it was at the middle of the century. Nothing but
the immovable outlines of the continent have survived the ambitious
cross-purposes and readjustments effected in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century by the peoples north of the Mediterranean.

Africa is the seat of the oldest and also of the newest civili-
zation of mankind. A peculiar region in the northeastern angle of
a (17)

THE STORY OP SOUTH AFRICA

the comment gave to the ancient Hamites their earliest and best
opportunity for the development of a great national life. The recent
creation of the Congo Free State and the South African Republics
has become the occasion of the latest form of human progress, and
at the same time the occasion of the latest conflict among the nations.

Africa was the first of the continents to be circumnavigated and
geographically defined. It was the first to produce a great historical
state. It was tlie first to incite by its resources the cupidity and
aggressive ambitions of foreign powers. It was the first to become
uniformly and homogeneously inhabited l)y a great barbarous pop-
ulation. It was the first to suggest the forceful displacement of
the aboriginal races by the stronger and less sedentary races of the
east and the north.

Ever and anon, during the whole historical period, new nations,
eager for conquest and ambitious to expand their power, have thrown
themselves upon the shores of vVfrica. In the first place, the ancient
Hamites, who developed into tlie Egyptians, entered the northeastern
angle of the continent as invaders and (Conquerors. They fixed them-
selves in the valley of the Nile, displacing the aborigines. After
some thousands of years, the world conipiering Aryans came under
the leadership of Alexander the Great, and converted Lower Egypt
into a Greek monarchy, enduring for several centuries. After a
millenium, the Semites came in under the leadership of Ali and
Omar the (ireat. Mohammedan caliphates were estal)lished, and all
the northern coast of the country was sul)ordinated to the rule of
the successors of the prophet. During the Middle Ages of European
history, the condition of Africa was not greatly changed, save that
the Moliammedau states declined, and some of tlie native states, sucli
as Abyssinin, liad :« long carecM' of poacefnl progress.

PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST

After the circumnavigation of the continent, in the age of
discovery, the African coasts promised ever a rich reward. They
seemed always to invite the descent of foreign adventurers and the
establishment of foreign enterprises. More than three centuries
elapsed, however, before the European forces had gathered in sulll-
cient volume to break in their might on the shores of the soutli,
and then to penetrate the dark interior of the vast continent.
Indeed the nineteenth century was drawing to a close before the
map of Modern Africa was seriously changed from its mediaeval
character.

We shall here narrate more particularly some of the pecial
features of the transformation of Africa in recent times. The sub-
ject can be best introduced by referring to a few of the successive
geographical representations of the country. It is in the cosmog-
raphy of Africa, in different ages, that the historical moditications
can be best measured and understood.

In the first place, the country called Africa was fairly well
defined in the map of Ptolemy, produced about the year 150 A. I).
This representation of the continent may be laid upon any modern
map of Africa, and the superposition of the one on the other will
'in many parts be nearly perfect. In other parts, however, the map
of Ptolemy was drawn by happy conjecture, rather than by actual
explorations and measurements. The author was able to delineate
Egypt with tolerable accuracy; also Nubia and Abyssinia. To the
west of Egypt tlit) Mediterranean coast was correctly drawn to the
Strait of Gibraltar, and beyond and around the coast as far as
Senegal. Thus was included the country of the Great Desert.

In the equatorial region, Ptolemy placed on the east the country
designated as Ethiopia Infra ^Egyptum; that is, Ethiopia below

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Egypt; while to the west, including the valley of the Niger and
the country bordering on the (lulf of Guinea, was placed Ethiopia
Interior. On the southeast, along the coast, were located Barbaria
and Agisymba; while the whole country below the tenth parallel,
including what is now designated as South Africa, was called Terra
Incognita.

We need not, however, dwell upon the ancient representations
of Africa. The knowledge possessed by the geographers in the age
of Ptolemy was obscured by the semi- barbarism of the centuries
that followed. There is extant an Arabian map of the world, bearing
date of the year 1154, in which the outline of Africa is presented
with much exaggeration of some parts and grotesque misrepresen-
tation of others. But the delineation is nevertheless recognizable
as something produced on a shadowy basis of truth and knowledge.
In the age of discovery, or more precisely in the year 1492, the
globe of Martin Behaim was produced, on which the map of Africa
was drawn with some improvement on that of the Arabian Tabula
Rotunda Rogeriena, as it was called, of the twelfth century. But
the Nuremburg geographer's attempt was nothing to seek for
accuracy, and was valuable chiefly for the suggestion which it
offered of the easy circumnavigation of the globe.

Another mediaeval map, greatly improved from its predecessors,
is that of "Africa according to Diego Ribeiro, 1529." Of this produc-
tion nothing need be said, save that the cosmographical outline of
the continent is much more nearly accurate than any other represen-
tation after that of Ptolemy down to the close of the sixteenth
century.

Within this period, namely in 1591, still another outline of the
African continent was drawn, with a most vivid fancy and an

astonis
fetta.
correct
with m
and pro
palaces,
The
that pr
year Ifii
produce
mation
might b
since tli
two yea:
draw th(
the worl
is said tc
It is dei
In its 01
regarded
beginnin
in Europ
This
gradual i
the gene
It is th(
and the
to descr
political

PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST

astonishingly free-hand, by the Italian cosniographer, Filippo Piga-
fetta. In this work, the shore-line has some approximation to tlie
correct figure of the continent, but the whole country is filled up
with miracu ous signs and fabulous suggestions as to both people
and productions. Ranges of mountains, impossible rivers, gorgeous
palaces, and opulent cities are scattered with lavish hand.

The next map of Africa to which we may profitably refer is
that produced by the Dutch geographer, Jacob van Meurs, in the
year 1668. This work is designated as an "Accurate Chart of Africa
produced from Official Materials." In it there is much approxi-
mation to correctness in the outline of the continent, as well there
might be, for one hundred and seventy-one years had now elapsed
since the circumnavigation of Africa by Vasco Da Gama. Forty-
two years later, that is, in 1710, still another attempt was made to
draw the features and boundaries of the continent. In this instance,
the work was done by the English cosmographer, H. Moll. His maj)
is said to be " According to ye Newest and Most Exact Observations."
It is dedicated to Charles, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth.
In its outline, and indeed in all of its features, this map may l)e
regarded as the best delineation of Africa produced before the
beginning of the modern era; that is, before the Revolutionary Age
in Europe and America.

This sketch of the cartography of Africa may serve to show tiie
gradual and tedious establishment of hunum knowledge relative to
the general character of one of the great divisions of the gl()))e,
It is the historical transformation — the extinction of old states
and the foundation of new states in their .stead -that we are here
to describe. This transfoiination we shall follow through the
political evolution of the last four centuries, down to the outbreak

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of hostilities between the British and the Dutch in the South
African Republic.

In the iye of discovery, that is, at the close of the fifteenth
century, the E iropean nations began to be once more deeply con-
cerned about tlie character and possibilities of tlie African coast.
Movements in this Erection were made before the middle of the
century of discovery and exploration. The first impact of modern
European power on the shores of Africa occurred in the year 1415,
when the siege of Ceuta was brought to a successful conclusion by
the Portuguese. Ceuta stands on the African shore over against
Gibraltar. For about six centuries ^he Moors had had possession of
this coast, but now by the courage and warlike abilities of King
John of Portugal, assisted by Queen Philippa, daughter of John of
Gaunt of England, a successful siege ^vas made. Ceuta was stormed
by the Portuguese soldiery led by Prince Henry, destined to be called
the Navigator, and by his two brothers.

The fiag of Portugal was thus raised in Africa. The conquerors
heard of the countries as far south as Tinibuctoo and Guinea.
Prince Henry became acquainted with the character of the continent,
and it cannot be doubted that from his early years he cherished the
dream of circumnavigation. Thus would he reach the fabled Indies
and grasp their treasures. The Prince accordingly became expert in
the geography of the age; he was a disciple of the Arabian Idrisi,
noted in the cosmography of the twelfth century.

Up to this period in history, the commerce of Europe with Asia
had been carried on by merchant ships in the Mediterranean. These
discharged their cargoes on the shores of the Levant, and received
in exchange the rich merchandise of the East. This was brought
by caravan from various Oriental countries, and delivered to the

PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST

merchants of the West. In the fifteenth century, the Venetians had
a monopoly ot tirade. The Portuguese could hardly hope to supplant
the fleets of Venice in the Mediterranean, but they might well dream
of the possibility of diverting the commerce of India from caravans
to ships, and of establishing an all-vvrater route from the Oriental
ports to the harbors of Portugal.

It w^as this antecedent condition which inspired the Portuguese
in their successful competition for the foremost place in the maritime
and commercial enterprises of the fifteenth century. After the
capture of Ceuta, Prince Henry, in the year 1418, when he was
twenty-four years of age, accomplished successfully his first enter-
prise by sea. In command of an expedition, he doubled Cape
Bojador, which he imagined to be the Cape of Storms. Sixteen
years later this point was more completely rounded by Gil Eannes,
who traced the coast southward, but without finding the end of the
continent. Cape Planco was doubled in 1442, and a slave-trade
was established on this part of the coast. The country inland was
penetrated to a great distance. In 1446, the Senegal was reached,
and after two years Sierra Leone was discovered.

To this period belongs also the discovery and colonization of
the Cape Verde Islands. By this time, gold and ivory began to be
gathered from Timbuctoo. Furtlier and still further the western
coast of Africa was traced, and at the date of Prince Henry's death,
that is, in 1460, the shore was known for eighteen luindred miles
southward from Cape Nun. Before the middle of the century, the
Prince had built a fort on the Bay of Arguin, south of Cape
Blanco.

This fortress became the first headquarters and stronghoM of
Portuguese enterprise in West Africa. Meanwliih', in 1471, Portugal

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

had gained possession of Tangier, in IMorocco. Tn recognition of
such progress, the Pope conferred on John TT the title of "Lord of
Guinea." Still moi-e important was tiie establishment of a settle-
ment, in 1482, at El ]\Iina, which, as to priority among European
colonies in Africa, holds the same relation as does the colony at
St. Augustine in the history of the United States. The Portuguese
fortress of El Mina stands to the present day. Thus began the
acquisition of African territory by a European state.

By the year 1484, a Portuguese expedition, commanded by Diego
Cam, made its way southward to the Congo, and sailed up that
river into the interior. Nor should failure be made to notice the
presence of Martin Behaim, the German globe-maker, among the men
of Cam's fleet. Now it was, in the year 1485, that Bartholomeu Diaz
made his way to the extreme of the continent, and saw the Cape
of Storms. The rest was easy. In 1487, Pero de Covilham succeeded
in sailing dewn the Red Sea, out into the Indian Ocean, and thence
to the Malabar coast. Vasco da Gama then appeared on the scene,
and in 1497 set out on his famous voyage of successful circum-
navigation. The Cape was doubled and the Indies were found. Thus
did the western coast, the southern coast, and the eastern coast, from
Lorenzo Marquez to Cape Guardafui, become the right and possession
of Portugal. Before Magellan had succeeded in passing the southern
extremity of South America, the claim of Portugal to the vast and
indefinite coast of Africa on the west and south and east was
established by her enterprise.

The coincidence of this great work with the discovery of America
by Columbus and his successors was of historical importance. The
student of American history w^ill readily recall the sad fate which
soon overtook the inhabitants of the West Indies. They were

ica
he
Ich
H*e

^2i

^^H^'

'**1

HHh

ilfe

Sfe. -.

f ^B^

^^^|^^^''\

^JxfiM^H

^ V

'^mH

^i^^i

IPJP'^B

fr^^^^HP^'

Kj^^^^^B^'i'"-"'

. jtt

■P^^J

^^^^^^^^^^^1

^^fe- aU*^ ' ' *

^^^^^^^^>

(^^S^H

■

^^c 'iSiA 'W!i**"V'l

^^IH^K'i-

^Ul

^^^^H

H||g||^^^H

^^^^^^^Bh^h^'/'

'*!

■

'^^i^l

^^M

^^^H

^^^HR

^^PPI^^^^I

■

^*^

...^

•» ■ I

•i

."'■

PAUL KRUGER.

GENERAL JOUBERT.

reduced
Spaniar
whethei
the war
Portugu
was the
of the
enough,
millions
tropics,
of the
centuries

As ]
Africa or
the 30th
gave it t
again, fii
then at H
Semitic 1
The voy£
Portuguei

Greal
and his a
planned ;
African i
greatest
returning
company
hope of a

PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST

reduced to slavery, and were virtually exterminated by the rapacious
Spaniards, In a short time the rising industries in the islands,
whether in field or in mine, were paralyzed and extinguished for
the want of laborers. Then the Africans were substituted ; for the
Portuguese had found the Africans. Most unsuccessful and horrible
was the collapse of the slave-system as applied to the native races
of the West Indies and the American continent. But strangely
enough, just at this juncture, Africa was made known with its
millions of dark inhabitants, inured to the heats and fevers of the
tropics. These millions, sad to relate, offered to the insatiable greed
of the Europeans a prodigious store of slaves — a store which four
centuries of mingled rapacity and progress have not exhausted.

As for Da Gama, he passed leisurely up the eastern coast of
Africa on his way to India. In December of 1497, he landed about
the 30th parallel of south latitude, inspected the country, and
gave it the name of Natal {Terra Natalis). Further on he touched
again, first at Sofala, then at Mozambique, then at Melinde, and
then at Mombasa. All along this coast he found inhabitants, mostly
Semitic Arabians, but in some places mixed Arabians and Hamites.
The voyage and its results might well confirm the claim of the
Portuguese to Africa, from the southern Cape to the Gulf of Aden.

Great energy was at first displayed by the King of Portugal
and his adventurous navigators. Colonization was contemplated and
planned as a result of the new discoveries. Many parts of the
African shores seemed to invite settlement and to promise the
greatest rewards to enterprise. As early as 1485, Diego Cam,
returning to Lisbon from the country of the Congo, had brought a
company of natives with him, and these might well excite the
hope of a profitable slave-trade. The country about the mouth of

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the greiit river was designated as the Kingdom of Congo. Thither
a comjDany of priests was sent, and many of the natives were con-
verted to Christianity. The capital of the country was entered by
the Portuguese, who gave to it the name of San Salvador.

A farcical game, smacking much of opera-bouffe, but charac-
teristic of Portuguese schemes of colonization, was now played by
the Portuguese with the blacks of the Congo. Titles of nobility
were conferred upon them. They became Dukes and Lords and
Knights, each after his kind ! Nor did the Portuguese experience
any serious difficulty in getting on harmoniously with the simple-
minded aborigines of the country which they hud found and subdued.

In the course of half a century, San Salvador became the prin-
cipal seat of Portuguese power on the western coast. The town
took on a European character. The Portuguese tongue was heard
in the streets. Once, in the middle of the sixteenth century, one of
the native races, called Jaggas, made war on San Salvador and took
the city. But the invaders were at length expelled, and prosperity
returned. The native king was held in honor. But European build-
ings, such as cathedrals and monasteries and opulent residences,
grew to be the principal features of the city, which, by the year 1650,
was estimated to contain a population of forty thousand.

Around this center, lay a vast and undefined ten'itory, includ-
ing the modern state of Angola. Gradually the Portuguese authority
was acknowledged as superior to that of the native rulers ; but in
•ourse of time the jealousy of the latter was aroused, and the
suzerainty of the Europeans was renounced in the kingdom of
Congo. Nor weie the Portuguese in the latter part of the seven-
teenth century, or ever afterwards, able to regain their forfeited
influence in the Congo valley.

The

ago, doe

the gov(

mud-hut

formerly

residue

Europeai

the trav

discovery

Whi:

St. Paul

parallel

planted

permanei

gradually

the Orauj

In th

Anhaya, a

of the eai

just soutl

fortress.

himself a

reader fai

to is cent

extending

Portuguese

The M

commandr

Lamn. Tl

PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST

id-

in
the

The city of San Salvador, so full of promise tliree hundred years
ago, does indeed survive to the present day, hut it has lapsed, under
the government of the aborigines, into a common African town of
mud-huts, with scarcely a vestige of the European institutions which
formerly prevailed. Only the language of the people preserves a
residue of Portuguese phraseology. The king of Congo bears the
European name of Pedro; and a few other reminiscences remind
the traveler of the great work which was effected in the age of
discovery.

While San Salvador still flourished, namely, in the year 1578,
St. Paul de Loanda, on the upper Angolan coast, just above the tenth
parallel of south latitude, was founded. Afterwards a colony was
planted at Benguela, also in Angola ; and in the same period a
permanent European settlement was effected at Mossamedes. Thus,
gradually, was the dominion of Portugal confirmed southward to
the Orange river and the Cai)e of Good Hope.

In the year 1505, an expedition under command of Pedro de
Anhaya, was sent out by the Portuguese monarcli to take possession
of the eastern coast. Anhaya sailed around the continent to Sofala,
just south of the 20th parallel, and landing at that place built a
fortress. The king of Sofala yielded to the invader, and acknowledged
himself as a tributary to tlie king of Portugal, Nor should the
reader fail to note tliat the situation of the ('olony here i-eferred
to is central to that modern territorial division of Africa which,
extending from Tongaland to Cape Delgado, is designated as
Portuguese East Africa.

The work of colonization went forward rapidly. In 1507 ji. fleet,
commanded by Tristan da (!unlui, took possession of Socotra and
Lamu. These })laces'were fortified to become centers of colonial

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

enterprise. About the same time, the first European fortress was
built in Mozambique. In 1508, the Portuguese gained complete
possession of Quiloa. The whole coast of Africa lying to the west,
over against Madagascar, passed under the dominion of the Por-
tuguese crown, the claim being confirmed by both discovery and
colonization.

The country was worth possessing. It was already held by
populous communities. These were composed of Mohammedan
Arabs. The native settlements were centralized. Each town had its
sheik, or governor, whose authority was undisputed. Several sheiks
were united, but not closely, under the authority of a sultan. The
work of colonization by the Portuguese was prosecuted wdth so much
zeal, that by the year 1520, when, as we have said, Ferdinand
Magellan was still struggling hard to make his way through the
channels that separate South America from the Land of Fire, the
whole of the African coast, except that part which borders on the
Mediterranean and on the Red Sea, had yielded to the sceptre of
King Emanuel.

It should be noted, however, as a historical fact of importance,
that Portugal for some reason avoided, or at least did not seek, the
Cjipe of Good Hope as one of the centers of her colonial empire.
Though the oppoi-t unity lay open for a long time, no Portuguese
colony was planted at or near the Cape. This part of the country
remained an inviting field for the future rivalries and contests of
nations, and they have not been slow to seek the vantage of such
a seat of power.

CHAPTER TI

THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY

It is not our purpose to includx. in this narrative the vicissitudes
of Portuguese expansion in the East Indies. It is the African col-
onization which we are to consider. The voyages of the Portuguese
navigators, however, extended everywhere. The flag of Kixig John
and Emanuel was seen in India. Thither, in the beginning of the
sixteenth century the imperial plan was stretched. In 1503, Alfonso
du Albuquerque, surnamed the Portuguese Mars, was commissioned
as Viceroy of India. In that capacity he sailed with a fleet of
twenty ships and made his way by the recently discovered all-
water route to the coast of Malabar.

Albuquerque made a descent on the Indian city of Goa. This
important place he invested and captured from the native rulers.
He carried with him a crew and a colony numbering twelve hundred
men. A native prophecy had indicated a downfall of the city at
this date, and Albuquerque was easily able to avail himself of the
superstition and to make a triumphal entry. Goa soon became the
emporium of India. Portuguese institutions were established, not
only there, but on the whole of the Malabar coast — at Ormuz, in
Ceylon, in the Sunda islands, and on the peninsula of Mahicca.

Prosperous commercial centers were soon developed under the
patronage of the mother kingdom. For a while Portugal gave
promise of becoming tlie great colonizing and governing state of
the world. Her success at this epoch, in gaining for herself the
greater and better part of South America, was as phenomenal as

(81)

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

that on the western borders of India. There was a time in the
sixteenth century when the Portuguese empire extended as an
immense continental and insular dominion from the Malaccan
peninsula to the head tributaries of the river Amazon. Only one
thing the parent state seemed to lack, and that was the power of
political organization. This she did not possess, at least in the
measure that Great Britain has possessed it and demonstrated it in
the history of the nineteenth century. Portugal permitted her
colonial dependencies to remain isolated. Each depf^ndent state
pursued its own course, developing its resources without extraneous
assistance, and flourishing by individual and local energy, rather
than by a combination of powers working together for greatness.
For this reason, among others, Lisbon did not become London.

It suffices to say that of all the states and kingdoms of Europe
which sent out expeditions in the sixteenth century to discover
new lands in distant parts of the world, and then sent other
expeditions to colonize the favored regions, Portugal was easily the
first in the extent and variety of her discoveries. She was also
first in the peaceful success of her settlements, and in the almost
boundless colonial empire which she established. If, at the present
day, her dependencies be shrunk to a handbreadth, it has been for
the lack, not of the imperial spirit, but for w^ant of imperial ability.

Confining our attention, then, to the African dominion of Portu-
gal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we find the chief seats
of her dependent empire to be on the west coast. There the colonial
activity was greatest. The western colonies extended from the Gulf
of Guinea to the Cape. But the most enterprising and progressive of
these lay between the mouth of the Congo and the modern Demara-
land. Of these dependencies, Angola may be regarded as the chief.

From the
indefinite
contact w
of these \
progress
on the er

Exce]
extremity
tionable.
ever on b
missive ni
settlemeu
nuclei of (
chants wli

In a ]
constructii
these w as ;
degrees tw
made defe
able strong
open trade
end, facto]
Gambia, oi
of Benin,
Canaries t
colonists.

From
commerce
ities ot en

THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY

From the coast, the dominion of the Europeans extended inland to an
indefinite distance. In tlie central region the Portuguese came into
contact with fabulous native kingdoms. One of the most important
of these was called the Empire of Monomotapa. The lines of interior
progress were mostly on tiie west coast in the valley of the Congo, and
on the east coast in the valley of the Zambesi.

Except in the center of the continent and at the southern
extremity, the Portuguese authority was unquestioned and unques-
tionable. As in our America of the sixteenth century, the issue was
ever on between the Portuguese conquerors and the generally sub-
missive natives. On the east coast there were already many opulent
settlements and trading centers before the epoch of discovery. These
nuclei of civilization w^ere controlled by the Arabian and Indian mer-
chants who conducted the commerce between Africa and the East.

In a military way Portugal sought to fortify her authority by
constructing defences at certain points on the African coast. One of
these \ IS at Arguin, the small littoral island lying in latitude twenty
degrees twenty-five minutes north. The Cape Verde islands w^ere also
made defensible. At El Mina, already referred to, a more consider-
able stronghold was established. It was the policy of the kingdom to
open trade and develop the native resources of the country. To this
end, factories were built on the banks of the Senegal ; also, on the
Gambia, on the Kio Grande, on the Gold Coast, on the (Julf (or Bight)
of Benin, and on the Congo. All of the sliore islands, from the
Canaries to the Cape, were possessed and settled by Portuguese
colonists.

From the various centers of manufacture and trade, an abundant
commerce was developed by the mother country. Had the human-
ities ot enlightened enterprise been predominate over tiio avarice of

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

merchants and adventurers, a happier issue must have been reached Id
the commercial destinies of the kingdom. But all kinds of merchan-
dise soon gave place to the merchandise in men. The Portuguese
slave trade of the sixteenth century far exceeded in extent and pro-
fitableness all other forms of commerce. From the very beginning
of the colonial expansion of the kingdom, ships returned to the home
harbors laden with slaves. A half century before the discovery of
America and the circumnavigation of Africa, nearly a thousand
kidnapped negroes had been marketed in Portugal.

In 1517, a Flemish trader received a patent from Charles V
openly authorizing him to import annually 4,000 negro slaves into
the West Indies. This signified that all of the human merchandise
must be purchased from, or taken in defiance of, the Portuguese
traders on the African coast. A slave exchange was opened in Lisbon
under authority of a bull from the Pope ! In that mart negroes
might be purchased by the hundred and thousand. Thither came the
exporters who shipped the slaves to the New World markets. The
trade grew to enormous proportions. Before the middle of the
sixteenth century, the Portuguese dealers sent out as many as 12,000
slaves annually to the West Indies. It was from this horrible origin
that the black populations of Hayti, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Jamaica
and Porto Rico have been derived. The commerce was lucrative in
the highest degree. The slave hunters had only to penetrate the
wild and capture their human game, driving great gangs of the
blacks down to the coast, and sending them to their fate under the
lashes and goads of the Spanish overseers on the plantations.

Already African gold had been found in moderate abundance.
Thb gold coast yielded a fair measure of the precious metal and of
ivory from tho interior. The mines began to L^ worked, and African

I of
III

Ooarlti/ or The Cbrlitlan Ilertld.

PRESIDENT KRUGER PREACHING IN THE CHURCH AT PRETORIA.

?•!

dD E s" ■MW--M«T'™'J

STLUaA

— REFERENCE —

IMS Orange Ri«r Sovereignly.

l87/Maij2*Briti5KT(ag
hcisloiniTrcloru.

I879jan22 JsandWwana.
. . SSTiorksDfi/t
. JluZt, Jflobane
.. . SSXimbvh.
. Aor 3 Ginqinhlovo
.. Jalu ♦ UJLundi

l880Decl3 HepubUcprocl
• ' ZOBroimonx Spni
mjmlhUnnditaiibtai

TehS Jrwogo
' j^i/j 8. Reiroctsswrt<

— - EXPLAN^TlON^

■Raiiwa^A ..,*»»»

floado «-*• BouNdario---— '
Engagements X

gol i was
had been
dream of
exportatin
merce in g
ever full.
At ler
commercia
fleets of s€
and the b
coasts. Tl
off the in!
occupation.
The po
"Barbary."
as it was, g
1553 (that
first Englis
was done u
The leader
ham, who
appeared in
threats and
the Gold Coi
a hundred a
patrons; but
of the enem
Captain Joh
cloth, which

THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY

gol \ was ouce more seon in the marKets and mints of E^^rope, as it
had been a thousand years before the Christian era. The ancient
dream of Ophir was not realized, however, and the gathering and
exportation of gold yielded a more modest profit than did the com-
merce in slaves. The gold trade declined, but the slave market was
ever full.

At length the cupidity of other kingdoms was inflamed by the
commercial success of Portugal and her dependent colonies. The
fleets of several nations began, in defiance of the rights of discovery
and the bull of Pope Alexander, to make descents on the African
coasts. The Portuguese, however, were able for a long time to beat
off the intruders, and to monopolize all the u,uvctntages of prior
occupation.

The possessions of Portugal in West Africa were designated as
"Barbary." The illicit trade with the country so-called, dangerous
as it was, greatly increased. It was in this age, namely, in the year
1553 (that being the last year of the reign of Edward YI), that the
first English fleet was fitted out for the West-African trade. This
was done under the auspices of a club of the merchants of London.
The leader of the expedition which they planned was Captain Wind-
ham, who found the Portuguese to be .greatly offended when he
appeared in the Gulf of Guinea. The English were visited with
threats and violence, but they nevertheless succeeded in reaching
the Gold Coast, where Windham, according to his own story, secured
a hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and carried it back safely to his
patrons; but in a second adventure he came to grief at the hands
of the enemy. The successor of Windham in the gold trade was
Captain John Lok, who reached the African coast with a cargo of
cloth, which he bartered for spices, ivory and gold. He is said to

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

have exported four hundred pounds of the precious metal and two
hundred and fifty elephant tusks, besides spices and gems.

These dangerous intrusions of the English traders were kept
up during the after half of the sixteenth century. Meanwhile,
French merchant ships also were seen in the African waters, but
they were easily beaten off by the Portuguese on land, and by
the hardier English on the sea. In 1555, Captain William Towrson,
of London, made a successful venture to the Portuguese settlements,
not hesitating to visit El Mina. But he was at length attacked
and driven away. The Portuguese were able to hold their commercial
monopoly in South Africa by establishing fortresses at intervals
along the coast. By this means they easily subdued the barbarous
natives on the one hand, and warded off the encroachments of
foreign adventurers on the other.

The peculiarity of the epoch immediately succeeding the age
of discovery was the fact that all the European nations except
Portugal found their opportunity in the west. Spain, England,
France, Holland, each^ and all, liberated their adventurers in the
direction of the new world. Only the Portuguese turned system-
atically to the south and the east. The signs of this division of
enterprise were seen before the death of Columbus. The Pope,
therefore, had substantial grounds for assigning the eastern half of
the globe to Portugal.

The situation which followed was the historical result of these
antecedents. It was not until the age of Elizabeth that the
English seriously contemplated a disturbance of conditions in the
colonial empire of Portugal. In the very year of the destruction
of the Spanish Armada (1588) the English queen granted to certain
of her noble subjects a charter for the creation of the first "African

THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY

hese
the
the
Ition
[tain
lican

Company." It was the beginning of an age in which such charters
and such companies abounded. By its constitution, the African
Company was authorized to enter unoccupied regions on the coast,
and to establish trade and settlements according to opportunity
and pVomise of success. '^

Already, before this movement was well under way, the natives
of the Senegal Valley had risen against the Portuguese, seized their
factories, and had virtuallj^ driven them from the country. On the
river Gambia, however, the flag of Portugal was still upheld by vigor-
ous hands, and strong efforts were made to prevent the English African
Company from getting a foothold. It was only l)y beating up and
down the coast that the fleet of England was able to open a pre-
carious trade and to secure a valuable cargo of merchandise.

The sequel showed that the French had already gained admit-
tance to the country, and a measure of favor at the hands of the
Portuguese. The latter could not be expected much longer to retain
their unshaken hold on the continent ; for the mother country had
by this time lost her independence. While the African, East Indian,
and South American colonies of Portugal had waxed strong, the
home kingdom had first entered a period of decline and had then
reached a crisis of total absorption in the wider empire of Spain.

As early as the reign of John III, who succeeded Emanuel in
1521, the weakening of Portugal had begun. Her success in estab-
lishing a great empire, south and east and west, had proved too
much for the enfeebled virtue of both court and people. A few
years after the date referred to, namely, in 1586, the Inquisition
was introduced into Portugal, and while wealth abounded in the
palaces and streets of Lisbon, the old spirit of the people was awed
into silence and inactivity by the "Tribunal of the Holy OflBce."

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

From this date, the East Indian empire of the Portuguese rapidly
declined. In 1545, the fortunes of the kingdom in the east were
revived somewhat by John de Castro, who was Viceroy at Goa.
After his ascendency, the reaction against the Portuguese power in
India continued unchecked. Meanwhile, in the home kingdom, in
the year 1557, Don Sebastian, a child three years old, succeeded
John III as king of Portugal. Under the reign of a minor and the
regency of a queen and a cardinal, the affairs of the government
went from bad to worse. In 1578, Sebastian, grown to manhood,
was slain in a battle with the Moors, and Cardinal Henry, brother
of John III, became Henry I. But the revolution in favor of Spain
was now on in full force, and two years after the accession of
Henry, the smaller kingdom was incorporated with the greater.
Portugal was reduced to a province of Spain.

It had not, however, been reserved for the Spanish monarchy
to absorb the outlying colonies and dependencies of Portugal. Nor
was the Spanish kingdom, now engaged in a life-and-death struggle
with the Netherlands, in a condition to assume the goverments of
Western India, Southern Africa, and Brazil. So the Portuguese
colonies remained in a semi-independent condition until the valor
of the Dutch gave them tlie mastery of the seas.

The union of Portugal with Spain continued from 1580 to 1640.
The Portuguese writers designate the period as the "sixty years'
captivity." The other European nations — the English, the Dutch,
the French — availed themselves of the political prostration of
Portugal to assail her dependencies. It was at this time that Faro,
the seaport of Algarve, was sacked by the English. The colonial
possessions were nearly all invaded. The Portuguese East Indian
empire melted away. In 1594-95, Pernambuco, the capital of the

maritimi

Arguin '

flourishi]

almost d

waters a

a factor]

At 1.

the ausp

in that 3

were exp

prevent

indeed f]

interests

confirmat

coast. A

of the n

European

Whei

was detei

possessior

the Frenc

his empir

establislie

Portuguese

the mout

the east.

so widely

part of I

claim was

THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY

maritime state of the same name in Brazil, was ravaged. Fort
Arguin was taken in the same year, and the Azores in 1596. The
flourishing trade of the Portuguese on the west coast of Africa was
almost destroyed. Even the Danes made their way to the African
waters and established themselves at Tanquebar, where they built
a factory.

At length in 1640, national independence was restored under
the auspices of the House of Braganga. On the 13th of December
in that year, John IV was crowned as sovereign, and the Spaniards
were expelled from the kingdom. The revolution came in time to
prevent the total extinction of the colonial empire of Portugal ;
indeed from the middle of the seventeenth century, the foreign
interests of the mother state revived sufficiently to ensure the
confirmation of Portuguese power at several places on the African
coast. And it is out of these conditions that the territorial dominion
of the mother country still holds a respectable place among the
European provinces of the Dark Continent.

When the territorial and political condition of modern Africa
was determined by the treaty of Vienna, in 1815, the Portuguese
possessions in the South were recognized and guaranteed. Neither
the French ascendency under Napoleon, nor the reaction against
his empire sufficed to subvert an authority which had been so well
established two centuries before, At this time, namely in 1815, the
Portuguese colonies were principally those having for their centers
the mouth of the Congo on the west, and the city of Sofala on
the east. The apposition of these two seats of influence, though
so widely removed, was such as to warrant a vague claim on the
part of Portugal to the whole rmttinenf Jyimj befireen. But such
claim was never recognized by the European nations.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

In the early part of the century, however, extensive explorations
were made by the Portuguese into the interior from Angola on the
western coast and Mozambique on the eastern. One or two expedi-
tions traversed the continent from side to side. It is said that
stations were established along the line of the Zambesi in the very
heart of Afiica. At any rate, the recent period was ushered in
with the African possessions of Portugal as distinctly marked as
those of any other European power. So that when the first great
partition of modern Africa was undertaken by tlie powers at the
Berlin conference of 1884, Portugal had to be recognized with a
proportion of African territory wholly incommensurate ith tlie
insignificant size and fourth-rate rank of the mother kingdom.

In the first place, the Azores and Madeira islands were conceded
at the Berlin Conference. Then in the old Gambia region, at about
ten degrees of north latitude, a portion of coast, with some of
the littoral islands, was assigned to Portugal in recognition of her
ancient claims. In the (Julf of Guinea, also, the islands of Prince
and St. Thomas remained a Portuguese appanage. From the mouth
of the Congo southward to Cape Frio, in latitude eighteen degrees
south, the country of Angola was c(mstituted, being the most
important of all the African possessions of Portugal.

From Cape Fi'io around the southern coast and northward
along the eastern coast, as far as the twenty-seventh degree of
south latitude, the territory was divided annrng the other European
powers; l)iit at the northern extremity of Tongaland the Portuguese
authority was again recognized, and from that point nortliward to
Capo Delgado, just l)elow the tenth parallel, the maritime countiy
of Mozauil)i(iue was constituted as Poutugitese East Africa. This
territory still holds its rank and occupies a most important

relation

Republic

The

and falls

old Portii

which cc

A frican

^^)rtugue

the coast

twentietl

Sofala, w

the west

pleted, ai

in Rhode

Portuguef

east, and

Thus

Portuguej

Africa. I

two coast

or merchi

Angola in

of which

ticable to

Victoria I

at Zumbo,

at its cor

parallel s(

Thouy

THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY

relation to the conflict which has broken out in the South African
Republic.

The Maputa river traverses Portuguese East Africa at the south,
and falls into Delagoa Bay. On the north of this water is situated the
(lid Portuguese colonial town of Lorenzo Marquez. The Limpopo River,
which constitutes a part of the northern boundary of the South
African Republic, flows for more than two hundred miles through
Portuguese East Africa before reaching the ocean. Further along
the coast is the important tov/n of Inhambane, and just* below the
twentieth parallel of south latitude is the ancient colonial seat of
Sofala, with the nearby capital of Beira. From the latter point to
the western boundary of the country, a railway has been com-
])leted, and thence a line is under construction as far as Salisbury,
in Rhodesia. Through a distance of about three hundred miles,
Portuguese East Africa borders the South African Repu})lic on the
east, and thus separates that important country from the sea.

Thus much then, remains to the present day, of the ancient
Portuguese possessions m Africa: Angola and Portuguese East
Africa. Notwithstanding the restriction of these possessions to the
two coasts, east and west, it is nevertheless po.ssible for travelers
or merchants to make their way eastward from Mossamedes in
Angola into the interior as far as the river Zambesi, one tributary
of which borders Angola on the east. From that point it is prac-
ticable to descend the Zambesi across the continent by way of
Victoria Falls to the western boundary of Portuguese East Africa
at Zumbo, and thence with the expanding river to the great delta
at its confluence with the Indian Ocean, about the eighteenth
parallel south.

Thougli at the present time the Portuguese ))ossessions and

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

claims are not so much obtruded into the historical foreground as
are the claims of some of the other powers, the former are never-
theless of great importance as a part of those African territories,
the possession of which is to be determined by the sword.

CECIL RHODES.

;r:'-. v.:^1(,v .:-'WW'"*

^v«^-

-^f'^'

'&£rai

K'~

GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE BRITISH

FORCES IN AFRICA.

CHAPTER III

THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA

Among modern maritime nations, Holland is second to one only,
England. Her geographical position and the genius of her people
have conspired to give her this enviable rank. Once and again the
Dutch have been, not second, but first in the domination of the sea.
This was in the seventeenth century, whm the fleets of Enr'land
herself, went back before the prowess of Van Tromp and De Ruyter.
Time was in a still earlier age, when Dutch ships were second to
none in their ocean flight to distant lands, whether to the Indies in
the East, or to the frozen bay of Hudson, in North America.

The rise of the Netherlands to influence at home and abroad dates
from their great revolt against Spain in the year 1581. Long and
dreadful was the contest which ensued. The Dutch were tried by fire
and by water; for some perished in the flames of the Inquisition, while
hundreds were drowned in their own North Sea, for the inrushing of
which the patriot leaders had broken the dyke.

For nearly seventy years the conflict of the Dutch rebeis with
their merciless adversaries continued. But they issued from their
war of independence with hosannaa and flying banners. Then their
fearless spirit carried them forth to the ends of the earth. Long
before the treat} of Westphalia (1048), when the independence of the
Dutch Netherlands was finally ixknowledged and guaranteed, the
mariners of Holland had become conspicuous for their abilities Jis dis-
coverers, explorers and colonizers. North America received their

(47)

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

impress. The Indies, East and West, knew their forceful visitations,
and Africa felt their tremendous impact.

The revolt of the Netherlands occurred comcidently with the
absorption of Portugal by Spain. With this event all Portuguese
interests, whether at home or abroad, became constructively the
interests of the Spanish crown. In her long war with the armies
of Philip II, Holland might well attack the Portuguese possessions,
since they were the dependencies of Spain. The situation as well
as the spirit of the race brought the Dutch fleets to bear against
the Portuguese, and made the colonial empire of the latter an easy
spoil. Such v/as the coudition which led inevitably to the over-
throw of the East Indian dominion of Portugal, and the substitution
therefor of the Oriental empire of the Netherlands.

The same thing virtually occurred on the coasts of Africa. Here
the Dutch became the aggressors and the conquerors. The first trad-
ing expedition was sent out from the North Sea to Guinea in the year
1595. The ships of the Portuguese and the Spaniards could not with-
stand the onset of the hardy Dutch captains who assailed them.
Neither could the French and English fleets bear the pressure of the
new sea-power rising from the northern ocean.

In a short time, West Africa became the prey of the Dutch. In
the first place, the island of Goree, belonging to France, situated off
the coast of Senagambia south of the Cape Verde group, was pur-
chased, colonized, and fortified. In 1021, the Dutch West India Com-
pany, successor of the Dutch East India Company, was chartered, and
from that time forth the fleets of Holland mado their way west, south
and east. They came upon the Atlantic coast of Africa, and there
wrought havoc with the settlements of other nations.

In 1637, El Mina, the old stronghold of Portugal on the Gold

THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA

Coast, was captured by the Dutch. Soon afterwards Axim was
taken, and the other forts of the European colonists fell one by one.
Wherever the Dutch landed, they first subdued and then fortified.
Their charter gave them the monopoly of trade from the Tropic of
Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope. They proceeded accordingly to
make valid their claim by conquest. They built forts at intervals
all the way from Arguin southward to the extremity of the continent.
The gold coast was, in particular, made secure against the onset of
rivals and enemies. Between Cape Blanco and St. Paul de Loanda
more than two score forts and stations had been established, and of
th'^se the Dutch gained possession of sixteen.

Then followed the opening of trade, or, rather, the transfer of
the trade which the Portuguese had already established to the
merchant ships of Holland.* At first the commerce was mostly of
gold and ivory and pepper. But it was not long until the Dutch
merchants yielded to the same temptation, before which, they of
Lisbon and London had sunk into utter depravity. The slave coast
promised richer reward than did the coast of gold. The man-trade
was more enticing than the trade in tusks and pepper-pods. This
thing, indeed, had been contemplated from the very first ; for the
company was chartered as the Dutch West India Company. Why
West India? —why, but to hint at the slave trade as the principal
business for wiiich the company was licensed? For a long time,
the merchant ships of Protestant Holland were laden to the water
with their cargoes of human chattels. .

Great was the enmity of England on this score. Fain would the

♦The commerce of the Portuguese, Rcoordliig to their own report, whh desorilied ns "a very Brent nnd
H(lvantageou8 inlaiiil trade for some hundreds of lulleN." Nearly nil of this, tunv w""' to the Dutch, and Uio
siiyluK Kot nljroad, that the Portuguese were the "dogs which phased the game outof the Jungle, In order that the
Dutebmiiiht tiikeit "

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

English ships have had a share in the profitable man-trade. The
British planters in the West Indies mouthed not a little because the
Dutch slave-ships brought only the refuse of their traffic to them.
They got only the poorer sort of slaves, while the better were sold
in Hayti and Cuba. The Dutch were monopolists in this traffic, and
the English traders believed in no monopoly save their own. How,
hardly, would the latter consent to pay £20 per head for slaves, when
with an African port of free entry for their own ships, negroes could
be bought or taken for fifty shillings each! Nor do the writings of
the times indicate any sentiment respecting the nefarious merchan-
dise other than the desire to make therefrom the greatest possible
profit !

During the early part of the seventeenth century, the situation
here described, continued to prevail in the Dutch-African dependen-
cies. Frequently in this age, the European nations were so greatly
complicated by war and intrigue, that their outlying possessions were
neglected, if not forgotten, in the deadlier struggle of armies and
navies close to the home kingdoms. Thus, for example ; in the Crom-
wellian era, what could be expected but that the attention of Eng-
land and the proximate continental states should be absorbed in the
vicissitudes of that momentous conflict? Soon afterwards, Holland
and England were engaged in a death-grip on the sea. By a strange
turn of events, however, when the Revolution of 1688 came, William
the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, while retaining his continental
rank, became King of England. The fleets of the kingdom and the
republic were brought into union for fifteen years. For a consider-
able period the two countries made common cause on both land and
sea, contending in a masterful way against the inordinate ambitions
of Louis XIV of France. Even on the African coast, the English and

THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA

Dutch rivalries were aliated, not to break out again until after the
death of William HI.

In the meantime, however, Holland had been keenly alert to
extend her influence in South Africa. Having obtained possession of
the Portuguese East Indian dominions, and having a secure hold on
the west coast, she now sought to establish herself at the southern
extremity of the continent. She was able to perceive that the Cape
of Good Hope, would be, and remain the midway station between
the Occident and the Orient. Accordingly, in 1652, the Dutch estab-
lished themselves at the Cape. The advantages of the si lation
were at once perceived both by the colonists and the public men
of Holland, who promoted the enterprise.

The patronage of the Dutch government was freely extended
to the new dependency; immigration from the home kingdom was
encouraged. Meanwhile the Dutch East India Company, directed
by Jan Van Riebeeck, under whose immediate patronage the colony
at the Cape had been planted, did little to promote, but much to
restrict, the growth of the dependency. What the company desired
was a trading station and not a new state. The settlement of the
Dutch was made on the site of the present Cape Town, and the juris-
diction extended only a few miles into the interior.

Here it was that another point of contact was found by the
Europeans with the native populations. The latter were blacks of
the blackest type. The old name of the tribes occupying this part
of the country was Qua-Qua, or Khoi-khoin, but for some reason this
name was supplanted by that of Hottentots. The latter word seems
to have been invented as an onomatopoetic imitation of the stam-
mering cluck with which the native speech is pronounced. It was
a language of hot-en-(and)-tot. The aborigines were one of the

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

three lowest varieties of human beings; only the neighboring
Bushmans and the natives of Australia could compete with them
for the foot of the class.

Gradually, but slowly, the Dutch extended their authority over
the Cai)e country. The natives were driven into the interior, or
were reduced to slavery. There was already at the Cape a thin
distribution of Europeans, consisting of a melange of Portuguese,
Flemin^-s, Germans, and even Poles. But these were few in num-
bers, and were generally a low kind, intermixed with the natives.
They were unable to oppose the robust Dutch, but the latter were
not sufficiently aggressive and enterprising to convert South Africa
into a great commonwealth.

As the event here referred to, namely, the establishment of
a permanent Dutch settlement at the Cape, was tlie beginning of
that process of colonization which has given the Boer cast to large
districts in the region under consideration, we may look at the
characteristics of this peculiar race. They were from the first a
resolute but strongly conservative people. They had the agricul-
tural instinct; they preferred the country life and production, to
commerce and adventure. They desired to be let alone. They
were annoyed with the restrictions which the East India Company
imposed upon them. That company had a most tyrannical method
which it applied in the government of all its posts and settle-
ments. It did not hesitate to declare what kind of industries the
colonists should follow. They should plant this crop, and should
not plant the other. As for taxation, that was exorbitant. Hardly
could the thrift of the Dutch farmers, handicraftsmen, and small
traders, answer the demands of the despotic organization which
controlled them.

THE DUTCH ENTER AFKIOA

In order to meet the requirements of theii* condition, the 13oers
treated the natives with severity, and gradually took possession of
a considerable district of the Hottentot country. Many of the
blacks were reduced to slavery. The slave contingent was increased
by the importation of both Malays and negroes. On the whole,
while the local industry was sufficient, and while the contentment
of the African Dutch was marked, the colony was not '" progressive,"
and therefore it did not harmonize with the spirit and purjjose of
the English who came after them.

Such were the conditions in the original settlement from which
the Boer countries of South Africa have drawn, in large measure,
their present character. The interval from 1652 to 1086 may be
designated as the first period of the Dutch ascendency at the
Cape. In the last named year, a new element was added to the
population, very accordant withal with the sjiirit of the Dutch
colonists. The Protestant Huguenots of France, escai)ing from the
dreadful persecutions to which they were subjected after the revoca-
tion of the Edict of Nantes, sought peace in the ends of the earth.
One refuge was in America, and another v/as at the Cape of Good
Hope. The Dutch received them willingly, and a certain enthusiasm
came with the importation of Gallic blood.

The Boers, who may from this period be regarded as native
and to the manner born in South Africa, l)ecame a separate people.
They grew more and more restive under the exactions of the Dutch
East India Company, to which corporation the home government
gave the right of control, and at length, they rebelled against this
state of affairs. They went so far as to adopt the policy of removing
beyond the colonial borders in order to escape from the tyrannical
rule to which they were subjected.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

This policy of the Dutch, now becoming Boers, was first adopted
before the close of the seventeenth century. Boer settlements began
to be formed across the boundary. A movement took place among
them in all respects analogous to that of the removal of the American
colonists westward through the wilderness. It was this condition
which in ])oth South Africa and America has thrust the more
liberty-loving people further and further into the interior. In all
ages, human freedom has sought the frontier as a refuge from the
despotism and mercenary control of the older communities.

The policy, thus adopted by the Boers two centuries ago, has
been pursued by them ever since. Their first escape was from the
tyrannous rule of their own government. They first colonized an
interior district called Graaf-Reinat, and whenever afterward the
colonial government, either Dutch or British, has encroached upon
the interior provinces, the Boer population has followed the policy
of receding before the aggressive foreign power, choosing indepen-
dence rather than empire.

During the early part of the eighteenth century, the Gamtoos
River was adopted and held by the Dutch as the eastern limit of
their territory. This stream had hitherto been accepted by the
Hottentots and the Kaffirs as the boundary line between them.
The Gamtoos, therefore, became the demarcation between the Dutch
on the west, and the Kaffir nations on the east. This vent into new
territory sufficed for colonial expansion until the year 1740, when
the Boers crossed over the Gamtoos into the Kaffir territory, and
began to make settlements in that country. A clash ensued, and
the natives were obliged to recede, though the Boers did not try to
oppress them. The country was wide and sparsely inhabited, and
thus gave opportunity for colonization by the European intruders.

<
u

H
Z

The mc

the Kaffir (

Kiver, thenc

began befor

until the Or

stituted as t

this progress

River, which

tion in 1795,

revolution fr(

the dominior

independence

The Dut(

continental r

Hereupon Grc

their grip on

seized by the

of the counti

uuich disturba

over tliem.

maintained un

^vas restored t(

Four year

more violence

Jigain took i)osi

tained for nine

of Vienna. A n

were effected ii

(ape Colony w;

THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA

The movement of the Dutch inland, from Cape Colony towards
the Kaffir country and through it in the direction of the Orange
River, thence to the Vaal and the Buffalo, and finally to the Limpopo,
hegan before the middle of the eighteenth century and continued
until the Orange Free State and South African Republic were con-
stituted as the seats of the Boer concentration. By the year 1780.
this progressive drift of population had extended to the Great Fish
River, which was for a period the Boer frontier. Such was the situa-
tion in 1795, when the colonists at the Cape, catching the fever of
revolution from Western Europe, determined to free themselves from
the dominion of the home kingdom. They revolted and declared
independence.

The Dutch authorities were at this time hard pressed by the
continental revolution which had extended into the Netherlands.
Hereupon Great Britain, seeing the inability of the Dutch to keep
their grip on South Africa, and fearing that that country might be
seized by the French, sent a fleet to the cape and took possession
of the country in the name of the Prince of Orange. Without
much disturbance to the colonists, British authority was established
over tliem. A British governor was appointed, and peace was
maintained until 1802, when, by the treaty of Amiens, Cape Colony
was restored to Holland.

Four years afterwards, th(^ continental war broke out witli
more violence than ever, and tli*; British, under Sir David Baird,
again took possession in Soutli Africa. This assunn)ti()n was main-
tained foi" nine years, when it was confirmed forever, at the Congress
of Vienna. A new map of the world was there constructed. Changes
were effected in all the continents and in most of the archipelagos.
Cape Colony was ceded by tiie King of the Netherlands to Great

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Britain, together witii Ceylon. Dutch Guiana, MauritiuKS, Tobago,
Malta, and Helgoland. The aggregate result was to make the
future possessions of the Dutch in South Africa an inland cl'minion.
British Cape Colony was now made to extend from the mouth of
the Orange River all the way around the southern bend of the con-
tinent to the mouth of the Tugela. As for the Boers, they virtually
lost their sfatfihood and became a peoplf, without definite territorial
demarcations.

Such is the story of the Dutch in South Africa down to the
Berlin Conference of 1884. After that date, a number of European
states appeared on the map, the history of each of which the Orange
Free State and the South African Republic included, will be noted
in subsequent chapters down to the time of the Jameson episode.

CHAPTER IV

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

Little progress was made b\^ England on the coast of Africa until
after the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration of the
Monarchy. We have narrated the desultory adventures of Windham,
Lok, and Towrson, acting under the patent given, in 1588, by Eliza-
beth to the first African company. Her successor, in 1618, granted
a charter to a second company ; but this enterprise also was com-
paratively barren of results. The second company did indeed make
its way to the west coast, and from thence the English strove ^o
reach the gold and gem-bearing mines of Timbuctoo.

Tt appears that the prevailing error in geography, which made
the river Gambia, as well as the Senegal, to l)e a tributary of the
Niger, prevented the expedition from reaching the goal. Other voy-
ages and marches inland followed, but these also were attended
with unsuccess. Meanwhile, the managers of the company became
convinced that in the mixture of gold and fable with which they
had been allured, the fable so outmeasured the gold as to suggest
the abandonment of the enterprise.

The charter issued b.v King Charles I, in 1031, was hardly more
successful than its predecessors in promoting the project of African
colonization. This third company directed a commercial fleet to the
valley of the (Jambia. Trade was opened with the natives of that
region, but the project of colonizing hardly proceed(Ml beyond the
pliin. Tn the meantime, the English monarchy was assailed l)y the

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

insurgent people, and foreign enterprises were swallowed up in the
swirl of revolution and civil war.

After the death of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, the
resignation of his son, and the recall, in 1660, of Charles II to
the throne of his ancestors, the English monarchy settled again into
its accustomed habits, and oiterprise abroad was slowly revived. In
1662, nfoiuih English African Company was chartered by the king.
A fleet was sent into the river Gambia, and on James Island, in that
stream, the first British fort within the boundaries of the dark
continent was built. This event was coincident with the planting
of their first colony by the Dutch at the Cape of (Jood Hope. We
have, in the preceding chapters, traced the vicissitudes of that
settlement down to the time of its absorption by the British in
the epoch of the Napoleonic wars. We have also seen a confir-
mation of that conquest by the Congress of Vienna. By that body
Cape Colony was recognized as a British dependency, and from this
event dates tiie beginning of the ascendency of (Jreat Britain in
South Africa.

Territorially, and in a general way, the country kncwn as Cape
Colony is that region at the southern extreniity of the continent
bounded by the ocean, and, on the north, by r.he south branch of the
Orange river. That river was contemplated, though not declared, as
the northern limit l)y the ambassadors at Vienna in 1815. The map
thus reconstructed, at the downfall of Napoleon, showed the unmis-
takable signs of the oncoming supremacy of Great Britain by land and
sea. It indicated that her political power and commercial leadership
siiould not again be seriously dis})uted until some new order should
come into the world in obedience to those general historical laws
by which the world is governed. Great Britain planted herself in

her SoutI
illimitabL
She also
continent
Four
between
yield thei
superiority
and domin
men had j
for them i
the courag
position of
sion of an
resented tl
can pione
American
seekers an
explorers v
justificatioi
The fir
and this wi
to the rivei
the next yt
set in. Al
Bay on the
ward, and
former city,
districts of i

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

her South African dependency, and looked complacently across the
illimitable sea — westward to South America, eastward to the Indies,
She also hegayi to look northward into the interior of the great
continent upon which she had obtained so firm a footing.

Four years before the Congress of Vienna, the first trouble
between the British and Kaffirs occurred. Savage peoples do not
yield their sovereignty simply because of an assertion of w*hite
superiority. The Kaffirs observed the marcli of British enterprise
and domination with suspicioi: and ill-concealed dislike. Many hardy
men had penetrated far into the unknown interior, and it was easy
for them to see that great wealth awaited there for those who had
the courage to attempt its development. The Kaffir was much in the
position of the American Indian — both had long been in the posses-
sion of an enticing portion of tlie earth's surface and both fiercely
resented the invasion of the forces of '•ivilization. The South Afri-
can pioneers suffered much as tiie bold men who gave the great
American West, with its agriculture, forests and mines, to the home-
seekers and enterprise of the world. Several of these British
explorers were killed by the Kaffirs. This was considered ample
justification for punisliing them. Then came their partial subjection.

The first Kaffir war of 1811 was succeeded l)y another in 1819,
and this was concluded by the extension of the British boundaries
to the river Koiskamma, For a while this expansion sufficed. In
the next year after the war, emigration from the homo kingdom
set in. About five thousand British newcomers arrived at Algoa
Bay on the southern coast. They spread around eastward and west-
ward, and founded Graliamstown and Elizabeth. The site for the
former city, which may be regarded as the metropolis of the eastern
districts of Cape Colony, had already been selected as a headquarters

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

in 1812. Grahamstown is sitnuted forty miles inland from the mouth
of the Great Fish and Kowie rivers. Already, in 1819, the place
had been attacked by the Kaffirs. Grahamstown was henceforth the
center of what was called the "Albany Settlement." As the town
developed it became, from its situation which is picturesque, from its
style of buildings, and from the character of its inhabitants, the most
English of all the South African towns.

Elizabeth was founded on the west side of Algoa Bay, on the pro-
jection called Point Elizabeth. This city, also, was destined in the
course of the century to become a thriving seat of trade to which an
extensive agricultural and pastoral region contributed many and val-
uable products.

The fourth decade of tlie ninoceenth century is noted as the time
at which slavery was abolished in the colonial dependencies of Great
Britain. An agitati( i had come on in the home kingdom which not
even Tory conservatism could longer resist. A measure was carried
through Parliament to reduce West Indian slavery to a system of
"apprenticeship," with compensation to the masters. In South Africa,
the compensation was not necessary, since most of the slaveholders
were not English but Boers. However just the action of Great
Britain, it entailed great loss to the Boers.

Slavery was not particularly advantageous to the British mer-
chants and adventurers, governors and soldiers of the countries of the
Cape, but it was the favorite institution of the Boers. The abolition
fell upon them and for the time disrupted their system. The Hotten-
tots and Negroes whom the Boers had held in bondage escaped from
their control. As a matter of fact, this was the first great measure
which opened a fissure in the social and civil purposes of the Boers on
the one side and the British on the other.

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

Already, as we have seen, the Boers had discovered the only feas-
ible metliod of avoidance as it respected British aggression. This was
to recede l)efore the aggressors, and find new seats in the interior,
'i^he measure, however, was by no means agreeable to the govei-ning
class; for Britisii policy does not willingly contemplate a reduced
population. It is more [)roHtable to liarvest the resources of a thickly
populated country than to gather commercial advantage from a
sparcely settled or depopulated region.

The Boers found the method of removal advantageous, both as an
escape from conditions which they did not like and as a protest against
British aggression. Accordingly, when they lost their slaves in 1884,
they prepared for emigration. In the following two years they sold
their farms, getting for them whatever they could (generally oidy a
tithe of what they were worth), and began an exodus from Cape Col-
ony across the Orange River. The enterprise was attended with tlio
greatest hardships. It might almost suggest the removal of the Mor-
mons from the Mississippi to Great Salt Lake — though the distance of
the migration of the Boers was incomparable to the other. The latter
had to penetrate wild countries, crossing rivers and mountains, and
combating with the tierce Kaffirs before they secuired a safe footing
within the country now known as Natal.

The leader of the Boers in this anabasis through the wilderness
was Peter Retief. The course of the migration lay across the Drakens-
berg range. Not only must the Boers contend with the Kaffirs for
the new territory, but they were obliged to resist the Zulus on the
other side.

The Dutch farmers evidently supposed that this exodus and
the establishment of a Republic in Natal would forever rid them
of the domination of the British. But it was not to be so, as

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

they had simply retreated into territory which Great Britain had
more or less vaguely claimed as a part of her South African
possessions. As early as 1842, the British power was felt in
Natal. For six years, tlie Boer Republic maintained a quasi-
independence; but British subjects entered the country, and then
complained of the abuses to ,vh:ch they were subjected. Petitions
wore made to the aut: "i .- s of Cape Colony in which Natal was
represented as being in ^ r 'ess condition. It w^as alleged that
the foreign population could U'o>, have their rights in the Boer
Republic.

At this time Sir Harry Smith was Governor of Cape Colony,
and to him the appeal of the British beyond the Orange was made.
He accordingly declared that British sovereignty extended over
Natal, and a military force was sent to make good the assumption.
That part of the country which was occupied by the immigrant
Boers was designated as the Orange River Sovereignty.

The Dutch people thus found themselves in the same predic-
ament as before. Such was the animosity against the administra-
tion of Sir Harry Smith that the standard of rebellion was raised.
The Boers now found a worthy leader in Andrew Pretorius, around
whom the insurgents rallied, and them he led with an increasing
throng across the Drackensberg Mountains. On the western side,
the Boers wdio had remained in Cape Colony, rallied in great
numbers, and the rebellion for a season seemed to promise success.
But the British governor ai the head of a division of troops
entered the disturbed district beyond the Orange, and met the
Boers at a place called Boem Plaats. Here a battle was fought,
and the Dutch were defeated. They were not, however, destroyed,
uor was their spirit broken. On the contrary, they clung to their

leader, ai

enemies.

The

Orange tl:

ceived th(

power \vh

tori us an

fugitives 1

Vaal seen

foreseen t]

stream. 1

northern 1:

and consti

northern b

The re

country be,

chapter de^

here, howe\

and irrecon

from the bo

numbers re

branches of

resist the ii

the master

♦Theclrcums
the century. Each
cation and death wj
wagon. The Dutch
schoonerlike, and lo
of housing the oocu
wasns picturesque a
It is their protest, as

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

leader, and once more adopted the policy of receding before their
enemies. They accordingly trekked before them to the north.*

The Boers had believed that when they had crossed the
Orange they would be safe from pursuit in Natal. They now con-
ceived the project of escaping finally from the influence of that
power which hung upon their rear. Now it was that under Pre-
torius another migration was undertaken, and this time the
fugitives fixed their eyes on the distant river Vaal. To cross the
Vaal seemed to promise ultimate and unbroken safety. It was
foreseen that Great Britain might claim sovereignty as far as that
stream. The Vaal, with the Buffalo as its tributary, is the great
northern branch of the Orange, flowing west across the continent,
and constituting to this day, in the greater part of its course, the
northern boundary of Cape Colony and the Orange State.

The results of the movement of the Boers from Natal to the
country beyond the Vaal, we shall reserve for consideration in the
chapter devoted to the South African Republic. It should be noted
here, however, that not all of the Boers, but only the unconquerable
and irreconcilable part of the population, joined in the movement
from the borders of Kaffraria toward the Vaal and beyond it. Great
numbers remained in the In-oad territories between the two major
branches of the Orange. These, however, did not cease to resent and
resist the imposition of British authority. Their attitude towards
the master power was such that the Cape Government began to

*The circumstances here narrated led to a rurious hit of phrasoology which has survived to the close of
the century. Each withdrawal of the Uoers was bitterly opposed by the governing ISritish class, and confis-
cation and death were denounced against all who should attemvit to trek; that is, to draw away or travel by
wagon. The Dutch in their own speech, trekked away into the interior. They had great wagons, huge and
schoonerlike, and long teams of oxen. The wagons were built bo as to serve the purpose of removal and also
of housing the occupants. The lioers for a season lived in houses on wheels. Their trekking into the inlci or
was as picturesque as it was pathetic. To trek lias been the resort of the Uoers for more than half a century;
it is their protest, as well as their style of travel.

THE STOUV OF 80UTH AFRICA

hedge against the consecjuences of its own siiecess. It was found to
be well-nigh impossible to govern in a country, the people of which
did not in some measure consent.

The trouble became at length so serious in the so called Oiange
River Sovereignty, that, in bsr)4, the government at Cape Town
renounced the suzerainty, and the Boer settlers actually obtained
control of their own country. The stat(; of affairs had in the mean-
time produced a scandal in London. The home government, dis-
satisfied with results of Sir Harry Smith's administration, sent out
Sir (Jeorge Clerk, as special commissioner to make a complete
remission of authority in the region north of the south branch of

the Orange river.

The inhabitants of the country rejoiced greatly in the advantage
which they luid gained, and proceeded to organize the broad district
south of the Vaal upon a basis which became in course of time the
Orange Free State. The form of government was republican
throughout. A president was elected by the people. Bloemfontein
became the capital. A legislature, called in the vernacular the
Volksraad, or l^eople's Council, was chosen by a system of suffrage
which was virtually universal. Thus, north of the Vaal and south
of the Vaal, the foundations were laid for the two robust Boer
republics of eastern South Africa.

About the time of these events, another matter, not territorial,
but social, and yet of great importance, arose in the history of
Cape Colony. In 1848, as the reader of general history will remem-
ber, the spirit of revolution \vas universal throughout Europe. The
home kingdom of Great Britain w^as troubled not a little by the
uprising. Ireland was distracted. Persecutions and prosecutions
of political offenders became tiie order of the day. Crime other

GREAT BRITAIN (JAINS A FOOTING

m
H

than political also flourished. Tlio jails and prisons were tilled to
repletion.

Just at this juncture, the vent for the disposal of criminals by
their transportation to Australia was closed. The protests and
resistance of the people of New South Wales and Tasmania prevailed
over an expediency w^liich was in itself a crime. Beating about for
an alternative, the government in 1848 issued orders through the
Secretary of State to deport the prisoners on hand ''to such colonies
as he (the Secretary) might think proper." A shipload of two
hundred and eighty-nine convicts was accordingly made up and
sent to Cape Colony. The cargo included among the "criminals"
John Mitchel, the Irish revolutionist, who had been sentenced to
fourteen years' banishment from England, who subsequently became
in the United States a historical character, and finally attained a
membership in Parliament.

The intelligence of the coming of a shipload of convicts produced
great excitement at the Cape. The people became rebellious. The
local new^spapers fanned the flame. An Anti-Convict Association
was formed, and the members pledged themselves to dwell not
among, trade not with, touch not the garments of as many as were
engaged in the nefarious business. The Neptune, that being the
name of the convict ship, at last reached Simon's Bay, but was
obliged to anchor off shore. The Governor tried to carry into effect
the purposes ^)f the home authorities, but he was thwarted by the
people. Then ho was obliged to wait until new orders should come
from London.

Great Britain evidently had no desire to get embroiled ir a
serious altercation with her South African subjects over such a
matter. The home government wisely receded from its position.

THE STCRY OF SOUTH AFRICA

This incident had a much wider political significance than it would
at first appear on the surface and the results were varied.

In the end the threatening affair in Cape Colony worked
out its own solution. Orders were sent from England that the
Neptune should proceed to Van Diemen's Land and discharge the
convicts on that unresisting shore. It is, however, in the nature of
movements of this kind, not to cease when they are satisfied. The
reaction against an abuse, or an attempted abuse, in civil polity, carries
far. The colonists at the Cape, having won their contention, proceeded
to fortify, as it were, against another invasion of their rights. They
demanded home government. Earl Grey the colonial secretary, had
already intimated his willingness to concede free representation and
a local assembly to the people of the Cape. Accordingly, in 1853, a
constitution was granted, and the present government of Cape
Colony, quite liberal in its provisions, was established.

A./eady the growing power of Great Britain in South Africa had
alarmed the inhabitants of all the neighboring native states. This
was true in particular of the tribes inhabiting the region now known
as Kaffraria. These people foresaw their own extinction or total sup-
pression by the alien race. Delusions began to appear among them;
tl iv old ethnic superstitions were invoked, as if soothsayers could
save the falling institutions of the fathers. A strange i)rophecy went
abroad to the effect that [f the people would kill themselves, they would
presently rise from the dead, regenerated in strength, and that thus
the nation might be redeemed.

Tiiis unprecedented niethod of defense was actus'lly adopted by
the West KalHrs, and, according to the estimates, about lifty thousand
men, ])eing approxiniately one-third of the whole nation, committed
suicide! AH that part of Kaffraria next to Cape Colony was virtually

depopulate
considered
of occupat
quickly ope
of British 1
This un
pean armies
ing. Anion
been attach
numbering ;
leave a povv
development
tions, howev
that portion
with the ma
toral Divisio
addition of
commonweal
and this was
Not unti
prises become
railway, exte
tance of jiboi
the harbor in
the great bi-e
ever, than nn
l'S07, of the
The first finds
around to the

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

lis
m

»P-

lid

mt
lid
I us

Ind
red

illy

depopulated. The removal of these fierce men was naturally not
considered as a great loss by the British, as it lightened the process
of occupation, and new colonists were enabled to rush in and
quickly open up the country. Thus were soon laid the foundations
of British Kaffraria.

This uncanny event happened in 1857. At that time the Euro-
pean armies which had participated in the Crimean war were return-
ing. Among the rest was a so-called "German legion," which had
been attached to the British forces on the Black Sea. This legion,
numbering about two thousand men, was released into Kaffraria, to
leave a powerful social and industrial impression upon the material
development and race character of the country. The local institu-
tions, however, grew up in the British fashion, and after eight years
that portion of Kaffraria here under consideration was incorporated
with the major province. The new district was entitled the "Elec-
toral Divisions of King William's Town and East London." This
addition of territory, together with the growing interests of the
commonwealth, called for an enlargement of constitutional privileges,
and this was granted by the home government in 1S()5.

Not until after the middle of the present century did public enter-
prises become active in Cape Colony. In LSI)!], the first South African
railway, extending from Cape Town to Wellington, was built, a dis-
tance of about seventy-five miles. Already, three years previously,
the harbor in Table Bay liad been made secure ))y the completion of
the great breakwater which still protects it. Movo important, how-
ever, than any of the internal improvements was the discovery, in
181)7, of the diamond fields in the districts north of the Oi-ange River.
The lirst finds were made ni (Triciuahnid, where the Vaal river bending
around to the south, makes iUs way down to the Orange. As soon as

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the lirst discoveries were announced, the whole world of adventure,
wearying somewhat of California and Australia, held up its hands in
joy. There was an eager rush into the land of promise, and Griqua-
land was at once annexed to the territories of the British crown!

The reader will not fail to note the location in this district,
namely, in the bend of the Vaal between the Modder and the
Garib, of the town and diamond-field of Kimberley. This region is
likely to hold a conspicuous record as one of the critical points of
modern history. The place, which was formerly called New Rush,
is the capital of Grriqualand West. Its development in the last
quarter of the centary has been one of the most remarkable com-
mercial enterprises of the world. The diamond mining industry,
in a large sense, dates ?rom the year 1871. The town of Kimberley
sprang into existence, and at the close of the ninth decennium had
a fluctuating population of 28,000 people. In 1874. when the gold
mines of Leydenberg in the Transvaal were discovered, almost the
whole population of Kimberley made a rush for the new Eldorado,
but the town soon filled ui) again, partly with natives. ])ut mostly
with transitory adventurers.

The exigencies of the affairs in the diamon<l lields made neces-
sary the ))uilding of a railway from the mines to Cape Town.
This line has been gradually extended in a direction east of north
about seven hundred miles to Bulawayo. the capital of l^hodesip..
The thoroughfare skirts the Orange Free State and the South
African Republic on the west, and furnishes to Great Britain her
longest and most important line of interior communication in the
country below the 20th i)a,rallol of latitude.

The reference to the Cape Town and Kimberley railway suggests
a furthei' notice of the lines which iiavo been developed in Ca[)e

Colony, a
the Dutc
False Ba}
to Ookiep
constructf
a l)ranc]i
from De 1
with the
one of th
stretches i
and thenc(
in the nor
• a line run;
Bay. Fro
southeastei
to Durban,
London on
Aliwal, on
line reachei
two liundre
these railw
187G. when
the construi
To all 1
Rhodes and
always con
Pietersburg
Rhodesia, n
Sudan of E

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

r
lo

Colony, iiud from thence northward into the two free republics of
the Dutch. At the Cape, a short line extends northwai-d from
False Bay to Malmesbury. On the west coast, from Port Nolloth
to Ookiep, in Great Bushmanland, another short railway has been
constructed. From Worcester, about eighty miles from Cape Town,
a l)ran{'h has been built in the direction of Ashton. Further north
from De Aar, a branch has been laid to the point of intersection
with the Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein railway. The latter is
one of the most important in the country; fv^r this line also
stretches from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg, thence to Pretoria,
and thence northward (partly uncompleted in 1890) to Pietersburg,
in the north center of the South African Republic. From Pretoria
• a line runs almost due eastward to Lorenzo i\[arquez on Delagoa
Bay. From Johannesburg an important railway extends in a
southeasterly direction by way of Ladysmith and Pieternniritzburg
to Durban, the capital and seaport of Natal. Finally, from East
London on the coast, a line runs in a northerly direction to
Aliwal, on the boundary of the Orange Free Sttite; while another
line reaches from Poijit Alfred, east of Elizabeth, to Naauw Poort,
two hundred and seventy miles in the interior. In tlie building of
these railways, the Imperial government came t(» the rescue in
1876, when a subsidy of live million pounds was voted to aid in
the construction of the four trunk lines.

To all this should be added that the railway ambition of Cecil
Rhodes and his coadjutors m the closing years of the century
always contemplated the 'xten^don of the system, either from
Pietersburg in the South African Uepublic, or from Bulawayo, in
Rhodesia, northward through tlie valley of the Zambesi to the
Sudan of Egypt, and tlnally, down the Nile to Cairo a project

""'irrmHi i iaM i i iii

THE ^TORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

whic^L i''t' the extent of country and difficulties to be surmounted,
nay well remind the reader of the enterprise of building the
Canadian Pacific railway, as the problem stood at the time of the
Confederation.

The development of British power in South Africa was seriously
impeded in the sixth, seventh, and eighth decades, by the resistance
of the native races. In this interval, one complication succeeded
another. War followed war, but always ended with the advance-
ment of the British frontier to the north and east.

In the first place, the Basutos, one branch of the Bechuana
Kaffirs, became embroiled with the Boers, whom they fought, after
the so-called Orange River Sovereignty was abandoned by the
British. The continuance of the struggle gave the desired oppor-
tunity to the colonial government at Cape Town to secure the favor
of the Basutos, who at length petitioned the British Government
to take them in. The wing of Cape Colony was accordingly extended
over Basutoland in 1808, and three years afterwards that region
was incorporated as an integral ]iart of tlif ' 'ape territories.

The next additions to British South Afiica were made in the
years 1874-75. At this period, large districts of Kafi'raria, both
north and south, were added. East (iriqualand. lying immediately
south of Natal, was next incorporated. Generally these increments
of territory, numy of them large enough for the formation of great
states, were obtained with the virtual consent of I he inhabitants. The
plausibility of the i)ropositions made by the British authority, the
promises of peace and better government, and the holding out of
inducements for the local development of great industries, generally
prevailed with tiif> natives wif iiout a resort to war on the part of
the stronger power

IP
L

ir>

w
w

X
u

■4

Thus, a
in South A
River, and
time the a1
more than
and they bi
ence, the q
Several
to revive th
Henry M. St
ning, notin<
more accural
men respecti
David L:
an exploi-er
in 1849; Vict
and Ujiji in
Jifter his resc
of Aijril, 187
among the in
After Li\
explorers. Ii
London Telegi
following ye:i
years 187()-77.
1 lead waters of
Hie solution o
of Africa was
In 1879, S

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

Thus, at the conclusion of the eighth decennium, British authority
in South Africa had extended northward to the line of the Orange
River, and on the east to the southern uorder of Natal. By this
time the attention of all the enlightened nations had been turned
more than hitherto to this, the least civilized of the continents,
and they began to consider, first tacitly, and then in open confer-
ence, the question, what shall we do with it ?

Several circumstances and conditions contributed at this epoch
to revive the interest of mankind in Africa. In November of 1871,
Henry M. Stanley found David Livingstone at Ujiji. It was the begin-
ning, not indeed of modern exploration and discovery, but rather of a
more accurate knowledge than had ever before been attained by white
men respecting the African interior.

David Livingstone had already been for more than twenty years
an explorer in the Dark Continent. He had discovered Lake Ngami
in 1849; Victoria Falls in 1855, Nyassa in 1859, Tanganyika in 1867,
and Ujiji in 1869. One year and a half of life still remained to him
ufter his rescue by Stanley. He died at Lake Bangweolo on the 30th
of April, 1873; his body was transported to England for interment
among the immortals of Westminster Abbey.

After Livingstone, Stanley himself became the greatest of recent
explorers. In 1874 he was sent by the New York Herald and the
London Telegraph to make an expedition into Central Africa. In the
following year, he circumnavigated the Victoria Nyanza. In the
years 1876-77, he discovered Albert Eflward Nyanza, and finding the
lieadwaters of the Congo descended that river to its mouth. This was
the solution of the great problem. The gener l1 nature of tho interior
of Africa was henceforth known.

In 1879, Stanley was sent back under the patronage of the Iiiter*

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

luitioiial African Association to explore and colonize the valley of the
Con^'o. For this great river he suggested the new name of Living-
stone, and that name, at tlie present day, contends with Congo in
geographical nomenidature. The indefatigable explorer was largely
instrumental in founding the Congo Free State. Subsequently he
particii)aled in the Bei-lin Conference of 1SS4-85, which had been
called to "oi'sider and solve, if practicable, the problem of Africa.
Stanley's explomtions and the ])Ooks which he published, based as
they were, parti} on the preceding work of Livingstone, but more
largely on the suggestions of his own adventurous genius, contributed
greatly to the roused-up interest of the world in the African continent.

We may here consider for a moment the mainsprings of motive
in the activity of men and nations, respecting the development of
Africa, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The question
brings us to the bottom philosophy of human nature; also, to the
n.iture of communities, o^ peoples, of .stLv'"es and kingdoms. It is the
peculiarity of our kind that the moral «( use of the race has risen to
a higher level than its practical action. The race knows better than
it acts. Conduct is discordant with conscience and the discernment
of right. Tlie inner sense of right, therefore, in the individual, in
the community, in the state, forces the action to ascribe to itself
a false motive as its origin. The action is shame^l when con-
fronted Willi the real motive, and hyi)ocrisy comes to the rescue.
A large [)art of the intellectual ingenuity of mankind in modern
times has been expended in inventing respectable motives, and in
bolstering them up with soi)hisms in order that they may masquerade
in the procession of iruih and righteousness.

In ihe case before us, ihe parties principally concerned in the
unfolding of Africa have all the time claimed that they are inspired

'>y the phila
redeeming a
iiients of th(
hope of iidvi
\vhich have ]

Perhaps
J'H^ged. It is
ill the wake i
by subjugatio
of a country;
the evils done
birth is one o
The suppressio
the incursion <
court of consc
which the wor
All that (
Destiny may n
cruel as they a
'nankmd. And
^^'f'ely participa
tillable deeds, i
tlie same time
warrant the thi:
Tn this conr
iiH the other cc
suddenly brough
a standstill. To
battling, Africa

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

•n

Lll

by the philanthropic consideration of civilizing barbarous races and
redeeming a continent from savagery. In point of fact, the move-
ments of the various parties have nearly all been inspired by the
liope of advantage to the men, the organizations, and the states,
which have patronized the several enterprises.

Perhaps this double-faced condition should not be too harshly
judged. It is true that the higher forms of civilization do follow
in the wake even of conquest. Progress is not caused by invasion,
by subjugation, by the imposition of a higher race on the aborigines
of a country; for that were impossible. Progress follows in spite of
the evils done. That civilization should have this hard and criminal
birth is one of the irreconcilable facts of our present fallible state.
The suppression and extinction of the native races in a country by
the incursion of the stronger nations can never be justified in the
court of conscience, or at the bar of that immutable justice by
which the Avorld is said to be governed.

All that can be said, therefore, is that Destiny (whatever
Destiny may mean) seems to have adopted the destroying forces,
cruel as they are, in order to make a way for the higher life of
mankind. And all that may be said for the actors is that they
iiT'ely participate in the immoral drama of their age, doing unjus-
titiable deeds, promoting cruelty and rapacious aggression, and at
the same time inventing excuses that may seem to justify or
warrant the things done.

In this connection we should note also that the filling up of
ull the other continents had, at the epoch under consideration,
suddenly brought the roving and adventurous part of mankind to
It standstill. To this element of everlasting mutation and frontier
I rattling, Africa offered a vent. There lay a vast continent into

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

which the modern sea-kings of the deep and the semi-brigand
cohorts of the landside might turn and find satisfaction. The invi-
tation was urgent. The American reader shoukl not forget that
the single vallej' of the Congo, from the falls to the sea, is as vast,
as fertile, as promising in all the elements of human development,
as is the valley of the Mississippi fiT»m the confluence of the
Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico!

It is in the light of these facts and deductions that the African
enterprises of the European nations in the eighth and ninth
decades of our century must be understood. Africa was the only
remaining field for adventure. The rush turned thither because it
must. In America, the vast countries west of the Mississippi had
been opened and traversed in the preceding interval. The Pacific
railways had freely discharged the millions into the Western
States and Territories. The Pacific shores were reached, and there
tJiK.s-far was written in the sands. Africa remained. And after
Africa ? The future shall reveal, in several ages of war and
bloodshed and readjustment, what the nations will then do to
appease the unquenchable spirit which has thus far sought and
found equipoise and satisfaction in the discovery and conquest of
new lands. Will the nations turn upon each other and conquer
and exterminate until only one remains ? Perhaps that one will
be lonesome in the waste !

Returning from this digression, a few words may be added
relative to the evolution of civil governmeut in Cape ' 'olony and
the annexed territories under British rule. It should be remem-
bered that fundamentally the civil organization was Dutch. In the
Dutch epoch a simple style of government had been invented.
The administrative powers consisted of a governor called the

Lamlrost an
Ins council
duties. The
authorities,
Jil)olished it.
separated frc
In 1837,
of a legislat
force until tl
instrument tl
The governor
office for six
two chamber;
office and the
erty qualficati
In the ye
constituencies
Jitive capacity
under the nev
ministry respc
ceeds from th
of the govern!
Important ine£
Imperial govei
In the mea
in cocirdinatioi
•ilways kept in
Hie year 1839, u
scheme being t

GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING

lad
ific
ern
ere
ter
lul
to
nd
of
[uer
will

Ided
and
iem-

tlir
ited.

the

Landrost and a council called the Ilceniraadot. The governor and
his council attended not only to executive, but also to judicial
duties. The method was so autocratic that, iu 1827, the British
authorities, who had accepted the sj'stem from their predecessors,
abolished it. For the next ten years, the judicial functions were
separated from the governor and his council board.

In 1837, a still larger reform was effected by the establishment
of a legislative council. This form of government continued in
force until the new constitution was promulgated in LS.')-]. By this
instrument the civil system was made more regular and eflicient.
The governor, appointed by the Colonial Secretary, should hold his
office for six years. The legislative body should be constituted of
two chambers; a council and a popular assembly. Eligibility to
office and the electoral franchise should be guarded by stout prop-
erty qualfications.

In the year 1873, there was an electoral reft)rm by which the
constituencies throughout the colony were equalized in represent-
ative capacity. The property qualifications, however, were retained
under the new system, which included, as one of its features, a local
ministry responsible to the colonial parliament. Legislation pro-
ceeds from the parliamentary body, but is subject to the approval
of the governor who acts in the name of Her Majesty the Queen.
Important measures are subject to the reversal and review of the
Imperial government within two years after their enactment.

In the meantime, a military system was promoted in Cape Colony
in coordination with the division of the Imperial troops, which were
always kept in garrison or on duty in the interior. Beginning with
the year 1839, a system of public education was promoted, the original
scheme being the work of the astronomer, Sir John llerschel. The

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

{./

^ .>\

1.0

I.I

S"" |2j2

£ la IIP

J5 iU

'>>

Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

as WIST MAIN STRUT

WHSTM.N.Y. MSIO

(716) •7a-4S03

^ .<^^.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

analysis of the system includes undenominational public schools; mis-
ionary schools; schools for the natives, and colleges at Cape Town,
Graaf-Rienet, Elizabeth, Somerset East, and the Dutch Theological
Seminary at Stellenbosch. To this should be added a system of
public specialties and benevolencies, including the Royal Observatory
of South Africa, the Public Library and Museum, and the Botanical
Garden at Cape Town. Such is a general outline of the British depen-
dency at the extremity of South Africa as it presented itself at the
middle of the ninth decade, when the great question of the reorgani-
zation of Africa and its partition into suzerainties was on at the Berlin
Conference of 1884-85.

CHAPTER V.

THE SHARK AND THE SPHERE OP GERMANY.

Germany, iu its historical development, luis been an interior
continental state. None of the great oceans liave washed a German
shore. The maritime impulse has been almost as much hampered
as in the case of Russia. The two situations. Teutonic and Slavic,
are not dissimilar, though the wide extent of Baltic coast possessed
by the new German Empire has greatly modified the conditions.

The fact here referred to is the basis of the strongly marked
ethnic divergences between the Germans and the Dutch. The
latter, next to the English, are the most sea-faring of all civilized
peoples. The North Sea is a wide open gulf of the Atlanti(;, and
by that broad but stormy route tlie Dutch have gone forth to all
tlie shores of earth. Meanwhile, Germany has had an interior
development, and more recently an interior unification, culminating
in the Hohenzollern Empire.

For the reasons here suggested, Germany lias not ])een export
in colonization. Until the recent period, she has never seriously
attempted to establish political deperdencies in distant parts of the
earth. In this respert, her rival, France, has, ever since the age of
discovery, greatly surpassed her. The situation in (rermnny has
for a long time prouioted emigration, and the emigration has in
instances not a few taken the proportions of an exodus. Of such
movements other nations have received the benefiis; Gornuinv has
lost what they have gained.

Reflect for a moment on the tremendous increment of population

(88)

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

wbich has come from tlie Germanic source to the United States of
America. In this country large districts have been settled by Ger-
mans, and some of the most important American cities have been
thoroughly Germanized. All the English-speaking countries and
several of the countries held by the Latin rsices have, in like manner,
received large additions from the abundance of the Gernuin fountain.
But, as we have said, the Germans have shown no expertness in
the work of colonization proper. Until after the establishment of
the New Empire, they may be said to have virtually omitted from
their counsels the possibilities of Africa.

There were, however, a long time ago, feeble manifestations of
a colonizing purpose on the part of Germany. Tiiis might be seen
as far back as the middle of the seventeenth century. About the
close of that century, insignificant settlements of Germans were
made on the Gold Coast of Africa. Then there was a long interval
in which no such foreign enterprise was known. About 1S45, the
overplus of German population began to seek an outlet in foreign
lands, but the streams of emigration flowed, as we have seen, not
toward independent colonies, but toward the United States, Aus-
tralia, and Brazil ; while a smaller per cent of the emigrants found
lodgment in Cape Colony.

Soon afterwards an effor'. was made by the outgoing Germans
to secure cohmial expansion in regions that were claimed, but not
occupied, by Groat Britam. This movement, however, was success-
fully opposed. As far back as 1843, a company of progressists in
Dtlsseldorf undertook to establish an independent colony in Brazil.
A similar movement was directed to the Mosquito coast, a second
to Nicaragua, an.^ a third to Chile. Another society was organized
for like purposes at Berlin, in 1849. The efforts of this body were

ms
lot

JSS-

Izil.

Ized

ere

directed ii

society wa

Then

Austrian v

Europe. \

France in

foreign re]

over-active

colonizatioi

Now i

founded at

tion in E(

stations an*

to both we

ing expedit

Schulze, Ki

to 1884, va

The contine

as far as '.

southern tri

Chancel

a great colo

the basins (

The spirit o

istration. 1

adventure, ii

established i

including mc

The pub]

THE SHARE AND THE SP5ERE OF GERMANY

directed in particular to the German settlements in Brazil. Such a
society was also constituted at Hamburg.

Then began, with the successful termination of the Prusso-
Austrian war, of 1866, the modern ascendency of Germany in Central
Europe. The movement culminated in the still gretiter war with
France in 1870. The New German Empire emerged from the conflict;
foreign relations were greatly extended and multiplied, and the
over-active energies of the people began to seek satisfaction in
colonization and foreign trade.

Now it was, in 1878, that the German African Society was
founded at Berlin for the express purpose of encouraging explora-
tion in Equatorial Africa, and for the establishment of trading
stations and colonies. The enterprise, thus originated, was directed
to both western and eastern Africa. A series of successful explor-
ing expeditions were sent out under Buchner, Pogge, Wissmann,
Schulze, Kuld and Wolff. In the three years extendmg from 1881
to 1884, vast areas were explored by these enterprising leaders.
The continent was entered from the side of Angola and penetrated
as far as Lunda, the great kingdom of the Bantus. Even the
southern tributaries of the Congo were visited.

Chancellor Bismarck now conceived the project of establishing
a great colonial dependency in the Congo Valley. Just afterwards
the basins of the Niger and the Benu6 were traversed by Flegel.
The spirit of colonizing pervaded both the people and the admin-
istration. The example of the other nations also stimulated
adventure, insomuch that a powerful Colonial German Society was
established at Frankfort. Thousands of members were enrolled,
including many of the leading Germans of the time.

The publication of the various societies and the open discussions

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of the day were directed in particular to the regions of the Niger
and the Congo. The colonizing purpose was whetted by the jealousy
of the Imperial authorities lest some other nation or nations should
pre-occupy the great interior valleys of the African rivers. There
was also an alarm lest the doors of free-trade should be closed to
the merchants of those countries not particularly concerned in Afri-
can colonization. The question was agitated how Germany might
most effectively protect herself against the impending danger of
exclusion from the more valuable parts of the continent. The com-
mercial spirit was aroused ; the merchants' exchange of Hamburg
adopted resolutions which were directed to the government, and
were proposed in order to secure immediate and effective action
for the preserxation of German interests m Africa.

The commercial bodies of Biemen and Lubeck took similar
action. The doctrine of acquiring nd annexing African temtory
was publicly promulgated. The jjovernment was urged to enter
the arena before it should be too ate. Chancellor Bismarck, led
on by his own aspirations, and impelled by the eagerness of the
German merchants, decided to throw down the glove at the feet of
Great Britain and every other pov/er which might attempt further
to monopolize the unappropriated areas of Africa.

The sequel showed that the Chancellor had already forecast the
way before him. After the war with Austria, a Prussian fleet had
been sent into the Pacific as far as Formosa and the Philippines.
In this interval, the German flag was seen in Delagoa Bay, in
the Sulu archipelago, and on the coast of Borneo. At that time,
however, the Prussian aduiinistration was little disposed to follow
its leader. Public opinion had to be reversed on the subject of
colonial expansion; but in the later seventies a change occurred,

THE SHARE AND THE SPHERE OF GERMANY

and Bismarck was able to caiTy forward his scheme of imperialism.

In this connection it is proper to notice the antecedent enter-
prises, which, under individual or commercial initiative, have dropped
a sprinkling of Germans on the shores of Afri(;a. About 1S40, the
Hamburg merchants began to send their ships to the West Coast.
Already Great Britain was there in force, and France was there in
a promising attitude. These two powers, or rather their African
dependencies, resisted the incoming of German merchantships. The
latter were obliged to adopt the deceptions of trade before they
were permitted to discharge their own cargoes and to receive
African products in return.

The German traders, however, persisted in their enterprise. In
the course of the sixth decennium, they planted themselves in
tolerable security, not only in Liberia, but also at several points
further south, between the Cameroons and the Gaboon. They found
a footing as far down as Benguela in Angola. All of these plan-
tations of trade were made under the patronage of the Woermans
of Hamburg. These merchant princes put out still further their
vessels, made their way to the East Coast, and secured a commercial
establishment in Zanzibar. Meanwhile, in 1;S54, a German factory
was built on the Bight of Benin, northward from the Congo Delta.
In 1859, the Hanse towns, by their agents, induced the Sultan of
Zanzibar to make a commercial treaty with them. In 1869, this
compact was adopted as the basis of a more extensive agreement
between the Sultan and the North (Jerman Confederation.

The trading establishments and the factories which the Germans
thus secured on the West Coast, and on the East Coast also, flour-
ished and grew .strong; so that when, in 1884, Prince Bismarck
took up the political and territorial aspects of the question, he

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA

already had a commercial basis of fact from which to promote the
ambitions of his countrymen. By this time, fully sixty German
factories were in operation on the western coast between Portuguese
Guinea and Damaraland. From these establishments explora-
tions, with the beginnings of enterprise, extended inland to an
indefinite distance. The trading stations in Zanzibar expanded
in like manner. Missionary posts were planted in many parts.
Either directly or indirectly, the Sultan of Zanzibar was induced
to make the suggestion of a general German protectorate for
his country.

The year 1884 was important for the crisis which it brought
between the foreign offices of the German Empire, on one side, and
those of Great Britain, on the other. There was danger of a con-
flict. The aspirations of Germany were at first ridiculed by Her
Majesty's government; but it was soon found that Bismarck was
dreadfully in earnest. It was also noted by the shrewd experts of
the British ministry that great advantages might be gained if a
proper understanding could be reached with Germany, relative to
the African field. The principle of addition first and division after-
wards appealed strongly to both the powers. It could but be dis-
cerned that the two great nations were disposed to enter together the
coveted continent.

The first adjustment between Germany and Great Britain wa;,
effected in 1880, when the British officials were withdrawn from
Damaraland in favor of the German. Only Walfish Bay was left
as a seat of British authority on that coast. Bismarck now began
to solicit the cooperation of Great Britain in settling the affairs,
not only in Damaraland, but also of the Namaqua region. At first
the British government refused to interfere with the conduct of

THE SHARE AND THE SPHERE OF GERMANY

the native nations -except as they concerned her own establish-
ment at Walfish Bay.

From this time forth, however, the German Chancellor led the
British further and further. He had been able to outwit even such
astute statesmen as Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Granville. In
1883, he permitted his son. Count Herbert, to announce in a semi-
oflScial way that the Germans were about to establish a new man-
ufacturing seat in the country between the Orange and the Little
Fish rivers. This establishment would claim the protection of the
Empire. And would Her Britannic Majesty's government assent to
such an arrangement?

Great Britain now showed the concessive spirit. In February of
1883, Lord Granville, of the foreign office, directed a communication
to Prince Bismarck as follows:

" I have the honor to acquaint your Excellency that, having
consulted the Colonial Office upon the subject, I am informed by that
department that the Government of the Cape Colony have certain
establishments along the coast, but that, without more precise
information as to the spot where the German factory will be estab-
lished, it is not possible to form any opinion as to whether the British
authorities would have it in their power to give it protection in case
of need. If, however, the German Government would be good enough
to furnish the required information, it would be forwarded to the
Government of Cape Colony, with instructions to report whether and
to what extent their wishes could be met."

Under the leadership of Herr Lttderitz, the proposed establish-
ment was nevertheless effected. A German ship proceeded from Cape
Town beyond the northern limit of Cape Colony, and made a landing
at a point two hundred and eighty miles south of Walfish Bay. In

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the interior, at a distance of about one hundred miles, a missionary
station, called Bethany, had already been planted. The commander
of the expedition made an agreement with the native chief, by which
he secured the district around the Bay of Angra Pequefia, and thus on
its own territory the (ierman flag was authoritatively raised on the
West Coast. When the British became alarmed and sent a ship to
Angra Pequena, the vessel was coolly warned away. "These are
(ierman waters. Captain," said the commander of the ship Carola,
over which floated the Imperial flag of the Hohenzollerns.

In the issue which followed, in the summer of 1883, Great Britain
moderated her attitude, and Germany was permitted to hold her
own at Angra Pequena. Aye, more; the Imperial government was
tolerated in its assumption of a right to interfere with the affairs of
the native kings, and thus to extend indefinitely the "sphere" of
German influence.

The ambition of Prince Bismarck to obtain an adequate share of
Africa was rather inflamed than appeased with his two hundred and
fifteen square miles of territory at Angra Pequena. The policy was
at once adopted of enlarging the colonial dependency, and other
points, both east and west, were chosen as the centers of departure.
Late in 1883, England, foreseeing her own advantages from the move-
ment, notified Bismarck that the British government disclaimed any
intention of expansion west of the twentieth degree of east longitude.
7V> this meridian, Germany might accordingly "expand." Thus was
constituted German Southwest Africa. An Imperial commissioner
was despatched to the new colony.

Turning from the development on the West Coast, we advance to
the East Coast on which Germany now sought to gain a footing. The
objective point was St. Lucia Bay, the principal harbor of Zululand.

THE SHAKl!] AND THE SPHEUE OF (iEUMANV

In 1HS4, II<MT EinwjiM was (li.spatched to that place, but he was
lieaded off by a IJritish ship. The government at Cape Colony had
discovered an old treaty with the Kingdom of Panda, or Igbira on the
IJcniie, which compact conceded St. Lucia Hay to (ircat IJritain.

It was now Hismarck's turn to recede. The Chancellor, with a
show of chivalry, announced that (iermany would not institute any
claims to African ten'itory south of Delagoa Bay. For the time, the
expansionist i)roject on the East Coast was baffled, but Prince
iUsmarck found his opportunity in a state of affairs existing on the
west. Did not the country of the Cameroons offer an inducement for
a new enterprise "in the interests of civilization?" Thither the
Imperial representative of the (lerman government. Dr. Gustav
Nachtigai, was sent in the s[n*ing of 18S4. Bismarck, through his
charge d'affairs at London, made on the occasion the following state-
ment to Her Majesty's ministry:

"I have the honor to state to your Lordship that the Imperial
Consul-General, Dr. Nachtigai, has been commissioned by my Gov-
ernment to visit the West Coast of Africa in the course of the next
few months in order to complete the information now in the posses-
sion of the Foreign Oftice at Berlin on the state of German commerce
on that coast. With this object Dr. Nachtigai will shortly embark
at Lisbon on board the gunboat Mciwe. He will put himself into
communication with the authorities in the English possessions on the
siiid coast, and is authorized to conduct, on behalf of the Imperial
Government, negotiations connected with certain questions. I
v(Mitute, in accordance with my instructions, to beg your Excellency
to be so good as to cause the authorities in the British possessions in
West Africa to be furnished with suitable recommendations."

It was easy to see that the business of dividing Africa was now

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

on. 1 vvc of the most powerful nations of Christendom had embarked
in \ te ent rprise. The movement gained momentum. The work of
Nad ij«^ on the west was highly successful. His enterprise ended
with ■'<•', relinquishment by England of the whole coast bordered
by the mountains of the Cameroons as far as the river Del Rey.
Nachtigal for his pai-t succeeded before his death, which occurred
off Cape Palmas on the 20th of April, 1885, in annexing, not only
Angra Pequena and the Cameroons, but also Tongaland on the
East Coast, thus supplying for the German Empire a comparatively
easy access from the coast to the South African Republic.

The relations of the latter government to Germany had been so
friendly that overtures were openly made for the establishment of a
protectorate of the Empire over the Transvaal. From Tongaland to the
Transvaal territories a railway might easily be laid, thus giving to the
Germans a great advantage in the oncoming partition of the continent.

It appears in the retrospect that while this really surprising
activity of Germany was bearing on to the complete establishment
of her interests in Africa, Great Britain slept. While she slumbered
her possession in the region of German enterprise was narrowed to
Walfish Bay. Prince Bismarck went forward steadily to claim for
the Empire which he represented, the same kind of suzerainty in
the dependencies which Great Britain had herself assumed the
right to exercise over her own possessions.

Until May of 1884, the Cape Colony government seemed oblivious
to the danger of German ascendency on the West Coast. At that
date a communication was sent to Parliament, recommending the
assumption of sovereignty over the whole of that region. Not
even Angra Pequena was excepted from the scheme. Hereupon
the German Consul at the Cape informed the British administration

rked
•k of
nded
lered
Key.
iirred
only
L the
tively

jen so
t; of a
to the
to the
inent.
(rising
iment
bered
ved to
m for
aty in
d the

ivious
b that
ig the
Not
enpon
ration

ZULU WARRIOR.

that Angra
Empire ! T
Prince ]
with a high
in June of
German pro
liad by this
as the twei
the German
was sent to
symbolizing
the parallel
southward tc
Bay station
German
the world. I
the nations,
ference held ii
to narrate th(
appearance of
their respectiv
i^ is, the influe
the vast regie
southern part
Iier pov/er on
ill Northern Al
tlierefore, trace
<'iiid note the ]
tltiirn as their

THE SHARE AND THE SPHERE OF GERMANY

that Angra Pequena was now under the protection of the German
Empire! Then there was a brief period of dilly-dallying.

Prince Bismarck, however, was now in a position to carry things
with a high hand. He sent his son, Count Herbert, to London, and
in June of 1884, the British Cabinet formally recognized the
German protectorate on the disputed coast. The "disputed coast"
had by this time extended itself for a great distance, even as far
as the twenty-sixth parallel of south latitude. Soon afterwards
the German warship Elizabeth, commanded by Captain Schering,
was sent to Angra Pequena, and the Imperial flag was raised
symbolizing the suzerainty of Germany over the African coast from
the parallel just mentioned, that is, the southern limit of Angola,
southward to the mouth of the Orange River. Only the Walfish
Bay station of Great Britain was excepted from this delimitation.

German Southwest Africa thus became a fact in the map of
the world. It was not as yet, however, a fact in the diplomacy of
the nations. This point remained to be decided at the great con-
ference held in Berlin in the autumn of 1884. But before proceeding
to narrate the work of that body it is desirable to point out the
appearance of one or two other nations on the scene, and to define
their respective parts in the great partition which was at hand. True
it is, the influence of France and Italy has been tclt almost wholly in
the vast region north of the scene of the present contest in the
isouthern part of the continent. Nevertheless, France has displayed
lior pov^er on the West Coast below the equator, and her ascendency
ill Northern Africa is undisputed. We shall, in the following chapter,
tlierefore, trace out with some care the evolution of French Africa,
iiiid note the present status of France among the contestants who
chiim as their right the partition of the continent.

It cann

mdifferent s

the year 187

of Henry }/.

Count, thou|

and by serv

M. Marche a

These t]

ascend the (

below the eq

might follow

continent. 1

falls and rap

expedition wi

pressed on to

tributaries of

already solve

announce tha

the less, De I

Ogove of a se

1891 by the o

At one ti:

was descendir

valley. The I

CHAPTER VI

FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIB PORTIONS

It cannot be said that in modern times France has been an
indifferent spectator of the imperial ambitions of other nations. In
the year 1875, the Count de Brazza appeared on the scene as a rival
of Henry M. Stanley, in the exploration of Central Africa. The
Count, though an Italian by birth, was a Frenchman by education
and by service in the French navy. He had for his coadjutors
M. Marche and Dr. Ballay.

These three courageous explorers set out on an expedition to
ascend the Ogove river, which flows into the South Atlantic just
below the equatorial line. The notion of the leaders was that they
might follow up the course of the stream into the interior of the
continent. The event did not justify the expectation. What with
falls and rapids, anu what with a diminishing volume of water, the
expedition was soon obliged to abandon the Ogove ; but De Bra a
pressed on to the east until he passed the watershed and found the
tributaries of the Alima flowing eastward. Stanley, however, had
already solved the problem of these stieams, and was able to
announce that they were in reality tributaries of the Congo. None
the less, De Brazza's expedition led to the planting on the lower
Ogove of a settlement, at first designated as the Gaboon, but after
1891 by the official name of French Congo.

At one time, namely in November of 1880, when De Brazza
v;as descending the Congo, he met Stanley on his way up the
valley. The Frenchman was very successful in his relations with

(W)

w^mjjii!

100

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the native chiefs. Being the representative of the International
Association, he made haste to confirm a treaty with a head chief
in the Congo valley. The negro emperor placed himself under the
protection of the French flag and acknowledged the suzerainty of
the Republic.

Two important stations in this part of the col >ent, still
surviving, bear witness in their names to the events just narrated.
These are the African town of Kintamo, which the French designate
as Brazzaville, and the station on the Ogove, to which the explorer
gave the name of Franceville. The importance of these prelim-
inaries lay in the fact of the coincidence of the British and French
flags in entering the equatorial region of Central Africa.

Without, for the present, tracing 'urther the successful begin-
nings of French Congo, we shall notice the appearance of still
another claimant in this great and inviting region. The King of
the Belgians had been aroused by the conference of international
representatives which was held at his capital. While Stanley and
De Brazza were trying each to circumvent the other and to establish
priority of claims, a train of circumstances brought the new power
into the field, threatening to supplant both empire-makers by the
establishment of older rights on the African coast and to it.

It will be remembered that Portugal had been first on the
shores of West Africa. Although she had been thrust aside in the
historical jostlings of the ages, she had never relinquished her
original claims. According to her own interpretation, her rights
in the sub-equatorial region, extending from about the fifth to the
eighth parallel, were not to be disputed by any other power. As
far back as 1856, however, the Portuguese assumption had, as a
matter ot fact, been controverted by Great Britain ; but in 1882,

PRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS

101

the representative of Portugal at the court of St. James stoutly
maintained the original claim. When the matter came to negotia-
tion, Great Britain desired that equal privileges for all nations on
the disputed coast should be granted without regard to the priority
of Portugal.

In all such cases, "equal privileges" signify, in the British
diplomatic contention that all ports and trading centers should be
open alike to all nations, special privileges being granted to none.
Finally, however, in 1884, the Anglo-Portuguese treaty was con-
cluded, in which the ancient dominion of Portugal was recognized
as being in force. It appears that this assent of Great Britain to
the revival of a territorial tradition was based on the fact of the
expectation which Lord Granville entertained, th i. the King of
the Belgians would soon make away with the Portuguese claims,
and that he could Le induced to transfer the same to the British
crown.

Meanwhile, however, the Belgian ruler, by his agent, Mr. Stanley,
prosecuted his independent enterprise, until the explorer finally
issued at the mouth of the Congo. He brought with him the first
authentic revelation of the actual character of the vast interior of
the continent. This being done under the auspices of Belgium,
gave to that power such precedence as completely to change the
aspect of the whole question. Thus, from a personal, as well as
from a Belgian, a British, or German source, the vast Vfrican question
obtruded itself, calling loudly for a solution. The success of Stanley
was, as we have seen, one of the powerful antecedents which made
necessary the Berlin Conference of 1884. England and Germany
were both borne forward and induced to take the position that the
old Portuguese claims to the country of the Congo could be no

102

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

longer admitted. It was a pretension which had been abolished by
time, working in the service of history.

France, in the meantime, went forward with more than her
usual enthusiasm to make it impossible for Great Britain to get
possession of the coast which she claimed for herself. The Britich
posts at Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Lagos, were narrowed as much
as possible by French pressure around them. The scheme of the
Republic contemplated nothing less than securing the whole valley
of the Niger for the establishment of a vast colonial dependency.
This measure, however, Great Britain successfully resisted. A British
protectorate was created on the Benu^, which is the south branch of
the Niger. The French gained possession of the upper or principal
valley, but not without serious interference on the part of the
Germ.ins.

The plan of the French at this juncture was ambitious. It was,
in a word, to connect the new dependencies of France in Sene-
gambia with her great Mediterranean province of Algeria, and to
spread the one until it should join the other. Such an enterprise
necessitated the construction of a railway across the Sahara from
the Upper Niger to the Algerian frontier. Nor shall we be blamed
for anticipating the great success of this scheme, which flourished
to such an extent that by the year 1895 the map of Africa showed
in the northwest as French territory the largest single European
dominion in the v/hole continent!

As early as 1881, the French Republic sent out her engineers
to run trial lines across the desert and to report on the practica-
bility of the railway scheme. Great difficulty, however, was
encountered in the enterprise. The engineering corps had not
proceeded far into the Sahara until the intrusion was resented by

the native
The exped
strained to
This, 1
of Algeria
(leys that c
barbarism,
the more
France res(
of an inva?
12th of Ma
the Algeria
to include

If, then
out the Fr
Conference
if we look f(
we shall fir
extending f
Senegal to i
of Senegal;
o.i the coast
next to the
Bantanga; \
Mayumba ar
of St. Mary,
Musha. Sue
which Franc
One otli(

FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS

103

the native Tuaregs, who fell upon and destroyed the French party.
The expedition was so ill-starred that French ambition was con-
strained to find another vent.

This, however, was easily done. For on the eastern frontier
of Algeria lay the exposed kingdom of Tunis. Under the Turkish
(leys that country had sunk into an abject condition bordering on
barbarism. Tvnis in commerce was a semi-piratical state which
the more civilized nations did not fail to contemn and punish.
France resented the course and condition of Tunis to the extent
of an invasion, which was undertaken successfully in 1881. On the
12th of May in that year a French protectorate was declared, and
the Algerian dependency of France was thus extended on the east
to include the vilayet of Tripoli.

If, then, we contemplate the African map as a whole, tracing
out the French possessions in the era just preceding the Berlin
Conference of 1884 and the general partition of the continent, and
if we look for the blue to indicate the temtorial interests of France,
we shall find on the north, Algeria, including Tunis ;. on the west,
extending from Cape Blanco to Gambia and indefinitely up the
Senegal to about the twelfth meridian west, the coast dependency
of Senegal ; in the interior, the two stations of Kita and Bammako ;
oa the coast, the small settlement of Nunez; on the Gulf of Guinea,
next to the Gold Coast, Bassam; in the Cameroons, the station of
Ikntanga ; under the equator, the Gaboon ; on the Congo Coast,
Mayumba and Loanga ; on the east, off Madagascar, the three islands
of St. Mary, Nosabe, and Mayotta; and in the Gulf of Aden, Obok
Musha. Such were the African possessions for the preservation of
which France was to go armed into the Berlin Conference.

One other circumstance must be added, and that is the French

104

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

campaigns which were made into the desert region at the beginning
of the ninth decennium. It was no<^ to be supposed that the Sahara
railway scheme would be at ned. In 1880, an important
expedition, in which military conquest, political expediency, and
scientific discovery were all combined, was undertaken into the
interior. It was thought that the Upper Niger might be connected
by rail with far-off Medina. It was on this expedition that
Bammako and Kita, in the Niger valley, far in the interior, were
taken and garrisoned by the French.

The commanders of the force engaged in this work were
Colonel Desbordes and Captain Gallieni. The king of the Fulah
"empire," covering this region, was Ahmadu, who first resisted and
then tolerated the French, to the extent of making with them, in
March of 1881, a significant treaty. By this the protectorate of
France was acknowledged for the left bank of the Upper Niger.
Here, however, for a period of four years, the progress of the French
was stayed. Not until after the Berlin Conference of 1884 were
hostilities renewed by the French under Colonel Frey, who invaded
the country of King Samorry, whom he conapelled to sign a
favorable treaty. And here France made a pause.

It is one of the marvels of modern history that Italy and the
Italians have played so small a part in the game of "expansion."
Why should ancient Italy and the Roman race have been able to
dictate to the whole world for a thousand years what should and
what should not be done, while the same territory and the
descendants of the Romans have not been able to dictate to any
part of the world for one day or one hour of time? The wonder is
increased by the fact that the splendid enterprise and brilliant genius
of indiviaual Italians have, in the meantime, transformed the world.

>»

tf}

Who 1

Jupiter? J

screech an

ancients, b(

modern art

adventurer^

shore of N

fgte in Par

expressed 1

and Napol

greatest of

as sterile as

she has be(

deliberatioE

was recogn:

been accom

of the Drt

and Umbei

one hundrec

There 1

prise. In

Socotra, lyi

attempt to

Christians c

peaceably,

would, inde

opposition c

Coast betw(

brook the a

FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS

107

Who first beheld the crescent of Venus and the moons of
Jupiter? An Italian. Who converted Music from the whistle and
screech and tom-tom booming and mere trumpet blare of the
ancients, both civilized and savage, into the divine harmonies of the
modern ai-t? The Italians. Who found the New World? An Italian
adventurer. Who fastened the anchor of England off the eastern
shore of North America? An Italian born. Who at the imperial
fete in Paris tapped the Austrian ambassador on the shoulder and
expressed his regret at the "altered relations" between his master
and Napoleon III? The Italian diplomatist, Cavour — one of the
greatest of modern statesmen. But the nation, as such, has been
as sterile as an unblossoming rod. In the discovery of foreign lands
she has been first, and in colonizing last. It w^as only after the
deliberations at the Berlin Congress that an Italian share in Africa
was recognized by the nations. Even this, perhaps, would not have
been accomplished had it not been that Italy had become a member
of the Dreibund, of w^hich Germany was the unit, and Austria
and Umberto's kingdom the two ciphers, making the important
one hundred !

There had not been, however, a total failure of Italian enter-
prise. In 1875 a fleet from Italy descended on the island of
Socotra, lying eastward from Cape Gardafui. 'There was a manifest
attempt to take possession of that point, whose inhabitants, being
Christians of the Nestorian sect, might be supposed to harmonize
peaceably, if not freely, with the South-European people. Italy
would, indeed, have gained possession of the island but for the
opposition of England. That power, already ascendant on the East
Coast between the fifth degree south and Somoliland, would not
brook the acquirement of Socotra by even so weak a state as Italy.

108

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The latter was obliged, for the time, to content herself with a small
footing in the Bay of Assab, near the southern extremity of the Red
Sea. This she had acquired in 1870. The spot had been chosen and
purchased as a coaling station, but it was not formally recognized as
an Italian basis until the year 1880.

When once well posted, however, the Italians began to ascend
the Red Sea and to spread northward along the coast in the direction
of Massowah and Suakim. They would have diffused themselves
southward also but for the existence and opposition of the French
establishment at Obok, just below the strait of Mandeb. The
rather resolute clutch which Italy made at this coast did not create
much interest among the European powers, but the Abyssinians
were excited to active belligerency.

We are here led by the nature of the facts to anticipate what
occurred some time after the greater African questions had been
settled by the Berlin Congress. For about fifteen years, the Italian
coaling station of Assab was the only firm hold which Umberto
had on the East Coast. But at length the opportunity came, not
only for spreading northward, but for gaining still more advan-
tageous stations on the Red Sea. About the middle of the ninth
decennium, the broil of Egypt with the Mahdists of the Sudan
became so heated that any movement which seemed to threaten
the latter was looked upon most favorably by Great Britain, who
viewed the whole matter through her Egyptian spectacles. Italy
was therefore encouraged to seize Massowah, which was done; and
further progress was made until the Italian coast was estimated to
extend for a distance of six hundred and fifty miles; that is, from
Obok to Capo Kasar.

This was more than King John of Abyssinia could bear. War

FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS

109

broke out between the Italians and the Abyssinians, and in January of
1887, the former were virtually exterminated. King John had the
satisfaction of driving the invaders to the coast. This brave
monarch soon died, to be succeeded by his son Menelek, who fol-
lowed the same policy as his father. After a year, however, a
treaty was agreed to by him, and henceforth Italy claimed a pro-
tectorate over Abyssinia. Menelek insisted, however, that he held
a protectorate over the Italian coast !

Meanwhile the situation encouraged foreign intervention.
France and her friend Russia sympathized with Abyssinia. The
former shipped muskets, and the latter sent priests, to assist King
Menelek. In course of time, a Russian fleet was seen hawking
around the French station at Obok. Nevertheless, the Italian
"sphere" was enlarged and confirmed; for Great Britain favored
the "sphere." In the years 1890-91, the enterprise of Italian colon-
ization was so greatly promoted that the dependency was con-
verted into the colony of Erytrea. An autonomous government
was instituted, and a local administration was established on a
democratic basis.

The project, however, cost Italy a large sum of money, and
her only compensation was in seeing her African dependency
enlarging itself, first from a coaling station in Assab Bay, to a
district fifty-two thousand square miles in extent; then to a pro-
tectorate holding an area of one hunjdred and ninety-five thousand
square miles; and finally to a colonial state having a dominion of
more than six hundred thousand square miles.

In the meantime, a serious controversy arose between Italy
and Great Britain. The dominion of the latter was said to extend
northward beyond the river Jub, just below the equator, while the

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

claim of Italy extended southward to the same stream, thus pro-
ducing a dangerous overlap of British and Italian ground. Italy,
however, was at this time performing so good a service by playing
upon the hinderpart of Dervishdom that the British lion's features
relaxed from a snarl into something resembling a smile. The Jub
was accordingly conceded to Italy as her southern limit.

These events conclude the episode of Italy in Africa down to'
the time when Dr. Jameson and his party reached Kriigersdorp
and thus marking an epoch. Nearly all of the movements discussed
in the present chapter belong to the history of equatorial and North-
ern Africa and to the period subsequent to the crisis of 1884. These
events are therefore, only remotely or incidentally concerned with
the transformation of the Southern pai-t of the continent. In the
following chapter we shall pass from the development of separate
European colonial states in Africa to the more general international
settlement of the questions involved by the Congress of Berlin.

CHAPTER VII

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE

After the powerful interference of Germany in the affairs of
Africa, and the successful establishment by her of a great depend-
ency on the southwest coast, a settlement of all the questions
arising from the movement, by an international conference, became
an imperative necessity. All of the circumstances hitherto narrated
were but antecedents of that Congress, and determinative of its
actions. It is in the nature of such bodies to extort from the
past the conditions for the government of the present and for the
settlement of the exigency, whatever ic may be. Very rarely does
a diplomatical or ambassadorial meeting do more than declare
what history has already accomplished.

The more immediate cause of the Conference of Berlin was
the course which Germany had sucessfully taken in suddenly
acquiring a great dependency on the southwest coast of Africa.
This success aroused all the other powers to the exercise of
unwonted activity. There was a rush of them all — as if to gather
as much as could be carried away of some immense spoil poured
from the horn of destiny. Great Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal,
were all frightened, each in its kind, at the prospect of getting less
than the lion's share of the treasure.

The Congo region had been suddenly opened up. All the way
around the coast from Liberia to Bab-el Mandeb there was disturb-
ance, jealousy, scheming to get the better part. The stronger

nations might have been willing to trust to force, but the weaker

(111)

112

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

appealed to diplomacy. The weaker nation is, indeed, always ready
to arbitrate. The stronger nation decides that there are always
certain questions which must be decided by its own judgment alone.
Nations, like individuals, often consider that the end justifies the
means, and history alone must write the verdict.

In the case of the African imbroglio, it remained for Portugal
to ask for an umpire. Her appeal was made to France first, and
France assented. This much gained, the proposition was carried
to Germany, and Prince Bismarck gave his approval also. Thus
strengthened, the movement reached England, and in June of 1884,
Lord Granville, acting for the Ministry, announced the favorable
decision of Great Britain. The conference was accordingly convened
to meet in the city of Berlin, in November of 1884.

For the most part, the ambassadors of the leading states of
Christendom, who were then resident at the German court, were
empowered to act as representatives of their respective governments,
in the work of the Congress. Every considerable power in Europe,
with the single exception of Switzerland, participated in the pro-
ceedings. The government of the United States was represented
by the Minister Plenipotentiary accredited to the German Empire.

Accordingly, on the 15th of November, the Congress was
organized. The sittings continued until the 30th of January, 1885.
The results wrre made up in a document entitled the "General
Act of the Conference of Berlin." To this, the representatives of
the various nations affixed their signatures on the 24th of February
1885. All the leading states of Europe, except Switzerland (not
represented) and the United States of America, became powers
signatory to the document which embodied the results of the
conference. Nor may we pass from the event without noting the

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 113

presence and lAembership of Henry M. Stanley in the Congress,
and the double relation which he held before that body. In one
character he was a representative of the United States, in the capacity
of a geographical expert. But in his other character, and more
properly, he represented the interests of his friend and patron, King
Leopold of Belgium.

The proceedings of the Berlin Congress were full of interest and
enthusiasm. The nations seemed to have suddenly awaked to the
overwhelming importance of possessing and developing the remain-
ing one of the four major continents of the world. The attention
of the delegates was fixed in particular upon the v ley of the
Congo. The impelling motive was commercial rather than political.
If the nations strove with each other for the new field of oppor-
tunity, it was because it offered the tremendous rewards of trada
The question was therefore on, in full tide, from the beginning.
What kind of trade shall it be?

It was here that the great modern proposition of the so-called
"open door" began to be firmly advanced and defended. It soon
appeared in the deliberations that it was not so much a question
as to what power should be in the ascendant in the Congo valley, as
it was the question whether all trade therewith should be free. In a
short time this inquiry was decided in the affirmative. As to the issue
of a protectorate, that lay for the most part between Belgium and
France, with the advantages in favor of tlie former. Stanley had done
the work for Leopold, who had given him his patronage. More and
more the deliberations turned to the establishment of a great interior
state under the suzerainty of the king of the Belgians. As to the
commercial question; the discussions went stron<ily and altogether
towards the opening and neutrality of both < he Congo and the Niger.

114

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The debates next veered from the bottom issue to the determina-
tion of the limits of the sphere of free trade. Finally, a trans-con-
tinental line was drawn, as if to circumscribe an inchoate empire.
It was determined in such manner as to include the larger part of
Central Africa, with a suflBcient extent of coast, east and west, to
ensure free gateways for all the ships of the world. On the Atlantic
side, the coast was made commercially free from two degrees and
thirty minutes, south latitude, that is from about the middle of
French Congo, to a point inclusive of the upper section of Angola.
From about the center of French Congo the line was drawn to the
north, far up through the Cameroons, and thence eastward with
the watershed between the tributaries of the Benue (South Niger)
and those of the Congo. Afterwards the line left the streams
flowing into Lake Chad on the north until the fountains of the
Nile were reached at the fifth parallel of north latitude. The line
then proceeded due east to the further coast of Somoliland. On
the south the boundary was begun at the mouth of the Zambesi,
and was traced onward to the west of Lake Nyassa ; thence west-
ward in a somewhat zigzag course to the boundary of Angola; and
thence in a circular direction to its exit at Ambriz, on the coast.

Thus was secured by the edict of the nations a region, not
dissimilar in shape to the United States of America, and of com-
paratively as great a geographical area, dedicated forever to free-
dom of commerce among all nations. A provision was enacted
that the assent of the sovereign states lying within the delimita-
tion should be given. Trade, whether interior traffic or coast line
commerce, should henceforth be subject only to such charges as
were necessary to support it, and to such restrictions as were
expedient for its protection.

r .

^KM

' . V

^^^^g|

■" v' •" •

• 1' '

v9n MBI

1 1

<. ..

-*■ ^.

'^^.''VF ^SPi

.J , ■ . , .

* '

'} %,^

%■>'

' ' ■ ■ , ■-

;'--'-f, - /.

■I"'

< ''a-^' ''' >■ ^ ■

•V/:.- f-A^.o-^ -•;4--"('' . /

^v'

■ •, ••.■

' ."' ■ ■ fe.'ft'^'- y y

^■m^t€^-i^''- ' ■

^: t

V '

Kl'i

^'i'i-i^'—'^ il>j ■'■■■' '..■■

^P?f^'.'; ■"•

, ^ /

'•'■!•'.,,'.', ■'■'■^•''''jii^K §■'• ■'."'^^'■•'

.I>^'^:*^.:yy!rlt. -

R,--

..i-'-i|ll^^

St j '.''"'■',

^^^H. ^^' TwRr' 'Nk' '- IqIH^^BbBmIu^^^I

R' -'v'

^^.^:pfeii|M'^^

^^^hH

•fl^p]

" '■ ^' ,' *"■# -

^HaHI^IH^Hn^^^H

■ \':: }¥:^'\

KBimffinraiH

BM^Kra^l

flQ

CON

The ass
tlie opening
declared to
almost as fs
Valley. In
national Coi
Basin was a
the settleme
France and

The neji
of a rule to
already pree
decided that
action of n
peaceable oc
in order to 1
display of si
debarkation
acknowledge
must be on
hold and def(
acknowledge

Very ini
civil and coi
the next pla
accomplishec
cal foundetic
Stanley. In
southern tril

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 117

The assembled representatives next went forward to consider
the opening and neutralization of the Niger. This river was also
declared to be free to international trade. The conditions were
almost as favorable as those which were declared for the Congo
Valley. In order to carry out the edicts of the Congress, an Inter-
national Commission to superintend the development of the Congo
Hasin was appointed ; but in the case of the valley of the Niger,
the settlement of everything was left to the conjoint action of
France and Great Britain only.

The next great question under consideration was the enactment
of a rule to be followed in the future occupation of territory not
already preempted on the African coast. After discussion it was
decided that the same principle which, in time of war, governs the
action of nations in establishing blockades, should hold in the
peaceable occupation of coast territories ; that is, such occupation
in order to be binding must be effective. There must be an actual
display of ships and men and colonists ; veritable settlements ; real
debarkation and building and trade, before preemption should he
acknowledged by other nations as rightful and binding. There
must be on the part of the parent state a manifest purpose to
hold and defend the given t3rritory before the occupation should be
acknowledged.

Very important also was the question of constituting a great
civil and commercial dominion in the Congo Valley. This was, in
the next place, undertaken by the Congress, and was successfully
accomplished. The Congo Free State began to be. A geographi-
cal found? tion was assumed as tlie result of the work of Henry M.
Stanley. In the years 1874-77, that explorer had traced, not only the
southern tributaries of the Conge, but also the western sources of

118

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the Victoria Nyanza. After that he descended the Lualaba until
the great stream became the Congo itself — just as an early explorer
in our own Great West might have identified the Missouri with
the Mississippi. Moved by this astonishing result, Leopold, King
of the Belgians, had taken Stanley under his patronage with orders
to complete his explorations between the Lualaba and the Lower
Congo, and thus, as it were, to preempt a territory which, as the
event showed, approximated one million square miles.

Beginning from this result, the Berlin Congress proceeded to
define the limits and to establish a system of government for the
Congo P'ree State. The protectorate of the King of the Belgians
was declared. Otherwise the new empire was to be, as its name
implies, free from foreign domination. Already, before the conven-
tion was held, the movement for autonomy in Congo had proceeded
so far as to obtain recognition from the United States. The
International Congo Association had adopted as the symbol of its
dominion a blue flag with a golden star, and this was saluted by
the republic as early as the 22d of April, 1884. The same banner
was also welcomed by Germany one week before the assembling of
the Congress of Berlin. In the Congo emblem, however, there was
a suggestion of controversy; for who should claim the protectorate?
France desired that Uer Congo should include the new sovereignty.
But the claim of Leopold had a more solid basis.

Colonel Strauch, President of the Congo Association, under
whose auspices the country was proceeding so rapidly toward
statehood, at length notified the government of France that her
claim of dominion was inadmissible; the rightful possessor was
Leopold of Belgium, and the latter, should he be disturbed, would
bequeath his rights to the kingdom of which he was the ruler.

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONOfO STATE 119

Sharp words followed, and the controversy threatened serious results
until a settlement was reached between France and Belgium, in
February of 1S95, by which it was agreed that the latter should
become the heir, so to speak, of Leopold to the Congo Free State.
The compact was as follows:

Article 1. — The Belgian Government recognizes that France
has a right of preemption over its possessions on the Congo m
case of their alienation by sale or exchange in whole or in part.
Any exchange of territory with a foreign power, any placing of
the said territories, in whole or in part, in the hands of a foreign
state or of a foreign company invested with rights of sovereignty,
will also give occasion to France's right of preemption, and
will become, therefore, the object of a preliminary negotiation
between the Government of the French Republic and the Belgian
Government.

Article 2. — The Belgian Government declares that there shall
never be gratuitous cession of all or a portion of the said
possessions.

Article 3. — The arrangements contemplated in the above
articles apply to the whole of the territories of Belgian Congo.

By this agreement it might be said that a line of succession
was established whereby the future protectorate of the Congo Free
State should descend — as long as a protectorate might exist — first,
from Leopold to his kingdom, and after that, (if ever) to France.

As first constituted, the great Congo Free State was wholly a
dominion of the interior. In a short time, however, an exit was
secured by the consent of Portugal through the northwest angJe
of her Angola; and thus on the south side of the Congo Delta a
bit of sea coast was added to the Free State, sufficient for a

120

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

highway to tlip Atlantic. The general boundaries determined upon
by the Congress were liberal. The line on the west extended on the
left bank of the Congo from the northern line of Angola to the
equator. Thence the limit lay r.long the eastern boundary of
French Congo to the northeast angle of that province, and thence
due north to the parallel of four degrees north latitude. Thence
that parallel was followf^J to the thirtieth meridian east; thence
with the meridian just named to the northern extremity of Lake
Tanganyika; thence with the Lake and the fourth parallel
westward to the Lualaba; thence southward with that stream
to the sixth parallel, and thence westward to the mouth of the
Congo.*

The area of the Congo Free State is, as already said, approx-
imately nine hundred thousand square miles, and the native
population is reckoned at about fourteen million souls. Thus out
of the whole basin of the Congo, w^ith its estimated area of one
million six hundred thousand square miles (ranking as it does next
to the valley of the Amazon, whicl xceeds it by only two hundred
thousand square miles) the Congo Free State embraces at least
nine sixteenths of the whole.

We need not here follow the work of the Berlin Congress into
the remoter results which flowed therefrom. King Leopold found
himself in the condition of a flourishing American farmer, to whom,
say in 1870, the government of the United States should have sent
a deed to the territory of Colorado! The King had the largest farm
in Christendom. Out of it, ten American States of first-class
proportions might be carved. Nor was any part of the vast region

"The final determination of the boundaries of Congo waa not effected until the 13th of May, 1894, ^fvheu
King Leopold and the representative of Great Britain reached an amicable conclusion on the last particulars of
the scheme.

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 121

lacking in all the suggestions of abundant wealth and exuberant
industrial development; but to do the work, ah, there was the rub.

As soon as the Belgian Parliament was convened, two months
after the adjournment of the Congress at Berlin, the work of that
body was approved as it related to the kingdom and the king. The
Parliament passed a resolution declaring, "the union between
Belgium and the New State will be exclusively personal." The
act ratified the course of the sovereign — no more. About a month
afterwards the king sent notes to all the powers signatory to the
"General Act of the Conference," to the effect that the territorial
possessions hitherto controlled by the International Congo Association
had become, under his own suzerainty, the Congo Free State. Over
that state, as over the home kingdom, he would exercise tho powers
of a sovereign.

In the years immediately following the Congress the King of
the Belgians was obliged to make great expenditures in support of
his dependent realm. He manfully met the requirements, but they
were such as to deplete the royal treasury. At length, in 1889, he
made his will, and in it bequeathed his rights and interests in the
Congo Free State to the kingdom of Belgium, which he named his
heir. This step was taken, in part, because of the heavy expenditures
he had made in the interest of Congo.

In July of the following year, the king appealed to the Par-
liament for help. That body received his petition with favor, and
voted to Leopold a loan (without interest) of twenty-five million
francs. The advance was made for a period of ten years, with the
condition that Belgium should have the right, within six months
thereafter, of annexing the Free State to the home Kingdom.
Should this overture be declined, the loan should be continued for

122

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ten years longer, and should then be repaid by the representatives
of the sovereign. In view of this arrangement, the king deemed
it expedient to obviate as far as practical that part of the standing
agreement with France by which that republic might, in a certain
contingency, assume the suzerainty of Congo. To bar this possibility,
Leopold, on the 21st of July, 1890, added a codicil to the effect
that the Free State should never be alienated from the Belgian
crown.

In this attitude stood the affairs of Congo from 1890 to 1895.
Meanwhile, certain advantageous changes had been made in the
boundaries of the State. Great Britain consented to two modifica-
tions; one on the west of Lake Tanganyika, and the other on the
side of the Sudan — this in 1894. In the way of local affairs, one
short railway was completed. In the years 1892-93, serious hostil-
ities broke out between the military forces of the Free State and
the Arab slave-merchants on the middle and upper Congo. The
latter were unwilling that their business should be abolished, as
the Congress of Berlin had decreed. The Arabs stood stoutly for
what they considered their immemorial rights. At first they were
able to resist the repressive efforts of the Belgian forces acting
under the inspiration of the A ti-Slavery Society. Afterwards the
Arabs were repelled ; during ilie year 1893, they were driven back
to Lake Tanganyika, and their principal seats were taken by the
Europeans.

At the very time of this Arab insurrection, namely, in the
latter part of 1892, the Chartered Company, to which the manage-
ment of the industrial affairs of Congo had been intrusted, found
itself unable to procure free laborers for the construction of the
railway referred to in the preceding paragraph. The natives were

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 123

indolent and inefficient in the performance of the heavy and
constant labor which was demanded of them. What, therefore,
should the Chartered Company do, but import a colony of more
than six hundred coolies from China ? This proceeding was the
introduction of a modified slavery which differed from that of the
Arabs in the fact that it was a Christian enterprise, while theirs
was strictly a Mohammedan business. The event, however, showed
the futility of the coolie importation. The Chinese could not
endure the intolerable steam-bath and fever-fume of Equatorial
Africa. In a short time, five out of every six of the coolies died;
the remainder straggled off into the interior in the hope of reach-
ing China on foot!

In a comparatively short time after the Berlin Conference the
Congo Free State, which had been undertaken as a broad interna-
tional enterprise, became to all intents and i)urposes a Belgian
colonial dependency. Gradually the agents of the other powers
withdrew from the country and Belgian officers were put in their
places. Neither could the broad provisions which had been declared
as to the freedom of commerce and the suppression of the slave-trade
be successfully enforced. The resources of King Leopold ran low
and the administrative expenses of Congo had to be met by the
institution of a system of imposts. Fortunately, the government
adopted the expedient of laying the duty almost exclusively on
.spirituous liquors. Great Britain i)rotested that this was not free
trade; Belgium was obliged to reply that, though it was not free
trade, it was necessary.

As to the suppression of the slav^-trade and the illicit tralllc
in ivory, these matters were peculiarly hard to control. It was
thought that after the Conference of 1S84 the multiplication of

124

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

European dependencies on the African coasts would virtually
preclude the Arab slave-traders from an exit. It was supposed that
the man-hunters would cease their operations as soon as .they could
no longer safely export their chattels. The arrangement of the
map by the supervising cartographers in the Congress of Berlin
proved to be a very different matter from the actual revision of
the cnntineni. Nothing, indeed, spurns geography more than Mother
Earth. When a new map is made it is diflScult to lay it on! The
map is eight inches by twelve inches, while the continent is more
than four thousand miles in length and quite as great in breadth!
How shall the one be stretched to cover the other?*

As to tlie work of administration in Congo, that was regularly
organized. The vice in the situation was, and is, that the " govern-
ment" remained in Brussels instead of being erected on the middle
Congo. How can one place govern another place ? That work has
never been successfully accomplished in the history of the world.
Successful governments have been inaugurated in distant dependent
territories, but never fof them outside of them. In the course of
time, the Congo administration will no doubt be localized where it
belongs, and when that is done, the actual political existence of
the new state will begin.

For administrative purposes the whole of Congo was divided
into twelve districts or provinces, each undeT* the control of a

*8oine of tho atrikitiR facts iibout the position and extent of Africa seem never to have boon pointed out.
The geographical emplacement and contour are satlicient to make a cartographer Bi'iicrBtltlouB. In the flrHt
place, thocontlneutlH Just seventy degrees In extent from north to Honth, ond It is Just seventy decrees In
extent from east to woHt. The breadth of it and the length of It are the xume. Again, the cotHlnent exactly
balances north and south on the equatorial line; it has thirty-flve deKreos of north latitude and thirty-flvu
degrees of south latitude. Finally the balancing meridian, dividing tho continent into nn eastern r.nd western
half, is likewise peculiar. If such meridian ho drawn from the heel of Italy through the Mcdltern nean to the
Capo of Good no|)0, it will leave thirty-flve degrees of longitude on tho west, and hIko thirty -five degrees on
the cast. The Congo Free State lies almost wholly on the eastern and about onelialf in tho southorn division
of the continent as here indicated. The point of Intersection of the two dividing lines i« on tho Congo at the
point where tho groat tributaries of the interior have their coutluenco, precisely under tho equator.

^£

NATIVE ORNAMENTS AND UTENSILS.

COI

Governor-G
The whole
the head,
instituted
tration was
valley was

In the
the river, a
The missio
alert to p€
Individual
tinned to
first-class o
All such w
fact that
stii^e;— fron
checked so
nibalism is
we pass fro
.sion of Eur
preceding c
ision on the
thereby in

The aci
once percei
a European
expedient,
conditions
Africa, then

CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 127

Governor-General and a Commissary, who is the Lieutenant-Governor.
The whole corps of officials, with the king and three ministers at
the head, numbers about eighty. A department of justice was
instituted with superior and inferior courts. The judicial adminis-
tration was extended as far as the Middle Congo, but the upper
valley was allowed to remain under military rule.

In the meantime, commercial enterprise made its way far up
the river, and stations to the number of about forty were established.
The missionary societies of several nations have also been on the
alert to penetrate, if not to occupy, the vast equatorial region.
Individual adventurers and travelers of the second-class have con-
tinued to follow up and complete the work which they of the
first-class outlined so marvelously in the eighth and ninth decades.
All such work, however, is slow. Progress is embarrassed by the
fact that it has passed from the sensational into the practical
stiii^e;— from oratory to fact. The Arab slave-traders have been
checked somewhat, but not suppressed. It is claimed that can-
nibalism is still practiced in many parts of the interior. Nor should
we pass from the subject without remarking that the whole discus-
sion of European accomplishment, as outlined in this and in the
preceding chapter is well calculated to leave an erroneous impres-
sion on the reader's mind with respect to the actual changes effected
thereby in Africa.

The actual changes have not been great. This fact will be at
once perceived when the inquirer is reminded that the extension of
a European protectorate over a region of new country is a political
expedient, and that geographical, industrial, social and racial
conditions are but slightly effected thereby. The real history of
Africa, therefore, in the period under consideration, lies deep down,

128

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

like a great geological stratum, under the thin layer of diplomatical
drift that covers it from sight. The stratum is thick and hard as
the rocks; the drift is only an epidermis.

In all the international proceedings, which began in the Brussels
Conference of 1876 and reached a climax in the Berlin Congress of
1884, how much was done for the benefit of the one hundred and
twenty millions of native Africans? What did the representatives
of the great powers of Christendom, in convention assembled,
decree that has been unselfishly applied to the enlightenment of
the prodigious volume of barbarism in the Dark Continent? As
much, we doubt not, as civilization in the West has done in an
altruistic way to promote the interests and protect the rights of the
American Aborigines — that is, nothing!

CHAPTER VIII

MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES

In an inquiry which is essentially preliminary to the history of
the Boer-British war of 1899, many facts belonging to the African
transformation bear only indirectly on the conflict in the
South. Several countries of the continent, remote from the scene,
are not so much concerned as are those which are contiguous to
the field of action. But the whole of the African states are, in a
sense, connected and interdependent; none, therefore, can be properly
excluded from the inquiry.

If, for example, Egypt be far away from the central area of
disturbance, that country is none the less the most important " pro-
tected " African territory of one of the combatants. Or, again, how
can the German, French, and Portuguese dependencies be indifferent
to the result of a conflict, which, if it end one way, will threaten
their own security, and if it end the other way will give them
further opportunity of expansion? In the current chapter we shall
consider briefly some of the remoter influences which bear upon
the contest in South Africa — a contest which may have only the
significance of a passing revolt, or, on the other hand, become the
world-involving tempest of Armageddon.

In the first place, then, as to Egypt. That country became a vir-
tual dependency of Great Britain in 1882. The Suez Canal, had been
opened, thus furnishing an all-water route, via the Mediterranean,
to British India and all the East. Henceforth, it was no longer

necessary to double the Cape. The intervention of Great Britain

(i»)

130

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

came in the year just named, when the military revolt headed
by Arabi Pasha threatened to subvert the suzerainty of
Turkey, and if that, to invite, as British statesmen declared,
an occupation of Egypt by some other power inimical to the
interests of Great Britain in Asia. Hence the occupation of
the country and the institution of a new order in the valley of
the Nile.

Great Britain having put money into the country, her next
requirement was to get money out of it. This brought a wholesale
agricultural development; for otherwise, Egypt could not pay the
taxes imposed upon her. The ground products in the course of
nine years rose to an annual export value of sixty-five million
dollars. On the southern frontier, the Mahdist insurrection kept
rumbling and shooting out forked tongues of fire. The African
Mohammedans, who might press upon the Sudan northward and
upon the Red Sea eastward, were estimated at "^orty million souls.
In 1883, England deemed it expedient to se ze Suakim. An
Egyptian railway to Berber, following the pathwa. of Chinese
Gordon, was undertaken in the following year. Other lines were
developed, amounting to one thousand two hundred miles of track.
The telegraph was introduced, and five thousand four hundred
and thirty miles of wire was stretched from point to point, mostly
in Lower Egypt. The British army of occupation, numbering
about fifteen thousand men, was placed under command of
General Sir Herbert Kitchener, to whom the Egyptian title of
Sirdar was given.

After the death of Gordon at Khartoum, and the subsequent
overthrow of the Mahdists, the latter lay low in the deserts for
several years. But in 1896, Egypt was again threatened by the

MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 131

Dervishes. In the interval, Great Britain had adopted the policy
of creating an army of native Egyptians.

** Said England unto Pharoah, ' I must make a man of you,

That will stand upon his feet and play the game ;
That will Maxim his oppressor, as a Christian ought to do."

And she sent old Pharoah, Sergeant Whatisname.
It was not a Duke nor Earl, nor yet a Viscount,

It was not a big brass General that came,
But a man in khaki kit who could handle men a bit,

With his bedding labeled Sergeant Whatisname.

*******

There were years that no one talked of : there were times of horrid doubt ;

There was faith and hope and whacking and despair ;
While the Sergeant gave the Cautions, and he combed old Pharoah out,

And England did n't look to know nor care.

But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet.

And he's not allowed to forward any claim —
Though he drilled a black man white, though he made a mummy fight,
He will still continue Sergeant Whatisz&me."

The success of this work, so graphically described by Kiplingf,
was extraordinary. In a short time "Old Pharoah fought like
Sergeant Whatisname." The native British contingent in the Sirdar's
army was diminished, while the Egyptian contingent was correspond-
ingly increased. In the spring of 1896, Kitchener advanced up the
Nile. At Firkeh, the Dervishes were defeated. In September, Don-
gola was finally reached and occupied. This feat concluded the
work of the expedition, but it was in reality only the opening
suggestion of the re-occupation of Khartoum and Omdurman. When
this was done a position far to the south was gained from which
the Anglo-Egyptian hand might be stretched — as indeed it has
already been stretched — to the south as if to clutch the hand, let

132

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

us say, the liand of Cecil Rhodes reaching from Cape Colony and
Rhodesia with his Cape and Cairo Railway lying in the palm. It
is from this point of view that the Egyptian question in the
northeast touches the South African question on the battleground
in the upper valleys of the Orange River.

In the next place, as to the Sudan. This is the name given
by the Arabs to the great region south of the Sahara. More exactly
it is Bildad-es- Sudan ; that is Land of the Blacks. Such nomen-
clature, however, is by no means exact, for the Sudanese popula-
tion include at least three general ethnic divisions of mankind.
First, we may enumerate the Semitic Arabs themselves. Secondly,
the Hamites; some of whom are still comparatively pure in descent
from the ancients, but most of whom are mixed with native races,
thus becoming the Tibus, the Tuaregs, and the Fulahs; and thirdly,
the Negroes of the Bantu stock, pure and mixed. The latter are
the true aborigines, and, numerically, are still vastly in excess of
the other ethnic divisions.

Territorially the country under consideration may be spoken
of, first as the Egyptian Sudan, reaching from Upper Egypt four
hundred miles southward to Lake Albert Nyanza, a territory
estimated to contain about one million square miles, with a pop-
ulation supposed to number fully ten million souls. The second
division may be properly designated as French Sudan, having its
seat in the basin of the Niger and extending northward to the
borders of Algeria. The third region is known as West or Central
Sudan. This is a British overlap, embracing an aggregate of five
hundred and sixty-eight thousand square miles. This includes
Gambia, Sierra Leone, the " Gold Coast with Ashanti, Lagos with
Yorubaland, and Niger-Benue with the Oil River country. In the

MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 133

fourth place Germany has gained possession of a small fragment
of the Sudan lying on the Slave coast between Ashanti and
Dahomey, and to this is given the name of West Tongaland.
Portugal also has an insignificant Sudanese possession. It was
in the East Sudan that Dr. Schweinfurth, in 1870-72, conducted his
successful explorations, completing a geographical knowledge of the
Nile and the Congo systems of rivers. Ten years afterwards, two emi-
nent explorers, Dr. M. Y. Dybowski and M. Maistre, were sent by
France into the Lake Chad Basin. By them some of the remaining
problems of African geography were solved. Up to the close of the
century, the Sudan as a whole was a kind of subjective region, invit-
ing penetration and conquest, but exerting no active historical
influence on the progress of the age.

In the third place, as to Natal. This, as we have formerly
explained, was at first a part of the Cape territories. At least, it
was claimed to be such by the British. As early as 1824, Lieutenant
Farewell made his way with twenty companions from Cape Town
into the country of the lower Tugela and undertook to plant a
colony there. To this end he made a treaty with Chaka the native
king. But Chaka was presently killed, and the enterprise of British
settlement was postponed.

We have seen also how tlie Boers first trekked into this region,
and then, in 1833-34, made the so-called "Great Trek," and with-
drew into what was to become the Orange Free State. British
influence and, in a measure, British settlement followed in the
wake of the Great Trek, and Natal was colonized. It is the
peculiarity of all such situations that the British element in a
^dven population speedily becomes the governing element. The
political skill of the English race and the inborn purpose to master

134

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

all things combine to give the lead to the British part of a popu-
lation, even when that part is sparsely distributed..

It must be observed that the commercial instinct leads to this
feature of history. Political organization is the wagon in whicli
commerce goes to market. Therefore, the Briton organizes effect-
ively, strongly. He wishes to make a way for trade. Trade
requires protection, and protection signifies a military force for
defense. The military force demands political authority behind it.
Therefore, says the theorem, organize and govern, if you would have
a market.

Thus it was in Natal. By the summer of 1845, the business
had proceeded suflBciently far to warrant the annexation of the
territory to Cape Colony. Then, in the same year, a local govern-
ment was organized, and a Lieutenant-Governor was sent out from
Cape Town. He was given a Council of four members, and a
legislative Assembly to assist in law-making and administration.

This form of dependency on the parent colony was retained
in Natal for eleven years. But in 1856, the province became
independent of the Cape government; the legislative body was
enlarged to sixteen members, and relations were established directly
with the Colonial oflBce in London. After this the governmental
evolution proceeded in the usual way. The beginnings of a ministry
were made in 1869. The governor claimed and exercised the
right to nominate a certain number of the representatives. This
implied their responsibility to him. The head of the colony, how-
ever, continued to be designated as Lieutenant-Governor until the
year 1882. After that a Governor-General was appointed by the
Colonial office of the empire.

At first tlie territorial limits of Natal were not clearly defined.

ed.

On the eas
by Fondolj
the Dracke
by the Buf
The ar
coast line
are the poi
narrative w
position of
and, indeed,
to the worL
war. The f
gical sense
British proti
the British

Already,

Johannesbur

colony begai

through the

elapsed sine

entered that

tlie Nativity

orders and e

It was ii

began to be

liundred mill

extends from

which is (lisi

the beginning

MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 137

On the east the country was bounded by the ocean; on the south
by Fondoland; on the west, by East Griqualand and Basutoland,
the Drackensburg Range, and the Orange Free State; on the north,
by the Buffalo River and the Transvaal.

The area thus included in Natal is 20,460 square miles. The
coast line is 200 miles in extent. Centrally situated on the coast
are the poi*t (Port Natal) and town of Durban. To anticipate the
narrative which is to follow, we should here point out also the
position of Pietermaritzburg, Colenso, Ladysmith, Glencoe, Dundee
and, indeed, all of the other important places which became known
to the world as Natalese towns in the first acts of the Boer-British
war. The first contention in that struggle in a military and strate-
gical sense was for the possession of Natal. That province, being a
British protectorate, constituted the most practicable approach for
the British forces into the territories of the Two Republics.

Already, before the discovery of the great gold deposits at
Johannesburg and the diamond fields at Kimberley, the Natal
colony began to flourish. A considerable commerce found its exit
through the port of Durban. Nearly four centuries had now
elapsed since Vasco da Gama, on Christmas Day, in 1497, had
entered that harbor and named the country Terra Nafalis, Land of
the Nativity. How slowly germinate the seeds of the successive
orders and epochs in the civilized life of man!

It was in the period referred to that internal improvements
began to be promoted. Within the limits of the colony about four
hundred miles of railway were constructed. The principal line
extends from Durban into the Transvaal, the southern boundary of
wliich is distant from the port three hundred and six miles. By
the beginning of the tenth decennium, the population had increased

138

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to five hundred and forty-four thousand souls. Since that period,
Natal has become still more closely identified with the parent
colony at the Cape. The British ascendency was strengthened from
year to year, so tuat by the outbreak of the Transvaal war, there
was as much opposition to the British purpose in Cape Colony
itself as in the province of Natal. As the war developed, however,
Great Britain put forth strenuous efforts to maintain the loyalty
of her South African colonies.

Three territories lying contiguous to Natal may be mentioned
in connection therewith. Both are within the storm center of the
war of 1899. Griqualand East and Basutoland lie at the eastern and
northeastern extremity of Cape Colony. The former, according to
current geography, is the northern part of Kaffraria, bounded by
the Umzimkube, which discharges at Port Shepstone. Griqualand
East has for its principal stream the St. John's River, and for its
chief towns, Kokstad, Mount Frere, and Omtatta. The coast reaches
down to where the British grip on the continent begins to be
better defined, at the Great Kei River. Griqualand East, lying in the
situation indicated, and Griqualand West, which has now been
absorbed in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, formerly extended
from the coast on the southeast to the upper branch of the
Orange River on the northwest where Griquatown is situated, and
where the Kimberley diamond fields lie spread with their sparkling
treasures.

Basutoland is held on the north by the Orange Free State, and
on the east by Natal. This region, more than Natal, is peopled
by the natives who are a branch of those warlike Kaffirs with
whom both the British and the Dutch have had to contend time;
and again for the mastery. The country is a rugged, almost mouu-

MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 139

tainous, highland. It is a grazing region, well adapted to the
production of cattle, of which the Basutos have great herds.

The British ascendency began here with the annexation of the
country to Cape Colony, in August of 1871. At first there was no
separate government, but only a provincial dependency deriving
its authority from that of the Cape. In 1884, however, a resident
commissioner was sent out from the Colonial office of the empire,
and Basutoland was governed thereafter as a separate district. In
no other part of the British South African dependencies is the
disproportion between the native and the foreign population greater
tlian in Basutoland, amounting according to the census of 1891, to
three hundred and seventy -two B. ntos to every European!

This fact complicated the military problem not a little at the
beginning of the Transvaal war — this for the reason that the attitude
of the Basutos, as to their loyalty or disloyalty to the British
antliorities, could not well be known. Their disposition and war-
like character were such as to make them a dangerous element in
the conflict. The Basuto territory, as at present constituted, is
estimated at ten thousand two hundred and ninety-three square
miles.

Zululand is another dependency proximate to the scene of the
Transvaal conflict. This district is what remains of the formerly
extensive country of the warlike Zulu-1\aflirs. The fierce conflict
of the British with these people, which occurred between January
and Angust of 1879, will be readily recalled. Zululand was invaded
hy a British army, in which the Prince Imperial of France was a
vohuiteer subordinate ofTlcer. At this time the Zulus were ground
l)etween the Boer millstone on the north and the British nether-
stone on the south. They were pressed into submission. The

140

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

country was divided among eleven of the principal chiefs. A civil
war came afterward, lasting, with successive outbreaks, until
1884, when Zululand, narrowed to its present proportions of four
thousand five hundred and twelve square miles, was forced into a
state of quietude.

Good government was difficult under native auspices, and in
1887, a British jnotectorate was established in Zululand. In 1895,
the protectorate was extended over Tongaland to the southern
boundary of Portuguese East Africa. Bordering on the latter
country, and between it and the South African Republic, lies the
litt/e dependency of Swaziland, extending from the Lebombo range
to the Drackensberg.

In the fifth place, as to Bechuanaland. No other region per-
haps in South Africa has, in recent years, attracted a larger amount
of interested attention than has Bechuanaland. This also has
become a dependency of the British government under the title of
"Bechuanaland Protectorate." The country lies between the Molopo
and the Zambesi. On the east it is bordered by Matebeland and
the South African Republic. On the west, it extends to German
Southwest Africa. The dominion, once only a small district, now
includes three hundred and eighty-six thousand square miles.

This region was, from of old, the land of the Bechuanas. The
latter appear to be a subordinate division of the Kaffir race. They
are above the average of Africans in stature, figure, and bearing.
The complexion of the people is an amber brown, tinged with
yellow or red. They are warlike and predatory, and their numbers
are so great that no adequate census has ever been prepared.

It was not until the year 1890, tluit Bechuanaland was placed
under jurisdiction of a British governor. This scheme continued

MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 141

in force for five years when the country was annexed to Cape
Colony. A new arrangement was then made for the administration.
Old Bechuanaland, around which the wider dominion of the pro-
tectorate was extended so greatly, had possessed an area of scarcely
sixty thousand square miles. The dominion of the Protectorate
became more than six times as great. But even this vast terri-
torial expansion did not by any means equal the increased impor-
tance of Bechuanaland on the score of the incalculable wealth
which was discovered in the soil.

Within this region lie the diamond fields of Kimberley. The
towns of Mafeking and Vryburg, the names of which suggp'^t the
important mineral wealth which they contain, are Bechuana
centers. The old industries, which already supplied a great export
trade of corn and wool and hides, have been supplanted in this
famous region by a wealth of precious metals and still more
precious stones, the like of which has hardly been equalled in the
history of mankind. The discovery of this mineral treasure has
added incalculably to the wealth of the world and as yet the ground
has hardly been touched. Millions of dollars of European capital
have been invested in the mining properties and the interruption
of these activities made itself seriously felt in the world's financial
centers.

Before
Dutch Repi
of the who
years of tht
the several
actions of \>
features, ha;

The firs
no account,
1876. The ;
its actions
Africa and
agencies. 1
which the
treasures be

Of all t
given their :
King of the
of genius ai
a narrow kii
sion except
not great, b
skillful arra
lirst royal p

CHAPTER IX

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

Before proceeding with an outline of the history of the two
Dutch Republics of South Africa, it is desirable to take a survey
of the whole field of transformation during the last twenty-five
years of the century. In the first place, we may refer seriatim to
the several international conferences which have been held, by the
actions of which the present map of Africa, with all of its startling
features, has been produced.

The first of these conferences, of which we have hitherto given
no account, was the Conference of Brussels, held in September of
1876. The primary motives, by which the calling of this body and
its actions were inspired, were the contemplated explorations of
Africa and the hoped-for civilization of the continent by European
agencies. This, of course, involved the discussion of the means by
which the interior of the continent should be reached and its
treasures be made accessible to the world.

Of all the royal and princely personages who, in our age, have
given their favor to the enterprise of Europeanizing Africa, Leopold,
King of the Belgians, has been easily first. This monarch is a man
ol' genius and ambition. He found himself, in middle life, pent in
II narrow kingdom, and he could discover no field for adequate expan-
sion except in Africa or the Oriental islands. His resources were
not great, but he made up for the deficiency by such, activity and
skillful arrangement of forces as to make him in some sense, the
lirst royal personage of the age. The single fact that he was able

(148)

144

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to take Henry M. Stanley from the other patrons whom he held in re
or in posse was a sufficient proof of the adroitness and enterprise
which Leopold displayed in the whole African business, to which
he has given the better part of his life and fortune.

In the year 1876, the King of the Belgians invited to his capital
a number of international publicists to consider with him the plans
which he had evolved. He thought it well to undertake the civiliza-
tion of a continent, lie would bring that continent into the general
circle of commerce and enlightenment. He would bring to bear all
the agencies of Europe for the extinguishment of the slave-trade
and slavery itself.

The conference which the king called was the opening act in
that drama of transformation which has extended itself to the
present day. Leopold was watching with profound interest the
movements of Stanley. At this time, the explorer was in the darkest
maze and tangle of his work. He was marching from Lake
Tanganyika to Nyangwe. He had not yet found the Lualaba, and
much less liad he demonstrated the identity of that river with the
Congo. To adopt his own story, he had not yet, in banter with one
of his leaders, cast up the penny on the fall of which he was to
decide whether he would follow the Lualaba or take another branch
which would have led him into chaos. The penny indeed said that
he should take the other branch. But with the perversity and audacity
(jf inspiration, he renounced the decision of the penny, and took the
Lualaba; hence the Congo and the sea!

Of this great matter in the far interior of Africa. Leopold had
no knowledge when the Conference of 187G was convened. He had
only a vague dream that he should ever be able to secure the services
of Stanley in the interest of himself and Belgium. Meanwhile he

dreamed o
acquisition
in the troi

On th(
convened.
HungaiT, I
thither by
the geogra
various co
were presi(
appeared i
sonally anc

The se
were consi
only impor
African So
referred. '
fixed in Br
committees
Europe. Si
society, th(
of explorinj

As sooi
was taken
hand on tl
could hardl
lead of Leo
of sending
African Ex

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

147

dreamed of other things. At one time he formed a plan for the
acquisition of a part of Borneo, or, missing that, some other island
in the tropical Pacific.

On the r2th of September, 1876, the Conference of Brussels
convened. Representatives w^ere present from Great Britain, Austria-
Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. They were not sent
thither by the governments of the countries named, but rather by
the geographical societies and other progressive organizations in the
various countries. Of these bodies most of the representatives
were presidents or secretaries. The king of the Belgians himself
appeared in the conference in his private capacity ; he acted per-
sonally and not as the crown.

The sessions of the conference were brief; only three days
were consumed in the meetings. The principal, and, indeed, the
only important action taken, was the institution of the International
African Society, to the work of which we have so many times
referred. This important body was organized, and its seat was
fixed in Brussels. The plan contemplated the appointment of sub-
committees to have their headquarters in the principal capitals of
Europe. Such committees should be contributory to the main
society, the purpose of which was declared to be the promotion
of exploring enterprises and civilizing movements in Central Africa.

As soon as this important meeting had adjourned, the question
was taken up in London. The Royal Geographical Society laid its
hand on the helm, but it was not the Brussels helm. Indeed it
could hardly be expected that the British would long follow the
lead of Leopold. The Iloyal Geographical Society, therefore, instead
of sending a commission to Brussels, organized an independent
African Exploration Fund. This was in March of 1877. Divers

148

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

African explorations were planned, the principal one of which was
entrusted to the management of the young explorer, Joseph Thom-
son, who was authorized to proceed as the representative of
British interests only.

In other countries, however, such as Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Russia,
and the United States, branches of the International African Asso-
ciation were formed, and in June of 1877, a meeting of the Central
Committee was held in Brussels. A considerable fund had already
been sobscribed, and before the end of the year an expedition was
dispatched to determine the character of the country between Lake
Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean. This expedition struck inland
from Zanzibar in the year following its appointment, and made its
way to the east shore of Tanganyika, where the German trading
station and settlement called Karema was founded.

The movement thus begun, however, did not proceed very far
until history, which may, in Shakespeare's phrase, be regarded as
the one "unquestionable spirit" of the world, took its own course
and left all man-plans go awry. For one thing, Henry M. Stanley,
who had gone over to the service of the King of the Belgians,
having now made his way down the Congo, arrived at Marseilles
in January of 1878. He brought with him the greatest single con-
tribution to geographical knowledge ever made by man. Already
he had sent before him certain letters which had awaked the
interest of all Christendom in the conditions and prospects of
Central Africa.

It is not our purpose, however, in this connection to follow the
subordinate lines of the great story. We are to speak only of the
successive Congresses that were the evolved and evolving agencies of

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

149

the forward march. The second of these was, as we have seen, the
great Conference of Berlin, held in the year 18S4. To this meeting
and its work we have already devoted a chapter. We have seen
how, under its auspices, the map of Africa began to be greatly
modified. Events moved forward, for about five years, on the lines
which took their origin from the Berlin Congress. At length,
however, the affairs of the Dark Continent got into such com-
plexity as to demand another discussion, at least on the part of
two of the principal nations.

These two nations were Germany and Great Britain. The
enlargement of the " sphere " of the former power in East Africa
had continued until the dominion of the Sultan of Zanzibar was
about to be included in Germany! But the British sphere also
enlarged itself, and the French sphere like'wise, until before the
end of 1885, a commissioner had to be appointed by the three
governments to decide how much of the territorial spoil each
should have.

At this time, Emin Pasha was at work in the Equatorial region,
and was thought to be surrounded by the Mahdists at Wadelai, on
the Upper Nile. To rescue him — albeit, the result showed that he
did not greatly need or appreciate a rescue — Stanley set out up the
Congo in the beginning of 1877. In the meantime, Dr. Karl Peters,
founder of the German Colonization Society and head of the Ger-
man East Africa Company, had undertaken a second exploring
expedition in the eastern part of the continent, which resulted after
two or three years in his being appointed Imperial Commissioner
of the German Protectorate. It thus happened that while Stanley
was in the interior, and Peters was exploring in the same region,
the two expeditions, in the language of Keltic, "played at

150

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

hide-and-seek with each other for some time, but never met."*
This condition of affairs led to what is called the Anglo-German
agreement of 1890, which was the third African international
compact of the epoch. When Stanley, on the south shore of Victoria
Nyanza, found Emin Pasha, the necessity for "relieving" that
diligent but eccentric explorer had passed ; for an agreement had
already been reached between the two governments concerned, and
the "sphere" of each had been so determined that Emin Pasha's
further efforts to extend the dominion of his country were useless.
A line of demarcation between the British assumption and that of
Germany had been declared.

By this compact, Germany retired to the north of the boundary
which was drawn from the Umba to the eastern shore of the lake.
Great Britain was left to claim all the coast country north of the
river Jub. This region had already been declared by the British
East Africa Company to be a protectorate. The boundary line was
extended across Victoria Nyanza, and thence westward to the
eastern boundary of the Congo Free State. On this basis, the
adjustment was confirmed as to the two nations concerned, and
was accepted* by the others.

Already, however, a more formal and important conference
was on at Brussels. Nearly two years previously, namely, in Sep-
tember of 1888, the Marquis of Salisbury had sent a dispatch to
the British representative at the Belgian capital, suggesting that
the king should call a conference of the Powers to contrive meas-
ures for the more effectual suppression of the slave-trade. This
meeting, which was the foinili of the series, was accordingly desig-
nated as the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference. The boay assembled

• "The Partition of Africa," by J. S. Kellle, p'a(?e 364.

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

151

in November of 1889, and the sittings were continued until July
of the following jear, when the proceedings were brought to a
close. The results were recorded in an agreement, the substance
of which, as summarized by McDermot in his work entitled British
East Africa, was as follows:

1. Progressive organization of the administrative, judicial,
religious and military services in the African territories placed
under the sovereignty or protectorate of civilized nations.

2. The gradual establishment in the interior, by the Powers
to which the territories are subject, of strongly occupied stations
in such a way as to make their protective or repressive action
effectively felt in the territories devastated by slave-hunting.

3. The construction of roads, and in particular of railways,
connecting the advanced stations with the coast, and permitting
easy access to the inland waters, and to such of the upper courses
of the rivers and streams as are broken by rapids and cataracts, in
view of substituting economical and rapid means of transport for
the present means of carriage by men.

4. Establishment of steamboats on the inland navigable waters
and on the lakes, supported by fortified posts established on the
banks.

5. Establishment of telegraphic lines, ensuring the communi-
cation of the posts and stations with the coast and with the admin-
istrative centers.

6. Organization of expeditions and flying columns to keep up
the communication of the stations with each other and with the
coast, to support repressive action, and to ensure the security of
high-roads.

7. Restriction of the importation of fire-arms, at least of

152

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

modern pattern, and of ammunition, throughout the entire extent
of the territories infected by the slave-trade.

It will be noted from the tenor and subject-matter of the
foregoing clauses, that the Brussels Conference of 1S90 was concerned
more about the social and industrial possibilities of Central Africa
than it was about the political divisions thereof. But the partition
of the continent had, in the meantime, gone steadily forward, as
if the process were enlivened by its own principles and momentum,
as indeed it was.

By the date of the close of the Brussels Conference of 1890, a
new map of Africa had, as it were, presented itself for the accept-
ance of the world. Its principal features of change are as follows:
German Southwest Africa had extended itself far into the interior,
until with a narrow frontier it touched the headwaters of the
Zambesi. The Congo Free State had enlarged itself on the south-
east by dropping down until, in the very center of South Africa, it
lay agsiinst tlie borders of the British protectorate, fiorman East
Africa had taken for its permanent eastern l)oundai'y tlie ocean
from Cape Delgado to Pongwe, about three degrees noith of the
island of Zanziliar. From that point the boundary lay to tlie
northwest to its intersection with the east shore of Victoria
Nyanza. From this line northward to Abyssinia and westward to
the headwaters of the Congo, that is, to the watershed between
those waters and those wliich flow into the Nile, was constructed
the vast territoiy called Imperial British East Africa.

The Portuguese coast was confirmed from Cape Delgado south-
waid to 1\)ngaland. Cape Colony had enlarged itself in an imperial
way to the north. Basuto'and and Natal were included on the
east. Part of Bechuanaland became a crown colony and 'lie vast

THE EPOCH OF J'AliTITION

153

remainder a British protectorate. From the parallel of twenty-two
south latitude, measuring northward, began the immense region
known as British South Africa, which extends northward to the
Congo Free State and German East Africa, and on the east to
Lake Nyassa and the Portuguese possessions.

Many other changes had also taken place in the five-year period
preceding 1890. The various British possessions lying between the
Cameroons and French Senegal had been enlarged and defined. It
appeared at this time that the contention of (Ireat Britain for the
possession of the valley of the Niger would be determined in her
favor. The Royal Niger Chartered Company had laid its claim
between the German Cameroons and the French Colony of Benin,
and had extended the same far up the river to about the four-
teenth parallel of north latitude. The Spanish protectorate, reaching
from Cape Blanco to Cape Juby, opposite the Canaries, hrd been
recognized and confirmed. Vast regions in the interior, however,
still remained to be appropriated at the beginning of the tenth
decennium, and it is the after part of the scramljle which has
given character to history in this quarter of the globe at the close
of the century.

This struggle has gone on with such rapidity, so many threaten-
ings and reconciliations, and such astonisliing results, that on the
whole the partition of Africa, which has now been virtually com-
pleted, presetits the most marvelous goognipliical and political
transformation which has ever been witnessed in human progress
in ji like period of time.

Let us, then, l)rietly contemplate tlio African map as it presented
itself in the year 1895. liy this time not a single district on the coast
ol" the continent, excei)t the Sultanate of Morocco on the north-

154

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

west, and the vilayet of Tripoli on the north, reaching from Tunis
to the borders of Egypt, had escaped the foreign domination. Per-
haps the little republic of Liberia ought also to be excepted, as
that is virtually a native state.

In the case of Egypt likewise, the question of dependency may
be raised, for that is still nominally a Turkish tributary. The
Nubian desert, as well, from the souchern boundary of Egypt to
the northeastern angle of the Italian protectorate, where the same
touches the Red Sea, about one hundred miles south of Suakim,
may be considered as African rather than European territory. As
to the interior, south of the Negro Sultanate of Wadi, which has
its limit about the eighth parallel of north latitude, not a single
scrap of Africa, except the small region between Angola and the
British Central Protectorate, remains under native control. All of
the rest of the continent, which raeasures 11,621,530 square miles,
and bears a total population of (approximately) 140,000,000 souls,
has passed under the dominion of the European nations.

For better or for worse, this result has come to pass. It is a
historical fact with which, independently of its antecedents, the
present and the future must deal according tc the vv^isdom that is in
the nations. If the ancient virus of selllshness in the race could
be neutralized with some benevolent antidote, and if the brutal
law of competition should cease to be the prevailing force wdth
men and nations, then the work of regenerating Africa would cer-
tainly afford the most beautiful and salubrious field for human
exertion to bo found in all the earth.

Dropping the forecast, however, let us look attentively at what
is. On the northwest, the French Protectorate has spread south-
ward to include the country to about the fifteenth parallel of

:iorth latiti

Company o

westward a

Atlantic sh(

As we ]

the greatest

the years 1^

daries into 1

province wj

continent. <

Britain had

larly in th(

extended cei

south latitui

Strangely ei

altogether tc

On the

River, the cc

of France, P(

State had be

of the rivers

to British E;

British Centr

The outli

a preceding

tlie eastern, I

almost wholl}

have seen, ex

*Seo page 163.

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

157

uorth latitude, where it reaches the territory of the Royal Niger
Company of Great Britain. Thence the French sphere spreads
westward and southward to the ivory coast of Guinea and to the
Atlantic shores from Cape Blanco to Gambia.

As we have said, the French sphere is, territorially considered,
the greatest of all the European dependencies in Africa. Between
the years 1890 and 1895, the Spanish Protectorate carried its boun-
daries into the interior until a large, though not very promising,
province was established — this on the northwest border of the
continent. On the whole, by the date j ast named, the red of Great
Britain had diffused itself more and more over the map, particu-
larly in the south. The Imperial dominions at this juncture
extended centrally from the eighth to the thirty-fifth parallel of
south latitude, a distance of more than two thousand niles.
Strangely enough, the British expansion was, in this in'jtance,
altogether towards the interior and not maritime.

On the west, from the equator to the mouth of the Orange
River, the country was wholly occupied by the great dependencies
of France, Portugal and Germany. In the interior, the Congo Free
State had been allowed to enlarge itself, mostly by the suggestion
of the rivers and the mountains, to French Ubangi on the north ;
to British East Africa and German East Africa on the east; to
British Central Africa and Angola on the south.

The outlines of German East Africa we have already traced in
a preceding paragraph.* By the year under consideration (1895),
the eastern, half-peninsular projection of the continent had passed
almost wholly to the dominion of Italy, whoso protectorate, as we
have seen, extended from a short distance south of Suakim to the

♦Suupago 163.

158

7.HE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

equatorial line. Within this region, however, on the gulf of Aden
and looking to the north, lies the little Somaliland protectorate of
Great Britain. Out of this general view we have left for special
notice in the following two chapters the South African Republics
of the Dutch; that i-^, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal or
South Africaii Per »iic.

For the pn - chapter, we conclude the discussion of the
political aspect Wiih tht ■ ^lowing summary of relative areas, popula-
tions, and averages to the square mile, of the various European
dependencies in the Dark Continent, and also the native remainder.
It will be seen, as a general result, that more than 9,000,000 square
miles out of a total of a little more than 11,500,000 square miles
have passed from native to foreign control, and this does not
include among the foreign dependencies Egypt or Liberia.

SUMMARY OF AFRICAN STATISTICS, 1895.*

NAME OF PARENT STATE.

French Africa

British Africa

Belgian Africa (Congo)

German Africa

Portuguese Africa

Italian Africa

Dutch Africa (Republics) . .

Spanish Africa

Total European Africa

Native Africa . . .

All Africa

AREA SQUARE
MILES.

3,326,790

2,194,880

905,090

884,810

820,730

548,880

177,750

153,834

9,018,760

2,002,770

11,621,530

POPULATION.

30,089,000

43,227,700

16,300,000

8,370,000

5,472,000

5,150,000

764,000

443,000

112,545,700

16,990,000

139,635,700

INHABITANTS

TO THE SQUARE

MILE.

9.6

20.
18.

9.4

6.6

3.
12.

6.5
12.

Concerning this summary of areas, populations, etc., we should
remark that under the head of population, the native races living

♦ Deduced from Ki'ltie's " I'artitioii of Africa," pp. B19 5il.

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

159

within the European dependencies are, of course, included with the
small sprinkling of Europeans proper. The real white popul .cion
of these vast areas is small. Indeed the whites could noi, be
reckoned in the aggregate of Africa but for their governing control,
and for the fact that they are supported with adequate military
forces from the European centers of power.

To the foregoing statistical facts certain social and anthropo-
logical considerations of great importance must be added. Africa
ought to be viewed as a whole with i sp; * to its receptivity of
civilization; that is, civilization according o t'le European standards.
Of what use can the continent be made to the high contracting
powers that possess it and struggle fo^ it, unless there be a potency
of something to be gained by the treu^endous movement? Let us,
then, note a few of the still more general features which suggest
or contradict the partition of Africa with a view to Europeanizing
the continent.

Within the more than eleven and a half million square miles of
African territory exist nearly all the ultimate resources of human
progress ; but they exist under conditions which will make them diffi-
cultly obtainable by the possessors. It is one thing, for instance, to
possess a fertile territory, and it is another thing that the fecundity
of that territory shall offer itself freely to human exertion.

Certainly not all of the natural elements of wealth are to be
found in the African receptacle. For example, all of those resources
which are peculiar to the borderland of snow must be omitted
from the count. This will include the hardier and more enduring
forms of timber, the fur-bearing animals, etc. It will also exclude
certain important cereals and root products, the cultivation of
which follows the fluctuations of temperature and season. For the

160

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

rest, Africa possesses all ; and it might almost be said that she offers
nothing. Like the Klondike deposits of gold, lying under fifteen or
twenty feet of impenetrable ice, the natural wealth of Africa, though
with conditions totally reversed, is nearly all protected by tropical
heats, blankets of malaria, and ferocious aspects of nature which
repel all but the most courageous of men.

Over and above this there is a still larger consideration,
Afi'ica, more than any other continent, repels commerce. The sea-
coast line of the continent, measuring around from the Delta of
Egypt to the Delta again, is about fifteen thousand miles in extent.
It is, throughout, the smoothest coast line in the world. One has
only to glance at the outline to see its bayless and harborless
character. Notwithstanding the great size of the continent, the
shoreline circumference is fully four thousand miles less than that
of Europe, which continent is only one- third the area of Africa!
The European coast is eaten in everywhere with bays, inlets and
harbors innumerable; but the coast of Africa from beginning to
end has not one important indentation! How can such a continent
yield itself freely to the demands of the commercial world?

To this great defect, however, there is some compensation. A
large number of great rivers flow with tremendous volume from
the far interior of Africa, thus opening water channels for the
admission of ships. Of this kind is the immemorial Nile; also the
Niger; and perhaps most resourceful of all, the Congo. In South
Africa, the Orange and the Zambesi have their tributaries in the
same interior. Towards the center of the continent lie the great
lakes — the Victoria Nyanza, Nyassa, Tanganyika, the two Alberts,
Lake Chad and several others, each with its own extensive water
drainage and system of streams. To the extent here indicated,

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

161

Africa is penetrable, and the commercial resources of the interior
may be got to the borderland of ocean. For the rest, the coast
seems to forbid the approach of ships more than does the shore of
any other major division of the earth.

Still another question arises — that of temperature. Africa is
tropical. It is the most tropical of all the countries of the globe,
and therefore has the greatest zone of heat. Hence the human
frame and faculties are exhausted from relaxation. Only South
America is comparable in position with the African continent. But
South America is climatically ameliorated by many conditions which
make even her tropical belt both delightful and salubrious, as well
as productive. On the west, the great Andes rise, making residence
desirable for Europeans and Americans, even under the equatorial
line.

North of that line. South America has but little more than ten
degrees of territory. The high interior of Brazil, drained by the
tributaries of the Amazon, is habitable by men of all races. The
climate is by no means intolerable at any point on the eastern
coast of South America. The most insalubrious part is the district
lying between the delta of the Orinoco and the mouth of the
Amazon.

In Africa, the mollifying conditions do not exist; or they exist
to such a limited extent, chiefly in the southern and eastern part
of the continent, that at no place within the tropics is there a really
healthful and nerve-building environment for people of the Aryan
race. And of this character of physical and mental discouragement
is nearly the whole of the continent.

Africa, as we have said, is the tropical country par excellence.
North of the tropic of Cancer, between that line and the Mediter-

162

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ranean, only about three million square miles of the whole area are
included. At the other end of the continent, the region between
the tropic of Capricorn and the sea has an area of less than one
million square miles. All of the remainder, amounting to more
than seven million six hundred thousand square miles, is within
the tropics, and the torridity is appalling. Over the vast region
the sun swings noi*th and south, looking down vertically on desert
and forest and interminable morass, heating the whole as if with
fire and furnace steam, until it challenges the hardy races to enter
or approach at the peril of their lives.

The emplacement of Africa in the vastness of the seas puts
the continent under interdict as to those cheering vicissitudes of
climate which seem to be so essential to the physical and mental
vigor of mankind. Looking out from Africa in all directions,
except to the north, there is nothing but a world of waters — of
warm waters — which lave the shores from century to century, for-
bidding any material change of season or atmospheric condition.
The ocean currents that reach the coast from distant seas, born, as
they are, of the rotation of the earth and the pulsations of the
deep, are all salt rivers of steam. The only exception is the cooler
current which sweeps up the west shore from Benguela to the
Congo delta. There is also a phenomenon of this kind off the
coast of Spanish Africa, modifying favorably the temperature of
that country.

It would appear, then, that on the whole, the common and
traditional belief of mankind relative to the inhabitability of
Africa by people of the Aryan stock is warranted by the facts as
they are written eternally in the conditions of nature. The one
race of men which seems to be invincible in the tropical parts of

THE EPOCH OF PARTITION

163

the continent is the Nigritian race, whose millions sweat in naked-
ness and flourish in the mephitic atmosphere, unhurt by their
environment. How, indeed, should it be otherwise, since the blacks
are the survivors of an ethnic evolution which has destroyed all
tlie rest?

After the negroes come the Hamites, who are the preponderat-
ing people in the country of the central lakes. After these are
the Semitic Arabs, and the mixed breeds in which a percentage of
white blood flows safely in the channels of the black. Finally
come the intruding, conquering, masterful Europeans, whose mis-
sion, if we look no further than the morality of natui'e, seems to
be the control, direction, use and abuse, of the vast native mass, in
carrying out the blind purposes of human destiny.

In spite of all this, however, the economic nature-maps of Africa
give evidences of vast and varied promises. Thus, for example, the
Orographic^^l Map, exhibiting the elevation of the different parts of
the continent above the level of the sea, shows larger and still
larger areas of high-up country that, under the dominion of civiliza-
tion, must prove to be residence areas for large masses of pro-
gressive men. In Abyssinia, the mountain ranges rise easily above
the level of ten thousand feet. There are spots under the very
equator, between Victoria Nyanza and the sea, which ascend to the
san, ^ great altitude. There are other and still greater regions,
namely, in Abyssinia, surrounding the great lakes, around the South
African coast, inland from Walfish Bay and Benguela, in Darfur,
and in the mountainous region of Marocco, in which the highlands
rise to the salubrious and nerve-making range of elevat' n between
five thousand and ten thousand feet. The greater par: of Africa,
below the fifth parallel of south latitude, has an elevation of from

164

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

two thousand to five thousand feet above the sea. Other vast areas
vary from five hundred to two thousand feet; and the remainder
has an elevation of less than five hundred feet.

Yet again we may look with interest at the map which shows
the range of navigable waters in Africa. This includes, first of all,
a sea coast of fifteen thousand miles. On the west coast it
includes the rivers Senegal, Gamlna and Grande. It includes, in
the next place, the tremendous Niger with its southern tributary;
also the small rivers Gross, Mimi and Ogove. Of the navigability
of the Congo we have already spoken; but the ascent of this great
stream is broken for a considerable distance in the region of the
falls and rapids. Above Stanley Pool, the stream again, together
with no fewer than twelve of its tributaries, becomes navigable for
river steamers of large capacity. At St. Paul de Loanda, the
Coanza may be ascended for more than one hundred miles. On
the east coast, the Limpopo, the Pungue, the Zambesi and the
Shire, are reckoned as navijj^able streams. All of the great lakes
of the interior are as navigable as our own. Finally, the Nile
v/ith its tributaries, except in the regions of tl>e Falls and Cata-
racts, is navigable from about the fifth parallel ')i north latitude to
the Mediterranean. All these conditions are favorable to the
spread of European civilization, and are included among the com-
mercial possibilities of Africa.

We thus conclude our survey of the continent as a whole,
reserving the following chapters for the special consideration of
the Dutch Republics in the south.

ta-

le,

!/3

In the
opmenti of
these there
origin, hav(
in the pro
State and

Both oi
planting; b
patronage,
exact analo,
before the I
opment of t
do, in a vas
nothing wit]

Tiiere a
in some mej
the Dutch,
dependency <
attempt to c
is in touch i
from. Frenc
of Africa has
insomuch thj
age of the ci

CHAPTER X

THE TWO REPUBLICS

In the preceding pages we have followed in outline the devel-
opment of the various European dependencies in Africa. Besides
these there are two independent States, which, having a European
origin, have grown up on African soil, becoming commonwealths
in the proper sense of the word. These are the Orange Free
State and the South Ab'rican Republic.

Both of these commonwealths have been derived from European
planting; but have been, for the most part, free from European
patronage. They are, therefore, independent states. They are in
exact analogy with the Old Thirteen Colonies of the United States
before the Revolution. We shall now narrate the origin and devel-
opment of these two singular democracies, standing alone, as they
do, in a vast continent, having no foreign power behind them and
nothing within them but their own rugged vitality.

There are, however, in Africa, two other divisions which are,
in some measure, in the same category with the two republics of
the Dutch. The other two are Liberia and the great Algerian
dependency of France. The former is the unsatisfying result of an
attempt to create a native republic, and the latter, though a colony,
is in touch with the Republic of France, and i : a derivative there-
from. French Congo ilso has this character. But for the rest, all
of Africa has passed under the control of the European monarchies,
insomuch that the Africa of to-day may be regarded as an appan-
age of the crowns of ^'arope.

(167)

168

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Two groups of these immense dependencies, namely, those of
Great Britain (the British group of provinces numbers ten) and
those of (lermany (the German group numbers three) are imperial
in their derivation and develojnnent. Angola, the Congo Free
State, Portuguese East Africa, the Italian protectorate, and the
Spanish protectorate, are monarchial ; that is, they are dependencies
of monarchy. Since, however, they are not and cannot become
integral parts of the monarchies to which they belong, these also
assume the imperial character; for these colonial states, with the
populations which they contain, are not homogeneous with the
home government, but heterogeneous and detached parts thereof.
Afri(;a, therefore, as a whole, has become Imperial Aftica. That
is tlie aspect of the larger question. That is the signihcance of
the division of the continent among the powers. The dependencies
of France, even, give to the mother republic, or tend to give, the
character of an empire; in so much that France is no longer simply
a republic, but rather an Imperial Republic, spreading in the
manner of her proi 3type, Imi^erijii Rome, before the empire of
Rome was declared.

To all this, then, the two Dutch republics are distinctly excep-
tional. They are not as yet parts of the imperial scheme. They
do not surrender their democratic independence for the elusive
advantages of an imperial connection. The significance of the
conflict ^yith which the century closes relates emphatically to this
exceptional standing and character of the remaining two free countries
in South Africa.

The Orange Free State, known originally as tiie Orange River
So.er. i^nty lud afterwards as the Orange River Free State, had
its origin, as we have hecn in a. former chapter, in an exodus of

THE TWO REPUBLICS

Ifii;

the Dutch Boers out of Natal and Cape Colony across the s- uth
branch of the Orange River called the Caledon. The terrir "y Ls
bounded on the south by this stream through nearly its whole
extent, On the east, the principal boundary is the Drakensburg
range of mountains. On the north, the limit is the river Vaal and
the river Buffalo, which is the tributary of the Tugela. On the
west, the boundary is artificial, dividing, as it does, the Free State
from Griqualand West. The shape and delimitation of the country
show clearly enough that it was occupied in the first place and
determined in its boundaries, not by surveyors with theodolites and
diplomatical agents with note-books, but by folks seeking a home.
Such irregularity of geographical outline may be noticed (and for
the same reason) in all the older states of the American Union.

The settlement of the Orange Free State carries ns fai l)ack
towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. The hrst per-
manent colonization was effected by the Dutch u 16.r2, The
country had been previously explored in a randi, -i wuy by a
company of shipwrecked sailors whom a stranded DuL**h vessel had
cast ashore at Table Bay. No sooner had a .settlemeni beon made,
than the first incoming ship from Holln id brought recruits. Then
it was, in 1654, that that peculiar breed of men, the Dutch Boer
farmers, was established in the valley of the Orange. They were
the sons and grandsons of the men v ho had fought Philip of Spain.
They went to South Africa to seek a home, just as our forefathers
came to New p]ngland and Virginia. They were descendents of the
Dutch patriots who had won the freedom and independence of
their country in the Lowlands of Fhuope. They were soon joined l)y
refugees and exiles from several of tue oppressed districts of the
parent continent.

170

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Thus, in the latter part of the century, came a band of French
Huguenots into South Africa. Thus also, out of the Alpine valleys
of Switzerland, came the Waldensians, and the Protestant Pied-
montese. These brought with them the products and industrial
methods of the home countries. They planted the vine in Boer-
land. They added greatly to the prosperity of the Dutch colonists,
with whom they easily combined and melted into a common type.
It were hard to say whether the Dutch element or the refugee element
predominated in the communities at the beginning of the eighteenth
century. The non-Dutch contributions were so considerable that
the language was infected and the institutions of the country
modified. In 1724, the authorities decreed that the Dutch be the
official language ; French and other dialects were excluded from the
schools and courts.

The climnte of the region to which destiny had led the emigrant
Boers, is rather dry, but especially healthful. The forests, of sub-
tropical character, in some districts are fine. At the time of the
Great Trek, mary of the tropical animals, including the lion, the
rhinoceros, the elephant, and the giraffe, were found, but all of
these have disappeared ; they too have trekked far into the safer
interior! To the present day an occasional herd of antelope may
be seen iu the hill country. The soil is for the most part fertile,
suggesting agricultural products, or, missing that, the pastoral life.

The Boers, unce settled in their new homes, took naturally to
their original manner of life, subject only to such modihcation as
the environmert made necessary. More than hitherto they became
the breeders of cattle, horses, goats, sheep and ostriches. As for the
hiineval wealth, they gave not much heed, except to those resources
which were immediately serviceable, such as coal and iron. For

THE TWO REPUBLICS

171

the rest the country was laid out in farms. Orchards and vineyards
were planted, and the Free State becanid an agricultural common-
v/ealth. An export trade was establiohed, the staple articles being
wool, skins, ostrich feathers, and diamonds. For these an exit to
foreign markets was found at Durban and Cape Town.

The autocracy of the Dutch leaders in the newly founded
State became pronounced. Their relations with the natives were
severe and at times oppressive. They took possession of the lands
with the original inhabitants included, and the latter became
virtually slaves. Though the Dutch were themselves farmers and
artisans, they compelled the native serfs to perform the hand-labor
requisite to the development of the country. A social condition
supervened, not dissimilar to that in the old slave-holding colonies
of the United States.

Perhaps the strongest hold for animadversion which the enemies
of the Boers have in recent times, is their slaveholding propensity
and habit. The word davc has a hard sound in the ear of civiliza-
tion, and the leaders of affairs in all civilized countries avail them-
selves of the ignominious word in order to put opprobrium on all
the slaveholding kind. At the same time, they who do this, while
avoiding for themselves the odium attaching to downright chattel
servitude, beat about and introduce social conditions which are
virtually as servile and unequal and wretched as are found in out-
right slavery. The most progressive nations of the world have, in
the present age, adopted the role of getting as near to the margin
of chattel slavery as may l)e done without subjecting themselves
thereby to the hostility of mankind. Thus have arisen the various
"labor systems" of modern times. The Boers havo been sufficiently
culpable on the score of slaveholdinij, and it will be well if the

t72

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

present crisis in South Africa shall teach them to abandon the
system forever.

The master class in the Orange State did not content itself
with the reduction of the Kaffirs and the Hottentots. The latter
were a rude and pastoral race who did not yield their energies
readily to the heavy toil of field and garden. They were clever in
Vi. ', care of flocks, but not capable as diggers. So the Boers looked
abroad for slaves more serviceable. Many Negroes were brought
from the interior, and also gangs of Bantus, who submitted to the
required tasks. As in the case of our Old South, the slave class
soon came to outnumber the whites. It appears, however, that the
tendencies of slave-making were at length checked, and reversed in
the Orange River Sovereignty, and that by the time of the aboli-
tion in Cape Colony, namely in 1834, the whites had gained upon
the slaves, who, in the open regions below the Orange River, numbered
about twenty-five thousand.

It wi n at this juncture that uhe effort of tha British authorities
was made to prevent, rather than encourage, territorial expansion
from the Cape. The Dutch settlement there, which had become
an English possession, was regarded as a trading-station which
ought to be fortified and strengthened ; but no thought was as yet
entertained of creating a broad colonial dependency. Tiierefore the
spread of the colony was deprecated.

It has been said that the abolition of slavery w^as the cause of the
Dutch migration into the interior. That movement, undertaken in
1S24, had, however, a larger reason and motive. True, the agricul-
tural system of the Dutch was undone by the act of emancipation,
and that work greatly disturbed them. Nothing distresses a people
more than the upheaval of the industrial system, whatever that

THE TWO REPUBLICS

173

may be. Nothing will make a man fight more savagely than to
disturb his farm. This of itself was no doubt sufficient to suyged
the trekking of the Boers ; but the larger reason was the impos-
sibility of the co-dwelling of two master races in the same country.
The Boers were a master race, and so were the English. They
disagreed on many things, and particularly on the question of
which should master the other. This was the most powerful motive
prevailing in the epoch of the trek.

The movement under consideration could not be resisted. A
system of migratory farming was adopted by the Boers, who would
dwell for a season in one place, and for the next season in another.
At each removal they laid out and planted fields and gathered a
crop. Then the trek would be resumed. It was this process which
carried the Boer population of the Cape northward and eastward,
and diffused it through Natal, the Orange River Free State, and
the Transvaal.

No certain statistics exist of the various populations of South
Africa in the first quarter of the present century. It is thought that
about the time of the beginning of the British ascendency, that is, in
1S06, the inhabitants of the Cape countries numbered about seventy-
five thousand. Of these, one-third were Boer farmers, one-third were
Hottentots, pure and mixed, who held a subject and servile relation
to the Dutch; and the remaining third were imported lilack slaves.
When British authority was established, Dutch authority receded
from it. The fact that it receded into the interior — to lie followed
thither by the British — accounts for the anomalous character of
the present map of South Afi-ica, which shows the British protec-
torates, not on the coast, but rather precluded from the coast by
the dependencies of other nations -this in the face of the fact

174

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

that Great Britain is the most singularly maritime power in the
world.

Crossing the Orange River the trekkers settled in the country
which, with the natural boundaries already stated, includes about
forty-one thousand five hundred square miles. Here a republican
government was organized, having the aristocratical characteristics
much the same as did the old State governments in the slaveholding
quarter of our republic. The Boers transported their institutions
from the Cape and reestablished them in a land where they believed
themselves to be safe from further interruption. The double trek
had carried them first into Natal, and thence into the present Free
State territory. Here the dominant class organized their govern-
ment in a way to exclude from the franchise, land ownership, and
the right to bear arms, the servile class of the population.

The capital of the country was established at Bloemfontein.
The city is on the Modder River, two hundred miles to the north-
west of Durban. The latitude is twenty-nine degrees eight minutes
south, and the longitude is twenty-six degrees and forty minutes
east. The town is pleasantly situated. The public buildings are
worthy of the country and people. There is an unpretending
Capitol, where the Volksraad or Popular Assembly holds its meet-
ings, and where the high court sits ; also a hall for the meetings
of the municipal council of Burghers.

Before the discovery of gold in the Dutch States, Bloemfontein
was no more than a small country town, but it was central to a
large and productive district of country. By the year 1890, the
population had increased to three thousand five hundred. The
railroad northward from Elizabeth passes through Bloemfontein on
its way to Johannesburg and Pretoria. In recent times telegraphic

lie

(X]

o <**>.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

l:&|M |Z5

■u iiii |Z2
Z 1*0 12.0

IL25 i u

m <

Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIISTIR.N Y USIO

(716) •7a-4S03

d
a

D
M .

O w

w s
2 <

t <

M -

K -

* (/)
k> -J

W D

Q K

oi :^

a, z

h Q

z z

r c

^ U
u u

communicatioi
east, and to tl
places" of com
principal are ]
Win burg, Hoc
Lady brand, Fi
and Wepener.
Resuming
between the D
Orange. The j
ing themselves
to the British
The Griquj
to war. Sir ]
body of British
were defeated ;
excuse for the
Oiange River,
assumption, anc
as governor a
troubled regior
way to secure
protection. Th
tills movement
tight occurred j
Worsted.

The Basnto
<'<>iony, sent an
Basutos, who w

THE TWO REPUBLICS

17?

communication has been opened from the cit> to Natal on the
east, and to the more distant Cape Town on the southwest. Other
placer of considerable importance have sprung up, of vvliich the
principal are Fauresmith, Edenburg, Philippolib, Jacobsdal, Boshoff,
Winburg, Hoopstad, Kronstad, Heilbron, Frankfort, Harrismith,
Ladybrand, Ficksburg, Bethulie, Bethlehem, Smithfield, Rouxville,
and Wepener.

Resuming the historical thread, we note the early conflict
between the Dutch Boer immigrants with the natives north of the
Orange. The aborigines of this region were the Griquas, who, find-
ing themselves about to be included in a foreign dominion, appealed
to the British authorities at Cape Colony for protection.

The Griquas, supported by the influence of the Colony, went
to war. Sir Philip Maitland, Governor of Cape Colony, sent a
body of British troops to the aid of the natives, and the Dutch
were defeated at the battle of Zwart Koppeis, in 1845. This gave
excuse for the establishment of a British residency north of the
Oiange River. That event was the opening wedge for still further
assumption, and in 1848, Sir Harry Smith, who had succeeded Maitland
as governor at the Cape, made a personal journey into the
troubled region, and concluded from liis observations that the best
way to seen re peace was to make a new dependency under British
in'otection. Thus came the Orange River Sovereignty. Against
this movement the Boers arose. Then, as already narrated, another
H^^'lit occurred at Boomplaats, and a second time the Boers were
worsted.

The Basuto war occurred in 1H52. Goveinor Cathcart, of Cape
<'i>lony, sent an expedition against King Moshesh and his army of
Basutos, who were defeated by the British in the battle of Berea.

17.S

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Having gained tlius much, the victorious British concluded to con
cede political autonomy to the Boer state; and this was done in
February of 1S54. Such action to the people of the Free State was
the achievement of the independence which they so greatly coveted.

The date of this agreement made with the Boers by Sir George
Clerk, special commissioner of Great Britain, was February 23, 1854.
By the terms of the compact the Boers were released from all alle-
giance to the British crown, and were permitted to organize independ-
ently on a Republican basis. This they did, gi> ing to their country
the name of the Orange River Free State. The constitution which
they adopted placed the executive power in the hands of a President.
To him was gi\ en an Administrative Council. The legislative depart-
ment was assigned to a Volksraad, or Congress, elected by the people.
The judiciary was organized, and the new State entered upon a pros-
perous career which was not seriously disturbed until the gold fields
were discoveied at Johannesburg and Witwatersrand ; that is, until
the richness of these deposits was made known. Another great find
was made at Barburton, the center of the Kopp region, near the fron-
tier of Portuguese East Africa.

In this attitude, then, the people of the Orange Free State were
placed when tlie suzerainty of Great Britain was declared, in a prelim-
inary way, in 1877, to be rehi-xed, as the result of the war of 1880-81.
That war reached itd climax in the rout of the British at Majuba Hill.
After that, British suzerainty was acknowledged in the convention of
August in the year just named.

The circumstances of the colonization by the Dutch of the
country north of the Vaal and south of the Limpopo, have been
^ilready indicated in the ('ha))ters on Cape Colony and the Orange
Flee State. The original rights of the Dutch at the Cape were

THE TWO REPUBLICS

179

siipi)laiite(l by the imposition of British authority early in the cen-
tiiry as a result of the Napoleonic wars. That result Avas conHrmed
in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna. Then followed the period of
British colonization, which was superimposed on the settlements of
the Dutch.'

Then, in 1834, came the abolition of slavery in the colonial
dependencies of Great Britain, and the beginning of the migration
of the Boers into the interior. The fretting of the two races — the
aggression of the one and the resistance of the other — next led to
the colonization of Natal. From this region the Boers were at
length obliged to recede, and the Orange River Sovereignty was con-
stituted as the refuge of the trekkers. This did not suflice, and
Pretorius an«l his followers made their way across the Vaal. Here
they found themselves among the aborigines, who were the Zulu-
Kaffirs, Hottentots, and niixetl races, who held the territory in the
rude manner of barbarians. The trekkers did not attempt to expel
the native inhabitants, but established themselves as the master race.
In 1840, they oi-ganized the Republic, which, after nearly sixty yeai-s
duration has been thrust, under the name of the South African
Republic, into the foreground of history.

The great leaders of the Boers were Andrew Pretorius, Pieter
Maritz, and Van Potgieter. These were the rough, but courageous,
organizers of the sturdy government which took its seat at the
iH>\v town named in honor of Pretorius. For twelve years the colony
j,n(nv by accretions of Boer immigrants, and in January of 1852,
the republic was recognized by Great Britain as an independent
state. This was done at a convention held on Sand River. On
the Pith of April, 1877, the Transvaal Republic was declared to be
"annexed" to Cape Colony.

;.i

ISO

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

In 1883 Paul Knijjrer, already ai)i)roaching his sixtieth year,
was elected President of the Soutii African Republic. His first,
term extended from 1883 to 1S88. His a'nlitio^ were great and his
courage unquestionable. As a boy of ten, he liad accompanied hi.s
parents on the Great Trek into the Kafhr wilderness. In his
youth he was a lion-killer. In 1837, he stood in the line and
looked into the muzzles of the Zulu guns as they blazed into the
faces of his countrymen on Battle Hill. After the victory, he
sang Dutch psalms with the rest. At the age of twenty, he went
on the expedition against Durban, at which time the Boers sought
to regain their old seaport. He first met the British at the Sand
River Convention in 1852. His accession to the Presidency came
two years after the disagreeable .agreement of 1881, in which the
suzerainty of (ireat Britain over the foreign affairs of the republic
was recognized <in<) ad hoc. Then came his visitations at the capitals
of Fill rope, and the revised compact of 1884.

The inrush to the Transvaal gold fields began nffpr the Con-
venti(m of 1884. The authorities of the Republic therefore claimed
exclusive prerogatives in determining the rights and relations of
the incoming populations. The Volksraad proceeded to establish
harsh conditions of citizenship and regulations for the control of the
mining distiicts. But at this juncture, British authority raised its
hand. British authority set up the claim that the suzerainty of the
Empire extended over the Transvaal, and that, therefore, such ques-
tions as citizenship and mining rights were determinable only by the
C(mscnt and under the influence of the Imperial government.

The i)arties to the contention were, on the one side, the author-
ities of the Boer Republic a,nd all the Boers sui)porting their Presi-
dent and the Raad. The other party was composed of the British,

THE TWO REPUBLICS

French and other foreigners. The latter were designated by the
Dutch as Uitlanders; that is, Outlanders or foreigners.

The antagonism of Boer and foreigner, however, was by no
means limited to the South African Republic. The two classes
extended into the Orange Free State, and Natal, and Cape Colony'
itself. It was this fact that, in tlie speech of the day, gave rise to the
term Afrikander, by which the Dutch proudly designated every white
man who was born on African soil. The name was applied particu-
larly to all white men of Dutch descent. These were of course dis-
tributed throughout all Africa south of the Limpopo and the lower
Orange. In Cape Colony, the Afrikanders were in a majority at the
date of the conventions of 1881 and 1884. They have continued in
the majority to the present day.* They were in a great majority in
the Orange Free State, and, before the gold-rush, in a majority in the
Transvaal; but they are now decidedly in the minority.

Througiiout South Africa, wherever an Afrikander was found, a
man was found who was in an antagonistic attitude to the Outlander.
The Afrikander belonged to one party, and the Outlander to another
party. Out of this situation sprang the Reform Party in the South
African Republic. Out of the same conditions also sprang, in the
year 1879, the Afrikander Bund, or, as we should say, the African
Bond. This organization was composed exclusively of Afrikanders.
It had in it something of the strict construction and intense purpose
which characteiized the "American Party" which flourished somewhat
in the United States from 1852 to 1856.

The Afrikander Bund not only set itself in opposition to the
aggressions of the Outlander Party, l)ut it went beyond the phase of
opposition and adopted tlie positive and active policy of independence.

'The year 18W.

182

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The independence sought for was nothing less than tlie emancipation
of all South Africa from foreign domination, and the establishment of
an African United States. Nor may we pass from the subject without
noting, by anticipation, tlie great t^trength and support which the
Boers of the Transvaal suddesily discovered in the Afrikander Bund
at the outbreak of the war in 1S9U. The Bund was behind the Boor.

The Outlander class in the Orange River countries, constantly
augmented in numbers and vehemeuce. The elements composing it
were energetic and sometimes enterprising. They were the Transvaal
miners par excellence. Many became traders; for the tnide quickly
follows the mine. Many new industries came on in tlie wave of out-
landism.

Meanwhile the Boer administration and the Boers themselves
sought to keep their seats. They sought to hold aud to exercise their
authority. Their paucity of numbers might be contrastwl with the
tremendous mass of humanity which heaped itself up at Johannes-
burg and other gold-producing centers. Then the mass assumed a
threatening attitude. In the mass there was much discontent, dis-
affection, opposition to Boer authority, and complaints at British
indifference. Henry M. Stanley, describing the coudition as he saw
it and heard it at Johannesburg on the occasion of his visit to that
place in 1897, two years after the J.ameson raid, says :

"At Johannesburg, however, different feelings possessed us.
Without knowing exactly why, we felt that this population, once so
favored by fortune, so exultant and energetic, was in a subdued and
despondent mood, and wore a defeated and cowed air. When we tim-
idly inquired as to the cause, we found them laboring under a sense
of wrong, and disposed to be querulous and recriminatory. They
blamed both Boers and British: the whole civilized world and all but

THE TWO REPUBLICS

183

themselves seemed to have been unwise and unjust. They recapitu-
lated without an error of fact the many failures and shames of British
colonial policy in the past; gave valid instances of their distrust of
the present policy; pointed to the breaches of the Convention of 1884,
and the manifest disregard of them by the Colonial Secretary;
described at large the conditions under which they lived, and
demanded to know if the manner in which the chai*tei of their lib-
erties was treated was at all compatible with what they had a right
to expect under the express stipulations of the Convention. 'Why,'
said they, 'between Boer arrogance a.id British indifference, every
condition of that Power of Attorney granted to Paul Kruger has been
disregarded by the Boer, and neglected by the British.' "

Such was the condition of the social, industrial and political ele-
ments in the gold-bearing districts of the Transvaal during the first
half of the tenth decenniuni. The Boer Burghers held their own, but
the South African Adullamites wanted representation in the govern-
ment. This the Republican constitution forbade, or permitted only
after a tedious and rigid method of naturalization.

Members of the Volksraad were divided into two chisses. There
were two Volksraaden, each body being com}>osed of twenty-four
members. We should call the Upper Raad a Senate, and the Lower
Raad an Assembly, or House of Representatives. Qualifications
for membership in these bodies were strict and rigorous. No one
might enter either Volksraad until he should be thirty years of
age. He must possess fixed property and l)e a Pi-otestant. He must
never have committed a criminal offense. The Burghers who might
vote were also divided into two classes. The first class included all
male v.'hite residents of the Republic, who had been such since the
29th of May, 1876, and who had taken part in the wars of 1881 and

1S4

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

1894. It also included such Burghers' sons as had reached the age of
sixteen years or over.

In the second class was included the naturalized male population
of the Republic and the sons of such who had passed the age of sixteen.
Naturalization might be gained after a residence of two years, by
such persons as would take the oath of allegiance and pay the fee of
two pounds sterling. Burghers of the second class might be proinoto<l
to membership in the first class by a special vote of the Volksraa<l,
after the candidates had been naturalized citizens for a period of
twelve years. These provisions made the way to the right of first-
class Burgher suffrage, a steep and difficult cliff to climb. A
foreigner could reach such right only after a citizen residence of
fourteen years.

In the exercise of the suffrage there were also great care and
strict construction; burghers of the first-class had a right to vote
for members of both Volksraaden; that is, in effect, the Upper Volks-
raad was elected by first-class burghers only. The second-class
burghers were entitled to vote for members of the Lower Volks-
raad only; with that the political power of such burghers ceased.

Out of this condition came a breach between the Outlanders
and the administration of the Republic. The Outlanders complained
that they were taxed without representation. They said that they
were entitled to vote. They said that the Boer constitution .\as
oppressive, absurd, mediyeval. They said that their rights were
disregarded, their citizenship denied, their character depreciated and
derided. They said that they had made the Transvaal; that is, they
had made it worth something; that they had developed the mines;
that they had built the railways; that they had organized stock
companies and made business; that they outnumbered the Boers two

II]

tx)

to one in mai
the minority
liard conditio
the Lower R
while Englisl
permitted.

In the 1
center at Jc
Party! It w?
pated from tl
pay taxes un]
for other peo

In the cii
And the othe
so great. Th
The Reform I

THE TWO REPUBLICS

1H7

to one in many places, and that the government of the majority by
the minority was monstrous; that even if they succeeded under the
liard conditions in electing one of their own number to a seat in
the Lower Raad, he, their representative, could not speak Dutch,
while English, the language of civilization and progress, was not
permitted.

In the present case, the leading Outlanders, having their
center at Johannesburg, got together and organized the Reform
Party! It was the object of this party to get themselves emanci-
pated from the control of the Transvaal Republic. They would not
pay taxes unless they could vote. They would not build railways
for other people.

In the city of Johannesburg, such was the situation in 1893-94.
And the other mining cities were even as Johannesburg, but not
so great. The Reform Party made itself known on the streets.
The Reform Party proclaimed insurrection against the existing order.

On the

issued by tl
the people
the Uitlanc

1. Th(
a constitut

2. An

3. Th(

4. Th.
chief depai

5. Th

6. Th
security of

7. Lil

8. An
system.

9. Fr
This :

"We shal
deli})erate
The n
telegram
Colonies,
Commissic

CHAPTER XI

THE JAMESON BAID

On the 26tli of December, 1895, an important manifesto was
issued by the National Reform Union at Johannesburg, addressed to
the people of the Transvaal, setting forth the reforms demanded by
the Uitlanders. These may be summarized as follows:

1. The establir^ihment of the republic as a true republic under
a constitution approved by the whole nation.

2. An amicable franchise and fair representation.

3. The equality of the Dutch and English languages.

4. The responsibility to the legislature of the heads of the
chief departments.

5. The removal of all religious disabilities.

6. The establishment of independent courts of justice, with the
security of adequate pay for the judges thereof.

7. Liberal education.

8. An efficient civil service with adequate pay and the pension
system.

9. Free trade in African products.

This manifesto closed with the following significant words :
"We shall expect an answer in plain terms, according to your
deli})erate judgment, at the meeting to be held on January 6."

The manifesto was followed three days after its date by this
telegram from Mr. Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the
(Colonies, addressed to Sir Hercules Robinson, Her Majesty's High
Commissioner for South Africa:

(189)

190

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"Strictly Confidential. — It has been suggested, although I do
not think it probable, that an endeavor might be made to force
matters at Johannesburg to a head by some one in the service of
the Company advancing from Bechuanaland Protectorate with police.
Were this to be done, I should have to take action under Articles
22 and 8 of the Charter. Therefore, if necessary, but not otherwise,
remind Rhodes of these Articles, and intimate to him, that in your
opinion, he would not have my support, and point out the
consequences which would follow."

On the following day, December 30, Sir Hercules Robinson cabled
to Mr. Chamberlain as follows :

"I learn on good authority movement at Johannesburg has
collapsed. Internal divisions have led to the complete collapse of
the movement, and leaders of the National Union will now probably
make the best terms they can with President Kruger."

A few houis later, the Secretary for the Colonies cabled to Mr.
Robinson :

" Your telegram received. Are you sure Jameson has not moved
in consequence of collapse ? Sfee my telegram of yesterday."

Within the same hour that this message was sent, Mr. Chamberlain
received the following from the High Commissioner:

"Information reached me this morning that Dr. Jameson was
preparing to start yesterday evening for Johannesburg with a force
of police. I telegraphed at once as follows: *To the Resident
Commissioner in the Bechuanaland Protection. There is a rumor
here that Dr. Jameson has entered the Transvaal with an armed force.
Is this correct ? If it is, send a special messenger on a fast horse
directing him to return at once. A copy of this telegram shall be
sent t«) the wfficers with him, and they shall be told Her Majesty's

THE JAMESON RAID

191

government repudiate this violation of the territory of a friendly
state, and that they are rendering themselves liable to severe
penalties.' If I hear from Newton that the police have entered
the Transvaal shall I inform President Kruger that Her Majesty's
government repudiate Jameson's action ? "

It will be seen that the signs were ominous of serious trouble
and the wire under the ocean throbbed with the important messages
flashing back and forth. Momentous events were in the air.

On the same day of the transmission of the last despatches
Sir Hercules Robinson telegraphed the Colonial Secretary :

"I have received the following from the British Agency in the
South African Republic : 30th of December. Very urgent.
President of South African Republic sent for me, and the General
then read to us a telegram from Landdrost of Zeerust, that a
number of British troops have entered the Transvaal Republic from
Mafeking and cut the wire, and are now on the march to Johan-
nesburg. I assured the President that I could not believe the force
consisted of British troops. The General then said they may be
Mashonaland or Bechuanaland police, but he believed the informa-
tion that a force had entered the state, and he said he would take
immediate steps to stop their progress. His Honor requested me to
ask your Excellency whether this force is composed of British troops
or police under your Excellency's control, or whether you have any
information of the movement. I replied that I had heard a rumor
to tie same effect, and have telegraphed to inquire, adding that,
if true, the step had been taken without my authority or cognizance,
and that I have repudiated the act and ordered the force to return,
immediately."

On the evening of the same d..y, Mr. Chamberlain telegraphed

192

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to Mr. Robinson: *' In reply to your telegrams relative to the situation
in South African Republic, your action is cordially approved. I pre-
sume that Mr. C. J. Rhodes will cooperate with you in recalling

Administrator of Matabeleland. Keep me informed fully of political
situation in all its respects. It is not clearly understood here. Leave
no stone unturned to prevent mischief."

On the last day of the year, Sir Hercules Robinson cabled that
in consequence of a telegram from the British Agent in the Trans
vaal, he had ordered the Agent to send without delay a thoroughl}
competent mounted express with this message to Dr. Jameson:
"Her Majesty's Government entirely disapprove your conduct in
invading the Transvaal with armed force. Your action has been
repudiated. You are ordered to return at once from the country,
and will be held personally responsible for the consequences of your
unauthorized and most improper proceeding."

On December 29, which was Sunday, Dr. Jameson, accompanied
by Sir John Willoughby, the Commandant of the Chartered Com-
pany's forces, rode out from Mafeking with a force whose numbers
have been given at from 400 to 600 men. They took with them
three Witworth and eight Maxim guns. Their first act was to cut
the telegraph wires and they had hardly crossed the border into the
Transvaal, when they were met by an official of the Republic, who
warned them to withdraw at once. Dr. Jameson's written reply
was: " Sir: I am in receipt of your protest of above date, and have
to inform you that I intend proceeding with my original plan,
which had no hostile intentions against the people of the Trans-
vaal, but we are here in reply to an invitation from the principal
residents of the Rand to assist them in their demand for justice'
and the ordinary rights of every citizen of a civilized state."

THE JAMESON RAID

193

It will be remembered that a messenger mounted on a fleet
horse was sent with an order of recall to Jameson, who was over-
taken near the Elan River. After reading the order, Jameson
coolly replied to the messenger that he might rejiort that the order
had been received and would be attended to, and then the raiders
rode on.

No sooner was news received of the crossing of the frontier by
the raiders than the burghers, who had been commandeered, made
haste to intercept the party, which was encountered about fifteen
miles out of Johannesburg, where the fighting opened a little past
midnight on the first day of the new year.

Jameson and his men were daring, but no more so than the
Boers, among whom were some of the best rifle shots found any-
where. They are cool, brave and almost fanatical in their devo-
tion to their country, and whatever policy is fixed upon by the
President and his associates.

Full of self-confidence, the raiders rode onward until they came
in sight of Kruger lorp, where a halt was made and notice given
that the women and children must leave the place at once, as
.lameson intended to take possession of it. In giving this notifica-
tion, however, the leader of the invaders, to use a homely expres-
sion, counted his chickens before they Avere hatched. In order to
outer the town, the horsemen had to ride directly between two
kopjes, as they are termed, affording a powerful position to the
Boers, who had taken possession of them.

When the raiders came in sight, the defenders adopted the
tactics often used by the Kaffirs, and which is a favorite one
iimong American Indians. Small bodies presented themselves as
disputants of the advance, and after a feeble resistance, began

194

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

falling back. Their object was to lure Jameson and his men in
front of the strong position where a numerous force of riflemen
were eagerly waiting for them to come within range. In other
words, the Boers set a trap for the invaders into which they rode.

Before he suspected anything of that nature, Jameson found
the fire too hot to be borne, and he contented himself ith throw-
ing a few shells into the town, when he fell back and took the
road leading through Randfontein, past Brink's farmhouse at
Dornkop. Two troopers were killed there, but the Boers adopted
the same tactics as before, reserving their real attack until the
invaders came within reach of their full force. On the other side
of Dornkop, the defenders held both sides of the road, and when
darkness descended, Jameson found himself in a most critical posi-
tion, for, although he was on a small kopje, the Boers commanded
the point from every side.

At the time Jameson first appeared, the number of Boers con-
fronting him was about 1,200 or 1,500, but all through the night
others continued to join them until their force was tripled. All of
these splendid marksmen were mounted and armed with Martini-
Henry rifles, which they knew how to use with wonderful eflPec-
tiveness. They were threatened by a grave danger for a tine,
owing to the fact that they had expended so much ammunition in
resisting the attack on Krugersdorp, that little remained, but special
trains were run out from Johannesburg which fully made up the
lack.

The Uitlanders blew up the line between Langlaate and Krugers-
dorp, but foolishly waited until after the supplies had gone past,
so that not the slightest help was given to Jameson. Fully com-
prehending the danger of his position, Jameson continued shelling

that of the Be
they were eff(
and received s

Thus it ci
found they wei
ly breaking t
gallantry Majo
was defeated
attempt to sh(
wished was to
of doing so.
had no other
behind anythir
they escape, e
for four hours

The time

him, and earlj

Boers seemed

piled their an

rushed forwarc

course, their ai

w^junded, but.

Boors treated t

as it was knov

of both sides

them, while th(

most of therti

\v(M-e on the pc

the prompt rel:
11

THE JAMKSON RAID

197

tliat of the Boers. He used electric lights to locate the enemy, l)iit,
tliey were effectually hidden by the boulders and rising ground,
and received scarcely an injury.

Thus it came about that, when morning dawned, the raiders
found they were caught in a trap, from which their only escape was
Ly breaking through the lines of the Boer riflemen. With great
j,'allantry Major Coventry led a charge against the kopjes, but he
was defeated by the peculiar action of the Boers, who made no
attempt to shoot the riders, but killed their horses. What they
wished was to make the men prisoners and they took this means
of doing so. The unharmed riders, being suddenly dismounted,
had no other recourse than to scramble among the reeds and
l)ehind anything that offered a screen, for in no other way could
they escape, even for a short time. Thus the fighting went on
for four hours or more.

The time came when the leader saw that it was all up with

him, and early in the forenoon he hoisted the white flag. The

Boers seemed to distrust the flag of truce, but when the raiders

piled their arms in the middle of a square and lined up, they

rushed forward and took the whole force prisoners, including, of

course, their arms and ammunition. A good many men had been

w )unded, but, as has been shown repeatedly in the last war, the

Boms treated the unfortunate ones humanely. Brink's farm house,

as it was known, was turned into a hospital to which the injured

of both sides were carried, where immediate attention was given

them, while the prisoners were escorted to Krugersdorp. It is said

most of thera were utterly exhausted, and so famishing that they

were on the point of fainting, which they would have done but for

the prompt relief given by their captors.
11

IDS

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

When the scene of the battle was inspected and the dead of
both sides buried, it was ob^ sd that the destruction of the
horses of the raiders had L ;.. particularly severe. Tha assertion
was often made that the Boers had lost a good deal of their skill
in marksmanship, owing to the killing off of the big game in their
country; but, though they may have lacked the astonishing expert-
ness of their fathers, it was indisputable that they were still
splendid shots.

There will never be any question as to the great braveiy
shown by Dr. Jameson and his followers in attempting to muko
tliis raid into the Transvaal. Dr. Jameson well knew the char-
acter of the enemy to which he would be opposed, but the profound
belief in his own powers, which feeling animates almost every Enjj-
lisliman, caused him to scorn the difficulties of the situation aud
to move forward in an almost hopeless enterprise. Perhaps there
was a deeper design in the raid than history will ever be able to
show conclusively, but, as that may be, it required a bold spirit to
carry out this design, and no better selection could have been
made than that of Dr. Jameson.

It is quite evident that the plans of Jameson were entirely
disarranged when the reinforcements of Uitlanders in Johannesbui'^^
failed to come to his assistance. Jameson had been promised 2.0it(>
men from Johannesl)urg, but, owing to the activity of President
Kruger, the Uitlanders were unable to carry out their part in the
program. Hundreds of armed burghers poured into JohannesburL^
and an outbreak on the part of the Uitlanders would have been
the signal for a general slaughter. Kruger quickly served w^arninir
on the "Defense Committee" in Johannesburg, and this notice was
emphasized by a display of force which demonstrated the hopelessness

TllK JAMESON KAIl)

!Ul)

of any attempt to j^o to the aid of Jameson. As a result
riameson was informed by the Defense Committee that an armistice
had been concluded with President Kruger until the high com-
missioner visited Pretoria, and, consequently, no help could be given
to him.

Dr. Jameson's men were brought to Pretoria. The burghers
wore greatly excited over the affair, and, had not judicious counsels
piovailed. the i)i'is6ners might have been harshly treated l)y the
enraged farmers.

As soon as the news reached England Mr. Chamberlain cabled
to President Kruger asking him to show magnanimity in the hour
of victory. Oom Paul replied that the case of the prisoners would
be decided strictly according to the traditions of the Republic, and
that there would be no punishment which was not in accordance
with the law. The case, therefore, w^as referred to the judges of
the High Court of the South African Republic and they sentenced
Dr. Jameson and his associates to be shot. President Kruger decided,
however, that in presenting the Transvaal side of the case to the
world, that magnanimity would count for much in gaining the
sympathy of other nations, and he declined to allow the sentence
to be carried out. He refused to sign the death w^arrant and
ordered the prisoners turned over to Her Majesty's Government on
the Natal frontier, as soon as Johannesburg was disarmed.

It has been stated that one of the conditions insisted upon by
President Kruger for the release of the raiders was that Johannes-
burg should be disai-med. The city was notified on the Gth of
Jiinnary, 189C, that no discussion of grievances would be permitted
until such disa^'mament w^as made. This was the ultimatum, and,
to render it effective, the English agent. Sir Jacobus De Wet, was

2(K)

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sent with a message by the High Commissioner from Pretoria,
which was thus delivered :

"Men of Johannesburg, friends, and fellow subjects of Her
Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, I regret I am before you under
siu'li painful circumstances. I deeply sympathize with your griev-
ances, but circumstances have so changed that I have to ask you
to do a thing which would, perhaps, pain many a heart."

He begged tliem as men to use their judgment, and not to
allow their English blood, English courage and English valor to
override their judgment. Every human being, unbiased in mind,
believed in pluck, perseverance and determination in Englishmen.
(Loud cheers.) He had to announce that Jameson and his brave
fellows — misguided, but brave — (tremendous cheering) — were pris-
oners. A errible mistake was undoubtedly made by some one,
which had placed them in a most awkward and painful position,
and he rejoiced to annonnce that Jameson and his men were to be
honorably handed over to Her Majesty's Government — (loud
cheers) — and to be dealt with according to the laws of Great Brit-
ain, but one condition was that the men of Johannesburg should
lay down their arms. ("We will not," and prolonged groans.) As
their friend and loyal subject and servant of the Queen, from the
time of his manhood to the present moment, he appealed to them
as Britons not to act idiotically, not to refuse to give up their arms.
(Cries of "Who to ? ") To-day was rot the time to let feelings of
enthusiasm carry them away. It was the time to be guided by
judgment and counsel, and to let these prevail over national senti-
ment. He was expressing the wishes of the High Commissioner,
who, at his request, allowed him to come, and, if possible, avert
bloodshed. He appealed to the men of Johannesburg to set aside

THE JAMESON RAID

201

the national feelings by which they were fired. They might fight
bravely like lions, but he would tell them it was utterly impossible
for the men in Johannesburg to hold their position. (Dissent.) If
they fought, with all their pluck and determination, they would
have to die. (Cries of " Never.") If they did not care for their
own lives, as men with brave hearts did not, let them consider
women and children — (cheers) — and many other innocent people
who had nothing to do with the movement. Let them consider the
position of this town, which might be in ashes if Johannesburg
persevered in the present course. He put it, could tliey by all their
[)luck and bravery hold this place? They would be starved out;
they would perish from famine and thirst. He was in sympathy
with the men of Johannesburg, but begged and besought them as
a fellow-subject, and as representative of the Queen on behalf of
the High Commissioner, to consider their position. They were not
surrendering through cowardice. There was no disgrace in that.
(Cries of "What are the conditions?") Well the Government of the
Transvaal was disposed to be lenient.

Considerable stress is often laid upon the action of the President
of the Transvaal in surrendering to a representative of the Queen,
the men who had made the ill-timed raid. It has l)efn repeat-
edly shown that these men were practically coerced by the political
friends of President Kruger into signing a memorial to the govern-
ment for the kindness and solicitude shown during their incarcer-
ation. Englishmen will always maintain that but for the fear of
summary punishment the Transvaal authorities would have dealt
harshly with the brave men who sought to right the. wrongs of
the Uitlanders by force. On June 11th, Jameson and his leading
associates were brought before an adjourned session of the Bow

202

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Street Police Court, London, charged with a violation of the
Foreign Enlistment Act by making a raid into a friendly state.

The prisoners were fifteen in number, and, as they entered the
court room, with Jameson at the head, he was the only one who
showed an appreciation of the gravity of the situation *n which
they were placed. He was frave and thoughtful all through the
hearing, while the othei-s smiled, nodded to acquaintances in the
court room, and seemed to look upon the occasion as a fine oppor-
tunity to place themselves on exhibition before their admiring
countrymen. A correspondent thus sketches the appearance of
the prisoners:

"Jameson has an interesting, and, by no means, a bad face,
though not as strong as one would expect. His eyes are fine —
wide apart and rather pathetic — and he lias a good big forehead,
perhaps a little exaggerated by baldness, but his mouth and chin
do not look unusually positive. He wears a brown mustache,
trimmed close, and in age appears to be about forty. His eye
is clear and his color good, but fatigue and care were evident
from his wiiole appearance and demeanor. In physique he is thick
set and short — quite the least imposing by far of the party; but
he has the only intellectual face among them. Henry Frederick
White, one of the leaders, is the handsomest of them, a tall, mili-
tary man, with an air of good breeding and distinction. The Hon.
Robert White, is quite vacant looking, as is also Captain Coventry.
Colonel Grey is also handsome, in a way, but heavy; Sir John
Willoughby looks intelligent enough, in all conscience, but his face
is cynical and repellent."

Sir Richard Webster represented the Crown, and some of the
most distinguished barristers in England were arrayed on the side

THE JAMESON RAID

203

,)f the defense. The depositions of the witnesses were taken down
ill long-hand to be sworn to and signed then and there. This
made the proceedings tedious, but many stirring episodes of the
raid were brought out, and one especially was listened to with
keen interest. That was the testimony of a Dutch lieutenant
plilegmatically told. He had been under arrest by the Jameson
column, but afterward took part in the first skirmish near Krugers-
(lorp. He was met on patrol duty, his horse taken away and he
was disarmed, whereupon he asked his captor why they did that,
"when no war had been declared or anything." When he was
asked how many men he had he expressed surprise that they
should expect him to answer such a question. His horse was
finally restored to him and he was left behind on a two hours'
parole to stay where he was. He kept his parole and at its termi-
nation galloped off with such speed that he rejoined the Boers and
took charge of his battery before the raiders arrived.

The magistrate discharged nine of the accused, but held Jame-
son, the two Whites, Coventry, Willoughby and Grey under £2,000
bail each.

The grand jury found bills of indictment against the prisoners,
whose trial took place in the latter part of the following month.
There could not have been a more inopportune date for them, for
(in the same day, the report of the investigating committee of the
lh)iise of Assembly of Cape Colony was given out. An adverse
t'loinent took snap judgment, by means of a packed Cape Parlia-
niont, and succeeded in reproving Cecil Rhodes, tlie great IJritish
1 ader, for his alleged part in the affair.

In view of the remarkable character of the case, the attorney
general demanded a trial at bar before the Queen's Bench Division

204

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of the High Court of Justice, which is the most august tribunal in
England. This demand was granted and the Lord Chief Justice
and the two senior puisne judges of the Queen's Bench Division
were assigned to the trial. By taking this course, an authoritative
decision would be obtained on the difficult law points that were
certain to arise.

The Lord Chief Justice is well known and much liked in this
country. Lord Russell, of Killowen, as he was styled, was, until
his promotion, the leading English advocate, a Catholic Irishman;
the champion of Parnell; the English counsel before the Behriiig
Sea Tribunal, and one of the greatest legal minds of the century.
Associated with him were the hardly less distinguished Baron
Pollock, the foremost living writer upon English law, and Mr.
Justice Hawkins, the eminent jurist. The prosecution and defense
were represented by some of the most profound legal talent of
the kingdom.

The trial opened July 20th, when Sir Edward Clark consumed
the day in support of a motion to quash the indictments. It would
be uninteresting to give the technical points of his argument, but
he maintained that the indictments did not allege those acts relat-
ing to the Enlistment Act with sufficient particularity. The motion
was denied, and on the second day of the trial the jury was
impaneled and sworn.

The attorney's opening was masterful. He recited the various
acts in the order of their proposed pix)of, adding that they were
practically admitted by the defense, except as to the construction
that was to be put upon them. He made clear the necessity for a
statute forbidding expeditions against a friendly state, and, in con-
clusion, urged that it "was all the more incumbent upon persons

o
oi
D

who, like th

governors of

of them we

of this statu

The att

occupied thi

little crossH

trial, for th

mainly to

Republic w;

places withi

It is a

counsel to

exceedingly

on the grou

Foreign En

the two pi

was promp

force at ^

concerned i

whether thi

precaution

answered a

The Er

their behal

put in evid

quently, th

to modify

was an ing

THE JAMESON RAID

207

who, like the defendants, were in the responsible position of de facto
governors of the country — magistrates and administrators as some
of them were — that they should obey and enforce the provisions
of this statute," instead of combining to violate it.

The attorney general next brought forward his proofs, which
occupied three days, there being no obstructive interruptions and
little cross-examination. This was the most tedious part of the
trial, for the proofs v;ere largely documentary, and were devoted
mainly to establishing the fact that in 1895 the South African
Republic was a friendly state, and that Mafeking and Pitsani were
places within the scope of the Foreign Enlistment , l\

It is always interesting to observe the attempts of skillful
counsel to make out a good case for their clients when it is an

exceedingly bad one. The first motion of the defense was to dismiss,
on the ground that the prosecution had failed to prove that the
B'oreign Enlistment Act was in force either at Mafeking or Pitsani,
the two places from which -the expedition started. This motion
was promptly denied, on the ground that the Act had been in
force at Mafeking, and that, as all the defendants had been
concerned in the fitting out of the expedition, it was immaterial
whether the Act had been in force in Pitsani or not. By wa}'^ of
precaution the latter question was afterward put to the jury and
answered affirmatively.

The English law did not permit the defendants to testify m
their behalf, but no hardship was thereby wrought, since the facts
put in evidence by the Crown were incapable of rebuttal. Conse-
quently, the defense made no attempt to form a case, but sought
to modify the harshness of the established facts, and their method
was an ingenious one.

208

THE STOBY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The charge of the Lord Chief Justice to the jury was a crush-
ing one and left them no loophole of escape from their duty, no
matter how distasteful it was to them. He opened with the declara-
tion that "in most criminal charges the consequences of the offenso
usually end with * * * * * ^y^q ^^.^^ ^\^^^ constitute the crime,
but the consequences of the offense brought before them no one
could foresee," The charges were uncontroverted and notorious.
He scathingly denounced the argument of the defense that the
mission of the raiders was that of rescuers or that they were
evangelists of reform. "The expedition was a filibustering raid,
even if it was not aimed at overthrowing the republic, or was
prompted by philanthropic and humane motives, or aimed at secur-
ing some reform of the law, and whether it proceeded by a show
of force or actual force. If these things were done by authority
of the Queen, it would be an act of war."

The learned judge then showed that the Act was effective to
enforce a neutrality not secured by the law of any other country.
Henceforth, it was a violution of the Act to fit out on British soil
any expedition against any state, no matter whether it started or
not; nor whether its promoters were on British soil while organizing
it; nor whether its members took employment in it without
responsibility for its organization.

It was impossible for the jury to do otherwise than pronounce
the prisoners guilty, and their sentences were as follows: Dr.
Jameson, fifteen months' imprisonment; Sir John Willoughby, ten
months; Hon. Robert White, seven; Col. Grey, Col. Henry White
and Major Coventry, five each, the imprisonment to be without
hard labor; but the sentence forfeited all the prisoners' royal
commissions.

LEADERS

CHAPTER XII

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR.

The development of new countries always brings to the front
men naturally fitted to take a place above their fellowmen. South
Africa is no exception. Times of crises only accentuate the ability
and genius of these leaders who have seized conditions to make
themselves forces of power and influence in the world. The British
and the Boers both have produced men in South Africa who must
be recognized in history as ' potent instruments in the restoration
of the Dark Continent to the light of civilization. Men, as nations,
may clash, and yet both be right from their own point of view.
The English have maintained that their sovereignty in South Africa
would give the Republics a progress and advancement which would
forward them one hundred years. The Boers stolidly maintain that
progress shall be as it moves with the Republics, and not by the
forced draught of English enterprise and domination. Both Dutch
and English, whatever may be their motives, have made history
ill South Africa, and time will emphasize the value of Enghiiid's
s[)rc;id of civilization.

The Dutch have produced no greater leader than "Oom" Paul
Kruger, President of the South African Republic. Whatever may
be the justice of the contentions between the British and the
Dutch, all are interested in this grim, placid old man, who, fight-
ing for what he believes to be right, has impressed the world by

tlio simplicity of his character, and yet the intellectual ability, with

(«»)

210

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

which he is guiding his beloved Republic through the storms and
si 'ess of a bitter war.

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger is one of the most remark-
able lii^n of the times. Of him Prince Bismarck said: "He is the
greatest natural diplomat living."

The first look at President Kruger causes a smile on the part of
a stranger, for a hom'elier man in dress and appearance, it is hard
to conceive. He wears a billycock hat perched on his head, has
long dangling gray hair, a heavy face, flabby cheeks, broad flat nose,
small eyes, hidden by the pulpy rings beneath when he ^aughs, and
shaded by brows whose coarse hair is half an inch long. His mouth
is misshapen, one side being drawn down from the continual use
of a pipe, for he is an inveterate smoker, and his unprepossessing
countenance is surrounded by a fringe of scraggly white whiskers.
His long, heavy body is perched upon a pair of thin, weak limbs,
his baggy coat is too small to be comfortably buttoned in front,
and there is always a yawning cha?m between the bottom of his
trousers and the tops of his shoes.

Oom Paul is a devout Christian and loves everybody except-
ing the English, whom he hates with an intensity comparable only
with that which is said to stir the devil at the sight of holy
water, and all the abominable qualities of the Englishman, are
typified to him in Cecil J. Rhodes.

President Kruger was born in Cape Colony in October, 1825.
While a small boy, the troubles between the Colonial Government
and the Boers began, and he joined his people in journeying to
the interior. He was a remarkable athlete, endowed with prodigious
strength and activity, and possessing a personal courage that abso-
lutely knew no fear. In those days the lion rendered some parts

.i&

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

211

of South Africa almost uninhabitable for white men or negroes.
No life was safe until the country was cleared of the fearful pests.
It is stated on good authority, that before the final settlement
was made in the Transvaal, fully six thousand lions were killed,
of which more than two hundred fell by the hand of Paul Kruger.
He was still in his teens, when he took part in the wars with the
natives, who were nearly as troublesome as the lions. When
seventeen years old, he professed religion and there is no stronger
characteristic of his nature than his deep devotion and obedience
to the will of his Master. He believes himself an instrument in
the hands of the Almighty for the carrying out of His purposes
among His beloved Boers, and no disaster, however crushing, or
victory, however great, can shake his trust in God.

It is suspected that President Kruger is able to speak the
English language fluently. Several persons narrate that in hold-
ing a conversation with him, through an interpreter, the shrewd
old fellow often showed that he understood the English expres-
sions before they were translated. Be this as it may, he will not
admit such knowledge, and in every interview which he holds
with a visitor using the hated tongue, he insists upon having it
filtered into that of his own country.

Never was there a greater democrat than President Kruger.
A person unacquainted with his identity, seeing him among liis
townsmen, would never suspect that he was a jot socially higher

than the lowest of them. He spends an hour every morning in
his family devotions and the reading of the Bible, and nothing
delights him more than, after the adjournment of the Volksraad,
to sit on the piazza of his modest, white-washed cottage and
smoke and chat with the burghers, who enjoy the occasion no less

^ 1 w

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

tlian he. Coffee and tobacco are furnished freely to all visitors.
None can laugh more heartily than he, or enjoy more keenly the
pleasant gossip with his neighbors. He is said to be immensely
wealthy, and there is little doubt that he is a millionaire, while
his son-in-law is still richer and occupies a residence that cost a
quarter of a million dollars. The president's salary is thirty-five
thousand dollars, but he lives as plainly as if it were less than
a tenth of that sum. He has been married twice, and has had
seventeen children born to him, of whom only seven are living.
That meteoric character, Barney Barnato, whose brief career in
South Africa dazzled the world, presented President Kruger with
two fine marble statues of lions, which have been placed on the
lawn in front of his house. Some of our readers may have seen
a photograph of the President standing with a hand resting on
the head of one of the recumbent animals. It tickles the fancy
of the Boers to see a significance in this pose, which possibly
was not intended by the president himself when he stood for the
photograph.

The following interesting reference to President Kruger is
from The Boston Pilot, by a gentleman who has been intimately
acquainted with the great Boer leader for the past twenty years:

"This remarkable man was born on October 10, 1825. His
parents were Boer farmers, residing in Cape Colony, too poor to
provide Paul with shoes. The future ruler of the South African
Republic had to trudge over the African 'veldt' in his bare feet.
He was christened S. J. Paul Kruger, but the two initials were
soon disused, though President Kruger uses them in signing state
papers. Fear was unknown to Kruger from boyhood. When he
was in his seventeenth year his father asked him to take home his

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

213

<( (

« <

span of oxen and an empty wagon. He was accompanied by his
little sister.

Paul,' said his father, 'take care of your sister.'
I will,' he said simply.

"In those days traveling in Cape Colony was anything but a
picnic. Wild animals were plentiful, and many a traveler became
a prey to these beasts. Everything went w^ell until Paul was within
about five miles from home. Here a large panther made his appear-
ance. The oxen took fright and bolted. The jostling of the wagon
threw the little girl to the ground, where she was at the mercy of
the ferocious animal. Without a moment's hesitation young Kruger
jumped from the wagon and ran to his sister's assistance. The
panther stood with gleaming eyes over the prostrate child. Kruger
was unarmed, but without a moment's hesitation he engaged the
pantlier in a hand-to-hand battle. It was a fierce battle. Time
and again the angry beast clawed Kruger crueliy, but his courage
and strength never failed him. Like a bulldog he held his grip
upon the panther's throat until he strangled the beast to death.
Kruger was badly lacerated. Blood flowed from many wounds, but
notwithstanding his injuries he carried his fainting sister home.
This exploit made him the hero of the sturdy Boers in that section.
It was the first indication of the latent powers that dwelt in the
coming ruler of the Transvaal.

" From boyhood Kruger hated the English with a hatred
which has only increased with years. His boast was that some
(hiy he would raise an army to fight the English. When Kruger
was young his people moved to the Orange Free State, and later to
the Transvaal. The first time I met Paul Krnger was in Pretoria
in 1879. Though past fifty years of age, he was a Hercules in

214

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

physique, standing over six feet in his stockings, and strongly
built without an ounce of superfluous flesh on his body. He and
Joubert were then arraying the Boers for the struggle with England,
which came in 1881 and which was settled by an illy advised
statesman. In those days Kruger was poor compared with his
wealth of to-day. He had a large family, to which he was
devotedly attached.

" When I met hi.n over fifteen years later, although the Pres-
ident of the Republic, he was as unassuming as in earlier days.
He asked me to be his guest, and in his parlor in Pretoria we

talked of old days. Kruger had aged considerably in the fifteen
years. He stooped somewhat, but the fire of youth gleamed in his
eyes, and age seemed unable to dim his ardor. My conversation
with him was carried on through his secretary. 'Oom' Paul can
speak English fluently, but under no circumstances will he carry
on a conversation in that language. This procedure when in con-
ference with British officials gives him an opportunity to collect
his thoughts before replying. He is an inveterate smoker and
coffee drinker, and is hardly over seen at home without a long
[lipe in his mouth. At his side is a large cuspidor, which he
uses freely.

" The motto of President Kruger for years has been Patrick
Henry's memorable utterance, 'Give me liberty or give me
death.' This sentence translated into the Boer language, han<is
handsomely framed in his parlor This heroic Boer ruler is
almost devoid of learning. What education he has was hard to
secure. Yet he has baffled men of learning by his sagacity. His
knowledge of human nature is wonderful. Once in Johannesburg^
there was an elected board of health which was becoming daily

VIEW ON BONTIBOK FLATS, CATHCART DISTRICT, WITH
GIAKA'S KOP IN THE DISTANCE.

was in claiige

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

217

more powerful. The members were mostly English, araont? them
being a Mr. Holt, who was ultra English in his views. This
board was the only hope of the British element for securing
control of Johannesburg. In November, 1894, President Kruger
issued an edict that only the Boer language could be used at the
meetings of the health board, and only those who could speak the
language were qualified to be its members. The English fumed,
but there was nothing to do but resign. The Boer language is as
hard to learn as the Chinese.

" In November, 1894, I was President Kruger's guest when he
drove home the last spike in the Delagoa Bay Railway, which
connects Pretoria with Delagoa Bay. It was an inspiring scene
when the presidential train arrived at Bronkhorst Spruit. As the
old president stepped from his special car he was greeted by hun-
dreds of Boer farmers. In the distance could be seen the three
grouped graves of the rearguard of the British Ninety-second Reg-
iment. In a few words Kruger exorted the Boers to stand by
their country; never to give it up to a foreign foe. As he made
this appeal he turned his eyes toward the last resting place of the
British soldiers.

" One of the spectacular features of President Kruger's life took
him before the glare of the calcium light in 1893 when Sir Henry
Loch, then Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner of
Africa, visited Kruger at Pretoria, to confer with bim over the
conimand to British subjects to carry arms in the Boer army.
Johannesburg Englishmen were in Pretoria in great numbers and
they drew Loch's carriage to the Capitol. Some impressionable
[>i'()l)lo took the horses from Kruger's carriage and the executive
was in danger of being mobbed. However, conservative men with

218

THE STOEY OF SOUTH AFRICA

judgment drew their revolvers and quickly restored order. The
coolest man in the group after the display of arms v^^as concluded
was President Kruger. Some of his close friends told the sturdy
Boer that he had been in imminent danger. It is characteristic of
the man that he smiled and replied: 'Mobs seldom injure a man
who keeps his presence of mind. Suppose I, too, had had to resort
to arms?'

"Before I left Pretoria, President Kruger said to me through
his Secretary:

"'When you go home to the United States tell the people
there for me that there is a small nation here, loving their country
and their liberty, that idolizes the American flag and the free
institutions of the country. May the United States ever prosper
and remain true to the principles of her forefathers, is my earnest
wish. It would please me very much if a treaty could be made
between the United States and the Transvaal. Could I favor
American commerce I would do so, and I shall try all in my
power to grant some concessions.'

"The voice of the aged president quivered as he spoke, and
his eyes were moist. He was certainly deeply moved.

It will be remembered that the pi sident badly injured one of
his thumbs, when hunting in his early days, and rather than bother
with it he cut it off. When the tension between his country and
Great Britain was near the snapping point, he was discussing the
matter one day with his friends, and to illustrate how he would
circumvent Sir Alfred Milner, he began checking off on his fingers,
starting with the little one.

"I was too much for Sir (leorgo CJray," he said, and coming to
his third finger, he added: "I was too much for Sir Howard Berkeley."

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

219

Then, touching his second finger, he continued: "I was too much
for Sir Bartle Frere, and touching his index finger, he added, "I was
too much for Sir Hercules Robinson, and I shall be too much for

Sir alle naagte!'* he exclaimed, in dismay, for when he

attempted to touch his thumb he was reminded that none was
there. His manner showed that he was unpleasantly impressed, for
there was something in the incident that strongly appealed to the
superstitious side of his nature.

A man of such rugged mentality and clear statesmanship, even
though of scant education, naturally has a style of writing that is
peculiarly his own. Several days after the Jameson raid, the President
issued the following proclamation to the citizens of Johannesburg :
" To All the Residents op Johannesburg.

" I, S. J. P. Krugei', State President of the South African
Republic, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council,
by virtue of Article VI of the Minutes of the Council, dated
January 10, 1896, do hereby make known to all the residents of
Johannesburg and neighborhood that I am inexpressibly thankful
to God that the despicable and treacherous incursion into my
country has been prevented, and the independence of the republic
saved, through the courage and bravery of my burghers.

"The persons who have been guilty of this crime must natur-
ally be punished according to law — that is to say, they must stand
their trial before the high court and a jury — but there are thou-
sands who have been misled and deceived, and it has clearly
appoared to me that even among the so-called leaders of the
movement there are many who have been deceived.

" A small number of intriguers in and outside of the quarter
ingeniously incited a number of the residents of Johannesburg and

220

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

surroundings, under the guise of standing up for political rights, and
day by day, as it were, urged them on; and when, in their stupidity,
they thought that the moment had arrived, they (the intriguers)
caused one Dr. Jameson to cross the boundary of the republic.

" Did they ever ask themselves to what they were exposing you?

" I shudder when I think what bloodshed could have resulted
had a merciful Providence not saved you and my burghers.

" I will not refer to the financial damage.

" Now I approach you with full confidence. Work together
with the government of this republic, and strengthen their hands
to make this country a land wherein people of all nationalities
may reside in common brotherhood.

"For months and months I have planned what changes and
reforms could have been considered desirable in the government of
the state, but the loathsome agitation, especially of the press, has
restrained me.

"The same men who have publicly come forward as leaders,
have demanded reforms from me, and in a tone and manner which
they would not have ventured to have done in their own country,
owing to fear for the criminal law. For that cause it was made
impossible for me and my burghers, the founders of this Republic,
to take their preposterous proposals into consideration.

"It is my intention to submit a draft law at the ordinaiy
session of the Raad, whereby a municipality, with a mayor at the
head, would be granted to Johannesburg, to whom the control of
the city w^ill be entrusted. According to all constitutional principles,
the Municipal Board \\i\\ be elected by the people of the town.

"I earnestly request you, laying your hands on your hearts, to
answer me this question: After what has happened, can and may 1

LEADERS m SOUTH AFRICA

221

submit this to the representatives of the people? My reply is, I know
there are thousands in Johannesburg and the suburbs to whom I
can entrust such elective powers. Inhabitants of Johannesbui'g,
render it possible for the Government to go before the Volksraad
with the motto, ' Forgotten and Forgiven.' "

President Kruger values the following tribute above all that he
has ever received from any governmental authority. It was written
by Emperor William, of Germany, a few days after the Jameson
raid. Coming from such an exalted source it naturally attracted
the attention of the civilized world. It is well known that the
august ruler of Germany is prone to act upon sudden impulses of
feeling, and the dispatch was pronounced "indiscreet" by other
nations.

"Received January 3, 1896. From Wilhelm, I. R., Berlin.
"To President Kruger, Pretoria:

" I tender you my sincere congratulations that, without appeal-
ing to the help of friendly Powers, you and your people have been
successful in opposing, with your own forces, the armed bands that
have broken into your country to disturb the peace, in restoring
order, and in maintaining the independence of your country against
attacks from without. " Wilhelm, I. R,''

Among the honors which have been conferred upon President
Kruger by European rulers, are the following: Knight of the First
Class of the Red Eagle of Prussia, Grand Oflicer of the Legion of
Honor, Grand Knight of the Leopold Order of Belgium, Grand
Knight of the Netherland Lion, and Grand Knight of the Portu-
guese Order of Distinguished Foreigners. With the insignia of these
orders displayed on tlio front of President Kruger's massive chest, it
can well be imagined tliat the sight would be an impressive one.

222

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The next man of importance in the Transvaal, if, indeed, he is
not the first during war times, is Commandant-General Pietrus
Jacobus Joubert, who is the supreme head of military forces,
besides ])eing Vice-President of the Republic. His ability is of a
high order, and his popularity fully equal to the president's. Like
the greatest military leaders. General Joubert believes that in the
settlement of disputes the arbitrament of arms should be the last
resort; but a patriot at heart, devotedly attached to his country,
he never shrinks from duty, and the fear of death and disaster does
not enter his thoughts when called to defend his principles. Gen-
eral Joubert has long been noted for his broad-minded views, and
it is well known that he has always advocated a greater liberality
towards the Uitlanders than the Republic has been willing to show.
As Vice-President of the Republic, his office is little more than a
name, his influence therein being insignificant. His popularity among
the liberal and progressive Boers is such that he has been twice
nominated for the presidency. President Kruger believes that the
safety of his country demands the denial, except under rigid con-
ditions, of the franchise for the Uitlanders, while General Joubert
claims that there are a great many of them who are at heart
friends of the government, and who should, therefore, be given the
right to vote. He thinks that such a person should first take an
oath of fidelity, with all the responsibility thereby implied, and if,
after a test of a few years, his sincerity is clearly proven, he should
be admitted to the full privileges now enjoyed by native burghers.

It will l)e understood from what has been said, that President
Kruger and General Joubert represent the two arms of the Republic,
one its diplomatic and the otL/^r its military. Each began his
career in early youth. General Oouuert was a volunteer under

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

OOQ

Commandant-General Kruger, and through the ability he displayed,
won his way to the supreme command of the military forces of
the Republic. He taught England his terrible power to smite at
Laing's Nek, Bronkhurst Spruit and Majuba Hill, as well as in the
most important Boer victories of the late war. He is not merely
a fighter, but a strategist, worthy to take rank among the great
military leaders of modem days. The following incident is told
of him by Howard C. Hillegas in "Oom Paul's People:"

"Shortly after Jameson and his officers were brought to Pretoria,
President Kruger called about twenty of the Boer commanders to
his house for a consultation. The towns-peoplo were highly excited,
and the presence of the men who had tried to destroy the Republic
aggravated their condition so that there were few calm minds in
the capital. President Kruger was deeply affected by the serious-
ness of the events of the days before, but counselled all those
present to be calm. There were some in the gathering who advised
that Jameson, and his men should be shot immediately, while one
man jocosely remarked that they should not be treated so leniently,
and suggested that a way to make them suffer would be to cut off
their ears.

"One of the men who was obliged to leave the meeting, gave
this account to the waiting throngs in the street, and a few hours
afterward the cable had carried the news to Europe and America,
^vith the result that the Boers were called brutal and inhuman.
President Kruger used all his influence and eloquence to save the
lives of the prisoners, and for a long time he was unsuccessful in
securing the smallest amount of sympathy for Jameson and his men.
It was dawn when General Joubert was won to the president's way of
thinking, and he continued the argument in behalf of the prisoners.

224

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

U (

'My friends, I will ask yon to listen patiently to me for
several minutes,' he commenced. 'I will tell you the siory of the
farmer and the neighbor's dog. Suppose that near your farm lives
a man ^vhose valuable dogs attack your sheep and kill many.
Will you shoot the dogs as soon as you see them, and in that way
make yourself liable for damages greater than the value of the
sheep that were destroyed? Or will you catch the dogs when yon
are able to do so, and, carrying them to your neighbor, say to
him: I have got your dogs; now pay me for the damage they
have done me, and they shall be returned to you?'

"After a moment's silence General Joubert's face lighted up
joyfully, and he exclaimed:

"'We have the neighbor's dogs in the jail. What shall we do
with them?'

"The parable was effective, and the council of war decided
almost instantly to deliver the prisoners to the British Government."

On November 30, 1897. a London newsps per printed the follow-
ing words which were spoken by General Jou.jert to its corres-
pondent: "Have not you English always followed on our heels—
not on us here only, but all over the world, always conquering, always
getting more land? We were independent when you came here.
We are independent now, and you shall never take our independence
from us. The whole people will fight. You may shed blood over all
South Africa, but it will only be over our dead bodies that you
will seize our independence. Every Dutchman in Soath Africa will
fight against you. Even the women will fight. You may take
aw^ay our lives, but our independence — never!"

General Joubert, at this writing, is sixty-eight years old, and
comes of an old French Huguenot family, settled a long time ago

HI]

in South A
in Cape Co
soon placed
to the Sou
has always
of defeating

His m(
humanity,
telegraph 1:
husband, ai
prisoners,
the countrj
being divid(
cornets and
his complet
soon as not
about the n

Genera
"slim" has
shrewdness
name has I

The fol
one of the
General Jo
letter, in w
the Anglo-
commandei

DR. LEANDER S. JAMESON.

"MyD

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

227

in South Africa, which has a strong infusion of Dutch blood. Born
in Cape Colony, he began life as a farmer, but his marked ability
soon placed him at the front in public life. He was State Attorney
to the South African Republic, before he was Vice-President. He
has always been very popular, and in 1893, came within 881 votes
of defeating Kruger for the presidency.

His most characteristic traits are his courage, fairness and
humanity. It was the most natural thing in the world for him to
telegraph his condolence to Lady Symons upon the death of her
husband, and nothing could exceed the kindness he showed to his
prisoners. He organized the army of the Transvaal and divided
the country into seventeen military departments, each department
being divided again into smaller divisions, with commanders, field
cornets and lieutenants of different rank in charge. Every man had
his complete equipment at home and was ready for service almost as
soon as notified. He had to send only seventeen telegrams to bring
about the mobilization of his army within forty-eight hours.

General Joubert is known far and wide as "Slim Piet," but
"slim" has no reference to his figure, which is massive, but to his
shrewdness and cunning, and even his enemies will admit that this
name has been well earned.

The following interesting letter was addressed to the editor of
one of the Magdeburg Journals, who had become acquainted with
General Joubert in the Transvaal, and to whom he wrote a long
letter, in which he expresses his opinions regarding the solution of
the Anglo-Boer struggle. There are some statements of the Boer
commander that will attract attention:

*' Before Ladysmith, Oct. 27.

"My Dear Sir: The close of your letter, which reached me this

228

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

mornin'g, was prophetic. War has broken out. God grant that it
may continue to be as favorable to us as it has been up to the
present. It was with a full and firm confidence in the Almighty
that we entered upon this war, which was forced upon us, in
defense of our country's liberty, for which we are determined to
conquer or die.

"You know my countrymen sufficiently not to need any
explanation on that point, and that is the reason why I come
immediately to the important point of my reply. After the Jame-
son raid in January, 1896, which, fortunately, we crushed, our
government became convinced that England, urged on by classes
little worthy of respect, was determined to begin, sooner or later,
a war of extermination against the Boers. We were also convinced
that the only way to guard against that danger was to accumulate
armaments; and, although we knew that the war in question on
the part of England would be severely condemned by all the
European powers, we foresaw that none of them could intervene
efficaciously, because they would all be so strongly influenced by
the noisy threats of England and by the armament of her formid-
able fleet, that the greatest of them would not dare to raise their
voices against the insatiable greed of England, even if their own
interests were to suffer. Under these circumstances, we had to rely
upon our own strength. To arm continually and to conceal our
armaments — that was our aim, and in this we have been eminently
successful.

"We often allowed the English spies to visit our arsenals
where there was nothing but old material, but we carefully con-
cealed our modern material, of which the English knew nothing
until the outbreak of the war.

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

229

"We were not wrong in counting upon the disdainful reports
of the English spies in regard to our military strength, and their
boasts about rushing Pretoria did not frighten us.

"But your opinion of the numerical forces of the English
seems to me exaggerated. Up to the first week of the month of
December the English will not be able to put in the field more
than 85,000 men, from which must be deducted at that time at
least 10,000 men in killed, wounded, sick and prisoners. From the
75,000 remaining there must be a considerable deduction which
will be occupied with the guarding and transportation of supplies;
so that it is not likely that there will remain more than 35,000
men for decisive operations.

"Before God I assure you that we Boers have no idea of inter-
fering with English predominance in South Africa. What we insist
upon is the complete independence of our own country. But if the
war should continue it is the independent spirit of all Afrikanders
that will smash British supremacy.

" What do we care for England's 40,000,000 • inhabitants, if she
can only send 80,000 soldiers here? We Boers, with a population
of 170,000 souls, have already 50,000 men in the field, so that we
can get along very well without the aid of the Boers of the Cape
and of Natal.

"Woe to the English if they continue to excite the savage
blacks against us! A universal upheaval of the Afrikanders would
be the consequence, and I shudder to think of what that would
mean for the English.

"Up to the present time our enemies have fought bravely; but
when they begin to suffer the privations of war, demoralization
will come upon them, and they will weaken. We are convinced

230

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of our own ultimate triumph and of God's aid in this war, as in
our preceding Wcirs with the same foes.

"The Wood that must be shed in this struggle, which will last
probably more than a year, will not be upon the heads of our
children. We fight for our creed and country.

"Hoping that you will cherish a friendly remembrance of my
countrymen and of myself, and trusting that these lines may find
you in good health, I remain, Sincerely yours,

P. J. JOUBERT."

Cecil J. Rhodes is one of several sons of a poor English rector,
and while still a young man, was told by his physician that he
was incurably affected with consumption, and could not live at the
most more than a few years. This was not the first mistaken
diagnosis made by a physician. It recalls to the mind of the writer
the case of Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, of the American navy,
who belonged to a consumptive family and went to sea when a boy,
in the faint hope of postponing for a few years the death which all
regarded as close at hand. As is well known, Stewart i'ought through
the war with Tripoli, made a brilliant reputation as commander, for
a time, of Old Ironsides, one of the most famous ships of the Amer-
ican navy, and finally died beyond the age of ninety years. Possibly
the milder climate of South Africa was a factor in the restoration
of Mr. Rhodes to rugged health and vigor, but it is not improbable
that the stirring events in which he became immediately involved,
united to his own ambition, had much to do with such restoration.

He is not yet fifty years of age, and he was less than half
that when he joined a party who made their way to the Kini-
berley Diamond Mines. It is to the credit of Mr. Rhodes that ho
refused to take part in illicit diamond buying, through which many

LEADERS IN SOUTH AI^'RICA

231

others acquired wealth. He followed the maxim of "Poor Richard,"
to make honestly all the money he could, and, no matter how small
his income, to lay by a portion for the inevitable rainy-day. His
rough, outdoor life proved so beneficial that, at the end of three
years, he returned to England and completed his course at Oxford.
He then sailed again for South Africa and lost no time in making
his way to Kimberley, where, by shrewd investments in mining
claims, he not only added greatly to his wealth, but acquired a
marked influence in affairs. The history of all great booms shows
that the abnormal prosperity was followed, in a short time, by
depression which is as abnormal as the original rise in values. It
is these depressions which form a golden opportunity for shrewd
capitalists. Cecil Rhodes availed himself of the chance thus offered
him by a slump in the value of the mining claims. He expended
every dollar in buying up shares, claims and lands, and then formed
the idea of uniting in a monopoly or syndicate all the diamond
industries of that country.

This was so stupendous a scheme tliat it was far beyond the
reach of Mr. Rhodes and his friends. With that resolute audacity
which is a distinguishing trait of his nature, he went to the
Rothschilds, those colossal bankers whose clients are the leading
Powers of the world, briefly stated his wishes, and asked them to
advance the necessary capital. It is hardly necessary to say that
Mr. Rhodes was successful, and he took back with him to Africa all
the money necessary to buy the remaining claims or property in
the Kimberley district. The great De Beers Company was formed and
lUiodes was made managing director for life, at a salary of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. The annual dividends
of this vast corporation amount to fifty per cent, and nearly half

232

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

a billion dollars worth of diamonds have b?en placed in the
markets, of the world. This success is mainly due to the marvelous
ability of Mr. Rhodes.

It was natural that such an ambitious man should enter politics.
His popularity was undeniable, and he became a candidate for the
Cape Colony Parliament from the Kimberley District. The same
qualities that he had displayed in a business way enabled him to
secure his election, which was followed in time by his choice to
the highest office in the government of the Colony. He was friendly
with everyone, Boer, Dutchman, Afrikander, Englishman and the
natives of other countries, an ardent believer in the dogma that
every man has his price, and the possessor of almost limitless
wealth. It can readily be seen that his success was complete.
Like leading politicians elsewhere, Mr. Rhodes soon built up a
party upon whose loyalty he could depend, no matter what policy
was adopted, through thick and thin. Had he proclaimed a rebellion
against the mother country, thousands of men, devotedly attached
to the Queen and the home government, would have rallied under
his banner, so, when it became manifest that, as has been stated
elsewhere, his policy was British rule from Cairo to the Cape, it
attracted a multitude of ardent supporters. In the face of diffi-
culties which would have overwhelmed almost any other man, he
formed the British South Africa Company, more generally known
as the "Charter Company," which, in 1895, became the real owner of
Rhodesia. By this time Mr. Rhodes was a multi-millionaire, the
head of one of the most enormous capitalistic enterprises of the
globe, and the Premier of Cape Colony.

But, like Napoleon, his ambition fed upon itself. Between him
and the fulfillment of the supreme ambition of his life towered the

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

233

two republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, block-
ing his path as by a mountain which, however, this genius believed,
if it could not be surmounted, could be tunneled. The mistake
must not be made of attributing to Mr. Rhodes as a controlling
motive in his political course, that of sympathy with the alleged
wrongs of the Uitlanders. In truth, he cared nothing for them,
and once bluntly told one of their leaders who went to him with
complaints, that if dissatisfied with his treatment by the Boers, he
was a fool not to accept the remedy within his reach, by leaving
the country. It is conceded that Mr. Rhodes was the real instigator
of the Jameson raid, which proved, for a time, as disastrous to him
as to its immediate particip ts.

In the spring of 1S99 he visited Berlin, where he had an inter-
view with Emperor William and he returned with encouraging
reports. It was known that there was danger that the German
ruler would interfere in the realization of the pet project of the
South African Colossus, which was to carry a telegraph line from
the Cape to Alexandria and to follow it with a through African
railway. The distance to be covered is 5,664 miles. For half of
that distance railways have been built and were in working order,
except for the interruption caused by the war in the Transvaal.
The easiest task, of course, is the construction of the telegraph,
which will undoubtedly be completed within the next four or five
years.

The first plan was to build the railway solely through British
territory, the hope being that complications with other European
powers, through whose possessions it would pass, could be avoided.
This, however, proved impossible, for, though most of the land was
IJritish and under British sway, there was a belt e-xtending about

^34

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ten degrees south of the equator, or some seven hundred miles,
whicli was foreign territory and had to be crossed though nearly
half of it could be utilized bj^ a system of Sjcamers on Lake
Tanganyika.

The Anglo-Gern.an treaty of 18^0 defined the respective
spheres of the two countries and an attempt was made to provide
for the troublesome questions that all foresaw were sure to arise.
Mutual concessions were made, but Germany was immovable on
one claim, which was that the western frontier of German East
Africa should advance with the eastern frontier of the
Congo Free Stare, The English Foreign Office tried hard to secure
a strip of territory along the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika and
northward through Uganda, so as to connect the possible British
territories of the future. The Soudan, however, was in the hands
of the dervishes and the project was too visionary for Britisli
st.'itesmanship. At one time, an arrangement was reached with
King Leopold by which the gap was bridged and a strip of land
tifteen miles widf> and several hundred miles in length was
guaranteed to the constructer of the proposed British railway line,
by the Anglo-Congo Convention of May, lH\)i, but Germany pro-
tested so vigorously that the concession was abandoned.

This compelled Cecil Rhodes to apply to the German authorities
at Berlin. Hiii proposal now was to take the railway through
German territory by an an-angement with the (lerman Colonial
Office. He succeeded in inducing the German government to enter
into an agreement with the British South Africa Chartered Com-
pany, at the liead of which are Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Beit, by which
consent was given to carry the line through German East Africa,
where tlie road is to be under the protection of Gernuiny.

The a^

South Afri

coast from

a point on

not to con;

west coast

German So

ment allo\

carried thr

visions reci

this bargai;

extensions

in German

Walfish Ba

Rhodesia t

His ne

the futile

the most j

Africa, and

understand

dent Kruge

of the latt

Rhodes, wh

of the grea

with truth,

put forth ii

greatest anc

Speakin

he is unma]

LEADERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

237

The agreement entered into early in November, 1899, binds the
South Africa Company not to continue its railroad to the west
coast from Rhodesia, south of the fourteenth degree, except from
a point on the Anglo-German frontier, while Gei'many was pledged
not to construct a railway north of the fourteenth degree to the
west coast until the line is built south of that degree through
German Southwest Africa. Subsequently Germany signed an agree-
ment allowing Mr. Rhodes' Cape to Cairo telegraph line to be
carried through German East Africa, in accordance with the pro-
visions recited in the Reichstag in March, 1899. The meaning of
this bargain is that Germany secures the connection of any westerly
extensions of the Rhodesian lines with the proposed German lines
in German East Africa, which will probably start from Swakop, near
Walfish Bay. This affords a much shorter route from England o
Rhodesia than by way of Cape Town.

His next step in carrying out his unquenchable purpose was
the futile attempt to boom and develop Rhodesia. He is, to-day,
the most prominent Englishman connected with public affairs in
Africa, and is admired for his unquestionable genius. It is easy to
understand the inextinguishable hatred felt towards him by Presi-
dent Kruger and the Boers. It is safe to say that the prime object
of the latter in their attack upon Kimberley, was the capture of
Rhodes, whose value to them as a prisoner, they placed above that
of the great diamond mines. It was said repeatedly, and doubtless
with truth, that no risk or effort was too great for the Boers to
put forth in order to secure the one whom they regarded as their
greatest and most dangerous enemy.

Speaking more personally of Mr. Rhodes, it may be said thai
he is unmarried, looking upon a wife as a handicap, rather than a

238

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

help to an ambitious man. He dresses poorly, is very generous,
is a man of few words, of much ma<5netism, abstemious in his
habits and despises formality and all ostentation. When he sets
out to accomplish any purpose he believes he is justified in remov-
ing every obstacle by any means at his hand. '

Reference has been frequently made in these pages to the
Afrikander BonJ. This political organization lias acquired control
of Cape Colony under the policy of "South Africa for South
Africans;" in other words, that the interests of South Africa shall
be served first, and that of Great Britain afterward. The majority
of its members are Dutch, who believe that their chief duty is to
aid in developing their resources by rigid legislation and wise pro-
tective tariffs. This object attained, it is then time to give atten-
tion to the interests of Great Britain. It is not unnatural, perhaps,
that the members of the Bond should be favorably disposed toward
those of the same faith in the Transvaal. They approve the course
of President Kruger in dealing with the franchise dispute, and,
consequently, their loyality to the home country, in case of war
against their friends to the north, is no more than a brittle thread.

CHAPTER XIII

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

The eyes of the world have been directed on South Africa for
several years because of the great commercial possibilities afforded
in this distant land. The wants of the Afrikanders have steadily
grown as thty have settled up the country, until now, all nations
are eager to secure a portion of the augmenting trade. The Afri-
kanders, as a rule, have been quick to avail themselv^es of modern
implements and inventicms of all kinds. The United States has
entered into the contest for the South African business with some
degree of success! Other countries are exporting largely, England
having a vast volume of export business with the South African
Colonies and Republics.

The latest account of South Africa was written by United States
Consul-General at Cape Town, James G. Stowe, who made a tour of
inspection through Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal, and gave the result of his observations in a report to the
State Department, dated June 15, 1899, under the title of "Com-
mercial Development of South Africa."

Mr. Stowe's first journey occupied two days and one night, and
led him from Cape Town to Kimberley, a distance of 047 miles. The
ride was made in a compartment car, which in that part of the world
takes the place of sleeping and dining cars. At night his bed con-
sisted of "one sheet double, one small pillov/ and two blankets made
up," for which he paid a sum in English money equivalent
to $2.43.

(MO)

2-iO

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

On the first afternoon he passed through the Hex Mountains,
whose rugged appearance recalled Colorado in his own country.

"In the distance on each side could be seen the 'coppies' (hills)
assuming all shapes and heights. These wastes were covered with a
stunted bush, the food of the sheep which once roamed about in large
numbers, now sadly decimated by disease. At the foot of the coppies
are some fertile fields, whose principal products are Kaffir corn and
mealies. The Kaffir corn is in the tassel — not in the ear; the mealie
is like our own Indian corn, but smaller in ear and grain, and
when ground and mixed with cold water is more palatable than our
Indian corn when scalded. The mealie is planted in rows and left to
mature. It is never cultivated; hence the plant runs to stalk and not
to ear."

The sight of herds of cattle and sheep added to the reminder of
his native land; but besides goats and the animals named, he saw
what is witnessed nowhere else in the world, large numbers of
ostriches. It would be supposed that this stupid creature, whose lack
of sense makes it an easy prey to the Bushmen, would have been
frightened by the roar of the iron horse and train, but the birds
showed less timidity than the quadrupeds, for they came up to the
fence and stared wonderingly at the train as it thundered past. The
fences inclosing the track were of American barbed wire, but the
Dutchmen improved upon them by attaching the wire to heavy iron
posts and gates that had been imported from Europe.

We have already given the principal facts about the famous Kim-
berley diamond mines, but some of Mr. Stowe's statements are worth
repeating. He found that the city contained 35,000 inhabitants, most
of whom were drawn thither by the mines. The general manager of
them is Gardiner F. Williams, who is also tiie United States Consular

•'"^sasa

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

241

Agent. A pleasing surprise to the visitor was that many of the most
responsible positions in the mines are held by Americans. Moreover,
the United States furnish the majority of the 2,000 horses and mules
used in the mines, and some of the 200,000 pounds of beef and 25,000
pounds of mutton consumed by the 15,000 natives and 25,000 whites
employed in the mines. " I was not at all surprised to see American
machinery here," Mr. Stowe remarks. "The immense driving gear of
a pumping engine * made in England ' had to be sent to Chicago to
have the cogs cut. The company is operating an ice plant, made in
Chicago, and three more have been ordered, each with a capacity of
five tons a day, and 20,000 cubic feet of cold storage, besides a com-
plete dynamite plant, with an American to manage it. The 150 miles
of railroad in and about the mines are laid with American rails, and
every tie and sleeper is of California redwood, which in this country
is the wood par excellence for this purpose. Three ships from Cali-
fornia have recently arrived with cargoes of redwood and Oregon
pine. The ice company sells its product for half-a-cent a pound,
while in Cape Town the price is four cents. All the water used in
and about the city flows through pipes made in the United States.
I was pulled to Kimberley by an American engine, and there are
several others in use in Cape Colony."

Mr. Stpwe was impressed by the care which the company took to
provide for its employees. It has built the village of Kennilworth,
covering 500 acres and occupied by white employees, at nominal cost.
Water and light are furnished free, and there is a club house, a
library, reading rooms, athletic grounds, a park and vegetable
gardens, with vines and fruits of all kinds in profusion.

"The native employees are housed in compounds. On the four
sides of a large square are erected one-story buildings of corrugated

242

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

iron, opening to the center of the square. They are divided into
rooms which hold twenty persons, who sleep in bunks three high.
Within each compound is a store which supplies the natives with
clothes, food, etc., at very reasonable prices. In the center of the
square is a large swimming pool, well patronized. Adjacent to the
compound is a hospital, free to the sick and injured. Extended over
the whole enclosure, which occupies several acres, is a wire netting,
to prevent the throwing over of diamonds enclosed in tin cans, etc.,
as was once the natives' practice. Outside the compound, and ten
feet from it, is a barbed wire fence ten feet high, with fourteen
strands of wire. An underground passage leads to the mine shaft,
and the men are examined as they return from work. Within the
compound I visited (there are three) were 3,500 natives, and, as it
was Sunday, they were all enjoying themselves, dancing, playing on
musical instruments, beating drums, reading the Bible or 'Pilgrim's
Progress' in their own language, singing hymns, cooking, sewing,
smoking hemp in cow horns and gambling. Some were clothed, some
not; some had their teeth filed to resemble a saw, others had their
heads shaved except a fringe at the back. Some were tattooed, and
nearly all had holes through the lobe of the right ear, to hold any-
thing that might come to hand. I saw spoons, straws, feathers and
stubs of cigars disposed of in this manner. The natives are under
contract for six months and receive from one shilling to three shillings
(24 to 79 cents) a day. They are not allowed to leave the compound
during the time of the contract. No liquor is furnished tliem. They
are happy and contented, and the system is good for the native, the
industry and the country. They are kept in a detention room one
week before their contracts expire and made to wear gloves made of
two discs of leather, locked to their wrists. Their clothes are taken

A COIJNTUY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

248

from them and examined and at the end of the week they leave
without any diamonds."

The mines are the crater of an extinct volcano. What is now
a level prairie was once a volcano. Cropping out on the surface
appeared a blue rock which was found to contain diamonds. The
mouth of the crater is 312 feet below the surface. They dug 300
feet lower, so that the mine is now 612 feet deep. The rock is
elevated to the surface by powerful machinery and conveyed to the
floors or level ground, at present occupying about 200 acres. Here it is
left for a year to the action of the sun, wind and rains, until it decom-
poses and falls apart. It is then taken to the crushing and washing
machines and afterward to the pulsators which separate it into differ-
ent sizes and again wash it. Finally, it passes over shaking tables,
covered with grease, which catches and retains the diamonds. These
are then washed in acid and taken to the valuator. Roughly speak-
ing, out of 3,000,000 tons of blue rock three-fourths of a ton of dia-
monds are obtained. The valuator assorts the diamonds according to
color and purity. I saw on his table the output of one week, worth
S300,000. A syndicate of buyers takes the product of the mines.

It is well known that the United States are among the foremost
customers of the Kimberley mines, which in turn is one of our best
customers, but Mr. Stowe is convinced that we ought to have still
more of the trade, especially in galvanized corrugated sheet iron,
which is used extensively throughout Africa. The immense buildings
in the Kimberley and Johannesburg mine are constructed of it, as
are also thousands of dwelling houses, barns, warehouses, fences, etc.
The merchants in all African cities carry it in stock, of regular
lengths, packed by European manufacturers in bundles of twelve
^hoots. held together bv iron bands.

244

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Leaving Kimberley, the Coiisnl-General, after a ride of 167 miles,
reaphed the borders of the Orange Free State, the ally of the
Transvaal in the last war. A striking difference in the scene met
the eye. "The land w^as more fertile, the houses of the Kaffirs and
Hottentots are seen, the former looking like tops of balloons, the
latter square and built of stones. The Kaffir huts show the natural
skill and inventive genius of the tribe. Long branches or trunks
of a tree that grows high and has a small diameter are planted in
the ground in a circle, bent to the center and fastened. Then the
natiVe fiat grass is woven in and out between them, making a
habitation watertight and yet cool." The panorama presented in the
ride of 334 miles across the Orange Free State is monotonous but
not unpleasing. "More and better farming is noticed, the crops are
more diversified. In the fields, plows and reapers and mowers of
familiar home patterns gladden the eye of the American traveler.
These implements, imported from the United States by dealers at
Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban, are sold
extensively throughout Africa. Though much of the land is Suill
idle, the Free State is prosperous, and the Dutch farmers, unlike
their neighbors and allies across the Vaal, welcome all comers to
citizenship on easy terms."

The consul and liis fellow travelers were detained for five hours
at the boundary of the Republic before they were allowed to set out
for Pretoria, seventy-seven miles inward. This city, as the reader
will recall, is the capital of the Republic and the residence of the
President, "Oom Paul;" but like most capitals, it is not a bifsiness
center. Mr. Stowe declares that he never rode over a better roadbed,
or in more comfortable cars than when he made the journey from
Pretoria to Johannesburg, over the Netherlands railway, whicli it is

ARRIVAL OF BRITISH TROOPS AT DURBAN.

A C(

said is owned
veiiience, and
but they had
they were mad
renders their li

In some n
Africa. On th
stakes driven
of a township,
camp, whose 1
carts over hui
railway conne
in 1893.

One day i
stopped on th(
beside himself
he set to work
others closed :
Thus the city i

To-day Jo
are hustling t
under the foui
and they are
which leads i
form. The ci
form magnific
to any city in

Some of tl
tic; the city hi

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

247

said is owned in Holland. The train was equipped with every con-
venience, and the dining cars were as good as those in this country,
but they had one serious drawback; even to the sides and covering
they were made of iron, which, under the flaming sun in midsummer,
renders their heat within almost intolerable.

In some respects, Johannesburg is the most wonderful city in all
Africa. On the 20th of September, 1886, the site was marked off by
stakes driven into the unbroken veldt, and given the dignified name
of a township. For a few years it was nothing more than a mining
camp, whose buildings were of coiTugated iron, dragged thither in
carts over hundreds of miles of veldt by plodding ox-teams. The
railway connecting Johannesburg with Cape Town was completed
in 1893.

One day in 1885, Johannes Bezuidenhut, a glum, stolid Boer,
stopped on the site of the town, where not a living person or any one
beside himself was within miles, and in his slow, ponderous fashion,
he set to work to build himself a hut. There he stayed until la time
others closed in around him, drawn thither by the discovery of gold.
Thus the city named in his honor was founded.

To-day Johannesburg throbs and hums with life, for its thour^nds
are hustling to obtain a share in the measureless treasure that lies
under the foundations of the city. The people number about 200,000
and they are swayed by the one all-powerful, resistless ambition
which leads men to brave suffering, hardship and death in every
form. The city contains hundreds of fine dwellings, many of which
form magnificent residences of stone or marble that would do credit
to any city in our own country.

Some of the club houses are palatial; the stock exchange is majes-
tic; the city has five fine theaters and opera houses; first class hotels,

248

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

where thousands of guests can be accommodated, imposing churches,
museums, hospitals, electric street railways, race tracks and polo
grounds, with numberless gambling houses, never closed day or night,
week days or Sundays, the year round.

It is claimed that there is more gold underneath Johannesburg
than the world ever saw. Within a circle of twenty miles from
Market Square, there was taken more gold in 1898 than was produced
by the North American continent and more than was mined in
Australia. We are accustomed to think of the Klondike as the most
productive auriferous region yet discovered, but all the ]_)roduct of
that section down to the present time is less than one-tenth of the
gold taken from the South African mines in 1898.

The total output for the year 1895 was 2,277,685 ounces, which
was an increase of 250,000 ounces on 1894, and of about 800,000 ounces
on the output of 1893. And here are some figures whose full meaning
is beyond our grasp:

The total record of the Witwaterstrand reef on which Johannes-
burg is built, already exceeds 40,000,000 ounces of gold, worth more
than $800,000,000. This vast sum weighs 1,250 tons, so that allowing
fifty tons to each car the gold production of the district would load
a train of twenty-live cars. Mo -cover, it is known tiiat the gold
awaiting extraction is worth more than $4,000,000,000, which, follow-
ing the rule just named, would load five freight trains of twenty-live
cars each. It is useless to try to comprehend these astounding figure-.

The Boer government took no action regarding the new gold
fields until July 18, 188(), when it proclaimed and threw open nine
farms. In November of the following year, there were sixty-eight
mining companios with a capital of $15,000,000; in January, ISilo.
there were 540 gold mining companies, with an aggregate capital mI

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

249

$35,000,000. The output steadily grew, until in the month of May,
1892, the mines yielded 100,000 ounces, and this has increased until
in the month of August, 1899, it reached 482,108 ounces.

The gold first found at the Rand cropped out of the ground
in five parallel reefs, whose thickness varied from one inch to four
feet. The southermost reef was separated from the northern by an
average distance of one hundred and fifty feet. The first claims
were 400x150 feet, the latter dimension being east and west along
the reefs, and the lormer north and south so as to include the five
outcrops. It was not until two or three years later that a remark-
able fact regarding the formation of the gold-bearing veins was
discovered. This was that the veins after descending some two
thousand feet, curved away and ran horizontally in a southerly
direction to a distance whose extent has not at this wiiting been
learned. This discovery wa a source of wonderment to old miners
who suspected nothing of the kind.

Naturally people began staking off claims to the southward and
sinking shafts. Many hundreds of these were pushed to a depth of
'2,000 feet, and in every instance they struck the rich conglomerate
iind brought most valuable returns for the labor. Scores upon
scores of new companies were formed to work the deep levels, miles
fiom the outcrop of the gold itself.

Now, almost the first question that occurred to men interested
in developing these mines, was

Where is the other side of this hasin-like formation'^

It was fair to suppose that at some unknown distance, perhaps
hundreds of miles away, the southern edge of the basin came up again
t(» the surface. Wherever that was, were riches beyond estimate.

There have been determined and persistent efforts to discover

250

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

this treasure, parties of veteran miners penetrating into desolate
wastes where they were the first white men to tread, but, as stated,
the discovery down to the present writing has not been made. It
was the mania for making this marvelous find that led to the
formation of the British South African Chartered Company, which
is largely responsible for the support given to the ambitious schemes
of Cecil Rhodes.

American genius and push have had much to do with the
building of Johannesburg upon the foundation of its mineral wealth.
The managers, superintendents and consulting engineers of the mines
were Americans almost to a man.

"I was glad," writes Mr. Stowe, in his report, "to find that Ameri-
can ability was recognized by other countries. J. C. Manion, United
State J Consular Agent, has been the means of introducing American
machinery and supplies of all kinds to the value of millions of dollars.
For twenty miles on each side of the city extend the headgears and
smokestacks of mines, more than one hundred of them, which have
made the city and state what they are, and enabled President Krtiger
to sell a farm for $400,000 the day 1 was in Johannesburg.'' Some
idea of the magnitude of the mining interests is afforded by Consul
Stowe's observations. "Over fifteen tons of gold per month is the
product of the mines, and new discoveries are reported daily. The
main reef crops out at the surface and the veins dip to great depth;
some of the sha^^ts are going down to 3,200 feet levels." And here is
another incident of direct bearing upon the war: "Complaints are
made of the price of dynamite, which costs 70 shillings ($17.03) per
case, and could be bought outside of the state for 40 shillings ($9.73).
The government granted tlie concession to a company, which makes
thousands of pounds sterling out of it annually. A concession for the

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

251

manufacture of candles has been granted, so that the miners will
have to buy of the home manufacturer, as the duty is prohibitive.
The railways, I was told, charge for freight from the border of
Johannesburg, a distance of forty-seven miles, as much as it costs to
haul from the seaports, 1,000 miles away. While the United States
cannot now compete for the candle trade, I am pleased to state that
the candle factory will be equipped with American machinery
throughout."

The next place visited by the consul was Durban, in Natal, the
most important port of entry, with the exception of Cape Town, on
the South African coast, and a favorite winter resort for the people of
Johannesburg. The imports of Durban, for January and February,
1899, were 27,367 tons, valued at $530,826. The Americans have a
large and growing share in this business. The following incident
related by Mr. Stowe is significant:

"A Durban merchant said to me: 'I recently ordered five tons
of hoop iron of a European manufacturer. After the order had gone
forward one of your American salesmen came along and made me
a price ten dollars a ton less. I gave him an order for five tons
and then tried to have the other order cancelled, but the foreign
house refused, saying that no one could make and guarantee a first-
class article at the price named, and a test would prove it. When
the iron arrived I tested both, and the American was several per
cent, better.' "

Nothing escaped the keen eyes of Mr. Stowe. At the hotel where
he stayed, the doors and trinimings and even electric lights were
of American origin. "In fact," he said, "I was, during my whole
trip, ail the time putting my hand on something American. I was
told that our screw drivers, hammers, hatchets, chisels, etc., were so

0-,')

^■f^

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

cheap, though good, that it did not pay to have them ground or
repaired — that it was better and cheaper to buy new ones.

The consul also visiwd Port Elizabeth and Mossell Bay. In the
latter port, he found a British ship discharging a cargo of 1,000 tons
of rails ^r-om thi) United States for a new railroad. Inquiry showed
that Am - goods were rapidly growing in favor. Commenting
upon the il. ne service in different South African cities, Mr.

Stowe says: "In ii.,mberley the service is American and good; in
Johannesburg, it is Dutch and everybody continually finds fault; no
service after five o'clock, and a year's subscription, about seventy-
five dollars a month, in advance ; in Durban it is German and fair."

In a later report, dated August 25, 1899, Mr. Stowe says that tho
imports at Natal during the preceding ten months had increased bj
nearly a million dollars, and those from Great Britain increased
only $678,983. An extensive trade in American fruit and shade trees
had also grown up and there is an active demand for sprayers and
chemical preparations for destroying insects.

The Orange Free State, wliich, with the Transvaal, forms the only
two independent republics in South Africa, has about the area of tiie
State of New York, and a population of 93,000 whites and 140,000
natives of the Basuto and Barolong tribes. Bloemfontein, 750 miles
north of Table Bay, 450 miles north Port Elizabeth, and 400 miles
north of East London is the capital. It consists of an elevated table
land 4,000 feel above the sea level, and is 400 miles long by 200
miles wide. The southern part is dotted with kopjes or individual
hills, but otherwise the interior consists of undulating prairies, which
were formerly covered with coarse grass, but this is now changed to
a scrubby brush or copse, which affords excellent grazing for sheep,
much better than the coarse and sour grasses in different places.

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

25B

It is a singular fact that the Orange Free State is virtually a
treeless country. The wood found on the hill sides and in -he moist
valleys of the rivers is a scant scrub or mimosa thorn, the wild
olive, the willow, and the camel thorn, which is a species of wild
iicacia. Naturally the chief lanSs are best adapted to pastoral
purposes, but a 30x100 mile strip of land on the Basutoland border
has no superior in the world for grain producing purposes.

Because their principal labor consists of stock raising and grain
^frowing the burghers have plenty of 'ei- a-e to devote to war. The
fertile strip referred to, without irrigation or fertilizing, yields from
thirty to eighty bushels to the acre, after forty consecutive years of
cultivation. This strip was taker from the Basutos in 1864 and is
known as the Conquered Territory. It forms the granary of the
Orange Free State and of the Transvaal. It not only produces wheat,
oiits, barley, maize and Kaffir corn, but carries large herds of cattle,
horses, sheep, angora goats and ostriches. Pears, apples, peaches and
^aapes, are also largely grown. The tract derives its greatest
importance from its being the Boer base of supplies. The mountains
facing British South Africa are relied upon, supplemented by Boer
strategy and bravery, to hold the great prize inviolate against all
enemies of the twin republics.

Diamonds are plentifully mined in the Orange Free State. It
was on the fields of Jagersfontein that the famous 900 carat Jagers-
foutein Excelsior was found in May, 1893. The precious stones are
also obtained at Koffyfontein in the southwestern part of the Republic.
The output of the Jagersfontein field for January, 1899, was 15,189
carats, valued at $150,000 and that of Koffyfontein for the same
period was 1,500 carats, worth $11,000.

There is a marked similarity between the characteristics of the

254

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

people of the two republics. In the Free State, they are peaceful,
educated, well-governed and passionately devoted to their country,
which is divided into nineteen districts, each of which is presided
over by a landdrost or magistrate. Every district is subdivided into
one, two or more wards, according to size or importance, and each
ward sends a member to the Volksraad or Legislature. In addition,
every town also elects a member of the Volksraad, to which is
Relegated the government of the country. The President, who is the
responsible head of the executive department, is advised by an
Executive Council and by the High Court, composed of a chief
justice and two puisne judges.

About $2,000,000 is obtained annually from the revenue of the
State for the support of the government. These sources are mainly
as follows : quit rent on farms at the rate of forty-eight cents for each
100 morgen, or 200 acres; transfer dues on unmovable or fixed
property, at the rate of four per cent.; a two per cent, rate on
movables, that is, all goods sold by auction; a hut or capitation
tax of $2.50 a head on natives. The custom house yields about
$600,000 annually, from a twelve per cent, ad valorem levy on all
over-sea goods crossing the border. Through a treaty with the Cape
Colony Government these dues are levied at the ports of Cape
Colony. They are also levied on the Natal border by Orange Free
State oJBBcers in accordance with the provisions of the customs
union existing between the Cape Government and the Free State.
The former retains three per cent, of the twelve per cent, duty
to recoup itself for the expense of collecting these dues for the
Republic.

Each year the Orange Free State expends about $150,000 on
roads, $300,000 on bridges and comparatively large amounts for

ARTILLERY CROSSING THE KLIP RIVER.

THE TRANSVAAL CRISIS-LADYSMITH CAMP, NATAL, MARCH, 1899.

public building
whole revenue
works. The s
majority of th
whi(;h is the ei
village has its
§40.000 annual
the church sy
religious deno:
State are : Ep
and Presbyteris
Separatist Duti
at different ph
Because ol
of its neighbo
lungs, correspc
our own couni
periods of rain
the lower cou;
sudden and enc
the rivers are
ing to what ar(
peculiar water
ten-itory, bet^\
biiuddsh. The
Fauresmith anc
sioiis, the Hagj
profluct in Joh
salt has no su

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

257

public buildings. It is a creditable fact that about one-third of the
whole revenue of the State is used for educational grants and public
works. The school system is one of the finest in the world. The
majority of the people are members of the Dutch Reformed Church,
which is the established religion of the country. Nearly every little
village has its congregation and the government contributes about
S40.000 annually for the support of that religion, w^hich is paid into
the church synod to be used as that body deems proper. Other
religious denominations which have churches in the Orange Free
State are : Episcopalians, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Baptists
and Presbyterians, though their individual membership is small. The
Separatist Dutch Church has a number of important congregations
at different places in the country.

Because of its greater altitude the climate is drier than that
of its neighbors. It is therefore healthful for persons with weak
kings, corresponding in that respect to the southwestern states of
our own country. The d^^ season is in the winter time, but the
periods of rain and moisture are uncertain. The evaporation from
the lower countries is often condensed on the plateau and causes
sudden and enormous overflows of the streams. In the winter time,
the rivers are shallow and almost cease to flow, sometimes shrink-
ing to what are called "pans," with drifts or fords in places. These
•ecnliar water basins are found in the middle veldt or watershed
teiritory, between any two rivers, and are occasionally salt or
hrackish. They are most numerous in the Bloemfontein, Jacobsdai,
Fauresmith and Boshof districts. One of these large, circular depres-
sions, the Hagans-Pan, is worked by a salt company vhich sells the
product in Johannesburg. A scientific analysis has shown that this
salt has no superior in the world. Lest the reader should form au

258

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

incorrect idea of the size of the pan referred to, it may be .said
that it is two miles across.

The ri\'ers of the Orange Free State are not navigable, l)iit
they are well stocked witli fish, some of which, so far as known,
are found nowliere else. Among these is the barber, which grows
to the length of seven feet, has no scales and very few bones. Its
head is large and ungainly, and it has eight cirri-feelers on tlio
lower lip. The yellow fish, occasionally reaching a weiglit of twenty
pounds, is found in all tbe Free State waters. Others are the
whitelish, v^alveshead and the undermouth, while the iguana and
the river turtle abound. Lying south of the Transvaal, there are
few large wild animals found in the Free State. The most common
are antelopes, wildebests, olesboks, anteaters, wildcats, miercats,
hedgehogs, porcupines, jackals, hyenas, armadillos and wild dog,^,
the last being almost extinct.

Among the important laws governing the Orange Free State
are those for the estalilishment of high and low courts for the tiial
of causes; the making of tlie Dutch language (1854) the ollicial
language of the State, and the Commando law regulating the calling
out of tilt! burghers in time of war. Under this law, every nuile
inhabitant between sixteen and sixty years is subject to call and
conscription. The number thus nuide available in 1890 was about
28,000. The holding of burgher reviews (wapenschouuings) lakes
place in time of peace once every four years in every disti'ict, and
yearly in each ward or sub-district. Fvery man between the ag<? nf
eighteen and forty is obliged to attend these encampments armed and
mounted, but tiie townspeoi)l(' are i. lieved from the obligation ef
attending mounted. Each burgher is fnrnished by the governini ut
with a riHe at actual cost, which is twenty dollars or slightly m<>i".

A COUNTRY OF BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES

251)

As has been said, the people resemble in many respects theii
neighbors of the Transvaal. They are simple, sincere and honest in
tlieir dealings, and when a visitor is believed to be worthy,, he is
treated with the hospitality and kindness of a sou. They are very
moral, and the guest who violates the confidence reposed in him by
the parents of a daughter, is pretty sure to pay the penalty with
his life.

For many
most intrepid
(Jorclon Cumn
in their cliase
numerous otlii
cliaractar. Nc
of the gorilla,
the most terri
is resistless ai

There wer
that were iinii
portions of Ii
the Boers mi<.
ohliged to cle?
tiiere is good ;
a necessity in

Among till
tlioii a povverf
many times ol
with only a h
utiition of beii
HOW, thouvdi w
him in the sk

Since ol*:'

CHAPTER XIV

A ROYAL HUNTING GROUND

For many years, South Africa was royal hunting c^rouiul for the
most intrepid and skillful marksmen of the world. The exploits of
Gordon Gumming and scores of others equally skilled and daring,
ill their chase after lions, elephants, hippopotami, rhinoceroses and
numerous other specimens of large game, have been of u, thrilling
character. North of the region and under the equator is the habitat
of the gorilla, discovered by De Chaillu, which in some respects is
the most terril)le creature that haunts the forests, since its ferocity
is resistless and its strength incredible.

There were many sections in the southern part of the continent
that were uninhabitable because of the savage lions, just as in some
portions of India, man has been driven out by the tiger. When
the Boers migrated from Cape Colony to the I'ransvaal, they were
obliged to clear the way by killing thousands of lions. The number,
liiere is good reason to believe, was fully G,000, and the slaying was
a necessity in order to make life secure.

Among the most noted of these lion killers was President Krugor,
then a powerful and active young man. The incident has been told
many times of his attacking a (ien;e lion single-handed when armed
with only a hnntiiig knife. Indeed, he gained the well-earned rep-
utiition of being the greatest lion killer among his people, and even
now, though well advance! in years, there are few who can surpass
him in the skill with which he handles ji rifle.

Since ou.; ow . country [)roduces many of the greatest hunters

(MU

2i):2

THE STORY OF SOU I'H AI^'I?TCA

in the world, it may be interesting to give some information of
South Africa as a hunting field. The most accessible grounds, under
ordinar}^ circuuistances, are ii\ the east and south of the Transvaal.
From May to November is the favorable time, fo.' then little rain
falls and the season is healthful.

Second to the Transvaal, is that portion of Portuguese territory
to the northwaid of the Pungine River, and almost touching Beiia.
It teems with (juail, guinea fowl, sand grouse, snipe, wild duck, wild
geese, rails, widgeon and teal. And next to these hunting sections
comes the region lying some forty miles to the noi'th and north-
west of Fort Salisbury, which is about four liundred miles fi-oin
Mafeking, and has an elevation of 5,000 feet. There the roan
antelope and sal)le are found in limitless numbers.

Experienc^ed hunters generally start from either Kimberley or
Pretoria, because the supplies are more read 11 v obtained 'there than
at most other points. One of tlie greatest drawbacks is the trans-
portation from place to place. It is necessary to have a tent wagon
and a team of twelve to ?';xteen oxen. These wagons are broad
and strong, without springs, and fitted with extensive hxdvers for
provisions ainl blankets, and being closed in witli canvas, furnish
sleeping accommodations.

The cost of an outfit ranges from $800 to $1,500. The horse
needed by eacdi member costs $75. The animals known as *" salted"
horses, or those recovered froe.i horse sickness, and absolutely indis-
pensable, if tlu^ trip is extended beyond the winter, cost as nnich
lis $800 each.

Another serious handicap to hunters aftei' small game is tlip
'acK of good d(»ifs, and the prin('i[)al ca.use of this scarcity is that
the mail boats from England to Capo Town charge $20 for tiie

A ro^:al hunting ground

imporbition of each hunting clog. There are plenty' of ^rioni>i?ls
hilt they are not worth much. One of the most expo;; mcofi of
hunters, when asked about liunting in this comparatively anknown
tervitory, said:

'•English sportsmen have but little conception of the diversity
of feathei'ed game that lies everywhere at hand in South Africa,
or I imagine that Cape Colony would be much more exploited by
fowlers tlian it has been hitherto.

I have seen within the colony alone no less than six kinds
of francolins, seven kinds of bustards, two species of quail, two of
guinea fowl, two of the sand grouse family, and two sorts of snipe.
1 liave seen many species of rails, teal, widgeon and wild duck, and
wild geese abound."

The value of ostrich feathers has caused the bird to be hunted
so persistently that it will probably soon become extinct, though
it is .-itill found in considerable numbers to the noi'li of tl-o Orange
iiiid Vaal Ivivers. The Kori bustard, called "'•or pauw" by the
ISoiM's, is next in size to the ostrich, its more ccii'aon name being
"gum peacock," because of its supposed fondnrvs for the gnii. of
thi> uu)ni(;sa tree. The male bird >^ eighs sixty or seventy pounds
;iiiil reaches a height of five feet. The "koorhaan" is iinother
species of ])ustard, hard to sho(»t }»ecause of its great fleetness, and
its croak is as gi'ating to the oiirs as the filing of a saw.

The ehind is ihv largest of the antelopes, but (tnly a few are
t'oiiiid south of the Limpopo. It weighs half a ton. and its length
troiii liorns lo b:ise of tail is nearly nine feet, with a iieight iit the
sliniddcM's of live feet, nine iuclies, and with horns two feet, ten
iiM'lirs long. Its moat is (wcelhMit wnl tiie smimal is so unsuspicious
'luititis easily killed. The most numerous of the large antelopes

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

is the koodoo. The bontel)ok, often referred to as the "harnessed
antelope" is found in considerable numbers in the Transvaal iiiul
Bechuanaland, but is practically extinct in Cape Colony and the
Free State.

Hunting the geinsbok is always exciting sport. Its habitat is
to the north of Cape Colony, in the Kalahari Desert, and in the
German possessions to the north of the Orange River. It is veiy
pov^erful and vicious, with sharp horns, three feet long. Many
instances are known of this daring animal, not four feet high
at the shoulders, killing a full grown lion. You can see to-day in
a sporting house at Pretoria the skeleton of a lion impaled on the
keen-pointed horns of a gemsbok. The Oryx appears in the Cape
coat of arms, and is said to be the original of the unicorn, tlie
two horns, /iewed in profile, appearing as one.

The haartebeest (meaning stag ox), the zwaart wildebeest, or
black wild ox, though really a white-tailed gnu, and vaal are
plentiful in tlie mountain ranges of the Colony and Natal and in the
neighbov]\ood of the Orange River. The shy rhebok is so fleet of
foot that it is one of the hardest of tasks to run it down. It is five
feet long, only lialf as high, and weighs 450 pounds. Almost equally
hard to run down is the sturdy klipspringer, found only in the most
rugged mountains. It resembles the English rock-buck and is often
roft''T'?'l L > as the klipbok.

Ir> bho bushy sections l)rowse the ducker and steen. The word
*'ducker'' luo.ins diver and the animal gets its name from its habit of
plunging like a diver into the thickest bushes upon hearing the least
noise. This, added to its dark-brown color, nuikes it one of the mosi
diflicult of all games to bag.

Among the smallest and most beautiful antelopes is the steen

liiyli

w
O

e/)
I— I

u
o

bok, the n
because o
bay, barki
numerous
the moun

Those
rhinocero
hyena, jai
exiDerienc
speed, coi
*'I would
a veterar
stand th£
within re
escape fr(
the anim

The
double tl
most fere
six hund
can cleai
wall witl

Few
the expo:
while to-
the work
P. T. Bai
'forget his
is their u

A ROYAL HUNTING GROUND

267

bok, the name meaning "stone goat." The bosch bok, or bush buck,
because of its slowness of movement, is easily secured, and when at
bay, barks like a dog. The springbok, or jumping goat, is the most
numerous of the antelope family and herds of them are met in
the mountains.

Those who do not like hunting the elephant, lion, leopard,
rhinoceros and hippopotamus can try their skill upon the wolf,
hyena, jackal, wild dog, wild hog, giraffe, zebra and baboon. Many
experienced hunters consider the buffalo, with his terrible horns,
speed, courage and ferocity, the most formidable of all wild animals.
"I would rather stand within fifty paces of a Boer rifleman," said
a veteran, "and have him take dead aim at my chest, than to
stand that distance unarmed before a buffalo, without any refuge
within reach; for the gun might miss fire, but there would be no
escape from the buffalo." It requires special permission to shoot
the animal in the Colony or Natal.

The South African lions are the finest in the world, having
double the strength of the ordinary lion. The gray-necked is the
most ferocious, is forty-eight inches high at the shoulder, weighs
six hundred pounds, and is twelve feet from nose to tail tip. It
can clear eighteen paces at a bound, and has leaped an ordinary
wall with a fair-sized bullock in its mouth.

Few elephants remain in the Colony or Transvaal. In 1875,
the export of ivory from Cape Colony was more than $300,000,
while to-day it is less than $10,000. The animals are the largest in
the world. Those of our readers who can recall "Jumbo," which
P. T. Barnum brought to this country some years ago, will never
'forget his stupendous size. One of the peculiarities of these beasts
is their enormous ears. When an elephant kneels on the ground

268

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

(luring a rain storm, his keeper readily finds secure shelter behind
one of these gigantic flaps. In charging, a bull elephant has a
way of spreading his ears horizontally, like immense tins. From
tip to tip across the forehead, the distance is twelve or fourteen
feet. Tusks have been taken weighing 300 pounds, but the weight
is generally about half of that. The heaviest rifles, naturally, are
required to hunt the elephant. The Boers are fond of the old
smootli-bore "roer" which carries a four-ounce spherical bullet, tlie
gun itself weighing thirty pounds. The choice of weapons, however,
is a matter of taste with the hunter.

While the Boers did excellent work in ridding the country of
lions, they offset it by the ruthless destruction of the harmless and
graceful giraffe, from Cape Colony to the Bottetti River. These
animals were the most abundant game in the Transvaal, Orange
Free State and Matabeleland, and their wholesale destruction was
prompted by gain, for their skins brought from ten to twenty
dollars.

The giraffe, or camelopard, is a remarkable creature, whose
appearance is too familiar to be described, but it has some peculiar-
ities that are not commonly understood. Its horns differ both in
texture and shape from those of all other horned quadrupeds,
seeming to form a part of the skull and consisting of two porous,
bony substances, about three inches long, with which the top of the
head is armed, and which are placed just above the ears and crowned
with a thick tuft of stiff, upright hairs. A considerable protuberance
also rises on the middle of the forehead between the eyes, which
seems to be an enlargement of the bony substance and resembles
the insignificant horns mentioned.

There have l)een wild giraffes that measured seventeen feet

A ROYAL HUNTING GROUND

269

from tlie top of the head to the forefeet, but none of that altitude
have ever been seen in captivity. An inspection of the animal
will show that its forelegs are not so much greater than the
hind ones in length as at first appears, tlie seeming disparity
being due to the extraordinary lieight of the shoulders.

The giraffe seldom brings its head down to the ground, except
when it wishes to drink, and then it is obliged to spread its
front legs far apart and bend its neck in a semi-circular form.
At such times, its appearance is grotesquely awkw^ard. The eyes
are large, <lark and lustrous, and with so mild an expression that
more than one veteran hunter has been touched with pity at
sight of the creature lying on the ground and breathing out its
life, without the least attempt at resistance or revenge upon the
one who has thus brought him low^

Nevertheless, the animal is capable of putting up a stout fight
against its four-footed enemies. The tiny horns are by no means
the insignificant 'vYeapons they appear to be, and the owner can
strike a crushing blow, which he does, not by suddenly depressing
and elevating its head, like the bull or ram, but by means of a
sidelong sweep of the neck. Its chief weapon is its hind legs, W'ith
which it can kick, not only with amazing vigor, but so rapidly
that the eye can hardly follow the movements. Hunters tell of
seeing it beat off the lion by means of these lightning-like blows.

Rarely or never has a giraffe made resistance to a hunter.
The animal is in truth absolutely defenceless against him, its only
recourse being in flight, though it can dodge rapidly from tree to
tree in the woods; but its form makes it so prominent an object
that it is one of the most easily hunted animals in existence. So
it was, that its slaying lost the nature of sport to the Boers, who

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

i^.%

s V ^ "

' ^J^

:/.

1.0

I.I

■^121 Hi

£^ ■;£ 110

11^ Illli4

- 6"

Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WnSTIR.N.Y. 14SI0

(716) •72-4S03

■^

^ A

•^

"- ^£^

^^A

Simim

270

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

valued the animals solely for their hides. More than 50,000 were
killed and the few survivors driven north. They were pot-hunted,
shot down in droves and destroyed wholesale. It was not an
uncommon thing for a hunter to kill forty or fifty of the graceful
animals in a single day, and inevitably their fate became that of
the buffalo in our own country. Where tens of thousands of these
animals roamed over our prairies a few years ago, not one of them
is found to-day. »

The hide of the giraffe, as has been shown, was the cause of
its lamentable destruction. Occasionally, the bullet of the hunter
failed to kill, for the skin in some places is three-quarters of an
inch thick and exceedingly tough. The hide, when cured and tanned,
forms good leather for certain purposes. From it, the Boers make
riding whips and saddles, but by far the larger portion of the skins
are sent to Europe. It should not be forgotten also that the leg
bones have a commercial value, for they are solid, instead of hollow
as is the case with most other animals, and are therefore useful
for manufacturing buttons and other articles. The tendons are
astonishingly strong, because of which they have also a pecuniary
value.

From what has been stated, it will be seen that South Africa
possesses many attractions to our countrymen, a fact which had
caused thousands to emigrate thither, and which will doubtless be
the cause of many more thousands seeking their fortune in the
Ronthorn portion of the Dark Continent.

CHAPTER XV

THE SOUTH AFRICAN QUESTION FROM THE TRANSVAAL

POINT OF VIEW

It does not require the trained diplomatic mind to discover the
fact that quarrels which lead two nations into a great war have
two sides. Thousands of lives are not extinguished and millions of
treasure are not expended unless each nation believes it has justice
and right on its side. England's parliament thundered out arguments
to justify the action of a great empire in making war on two republics.
Votes of confidence given to Her Majesty's government lejideis plainly
stamped Britain's cause with the approval of the nation.

But the Boers were equally insistent and quite as bold in their
proclamations and state papers. That the South African republics
fully weighed the awful consequences of firing the shot that would be
heard around the world, is conjectured. The Boers adopted the
aggressive to strike the first blow in defense of their principles.

Sympathy with either side has no standing in impartial history.
The cause of the Transvaal and that of Great Britain is given in this
work. When President Kruger said that the civilized world would be
appalled by the cost of subduing the South Afr.can republics, he
spoke for a sturdy people who had once "twisted the tail of the British
lion" and feared not a threatened invasion. "With God to direct us.
and justice, fortitude and the stiength that comes to men who fight
to guard their homes from a foe that is blinded by the lust for gold,
wo shall conquer in the struggle," said President Kruger to the
Imrghors at Kroonstad.

272

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Pressed by thousands to tell the world the justification of the
attitude of the Transvaal towards (ireat Britain and the Uitlanders,
['resident Kruger invariably cables: "Psalms 35, verses 11 and 12 and
h) and 20."

11. False witnesBCB (ild rise up; they laid to my charge things that I
knew not.

12. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.

19. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me;
neither let them wink with tlie eye that hate me without a cause.

20. For they Kpeak not peace ; but they devise deceitful matters againat
them that are quiet in the land.

Secretary of State F. W. Reitz, of the South African Republic, has
stood ready to give a brief of the Transvaal's position, upon demand,
lie is eminently qualified to present the argument which is herewith
submitted.

"The Uii lander began to circulate his alleged grievances against
tiie Boers," said Mr. Heitz, "immediately upon the report of expert
metallurgists that the precious ores in Witwatersrand were not likely
to bo exhausted by years of working. The deep level theory having
been given a practical value by exhaustive diamond drill experiments
at the Rand, few were too ignorant to realize the palpable value and
durability of the Transvaal gold fields. Ever since that time unjust
and iniquitous agitation against my people has prejudiced the mind^
of many and has brought about the tragedy of war. It is but j^assing
strange that England's claim to suzerainty over the South African
repul)lics dates from that all-important epoch.

"World-wiile attention was given to the Band. Legitimate
exj)loitati()ii of the mines f(>llo\ved and the immigrant in great numbers
trekked into our land. (Jreat tracts of land passed into the hands of
foreigners, who dazzled the stock exchanges with the munificence of
their stock and share offerings, but who had no idea of developing

TRANSVAAL POINT OF VIEW

273

sifiriciiltnral or grazing resources. The inevitable crash came and the
tlieater of operations for the llitlander was narrowed co the Witwat-
crsrand. Johunnesbiirg grew into a marvelous city and the Uitlander
(iovotod himself to the expansion of his own interests and tlie deflation
of the interests of the Boers. With the increase in the output of
[•rccious metal came the enlargement of the 'Uitlander question.'
Tlie Transvaal was willing to cope with this problem in a wise and
jtuiicious manner. It gave the best efforts of its men of Imiins to dis-
cover a solution. No sane man will contend that the Uitlander
l)r(>l)lem did not recpiire a solution. In many respects our government
was not unlike other governments, notably F]ngland, France, Russia,
.lapan, etc., that have 'Uithinder ([uestions' of their own to deal with.
We believed tluit internal questions involving the residence of
foreigners in nHwv lands could not approach the importance which
attached to the 'Uithinder question' in the Transvaal.

"A mighty emi)ire stood ready to barter its honor for the gold
that was locked in the reefs of the Rand. The fever of gold was l)urn-
ing with an intensity tliat tlireatened destruction to our government.
The restiveness of the foreign element increased with the growth of
Kxciumge jobbery. In 1807, the official Industrial Commission made
Its intpiiry and a substantial lowering of railway tariffs and import
(lues was the direct result. Even this effort of the Transvaal to solve
the I'it lander ([uestion did not meet with honest favor. The
I'itlanders refused to abate their so-called cami)aign of grievan(!es.
\u 1S*,)H. sixteen and a quarter millions of gold was taken from the
Transvaal mines. This will be remembered as the year of the
1 itlander petition. Oflicial figures at hand show that forty-Hve gold
companies of the Rand, with a share capitalization of 20,294,675
sterling, paid out in dividends something over five million pounds

274

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sterling. At the time I had the honor to issue the ultimatum of the
South African republics to Her Majesty's government, the number of
dividend paying companies and the profits paid to the shareholders
was something marvelous.

"My poor country does not arrogate to itself any more virtues
than an honest, God-fearing people in reality possess. But it had to
impose restrictions upon the Uitlanders. Tlie Transvaal stood ready
to grant privileges demanded by conventions and v/ished only to pre-
serve the republic from menacing conditions.

"Has not the story of *Boer oppression,' the alleged 'oligarcy,'
tlie ' dynamite monopoly,' etc., been told and retold until the whole
world has been prejudiced by those who inched to avenge Majuba Hill?
With thinking men and women, the world over, we Boers are not
accepted as being monsters. I dare say that the majority of people
'.»elieve we are a maligned people. The Uitlander, despite his tales
of oppression, seemed to have so great an affection for the country
which the Boers had wrested from the inhospitable section of the Dark
Continent that he swarmed into it in great numbers. Even last year
millions of pounds sterling were added to the capitalization of the
mines! Did this fact not point to a general understanding that the
empire would seek to overthrow the government of the republic and
exploit the 'jingo' theory of seize-all in sighl? No Uitlander could
heed a noble impulse in dealing with a Boer. He would not
admit a righteous cause, would this Uitlander.

"The seed of political intrigue and corruption which the Uitlander
sowed on the sun-baked veldt of the Transvaal; the shrubbery of
unjust agitation and the bushes of deliberate, criminal machinations
to bring on a war of conquest, have all borne fruit. No Boer could
ask mercy of the British. He would die demanding justice. With

(i<

(i()(l and ri
;ilt hough ag:

" Englai
liccause of i
to colonists
inns, Senii-
hccome torr
time. The <
voirs and in
watersrand i
al»s()rl)s the
of water. ^
ovtT which 1
wliich destrc
one to the
moisture — t
iiiid otlier d:
the topogr:i
uninviting t
tlit'v surren
satisfied to (
is tlie only >
tiiat beset r(
I'lw ^'rade o
I'iii'th has Ik

"The V.
''nii(|neriiig
t" turn ',\)i\
iiK'asured ii

WAR BALLOON.

TUANISVAAL POINT OF VIEW

277

(lod and righteousness on our side we will triumph once more,
although against immensely superior odds.

"England certainly does not wish to fly her Hag over the republics
lipcause of the increased agricultural advantages that wouhl he open
to colonists. The climate is excellent, hut the rainfall is precar-
ious. Semi-tropic conditions prevail on most of the land, the rivers
Ix'come torrents in the rainy season and dust trails in the suninier
time. The character of the soil precludes the establishment of reser-
voirs and irrigation systems. By a strange gift of nature, the Wit-
watersrand is favored with an extcMisive formation of dolomite, which
absorbs the excess rainfall find makes the earth a valuable storehouse
of water. Surely the prospect of the northern \rdrt of the Tiunsvaal.
over which the ravages of nature sweep, bringing down the rinderpest,
which destroys the fortunes of both white and black, is not an inviting
one to the Englishmar. The hot, tropical winds blow without
moisture — they drive off the tarrying rain cloud, and scatter locusts
and other dangerous insects over our land. The Boer realizes that
the topographical and physical weaknesses of his country were so
uninviting to the ancient Phoenicians — those intrepid mariners — that
th(>v surrendered ideas of colonization. The modern Portuguese was
satisfied to confine his operations to the east coast. The Afrikander
is the only white man destined l)y nature to conquer the difficulties
tiiat beset residence there and to thrive in his contented way after the
low grade ores have ceased U) attract miners and the diamond bearing
• aith has been entirely uju-ooted and carefully scrutinized.

"The very poverty of South Africa put its stamp on the blacks.
< oimiiering tribes drove all weaker tril)es before them and in turn had
to turn against one another to li-e. The gr')wth of a Zulu tribe,
nicasured in cattle, necessitated broader reserves for such grazing as

-'-•■' '"'-'"■*'^-TiitrrTO*y^

27s

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

could be found, and that meant encroachment on other tribes ami
war. Between the two great causes of attrition, war and disf^asc. tin-
blacks kept busy burying the dead. The influence of the whi*^e man
on the native blacks has been that of a war antidote. But often Ihc
phigue of drink and disease accomplishes the process of diminution in
spite of the beneficent influence of the whites. Yet it seems to he
regarded as a fact that the blacks are increasing in numbers. Sontli
Africa has to import great quantities of maize. In 189S the imporla-
tion of maize, or 'mealies,' as the Afrikander calls this staple food of
the Kalli IS, was over 44,500,(K)0 pounds. What an enormous })n)l)l(Mn
will have to be solved when the natives cease to find work in the
mines. Will the country furnish sustenance to the great popnlaiion?
The growth of railways in the lower end of the ccmtinent is but \\w
natural concomitent of the demand for putting the white population
in commercially accessible contact with the outside world that sends
its products into South Africa. The Boer, who has learned to wrin^^ a
livelihood from the veldt, who has the inherited endurance to withstand
the harsh treatment of the economic machinery of the country li.v
natun^ would be the survivor in the struggle against these unplcjisant
conditions. The llitlander would have to trek farther (u- become a
Boer in reality, forsake his more luxurious tastes and live on t'lc
secluded farm that is the home of the contented Afrikander. Unless
the unexpected contingent of constantly recurring Witwatersrands
comes about, it becomes evident that the agriculturist as exeniplilit.'d
by the Boer is to be the i)ersonification of success in South Africa.

" Let not the world be deceived into thinking that South Afticii
will ever be a boon to any but the unscrupulous promotor and shippin;,'
agent whose business it is to get colonists to settle on his lands. Ua[it'
Coh)ny owes its affluence to the fortunate circumstances that came

TRANSVAAL POINT OF VIKW

279

from trade with Knrope and tlie Orient. The line of demarkation
between the patricians of the cape and the hardy pioneers wlio haftU^d
with poverty and pUigue in the inland districts, hecaino as clearly
drawn as the mountains wliich separate the two repul)lics. The per-
«;(»iial rule of the men delegated by Great Britain to see to Her
Miijnsty's (M)lonies naturally became such that the shepherds of the
veldt felt a growing repugnance.

"Three Bs })rovide the rule of three for the thinking South
Atricaii p(>liticians of to-day -the solution of the mission of the Hoer,
liiitoii and Black. Africa can only be secure when the political ecoii-
ciiiy of each of these three elements is charted so that he who runs
limy read.

"The student of history is familiar with the annexation of
Hasiitoland at a time when the Free State had successfully given the
lilacks their real status. Also, the history student knows that when
diamonds were discovered at Kimberley, the British ruthlessly absorbed
(iticiiia Land West. Then came Sir Theophilus Shepstone's a(;t of
annexing the Transvaal. Cecil Rhodes, the diamond king, began to
dieam of Rhodesia, and the natural consequence was the Boer
<le[)vived of Bechuanaland, that doorway to the ambitions of the
Hii^dish dreamer. It was but a step to the Chartered Company and
tli(> infamous Jameson raid that brought down the censure of the
lioiiest thinking meii of the world. Troubles which might have bowed
down a less (lod-fearing and hardy race than the Boers came thick
iuid fast. The (Jladstone ministry of 18S1 restored the independence
of the South African Republic, and we hold that this is still incontest-
alile, despite the British effort to establish an unbroken paramountcy.

" The despicable rule of the counting house -the policy of the
tiiiaiicior is as apparent in the struggle to wrest from the Boer that

280

THE STORY OF SOIiTII AFRICA

which ri^litfiilly helongs to him, as is the fact that negrophilist a<;it;i-
tiorf resulted in the lioer trekking from the confines of Cape Colony.
The mistakes of the Fnglishmen, Sir Harrismith, Sir Philip Wodc-
house, Sir Owen Laiiyon, and others, due to a superabundance of
administrative zeal, have l)een healed with small scars by the proj^rcss
of years. liuT the criminal aggression of the financial speculators wlio
wouhl seize tlie land of the Boer will not be condoned — it will be met
with resistance to the last man."

l*resident Steyn of tlie Orange Free State, referred to in his dis-
patches by Lord Roberts as "the late president," commissioned IMiilip
Louter Wessels as a special envoy of the republic, and the envoy
denies that there was a conspiracy between the Transvaal, the Free
State and the Cape Dutch against Great Britain. The P^nglisli
have laid particular stress on this alleged conspiracy. "Had there
ever been a secret understanding. President Steyn wishes me to
say, the Dutch would have prepared for war, so as to have made
a movement simultaneous with that of the republics,*' said the envoy.
"President Steyn believes that Sir Alfred Milner was sent to South
Africa as British high commissioner by Mr. Chamberlain, purposely to
crush the Afrikander, for Sir Alfred distinctly told Mr. Molteno, a
memoer of the Cape parliament, that England's ultimate purpose was
to annihilate the Afrikander. This I can prove. That policy was
determined upon when the Afrikander element outvoted the English
party in Cape Colony. I was at Bloemfonte'n during the negotiations
between the Free State and Sir Alfred, and I know that neither the
Transvaal nor the Free State expected then that friendly relations
between England and the republics would be broken. We thou^dit
Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred were bluffing the Transvaal in con-
nection with the Uitlander franchise.

TRANSVAAL POINT OF VIEW

2S1

"The Orange Free State was totally unprepared for war, and not
until after the Jameson raid did the Transvaal begin to think of war
in earnest. I met my brother, the president of the Free State
Volksraad, at Capetown four days before war was declared, and he
told me even then that he did not expect actual hostilities. There
would have been no war had not Sir Alfred Milner been sent to Africa
by Mr. Chamberlain for the express purpose of bringing it about, in
pursuance of the English policy to wipe out the Afrikanders and grab
everything in sight."

The civilized world has given heed to the utterances of the South
African Republic's accredited European agent, Dr. W. J. Leyds, who,
ill many respects, is thought to occupy a position for his countrymen
that another great doctor, Benjamin Franklin, did for the people of
the thirteen original colonies in the war for independence. Dr. Leyds
t'hiillenges the intelligent students of the South African problem in
tlu' English parliament — Englishmen all over the world — to show that
the government of President Kruger ever passed special legislation
aj,'ainst the Uitlanders. Whatever special legislation regarding the
Uitlanders there was, the doctor insists, was all in their favor. The
subject refeiTed to is, of course, the matter of public education. "The
Transvaal," says that republic's most widely heard orator, " made no
distinction between the foreigners, or as the world now unites in
calling them, the Uitlanders, and the native burghers, except in the
niiitter of franchise. What critic can view the circumstances of the
South African Republic's invasion by anumberof immigrants much in
excess of the original burghers, and say that I am not right when I
say that the republic could not grant political rights to the foreigners?

" If the critics that are rashly scoring my country for refusing the
right of franchise to Uitlanders, except under conditions which were

282

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

entirely in the control of the go'^ ^iime t, would ask a citizen of tlie
Orange Free State what he thoug"^ of ihe Transvaal denying the siuiip
right of franchise to friendly neigi < of the same race, but of a sister
repubLc,he would say that it was tueonly thingthat the republic could
do -he would say that it was the somewhat stern, but wholly correct.
thing to do. If we were that strict with Free Staters, why should we
not have been as strict with Englishmen? The Boers did everytliiiij;
that a nation could do, within reason, to avert the war, but Engbiiid
acted in such a manner as to render the conflict unavoidable."

Dr. Leyds, in common with the other well-known men who pleiid
the cause of the Boer in the courts of the Old World, in the homes every-
where that the newspapers print the words of the Boer ambassadors,
places great stress on the events which immediately followed the
visit of Sir Henry Loch, the high commissioner, to the Rand in 1S1I4,
and the now famous letter of Mr. Lionel Phillips, who was then cluiir-
m:in of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines, written to a miniiij,'
magnate whose name is on the tongues of financiers almost every day.
That there might be no chance for this letter to pass out of the minds
of the Englishmen who were gravely investigating the circumstances
of iV^ Tameson raid in subsequent years, Mr. Phillip's words were
l)rese;' in the Transvaal Green Book. In supporting his bold
.stater^- Ml t, that tha Uitlanders who are sincere admit that they are
b '^ England's pretext for the war. Dr. Leyds quotes from the Phillips
correspondence seized by the Transvaal at the time of the Jameson
raid. June 10th, lSi)4. The Green Book shows that Mr. Phillips wrote,
" I don't want to meddle in politics, and as to the franc^hise, I do not
think many people worry about it." In the same letter, or at any
rate under the same date, Mr. Phillips said, "as to the franchise, 1 do
not think many people care a fig about it."

TRANSVAAL POINT OF VIEW

283

On the first of July of the same year the prominent Johaiines))iirg
litkinder, whose position as chairman of tlie Chamber of Mines gave
^nciii weight to his words, wrote to Mr. Wernher as follows :

"Sir IT. Loch (with whom I had two long private interviews)
asked me some very pointed questions, such as what arms we had in
Johannesburg, whether the population could hold the place for six days,
until help could arrive, etc., etc., and stated plainly that if there had
been 3,000 r'Hes and ammunition here he would certainly have come
over. He further informed me, in a significant w^iy, that he had
pj'olonged the Swaziland agreement for six months, and said that he
siipi)Osed that in that time Johannesburg would be better prepared —
as much as to say, if things are safer, then we shall actively
intervene."

It will be seen by the close follower of the events in the Transvaal
Green Book, that the conversation alluded to occurred right in the
city of Pretoria, where Sir Henry Loch, as the representative of Her
Majesty's government, was the honored guest of the people of the
Transvaal. In another letter, dated July 15th, 1894, Mi\ Phillips
wrote to a Mr. Beit :

"We don't want any row. Our trump card is a fund of 10,000
or 15,000 ponnds sterling to improve the Volksraad. Unfortunately,
the gold companies have no secret service fund."

Mr. Leyds, as well as other Transvaal supporters, is willing to
submit the statements of this Uitlander as conclusive proof that the
foreign residents of the Transvaal were not all clamoring to the
Knglish government for intervention. In that year the gold output
of the mines had mounted up to the eight million sterling mark, and
in the succeeding year it had shown an increase of nearly a million
pounds sterling, and the "trump card" mentioned had been increased

284

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to a formidable fund of about 120,000 pounds sterling. It is the
common talk of the Boers that this fund was used in partly financier-
ing the Johannes) )urg reform movement, but that it did not prevent
the untimely end of that movement at Doornkop. Again, in the
language of Dr. Leyds, the Boers, except in the cases of the few
artillery ofiicers who received their military educations in Euroi)e,
have no military education, such as the army men of Europe would
apply the term, but they are full of experience, which asset they came
by through the struggles that Great Britain has thrust upon them.
The world at large, it is claimed by the Transvaal representatives,
heard but little of the grievous troubles that the agricultural and
grazing elements had to combat in LS9(). Rinderpest, drought of an
extended and abnormal type, locusts and fever, came upon the Boers
at the time that the Uitlanders were said to be under the iron heels of
their Transvaal taskmasters and the European agitators were pictured
as being Jit the mercy of the Ivruger "oligarcy." President Kruger is
reported to have said, that while the hand of God rested heavily upon
his people, the carefully husbanded wealth of years in the shape of
cattle being annihilated by the pest in a few weeks, the propoganda
of the restless Uitlanders, the campaign of libel and machination
were being carried to the extreme by those who were supplied with
funds that mining magnates had taken from the rocky reefs of the
Witwatersrand.

Another, eminently fitted to speak of the motives which prompted
the Boers to strike a blow for their independence, which they knew
was threatened, and to combat the ideas which were given circulation
by the men of the British war party, is Montagu White, recently
consul-general of the South African Republic at London, and more
recently the man of hon hommc in WashingtMn, where he did his

GENERAL SIR REDVERS BULLER AND STAFF GOING ON BOARD
DUNOTTAR CASTLE, OCTOBER J4, J899.

SIR GEORGE STEWART WHITE, V. C.

TRANSVAAL POINT OF VIEW

287

best to show the people of the United States that the Boers were a
^'lievously oppressed people.

"I take it that Lord Salisbury will have to make as many
explanations as Mr. Chamberlain found himself called upon to give,
when the people recall his famous disclaimer that * we seek no
territories, we seek no gold fields' " said Mr. White.

"There is no critic who would say that the open and public
arming of the Transvaal after the infamous Jameson raid, was an
act that President Kruger need give one word of excuse for. The
situation demanded the preparation for meeting what might
become a more elaborate outbreak. While this preparation by the
little republic was undoubtedly no surprise to Great Britain, it is
the opinion of some that the action of the Free State in casting
its fortunes with the Transvaal was truly much more than the
colonial office bargained to encounter. Who shall say that the
clumsy diplomacy of the British and the discontented and irrecon-
cilable British element in the city of Johannesburg were not among
the most potent reasons for the war? Imagine for the sake of
illustration, the conditions that obtained in the Transvaal just after
the discovery that the gold mines were to be stable and of more
value to the workers than were the placer diggings that had been
worked a few years before, and ask yourself whether or not the
genius of the most educated parliamentarians of Europe would not
have been called to overtax itself in providing government that
would not perish from sheer weakness. The greed of gold, the lust
for empire and a thirst for revenge, prevailing reasons for the
unrest of the British element, as I have said in public writings,
were great and powerful, if not avowed forces, that the Transvaal
was menaced by. But in settling where the whole blame lies for

2JS8

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

starting tho fvojro/iy .>|i m n n nnfin miiof pyp|. j^pp^ iy mincl tllf^
growth in personal rule in South Africa, as embodied in the hi^di
commissioner, who is the suprenid imperial representative and thf
governor of the Cape Colony, It is in his capacity of imperi;il
reprosentative that he has the care of Great Britain's interests in
Rhodesia and Basutoland as well as the conduct of such negotia-
tions as are necessary with the republics. Of course, technically,
this high commissioner would not be bound to al)ate one jot of
his own autocratic views or hold anything in abeyance on the
advice of the colonial ministers. But the wisdom of acting without
advice is questioned on account of the well known fact that the
same racial sentiment and social conditions that exist in the colony
and Natal, are to be found in the two republics, and whatever
vitally affects the latter in the way of a momentous step, would
he certain to arouse sentiment in the countries so closely connected
by traditions, blood and kinship. The Boer is about the same sort
of a person throughout all South Africa, and his predominant
characteristic is his absolute local patriotism and his undisturbed
equanimity over the imperial developments beyond the frontiers of
his ideal country, the South African Republic.

"In the coast districts of Natal it requires but little to start the
fever of imperial expansion, while the Dutch conservatism of the
Afrikanders in the Cape Colony has all along been a bulwark t(»
any conspiracy that might be attempted to overthrow the colonial
form of government." Mr. White expatiates on the cliaracteristics
of the various high commissioners who have presided over th(>
imperial destinies in the southern end of the Dark Continent, .uid
calls attention to the fact that the various tribes of blacks and,
ultimately the Boers, were sacrificed on che altar of autocratic power.

TRANSVAAL POINT OF VIEW

289

— Ttappears t3 be the sentiment of nearly every student of the
South African problem who favors the Boers, that Sir Hercules
Robinson's administration as high commissioner was the best that
England has been >»le3sed with. President Kruger lias ea'-nestly
declared thp..! Sir Hercules was a man of his word. Doubtless the
preside has added, "would that there had been more like him."
Harmony and confidence were the main characteristics of the rela-
tions between the empire and the republics as the result of this
man's influence. Doubtless, later on, when Sir Hercules said that
the true way to govern South Africa was through the Dutch, he
endeared himself still more to the people who held for tiie truth
of that idea. Montagu White, like Dr. Leyds, sees in the actions
of Sir Henry Loch, whom he characterizes as a man with an
insatiable appetite for conferences, but in no way cognizant of the
riotous proceedings that marked his ride through the streets of
Pretoria with President Kruger, something which the Boer historian
may well connect with the distrust which formed in Pretoria and
grew into well defined feeling that he was misunderstood, even by
the Uitlanders. The connection that was emphasized l)etween Sir
Henry and the Uitlanders, more especially because of his receiving
a visit in Pretoria from Lionel Phillips, will not down. The
Phillips letters are part of the legitimate argument of every
adherent of the cause of the Transvaal. It is claimed by Mr.
White and others that on the day that the Phillips letters wen;
made public in Europe, Sir Henry Loch, then a peer of tiie empire,
made a statement in the House of Lords, saying in part:

" To strengthen my position with the deputation, I asked them
what amount of arms they had at that time in Johannesburg.
They informed me that they had 1,000 rifles, and that at the outside

290

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

they did not believe they had ten rounds of ammunition per
rifle. I then pointed out to them the situation, not as an encour-
agement to resist, but to show them what a futile measure it
would be if any action on their part brought about disturbances
and a consequent attack."

The man who had been high commissioner also said that he
had taken steps to put imperial police on the Bechuanaland border,
in case disturl)ances arose in Johannesburg. "Does not this show
that preparations were made for an imperial raid extending into
the Transvaal?" asks Montagu White.

The efforts of the imperial officials to repudiate the work of
the raiders and reformers were subordinated by the Boers, who
had much reason to be very suspicious of the British, to the pro-
fessions of Sir Herculos Robinson of extreme soitow that the
Uitlanders had risen in arms. Boers were satisfied that Sir Hercules
was sincere in his remarks. They looked upon his visit to Pretoria
and his publicly expressed disparagement of the revolutionary
movement in Johannesburg as tokens of a great man's efforts to
guide his movements by the dictates of his heart. These feelings
were further strengthened when the imperial officer cabled to
London, to Mr. Chamberlain, the following message :

"I take this early opportunity of testifying in the strongest
manner to the great moderation and forbearance of the government
of the South African Republic under exceptionally trying circum-
stances."

How might the situation in South Africa have been had there
been a clash between the Boers and the Uitlanders in the city of
Johannesburg at that time? It is small wonder that the Executive
and Volksraad extended to the commissioner the thanks that the

riUNSVAAL POINT OF VIEW

2')1

Boers considered Sir Hercules had earned, "Do what is right" was
the slogan that the representative of the British crown declared he
followed. Boer authorities unflinchingly say that Mr. Chamberlain
at that time wished to uce force as a remedy in South Africa, and
that Sir Hercules stood in the way of the colonial secretary's inter-
ference. The age of Sir Hercules and his active career in South
Africa forced him to retire upon the approach of ill health, and he
went lack to England to get his peerage. Mr. Chamberlain's choice
as the new high commissioner was Sir Alfred Milner, of whom the
Boers say that he used his high office to crush the Afrikander, and
in so doing was one of the chief factors in plunging the Transvaalers
and their allies, the Free Staters, into a war.

The cable and the mail brought to the Boer all the extravagant
things that the Unionists, and even the Radicals, had to say about
the tact, humanity, impartiality, etc., that the new high commis-
sioner possessed, but the post subsequently brought the papers con-
taining the expressions of the Radicals, who had paused to make
an analysis of the courtier, that all the good qualities which the
new officer possessed were neutralized, if not actually made
dangerous, by the presence of the over-powering vein of "jingoism"
which ran through his mind. The "jingo," to the Boer, was but
another name for the man who would use force to bring about the
paramountcy of the Uitlander and the debasement of the native
citizens of the Transvaal and the Free State. Prophets among the
Afrikanders made so bold as to predict .that a breach was now
inevitable, Those students who attended the schools at Pretoria
^^athered about them eager, listening throngs, who heard of the omen
that the career of Sir Alfred Milner in Egypt had for the Boer.
British military despotism, as it v/as called, might have succeeded

292

tttp: story of south Africa

in the land of the Pharoahs in establishing distinctly beneHcont
results, but the stin^ of military intimidation lurked beneath
British advancement, and this was extremely distasteful to a inc
people, who realized that to give (Jreat Britain any latitude in
interpreting the clauses of the convention of 18S4 meant a duplica-
tion of the intimidation which they said Great Britain had success-
fully worked on the Khedive.

"Did the initial efforts of the new high commissioner at his
post of duty i)oint to the exercise of tact, impartiality and
humanity T' asks F. G. Wolmarans, the chairman of the First
Volksraad of the South African Republic. *' No, my countryman
were rapidly disabused of the opinions that they had formed of the
imperial commissioner. His first speeches indicated anything but
imi)artiality in whatever negotiations he would be called upon to
open between tiie republics and his home government. The artful
distinguishment that he made in a speech, after he had been in the
Cape Colony but a short time, paved the way for his subsequently
expressed ideas on personal rule, for he put a wide gulf between
the offices of high commission and governor of Cape Colony. When
Sir Alfred made a visit to England — and in the light of subsequent
events it seemed likely that he sought to get Mr. Chamberlain to
use the persuasive argument of force and soldiers to settle problems
that diplomacy might have swept away — it fell to the lot of Sir
William Butler, the acting high commissioner, to show the Uitlanders
that his office could not be used for iniquitous campaigns against
the Transvaal. The South African League of Johannesburg attempted
to get a petition ho the Queen, but he thwarted that move. It is
even said in Cape Colony, as well as in Johannesburg, that lie
warned the home government against the Uitlanders who made up

THANSVAAIi POINT OF VIEW

293

ueiit

11 to
ems

f Sir
iders
binst
ipted

the leagup, and tiiat South Africa might he kept from awful hlood-
shed l)y instituting an era of good will and rest. Sir William's
speech was widely quoted in South Africa, especially that part in
\vlii(!ii he declared that it was rest, not a surgical operation, that
South Africa needed. The return of Sir Alfred, and the; acceptance
liy him of the renewed petition of the Uitlanders of the South
AtVican League, together with the disastrous results that followed
Sir Alfred's policy, have given the red cross surgeons on hotli sides
many severe cases of surgical operations. 'T am determined to
l)ieak the power of the Afrikanders,' said Sir Alfi-ed among other
things, and his actions thenceforth indicated the tenacity of his
purpose. He kept the cable hot with matters calculated to inflame
the minds of the people at home, and religiously abstained from
presenting the i)acific measures of the Boers. If it is true tliat the
high commissioner said that he had made up his mind that there
was not room for two white races in South Africa, the Boer asks,
in all fairness, what show there was for the negotiation of friendly
otiices and measures? The cry of equal rights might as well have
lieen a weak supplication for water in an arid waste. The personal
rule of this one man started the beginning of the end of the peace
of mind of the Dutch in South Africa, and added Sir Alfred Milner's
name to the list of men greatly responsible for the terrible calamity
that has been claiming its sacrifice of human blood. Mr. Chamber-
lain, and the others who must feel the weight of the censure of the
world for their acts, are proceeding in their bloodthirsty way to
remove the unrest and distrust that existed in South Africa."

"^N

&-^

'^miff:

^^>^f...

'•;*-** ,.' ^..r^K '^'

DRAKENSBERG, ON THE TRANSVAAL BORDER, WHERE
THE BOERS ARE IN LAAGER.

THE S

It fo]
controver
recourse t
Britain ai
assistance
being con
prepared
sent to th
the safety
left open
Liberal le
become h(
itable but
approval
iiiiavoidal
btM'lain, a
majority
part of th
the war.
of the Qui
in no un
Africa. T

CHAPTER XVT

THE SOUTH AFRICAN QUESTION FROM THE ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

u
<

It follows as a palpable duty that the English side of the great
controversy should follow that of the Boers. To those who would have
recourse to a view of the history of the negotiations between Great
Britain and the Transvaal, Chapter XVTTl of this work will be of great
assistance. It is shown there that all hope of diplo riatic relations
being continued was abandoned by both sides when the ultimatum
prepared by Secretary Reitz, at the instance of President Kruger, was
sent to the British Cfovernment. England's brainy men declared that
the safety of the British Empire was jeopardized and the only course
left open was the use of force to indicate the authority of the Queen.
Liberal leaders, who still thought that the colonial office had not
become hopelessly involved in a morass of trouble, held back the inev-
itable but a few hours. Great Britain received the almost unanimous
approval of the parliament when the hand of destiny pointed to the
unavoidable duty of prosecuting the struggle. Cheers for Mr. Cham-
berlain, aye, even the most convincing argument of a tremendous
majority on a vote of confidence, gave way to an eiigcrness on the
part of the parliamentarians to vote fabulous sums for the conduct of
the war. A w^ave that started as a mighty force for the preservation
of the Queen's writ soon turned into an irresistal)le desire to establish,
in no uncertain terms, the paramountcy of Great Britain in South
Africa. Imperialists, "jingoists" and anti-government leaders became
engulfed in the popular clamor for the absolute confiscation of Boer

(2*?)

298

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFKICA

government in the two republics. Men said tliat the Boers had phiyod
with destiny, thrown a few favorable die and that they had lost. Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, Mr. John
Morley and Prof. James Bryce, who had maintained that a great ])ro-
portion of the British were appalled at the idea of a great war against
the Boers, stood shoulder to shoulder with the merchant princes of
London, who subsequently carried miniature Union Jacks through the
congested streets of the world's greatest metropolis, as enthusiastic
singiers of the praise of General Buller, Lord Roberts and Lord
Kitchener. England felt that she would turn ahead the hands of
the clock of time in South Africa and right the wrongs that thou-
sands of British subjects in *'Oom Paul's land" had coniplaiued
about in petitions.

To begin with, the Briton justifies his course in establishing
British supremacy over the Boer with a brief on the Uitkuulor
question that is so generally discussed that Her Majesty's subjects,
from the unlettered Tommy Atkins to the professor, is able to dwell
on the essential features at a moment's notice. It is against the
principles of the Bnton to quibble over the matter of a plurality
of conventions entered into between the British Government and the
South African Republic in 1881 and 1884. He has no sympathy with
the trained legal gentlemen who would search the various articles
of these famous state papers for the coufirnuition of Joseph Chamber-
lain's view that England had never relinquished her right to exercise
suzerainty over the South African Republic. He takes it for granted
that Lord Derby and his colleagues were sufficiently solicitous of
the Queen's right >-i that they made the last convention as iron-chid
as the one that the Gladstonian epoch gave to the world. Further-
more he has not ceased to wonder whether the world did not accept

terms. Pra

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

299

the position of Great Britian after Majiiba, as one of submission and
humiliation, rather than one of magnanimity.

Shorn of technicalities, Great Britain's claim is that the war
was justified, not only b}' reason of the Boor invasion of ITer Maj-
esty's territory — this was one phase of the Queen's plea to the par-
hament — but because of the treatment of the 13ritish citizens who
lived in the Transvaal, powerless to have the right of francliise in
the land where their i)roperty was located. Under the Transvaal
law the Uithmder had to remain there fourteen years to secure the
elective franchise. Two years had to be passed before naturalization
could be effected. The franchise was also hedged with the further
obstacle that provided for twelve years continuous residence with
the forfeiture of citizenship in other countries. Even after paying
this penalty the admissson was entirely optional with the Boers,
for the veto of a field cornet would deprive the Uitlander of his
cherished hope. Then it was further argued that the Uitlander Avas
forbidden to bear arms. Against the decree that the English lan-
ginige bo barred from public schools in English communities, the
petition to Her Majesty's government was couched in appealing
terms. Practically the Uitlander representation in the Volksraad,
it was urged, was nil. Coupled with this latter fact the represen-
tation that the Uitlanders owned most of the land, developed all
tiio modern industries, were in the nuijority and paid nine-tenths
of the taxes, quite naturally aroused the sympathy of the English.
Oil top of all of tliis, the English leaders unhesitatingly declare that
there was a well defined conspiracy to drive the British from South
Africa. Kruger, they say, was making great preparations for war
fur years preceding the issuance of the ultimatum, and when the
seven-year residence law was offered to the Uitlanders, it was in

HOO

TTIK STORY OF SOUTTI AFRICA

such a way tliat t.lie Boer abrogated none of liis previous liaish
conditions.

I'resident Kruger has held that the independence of the Trans-
vaal was incontestable. But England's position is that the South
African Republic was never reall}' independent under the Sand Ri\er
Convention, the Pretoria Convention or the London Convention of
1884. Eighteen days after the signing of the Convention of 1884.
Lord Derby made a speech in the House of Lords which represented
the Englisli view of the convention — a view which retained the
Transvaal as a dependent state, until the Boer ultimatum of October
9, 1899. Lord Derby said :

'* I apprehend whether you call it a protectorate or a suzerainty,
or the recognition of England as a paramount power; the fact is,
that a certain controlling power is retained when the state wliicli
exercises, has a right to veto any negotiations into which the
dependent state may enter with foreign powers. Whatever
suzerainty meant in the Convention of Pretoria (1881), the condition
of things which it implied still remains, although the word is not
actually employed, we have kept the substance. We have abstained
from using the word because it was not capable of legal definition,
and because it seemed to be a word which was likely to lead to
misconception and misunderstanding."

It becomes evident that the British thought that President
Kruger had refused to live up to the terms of the Convention of
London. Tlie contention is supported by the clause of the conven-
tion, immediately bearing upon the Uitlanders. It follows:

Article XIV, (Convention of 1884) All persons other than
natives, conforming themselves to the laws of the South Afriean
Republic, will not be subject in respect to their persons or projiotty.

EXULISII POINT OF VIEW

301

or in respect of their commerce and industry, to any taxes, whether
local or general, other than those which are or may he imposed
upon citizens of the said repnhlic.

John Bellows of Gloucester, England, a man of letters with a
world wide reputation as a deep thinker, a man who abhors war
and its fearful carnage, gained the applause of his countrymen l)y
a masterful presentation of his brief against President Kruger, for
persistently and doggedly refusing to give fair and honorable
ol)Sorvance of his engagement in respect to equal rights in Article
XIV, of the 1884 Convention. '"Kruger disfranchised a majority of
tlie taxpayers forever," said the British historian and scholar.
Those Uitlanders had bought and paid for 60 per cent, of all proj;-
erty in the Transvaal, and 90 per cent, of the taxes were levied from
them, an amount equal to giving every Boer in the country $200 a
year of plunder. Is a country that is so governed, justly to be
called a republic ? But even the Boers themselves have been
adroitly edged out of power by Paul Kruger. The Grondwet, or
constitution, provides that to prevent abuses in legislation, no new
law should be passed until the 1)111 for it had been published three
months in advance. To evade this, Kruger passed all kinds of
measures as amendments to existing laws; which as he ey^lained,
not being new laws, required no notification. Finally he got the
\'olksraad to rescind this article of the Grondwet, and then, as for
some time past, any law of any sort, could be i)assed by a small
(•li(|ue of Kruger's, in secret session of the Kaad, without notice of any
sort, and without the knowledge or assent of the people. The Boers
had no more voice in such legislation than if they had been Chinese.

The Transvaal is only a republic in tlie same sense that a nut
shell is a nut, or a fos.sil oyster shell is an oyster.

302

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"While Kruger was persistently and doggedly refusing equal
rights under the convention, he was using the millions of money
wrung from the Uitbnders, in purchasing material for the war lie
had ])een long years preparing on such a colossal scale, to drive the
English out of those colonies in which they had given absolute
equality to all. It is this very equality that has upset his calcu-
lations, by its leaving too few malcontents among the Dutch popu-
lation to make any general uprising of them possible in Natal or
the Cape, on which rising Kruger staked liis hope of success in the
struggle. As for the Transvaal Boers, the only part they have in
the war is to fight for iueir independence, which was never thi-eat-
ened until they invaded British territory, and thus compelled the
Queen's government to defend it.

"The only alternative left to England to refuse fighting, would
have been the ground that all war is wrong; but as neither Eng-
land, nor any other nation, has ever taken this Christian ground,
there was, in reality, no alternative. Is it fair to stigmatize England
as endeavoring to crush two small and weak nations because they
have been so small in wisdom and weak in common sense as to
become the tools of the daring and crafty autocrat who lias decoyed
both friend and iioe into this war? An examination of the 'bine
book,' which contains tlie whole of the correspondence immediately
preceding the war, will at once show the patient efforts put forth
by the London cabinet to maintain peace. There are no irritating-
words used, and the last dispatch of importance before the outbreak
of hostilities is not only most courteous and conciliatory in tone,
but it states that the Queen's government will give the most solemn
guarantees against any attack upon the independence of the Trans-
vaal, either by Great Britain or the colonies, or by any foreign

ENULTSn POk'T or VIEW

tW)8

power. Was President Krnger justified in seizing the Netherlanc's
railway line within one week after he had received that dispatch,
and cutting the telegrapli wires to prepare for the invasion of
British territory, in which act of violf nee lay his last and only hope
of forcing England to fight ; his last and desperate chance of setting
lip a racial domination, instead of the freedom and equality of the
two races that prevail in the Cape and Natal, and that did prevail
in the Orange Free State?"

Continental Europe, considered hostile to England in any con-
troversary, was set by the ears by the talk of another famous
scholar, Max Mueller, the scientist and philologist of Germany, and
his wholly unexpected attack on the Boer and his defense of the
British policy. The lamentations of the Boers, Prof. Mueller says,
are disingenuous. "The Boers had been preparing for this very
event for years, whereas Great Britain was not contem [bating
hostilities." Continuing, he says that the Boers were able to throw
30.000 men into Natal within two days after the proclamation of
war by President Kruger. The Boers, he also asserts, were guilty
of high treason against Great Britain, in view of the fact that that
country had an unbroken suzerainty over the Transvaal. While
condemning the Jameson raid, the professor says the Uitlanders
were oppressed by a government that was a mere travesty of a
r(>i)ublic. That Great Britain did not desire the war was manifest.
Tiie Boers, who declared war and made the first raid into British
territory, were guilty of the crime of throwing South Africa into a
bloody and destructive contest, the effect of which will be felt for
many years to come.

Great Britain waited through many long weeks, the nation
bearing the reverses and defeats of Buller, Methuon and Gatacre,

304

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

with a species of Anglo-Saxon fortitude that commanded tlu',
attention of the world. Tt made pcnular the out-door appearan('( s
of the Queen occasions for unusual 'v brilliant patriotic parades.
The people made no effort to conceal tl^^ir joy when the tide of
battle turned around until the successes o.' the British arms sent
the enemy into new mountain fastnesses. Schemes for mediation,
augmented by Presidents Kruger and Steyn, with the ultimate
object in view, as the Queen and Premier Salisbury thought, of
arousing some power to threaten to intervene, resulted in nau<,Mit
but the famous state paper from Downing street that Great Britain
would not stand intervention from any nation. The v;orld was
informed in diplomatic but forceful language that Her ]\Iajesty"s
government said: "Hands off until we get ready to dictate i)eace
on our own terms,"

Reverses threw Kruger into a serious frame of mind. Steyn
saw his capital city occupied by the Britirh, and was humiliated liy
the spectacle of Free Staters laying down their arms and accepting
the terms of Lord Roberts' proclamation. The Orange Free State
had passed into a British colony by the most stupendous process
knowni to modern transfer. Lord Roberts filed the deed to the music
of the howitzers. Burghers were threatened with death if tliey
renounced the Boer cause. March 5, at Bloemfontein, Presidents
Kruger and Steyn framed a telegram to the Marquis of Salishniy
deploring tlie moral and economic ruin w^iich the bloody war h;\:\
wrought, and virtually praying for peace upon the condition that
the incontestable independence of l)oth republics be granie<l.
together with the assurance that those of Her Majesty's subjects
who had taken the Boer side of the war suffer no harm whatever
in person and property. The reply sent oy cable by Lord Salisbuiy

!='

a
s

A MIXED BODY OF BOERS, WILD WITH EXCITEMENT, ENTERING JOHANNESBURG.

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

307

^tLjPfT'^

is at once such a bold and masterful state paper that it might
be considered to be the voice of the Queen speaking for her
millions of subjects. Dated March 11, at the foreign office, and
addressed to Presidents Kruger and Steyn, it is as follows :

"I have the honor to acknow^ledge your honors' telegram, dated
March 5, from Bloemfontein, of which the purport is principally to
demand that Her Majesty's government shall recognize 'the incon-
testable independence' of the South African Republic and Free
State as 'sovereign international states,' and to offer on those
terms to bring the war to a conclusion.

"In the beginning of October last, peace existed between Her
Majesty and the two repjiblics, under conventions which were then
in existence. A discussion had been proceeding 'for some months
between Her Majesty's government and the South African Republic,
of which the object was to obtain redress for certain serious
grievances under which the British residents of South Africa were
suffering.

" In the course of these negotiations, the South African Republic
had, to the knowledge of Her Majesty's government, made consid-
erable armaments, and the latter had consequently taken steps to
provide corresponding reinforcements of the British garrisons at
Cape Town and in Natal. No infringement of the rights guaranteed
by the conventions had, up to that point, taken place on the British
side.

" Suddenly, at two days' notice, the South African Republic, after
issuing an insulting ultimatum, declared war upon Her Majesty; and
the Orange Free State, with whom there had not even been any
discussion, took a similar step. Her Majesty's dominions were
immediately invaded by the two republics. Siege was laid to three

308

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

towns within the British frontier, a large proportion of two colonics
was overrun, with great destruction of property and life, and the
republics claimed to treat the inhabitants of extensive portions of
Her Majesty's dominion as if those doniinions had been annexed to
one or the other of them.

"In anticipation of these operations, the South African Republic
had been accumulating, for maiiy years past, military stores on an
enormous scale, which, by their character, could only have been
intended for use against Great Britain.

*'Your Honors make some observations of a negative character
upon the object with which these preparations were made. I do
not think it necessary to discuss the questions you have raised.
But the result of those preparations, carried on with great secrecy,
has been that the British Emjnre has been compelled to confront
an invasion which has entailed upon the Empire a costly war and
the loss of thousands of precious lives. This great calamity has
been the penalty Great Britain has suffered for having, of recent
years, acquiesced to the existence of the two republics. In vie ' of
the uses to which the two republics have put the position which
was given them, and the calamities their unprovoked attacks have
inflicted on Her ]\Iajesty's dominions. Her Majesty's government
can only answer Your Honor's telegram by saying that they aiv
not prepared to assent to the independence, either of the Soiiih
African Republic or the Orange Free State."

The Rt. Hon. W. E. H. Lecky, P. C., M. P., and one of the
most profound students of the questions that have confronted Great
Britain in South Africa, to be found in parliament, says that the
hostile attitude of the Boers was not new. In a carefully prepared
statement, the member of parliament says:

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

809

" There can, I think, be little doubt what course could have
boen adopted by an intelligent military despotism, had it existed
tlie last few years in the place of England in South Africa. It
would have peremptorily forbidden tho arming which was going on
in the Transvaal, and if its protests had been neglected it would
have long since enforced it by arms. There are statesmen who
are of the opinion that England ought to have adopted such a
course, but I do not think that it would have been a feasible one.
It would have had no legal justification in the language of the
conventions.

"It could only have rested upon conjectural evidence, which
might easily have been denied or minimized. It would at once
have exposed us to the charge of pursuing, as a government
against the Transvaal, the policy of the raid. It would have pro-
foundly alienated Dutch opinion in the Cape, and it would have
excited a not less serious division at home. It would not have
been a mere party division, but a division including much that is
best and most solid in those classes who care little for party. In
this country it is, above all things, necessai'y for a government to
carry public opinion with it in a war.

" The overwhelming preponderance of opinion in support of the
necessity of the present war would not have boen attained if its
immediate cause had not been a Boer ultimatum, which it was
manifestly impossible for any self-respecting government to have
accepted, followed by an invasion of British territory which it was
the manifest duty of every British government to repel.

*' For my own part, I am convinced that the war had, on the
English side, for some time become inevitable, and could not have
been greatly postponed.

310

TPIE STORY OF SOTTTH AFRICA

"It W'a3 impossible that u British government could perma-
nently ignore the state of subjection and inferiority to which a
great body of British subjects at Johannesburg had been reduced.
The grievjinces of the Uitlanders have, no doubt, been greatly
exaggerated. Their position was not like that of the Armenians
under Turkish rule. They went to the Transvaal to make
money, and they did make it. The capitalists accumulated enor-
mous fortunes. The industrial classes made large profits; the work-
ing classes obtained probably a higher rate of wages than in any
other en 'itry, and Johannesburg was a great center of luxury and
pleasir'-o

"Biri the government was a detestable one. A long series of
progressive disqualifications had deprived the English population of
every vestige of political power, and subjected them to numerous
and irritating disabilities. The Transvaal remained the only part
of South Africa where one white race was held in a position of
inferiority to another.

'• Considering the distinct promise of equality that was matle
when England conferred a limited independence on the Transvaal;
considering the position of England in South Africa, and the
perfect equality granted to Dutch subjects in our own r ionies, it
was impossible that the British government could acquiesce in this
state of things, and once they formally took up the grievances of
the Uitlandors, it soOii became evident from the disposition of the
government at Pretoria, that a peaceful solution was exceedingly
improbable.

" There were, indeed, only tw^o policies for the Transvaal gov-
ernment to puisne. They might have governed as President Brand
governed in the Orange Fr(>e State, in harmony with the govern-

ENCJLISH POINT OF VIEW

811

iiipiit at t.lio Ca[)0, and keeping up constant confidential relations
with it. Tn tliat case it is no exaggeration to say that the inde-
pendence of the Transvaal would not have been in the smallest
danger. Or they might have governed in the spirit of habitual
alienation, which would inevitably lead to a policy of hostility.
To throw themselves in every disputable point into opposition to
England, to seek incessantly alliances against her, and to turn the
Transvaal into a great military arsenal, w^as the policy which, for
several years, they manifestly pursued.

" Dislike and distrust of England by the Transvaal Boers was
no recent feeling, although it was intensified by several facts in
our own generation. It was a deep, traditional, popular sentiment,
which may be clearly traced as far back as the Great Trek.
Xeither the grant of a qualified indepencence after Majuba nor
the still larger extension of self government which, without any
pressure, w-as granted to the Transvaal by Lord Derby, in the Con-
vention of 1884, in any degree mitigated it.

"When, most unfortunately, the great gold mines were dis-
covered wdthin its borders, in 1886, the conditions of the problem
were wholly changed. The Transvaal at once became a wealthy
and powerful state. The rude and ignorant farmers, who then
formed the bulk of its population, had neither the tastes nor the
capacities that would enable them to develop its wealth, and they
gladly made concessions and issued invitations to the Uitlanders.
A great population, which was mainly English, collected on the
Hand, built a large and stately city, raised the country to vast
wealth, and paid nearly the whole of its taxation.

"A large portion of this new population were permanently
established in the land. But the Boer government was incapable

n\2

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of giving them tolerable administration, and firmly resolved to give
them no political power, and no real local self government. Dis-
qualification after disqualification, utterly unknown when England
conceded self government to the inhabitants of the Transvaal, was
introduced. Laws raising the qualification for citizenship from tw^o
to four years' residence, surrounding it with a number of vexatious
and arbitrary conditions; interfering with the press, with public
meetings, and with the right of residence, and reducing the law
courts to utter servitude, by giving a simple resolution of the majority
of small Dutch Volksraad, all the force of law, clearly showed the
policy of the government, and there were abuses in administration,
which were probably even more irritating than the abuse in
legislation.

'*In the long run this could have but one result. The Transvaal
government was not only different from, but profoundly hostile to,
the Avhole colonial system of England. On every question that arose
between the two countries, this distrust was shown, and more than
once, even before the Jameson raid, the policy of the Transvaal had
brought the two powers to the verge of war."

Men who stand high in the estimation of the British people,
peers and leaders, but who dislike to take pronounced views on
topics of war, have been induced to relinquish their aversions and
give their recommendations to the policy of the government. Tlio
Right Honorable ]\Iarquis of Lome, in discussing the Boer, said that
he made the mistake of trying to set himself up in little exclusi\('
states and attempting to bar out oceans of humanity. Utah in the
United Slates was too much on the high road to afTord the ^lormous
an opportunity to accomplish this task, and the South African
republics liave found that they were also too much on the high

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

818

road. The Marquis scores the Boer for his intolerance, his policy of
iniquitous taxation, their contempt for the grievances of the people
who paid the taxation, the subordination of judges to politicians
and the continuation of wrongs that were enough to make any free
])eo[)le rise in revolt. Furthermore, the Marquis is one of 'he firm
believers that the Boer w-as consumed by an ambition to unite the
Afrikanders in a luind, to turn back iho hand of civilizatiou, to
impose serfdom on the blacks, and to one day accomplish the dream
of the conspirators, to extend the Transvaal to the sea, and l>egin
the growth of a sea power, possible only when a nation has a sea
coast. More than one peer of England has been troubled over the
phase of the war which threatened at one time to conipel the w^ar
office to either arm some luitives, or accept the proffers by loyal
chiefs of large bodies of armed blacks. The status of the govern-
ment on the matter of the blacks was unequivocally stated by
Mr, Chamberlain when Mr. Yerburgh, a member from Chester, asked
liim whether it was true that the Boers had invaded Zululand and
wlielher provision had been made for enabling the Zidus to defend
themselves against aggression. The secretary of state for the
Colonies replied :

"I have been informed that on three occasions, two of them
recent, the Boers have invaded Zululand, and in one district have
seized as prisoners the magistrate with his staff and police, while
ill another they have plundered all the stores. It is also reported
that a comu'.ando with guns is moving further into Zululand. These
iH'ts have caused great alarm and unrest among Ihe Zulus, which
iiiiist spread among the Natal naliv(>s. Th(> ('onseipiences through-
nut St)uth Africa of such raids on native territories cannot fail to
h(> very serious. The Natal ministers have stated that they can

314

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

no lon<^er hold themselves responsible for the peaceful attitude of
the Zulus ; and Sir Alfred Milner, while greatly deploring the
invasion of Zululand, points out that it is contrary to the tacit
compact that natives should not be dragged into this war. I may
add that it has been decided that, if native territory in Cape Colony
is deliberately invaded, the natives will be encouraged and assisted
in every way to defend themselves."

It is regarded as a great fact that the matter of a subordinate,
or black race, is intimately associated with the history of the Boer
and his migrations, from the time of the Great Trek, when slavery
undoubtedly existed in an open and flagrant condition, to the latter
days, when the word "apprentice" was substituted for the word
"slave." Governor General Sir Bartle Frere, of the British Interests
in South Africa, prophesied to the Rt. Hon. The Earl Grey, in ISSO,
that the development of South Africa along established legitimate
lines would be such that it would rival Australia and the United
States of America as a home for educated Englishmen. Between
1S14 and 1834, the Dutch Boers in the Cape were immensely satis-
fied with British rule, says Earl Grey, and history bears out
the statement. But it was a conviction, amounting almost to a
religious belief among the Dutch of that time, that the black races
hud been created by God to be hewers of wood and toilers for
them. Some said that the authority of the Old Testament was
given for reducing these races to submission by the sternest of
methods. This idea, so firmly rooted, was at variance with the
attitude that the British had adopted. Events which followed,
although three score years past, have had their important part in
the consnmnnition of the hatred for the English which was given
license in the war. Missionaries made complaint of the Boer ill-

THE FIRST ENGLISH PRISONERS.

THE CHARGE OF THE GORDONS AT ELANDS LAAGTE.

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

317

treatment of the blacks, and laws were enacted which restrained
the Boer authority over slaves. Then came the Hottentot, with
his claim of being a free colored man, which was promptly acknowl-
edged by the British, and the placing of all free coloi-ed peoples
on an equal footing with white, as regards private civil rights.
The Negro Emancipation Act of 1834, which freed the slaves of
the Boer farmers without giving them adequate compensation,
caused the indignation of the Boers to rise to such a point that
they resolved upon the Great Trek to get beyond the bounds of
the British influence. The germ of the Afrikander sentiment of
antagonism grew during the long period of years until it forced a
resort to arms to prevent racial hatred from becoming the para-
mount influence in South African politics. The Boers who trekked
into the unknown land and suffered as only a pioneer people could
suffer in those days, challenged the admiration of the world. But
the trials and privations confirmed the characteristics and preju-
dices of the Boers and set them with renewed activity against the
l)hick races. Tlie British followed the Boers in 1848, to reduce
them to submission, and were successful, but in 1852 tiie Sand
River Convention gave the Boers the right to govern themselves
according to their own laws, the Boers pledging themselves that
slavery should not be permitted or practiced. The period of a few
years saw the Transvaal Republic fall into insolvency; the Zulus
threatened the government with invasion and annihilation. Chief
Cetcwayo, with his great army, threatened a crisis which neither
tho Boers nor the British wished to see. All of South Africa might
have been plunged into a terrible war by the blacks did they suc-
ceed in destroying the Boer army. Sir Theophilus Shepstone made
his famous mission to the Boers, offering to annex the Transvaal

318

THK STOHY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and admiuistrate llie <j:overnnient so as to save it from the Zulus.
Subsequently, in 1S79. England had to fight the Zulu war, tiul
Cetewayo was subdued only at a frightful cost of life and treasure.
How the Boers repaid Britain for the great service, is told in the
revolt, Majuba Hill and the Gladstonian doctrine of treating with
the Boers as if the British arms had not suffered reverses. It is
but an eloquent tribute to the English side of the argument, there-
fore, that a native Basuto, Marshall Maxeke, tells in his tale of the
black man's side in the Transvaal war.

"When I was a young boy," Maxeke says, "my father used to
tell me how cruel the Boers were, yet I never paid any particular
attention to this until 1893, when T traveled about 800 miles from
home to the Transvaal — the home of the Boers. Before leaving for
the Transvaal, I had attended a missionary school and I was ahle
to read and write English.

"'The very first thing I was charged with when I arrived at
the central station in Johannesburg, was my talking English when
I was a black man. I could not speak the Dutch language, so
when they asked me for my traveling 'passes' I had to answer
in English. It was an offense for me to try to make myself a
white man.

"Being but a few yards from the station master's oflSce, 1
called for a cab to take me about two miles. 'Don't you know
this Transvaal?' I was asked. I was much disturbed by this, and.
being a stranger, T did not know what to do. Before I could ;:et
any information about this a policeman told me that no black man
was permitted to stand on the ground where I was standing. I
did not know what side to move on, yet I moved along. I had not
gone, far when I met another policeman of whom I made inquiiy

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

319

about my destination. He asked for my 'pass' aud after glancing
at the 'pass' a few minutes — he held it upside down and could not
reud it — ^gave it back to me. After several hours of aimless roani-
iiiL( I found the way to my friends' home.

"There I was told that I must not talk the English language
wiiile in the city. Before I could get work I was obliged to act
like a crazy man, a man who could not read or write, speak English,
nor my own language very well. The only accomplishment I had
was, 'Halloo, work boss.' That is the black man's application for
work in the Transvaal, otherwise he cannot find it. If you go into
a store like a man who has his fidl sense, talk English and ask for
work, a Dutchman will catch hold of you around your neck and
kick you out saying : ' This is not the country for an Englishman
nor a black brute like you,' and off you go.

"I do not see why a Dutchman should think of a black man
as having a soul when it comes to a time of war. There are street
car; in Johannesburg on which no black man dares put his foot.
They have large theaters where no man of color is permitted, and
the same is true of their churches."

Maxeke descants upon his trouble in trying to attend a concert
given by "jubilee singers" from America in one of the largest halls
in tlie city. A Dutchman told him that there was no admission
tor him although the men who were singing were colored men.
Siihsequently the singers engaged smaller halls and pleased the
native auditors.

"In the year 1896," continues the Basuto, "I bought a bicycle
wliich I sold in a month's time because every time I rode I had to
uieii'l it on account of injuries received. They would throw stones
at tlie wheel saying, they 'never saw a monkey riding a wheel.'

^20

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"I am not the onlj' one who hjis had this treatment in Trans-
vaal. Some of the blacks acted as horses or mules pulling smull
carts with one or two seats. A sad sight when you see that man
trotting in the mud in the rainy season. They are supposed to ^^t
pay for that. Every native who has been in the Transvaal, no
matter how ignorant he may be, can sit down and tell all the
history of his ill treatment.

"From these facts who would think that the natives could be
on the Boers' side? What benefit w^ould they get even if they
should help the Boers and conquer the British? If any man wishes
to see an earthly hell .for a black man, let him go to the Transvaal.

" I learn from native advices that two meetings have been held
by the natives to decide what side they w^ould take. The man
wdio spoke first traced the history of the Boers before the English
came to South Africa, and how they used to do the very sainc
thing tliey are doing to-day in the Transvaal to the natives, and
how the British relieved the natives from Boer slavery, and liow
the Boers were driven into Natal by the I^nglish trying to stoii
their cruel treatment of the natives, and how they did the same
when they were in Natal. Then he told of the British going to
Natal to relieve the natives and finally the Boers went to the
Transvaal. To-day the English are going to the Transvaal as they
did before to relieve the black man from the slavery he is in.

"The next speakers told how they were treated under the British
rule, how they can buy as much land as they wish as citizens find
vote just as they wish, which things are impossible under the
Transvaal government.

"After discussing all these things and many others, the natives.
without opposition, decided to be on Her Majesty's side. At any

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

321

time that she should call upon them, they would be leady. I am
ready to go, should she call, to fight for the right cause. I think
that if the Boers want help from tiie natives, there are many dogs,
monkeys and mules in the Transvaal wliich they could train and
walk along with in the battlefield more consistently than they could
with natives, who are but cattle, in their estimation.

"How long shall the Boer keep the black man in slavery?
This is not an affair of to-day. Away back in the sixteenth century
the Boers were enslaving the black man. They introduced slavery
into South Africa. Shall the nineteenth century pass without any
improvement? Shall our grandfathers, who die on the edge of the
twentieth century, go down to their graves, with gray hairs, weeping
for their grandchildren, who are bruised day after day? May God give
victory to the sword of England. Why not equal rights for all men? "

Broader and greater questions than the problem of the system
of government which the British empire will give the two republics
of South Africa when the subjugation shall have been made com-
plete have begun to stir the government. Political economists are
agitating the matter of the duty of the government towards the
people who will be taken under the protection of the union jack.
While no serious objection has been made in parliament over
financing the w^ar -vast sums have Jbeen appropriated with less
fri<tion than has been noted in budgets for the navy in the
past— the statesmen do not overlook an opportunity to impress
upon the minds of the people that Great Britain makes to the
world the unique apology that she is conducting a war, not for
mere extension of territory, but for civilization.

Strangely enough one of the strongest supports of this plea has
come not from a resident of the mother country, but from a loyal

822

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Canadian. Sir Charles Tnpper, former minister of finance in Canadii.
yields to no sn})ject of Her Majesty in the earnestness of his def(Mise
of the course of Great Britain. He says that the war in South
Africa is more than an issue hetween Briton and Boei* — in hrief, it
is a struggle for the right of the Briton to push forward the banner
of civilization. Great Britain is not alone interested in the question
whether South Africa is to suffer the civilization of the seventcpnlh
century, Sir Charles says, or whether the benign influence of the
civilization of the nineteenth century should be cast over the
country. The English speaking family of the world, so largely i('[)-
resented in the United States and on the continent of North America,
is as deeply and as vitally interested as Great Britain.

'"Great Britain is fighting the battle of civilization," continues
the former minister or finance. "It does not require that I should
show the wrong committed by the Boers, but I may say briefly in
the outset, that if there ever was a long-suffering, if there ever was
a patient country in the world, that country has been Great Britain,
in regard to her treatment of the Boers."

In support of his argument. Sir Charles asserts that the Boers
went, in 1852, to the Sand River Convention and established wliat
they call the South African Republic. He also says that the Boers
have proved that they are . utterly incapable of self-government.
Without attempting to cast any aspersion on the bravery of the
race, or to deprive the Boer sharpshooter of any part of his prowess,
Sir Charles frankly admits that the Boers excel in arms. But lie
asks the pertinent question: "How do they use their bravery?"
Answering his own query, he says that they have been guilty of tlie
most cruel oppression of the native race that has ever been exhibit id
in any part of the world. This sj^stem of modern slavery, coupliHl

EN(UJSH POINT OF VIEW

82:}

with the inliereiit personal hostility of the Boer for anything iiUe
taxation of himself for purposes of government, brought the Hoer
republic to the verge of bankruptcy. It did more — it so debilitated
the so-called republic that it was in imminent danger of becoming
the prey of the savage races of the land,

"The Zulu chief of that time— 1876 — led liis people against
tliem," continues Sir Charles, " routed them and they fled in dismay.
They were broken down. They were unable to maintain the control
even of the savage races on their outskirts, and, more than that,
England found that they, having raised this terrible struggle between
the black and the Boer, England must suffer from the inability of
the Boer to govern even that section of the country.

''What was the result? The result was that, with the full
sanction of the President, Mr. Kruger — with the full sanction of the
President of the South African Republic, England proclaimed that
country again as a crown colony, and with confessedly on the part
of the Boers, their inability to govern the country, it again came
under British rule. And what then ? Why, England did what they
were incapable of doing. She engaged in a struggle with these
two chiefs of the Zulus, Sekuchini and Cetewayo, and after a great
sacrifice of blood and treasure and the loss of many valuable lives,
these parties were defeated and peace was restored to the country."

England's defender does not spare criticism in relating what
followed the subjugation of the native races, or rather the obtain-
ing of the promise of the Zulus to cease their warfare on the
whites. With a touch of the ironical. Sir Charles says that the
Lienerous hearted, the great, the good and grateful Boers who had
i'een only too glad to seek refuge beneath the flag of Great Britain,
revolted and massacred the English troops that had been sent

324

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

there to maintain the government of the country. The debt of
gratitude which every English subject, whether he mourned the
loss of a friend or relative in the Zulu war, or whether he had
publicly expressed his sympathy with the aci> of the great empire
in protecting the Boers from the blacks, believed the Boers owed
Great Britain, was not paid. To this day the British think thiit
the history of the Boers is marked with a blot for this revolt.
Englishmen are firm in deraakuling from the colonies that owe
everything they possess in the way of impr-tved natural advantages,
commerce, internal trade and the peaceful security of the people,
that need of loyalty that knows only the limit of Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, etc., they expect that when the empire is assailed
troops shall be volunteered from the colonies to show that patriots
are willing to tight as well as to talk for the British Empire. Sir
Charles minces no words when he calls the rising of the Boers a
revolt, and charges the Boers with massacreing the English troops.

Still there is a disposition in England to simply say that the
Boer forces rebelled, and that the British troops were assaulted and
overpowered. Sir Charles does what he would have done with
equal celerity had the Grand Old Man of England, Mr. Gladstone,
been alive to have witnessed the stirring scenes of the departure of
troops for the front — he boldly declares tluit Mr. Gladstone made ii
most unfortunate mistake. Me further says that it was an unfortunate
hour for Great Britain when that great English statesman, whose
name is known and revered over the wide world, adopted the course
that he did. This is an opinion that the defender of England's policy
in the war asserts without stultifying himself — he retains all the
respect that a loyal subject must retain for the late Mr. Gladstone.

"The point became a crucial one," continues Sir Charles. "Mr.

c/1

milling in

BOERS DESTROYING NATAL RAILWAY TRACK.

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

327

Kiuger, who had become president of the Transvaal Republic, went to
England, and he there invited in every possible way British capital and
British people and English-speaking people of the world to come and
do that in the Transvaal which the Boers had 1)een found incapable
of doing, and that was, develop the country and carry it forward."

Right here the Boer will always stop an Englishman and tell
liiui that if Mr. Kruger invited the peoples of the world to the
Transvaal he did sO with the belief that pioneers, not mine owners,
would respond. The Englishman is ever ready to retort that the
nihiing industries of the South African Republic never would have
been of any benefit to South Africa — never would have poured
money into the coffers of the Transvaal government so tli ' secret
purchases of armament might be made as a pai-t of the great plan
of the Boers to some day rise and destroy British domination in
South Africa, but for the English people. But the point that Sir
Charles makes with special emphasis is that Mr. Krnger was taken
at liis word, and that great numbers of English-speaking people
went to the Transvaal, and that large amounts of capital were
invested there, under the pledge of absolute security, ec^ual rights
and justice from the Boers. It was not long before the enter[)rise
of the English made itself felt. The resources of the dornumt
cnnntry were thrown open by the English. Exploitation of a healthy
luid vigorous nature followed the English wherever they went.
Till! Witwatersrand was discovered l)y the English. The great gold
mines have been a source of untold wealth to the Transvaal.

"But," continues Sir Charles Tupper, "there are no words in
tlH' English language strong enough to point out and to emphasize
tilt cruel manner in which these men who had become the saviors
"I thoir country, were treated. No bjuglish-speaking man was

328

THE STORY OF SOUI^H AFRICA

permitted tt) have any share in tlie government of that country. On
the contrary, while paying nine-tenths of the entire taxation of the
conntry, while bearing all the weight of everything, they were
deprived of every privilege that the free man can have to enjoy.
"Now, under these circumstances. Is it stranrrf* that Engliinl
should have felt that the time had come when a stand must Ik*,
made? But long-suffering England, inspired with a horror iiiid
hatred of war, with a patience not exceeded by any people of the
world, exhausted every power of diplomacy to avoid anything like
collision with these people, and war was not proclaimed by Eii^^-
land. But when President Krnger felt that under these circum-
stances and with the assistance from one source and another he Ira. I
received, and the opportunity he had availed himself to fill the
Transvaal with arms and ammunition, the time came when he could
dictate and carry out tlie Boer design of taking entire possession of
the whole of South Africa. And in view of these facts, when he f< li
strong enough, he proclaimed war."

Since it has become popular with many of the deep-thinkinjj;
men of England to point ont the cost that the empire has had to
pay for the "period of retrocession" a,nd to mildly condemn tlie
course of Mr. (Iladstone as one giving tlie Boers as a reward i'oi-
their revolt and success at arms, that which it refused to permit
by partition in a treaty, many essays have been written on the
subject. The Transvaal's history since that time, it is held liy
the students of the situation, shows a steady endeavor on the part
of President Krnger to reach forward to the Afrikander dream :i
gi*eat anti-British Soutii Africa.

Before the late (General .loubert (li(>(l tlie charge was mado in
England that as Commander-Oeiieral of the Transvaal he tad

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

321)

written to King Lobengula of the MatabeJe, in March, 1882, such
sentiments as to lay him open to the criticism that he had viewed
Mr. Gladstone's magnanimity in tlie optimistic light of a Boer hope
to accomplish a steadfast purpose. In the letter General Joubert
told the native chief that the English had taken away from the
Boers their country in 1877 and how they " would not listen to
our nice talk for four years; but when the shooting and fighting
began, the English decided it would be better to give us back our
country; that England is like a monkey that has its hands full of
Itr.mpkin seeds if you don't beat him to death he will never let go."

Lord Roseberry even went so far as to say in public that Mr.
(Iladstone had prematurely attempted to carry "into international
policy the principle of the Gospel." Premier Gladstone, according
to Lord Roseberry and others decided to treat with the Boers on
llie basis of the restoration of the internal independence of the
Transvaal although he knew full well that England had made so
many momentous moves in Africa, where fresh troops had been
poured in to the assistance of the British generals, that she held
victory in the hollow of her hand. But the premier, according to
iiord Roseberry in his speech made at Bath, in Noveml)er, 1899,
In'lieved that "Great Britain could afford to do things, owing to
in r overpowering might and dominion, which other nations could
not afford to do without a risk of misunderstanding."

The Rt. Hon. The Earl Grey also says that Premier Gladstone
Insisted the temptation to re-establish British authority; that he
'•ame to this conclusion after the defeat of Majuba Hill; that
oliligations arising out of the annexation, sacred as they were,
ui're overbalanced and outweighed by the yet more sacred obliga-
ious to the principle of political freedom whicli requires that the

330

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

fullest measure of self-government consistent with a due regard to
imperial safety shall be given to every subject of the Queen in
every portion of her empire — and resolved to treat with the Boers
after the latter had defeated the British troops in Her Majesty's
territory, as if the British arms had suffered no reverse and to
concede to the inhabitants of the Transvaal complete self-govern-
ment subject to the suzerainty of the British Crown.

That the Boers did not see any magnanimity in this retio-
cession — that they characterized the act as cowardice, seems to be
the general opinion in England to-day. Great Britain is thought
to be paying the penality at the r ^e of 150 pounds sterling per
minute for not settling the Transvaal question in 1881.

Viscount Wolseley, then Sir Garnet Wolseley, and now the
honored commander-in-chief of the British army, went to the
Transvaal in 1879 as the representative of the British government
and made speeches in which it was positively stated that the Queen's
authority would never be withdrawn. In Martineau's "Life of Sii-
Bartle Frere" it is said: "He made speeches in every village he
visited declaring the Act of Annexation to be irrevocable, and
afterward published a proclamation to that effect. At Standerton,
which is on the Vaal river, he told the people that the Vaal wouhl
flow backward through the Drakensberg before the British would
be withdrawn from the Transvaal Territory."

As a further proof of the incisiveness of the public understanding
at that time of the Transvaal question, the then Secretary of Stat(^
for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, gained general applause for Iiis
statement in the House of Lords, May, 1880. He said: "After a
careful consideration of the position we have come to the conclusion
that we could not relinquish the Transvaal. Nothing could be

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

331

more unfortunate than uncertainty in respect to such a matter."
But in due fairness to the memory of the greatly revered Mr.
Gladstone it must be said that he sincerely believed that his cour.«e
was the wise one. Mr. Gladstone said in the House of Commons,
on January 21, 1881:

"To disprove the annexation of a country is one thing; to
abandon that annexation is another. Whatever we do, we must
not bind ourselves to the legitimate consequences of facts. By the
annexation of the Transvaal we contracted new obligations.

"I must look at the obligations entailed by the annexation;
and if in my opinion, i nd in the opinion of many on this side
of the house, wrong was done by the annexation itself, that
would not warrant us in doing fresh, distinct and separate
wrong, by a disregard of the obligations which that annexation
entailed. Those obligations have l)een referred to in this debate,
and have been .mentioned in the compass of a single sentence.

"First there was the ol)ligation entailed toward the English
and other settlers in the Transvaal, perhaps including a minority,
though a very small minority, of the Dutch Boers themselves;
secondly, there was the obligation toward the native races, an
obligation which I may call an obligation of humanity and justice;
and, thirdly, there was the political obligation w^e entailed upon
ourselves in respect to the responsil)ility which w^as already incum-
bent on us, and which we, by the annexation, largely extended,
lor the future peace and tranquility of South Africa. None of
these obligations could we overlook."

A stronger indictment against one of the lesser lights of the
Transvaal, Secretary of State Reitz, than the one prepared by
William Eglington, of England, to support the allegations of

.'i32

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Sir H. M. Stanley, M. P., that President Kruger has become rich by
taking enormous bribes for concessions and monopolies, comes in
the voluntary statement of Theodore Schreiner, brother of the
Cape Colony Premier. Mr. Schreiner is well qualified to throw
personal historic light on the cause of the war and the location of
the responsibility, l)oth by reason of his position in the world, his
long residence in South Africa and his personal acquaintance with
Secretary Reitz, as well as other leaders. Mr. Reitz, like Csesar,
was ambitious. Perhaps this made him throw his soul into the
language that he addressed the British Government in the South
African Republic's ultimatum. It was seventeen or eighteen years
ago in Bloemfontein that Mr. Schreiner met Mr. Reitz, then a
judge of the Orange Free State, and Mr. Reitz was then busy
establishing the Afrikander Bond.

"Tt must be patent to every one that at that time England and
its government had no intention of taking away the independence
of the Transvaal, for she had just 'magnanimously' granted the
same; no intention of making war on the Republics, for she had
just made peace; no intention to seize the Rand gold fields, for
they were not yet discovered," says Mr. Schreiner. "At that time
I met Mr. Reitz, and he did his best to get me to become a mem-
ber of the Afrikander Bond, but, after studying its constitution
and programme, I refused to do so, and some colloquy took place
between us."

The conversation, Mr. Schreiner says, became indelibly stamped
on his mind and he adds that he told Mr. Reitz: "I see clearly
that the ultimate object aimed at is the overthrow of British
power and the expulsion of British power from South Africa.'' Mr.
Reitz with his pleasant, conscious smile, says Mr. Schreiner, did not

ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW

iii>pear displeased, but asked: "Well, what if it is so?" "You do
not suppose that the flag is going to disappear from South Africa
\\ithout a tremendous struggle and fight?'' asked- Mr. Schreiner.
Mr. Reitz with the same self conscious smile and iu a half apologetic
manner remarked: "Well, I suppose not, but even so, what of
tl at?" Then Mr. Schreiner told Mr. Reitz that they would be on
onposite sides in the struggle if it came, and that God would be
(in the side of England, because He must view with abhorrence any
plotting and scheming to overthrow her ^^jower and position m
South Africa, which had been ordained by Him. The Orange Free
State judge merely replied: "We'll see."

"During the seventeen years that have elapsed," continues the
brother of the Cape Premier, " I have watched the propoganda for
the overthrow of British power in South Africa being ceaselessly
!si)read by every possible means — the press, the pulpit, the platform,
the schools, the colleges, the legislature — until it hao culminated
iu the present war, of which Mr. Reitz and his co-workers are the
origin and the cause. Believe me, sir, the day on which F. W. Reitz
sat down to pen his ultimatum to Great Britain was the proudest
and happiest moment of his life, and one which had for long years
lieen looked forward to by him with eager longing and expectation.

"He and his co-workers have for years past plotted, worked,
] repared for this war, and the only matters in connection with it
in which they are disappointed are— first, that they would rather
that the war had come several years later, so that their anti-
Ihitish propaganda 'night more fully have permeated the country;
M'condly, that they would have liked to have declared war against
r.ngland at a time when she should be involved in some great
>'iuggle with a foreign power, instead of at a time when she is

334

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

free to give all her attention to South Africa; and, lastly, they are
disappointed in finding out that English soldiers can fight.

"Tt is true that an active factor in bringing about this war
has been the existence of the gold fields of the Rand; not, how-
ever, as asserted, because England covets them, and has determined
to seize them, but because the wealth drained from them has
enabled the republics to become military powers of a strength far
out of proportion to their population, and thus has led F. W.
Reitz & Co. to think that their dreams of a Pan -Afrikander Republic
and the ousting of the British flag may become a reality. Hence
their declaration of war against England rather than grant just
political rights to the inhalntants, whom that same wealth has led
to settle down in the Transvaal, and whose presence and numbers,
however useful to the Dutch Republics towards the production of
wealth to be used in setting forward their political aims, miglit,
if they became possessors of the franchise, prove damaging to the
success of the scheme of the great Pan-Afrikander Republic.

"Although I have been obliged in this record of an historic;
reminiscence, to mention the Afrikander Bond, T do not wish to be
supposed to be attacking that body as it exists in the Cape Colony
at the present time, or to accuse it of backing up Mr. Reitz in his
declaration of wai against the British Empire. Its leaders claim
that they are loyal to England, My object is to show that, not
the British Government, but the Republics, led by Kruger, Reitz,
Steyn and their co-workers, have been steadily marching on towards
this war, and consciously plotting for it, ever since the ' magnani-
mous' retrocession of the Transvaal by England, and even before
the Witwatersrand gold fields were discovered."

o
u

i
s

SOUTH

It will
posed of a
of Assemb
fifty poum
write his i
the Goveri
for South

The m
men and 6,
governmen
along the
Cape and .

The tc
meiit was
In additioi
conrse of (
the same t

Cecil I
which urge
imposition
education
developmei
party, whic
ideas of

CHAPTER XVII

SOUTH AFRICAN TERRITORIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR.

It will be recalled that the Parliament of Cape Colony is com-
posed of a Legislative Council elected for seven years and a House
of Assembly elected for five years. Every male citizen earning
fifty pounds a year, or occupying a house or lodging and able to
write his name and address, has a right to vote. Sir Alfred Milner,
the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope and High Commissioner
for South Africa, was appointed to those offices in 1897.

The military forces of the colony consist of 817 mounted rifle-
men and 6,535 volunteers, and also 1,413 mounted police. The home
government maintains detachments of British troops in the forts
along the coast and has a squadron of fifteen war vessels on the
Cape and African station.

The total length of the railway lines belonging to the govern-
ment was on January 1, 1897, 2,253 miles, with 96 miles building.
In addition to this, there were 254 miles of private lines in the
course of construction. The total length of the telegraph lines on
the same date was 6,405 miles.

Cecil Rhodes is the head of the Progressive Party, as it is termed,
which urged the removal of import duties on meat and grain, the
imposition of an excise tax on brandy, a scab act, a compulsory
education bill, restriction of the sale of drink to natives, railway
development and a contribution to the imperial navy. The opposing
party, which includes most of the Dutch voters, championed the
ideas of the Afrikander Bond, as against the imperialism of

(837)

JiB8

TlIK STORY 01' SOUTH AFRICA

Mr. Rhodes, Dutch opposition to English, agricultural rural interests in
so far as they conflicted with commercial and industrial, or the
country against the towns. The well known policy of the South
African League was first propounded by Mr. Rhodes, it being:
Imperial union and a colonial confederation of Cape Colony, Natal,
Rhodesia, and, when the Uitlanders should gain the ascendency,
of the Transvaal also, and the Orange Free State. The elections
for the Legislative Council took place in March and were won by
the Progressive Party, who obtained a majority of two in a body
of twenty-four members and reduced the representatives of the
Afrikander Bond from eighteen to ten.

While the population of Cape Colony has considerably increased
during the last years, there had been no change in the number of
representatives in the Assembly. All parties agreed that the time
had come for an increase, but they by no means agreed upon tlie
methods by which this was to be secured. The question was so
important that in December, 1897, a committee was appointed, com-
posed of ihe leading men of all parties, and sitting under the
presidency of the Prime Minister, whose duty it w^as to discuss, and,
if possible, agree upon a policy. The question was considered with
deliberation, there being a full and free interchange of views, as a
result of which a bill was framed proposing to dititribute twelve new
members among the constituencies at that time in proportion to
their growth, and the creation of three new ones. This would
increase the number of Assembly members from seventy-nino (<>
ninety-four.

Notwithstanding the introduction of an educational test and n
property qualification by tiie franchise act of 1892, the number of
registered voters of 74,000 ni 1891, grew in six years to 110,000. A

SOUTH AFRICAN TElilUTORIES

339

minority report of the committee proposed to increase the Assembly
to ninety-seven members. This was signed by the ministerial
members, and was meant to give the urban constituencies the
same proportional increase of representation as was given by the
majority report to several of the smaller Dutch electoral divisions.
The Legislature adjourned in the latter part of June, and the election
took place in August, when the question which overwhelmed all
others was that of British supremacy.

Mr. Rhodes was the central figure in this battle. He had
never tried to disguise his hope that the English might become
absolutely supreme in the affairs of South Africa, their authority
to be unquestioned in all matters of government. Mr. Rhodes felt
that in this solution of the question lay the only hope of a peaceful
and progressive Africa, imperialism to extend ti )m the Mediterra-
nean to the Cape of Good Hope. All other questions were forced
into the background, with the result tliat the Progressives were
beaten, the Afrikander bond securing a good working majority in
the new assembly. Thus the race struggle for political supremacy
ended in British defeat.

The Orange Free State next claims attention. There the legis-
lative po\\^er is vested in the Volksraad, which is a single chamber,
consisting of fifty-eight members, half of whom are elected every
two years and serve for double tliat period. The term of the prosi-
<l(Micy is for five years, and M. T. Steyn was elected to that ofTice,
February 21, 1896. We have already learned a good deal about
this independent republic, whose population of somewhat less than
a (juarter of a million, steadily grows under an immigration from
Great Britain, Germany and Holland. A conference of delegates was
1h^1(1 at Pretoria in January, 1898, to discuss the basis of a Federal

340

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Union between the Orange Free State and the South African
Republic.

The State President in the latter is elected everj^ five years,
and "Oom Paul" Kruger was chosen for the fourth time in ISOS.
The Vice-President and Commandant General is Gen. V. J. Jouhcri,
elected in ISDfi.

Mr. Rhodes, firmly believing that his policy would in the finality
lesult in the greatest good to Africa, naturally has taken a strong
interest in political policies governing the destiny of the Republics
and the English colonies. He has for years been quite active in
his endeavor to shape these policies and make them conformant to
his own ideas. The Boers of the Transvaal government have
always maintained that while Mr. Rhodes was prime minister of
Cape Colony he devised the scheme which ended in the Jameson
raid. But even if this be true, it only accentuates the dariiiji:
genius of the man who would brush aside all tilings to accomplish
the end in view. A question of morality need not enter into the
discussion. Napoleon changed the map of Europe by utter disre-
gard of so-called "right," and yet who can say that his work has
not been attended with some benefits to humanity? Napoleon's
imperialism at least contained an element of democracy, a thing
hateful to the potentates whom he forced from thrones rotten with
injustice and oppression. And so Rhodes has felt that English
supremacy is better than Dutch supremacy — the question of who
first pretmipted the ground being overshadowed by a vast
'lesign one of those designs which furnish scope only for minds
cji[)able of empiie building. But the wise Kruger fully undeistooil
Ivhodes; thus these two leaders were face to face, ready fee the
contest.

SOUTH AFRICAN TERRITORIES

341

The spirit of the President and the Boers was shown in
JaL aary, when, in accepting one of the new forts around Pretoria,
he said with significant emphasis, that the best guarantee of peace
was readiness for war. The popularity of Stephanus Johannes
Paulus Kruger was shown in the election referred to, when he
received 12,858 votes to 3,753 for Schalk Burger, and 2,001 for
General Joubert, the vote including about two-tliirds of the
electorate.

A constitutional conflict took place between the President and
Chief Justice Kotze, its opening being in September, 1895, when,
during the pendency of the case of Brown, an American citizen,
who had been ousted from a mining claim, he brought suit for
damages against the State Secretary. The High Court gave judg-
ment for Brown in January, 1897, denying the validity of a Volks-
raad resolution rescinding the proclamation on which Brown based
his claim, but the Volksraad, upon reassembling, passed a law
declaring that such testing power did not exist and never had
existed; requiring the judges of the High Court to take oath that
they would carry out all laws and resolutions of the Volksraad,
and not presume to test them by the Constitution. Moreover, the
Volksraad voted itself power to dismiss from office any judge who,
ill answer to formal interrogatories, refused to observe Volksraad
laws and resolutions. Such legislation in this country would have
made its authors a laughing stock and brought a lesson to them
which they would not forget in a lifetime. The members of
legislative bodies always include a number of ignorant and corrupt
men, and one shudders to think of the mischief they might work
when their acts are not subject to review by a judicial body above
the 1 ich of politics and corruption.

342

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

A written agreement was made in March, 1897, on the repre-
sentation of the Chief Justice of Cape Colony, by which the judges
of the High Court promised not to exercise the review power, and
President Kroger prepared an amendment by which the Constitu-
tion could be changed only by special legislation, and safeguarding
at the same time the independence of the judiciary. The President
agreed, on the recommendation of the Cape Colony Chief Justicf^,
to secure the appointment of a commission to dispose of the
question, but Judge Kotze supposed a bill would be introduced at
once.

The sessions of the committee were prolonged and when the
Volksraad adjourned nothing had been done to secure the end
named. Thereupon Justice Kotze wrote to President Kruger that
he accepted such inaction as the collapse of the undv^rstanding
between them, but the President held that he was not obliged to
carry through the legislation the judges asked for, who had made
an agreement not to test the acts of the Volksraad. Furthermore,
he accepted Chief Justice Kotze's refusal to answer satisfactorily
the questions previously put to him in March, 1897, in consequence
of which he dismissed him, about a year later, from ofhce, agree-
ably to a decision of the Executive Council.

The Judge refused to accept this summary action of the Presi-
dent, claiming that the law aimed at him was no law at all, that
his appointment was for life, and that he could not be removed
except upon charges of grave misdemeanor. In accordance with
this view, the Chief Justice declared the court adjourned, but Judge
Gregorowski, who had been appointed acting Chief Justice, imme-
diately opened court. Then Justice Kotze addressed a manifesto
to the people of the Republic, took steamer to England and

SOUTH AFRICAN TERRITORIES

343

appealed to the British Government to exercise its power as
suzerain and prevent the Outlanders from being robbed of their
liberty and rights by the Boer authorities. He reminded the
Government that he had been appointed for life by P^ngland, at
the time her forces were in occupation of the Transvaal. Judge
Uregorovvski was sworn in as (-hief Justice on the last day of
March.

The session of the Volksraad was opened May 2, and President
Kruger was sworn into office ten days later. Among the measures
he proposed was the withdrawal of licenses from banks that
oppressed poor people and added to the existing depression, and,
with a view of suppressing spurious mining companies, the require-
ment of a certificate from a Governme?it engineer before a company
could be floated.

More than once the British Government had expresseu strong
objections to the alien's expulsion law, and in deference to that
feeling it was so amended, on the demand of Mr. Chamberlain, that
an Uitlander, accused of acts threatening the peace of the state
and consequently liable to expulsion by executive order, was first
allowed to bring forward all the testimony he could produce in
defense of his rights.

Other bills which, as straws, showed the direction of the wind,
^'Hve the executive authority to decide what is a dishonoring
sentence, while another prohibited any alien, not a burgher or a
citizen of the Orange Free State, from l)ringing firearms into the
Transvaal without a permit from the State Secretaiy. By way of
tmcouraging what may be considered "home production," a bill
was brought forward authorizing the Government to pay £lO()
io any needy burgher, who had twelve sons living. A bill

344

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

established a school of mines in Pretoria and another provided
technical schools in all the districts which were to be open only
to burghers' sons. The municipal franchise was extended to non-
residents, owners rl property worth £lOO, but disqualified Uit-
landers from the office of municipal councilor, unless a separate
law, as in Johannesburg, gave them such privilege. The subsidies
to Ilitlander schools were continued for three years more but it
was provided that South African history should be taught, and
Dutch to a certain standard.

Judge Reitz was chosen in May to succeed Dr. Leyds as
State Secretary, he having resigned to go to Europe as diplomatic
representative of the South African Republic to Berlin, The Hague,
Paris, Lisbon, Rome and St. Petersburg.

When Great Britain withdrew ' om the Transvaal, after her
unexpected defeat at Majuba Hill, she restored full self-government
to the people, subject to the suzerainty of the Queen, as set forth
in the preamble to the convention of 1881, Since this question
of England's suzerainty is the vital one tliat eventually brought
about a rupture between the two countries, the facts relating
thereto should be kept in mind.

The tei'ni was selected to describe the superiority of a state
having independent rights of government, subject to certain
specified reservations. The most important of Great Britain's
reserved rights in the Transvaal was the control of its external
relations, including the making of treaties and the conduct of
diplomatic intercourse with foreign powers. A deputation was sent
to London in 1883, to secure the abolition of this suzerainty and
the stipulations relating to it. This deputation brought about the
Convention of 1884, in which the word "suzerainty" does not occur.

SOUTH AFRICAN TEKRITORIES

345

The reserved rights of England were abandoned, except that all
treaties with foreign powers, save the Orange Free State, or with
native tribes outside the borders, could be vetoed by the English
Government at any time within six months of their conclusion. It
was Lord Derby who struck out every reference to suzerain rights
from the draft of the London convention. As has been shown in
another place, the preamble of 1884 explicitly acknowledges a new
state, the South African Republic, in place of the Transvaal country,
subject to the suzerainty of the Queen.

The first assertion of British suzerainty was made by Mr.
Chamberlain in his despatch, already referred to, dated October 16,
1897. His contention was that the alien law, as enacted at first by
the Volksraad in 1896, was a violation of the London convention.
The Transvaal Government denies this and refused to revoke the
law or to suspend its operation, insisting that every state had the
right to restrain foreign elements which are inimical to the peace
and safety of the inhabitants. It declined the invitation to discuss
the question with the British agent for the manifest reason that
no discussion could change their views on the matter. To them-
selves their position was clearly right, and the utmost they would
agree to do was to submit the dispute to arbitration. And yet, on
the back of this, the law was revoked with the intention of
introducing new legislation.

In his answer of October 16, Mr. Chamberlain again urged the
claim of his government to be consulted before legislation was
introduced restricting the entrance into the Transvaal of aliens other
than natives, and he dismissed the rights that had been invoked
from the general principles of international law as not applicable
to the case, which was "not that of a treaty between two states

346

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

on an equal footing, but a declaration, by the Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland, of the conditions upon which she accorded complete
self-government to the South African Republic, subject ir her suze-
rainty." Mr. Chamberlain insisted that the preamble of the Con-
vention of 1S81 (in which occurred the stateraent of suzerainty)
was not replaced bj the preamble of tht H. , ention of 1884, but
was still in force, though the articles of ti* "' v • were substituted
for those of the former. In other words, the Quec. , rinder the two
conventions, held the relation of suzerain toward the South African
Republic, and conceded to its people the right of self-government
upon certain conditions, which, from the necessity of the case, could
not be submitted to arbitration. Dr. Leyds, in reply, went over the
negotiations, with Lord Derby's elisions and exi)lanations, holding
that not only by the terms was the right of Ih-itisli suzerainty abol-
ished, but that such was the manifest intention of Lord Derby. Leyds
declared that through the omission of those articles from the Pretoria
Convention, which assigned certain defined powers and functions
relating to the internal government and foreign relations to the
^Vansvaal, the South African Republic was left free to manage its
affairs without interference from any other government, and it was
equally at liberty to conduct its diplomatic intercourse and manage
its foreign policy, subject to the single condition that its treaties with
foreign powers should be subject to the approval or disapproval of
Great Britain. This was the first time that suci^ a construction had
been challenged by any one.

Dr. Leyds maintained insistently that the two preambles
were in direct opposition to each other, and consequently they could
not be in force at the same time. • He said Lord Derby expressly
declared in his draft of the new convention that it was intended

SOUTH AFRICAN TERRITORIES

847

to take the place of the Pretoria Convention. The doctor proposed to
submit the question to arbitration, and maintained his position with
remarkable skill. The independence of the South African Republic,
he held, owed its formal acknow^ledgement to an international
agreement equally binding on both powers, but its real independ-
ence was due to nothing of that nature. The international character
of the convention had been acknowledged by Great Britain when
she agreed to refer the first article to a friendly power, and it wa"^
illogical and unjust to contend that the interpretations of agree-
ments betw^een powers not on the same footing cannot be refeiTed
in case of disagreement to international law in the same manney
as treaties between powers of the same standing, since there f no
other law to which it is possible to refer them. Mr. Chamberlain's
contention w'ould make his government the sole judge of ;. docu-
ment to which it was a party.

Dr. Leyds, when State Secretary, in a dispatch dated May 7,
1897, proposed the abrogation of the London Convention, because
England had violated it by the armed invasion of Dr. Jameson.
Mr. Chamberlain replied that tlie act was by private individuals,
for whicli his government was in no wise responsible. Dr. Leyds
reminded him that the raiders were Eugiishmen under the Brit-
ish flag, enlisted, armed and equipped in British territory under
orders of the Administrator, who derived his authority from the
British Crown; that its leaders were officers holding commissions in
the British service, and they had the counsel and aid f Cecil
Rhodes the Prime Minister of Cape Colony, while behind hira was
Sir Graham Bower, Secretary to the High Commissioner of South
Africa.

So Leyds and Chamberlain exchanged notes for several months.

348

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

each holding to his own views. Good feeling gradually vanished in
the bitterness of the contention.

Mr. Chamberlain regretted that an extradition treaty, nego-
tiated with Portugal in 1893, was not submitted to the British
Government as was required by the fourth article of the London
Convention, which required treaties, upon their conclusion, to ])e
submitted to the Qneen, but through fear of offending the British
Government, Portugal declined to ratify the treaty. Dr. Leyds
justified the attempted evasion of the convention from this fact,
and argued that a treaty is not completed until it is ratified.

In March, 1898, the Volksraad passed a resolution authorizing
the government to suiTender any fugitive demanded by a state, with
which there was no regular extradition treaty, the government to
decide whether such extradition was in the interest of justice. This
act and a reciprocal one on the part of the Portuguese Government
removed the necessity for a treaty of extradition, but the proceed-
ings being formally correct, no objections were raised by the Brit-
ish Government. The Transvaal, however, refused to form such a
treaty with Rhodesia.

In June of this year, the thirteen subordinate officers who took
part in the Jameson raid and who were allowed to resign their
commissions after their trial and conviction, were restored to their
former rank by the British military authorities. There is little
doubt that these officers were made to believe that the enterprise
on which they entered had the secret sanction of some one high
in authority, and, if successful, they would have been rewarded. This
does not signify that the British government had direct cognizance
of the raid, though the messages of Mr. Chamberlain warning the
raiders would seem to indicate that the news had got to London.

SOUTH AFRICAN TElilUTOKIES

349

A glance at the map will show on the east of the Transvaal,
a native territory of which we have hitherto had little to say.
This is Swaziland, inhabited by the Swazis, who are an offshoot of
the Zulu nation, and whose country was recognized as independent
at tlie London Convention of 1884. The growth of its white popu-
lation led to the vesting of their government in 1890 in a govern-
ment committee, and some four years later Swaziland was placed
under the protection and administration of the Transvaal.

Swaziland is about the size of the State of Massachusetts, and
has a population of some 50,000 Kaffirs and 1,000 whites, mostly
Boer graziers with a few British traders and miners. The natives
are under the rule of their chief Bunu, known also as Ngwane,
born in 1877, who commands an army of 18,000 warriors. The
Transvaal authorities were not allowed to collect a native hut tax
until 1898, and during the intervening years, the annual revenue
was no more than £3,000, which left a yearly deficit of £47,000,
which was paid out of the Transvaal treasury. When the time
limit had expired, the Republic made its arrangements for collect-
ing the deficit, but Bunu, the king, took a somewhat civilized
method of avoiding the payment of the tax by flitting into the
mountains. After reflection, however, he sent word that he would
collect the tax, if it were insisted upon, and hand it over to the
jzovernment. Needless to say, payment was insisted upon, but the
filler was so slow in coming to time, that a burgher force marched
into his country in May to bring the king to terms, he having
killed his principal under chief or adviser. Bunu was ordered to
iittend a judicial inquiry on July 5, but this time he fled over the
Matal border. He was delivered up for trial and the collection of
the hut tax was begun on the 1st of August.

850

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The total area of the territories which in 1891 came under the
administration of the British South Africa Company, including
North Rhodesia, is about 600,000 square miles. South Rhodesia,
containing 350,000 square miles, lies to the south of the Zambesi. In
1890, the pioneers of the company settled in Mashonaland, at that
time a province of Matabeleland by permission of the noted Mata-
bele chief Lobengula. They had built 400 miles of road through
Bechuanaland in order to reach the country where it was reported
gold was to be found. Two years later, the colonists ousted the
Matabeles and the company took possession of the country. Its
area is ()0,000 square miles, with a population of 240,000: the area
of Mashonaland is 80,000 square miles and its population, 210,000.
At the time of the Matabela uprising in 1896, there were not quite
6,000 white persons in the country.

Considerable development of the country has taken place and
several thousand more white persons have settled within its borders.
In addition to Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia, the principal
towns are Buluwayo, formerly the Matabele capital, Umtali, Victoria,
Gwelo, Enkeldoorn, and Melsetter. All these places have tele-
graphic connection with Mafeking and Cape Colony, and the line
has been extended northward into Nyassaland. The telegraph and
railway have been steadily pushed in different directions.

The original capital of the British South Africa Company was
£1,000,000, increased in 1895 to £2,500,000, and in the latter part
of 1896 to £3,500,000. It has in addition a five per cent, debenture
debt of £1,250,000. The shareholders at a meeting held in April,
1898, decided to increase the capital to £5,000,000, issuing for the
time only 250,000 shares, and reserving the remainder to be issued
from time to time as additional capital might be needed. Despite

SOUTH AFRICAN TEliRITOUIES

351

the expenses caused by wars and the rinderpest, the profits of the
company have been enormous, and when the books were opened
for subscription, the public subscribed £1,250,000 instead of the
£500,000 offered.

Cecil J. Rhodes, Alfred Beit and Rochefort Maguire retired
from the direction in 1897, on account of the part they took in
the Jameson raid, but were reelected in the following year.

After the Jameson raid, the British Government transferred
the control of the military forces to the High Commissioner and
took from the company the greater part of its political and
administrative privileges, such action being at the suggestion of
the directors made several years previous, with a view of giving
the inhabitants a share in the administration and its responsibilities.

The Secretary of State announced in January, 1898, the plan
adopted for the colonies. All legislation was to be passed locally
by the Legislative Council of South Rhodesia, comprising two
elective members for Mashonaland, two for Matabeleland, and five
members nominated by the company, to which was thus secured a
majority, so long as it continued responsible for the finances.

Cecil Rhodes, accompanied by J. W. Colenbrander, Dr. Hans
Sauer, Mr. Stent and John Grootbloom, visited the rebellious Mata-
l)eles and secured their final submission. They gave up an immense
number of arms and down t(, the present time have caused the
authorities no trouble.

At the breaking out of the war between Great Britain and
the Transvaal, it will be remembered, much uneasiness was felt by
the former, over the attitude of the surrounding natives; for if a
general uprising took place, the loss of life was sure to be appall-
ing. No Africans were held in greater dread than the Zulus, for

352

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

they had given England a taste of their ferocity and infernal power
for mischief. It was they who killed the Prince loiperial of France
while fighting with the English.

The Zulu is probably the best native fighter in South Africa.
He is fierce, active, powerful, and daring to the last degree, and
his people made a desperate fight before they yielded to the over-
powering force of England. The main secret of their strength lies
in their organization. It was this which enabled them a half century
ago to conquer the surrounding tribes and sweep everything before
them.

Zululand is a wild country, bounded on the north by the
Transvaal, < ii the south and west by Natal, and on the east by the
sea. It is larger than the State of New Jersey, and contains about
180,000 natives, and less than 1,500 whites. The only occupation
of the natives is the raising of cattle.

There was fear, also, regarding the Basutos, who, though not
the peers of the Zulus, have a strong position, with Cape Colony,
the Orange Free State and Natal on its borders. They are thrifty
and well off, there being probably 50,000 out of a total of 220,000,
who profess Christia Ity. The country is a fine grain producer,
and tliere are wild and precipitous mountains to which the natives
can flee and find secure refuge in case of danger.

■m

For

Britain a
saw that
the heav
promises,
Uitlande]
rights w(
for them
governmc

Earl
re.ideiit
• Conyngh[
Alfred M
sioner.
any papei
the substf
of wliich

The J
lin)mises
against i
subjects a
the concL'
burghers,
the condit

CHAPTER XVIII

THE DARKENING SKIE8

For months before the outbreak of hostilities between Great
Britain and the Transvaal Republic, intelligent men in both countries
saw that the conflict was as certain to come as the sun was to rise in
the heavens. The Uitlanders were not to be satisfied with Boer
promises, bat immediate Boer performance was demanded. The
Uitlanders, men composed of all nationalities, insisted that their
rights were being invaded by the Boers, and that it was impossible
for them or their interests to be represented in the authority or
government of the Transvaal.

Early in April, 1899, a petition signed by 21,000 British subjects,
rt-'ident at and near Johannesburg, was placed in the hands of Mr.
Conyngham Greene, British agent at Pretoria, and sent home by Sir
Alfred Milner, governor of the Cape Colony and British High Commis-
sioner. Every one knows how readily signatures can be obtained to
any paper in the nature of a petition, but Sir Alfred Milner certified to
the substantial genuineness of the names as well as of the grievances
of which complaint was made.

The petition cites the constant breaking of President Kruger's
inomises with regard to reform; the absolute lack of protection
a^'ainst mob violence; the law permitting expulsion of British
subjects at the will of the president without ap, eal to the high court;
ilie concentration of the powers of government in the i ands of the
burghers, 1,000 in number, while the Uitlanders are 23,000. In short,
th(j condition of the Uitlanders is declared ^o be 'ntolerable, and they

(lb)

35G

THE 3T0RY OF SOL' TK AFRICA

implore the Queen oo secure for them the ordinary rights of
citizens.

About the same time, President Kruger, in an elaborate speech at
Johannesburg, used the fcllowing words regarding the franchise
dispute:

" I would not be worthy to be the head of the State if I did not
protect the old burghers. Nor would I be worthy to be the head of
the State if I did not bear in mind the interests of the new population
with the object of helping them. I make no distinction between
nationalities; I only make a distinction between good and bad people
— between those who are loyal and those who are not. You all know
that when first we discovered these gold fields, and they began to be
worked, the franchise was given to any one who lived here a year.
But when from all countries and all nations men began to stream in,
it became our duty to prevent the old burghers from being over-
whelmed. I would not have been worthy of my position if I ha<l
allowed the new-comers to immediately sweep away and overwhelm
the old inhabitants of the country."

It has been alleged that there was not perfect unaiiiriiity amoiijj
the foreign residents of the Transvaal in the opposition to the Boer
government, shown by the above petition. A counter petition was
drawn up and largely signed, whicii challenged the petition of the
21,000, and expressed the satisfaction of the signers with the Boer
government, and confidence in the finsil removal of all real griev-
ances, where they ;';ii><ted, "by mutual cooperation and without
mediation of any foreign governu'vint or advice from capitalists."

When questioned in Tarll-'ment, Mr. Chamberlain admitted that Ik^
had received the former pellt'or,, and t.iat the petitioners complaiiu''!
"among other things, of ex- hit '<)n from the franchise." He knew of iki

THE DARKENING SKIEf

357

precedent for such a petition nor of any precedent ''for the state of cir-
ciunstances which led to its presentation." The London Times remarks:

"The situation caused by the inveterate resistance of the Boers to
the mr^st moderate and reasonable constitutional .^eform, is without
precedent. If a solution for it cannot be found in accordance with
precedent, a precedent to fit it must be created. A first step has
been taken by receiving the petition. Apparently it has shocked the
respect for established institutions entertained by such enemies to
change as Mr. Bryn Roberts, the Welsh Radical, and the love of
legality for its own sake, so often exemplified in the career of Mr.
Diilon, the Irish Nationalist. The community at large, we do not
he' itate to say, v/ill not share these scruples. It will heartily endorse
the view of the Colonial Secretary when he declared that doubt is
impossible as to the propriety of receiving the petition, ' having regard
ti^ the position which this country occupies in relation to the South
African Republic' "

The Times declared further that the failure to enforce franchise
rights for British subjects in the Transvaal was an admission that the
British government was too cowardly to enforce the rights of English-
men in an insignificant republic, "which owes to our magnanimity, or
to our weakness in the past, its relative independence." It was high
time to end the scam^al. "Our hands are free in foreign politics, and
the public opinion of the world condemns the stubborn obscurations
of the Boer State."

At that time, it required fourteen years for the Uitlander to
aciiuire full privileges as an enfranchised citizen. President Kruger,
ill the face of strong opposition on the part of many of his friends,
proposed to reduce this term to five years, with the pledge to redu je
this term in the course of another ten years still further. He dwelt

Br).s

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

with much force upon the destructive difference between the admis-
sion of foreigners as citizens in large countries like the United Statos
and their admission in the Transvaal where they would immediately
become the majority and hence the ruling power of the nation.

Meanwhile, France expressed its dissatisfaction, through its
leading newspapers of the money interests of the European conti-
nent, over the state of affairs in the Boer Republic and demanded of
the British Government that it secure justice for French investors
in the Transvaal, "or give up the claim of suzerainty and allow
foreign governments to protect their own subjects in their rights."
In May, the French shareholders in the Rand gold mines undertook
the preparation of a memorial to the British Government demand-
ing "protection for foreign capital in the Transvaal" On the l8th
of the same month, President Kruger's proposals for reform were
presented to the Raad,

These pi-oposals would seem to be a substantial step in the
right direction, but Sir Alfred Milner, after careful examination.
pronounced them worthless, as a means of securing the end sought.
and, meek as they were there was no guarantee that they would not
be swept out of existence by the First Raad whenever the whim
seized them, o' whenever that body deemed that a political point
could be secured by such actioyi.

In Sir Alfred's dispatch fro'a Cape J'own, telegraphed to Mr.
Chamberlain, he said that British subjects resented. —

"The personal indignity involved in the position of permanfMii
subjection to the ruling caste, .vhich i nes its wealth and power to
their ex .'tion. The political ■urmoil in the South African Republic
will never end till the perLianent Uitlandor population is admittcil
to a share in the government, and while that turmoil lasts th(ue

THE DARKENING SKIES

369

will be no tranquillity or adequate progress in Her Majesty's South
African domains. . . . The only condition on which the F mih
African Colonies and the two Republics can live in harmony and the
country progress, is equality all round. South Africa can prosper
under two, three, or six governments, but never under two absolutely
conflicting social and political systems., perfect equality for Dutch
:uid British in the British Colonies side by side with permanent
subjection of British and Dutch in oue of the Republics. It is idle
to talk of peace and unity under such a state of affairs,"

Since this dispatch was generally accepted as an embodiment of
the national policy, and received general support, it is important that
all its points should be understood. Sir Alfred !^ilner declared that
the grievances alleged in the petition to the Queen were substan-
tiated, that nothing had been done to alleviate them, and the last
state of the Uitlanders was worse than the first. It was the right
and the interest of Great Bntain fo secure fair treatment of the
Uitlanders, of whom the majority were British subjects, and the
jivactice of remonstrating about every injury to individual Euglish-
iiion had become impossible. *'It may easily lead to war," said
Sir Alfred, "but it will never lead to real improvement.

"The true remedy is to strike at the root of all these injuries,
tlip political impotence of the injured. What diplomatic protests
will never accomplish, a fair measure of Uitlandor representation
would gradually but surely bring about. It seems a paradox, but
it is true, that the only effective way of protecting our subjects is
!•' help them to cease to be our subjects. The adniisMon of
1 itlanders to a fair share of political power would, no douot, give
st ihility to the Republic; but, it at the same time, will remove most
of our causes of difference with it, and modify, and in the long run,

360

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

entirely remove that intense suspicion and bitter hostility to Great
Britain, which at present dominates its internal and external policy.

"I see nothing," concludes tlie dispatch, "which will put an
end to this mischievous propaganda, but some striking proof of the
intention of Her Majesty's Government not to be ousted from its
position in South Africa. And the best proof, alike of its power
and its justice, Would be lO obtain for ihe Uitlanders in the Trans-
vaal a fair share in the government of the country, which owes
everything to their exertions. Ii would be made perfectly clear
that our action was not directed against the existence of the
Republic."

The positi ^ of the immense majority of the IJitlander popula-
tion may be summed up thus:

Tliey cannot acquire the franchise for the First Raad, which is
the only franchise worth having, except by previour.ly becoming
eligible to the Second Raad or by military service. Ihe (Conditions
of eligibility to the Second Raa ." are four years' residence, the
attainment of the age of thirty, and the taking of the oath of
allegiance. But this is not all. The Uitlander who has fulfilleii
all these conditions has to pass through a period of ten years'
probation after he has become eligible to the Second Raad before
he can be given a vote for the First Raad. Even then, after
fourteen years' residence and at the age of forty, he is apparently
not entitled to this vote as of right. It may be granted him "upon
a resolution taken by the First Volksraad and in terms of rules to
be hereinafter fixed by law." Although the principal law was
passed in 1890, the "rules to be hereafter fixed by law" under
that act have not yet been promulgated. Franchise by military
service is equally difficult of attainment. The service must be

THE DARKENING SKIES

3()l

service rendered in response to a summons in terms of the existing
laws, so that the authorities can exclude Uitlanders from enfran-
chisement under this provision by omitting to summon them. If
the summons is sent and the service performed, the Uithmder who
has performed it mny still be as far from the full franchise as
ever. Whether the Uitlander claims the vote for the First Raad
in virtue of ten years' eligibility to the Second Raad or for military
service, he cannot get it without the written petition of two-thirds
of the enfranchised burghers of his ward. This ccmdition is, of
course, prohibitive, as doubtless it was intended to be. Two-thirds
of the burghers never vote on any occasion, not even in the most
hotly-contested presidential elections.

The strongest point made by the British policy was that it
rested upon no argumentative claims to suzerainty, but on one of
the priceless rights of England to protect the interests of its own
subjects in every quarter of the globe, and to obtain the peace and
prosperity of South Africa. Replying, therefore, to Sir Alfred's
dispatch, Mr. Chamberlain recounted the Uitlander grievances and
pronounced them intolerable. The right of his country to redress
them rested upon three grounds: The convention of 1884 was
designed to secure equality of treatment in the South African
l^epu])lic for Uitlander and Boer; Great Britain was the paramount
\)ower there; and it was a national duty to protect British subjects
living in a foreign country.

"The British Government." wrote Mr. Chamberlain, "still cherish
the hope that the publicity given to the British representations of
the Uitlander population, and the fact, of which the Government
t)f the South African Republic must be a'vvare, that they are losing
the sympathy of those other States which, like Great Britain, are

362

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

deeply interested in the prosperity of the Transvaal, may induce
them to reconsider their policy, and by redressing the most serious
of the grievances now complained of, to remove a standing danger
to the peace and prosperity, not only of the Republic itself, but
also of South Africa generally,"

These words indicated increasing friction between the two
countries, and caused an uneasiness beyond the borders of each.
No nation can contemplate the approach of war without a shuddei-,
for it is the most appalling calamity to mankind conceivable.
Europe is continually disturbed by the rumors of war which fill
the air, and the fact that in the majority of instances the threaten-
ing clouds have dissolved without emitting the lightning bolts, is
proof of the dread that all feel of the arbitrament of arms — the
court of the last resort.

Mr. Chamberlain proposed that President Kruger and Sir Alfred
Milner should meet and discuss in a conciliatory spirit the best
method of curing the Uitlander grievances, and bringing about
good relations between England and the Transvaal. This sugges-
tion, however, had been forestalled by those gentlemen, who held
a conference at Bloemfontein, May 30, 1899, on the invitation of
the President of the Orange Free State, whose interests are so
closely interwoven with those of the Transvaal that he was pain-
fully desirous that a peaceful solution of the troubles should be
reached. At this meeting. Sir Alfred declared with earnest emphasis
that the last wish of himself and his friends was to impair the
independence of the Republic. The enfranchisement of the Uit-
landers would strengthen such independence and almost, or wholly,
remove the need of British interference. Instead of crushing the
old burghers, his desire was to give to the new ones a moderate

THE DARKENING SKIES

Him

representation, that the way might be opened to seek a constitu-
tional redress for their own giievances.

President Kruger said that he had come to the convention in
the trust that his Excellency was a man capable of conviction,
and would enter into all the points of difference. He claimed full
independence as to the internal affairs of the State, but if his
Excellency, in a friendly way, would give him hints on internal
matters, he would listen and do all he could to remove the points
of difference. Concerning the fraufhise, the President said:

" I am not surprised that in other places the men would only
have to wait a year to get it, because there are millions of old
buighers, and the few that come in cannot outvote the old burghers;
but with us, those who rushed into the gold fields are in large
nnnibers and of all kinds, and the number of burghers is still
insignificant; therefore, we are compelled to make the franchise so
that they cannot rush into it all at once, and so soon as we can
assure ourselves, by a gradual increase of our burghers, that we can
safely do it, our plan is to reduce the time for any one there to
take up the franchise, and that is my plan."

In a dispatch from the Government at Pretoria to Dr. Leyds,
diplomatic representative in Europe, of the South African Republic,
it was stated that, on the British side, stress was laid on the fran-
chise and dynamite questions — the close monopoly of dynamite in
the Transvaal, with vast and unreasonable profits to the monopolists.

In addition to the arguments already named concerning the
franchise dispute, there were those on the incorporation of Swazi-
land with the Transvaal tei-ritory, payment of an indemnity for
tho losses and expenses of the Boers because of Jameson's raid,
and adoption of the principle of arbitration in all differences

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

1.0

I.I

Uit2^ MIS

■50 "^~ H^H

■tt lU |2.2

Ui&

1*^ IIJ^ m

►

^;.

Hiotographic

Sciences

Corporation

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WHSTIR.N.Y. MSIO

(716) •73-4S03

3(U

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

between the two countries. Sir Alfred, however, laid no speciiil
stress on the dynamite question, nor did President Kruger on tlic
Swaziland matter. Sir Alfred was sure the indemnity question
could be settled by arbitration.

The francliise (juestion was the rock upon which the two .split.
The High Commissioner proposed:

1. That it should be obtainable after five years' residence luul
should be retroactive.

2. That the naturalization oath should be modified.

3. That an equitable representation should be granted to the
Uitlanders.

4. That naturalization should include the immediate right of
voting.

President Kruger's proposal was to make a residence of two
years a prerequisite for naturalization; and a further residence of
five years a prerequisite for admission to the full franchise; persons
established in the coimtry luevious to 1890 to have the franchise
in two years; the mining population to be more largely representi I;
one of the conditions of obtaining naturalization to be the posses-
sion of at least $750 of property, or occupation of a house worth at
least $250 a year, or an income of at least $1,000 a year. Another
important condition of naturalization was that the person should
have had citizen rights in his own country. It will be seen that
this would have been a most effectual step toward securing a \m\v
ballot; but all of President Kruger's proposals were conditional
upon the British government accepting the principle of arbitration
in differences between the two countries.

The correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune, under date of June
10, thus referred to the situation:

THE DARKENING SKIES

365

"Mr. Chamberlain asserts that a new situation lias been created
ill the Transvaal by the failure of the conference, and the English
pipss is eager to take his woid for it; but neither he nor they can
exi)lain intelligibly how this impasse alters the conditions and
ohligations of treaty law. The truth is that the old situation
rioated by the treaty made with the Transvaal fifteen years ago
remains unaltered. That convention was clumsily drawn, but Lord
DtM'by officially interpreted it at the time as a pledge that the
British government would not impose upon the Transvaal any
liiiltility to intervention in internal affairs. England, under Glad-
stone's initiative, bound herself hand and foot, in a transport of
magnanimity and self-denial; and her pledges now remain to ham-
per her when many thousands of her citizens are deprived of their
just rights. The old situtition is maintained by the requirements of
national honor and an explicit pledge against interference in the
domestic affairs of the Dutch Republic.

"A new situation will arise when the British government
decides tliat the grievances of the Uitlanders exceed the moral
oliligiitions imposed by the treaty, and that coercion is necessary
to l)ring the Hoers to their senses. Probably Mr. Chamberlain
would like to take this stand at once; but Lord Salisbury is prime
minister, and prefers to make haste slowly."

Sir Alfred admitted that the proposals wert a distinct advance
on the existing system, but, nevertheless, it was utterly inadequate
to a settlement of the question. President Kruger pressed his plan
of aibitration for future differences, but the high commissioner
refused to complicate the great question of the franchise with
ntlier matters. And so the convention came to naught.

The Volksraad, after debating for a long time in secret,

366

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

approved, June 9, their president's proposals, and instructed the
government to formulate them into a bill to be laid before the
legislature. At the same time they adopted a resolution expressinfr
its regret that Sir Alfred Milner had rejected the proposals of
President Kruger, which it pronounced "in the highest degree
reasonable."

There was widespread disappointment over the failure of the
conference to reach an agreement, but the fact that each side had
made concessions and showed an apparently honest wish to solve
the vexatious problem, caused a general hope that such a solution
would be reached sooner or later. The shrewder and more far-
seeing ones, however, saw that, despite the mutual concessions, there
existed no real common ground upon which they could meet.

It was a game of diplomacy, in which the players on both
sides were past-masters of the art. With a predominant Dutch popu-
lation in Cape Colony and the community of interests and friend-
ship between the Orange Free State anr^. the Republic, it was
necessary for Great Britain to formulate her demands so as to
secure the support of a majority of the citizens of South Africii.

There was good ground offered Great Britain upon which In
make her demands. The system of government prevailing in the
Transvaal was narrow, exclusive, non-progressive, and, in many
instances, corrupt. Most of the Dutch in Cape Colony, and a great
many of those in the Free State, have long been opposed to this
policy. It was necessary, above all things, to convince these peojde
that England had no intention of pushing any scheme of annexation.

The great calamity to be feared was that the conflict with the
Boer president should become one for racial supremacy. W. P.
Schreiner. prime minister and the political head of Cape Colony, is

THE DARKENING SKIES

3()7

one of the most loyal and high minded officials in the service of
Great Britain. He and the ministry of the Cape had thoughtfully
considered the proposals oi President Kruger and believed they pre-
sented a basis upon which the irritating franchise quarrel could
be settled. They respectfully submitted their views to Sir Alfred
Milner, but the statesman shook his head.

"The differences between President Kruger and me are irrec-
oncilable. If you are so optimistic in your views it is you who
should discuss them with him." On the heels of this suggestion
came a telegram from Mr. Chamberlain asking the Cape ministry
to bring all the influence they could upon the South African
Republic, so to modify their proposals that all necessity for British
interference in such matters would be removed. The enmity
between the Johannesburg Uitlanders and burghers was steadily
deepening, while between the two, the Cape ministry and Orange
Free State gently wedged themselves and sought with inclosing
arms to draw the factions together.

When feeling was in this delicate state an incident occurred,
unimportant of itself, but most unfortunate because it intensified
the general distrust and suspicion. A number of alleged ex-officers
of the British army were arrested at Johannesburg, taken to Pre-
toria and remanded for trial. Affidavits were submitted to the
court, charging that 2,000 men had l)een enrolled for military
service, that they were to be furnished with arms in Natal, and
tlien taken back to the Raad, where at the proper moment they
would seize and hold the fort of Johannesburg for twentycfour
hours, or until the arrival of British troops.

In the first telegram from Pretoria, making known the arrest of
the alleged conspirators, it was said that they presented the appearance

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of "ordinary loafers," but in another dispatch the prisoners were
described as a colonel, a captain and several lieutenants, one of whom
claimed that he was acting under instructions from the British war
department.

It was impossible that this statement should be true, for,
recalling the Jameson raid, it was a height of folly to which no
;^'ovcrnment could attain. By son-e it was asserted that the whole
thing was a conspiracy of the ]3oer police, and the men arrested
were irresponsible nobodies. The trial failed to develop any con-
nection between the British government, home or colonial, and the
.alleged conspiracy, but the affair itself added to the hostility of
the quarreling factions, and to thiit extent increased the difficulty
of clearing the briars from the path leading to peace.

By this time the truth was clearer tlian ever that not an incli
of advance could be made toward securing the franchise for tli(^
Uitlanders until the burghers were convinced that their independ-
ence was not thereby imperiled.

Great crises not only produce tlieir great men, but their great
fools, and, unfortunately, the latter crop is often the more exuberant.
Ou June 11, the Transvaal branch of the South African League, in
an address to the high commissioner, impressed upon him the fact
that the proposed franchise would prove of very little help to the
Uitlanders unless they "at once obtained a preponderating influence
in the Raad!" The League urged further that the sweeping
reforms demanded must be affected "by pressure from the suzerian
power," contemporaneously with the grant of the new franchise.
and finally that the Boer fort at Johannesburg should be demolislied
without delay. This was pouring oil upon the fire with a vengeance.

Still, as the summer advanced, there seemed to be reason to

THE DARKENING SKIES

369

hoi)e that, despite the extremists on both sides, the two governments
might reach a satisfactory conclusion. Sir Alfred Milner had
declared at the conference that he was prepared to drop all
questions connected with the position of British subjects, if only
President Kruger could be persuaded to adopt a liberal measure of
enfianchisement, and in urging this view, Sir Alfred felt he was
supported by no inconsiderable Dutch sentiment. Moreover, pres-
sure was now brought to bear upon the president by those whose
honesty could not be questioned.

Mr. Chamberlain informed the House of Commons on July 20,
that he was gratified to state that President Kruger had greatly
modified his proposals, and that the Government hoped that the
new law just passed by the Raad, offered the basis of settlement
on the lines laid down by Sir Alfred Milner at the conference.
Ditlicult details remained to be arranged, but lie trusted that the
president would show himself willing to deal with them in a spirit
that would contribute to the desired end.

The same hopeful tone marked the dispatch of the secretary
of state, a week later, when he informed the high commissioner
of the advances made by President Kruger in meeting the British
demands. He pointed out that the Volksraad "had now agreed to
a measure intended to give the franchise immediately to those
who have been resident in the country for seven years, as well as
to those who may in future complete this period of residence.
This proposal is an advance on previous concessions, and leaves
only a difference of two years between yourself and President
Kruger so far as the franchise is concerned."

Among the important details that remained to he arranged was

allotment of a fair proportion of seats to the Uitlandei

111'

370

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

districts, nor should the privileges thus granted be at the mercy of
the Boer government to reduce or wipe out altogether. It was
suggested that the best way to arrange these details was to sulmiit
the matter to delegates appointed by the high commissionor and
President Kruger, who would discuss them and report to tlnir
respective governments. The settlement of the question of arliil ra-
tion seemed in sight, though Mr. Chamberlain would not consent
that any question should arise "in the interpretation of tlie pre-
amble of the Convention of 18S1, which governed the articles
substituted in the Convention of 1884.

The high commissioner now set himself to examine the details
and prol)able operation of the new law, and became convinced that
it was so inclosed and interwoven with difficulties and complica-
tions that ' was forced to advise its rejection. Moreover, I ho
Boers objo* 'jd to the appointment of a joint commission to incpiiie
into such matters, for, always suspicious, they saw in such a move
a peril to their legislative independence. At the same time the
Uitlanders showed no wish to learn the basis of a working system
in the bill passed by the Raad. It has always been one of the
contentions of President Kruger that the Uitlanders had no wish
to become enfranchised citizens of the Republic, and that it was
simply a scheme to destroy Boer independence.

And so, as the summer waned, the disputants, instead of draw-
ing nearer, steadily recoiled, and the cloud, at first no bigger than
a man's hand, spread and darkened in the sky, and thoughtful men
trembled as they saw it still growing and darkening. In the hitter
part of August President Kruger, having objected to the joint com-
mission, proposed a plan for dealing with the franchise and repre-
sentation which went much further than any proposal heretof< re

mercy of
It \vas
o sulimit
inor and
to tlifif
arlti1i:i-
con,<('iit
tlie pie-
articles

e details
,ced that
omplica-
)ver, the
3 iiKiuire
a move
ime the
r system
! of the
no \\ish
t it v.as

f draw-
er than
ful men
le latter
lit coin-
;1 rc[ire-
retofore

h
o

«fl

(X]

niiide, I
Sir Alfi
rotrospe
Kiiad ol
V(»t,iiig i
niiindan
it was ^
i^o "out
two go
strained
hible ha
to prev(
may noi

Wh.
cession,
and tha'
must be
conditio;
uiTairs c
and her
except t

The
rr('[tared
and a 1
I'roject ]
a flairs o
ever, to
flSSl an
of d civi

THE DARKENING SKIES

37^

r
X

X
u]

CQ
Id

made, and seemingly were more liberal than the proposals of
Sir Alfred Milner himself. This project included a five years'
retrospective franchise, ten seats for the Uitlandor districts in a First
liiuid of thii-ty-six, and equality between new and old burghers in
voting for the election of the President of the Kepublic and Com-
mandant-General. In offering these terms, the government declared
it was going far beyond what could be reasonably asked, but it did
so "out of its strong desire to get the controversies between the
two governments settled, and further, to put an egd to present
strained relations between the two governments, and the incalcu-
hible harm and loss it has already occasioned in South Africa, and
to prevent a racial war, from the effects or which South Africa
may not recover for many generations — perhaps never."

Who could doubt, on the face of it, after such a liberal con-
cession, that the cloud in the sky would dissolve and melt away,
and that the two governments wyuld speedily come to terms? It
must be added, however, that President Kruger's proposals were
conditioned upon Great Britain's non-interference in the internal
alTairs of the Republic, her renouncing her claim to suzerainty,
and her agreement to arbitration from which all foreign elements,
except that of the Orange Free State, should be excluded.

The reply of the State Secretary was characteristic. He was
prepared to accept the Boer plan if, after examination by a British
ajul a Transvaal agent, it was clear that it would carry out the
project proposed; and he "hoped" that further interference in the
aflairs of the Republic would not be necessary. He refused, how-
ever, to waive the rights of Great Britain under the conventions
(ISSl and 1884), or to divest his country of the ordinary obligations
of a civilized power to protect its subjects in a foreign land. He

874

THK STUUY OF SOUTH AFRICA

was ready to agree to arbitration, but on suzerainty he begged to
refer the South African Republic to his previous dispatch. Mr.
Chaniberhiin added:

"Her Majesty's Government also desire to remind the govern-
ment of the South African Republic that there are other matters
of difference between the two governments which will not be
settled by the grant of political representation to the Uitlandeis.
and which are not proper subjects for reference to arbitration. It
is necessary that these should be settled concurrently with the
questions now under discussion, and they will form, with the ques-
tion of arbitration, proper subjects for consideration at the con-
ference," which the secretary proposed should be held by the hiirli
commissioners and the president at Cape Town.

As with all great questions, there was not entire unanimity in
England as to Mr. Chamberlain's counter i)roposals, and he was
subjected to more or less criticism, some of it perhaps dictated by
party feeling. Frederic Harrison thus put the matter:

''No legal quibbling about suzerainty can persuade us that the
South African Republic is a part of the empire. If it is not part
of the empire it must be a foreign state, even though it be one
over which, by agreement. Great Britain has some control. But
this control is solely concerned with the external, not with the
internal, relations of the Republic. The point in dispute solely
relates to the internal relations of the Tvansvaal. No one pretends
that the dispute concerns the dealings of the Republic with foreign
nations. Therefore the cause of wjir, if war there is to be, arises
from matters between Great Britain and the home affairs of a
Republic which is not within the empire, not within the oomin-
ions of the Queen."

THE DARKENING SKIES

375

The British case was thus stated by a prominent London journal:

"Where nations are concerned the only rights are the rights
of strength, of ability, and of success. These qualities we believe
to be those of the British Empire at present, and we mean to
make them manifest in South Africa. As practical men we see
tluit the development of iin immense portion of the globe lies in
our hands, and in our hands alone, and we shall admit of no
obstacles in our path. The Boer may stand against us for a
moment, but only to be swept into oblivion. For us, too, in other
days, may come annihilation and defeat, but in the meanwhile we
are the paramount power, and no man shall deny it."

The Boers seem to have made a serious mistake, when, on Sep-
tember 2, they withdrew their offer of some two weeks previous,
on the ground that its terms and conditions were not frankly
accepted by the British government. They said they did not ask
the government to yield any of its rights, either under interna-
tional law or by virtue of any treaty, but they insisted that the
Convention of 1884 abolished the right of suzerainty. They showed
further by their reference to the franchise reform already passed,
that they were ready to consider the question of appointing dele-
gates to examine its eflBcacy, as had been urged by the Secretary
of State.

In his reply to this dispatch on September 9, Mr. Chamberlain
repudiated the claim of the Republic to "the status of a Sovereign
International State," refused to make any agreement admitting the
admission of such status. He declined to recede from the proposals
of August and to return to the earlier proposals which he now
pronounced insufficient, but he was prepared to accept those of the
Boer government as to franchise and seats, and the State Secretary

376

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

made no mention of the "sM!.eia;nty." The acceptance of these
terms, he declared, would a^ once /eraove the tension between the
two governments, and would ii ;: '1 probability, render unnecessary
any further intervention on tl part of the British government "to
secure the redress of grievances which the Uitlanders would them-
selves be fible to bring to the notice of the executive government
and Raad." In conclusion, Mr. Chamberlain urged in the interests
of South Africa, tlie relief of the present strain, and referred to u
future conference between the high commissioner and the president
on outstanding questions not relating to Jitlander grievances.

CHAPTER XIX

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

The excitement over the situation in South Africa steadily grew
throughout the month of September. There was a good deal of intem-
perate writing in the newspapers, and a few insisted that it was
not a question of justice and right, but of wlio was to rule in Africa.
Influential men urged the government to cease its dallxing, break off
negotiations and send a powerful army into the Transvaal that would
bring the Boers to their senses. To the replies that it was the
})eriod of all otliers when patience and calm deliberation should
prevail, many shouted "Remember Majuba Hill." The memory of
the defeat suffered on that battlefield by the British arms, is a sore
one to England. Fortunately the government had thoughtful men
at the head of affairs who refused to be driven into any rash steps.
Why should they, when they had reason to hope they could accom-
plish their purpose by diplomacy instead of force? Lord Salisbury
and his Cabinet remained cool, with the determination to keep open
to the last hour the door for temperate proposals and action.

The most regrettable feature of the situation was, that the two
^n)vernments should come so near each other in their proposals and
counter-proposals, and yet the strong probability of war remain. And
this, too, when none knew better than both the full cup of sorrow
and suffering th.at would be pressed to the lips of each in the event
of hostilities breaking out between the two nations.

The reader will understand from what has been already stated,
ihat the insuperable obstacle in the way of a relief of the tension

(877)

S/8

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

aud the securement of absolute tranquillity, was the distrust of
President Kruger and his countrymen in the motives and real designs
of Great Britian. Events seem to show conclusively that nothing
but a policy of equivocation was ever intended to be inforced by
the Boers. They had in mind at all times the proposed mission of
the Afrikander Bond and were determined to resist all demands,
no matter how small they might be.

President Kruger is a suspicious man, and he believed that tlie
mainspring of Great Britain's action was the party in South Africa,
who has always admitted its purpose of securing full possession of
the country. Although in another place we have given a sketch of
this remarkable man, it is not inappropriate to quote here the words
of Mr. Lecky, who knew him well :

*'He bears a striking resemblance to the stern Puritan warrior
of the Commonwealth — a strong, stubborn man, with indomitable
courage and resolution, with very little tinge of cultivation, but with
a rare natural shrewdness in judging men and events, impressing all
who came in contact with him with the extraordinary force of his
nature. He' is a m» mber of the *Dopper' sect, who are opposed to
everything in the nature of innovation, jand is ardently religious,
believing, it is said, as strongly as Wesley in a direct personal
inspiration guiding him in his acts."

September 2, the Boers began on another tack in their plan to
circumscribe all diplomatic exchanges of notes, with meaningless
phrases, offers of indefinite proposals and conditions that were not
to be lived u^ to. To such an extent was the alleged offer of tin-
Boers to agree to the proposed commission of inquiry into the
seven years' franchise, clouded by palpable insincerity and evasion,
that the British Government was fully convinced that the scheme

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

379

would not result in giving immediate and just representation to
the Uitlanders. With an eye single to the interests of the subjects
of Great Britain, the government insisted upon what is known as
the five years' franchise, with the further condition that tlie English
liinguage should be equally autlmrized with the Dutch in the pro-
ceedings of the Volksraad.

In about two weeks the Boers, with a great show of surprise.
put out a state paper in which they said that they had accepted
the original j>roposition of Mr. Chamberlain to refer the dispute
over the seven years' franchise to a mixed commission of inquiry.
The submission of the state papers which passed between the
Ihitish Government and the South African Republic, as shown in
Parliament by Mr. Chamberlain's office, bear out in every particular
the charge that Englishmen made, that Kiuger and his advisers
sought merely to evade by technicalities, the submission of any
IHoposition to an impartial hearing. The measure mentioned by
tlie Boers struck the Britisli nation as being not only insufficient
to afford immediate and substantial representation, but that it would
1)6 rejected by every Uitlander in the South African republic.

Now that the evasion and equivocation of the Transvaal author-
ities has been entirely revealed by the record of events, and the
(MToueous and mistaken diplomatic policy of tlie Kruger party is
p;tl[)al)le, even to those who were in sympathy with the South
African leaders, how clearly incisive are the words of Lord Salis-
hiiry who spoke to the City o' London Conservative association.

"I state a simple historical fact" said th*^ premier. "We were
fvcused of going to war for lust of gold and territory. It was one
'>'' those calumnies, which, under the favoring influences of Dr.
I ''yds, spread itself over the press of Europe. Nothing c Mild be

380

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

more untrue. We went to war to abate the oppression of the
Queen's subjects in the Transvaal, and because our remonstrances
were met by an insulting ultimatum, to which, if the Queen's
government had submitted her power, not only in South Africa.
but over her colonies and dependencies, would have been at an end.
We were forced into the war by the action of our opponents.

"To say that because we repudiated the greed of temtory we
therefore bound ourselves never to annex any territory is a most
ridiculous misconstruction. I dwell on this point because the
matter of annexation is to become a burning question.

"We have made a tremendous sacrifice of blood and treasure
in this conflict. There are misleading profits, whose action bulks
as large in the columns of the newspapers as the action of more
influential and powerful people, who mislead the unlucky leaders
of the Transvaal to continue resistance far beyond the time when
all resistance has ceased to be even possibly successful. These
men are perpetually pressing us to make some conditions, to offer
some arranged stipulations that shall leave a shred of indepen-
dence to the two republics. Our only certainty of preventing a
recurrence of this fearful war is to insure that never again shall
such vast accumulations of armament occur and that not a shred
of the former independence of the republics shall remain,

"It will be our duty to protect those native races who have
been so sorely afflicted, and at the same time to conduct their
policy that so far as possible there shall be a reconciliation and
that every one shall be a happy member of the British Empire."

Lord Salisbury's words, uttered some time after he had insisted
that Great Britian did not vary an inch from her demand for the
live years' franchise, strengthen the popular belief in the integrity

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

381

of the ministers who worked hard to secure immediate rights for
the many British subjects who were anchored by ties of home and
business in the Transvaal. England went so far as to guarantee
the Boers against attack from the outside. Then Mr. Chamberlain*
referring in his dispatch to the obligations of the Transvaal under
the "conventions" adopted the use of the plural. In this insistence
that the preamble to the Constitution of 1881 (wherein suzerainty
was expressed) had been transferred to the head of the resolutions
of 1884, in which the word "suzerainty" does not occur, adopted
the only just and correct course. Some of England's greatest legtil
authorities see no other way of construing the matter. It is a
thing that the Transvaal people have never admitted, yet the
public of the British Empire no longer doubt it for an instant.

It did not require the perception of a lawyer to see that Great
Britian was in earnest about immediate action looking towards the
securing of substantial representation for her oppressed subjects,
and if the fair offer were rejected, troops would be sent to South
Africa and that when these troops had iOne their work there
would be no enemies left in arms P.gainst the British Empire.
This conviction must have forced itself upon the phlegmatic leader
of the Boers who stands accused of having been planning trouble
for the period that he was accumulating abnormal amounts of
stores and armaments. Tlie policy of dilatory diplomacy became
that of the Boers or rather became the order of the day with
Kriiger who thinks himself a natural diplomat and the equal of
liny one in that line. It was the hope and dream of the Afrikander
Piond that the diplomacy of Kruger might not succeed, say some
very good authorities, and this element was immensely pleased
\\hen the famous ultimatum was hurled at Great Britain. The

382

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

cause as espoused by the opponents of Great Britain in South
Africa was weakened by the nature of the ultimatum.

It has been shown that they had numerous and powerful
friends in England, all of whom were in the ranks of the Liberal
party. The aid of these friends was indispensable. President
Kruger and his counselors should have deferred to the judgment of
these friends at court, who were rapidly educating the public up to
the point of opposing ill considered action. One cannot help
believing that, if the Boers had made none of their preparations
for war, but appealed to the fairness of the plain people of
England, the response would have been all they could reasonably
ask. Could that illustrious and virtuous Queen, who sits upon the
throne at the close of almost two generations of beneficent ivile
and whose horror of war is well known, have closed her ears to
the appeal of the Boers, had it been made under the conditions
named? Nothing was clearer than that the "plain people" desired
no war with them, and had the Boers placed their reliance
wholly upon this sentiment and feeling the staff would have proved
a sure one.

However, it is useless to speculate over what might or might
not have been. The last vestige of doubt as to the object of
Great Britain was removed by the reception of Mr. Chamberlain's
dispatch. The feeling in South Africa was that no compromise
remained possil)le, and that the struggle for independence was
to be fought out to the end. A wave of war excitement sweiit
over the Republic and the Orange Free State, and the demand
was almost irrestrainable for an opening of hostilities. On the 28th
of September, the Orange Free State announced that it would
support the Transvaal in the event of a war with Great Britain,

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

383

and on October 4th, the British Parliament authorized the immediate
expenditure of $15,000,000 for moving troops and munitions to South
Africa. On the following day, 2,500 troops were landed in Natal,
and two days lafer a royal proclamation ordered the mobilization
of the British reserves.

ne matter must be mentioned at this point. More than once
it was hinted in the peace papers of England that the under-
lying motive of the British Government throughout the negotia-
tions was the suppression of what, they had good reason to believe,
was a far-reaching conspiracy for the establishment of a Dutch
federation from the Zambesi to the Cape. This assertion was made
by Mr. Chamberlain, who said that it could not be brought before
the public, since the government's objects might be misinterpreted.
He referred, in support of this view, to the action of the Free State
and to that of the Afrikander members of the Cape Legislature,
which, it would seem, afforded justification of the view.

The members of the Volksraad looked upon the British notes
as subterfuges to gain time in which to concentrate their troops
fctr the invasion and conquest of the country. They urged the
government to adjourn the Raad immediately and to send Great
Britain a noto declaring that further mobilization would be regarded
as an unfriendly act. The veteran General Joubert advised patience
and moderation, and in rep^y it was plainly intimated that, if he
shrank from taking the initiative, there were plenty of competent
officers eager to step into his place.

Naturally, it was believed that the first important attempt of
the British would be the capture of Pretoria, their capital, and no
time was lost in adding to its strength. Trenches, earthworks and
sund-bag defenses were erected at all the approaches to the city;

384

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

messages were sent through the country calling upon the people
to be ready for war, and the excitement became more intense
than before.

On October 10 the South African Republic sent its ultimatum
to Great Britain, and it was like a bolt from the clear sky. The
full text of this important document follows:

"Sir: The Government of the South African Republic feels
compelled to refer the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of
Great Britain and Ireland once more to the Convention of London
of 1884, concluded between this Republic and the United Kingdom.
Its fourteenth article secures certain specified rights to the white
population of this Republic, namely, that (hero follows Article XIV
of the Convention of London of 1884).

" This Government wishes further to observe that the above
are the only rights which Her Majesty's Government has reserved
in the above convention in regard to the Uitlander population of
this Republic, and that a violation only of those rights could give
that Government the right of diplomatic representations or inter-
vention, while, moreover, the regulation of all other questions
affecting the position or rights of the Uitlander population under
the above mentioned convention, is handed over to the Government
and representatives of the people of the South African Republic.

" Among the questions, the regulation of which falls exclusively
within the competence of this Government and Volksraad, are
included those of the franchise and the representation of the
people in this Republic, and although thus the exclusive right of
this Government and Volksraad for the regulation of that fran-
chise and representation is indisputable, yet this Government li;is
found occasion to discuss, in a friendly fashion, the franchise nnd

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

representation of the people with Her Majesty's Government, with-
out, however, recognizing any right thereto on the part of Her
Majesty's Government.

"This Giovemiiicnt has also, by tlie formulation of the now
existing Franchise law, ind the resolution in regard to representa-
tion, constantly held thesb friendly discussions before its eyes. On
the part of Her Majesty's Government, l« wever, the friendly nature
of these discussions has assumed a more and more threatening
tone, and the minds of the people of this Republic and the whole
of South Africa have been excited, and a condition of extreme
tension has been created, while Her Majesty's Government could
no longer agree to the legislation respecting the franchise and the
resolution respecting representation in this Republic, and, finally,
by your note of September 25, 1899, broke off all friendly corres-
pondence on the subject and intimated that it must now proceed
to formulate its own proposals for a final settlement.

"This Government can only see in the above intimation from
Her Majesty's Government a new violation of the Convention of
Loudon of 1884, which does not reserve to Her Majesty's Govern-
ment the right to a unilateral settlement of a question which is
an exclusively do'nestic one for this Government, and has already
been regulated by it.

" On account of the stndned situation and the consequent serious
loss in and interruption of trade in general, which the correspond-
ence respecting the franchise and representation in this Republic
curried in its train, Her Majesty's Government has recently pressed
for an early settlement and finally pressed for an answer within
foity-eight hours, subsequently somewhat modified, to your note of
September 12, replied to by the note of this Government of

886

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

September 15, and your note of September 25, and thereafter
further friendly negotiations broke off, and this Go^'' meiit
received an intimation that a proposal for a final , element
would shortly be made. But, although this promise was once more
repeated, no proposal has now reached this Government.

" Even while friendly correspondence was still going on an
increase of troops on a large scale was introduced by Her Majesty's
Government and they were stationed in the neighborhood of the
borders of this Republic. Having regard to occurrences in the
history of this Republic which it is unnecessary here to call
to mind, this Government felt obliged to regard this military
force in the neighborhood of its borders as a threat against
the independence of the South African Republic, since it is
aware of no circumstance to justify the presence of such a
military force in South Africa and in the neighborhood of its
borders.

" In response to an inquiry in respect thereto, addressed to the
British High Commissioner, this Government received, to its great
astonishment, a veiled insinuation that from the side of the
Republic an attack might be made on Her Majesty's colonies, and
at the same time a mysterious reference to possibilities, by which
it was strengthened in the suspicion that the independence of this
Republic was being threatened.

"As a defensive measure it, therefore, was obliged to send a
portion of the burghen of this Republic in order to offer requisite
resistance to similar possibilities.

"The dispatch lays stress on the fact that the military prep-
arations and action of Great Britain have caused an intolerable
condition of affairs throughout South Africa. Therefore, it

THE ISSUE lis MADE UP

38-

says the Transvaal Government is compelled earnestly to
press Her Majesty's Government to give assurances on the follow-
ing points:

"First. That all points of mutual difference be regulated bv
friendly recourse to arbitration, or by whatever amicable way may be
agreed upon by this Government and Her Majesty's Government.

"Second. That all troops on the borders of this Republic
shall be instantly withdrawn.

"Third. That all reinforcements of troops which have arrived
in South Africa since June 1, 1899, shall be removed from South
Africa within a reasonable time, to be agreed upon with this
Government and with the mutual assurance and guarantee on the
part of this Government that no attack upon, or hostilities against
any portion of the possessions of the British government shall be
made by this Republic during the further negotiations, within a
period of time to be subsequently agreed upon between the govern-
ments, and this Government will, on compliance therewith, be pre-
pared to withdraw' the armed burghers of this Republic from the
borders.

"Fourth. That Her Majesty's troops, which are now on the
high seas, shall not be landed in any part of South Africa."

The Ultimatum ends as follows:

"This Government must press for an immediate affirmative
answer to these four questions, and earnestly requests Her Majesty's
Government to return such answer before or on October 11, 1899,
not later than five P. M.

"It desires, further, to add that in the unexpected event that
no satisfactory answer is received in that interval, it will be com-
poMed, with great regret, to regard the action of Her Majesty's

:isb

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Government as a formal declaration of war, and will not hold itself
responsible for the consequences thereof.

"And in the event of any further movements of troops within
the above time in a nearer direction to our borders, this Govern-
ment will be compelled to regard that as a formal declaration of
war. F. W. REITZ, State Secretary."

It was a daring act on the part of the little republic thus to
beard the lion in his den, but the Boers did not intend to wait
until the vast armies of Great Britain were landed on her soil.

The text of the ultimatum was received in London on the
morning of October 10, and the answer was demanded by five P. M.
of the following day. As might have been anticipated Great Britain
refused to discuss the audacious document. On the 17th Par-
liament was opened in extraordinary session to consider the South
African situation. The Queen's speech was as follows :

"My Lords and Gentlemen: Within a very brief period after
the recent prorogation I am compelled by events deeply affecting
the interests of my empire to recur to your aflvice and aid. The
state of affairs in South Africa makes it expedient that my gov-
ernment should be enabled to strengthen the military forces of
this country by calling out the reserves. For this purpose the
provisiv>ns of the law render it necessary that Parliament shonld
be called together. Except for the diflBculties that have been caused
by the action of the South African Republic, the condition of the
world continues to be peaceful.

"Gentlemen op the House op Commons: Measures will be laid
before you for the purpose of providing for an expenditure which
has been or may be caused by events in South Africa. The esti-
mates for the ensuing year will be submitted to you in due course.

""*%•!

BLUE JACKETS BATTERING THE BOERS AT LADYSMITH.

NATIVE DISPATCH CARRIER OVERTAKEN BY BOERS.

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

391

" My Lords and Gentlemen : There are many subjects of
domestic interest to which your interest will be invited at a later
period when the ordinary season for the labors of a parliamentary
session has been reached. For the present I have invited your
attention in order to ask you to deal with an exceptional exigency,
and I pray that in performing the duties which claim your atten-
tion you may have the guidance and blessing of Almighty God."

There was an immense crowd in the House of Commons when
the session was resumed. The customary address in reply to the
i<peech from the throne was moved by Sir Alexander Aclan-Hood,
Conservative, which was seconded by Mr. Royds, a Unionist mem-
l)er. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannermann, speaking in behalf of the
opposition, said the demands of the Transvaal government were
couched in such language that it was impossible for any self-
respecting country to consider them, and he assured the government
that his followers would offer no obstacles to the granting of the
8ui»plies necessary to the rapid and effective prosecution of the war.

The speaker insisted that the essential grievances of the
toieigners in the Transvaal had been removed, and the British
position in South Africa made England responsible for its quiet
iii)(l content. The civil negotiations he regarded, to some extent,
its a game of bluff, unworthy of a great nation, and not likely to
be successful with the Boers, and he asked Mr. A. J. Balfour, the
govornment leader of the house of commons, for assurances that
tho government was not actuated by any unworthy desire to
u\onge former military disasters, or to establish the political super-
iority of Englishmen over Dutchmen.

Mr. Balfour warmly replied, repudiating the suggestion that
Great Britain had goaded the Boers into war by flaunting suzerainty

392

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

before them, or that she had been engaged in a game of bluff,
adding that the country had never gone to war on an issue which
was more clearly one of righteousness and liberty.

Sir Charles Dilke, Radical, said he had not a particle of
sympathy for the thick-headed toryism of the Boers in their treat-
ment of the Uitlanders. It was impossible to refuse the gauntlet
they had thrown down, but he regarded with grave doubt, tlie
sacrifices imposed on his country. He foresaw the future stniin
upon the British military system in maintaining garrisons in South
Africa, which might lead to the neglect of the navy.

Mr. John Dillon, anti-Parnellite, moved an amendment to the
address, to the effect that the war had been caused by Great
Britain claiming the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the
Transvaal in direct violation of the convention, and by her mass-
ing troops on the frontiers. He insisted upon independent friendly
arbitration. Mr. Dillon's amendment was rejected by a vote of
322 to 54.

In the House of Lords, the Earl of Kimberley, the Liberal
leader of that body, said the government could not have sent any
other reply than they did to the extraordinary ultimatum of the
Transvaal. He added: "There are some points in the negotiations,
however, which I have not viewed with satisfaction. The negotia-
tions have not been conducted in a prudent, and certainly not iii
a successful, manner. My own interpretation of the word 'suze-
rainty' is that there are in the London Convention certain stipula-
tions which limit British sovereignty in the Transvaal, and that, to
the extent of these limitations, there is constituted 'suzerainty. "

The Premier, the Marquis of Salisbury, replying to Lord
Kimberley 's criticism of the negotiations, said:

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

3t)8

"The Boer government were pleased to dispense with any
explanation on our part respecting the causes or justification of
the war. They have done what, no provocation on our part could
have justified. They have done what the strongest nation has
never in its strength done to any opponent it had challenged.
They issued a defiance so audacious that I could scarcely depict it
without using words unsuited for this assembly, and by so doing
they liberated this country from the necessity of explaining to the
people of England why we are at war. But for this, no one could
have predicted that we would ever be at war.

"There have been very grave questions between us, but up to
the time of the ultimatum, the modes we had suggested of
settling them were successful, and the spirit in which we were met
was encouraging. We lately had hoped that the future had in
reserve for us a better fate,

"It w^as largely due to the character of Mr. Kruger, and to the
ideas pursued by him, that we have been led step by step to
the nresent moment, when we are compelled to decide whether
the future of South Africa will be a growing Dutch suprem-
acy or a safe, perfectly established supremacy of the English
people."

The Premier con^Juded by dealing briefly with the government's
future policy in South Africa, declaring that, while there must be
no doubt as to the paramountcy of the sovereign power of Great
Britain, there must also be no doubt that the white races in South
Africa would be put upon an equality, and due precautions taken
for llie "philanthropic," friendly and improving treatment of those
pouiitless indigenous races of whose destiny, I fear, we have hitherto
been too forgetful.

394

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"Those things must be insisted upon in future," exclaimed
Lord Salisbury. " By what means they are to be obtained, I do
not know. I hope they may be consistent with the very ][ir<:e
amount of autonomy on the part of the race which values its
individual sliare in government as much as the Dutch people do.
But with that question we are not concerned now. We have only
to make it clear that the great objects essential to the power of
England in South Africa, to the good government of South Africa
and to the rights of all the races concerned, are the objects of tlie
British government, objects which, with the full support of the
nation and without distinction of party, the government are
now pursuing, and which they will pursue and persevere in to
the end.

"But now all question of possible peace, all question of justi-
fying the attitude we had assumed, and all question of pointing out
the errors and the grave oppression of which the Transvaal tjov-
ernment have been guilty, all these questions have been wiped
away in this one great insult, which leaves us no other course than
the one which has received the assent of the whole nation and
which it is our desire to carry out.

" It is a satisfactory feature of our policy during these latter
days that on questions involving the vital interests and honor of
the country there are no distinctio s of party."

His lordship said he believed that a desire to get rid of the
word "suzerainty" and the reality which it expressed, had been the
controlling desire of President Kruger's life. It was for that that
the president of the Transvaal had sot up the negotiations of 1SS4,
and, in order to get that hateful word out of the convention, he
had made considerable sacritices. Mr. Kruger had used oppressiou

'^%Jlitl'V>.

THE ISSUE IS MADE UP

395

of the Uitlanders as a screw to obtain a concession on the subject
of suzerainty.

The premier added :

"I quite agree that the word 'suzerainty' is not necessary for
Great Britain's present purpose. Situated as Great Britain is in
South Africa toward the Transvaal and the Uitlanders, she has a
duty to fulfill which has nothing to do with any convention or any
question of suzerainty. This word, however, being put into the
treaty, obtained an artificial value and meaning which have pre-
vented Great Britain from entirely abandoning it. If Great Britain
(h'opi)ed it she would be intimating that she also repudiated and
abandoned the ideas attached to it.

The opportunity was offered the United States to return the
courtesy shown by Great Britain in the late war with Spain. At the
request of Her Majesty's government, the United States consuls in
South Africa were directed to look after British interests in that
section during the continuance of the war.

Now that Great Britain was fairly launched into the war, her
people rallied to her support. Those who had been the strongest
friends of the Transvaal, so long as negotiations were under way, and
there was promise of a peaceful solution, saw that the ultimatum
from Pretoria left but one course open to them. The wi!.!i was tliat,
since the war had come, it would be pressed to the quickest possi))le
conclusion, for when one has a bad job on hand, he cannot get
through it too promptly.

On the afternoon of the 16th, an enthusiastic meeting of mem-
I'ers of the London Stock Exchange was held at the Guildhall to
iiiqirove of the government's policy in South Africa. Four hundred
brokers, carrying the Union Jack and the Royal Standard, marched

396

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to the hall, where the meeting was opened with the singing of the
national anthem. A resolution was proposed, and warmly suppoitod
by Samuel Stewart Gladstone, Governor of the Bank of Enghmd,
declaring that, while the meeting deplored the war, the responsibility
for it rested upon the Transvaal government. The resolution which
was adopted, assured the government of the cordial and enthusiastic
.support of the citizens of London in its course of claiming avd
insisting on equal rights of all the white races in South Africa.

CHAPTER XX

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

It may be well at this point to consider the respective military
powers of Great Britain on one side, and the forces of the South
African Republic and the Orange Free State on the other. It is
not necessary to state that Great Britain is the overwhelming
superior power on the sea. While she cannot bring her magnificent
\var ships directly into the contest as opposed to the Boers, who have
no navy, yet these naval resources have served P^ngland in good stead.
Her many ships have been utilized to transport troops and munitions
of war, and, in this way, she has been enabled to quickly put into
South Africa a vast army. The resources of ICngland as to money are
piactically unlimited. Her power to create an offensive force is to a
great extent limited by the loyalty of her colonies. To increase the
regular army of England she must call upon the colonies for aid. They
might give her thousands of additional troops, and certainly a vast
army could be raised in the empire for purely defensive purposes. As
to whether her colonial sons will offer up their lives to the mother
country in large numbers, in an offensive war, is a question which
must be settled by developments. It has been stated that an army
of two hundred thousand men is all that England can hope to put
into South Africa, without seriously affecting the forces needed for
the defense of other portions of the Empire. England, as one of
the great powers of the world, if not the greatest, occupies a posi-
tion where jealousy and hatred would pour out wrath upon her if

(397)

898

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

other nations dared to undertake the contest. These nations are
only withheld by the evidence of England's forces, and to with-
draw the military symbol of he^ great reserve power, from her far
distant possessions, is only to give v'*onfidence to the tentative enemy.

The population of the South Afr.'can Republic is stated to be
barely a quarter of a million; that of the Orange Free State about
two hundred thousand. While no exact figures have been given
out as to the military strength of the Boers, it is thought that if
they put an army of thirty-five thousand men in the field that thi^
would represent the maximum of their strength. There might be
an accretion to this number by disaffection among the Boers in
Cape Colony and Natal. The latter are bound by ties of blood to
their struggling brothers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free
State, and, if not an openly expressed hope, it has been the dream
and the ardent desire of every Boer in South Africa, whether a
subject of England or a citizen of the Republics, to eventually form
a great Dutch republic in South Africa in which there will be no
English control, interference or domination.

The Boers gather strength from their innate hatred of the
English, and from their belief that they can make a triumph for
Great Britain so costly that that country will be unwilling to pay
the price. In other words, the Boers hope that the expenditure of
treasure and lives by England necessary to conquer them, will
compel that country to halt and make terms, as she did at Majuba
Hill. That there is some sound philosophy in this Boer way of
thinking is proven by the experience of the North in the war of
the rebellion. The greatest danger that threatened the North was
not when the advantages were with the confederates. The great
danger came after the tremendous Union victories at Vicksburg

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

3<)9

and Gettysburg. The former was decisive and was really the
deathblow of the Confederacy, but a year later, when a greenback
dollar was worth only about thirty cents and wholesale drafting
was necessary to fill the depleted ranks, tens of thousands of brave
men lying dead in the graves of Southern battlefields, the people
began to ask one another the ominous question:

"Are we not paying too high a price for the Union? Have
we not shed enough blood? Is it not time to give up the struggle
in which our losses are so appalling and which have cast a shadow
over thousands of hearts and homes?"

It was in the summer of 1864 that the "dead point" in the
war for the Union was reached by the national government and
when thoughtful men saw that unless the rebellion was subdued
within the following twelve months it would never be subdued at
all. Thank God it was suppressed and the Union restored.

Some such hope as this has inspired the Boers and the mutual
jealousy of Germany, France and Russia, whom the Boers have
vaguely hoped might find an excuse for intervention, has worked
to give them greater courage.

But more inspiring than these motives has been the child-
like faith and fanatical patriotism of the Boers. After their
wonderful charge up Majuba hill in the previous war, General
Joubert was complimented on the brilliant exploit. His simple
reply was:

"It was God who did it, not we."

The Boer leaders are not only hard fighters, but strategists
possessed of great military ability. They had the best of modern
weapons and the vast advantage of having their whole stjength in
hand and at immediate command, while Great Britain'H force in

400

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the country was so slight that it required weeks to transport suf-
ficient troops to warrant her in taking the aggressive.

At the initiative, therefore, the Boers had the most powerful
force on the scene and it was only in the natural order of events
that the war should open with a vigor on their part which gave
them a distinct advantage, though some of their successes were
deeply humiliating to England.

The embodiment of the militia and the calling out of the
militia reserves in Great Britain added more than fifty per cent.
to the military resources of the kingdom and placed her on a footing
which she has not held since the war against Napoleon when slie
had at one time under her colors more than 600,000 men. Accord-
ing to official reports filed in the War Department in Washington
the active army of Great Britain in 1895 consisted of 219,000 officers
and men, of whom about a third were serving in India, while
90,000 were retained in the British Isles, including the Channel
Islands, the rest being distributed among the colonies and the
military stations scattered over the world.

When the army corps and the 25,000 reserves of the English
regular army, which were called out should reach the Cape, they,
with the contingent already there and the Anglo-Indian contingent
expected to arrive, would give Sir Redvers Buller a force almost
double that under the Boer commanders. But he, too, was threat-
ened by the necessity of detaching a considerable part of his army
for garrison and police duty in the Cape Colony with a still graver
peril threatening in the event of an uprising among the Afrikanders
of that colony, who number more than a quarter of a million. No
doubt the embodiment of the militia and the calling out of the
militia reserves in the United Kingdom was, to some extent, a

"-i'BlBCsn

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

401

precaution against this contingency. It might be supposed by some
that the measure was intended as a warning to the other European
powers not to interfere in the quarrel.

It will be understood, therefore, how it was that the Boers, by
striking quick and hard, gained more than one striking advantage
at the start. It was generally expected about the middle of October,
that a battle would be fought to the westward of Ladysmith, but,
for a time, the operations were confined to outpost skirmishing,
both armies acting with great caution. A dispatch, dated at Lady-
smith on the 19th, was to the effect that the Boers had captured
a train conveying several officers and a number of soldiers and
civilians to Glencoe. They compelled another train to stop, and
they cut the telegrapb communication between Ladysmith and
Glencoe. Matters were rapidly approaching a crisis.

About this time a noteworthy incident occurred in the House
of Commons, where, during a debate. Secretary Chamberlain in
reply to charges, hotly denied having had any communication with
Cecil Rhodes at the time of the Jameson raid. He admitted saying
ill 1896, that it would be immoral to resort to war in order to
force internal reforms, but, considering the whole later history of
the Transvaal troubles, he had come to the belief that war was
always inevitable. He accused the Pretoria government of having
aided President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, and of having,
since 1881, conspired against Great Britain as the paramount power
of South Africa.

According to the British dispatches, which, it must be remem-
bered, were censored, the first serious action between the British
and the Boers was fought in the immediate neighborhood of the
British camp at Glencoe on the 20th, and resulted in a defeat of

402

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the Boers. Later, dispatches showed that the Boers devised their
attack with skill, their purpose being to attack Glencoe by three
columns simultaneously, with a force aggregating 9,000 men.

The first column, under General Erasmus, left the Ip.rge Boer
camp on the Igagane River and halted at Hattingspruit, on the
main road between Baunhausen and Glencoe. The second and
most powerful column, commanded by Gen. Luoas Meyer, made a
long detour and took up a position on Smith's Hill, commanding
the Glencoe camp. The third column, consisting mainly of Free
State burghers, under Commandant Viljoon, advanced from Wascli-
bank on the railway south of Glencoe, destroying railway and
telegraphic communication between Glencoe and Ladysmith.

General Joubert's instructions were that General Erasmus
should lure the whole British force on the northern road toward
Hattingspruit, and while it was engaged in the easy task of
destroying General Erasmus' forces, Viljoen and Meyer were to
attack its flank and rear and annihilate it. General Symons, the
British commander, penetrated this design and governed ^ ^mself
accordingly, but the plan of the Boers failed. They lost telegraphic
touch between the three columns, which, therefore, advanced dis-
jointedly, and General Meyer opened the battle before the column
from Hattingspruit was within striking distance, while Commandant
Viljoen was still further south. Thus Meyer, with only 4,000 men,
was compelled to bear the brunt of the battle.

Only one-half of General Symons' force of 4,000, attacked
the hill, the remainder being held in position behind the camp
watching eveAts. When the fighting had continued for two hours
and a half, advance detachments of the Hattingspruit column were
discovered lining the hill to the west of the camp. A battery

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

behind the British camp opened fire vvitli such effect that the Boers
were scattered. Tlius the Hattingspruit column was kept out of
the action, except as it was fired upon by the artillery, and later,
when it came in contact with the hussars and mounted infantry,
who were pursuing General Myer's column as it retreated from
the hill.

The first incident of the battle occurred at earliest daybreak,
when the pickets exchanged a few shots two miles outside the
camp. At half-past five, the Boers fired the opening shot from a
battery on the hill. It dropped in Dundee but did no damage. A
few minutes later, all the Boer guns were at work, shell after shell
falling into the camp and town. Although the range was good,
hardly a shell burst. A quarter of an hour later, the British replied,
nil their shells exploding and working great havoc. The range at
first was 5,000 yards and the British guns were fired with wonderful
accuracy, many of the shells landing and bursting on the exact spot.
At the end of half an hour, the Boer guns were silenced, though
many of the men remained to protect the probable line of assault.

Then General Symons ordered the infantry to advance. The
King's Royal Rifles and the Dublin Fusileers were at the front.
They covered two miles of broken ground, during which there was
a strange lull in the battle. Resting for a few minutes, they began
the ascent, while the batteries moved to new positions and again
took up the fight. The bombardment was severe and was main-
tained for an hour, notwithstanding which the Boers kept up a
brisk fire from their Maxims, but were driven out and compelled
to retreat before the spirited charge of their enemy.

By examining the map, it will be observed that Glencoe is on
u line of railway running from Laing's Neck to Lady smith and so

404

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

on to Durban, the principal port of Natal. Glencoe is about forty
miles north of Ladysmith and a branch line of railway runs froin
Glencoe to Dundee, twenty miles distant. The location is, there-
fore, of considerable strategic importance.

The news of the battle was received in England as a victory,
but as the particulars filtered in, it became evident that it was one
of those victories that are as expensive to the winners as to the
defeated. Tlie Boers, owing to their inferiority of numbers, were
obliged to retire, but the British suffered so severely that on the
approach of the main body of the army under General Joubert,
they abandoned their position and General Yule and his men
marched to Ladysmith. It appeared that the British left their sick
and wounded to the generosity of the Boers, not being able to
effect the retreat hampered by their cp.re. Among the mortally
wounded was General Symons, who died on October 25, and was
buried the following day close to the English church at Dundee.
Commandant-General Joubert immediately notified General White
of the sad event, and sent a message of sympathy to Lady Symons.

Gen. Sir William Penn Symons, K. C. B., was born in Cornwall
in 1848, entering the army in 1863 and becoming a colonel in 1887.
He served in the Zulu war in 1879 and for his gallau ry received a
medal and clasp. Later he saw service in Burmah and India and
won another medal and clasp. In 1898, he commanded the Sirhind
district, Punjavib, India.

The battle of Glencoe was a fine exhibition of British gen-
eraVsnip and superb courage, but all it accomplished was to save
General Yule's force from annihilation or capture, and to permit it
to retreat by forced marches to the main army at Ladysmith, where
it arrived completely fagged out.

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

405

Thirty men of the Eighteenth Hussars attempted on Sunday,
the 22d, to cut off the Boers who had been routed at Elandslaagte,
but were themselves cut off, captured and taken prisoners to
Pietoria. They received courteous treatment, and when they left
the train in the presence of an immense crowd, no demonstration
was made against them.

At this time there were rumors in different quarters of armed
European intervention. M. Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador,
was ordered by his government to return to Washington, in con-
sequence of developments connected with the Transvaal war. This,
it was said, was done on the representations made to the French
Cabinet to have some one at our capital who was persona grata to
President McKinley during the sensitive times. The belief in Paris
was that the real difficulties would begin when the Boers were
beaten, since all the powers fully understand the law of compensa-
tions as taught by Great Britain, a master of the art.

The members of the European embassies and legations in
Washington, sounded one another to learn what warrant there
was for the reports that a movement was on foot to form a con-
tinental coalition to mediate between Great Britain and the
Transvaal. So far as known there was no official warrant at all
to confirm these rumors. No approach was made to the United
States to act in the matter, and it is safe to say that simple
^'ratitude to Great Britain for her course in our war with Spain,
Would prevent our government taking any steps that could be
tleemed iu the slightest degree unfriendly toward her.

The chief interest in the military situation now centered on
liiidysniith, which had l)econie the real head of the British occupa-
tion of Natal, north of the Tugela River. The momentous question

406

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

vas whether General White would be compelled to evacuate this
position, as Dundee had been evacuated by General Yule, or
whether he could hold out against the Boers until reinforcements
reached him. The anxiety shown by Sir George White to ke('[)
his riglit flank clear, proved that he feared a turning movement
in tliat direction.

Meanwhile, there was stirring news from Mafeking, over on
the other side of the Republic. The Boers opened a bombardment,
without decisive results, and continued to close in around Kim-
berley, for whose safety much anxiety was felt.

A brief lull followed, though there were a number of minor
skirmishes, in which marked bravery was displayed by both sides,
even though nothing important was accomplished. Lord Rosebery
made an important speech at Bath, in the course of which he said:

"Our minds are turned to the southern continent, where so
much of the best blood of England is being shed. My advice is to
trust the men at the helm when we are passing through a stoini.
It was well to present a united front to the enemy. It would he
time enough when the war was over, to examine any questions of
liability. All such questions had been wiped out by the ultimatum
of the Boers."

In his opinion the Transvaal question was not a very compli-
cated one; it was the effort of a community to put back the clock.
He recommended that the people of this country should tiike
Chatham's advice: "Be one people; forget everything for the
public." This was no little war, but as Shakespeare said:

** Naught shall make ub rue,

If England to hcrBelf remain but true."

In his speech, Lord Rosebery made one significant reference to

CHARGE OF THE GUARDS AT BELMONT.

THE LIGHT SIDE OF WARFARE- DRAWING THE ENEMY'S FIRE.

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

409

Europe's attitude toward Great Britain. He said he would not say,
for he did not know, that the governments of Europe were
unfriendly to England, but it was unquestionable that the press of
European countries and public opinion, so far as the press repre-
sents it, were almost uniformly hostile. He added:

"Depend upon it, there are nations in Europe who are watch-
ing, with an eagerness which should give you cause to reflect, for
every trip and stumble, much more, for every disaster, that may
overtake the British arms, and when that is the condition of things, a
war waged under such circumstances, is not a little war. We have so
much on our shoulders, such heavy work to do, so much sail to carry,
that we cannot, at this critical juncture, afford to waste time in
polemical discussions. I know that this is unpopular doctrine, but it
would be imp^'oper to omit mentioning it."

No matter in what sort of war a nation is engaged, it is always
ready to appeal to heaven for success, with the assumption that its
cause is so righteous a one that there is no doubt of Divine favor. It
was the great and good President Lincoln, who, in reply to the
question whether he believed the Lord was on his side, said his chief
anxiety was to make sure that he was on the Lord's side.

In her speech to the House of Commons on October 27th,
Queen Victoria said:

"I am happy to release you from the exceptional duties
imposed upon you by the exigencies of the public service.

"I congratulate you on the brilliant qualities displayed by the

brave regiments upon whom the task of repelling the invasion of

my South African colonies has been laid. In doing so I cannot

but express profound sorrow that so many gallant officers and

soldiers should have fallen in the performance of their duty,
aa

410

THd] STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

" I acknowledge gratefully the liberal provision made to defray
the expenses of the military operations. I trust the Divine blessing
may rest on your effort and that of the gallant army to restore
peace and good government to that portion of my empire, and
vindicate the lionor of this country."

Sir George White in command at Ladysmith showed that he
expected serious work, for he brought up all the available troops
at Pietermaritzburg and had all his artillery wdth him. The reports
from Cape Town and Lorenzo Marquez made it look doubtful
whether the Boer army was able to undertake any offensive opera-
tions against the entrenched camp at Ladysmith ; but it was
necessary for their leaders to make an effort to clear the country
between the Drakenberg Mountains and the Tugela River before
reinforcements could arrive from England, in order that a ouccess-
ful resistance could be offered to the advance, sure to be made
later on.

The difficulty in the matter of transport under which Great
Britain labored would soon be remedied, for large numbers of
mules, purchased in Italy and elsewhere, were on their way to
Durban. Many of those animals were also bought in the United
States by agents of Great Britain. If the Boers failed in their
attack upon Ladysmith or in the attempt to turn the English posi-
tion, they would be obliged to fall back to their first lines of defense
in the Drakenberg, and in the triangle holding the battlefields of
the previous war.

As the cold facts of the military operations became clear to the
minds of the Englislimen at home, they determined to " put the
business through" no matter at what cost. While it was unu'^uht-
edly true that no power or group of powers had agieed upon

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

411

intervention, Lord Rosebery was undoubtedly right when he said
such intervention was likely to follow upon any grave disaster
to British arms. The importance, therefore, of extreme care in the
conduct of the campaign in the Transvaal was self-evident. To
take risks was criminal when the consequences of defeat were
likely to be far-reaching and tremendous in their importance. The
plan was for the British forces to remain substantially on the
defensive until the arrival of reinforcements that would make them
resistless.

It was natural that Holland should feel an active sympathy
for the Boers. This was shown by her raising funds for them, by
the dispatch secretly of supplies, and finally authentic word came
to England that a corps, numbering a thousand men, had been
secretly raised in Holland to help the Boers in the war. The
money required for equipment and transport was furnishsd by
wealthy Amsterdam merchants. Since this proceeding was a viola-
tion of international law, great caution was necessary, but the
Dutchmen proved themselves equal to the demands of the occasion.
The men left home in small detachments, the rendezvous being at
Kooraati Poort, on the Transvaal-Portuguese frontier, where the
commandant had been informed what to do with them. They
traveled as returning Transvaal citizens, an artifice which prevented
the Portuguese au'^horities from interfering with them. The only
active sympathizers, in addition to those mentioned, were a number
of German officers on the retired list, who made their way to the
Transvaal, under an arrangement to provide their own transportation
to Koomati Poort, their pay dating from the time they entered the
actual service of the Republic. These officers acted from mere
professional motives, for in all wars there are plenty of men who

412

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

enlist through a longing for excitement and the desire to add to
their modest stipend. *

Considerable critic'sm was made upon the Boer hospital service,
but this was unjust, since the same could have been made upon
the British service at Glencoe, where both were so overtaxed by the
results of the first fight that many poor fellows lay all night in
the rain before attention could be given to them. The Transvaal
had the Red Cross Society and the St. John's Ambulance Society
as helpers to the regular military corps. The hurry of the hostili-
ties prevented as perfect an organization as would have been the
case had more time been at command. When war broke out, sev-
eral railway trains were fitted with swinging beds and all the
modern conveniences were called into use to alleviate the suffer-
ings of the wounded. A. field hospital was attached to every com-
mando and the hospital headquarters fixed at Pretoria, whither all
the wounded burgers within reach of the railway were sent at the
earliest possible moment. Also, everything was done to provide
nurses, while a general movement for the aid of the British
wounded took place in London, many titled men and women con-
tributing generously to the merciful enterprise.

As full accounts of the retreat of General Yule from Dundee
reached England, it looked as if the Boers had lost one of the best
chances that the campaign was likely to offer them. Sir General
White at Ladysmith had not sufficient troops to detach a strong
enough force toward Glencoe to create a diversion in favor of
General Yule, who was making desperate efforts to reach him. Ha<l
the Free State burghers made a prompt advance from Besters on
the Van Reenen's Pass road, they would have placed Yule in the
most critical situation possible, and with the Boers alert at Dundee

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

413

in following up the retreating British with a mounted force with
light artillery, they could have retarded the retreat sufficiently to
iillow a good part of their main body to come up and compel Yule
to fight a rear-guard action, with defeat and irretrievable disaster
before him. It was a grand opportunity, w^hich the Boers let slip,
leaving them to solve the formidable problem of how to drive the
British across the Tugela before their reinforcements CQuld arrive.

The force under Sir George White at Ladysmith was given as
about 20,000, which, it would seem, was sufficient to enable him to
hold his position against any troops his enemy could bring against
him. But all England was startled and shocked on the last day of
October, when a dispatch from Ladysmith was received announcing
a disaster to British arms in front of that town. This involved the
capture of two regiments and a battery, after great slaughter. It
marked the third successful attempt by the Boers to deceive the
British officers by pretending to retreat and then deliver a blow
that turned a seeming victory into a disastrous rout. The follow
ing is the dispatch of General White dated at 11:35 P. M.:

"I have to report disaster to the column sent by me to take
position on a hill and guard our left flunk. The troops in these
operations to-day — the Royal Irish Fusiliers, No. 10 Mountain
Battery and the Gloucestershire Regiment — had to capitulate. The
casualties have not yet been ascertained.

"A man belonging to the Irish Fusiliers and employed as a
hospital orderly, came in under a flag of truce with a letter from
the survivors, who asked assistance to bury their dead. I fear there
is no doubt of the truth of the report.

"I formed the plan, in the carrying out of which the disaster
occurred, and am alone responsible for that plan. No blame can

414

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

be attached to the troops, as the position was untenable. The list
included forty-two officers, one newspaper man and two battalions
of troops."

It was given out that among the prisoners captured were a
stafE-major, a lieutenant-colonel, six majors, five captains, twenty-
nine lieutenants, a chaplain and a newspaper correspondent. The
number 2,000 was first announced as the total of prisoners, but this
was considerably reduced in the accounts afterward received.

That General White had committed a serious error of judgment
his best friends could not deny; but his manly avowal disarmed
harsh criticism, while the most experienced officers truly said that no
one not on the ground, or fully acquainted with the particulars,
was competent to make up an intelligent judgment. The best
exponents of public feeling at such times are the leading news-
papers, who naturally were outspoken in expressing their sentiments.

The Standard said: "It cannot be doubted that a grave error
was made, nor is military knowledge needed to recognize the
character of the blunder. The position in which the lost battalions
were posted was radically vicious, and precautions to cover their
retreat were not taken. Moreover, they were not kept in touch
with the column. General White is now on the horns of a
dilemma. If he retires down the railway he will have to abandon
his wounded and his stores. If he stays in Ladysmith the road
will be cut, if it is not cut already, and he will be isolated."

The News said that Lord Rosebery's remark that the war would
not be a small one, will now be made more than ever good. The
capture of the battalions will undoubtedly tend to prolong the
struggle, by raising the spirits and encouraging the hopes of the
enemy who, in any case, are sure to be resolute and courageous,

THE CONTESTANTS AND FIRST BLOWS

415

and who are already able, with much justice, to point to very con-
siderable success. The reverse, the paper adds, will only increase
the determination of the British to see the war through to the
necessary and inevitable end.

The Morning Post said: " The lesson has been severe, but we
hope we have learned it. It is humiliating to find a nation of
farmers beating soldiers at their own game, but the sooner proper
respect is had for Boer strategy and Boer tactics the better for our
fortunes in Natal. We insist that there is need for caution in
fighting a people who have a natural aptitude for deception, and
who are quite fearless in war. That caution, no doubt, seems to
the professional fighter as somewhat beneath his dignity when he
is arrayed against a seedy old gentleman in a billycock hat and
muffler, but that caution must be learned, and that soon."

The Post would not believe that the troops capitulated.
"Capitulation,'' it said, "is a word of shame. Troops in the field
cannot capitulate without disgrace. We assume, until better
informed, that the column fought until it was cut to pieces, and
its ammunition gone; that the ground rendered the use of the
bayonet impossible, and when their officers were struck down the
remnant of the men surrendered. If this is not the case, then
October 30 will be a day of indelible disgrace."

The Chronicle declared that the repulse was comparable only
to the repulse of Burgoyne, which was traveling backward a long
way to find a parallel. It added:

"For the present there can be but one voice in the country.
We have been told that this is a war for British supremacy in
South Africa, and we cannot doubt that that supremacy is now
threatened. The conflict will therefore inevitably continue until it

416

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

places the empire in a position to dictate the terms of settlement.
The trial which is now upon us will, we hope, strike a sober,
serious cord of the country's heart. An ignoble mood had grown
out of our prosperity, fed by a press which has much to answer
for when the account of these latter days is made up. If tlie
present catastrophe calls forth something better than music-htill
patriotism we may come to reckon it as a timely lesson, well
learned for our soul's good."

CHAPTER XXI

DOUBTFUL AND CERTAIN ALLIES AT THE BEGINNING OP THE WAR.

The Basutos are in some respects the most remarkable tribe of
natives in South Africa. They have been so potent a factor in the
development of that section, that they deserve a more particular
notice than has as yet been given them, especially since they are
destined to play an equally important part in the future history of
that portion of the Dark Continent.

The seriousness of the problem which they present appears in
the fact that they are brave and prosperous, with an army of 30,000
warriors, which includes excellent cavalry. The tribe occupy a rocky
section bounded by Natal, Cape Colony and the Orange Free State,
containing 10,293 square miles, and often referred to as the Switzer-
land of South Africa, for the mountainous section is crossed by valleys
of extraordinary fertility.

In some respects, Basutoland resembles the Indian reservations
of our own country, since the only white men allowed to live there
are missionaries, government officials and a few traders. The whole
European population is only 600, while the natives number 200,000.
It is a British crown colony and has home rule, with such modified
native laws as are deemed necessary and for the best interests of all
concerned.

No native tribe is more highly civilized than the Basutos, who
are of mixed stock and with better features than the Kaffirs. Mis-
sionaries have always been welcomed among them and the religion of
the people is a Calvinistic Protestant faith. They have had the Bible

(417)

418

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

translated into their language, have numerous churches and schools,
have comfortable brick homes, excellent roads, and speak Englisli
and Dutch fluently. In contrast to the native African, they are
industrious and enterprising, raise thousands of sheep and cattle,
and the fertile valleys produce abundant crops of the finest wheat
and Indian corn. Coal is mined in the mountains, they cultivate
wool, and when political matters are quiet, send a million dollars
worth of products annually to Cape Colony.

It has been said that their army lumbers 30,000 warriors, but
with scarcely an effort double that number could be put into the
field. England disarmed these people and would never consent to
arm them to fight any foe of the British Empire. From their
earliest history, they have fought on horseback. Naturally they
are excellent horsemen, and their fine cavalry is the distinguish-
ing feature of tbeir army.

The chief of the Basutos is Lerothodi, who has won that dis-
tinction by his bravery, ability and skill as a warrior. He makes
his home in a large mountain cave, whose walls are adorned with
pictures of battle scenes in which his countrymen are depicted as
the invariable victors. There are scores of caves in the mountains
which are turned to account as forts, armories, and places of con-
cealment. In the event of a Basiito uprising, it would take an
army of a hundred thousand men to subdue them, and then the
tafek would be of the most difficult, if not impossible nature. As
evidence of this, it may be stated that their capital, Thaba Bosigo,
is so powerful a mountain stronghold, that though it has been
repeatedly attacked, it has never been taken.

Naturally a comparison is suggested between the Basutos and
the Zulus. The two have been called the Normans of the South,

DOUBTFUL AND CERTAIN ALLIES

419

but the Zulus are treacherous, as fierce as tigers, and, in furious
daring, far surpass the Basutos, but the latter are intelligent, tact-
ful, possessed of clever diplomatic powers, and, therefore, the most
successful, as is always the case when mentality is pitted against
barbarism.

It may be said that the Basutos arose from the ruins created
by the ferocity of the Zulus at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. They depopulated the country for hundreds of square
miles, and, from the scant remnants of many tribes, have descended
the Basutos, who, us they gradually increased in number, huddled
together and chose Moshesh, a humble warrior, as their ruler. He
proved to be the Washington of the sorely pressed fugitives, and
by his wisdom and wonderful ability, organized, trained and ruled
them, leading the afflicted people through repeated dangers, and
by the exercise of craft and cunning, carried them far along the
high road to the prosperity which they enjoy to-day. His memory
will always be held in loving reverence and affection in Basutoland.

I'he growth of the Basutos excited the jealousy of the Zulus,
who made many raids against them, but the subtlety of Moshesh
was more than a match for the subtlety of his enemies. Through
an admirable system of spies, he was always warned of the
approach of the hostile expeditions, and by quick retreat into
the mountain fastnesses and the skillful use of false trails, he
brought the schemes of the Zulus to naught.

Never was the remarkable diplomacy of Moshesh displayed
more successfully than in 1831, wlien tlie whole Matabele power
was arrayed against him. He and his people withdrew to their
iiKiuntain home, where they defeated assault after assault until the
Ik siegers were on the verge of starvation and gave up the siege.

420

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

It was then that Moshesh sent them cattle, presents and a message
proposing that they should be friends. Their enemies were won
over, and never since have the Matabeles and Basutos been
arrayed against each other.

The policy of welcoming all fugitives brought excellent results.
The infusion of new blood added vigor to the old. The physique of
the Basutos improved and they grew in numbers and in strength.
When missionaries asked permission to enter the territory, Moshesh
not only welcomed them, but gave them homes and protected them
from molestation. Gradually his tribe was won over to a nominal
Christianity, and their friendly relations with the white men added
greatly to their prestige among the various tribes. It was inevita-
ble that the history of the Basutos should become interwoven with
that of the Boers. Retreating to the Orange River, the Boers, as
will be remembered, set up a republican form of government.
Moshesh and his people formed the principal native state. He was
given sovereign rights over the tract north of the Orange River
occupied by the Boers and, in addition, was paid a subsidy by Great
Britain.

The Boers held their own ground, organized their own govern-
ment, and grew and prospered. The next step of Great Britain was
to annex the Orange River district, including the Boers, to the
British dominions. The arrangement suited Moshesh for the time,
and, in the fighting that followed the Boers were worsted, where-
upon they treked again across the Vaal, and laid the foundations
of the Transvaal Republic of to-day. Thus the Basutos had a
prominent part in the formation of that government.

As wo know, the Boers were not followed, but Moshesh soured
over the taking away of his sovereignty by Great Britain, and,

DOUBTFUL AND CERTAIN ALLIES

421

determined to win it back, he began warring against the neighbor-
ing tribes. Great Britain sent a force to compel order, which was
the very thing for which the shrewd Moshesh had planned, since
it arrayed the native tribes, and the few Boer farmers who
remained, against England. The Basutos formed a coillition with
them, and, in 1852, England made a treaty with the Boers by
which their independence was acknowledged. Thus was the real
Transvaal Republic born, and, it may be said, the Basutos were
its father.

Having been baffled by the Boers, the British now turned their
attention to the Basutos. Moshesh withdrew to his impregnable
mountain stronghold, but left a large drove of cattle tempt his
enemies. While the English were driving off the immense herd,
they walked into the ambush that had been set for them, and a
fierce battle ensued. Afterward Moshesh cunningly sent a mes-
senger to the British commander humbly begging for peace,
declaring that they had been severely chastised by the capture of
their herds. The peace for which the chieftain prayed was granted.
It was clear that Moshesh held the balance of power, and, in 1854,
England acknowledged the independence of the Orange Free State,
whose existence, therefore, w^as due to the Basutos.

Four years later Moshesh, like many another wise man, committed
a serious blunder. A quarrel arose wdth the Boers over their respective
boundaries, and a furious war followed. The Boers won, and the
Basutos lost a large area of their finest farm land. The British
helped in conquering the dusky horsemen, and took their payment
by annexing Basutoland, whose people, therefore, are her subjects
to-day.

Accurate information regarding the Boers is always valuable

422

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and interesting, especially when it is impartial and conscientious.
V/illiam Maxwell, of the London Standard^ is one of the ablest and
most truthful of writers and has this to say in a letter to his paper:

"Between the Boer of fiction and of fact there is no affinity.
They differ as much as the 'noble redraan' vho scalps his wp-
through the pages of Fenimore Cooper differs from his squaliu,
degenerate son in the native reserve. The Boer of fiction is the
chivalrous, though somewhat sleepy, gentleman in corduroy — a
mountain of beef and bone, given to solitary musing, and to the
shooting of buck or 'redcoats,' whichever happen to cross his path.
Hunter and hermit, patriot and philosopher, is the mixture out of
vvhich he is compounded. The Boer of fact is a creature of another
clay. He is a dull, lumpish, lazy animal, with a capacity for
ignorance, superstition and tyranny unsurpassed by any white race.
His good qualities — for he has redeeming characteristics — appeal
strongly to the imagination. He clings with the passionate fervor
of a Covenanter to the simple and sublime faith of the literal
teaching of the Bible. Love of independence is deep rooted in his
nature. The history of South Africa during two and a half cen-
turies is full of examples of his dogged and unconquerable spirit.
But he has in overpowering degree the defects of these qualities.
His piety is apt to degenerate into superstition and sanctimonious
Phariseeism. Love of indopendence has begot in him hate of every-
thing that might tend to disturb his reverence for the past, and
suspicion of the stranger who threatens to * tread him to death,'
in the solitude of the veldt. Tlie unconquerable spirit that iias
made him one of the boldest pioneers the world has seen has
become corrupted into obstinate conceit.

"The absolute seclusion and independence of the pastoral life

DOUBTFUL AND CERTAIN ALLIES

423

of the Boer farmer are accountable for his ignorance. His educa-
tion is limited to six months' instruction by a tutor, who visits
the farm on the silent veldt as soon as the children of the family
are grown up. Few of them can read, and still fewer are able to
write. Yet the Boer will tolerate nothing that would dispel his
ignorance or contradict his superstitions. He is still convinced that
the sun moves round the earth, and that the earth is a flat and
solid substance, resting on unseen foundations. 'What is this non-
sense in which you English believe about the earth being round?'
asked a wealthy Boer who is a member of the Volksraad. It was
vain to offer Galileo's explanation; 'I have seen the shadow of the
earth on the moon.' The familiar proof of a ship on the horizon
was treated with derision. ' Do you not always see the top of a
thing first?' was the retort. 'No,' said my friend, the Boer legis-
lator ; ' I can believe none of this newfangled nonsense. Many a.
time, returning to my home on the veldt, have I thought over these
things. I have watched for hours in the moonlight to see whether
the kopje near my homestead really did move, but it is always
there — always in the same place. And as for the sun, did not
Joshua bid it stand still?' Against arguments of this kind reason
avails not ; yet I ventured to ask how the sun managed to get
under the foundations of the earth every night so as to be in his
place in the morning. This difficulty had never presented itself,
and the only reply, uttered with unswerving conviction, was, 'Well,
1 do not believe this nonsense, and Oom Paul does not believe it.'
" Should you suffer from malarial fever contracted in the
marshy country, the Dutch pastor, who has heard nothing of the
latest researches into mosquito virus, and is sublimely unconscious
of his own case, will console you with the warning that it is a

424

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

divine punishment for having left the land of your birth. Persis-
tence in the ways of his fathers is a strong characteristic of the
Boer. Except in the Free State, where a few farmers have outraged
public opinion and flown in the face of Providence, by introducing
machinery, the method of cultivating the soil is that of Syria and
Palestine. Corn is still trodden, and the law is, 'Thou shalt not
muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.' But the ox that
presumes to think himself worthy of his reward is beaten unmerci-
fully. Thus is the letter of the Law of Moses observed. There is
nothing the Boer is not capable of doing with a good conscience.
He will beat a Kaffir to death,^ yet will never believe that the
native is not his loyal and devoted friend. At this moment, when
every Kaffir in the land, is eager to murder his white oppressor,
the Boer imagines that he has only to say the word, and Basutos,
Swazi, Matabele, Zulu, and all the black tribes would fall upon and
destroy his enemies. This confidence in his destiny and conscious-
ness of superiority over every created thing would be sublime were
it not ridiculous.

"As a family man, the Boer's reputation would justify him in
becoming a candidate for the Dunmow Flitch. Surly and suspicious
in manner, heavy and uncouth in his ways, shy and reserved among
strangers, you may win him to a gruff cordiality, if you are a husband
and father, and care to listen to the details of his domestic life. But,
although the Boer certainly cherishes, with deep affection, his wife
and children, he treats them according to Oriental, rather than
European ideas. The women always stand until the men are seated,
and are not served until the wants of their lords and masters are
satisfied. T am describing the customs of the farmer who lives on the
veldt, and has no acquaintance with western manners. Such a man

Persis-

LC of the
outraged
roducing
lyria and
shalt not

ox that
unmerci-
There is
nscience.
that the
at, when
ppressor,

Basutos,
ipon and
onscious-
me were

f him in
iispicious
d among
husband
fe. But,
his wife
ler than
8 seated,
sters are
s on the
h a man

is little
often a
the vro
having,
fighting
the care
the sun.
to beco:
an exan
He resei
more th:
nothing

"I
characte
civilizat]
Boer, wl:
thought
they us€
than the
may not
moral st
Eiiropeai
is ill a d
hut he is
the farn
amenabli
conceit, ]
It would
they coi:

'""■^"ilSESj

DOUBTFUL AND CERTAIN ALLIES

427

is little removed from a state of barbarism, and his surroundings are
often as squalid as those of a Kaffir. Despite this patriarchal rule,
the vrouw has great influence over her man, and is credited with
having, on more than one occasion, screwed his courage up to the
fighting point. The Boer vrouw is not a beauty, notwithstanding
the care with which she preserves her complexion from the effects of
the sun. Her ambition, like that of the fishwives at Scheveningen, is
to become as fat as an ox, though, unlike the Dutch wife, she is not
an example of scrupulous cleanliness. The Boer is not hospitable.
He resents the presence of strangers, and, being too lazy to cultivate
more than is necessary for the immediate wants of his family, he has
nothing to spare for uninvited guests.

"I have endeavored to point out some of the most striking
characteristics of these people, who have cast a malign spell over
civilization and progress in South Africa. There is a higher type of
Boer, who is comparatively clean in person, and almost European in
thought and habit. He may be as corrupt and sly — 'slim' is the word
they use — as his detractors make out, yet he is less objectionable
than the semi-barbarous fanatic on the veldt. His sense of honor
may not be keen, and his disregard for the truth may indicate a low
moral standard. But his capacity for mischief is modified by the
European environment with which he surrounds himself. Where he
is in a decided majority, his disposition is arrogant and overbearing,
hut he is easily cowed by the display of physical force. The Boer of
the farm and the veldt, as well as of the border towns, is less
amenable to re. ^on. His phenomenal ignorance, his monumental
conceit, his uncr querable hatred of the British, make him a tyrant.
It would astound many who have been loud in denouncing war, if
tliey could realize, from personal observation or experience, the

428

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA

nature of this Boer tyanny. So subtle and far reaching are its
effects, that in many districts on British soil our fellow-countrymen
pass their lives in subjection. They are compelled to endure slights,
and to swallow insults that would have long since driven a less
patient people to civil war. The Boer is firmly convinced that the
British are a race of cowards. Not all the eloquence of Mr. Gladstone
could persuade him that the color of the British flag is not white, or
that the independence of the Transvaal was not won by arms at
Laings Nek and Majuba."

CHAPTER XXII

LYDDITE AND BOER MARKSMANSHIP

An incident of the war was the protest by General Joubert
against the use of lyddite shells, as being inhuman and contrary to
civilized methods. This high explosive is thus called from the name
of the small Kentish town and gunnery center where the experi-
ments with it were made. Lyddite is simply picric acid brought
into a dense state of fusion. It is a bright yellow substance much
used for dying purposes, and is obtained by the action of nitric
acid on phenol or carbolic acid. It burns fiercely, and owing to
the terrific blast produced by its explosion, the destructive effects
of a bursting shell filled with it is eleven times greater than that
of a shell filled with gunpowder.

Ordinary shells of forged steel filled with lyddite are used with

six inch and nine and two-tenths inch breech-loading guns and with

howitzers, and also with four inch to six inch quick-firing guns. All

such shells are equipped with percussion nose fuses only, and the

explosion takes place on impact thus: The percussion fuse ignites

a picric powder exploder, which, in turn, ignites the bursting charge

of lyddite, the detonation of the fuse and of the two explosives

inside the shell being simultaneous. The picric powder exploder is

inserted in a recess left in the lyddite for that purpose. Despite

the protests of the Boer commander against its use, the lyddite

shell is in some respects less barbarous than the shrapnel exploded

by powder, for, though widespread, its effect is due more to air

concussion than to the wounding effects of the flying fragments.

(«{»)

430

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

That is to say, in the case of a lyddite shell bursting among a
group of men the greater number will be killed, not by pieces of
the shell, but by the blow of the suddenly compressed air. In other
words, this extraordinary missile kills a man without hitting him.

Much has been said about the amazing skill of the Boers with
the rifle. That they are experts cannot be denied, for any men
whose existence depends on their ability to defend themselves
against wild man and animals cannot fail to handle the weapon
effectively. The life of the frontier, where the nearest neighbor
might be miles away, has made them self-reliant and expert in tlie
art of self-defense.

But the Boers do not possess the skill with which they are
credited, for the good reason that no people in the world can pos-
sibly acquire such dexterity in the use of the rifle. One of the
greatest of living experts as to the possibilities of this weapon is
Mr. A. P. Ingalls, of St. Louis. Not only is he among the most skill-
ful marksmen in the west, but he has made a life-long study of the
subject, and his statements, therefore, have an authority which
belongs to those of few others. A gentleman some time ago was
so wrought up by the accounts of the wonderful marksmanship of
the Boers that he asked Mr. Ingalls the question.

"Can an expert rifleman hit an object the size of a man l.OOO
yards away? "

" Of course he can," was the reply. " You stand for a target
1,000 yards from me and I'll kill you nine times out of ten."

"Can the feat be performed under all conditions?"

" Certainly not," said the veteran. " It practically can't be done
unless the marksman knows the exact distance of his target and
precisely what his gun will do and has taken the proper care to

'ssts,^

LYDDITE AND BOER MARKSMANSHIP

481

load his shells accurately, and see that his sights are adjusted to
the wind."

"Do you believe these sto.ies about the Boers' ability to pick
off men or antelope at from 750 to 1,000 yards?"

"No, and no one else does who knows anything about shoot-
ing. It would take a ton of lead fired out of a rifle to kill a man
1,000 yards distant under conditions that prevail in war.

"There are three great difficulties to be surmounted: The first
is estimating the distance ; the second is gauging the wind ; the
third is the absolute inability of any man to hold a gun perfectly
steady without a rest — I might almost say with a rest. I have
known one man who could judge distance accurately, but he was
a freak, such as these men who can carry columns and columns of
figures in their heads. He could glance at an object, say 200 yards
away, and tell you the distance, and he wouldn't miss it two yards.
I saw him kill a deer 400 yards away once. That is the longest
successful shot I ever knew to be made at a live target except
when the distance was known to a certainty. If it had been any-
one but the man who did it, I would say it was just a 'happen' —
that he couldn't do it again — but I knew his wonderful gift for
estimating distances accurately. I have heard a good many men
claim to have killed deer 500 or 600 yards distant. I always think
200 yards would be a closer estimate. And when I have had the
opportunity, and have taken the trouble to measure the distance, I
have found I was right. I once killed a crow with a rifle 240 yards
away. That sounds incredible, but it is the truth.

"It was when I was a boy in Maine. My father had a target
500 yards from our back fence. There was a dead calf exactly
half way between the fence and the target. It had been put there

432

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

as a bait for a fox. There had been a snow and the crows had
dug down to the carcass and one was standing guard while the
others were eating. The sentinel's black feathers made a perfect
mark against the snow background, although he didn't look bigger
than a nailhead in yonder wall. I knew the distance, and I knew
at what notch to put the sights of the gun. There was no wund
stirring. I rested the gun on the fence and popped away and the
crow fell over dead. Now that was just a 'happen' shot. I aimed
to make it all right, but I might not do it again in a thousand
times.

"Now, for the wind: In a 1,000 yard range a wind blow-
ing three miles an hour will deflect a bullet about fifteen feet.
That has to be allowed for, and, as the wind's force is rarely the
same over the entire range, it is practically impossible to gauge it
accurately for a chance range.

"As to the inability of a man to hold a gun perfectly steady,
anybody knows that is true. But there are marksmen who can
drive tacks with a rifle or cut a string with a bullet. That is true,
but not at long range. Let me illustrate :

"To give you an idea of the care that is necessary to make a
creditable long distance target, I will ask if you know why long-
distance riflemen use a round barreled gun instead of the octagon-
shaped barrel that most sportsmen like?"

" No, I thought not. You do know, liowever, that steel expands
with heat. You may even remember the figures as to the expansion
find contraction of big bridges according as the weather is hot or
cold. I don't, but I do know that for every grain of [)owder burned
in a gun there is a corresponding expansion of the metal barrel.
I ab-H) know that if this expansion is not equable, the gun will not

LYDDITE AND BOER MARKSMANSHIP

433

shoot true. The expansion cannot be absolutely the same at every
point of an octagon-shaped barrel because some parts are thicker
than others, whereas a round barrel is the same thickness all
firound, and expands at one point as much as it does at another.
This may sound chimerical to you, but did you ever see a piece of
modern artillery with any but a cylindrical barrel? They are ma4e
that way in order to secure equality of expansion.

"Another thing that target-shooters do, who make scores worth
noting, is to load their own shells. I never saw a man make a
decent score with factory amunition, and, of course, that is what
soldiers in the field use. We weigh our powder as carefully as
though it were gold dust, and if there is a grain too much or a grain
too little we reduce or add to the charge exactly that grain.

"I am not saying that a man can't hit a target without all
this care. I have seen harum-scarum fellows plunk the bull's-eye
with a factory cartridge. But they can't shoot steadily, and when
tlie scores are made up they are out of it. They may have bull's-
oyos, but others of their shots will have gone wide of the target.
A very small thing will start a bullet on the wrong cour.se. That
i^ one reason why target shooters don't use magazine guns. The
Imllets in a magazine are apt to become more worn on one side
than on the other. Of course, that is fatal in long distance slioot-
iiiji:, filthough it might not count in a range of less than five hun-
dred yards.

"But the great difficulty about sharpshooters picking off men
iit long range is, that they can't know how far they are shooting
iiiid they can't hold the gun on the target. To be sure, they can
^rt't tlio range of a position with a range-finder, and then rain
huUets on it, and where so many bullets are falling some are bound

484

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

to find their billets, but that isn't marksmanship — that is merely
shelling a position. A bullet from a modern rifle will kill more than
d mile away, and, theoretically, they are sighted for tremendous
distances, but the trouble is that nobody can shoot accurately with
them at such extremely long ranges."

Mr. Ingalls told of the devices of target shooters to obtain a
steady rest for their guns — how they lie on their backs, on theii
faces and in every other conceivable manner in order to insure the
steadiness of their aim. The best rest, in his opinion, is a box with
a place sawed out of it for the marksman to stand in. This sup-
ports him on both sides, and, with the barrel of his gun resting on
a sack of sand or shot, it is almost impossible for him to wabble.
The Boer sharpshooters probably don't have time to make such rests
for their rifles.

" Sharp shooters, of course, have peep sighte to concentrate their
vision, but any hunter will tell you that a peep sight isn't of much
service when the object to be sighted is not clearly defined against
the background.

"If I were to see a Filipino 1,000 yards away, I'd take a crack at
him for luck," concluded Mr. Ingalls, " but, unless I knew the exact
distance and the force of the wind, and had a perfect rest, I would
only get him by chance."

One startling fact was connected with the heavy losses suffered
by the British troops in their battles with the Boers. That was the
alarming number of officers killed. The figures showed that out
of every four slain at Glencoe, one was an officer, whereas, the
organization is made on the principle that there is one to every
twenty-five men Among the enlisted men at Glencoe, the propor-
tion of killed to wounded was 30 to 166, while 10 officers were

LYDDITE AND BOER MARKSMANSHIP

435

killed and 22 officers wounded. The difference in the percentage
leads to the belief that many of the officers continued to lead
their men after receiving their first wound.

These facts caused many strenuous protests against the ancient
custom of British officers in refusing to take cover when under
fire. Emperor William criticised this practice, and the general
feeling in the army was that, though the regulations do not say
that officers must not lie down, it is such a well established
principle that it would take a courageous man to begin a change.
A really brave officer feels shamefacedness in seeking a shelter,
which, of necessity, is denied his men. The sight of such an act
during a critical moment is demoralizing to the soldiers, whose
respect for their leaders suffers a damaging blow when they see
them trying to find protection from the whistling bullets. It is
human nature to venerate the officer who is able to say, "Come!"
instead of shouting, "Go!" to his men, and the adage of the British
soldier is, "Follow wherever an officer leads."

No one can forget the deadly accuracy displayed by the Boers
with the rifle in the war of 1879- '80, but the weapon of that day
bears slight comparison to the one used in 1899. The former was
made on the lines of the British Martini, and was a hammerless
arm of about nine pounds weight, with a 30-inch half-octagon
barrel and a shotgun butt stock. Its calibre was .45, and the
bullet weighed from 405 to 450 grains, the powder charge being
5)0 ^n-ains in a brass drawn cartridge case.

This weapon was sighted up to 2,000 yards, and, besides the
usual stationary sight, it had a reversible front, or, in other words,
a si^rht capable of being used as an ordinary front sight, and by a
siii-'le motion, changed into a fine pinhead sight, protected by a

436

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ring to prevent it being knocked off. When specially fine shooting
was desired, the front globe was shaded by a thimble-shaped hood.
The ordinary fixed, or rear sights were on the barrel, while on the
gun's grip was a turndown peep, regulated by a sidescrew io an
elevatioii of 2,000 yards. The shortest distance for which the peep
and globe were used, was some 700 yards

"T was very much inteiested in the Boer riflemen and their
weapons," said Archibald Forbes, who was with Sir Evelyn Wood's
column in South Africa, in lS77-'80. "They are marvelous rifle
shots. They shoot their antelope and other game from the saddle,
not apparently caring to get nearer to their quarry than 600 to
700 yards. Then they understand the currents of air, their effect
upon the drift of a bullet, and can judge distance as accurately us
it could be measured by a skilled engineer. They can hit an
officer as far as they can discern his insignia of rank. Sir George
W. Colley, the commander in South Africa, was killed at a distance
of 1,400 yards, at Majuba Hill. We lost terribly in officers at the
fight mentioned, and also at Laing's Nek and Rorke's Drift, from
the deadly rifles of the sharpshooting Boers."

No explanation is required as to how the Boers becam<^ such
wonderful marksmen. It has been shown that it was because
when they went to South Africa they had to learn to sboo^: well
in contesting the country with wild beasts and the equally fierce
wild men. They became unerring riflemen through the same
education that made the American pioneers among the finest shots
in the world. Every Boer is a hunter, and such men must inevi-
tably become expert rifie shots, or they are not properly hunters.

The Boer rifle of to-day is the sporting model of the Mann-
licher, a German arm, which, for its weight and caliber, is probably

LYDDITE AND BOER MARKSMANSHIP

437

the most powerful weapon in the world. The military Mannlicher
is used in the armies of Austria, Holland, Greece, Brazil, Chili,
Peru and Roumania. The "Haenel model," as a sporting weapon,
is beyond all rivalry. Its finish is perfection, it weighs about eight
pounds, and in South Africa it costs 200 marks. The carbine
barrel is 24 inches long and the rifle 30. It has a pistol grip and
sling straps, is hair triggered and its caliber is .30. Its extreme
range is 4,500 yards, with a killing range of 4,000 yards. What
would our early pioneers have thought of a littie weapon that could
be relied upon to kill a man more than two miles away? Yet at the
distance named this wonderful rifle will send a bullet through two
inches of solid ash and nearly three of pine, and at a short distance it
will drive a ball clean through four feet of pine.

The bullet used in war is full-mantled, with an outer skin of
copper or nickel, but that which is employed for game ..hooting is
only half-mantled, leaving the lead point exposed, so that it
"mushrooms" or spreads when it strikes. No arm can compare with
it in hunting large game. Making a small orifice as it enters, it tears
a hirge one as it leaves the body. With a velocity of 2,000 feet a
second, its impact is tremendous.

Mention is often made of the Dum-Dum bullet, which is a soft-
pointed missile, but far less destructive than the Haenel-Mannlicher
ball, employed by the Boers, wliich, at close range, say at 1,000 yards
or less, does not flatten, but bores a clean hole through a bone without
splintering. When, however, it upsets, the consequences are fright-
ful, for flesh and bone are torn to fragments. The charge was made
that the Boers used the soft pointed bullet against tlie British; for the
sake of humanity's decency, it would be better not to credit the
accusation.

GREAT :

The

reverses
struggle,
consider!
did not
the Briti
an oppo:

on Engl
problem!
onies sh
Lord Sa]
would I
and tha
would 1
British (
The
spots, to
swept
colonies
by the i
met to
men in
individu
were gi

CHAPTER XXIII

GREAT BRITAIN, COLONIAL LOYALTY, AND CONDITIONS WHICH EXISTED
IN THE EARLY STAGES OF THE WAR.

The rapid development of the South African war and the
reverses which came to English arms in the early part of the
struggle, brought Great Britain face to face with contingencies not
considered in the opening days of the contest. The most pessimistic
did not think the "insignificant" Boer war would test the fibre of
the British Empire, nor that the results of the fighting would open
an opportunity for jealous European nations to make an advance

on England's outposts in the far east. But, confronted by these
problems, England bravely grappled with them. The English col-
onies showed their loyalty by an eager offering of reinforcements.
Lord Salisbury immediately served notice on the world that England
would not tolerate any interference on the part of other powers,
and that the attempt to take advantage of England's difficulties,
would be met with stern retribution, even if it took the last
British dollar, and the last drop of blood in the nation.

The quick offer of colonial assistance was one of the bright
spots, to the British heart, in the midst of the general gloom which
swept over the empire, because of the Boer victories. The different
colonies offered twice the number of men that could be accepted
by the mother country, and the various colonial parliaments quickly
met to vote funds and supplies for the equipping of troops. Rich
men in various parts of the empire, came forward with offers to
individually equip a certain number of men. Thousands of dollars
were given from private sources.

(439)

440

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Later further offers of reinforcements were accepted from tlip
colonies. Canada offered to equip, a force of mounted policemen,
the hard rough riders and fighters of the Northwest territories.
Troops were also accepted from Australia, in addition to the first
enlistments. When the call for volunteers came in England proi)er,
never had bc^n seen such scenes " e^ . jsiasm as were witnessed
on the streets of London. The li j. inicv* i,l quotas were quickly
filled up, and before the middle of Ji...iuari, ^veral thousand vol-
unteers from England proper, were embarked aboard ship on their
way to the scene of the strife. The parting reception given these
volunteers was something never exceeded in England. Dense
crowds packed the thoroughfares, and the police details could
hardly clear the way of the thousands who were packed along the
line of march. Dukes, lords and earls fought for the right to secure
commanding positions in these regiments. Never before has England
sent out so much of her blue blood to the battlefield.

When news of the first British disasters at the seat of wur
reached Canada, there was no dismay or discouragement, but a
tidal wave of patriotism swept over the country, like that which
carried everything before it in England. Naturally, the belief was
general tliat a second contingent would be called for, to inchule
artillery, as well as mounted infantry, in which the Canadian service
is known to be very efficient. Lieutenant Dwyer, of the Royal
Artillery, stationed at Halifax, was ordered to report at once for
service in South Africa, and all Canada wi^ited to hear the call, in
order to respond with the same enthusiastic loyalty with which
she had answered the first summons.

The other British colonies were not behind Canada in their
devotion to England. On July 11, the Queensland Parliament,

COLONIAL LOYALTY

441

months before the negotiations had reached an acute stage, passed
a resolution, amid great enthusiasm, offering the home government
the services of 250 mounted infantry, with machine guns, in the
event of hostilities. Canada came next, closely followed by
Tasmania, New Zealand, Victoria, Western Australia, New South
Wales and South Australia, who asked the privilege of sending
large contingents to the seat of war.

Nothing that has happened in recent years so stirred the souls
of the Queen and her Government, as this outburst. of loyalty ' om
the colonies. Great Britain, the Empire that has been quick v ?
spread its mailed hand for the protection of its subjects, was
threatened, and the rugged men of Canada vied with the r ugh
riders of the Antipodes in insisting that their rifles be perr 'tted to
"])ark and bite." So overwhelming was the tribute of loyalty that
the War Office had to decide, not how many men the loyal
colonies would send, but how many fully equipped fighters could
be utilized. The Government finally decided that the unit of 125
men should be the maximum for each colony, except in the cases
of Victoria and New South Wales, which were allowed 250 men,
and of Canada, which could send 500. Even with govern-
mental limits set, great precautions had to be taken in Canada
and in Australia, to keep the transports from being overrun by
the eager volunteers. It was thought best to accept militiamen
because of their training. The limit set was exceeded, because of
the colonials who would not be denied, the assignments being as
follows:

Canada: Eight companies, making nearly a thousand men.
\ictoria: One hundred and twenty-five mounted rifles and one
hundred and twenty-five infantry. Tasmania: Eighty infantry.

ir>

442

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

New Zealand: Two hundred mounted rifles. Queensland: One
hundred and twenty-five infantry.

The Victorian and Tasmanian contingents sailed from Melbourne,
on October 28, on which day the city witnessed the greatest
demonstration in its history. As the band marched through the
streets, it was cheered by 200,000 people, and the Colonial Governor,
in an eloquent speech, thrilled his hearers by declaring that the
wheeling into line by the sons of Australia, with the men of
Canada, marked an era in British history.

Similar honors were paid on the same day by Sydney to her
departing militia, as was the case at Adelaide and Brisbane, and at
Wellington, New Zealand, the various legislatures having voted
large sums for the support of the families of the men who took
the field.

As the war progressed the movements in European diplomatic
circles left no room for doubt that at least France and Russia were
endeavoring to secure the assistance of other powers in joint repre-
sentations to Great Britain. It was regarded as certain that neither
France nor Russia were acting from motives of sympathy with the
Boers, for if so, they would have entered their protests before the
negotiations between Kruger and Chamberlain reached the ulti-
matum stage. Therefore, it was reasonable to infer that if France
and Russia act at or before the close of the war, they will do so
from purely selfish motives, and with the expectation of compelling
Great Britain to remain passive, while they seize some other parts
of the globe for their own. Russia's ambition in the direction of
the Indian Ocean is well known, and France has designs in China
and Africa which it never has taken the pains to conceal.

Unfortunately for a pacific outlook, the ambitions of both

nd: One

Blbourne,
greatest
ough the
Tovernor,
that the
men of

y to her
3, and at
g voted
/ho took

jlomatic
sia were
it repre-
; neither
vith the
fore the
ie ulti-
France
11 do so
ipelling
er parts
ition of
1 China

f both

S
S

(/I

can it t
If Great
of subm
the glo
dread a'

The
States, \
would u
which a
of Eurc
Affairs,
in consi
depart 11]
from th
tive. T
the Bot
Britain
those tv

In i
take th(
having
ambitio:
general

COLONIAL LOYALTY

445

France and Russia are dangerous to the British Empire. England
can neither permit France to secure preponderance in the control
of northern Africa, nor allow Russia to advance to the borders of
India without practically destroying the British Empire. Conse-
quently, Great Britain is almost certain to accept the alternative
of war, even in its present '* splendid isolation," for to no power
can it turn, unless, perhaps, it may be to Germany, for assistance.
If Great Britain is finally brought face to face with the alternative
of submission to the dictates of Europe, or a war which shall girt
the globe with a belt of fiame, it unquestionably will choose the
dread alternative of war.

The attitude of the several European powers and of the United
States, the probable direction of such a war, and the changes it
would ultimately make in the map of the old world, are subjects
which are just now engrossing the attention of the diplomats
of Europe. Count Mouravieff, the Russian Minister of Foreign
Affairs, flitted between Paris and San Sebastian for three weeks,
in constant consultation with the French and Spanish foreign
departments. All over Europe the press, free for the time being
from the restraint of censorship, waged a campaign of bitter invec-
tive. The crux of the situation will come when England whips
the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Great
Britain will make known its plans for the future government of
those two republics.

In any future demands on Great Britain, Russia will necessarily
take the lead, for the Czar's empire has the most to gain. Although
having the most subtle and secretive diplomats in Europe, the
ambition and inflexible purpose of Russia are well known. In a
general statement, Russia's ambition lies in the direction of an

446

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

open sea, unfettered by the ice shackles of winter. Until recently
Russian forts faced the ice-clad Baltic, the Arctic Ocean and the
Northern Pacific. For six months of every year Russia's merchant
steamers and Russia's warships were locked in ice, and it was not
until the recent acquisition from China of Port Arthur that the
Czar's naval base in the Pacific was rendered effective by open
water the year around. For years Russia hoped to extend its
empire southward to the Mediterranean, with Constantinople as
the objective point, but its ambition, while perhaps not com-
pletely shattered, was indefinitely delayed by the Congress of
Berlin in 1878, when Europe erected the quasi independent Balkan
States as a buffer between the Czar's dominion and the sea.

Since then Russia has been pushing steadily southward toward
Persia and Afghanistan. All the intrigue of which Russian diplo-
macy is capable has been exerted in securing a preponderating
influence in the semi-barbaric courts of the Ameer and the Shah.
So successfully has this diplomatic intrigue been carried on that
to-day it is generally believed that Russia has engaged by secret
treaty to occupy Afghanistan with Russian troops in order to preserve
order after the death of the present Ameer and secure the throne
to his successor. And it is an open secret in European capitals
that the Shah has agreed to give Russia the port of Bunder-Abbis,
0^1 the Persian Gulf, whenever Russia chooses to occupy it, ami
has also granted concessions to Russian syndicates for railways
running from Russian soil to the Persian Gulf.

Nothing is more certain than that, when the Czar's army
enters Afghanistan, it goes there to stay until Great Britain drives
it out. The day that a Russian army corps occupies Herat, that
day Afghanistan becomes territory of the Czar, and brings the lius-

COLONIAL LOYALTY

447

sian frontier down to Khyber Pass, an ever-present menace to
British control of India. It has long been an aphorism in London
that "When Russia goes to Herat, we fight." Equally dangerous to
the British Indian empire would be Russia's control of the Persian
(lulf. Great Britain gave ample evidence of a true appreciation of
tiie danger from this quarter by deciding to send a powerful
squadron to the Persian Gulf, 4hus serving notice on Russia, in
terms not to be misunderstood, that the Czar must keep hands off
for the present.

Russia's designs in China are equally understood. Already the
Czar holds the Manchurian peninsula and is disputing with Great
Britain at Peking the right to dictate terms and concessions to the
Chinese government. Great Britain has secured from China a well
defined sphere of interest in the Yang-tse-Kiang Valley, by which
ultimately the Indian Empire will reach eastward from Burmah to
the Pacific. English capital is already building long lines of rail-
road through and across the valley. In any united European
coiilition against Great Britain, Russia, if the coalition succeeded
in its object, not only would overthrow British influence at Peking
and deprive Great Britain of the Yang-tse-Kiang Valley, but, in all
probability, would extend its boundaries of the territory already
seized from China, southward, until it included Peking, and ultimately
make the Chinese empire all Russian.

As far as territorial acquisition is concerned, France has almost
as much to gain as Russia. Then, too, France is still smarting
under the chagrin of the Fashoda incident, when a year ago
Major Marchand was unceremoniously bundled out of the Upper
Nile country by Lord Kitchener. France has territorial ambitions
in Africa and China, and, unfortunately in the present crisis, those

448

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

ambitions run counter to British interests. In Africa, France
already controls Algeria and Tunis, bordering on the Mediterranean,
and the French Soudan, reaching from the Atlantic nearly to the
Nile. France dreams of a great empire in Africa, and long has
coveted Tripoli. That France will undertake to seize the latter, in
the event of a war, goes without saying. And with Tripoli added
to Algeria, France would be up to the gates of Egypt, which Great
Britain already occupies, and probably always will occupy, in order
to safeguard the Suez Canal. Again, France would like to add
Morocco to the western frontier of Algeria, and in a general
European war, undoubtedly would endeavor to seize it. Morocco,
under French control, would give France the right, at least to
divide with Great Britain, the control of the Gibraltar gateway to
the Mediterranean. If united Europe should defeat Great Britahi
in war, the latter would be driven out of Egypt, and the British
control pass to another power, and France would again step in to
demand the land of the Pharaohs as its share of the booty. With
Egypt would go naturally the control of the Suez Canal, this
depriving Great Britain of its short road to India.

In China, France, too, would expect to gain in war with Great
Britain. France already has a strong foothold in the Orient, Indo-
China, including Tonkin, being a valuable, if not a remunerative,
colonial possession. In addition to the territory already held in
the far East, France has a treaty with China, giving it a sphere of
interest in several of the southern provinces of the Chinese empire,
together with valuable railway concessions, which already threaten
to extend into the British sphere in the Yang-tse-Kiang Valley.
Added to all this, is the feverish condition of France at home.
The army is disaffected, conspiracies are rife, and royalist plotting

COLONIAL LOYALTY

449

is incessant. The republic is torn by internal scrife. Nothing
would clear the French atmosphere more thoroughly than a war,
in which factional quarrels at home would be forgotten, and
employment given to a great army that long has chafed under
idleness.

The crux of the whole situation seems to rest with the German
Emperor. If Germany casts its lot with Europe, Great Britain may
as well call out its last available man, for the sea girt empire will
indeed be in danger. But up to the present moment, there h
apparent reason to believe that Germany will cast its lot with
Great Britain. Several months before the Transvaal negotia-
tions assumed a dangerous phase, Lord Salisbury and the German
Ambassador to the court of St. James, reached an agreement which,
to-day, is the most mysterious diplomatic secret in all Europe.
That this agreement has, among other things, given Great Britain
a free hand in South Africa is apparent, for the Kaiser's attitude
now is in strange contrast to his friendliness toward the Boer
government, immediately after the Jameson raid in 1896, when he
v'^eut a congratulatory message to President Kruger that inflamed
En|j;land, mobilized the British squadrons, and nearly ended in war.

Despite the evident sympathy of a large 'majority of the Ger-
man people for the Boers, tlie German government is preserving
an attitude of the most impartial neutrality. The mysterious
agreement between Great Britain and Germany, which is exciting
so much concern in Europe, is variously interpreted, the most
pidl table explanation of its tenor being ;azarded by an English
statesman, who believes it gives Germany free nanv^ in the Kaiser's
pet project of establishing a great (Jerman colonial empire in Asia
Minor. Whatever tlie nature of the secret agreement, it may be

450

TTTE BT ORT OF SOUTH AFBICA

safely 'assumed rhat Great Britain has not given Germany something
for nothing. If Germany is to be permitted to establish herself in
Asia Minor, Great Britain has received compensation somewhere,
and the nature of th^.t compensation w^ili be revealed when the
European interference with Great Britain's plans is definitely agree^^
upon, if at all.

The successful formation of a European coalition, therefore,
depends largely upon Germany. If Germany unites its fleet with
Great Britain, and holds its army ready to march against France
and Russia, the proposed European coalition will end in bluster.
If, on the other hand, Germany shall finally decide to make terms
with France and Russia, trusting to an agreement with tliose
powers to give it what it wants in Asia Minor or any other quarter
of the globe, the coalition is as good as formed. But, up to the
present time, every indication points to German sympathy with
Great Britain, and every effort is being made in France and Russia
to break this mysterious bond of friendship. It hardly seems
credible that France and Russia would provoke '^vn v/ith Great
Britain and Germany united. The risk would be too great, for both
would be menaced by tlie English squadrons on their coasts, and
by the German, Austrian, and Italian armies on the frontiers.

The attitude of the smaller powers is worthy of consideration,
for they could hardly escape being drawn into any controversy
which involves Great Britain, Russia, France and Germany.

Take Italy fii^-o: Italy is almost the only exclusively Mediter-
ranean power, and must, for Js own protection, exercise a consid-
erable voice in the cont»-ol of that greaJ inland ocean. It is a
member of the dreibr rl at < ffensivo and defensive alliance
which calls Italy's arn»'' iitfo the field whenever Germany or Austria,

COLONIAL LOYALTY

or both, are attacked. If Germany involves itself in war either
for or against Great Britain, Italy, by the tej ms of the dreibund,
is bound to assist. But, asside from the driebund, Italy has
ii.terests, mostly in the Mediterranean, and a mythical one in China,
which almost compel it to attach itself to the fortunes of Great
Britain in the present crisis. In the first place, Italy long has
asserted its claim to Tripoli, and its claim is well knowu to
Europe. Inasmuch as Tripoli is equally coveted by France, it is
certain that it cannot be taken over by both. By joining issues
with France and Russia, Italy would have nothing to gain in the
way of comi)ensation. On the other hand, by allying itself with
Great Britain, Italy would be able to claim Tripoli when peace w^as
once more restored. Italian interests in China are hazy in the
extreme, but the government still cherishes a dream of a colonial
dependency in the Orient.

It may be set down as practically certain that Austria, if it
takes any hand at all in the international quarrel, will do so most
unwillingly, and on the side with which Germany allies itself.
Austria is in no condition financially or otherwise to go to war.
Even were its treasury full, the fear of Hungarian revolt ntid a
break-up of the Danubian empire would deter Frances Joseph from
becoming a party to a general European war.

To many it might seem almost ridiculous even for a moment
to consider Spain in connection with the word "war." But at the
same time it must be remembered that Spain easily can put from
100,000 to 150,000 men in the field, providing the funds were forth-
coining. A loan from Franco in the emergency, togethei* with
the hope of securing the retrocession of Gibralter from 1 -igland
might induce Spain to forget the trouncing it received from the

452

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

United States a year ago, and once more try its fortune at the game
of war.

The position of Turkey might bother the diplomats on both
sides of the controversy. It is difficult to see how the Sultan could
be drawn into the war, and equally difficult to understand how he
could keep out of it.' Abdul Hamid is in the unfortunate position of
being compelled to choose sides in a possible conflict, with the
certain knowledge that he will lose with either. He is bound by
the treaty of Berlin to guard the Dardanelles against the passage
of the Russian Black Sea squadron. He has been enabled by
judicious loans from England, to fortify the Dardanelles so strongly
with modern Krupp guns that he can, if he chooses, batter the
Russian warships to pieces when they try to force their way
through into the Mediterranean. If he ases his Krupp guns against
Russia he will have the Czars avtnies knocking at his door to the
north, and Bulgaria, Servia, and Roumania ready to unite to lib-
erate Macedonia, with Austria waiting for a convenient opportunity
t > seize Salonica Bay. If, on the other hand, the Sultan even
tacitly allies himself with Russia by permitting the Black Sea
squadron to pass unscathed, he will have Germany and Great
Britain on his back, with the ceHainty of losing Asia Minor, in
addition to uhe Bulgarian uprising and the loss of Salonica Bay.
As to the little kingdoms of Fjun^pe, thoy undoubtedly will be per-
mitted to remain passive spectatois ot the great international
tragedy — to preserve a stolid neniraliiy in the midst of the vortex
of war about them.

11 is almost impossibh. to appreciate the magnitude and the
horror which must characterize a war involving Great Britain.
Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Spain in one geneml,

COLONIAL LOYALTY

453

widespread conflict. It would mean a war around the globe. All
Europe, all Africa, most of Asia, the Islands of the So'ith I*i.ciiic,
the West Indies, and the northern part of North America would be
the scenes of conflict. Great Britain would have, first of all, to
defend its empire in India. The Russian army, passing through
Afghanistan, would attempt to force its way through Khyber and
Cliitral passes, thence to pour down on the plains of India, in an
attempt to drive Great Britain into the Indian Ocean. The cam-
paign in India alone would be a Napoleonic contest, for here Great
Britain maintains an army of nearly 300,000 regular and native
troops, and the mountain gateways are protected by fortresses
almost as impregnable as the mountains in which they are con-
cealed. But, while Great Britain would be defending India from
the incursions of the Cossack legions of the Czar, France would
have seized Tripoli and be marching an army agp,:nst Egypt in an
effort to drive John Bull into the Red Sea. But in Egypt and the
Soudan, Great Britain has control of 40,000 troops, with native
levies to draw upon. If Spain should decide to enter the contest,
its army might be used in an effort to regain Gibralter from Great
Britain, or to assist in the defense of France from possible invasion
by Italy. But the greatest horrors of such a war would only be
realized if Germany and its allies in the dreibund should decide to
enter the field. Then France and Russia would be assailed from
each side by the armies of Germany, Austria, and Italy. With the
greater powers engrossed in war, it is almost certain the conflict
would involve the Balkan States with Turkey, and t le Sultan
would be compelled to make his last stand to retain his place on
the map of Europe. The enormous sacrifice of life and piiralysis
of all commerce and industry would be beyond computation. Hardly

454

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

a nation engaged in the contest but would emerge from it as hope-
lessly bankrupt and poverty-stricken as is Spain to-day, and it is
this aspect of the situation that furnishes the surest guarantee for
peace. There is not a power in Europe, Great Britain excepted,
that can engage in war upon its own financial resources. Every-
one would have to borrow, and in a conflict which involved all,
to whom could the ni aisters of finance apply?

It is upon its navy, however, th^t Great Britain would depend
largely for the defense of its .^>ea-girt empire. In India and Egypt,
it is true. Great Britain's soldiers would engage in land campaigns
which would tax their courage and endurance to the utmost. But
in all othei' respects the great battles of an international w^ar would
be fought upon the sea. But powerful as Great Britain's navy is.
it must be conceded at the outset tliat France and Russia united,
can put a navy to sea that would be terribly effective. The British
navy has been built up to its present mammoth jro^ ortions on the
theory that some day it will iiave to defend the empire against ii
possible coiilition of the European powers. The fleets in active
service are distributed in quarters of the globe, best situated to
fight such a war. Naval bases have been located in view of such
a contingency.

At the present time Great Britain maintains a powerful squadron
at Gibraltar, at the entrance to the Mediterranean, and another ;it
Malta, strong enough to cope with the fleets of any two powers
that might be sent against them. Another squadron is at Cape
Town. Another at Colombo, in Ceylon, and one at Hongkong,
Acros:^ the Pacific from Hongkong is a squadron at Esquinialt, on
the North American shore. At Halifax, another fleet swings nt
anchor, and there is yet another at Bermuda, in the West Indies,

COLONIAL LOYALTY

455

These are the vantage grounds of the British squadron, but they
do not include the larger fleet kept in home waters for the defense
of the shores of the British Islands. The true strength of this great
fleet is an admiralty secret; but it is known to be strong enough
to protect England from attack by any possible combination, and,
if necessary, to assume offensive operations in addition.

On the other hand, France maintains powerful squadrons at
Cherbourg and Brest, in the Atlantic, and at Toulon, in the Medit-
erranean. Russia has three great fleets, one in the Baltic, one in
the Black Sea, and. the third at Port Arthur on the China station.
Italy has a navy not to be despised in the Mediterranean. Germany's
squadrons are in the Baltic and North Seas, and at Kiau Chou, China.

At the beginning of a possible war in which Great Britain
would be compelled to face France and Russia principally, within
a few days after the declaration of hostilities there would come a
series of naval battles that would startle the world. First, the
French squadron at Toulon would be compelled, from motives of
self-security, to form a juncture with either the French squadron
at Brest and Cherburg, or with the Russian Black Sea squadron
coming through the Dardanelles. To prevent this juncture, would
be the first task of the British fleet at Malta, and the battle would
be fouglit as quickly as the English ships could find the Frenchmen.

In the meantime the French fleet in the Atlantic would receive
the immediate attention of the British Channel squadron at Gibraltar,
find a second naval battle would result. To prevent Russia's
squadron in the Baltic from escaping to waters where it could
strike a l)low, a powerful squadron would be detached from Great
Britain's home fleet, and sent into the Baltic to destroy, if possible,
the Czar's warships.

456

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Again, the destruction of the Russian fleet at Port Arthnr
would be absolutely necessary to the safety of British possessions
in the Pacific, and the Englisli warships at Hongkong would speed
for the Gulf of Pe-chi-li to give battle for the control of the Orient.

These are the battles on sea that would be almost certain to
follow within a few weeks after such a war should begin. What
would be the results of such stupendous naval contests one can
only surmise. As a general proposition, however, it may be assumed
as probable that the British navy would prove equal to its proudest
traditions. There is no lack of those who would prophesy that
the results of the initial contests on the sea would be so decisive
that the powers arrayed against Great Britain would be convinced
that all further efforts to continue effective warfare would be fruit-

less, and that the contest would end then and there.

In all the discussions leading up to a possible coalition against
Great Britain, the probable position to be assumed by Japan must
not be lost sight of. Japan has just stepped out of Oriental medie-
valism into the light of modern civilization, and, more than that,
has ambition to participate in the world's affairs. Japan has, within
recent months, it is believed, come to a friendly understanding with
China, by which the two far Eastern nations have agreed to work
in closer harmony. It is known at Peking that China has signified
a willingness to transfer the Province of Swatow to Japan. Aside
from any territorial interest in China, however, Japan has an
instinctive and growing distrust of Russia, and it is quite certain
that any attempt on the part of the latter to secure, through
war or diplomacy, a preponderating influence in China will be met
with evidence of hostility. If necessary, Japan's new and powerful
navy would unquestionably be thrown into the scales on the British

COLONIAL LOYALTY

457

side, and if so the issue would be quickly decided in favor of the
alliance between Great Britain and the Oriental power.

The first question that would be asked on this side of the
Atlantic, in the event of so stupendous a conflict, would be:

"Where will America stand?"

The sympathy engendered by a common tongue, a common
literature, a common civilization, might impel the people of this
country to hope for the success of England as against the world.
But when one goes beyond sympathy he will reach a domain of
discussion in which it would be not only difficult but dangerous to
enter. In the first place, it may be taken for granted that every
power engaged in the struggle would make every endeavor to main-
tain the most cordial and friendly relations with the United States.
It is difficult to conceive of any great European power engaged in
a life and death struggle, deliberately provoking so powerful a
nation as the United States into joining hands with Great Britain,
and it is equally impossible to conceive of the United States
taking any part in the struggle against Great Britain.

It is true, unforeseen contingencies might arise which would
make it difficult for the United States to hold aloof. It may be
set down as certain that any attempt to break through the Monroe
doctrine, say, by an invasion of Canada, or the seizure of the West
India Islands, would arouse a dangerous sentiment in this country,
and this sentiment, it may be remarked, is one of the strongest
defenses Great Britain could have for the defense of her possessions
on the North American continent.

There is one point which the United States would be compelled
to watch with close interest. That would be the safety and protec-
tion of the Philippines. With British power in the Pacific broksH

^t^^-

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

11.25

I^Ui tii

^ m

iit

w
u

■ 40

2.0

Hiotographic

Sciences

Corporation

-^^

4^^:^^^ ^

«>.

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIUTM.N.Y. I4SM

(716) •73-4903

^^%

^ip

458

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

by disaster in war, some foolhardy nation might rashly consider
the project of wresting the Philippine group from American con-
trol. Such a contingency is so remote that it is hardly worth
considering, but it must be remembered always that in times of
excitement,, nations, like individuals, sometimes embark in enter-
prises of extreme hardihood. At any rate, the United States can
rest secure in the knowledge that in the Philippines there is an
army greater than any European power could possibly bring, and in
Manila IJay a fleet of battleships, monitors, and cruisers, stronji;
enough to cope with any squadron, any of the powers would be able
to assemble after the first and necessary battle with the British fleets.
It must always be remembered that before any nation, or combina-
tion of nations, would dare seek to attack the United States, either at
home or in the far East, the British fleets must first be destroyed, and
after the destruction of a British fleet, the enemy's squadron would
be in poor condition for another battle.

And, finally, when the struggle was ended, and the international
congre^ H met to arrange its terms of peace, the geographers would
have to prepare new maps of Europe, Asia, and Africa. There is
room for abundant speculation as to the nature and extent of those
changes. If Great Britain, after an heroic struggle in self-defense,
would win, it is easy to conceive that all Africa, or, at least, all now
held by France, would be transferred to the British flag. In Asia
British ascendency would be recognized in Persia, Afghanistan, Indo-
China, and the Yang-tse-Kiang Valley, thus practically stretching the
British empire across Africa and southern Asia, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and bringing under the government of the English-speak-
iug race a territory larger than Russia and Siberia.

On the other hand, if Great Britain lost in the struggle, it would

COLONIAL LOYALTY

459

seem, almost, that the British Empire had been destroyed. No longer
would England be in Egypt. South Africa, then, would in all proba-
bility, be a confederacy, under Dutch control. Persia and Afghan-
istan would become Russian soil, British pretensions in China would
be destroyed, and many of the island colonies would be added to the
possession of the victors. India would, or would not fall to the share
of Russia, just according to the terms of settlement. There would
likely be few changes in Europe, although, if France were victorious
against England and Germany, Alsace and Lorraine would be
restored to the republic. The Balkan States would undoubtedly
lose their identity, and become merged with Russia, and there would
be other and minor changes.

Note. — Now that the war is closed it can be scarcely realizeil
the immense importance of the problems discussed in this
chapter during the period of uncertainty.

LORD ROBERTS.

GENERAL LORD KITCHENER.

^>*4»' ^\

CHAPTER XXIV

ORANGE FREE STATE IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE.

Much natural curiosity has been felt regarding the flag of the
Transvaal. It is a simple affair, consisting of one broad vertical
bar of green next the flag pole, and three horizontal bars,
respectively, red, white and blue, w^ith the red at the top. If one
should take the flag of Holland and sew a bar of green at the flag-
staff end, he would have the Boer flag. Those people speak of
their flag as the "vierkleur," the four-color, as the French call
their flag the "tri-color." The flag of the Orange Free State is a
rectangle of vivid orange.

The motto of the South African Republic is " Een Draght Maakt
Magt," which, being interpreted, means "Right Makes Might." The
dominant feature of their coat of arms is a vulture, on the left-
hand quarter a lion couchant, on the right an armed Boer with a
riHe, a Boer ox wagon filling the remaining half of the picture, in
the center of which is an anchor, typifying the Cape colonial
origin of the Transvaalers. A good many years ago, a die was
made in Holland for a government official in the Transvaal, but
he refused to accept it, because the ox wagon was shown with a
pair of shafts instead of a "disselboom," or single pole.

The most distinctive feature of the arms of the Orange Free
State is an orange tree in full fruit. Beneath the tree on one side
is a lion, and on the other a number of oxen, the whole design
being completed by an ox wagon similar to that on the Transvaal
arms, and three suspended horns.

25 (468)

4()4

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Since the Orange Free State cast its lot unhesitatingly with
its sister republic, and its burghers fought valiantly in the war for
independence, it is proper in this place to give a brief account of
its president and bis predecessors. Its first executive was Thomas
F. liurgers, a clergyman and an upright man, lacking, however, in
practical sense, and disposed to dream of the future greatness of
his country. His great desire was to see it provided with \w^h
schools, colleges, telegraphs and railways. Two years after iiis
election, the legislature sent him to Europe to negotiate a loan to
build a line to Delagoa Bay. The road was partly built, when the
funds gave out and the rails and material rusted away.

Jacob Nicolaus Boshof was the second president and quickly
found himself compelled to deal with the restless native Basutos,
His first war was unsuccessful, and he was succeeded by Martin
Wessel Pretorius, a son of the dist'.nguished general. Under his
administration, the country grew stronger and purchased the terri-
torial rights of ihe Griqua Chief, Adam Kok. The next president.
John H. Brand, elected in 1888, was a lawyer, who commanded
the respect of all parties, but he had his hands full with the war
against the native Basutos under Moshesh. Great Britain claimed
the diamond fields, valued at $200,000,000, as British territory, l)ut
compromised by paying the Orange Free State $450,000, with which
sum President Brand paid off all the national debt.

Chief Justice Francis W. Reitz succeeded Mr. Brand, and 'ji;
present is Secretary of State of the South African Republic. The
Orange Free State prospered greatly under his administration, and
good roads, bridges and public buildings were constructed in all
parts of the country. His health broke down in 1895, when he
was succeeded by the present president. Martin T. Steyn, whose

OllANGE FUEE STATE

4ti5

sincerity and honesty have been proven by liis livin«i; ui) to the
si)irit and letter of the treaty of offensive and «lefensivo alliance
with his sister republic.

When war broke out with Great Britain, President Steyn issued
tin* following manifesto, which was sent l)roadcast throughout the
civilized world and was widely published in our own country:

Proclamation of the State President of the
Orange Free State.

"Btrrf/lh- rs of the Oraii'/r Free State: The time which we had so
much desired to avoid, the moment when we as a nation are coin-
[>elled with arms to oppose injustice and shameless violence, is at
hand. Our sister repul)lic to the north of the Vaal River is about
to be attacked by an unscruplous enemy, who, for many years, has
prepared himself and sought pretexts for the violence of which he
is Hoir guilty, whose purpose it is to destroy the existence of the
Afrikander race.

With our sister republic we are not only bound by ties of
love, of sympathy and of common interests, but also by a formal
treaty, which has been necessitated by circumstances. This treaty
tleniands of us that we assist her if she should be unjustly attacked,
which we unfortunately for a long time have had too much reason
to expect. We therefore cannot passively look on while injustice
is (lone her and while also our own dearly bought freedom is
eiidangored, but are called as men to resist, trusting the Almighty,
Hrinly believing that He will never permit injustice and unright-
eousness to triumph, and relying upon our good right in His sight
iind in the eyes of the wdiole world.

Now that we thus resist a powerful enemy, w^ith whom it has
always been our honest desire to live in friendship, notwithstanding

466

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

injustice and wronj^ done by liini to us in the past, we solemnly
decliire in the presence of Almighty God that we are compelled
thereto by the injustice done to our kinsmen and by the conscious-
ness that the end of their independence will make our existiMice
as an independent state of no signiHcance, and tiiat their futo.
should they be obliged to bend under an overwhelming power, will
also soon after be our own fate.

Solemn tieaties have not protected our sister republic against
annexation, ;igainst conspiracy, against the claim of an abolisliod
suzerainty, against continuous oppression and interference, and now
against a renewed attack which aims only at our downfall.

Our own unfortunate experiences in the past have also niadp
it sufhciently clear to us that we cannot rely on the most solemn
promises and agreements of fJreat Britain when she has at licr
helm a government prepared to trample on treaties and to look
for feigned pretexts for every violation of good faith by her com-
mitted. This is proved, among other things, by the unjust and
unlawful British intervention after we had overcome an arniel
and barbarous black tribe on our eastern frontier, as also by llu
forcible appropriation of the dominion over part of our territory,
when the discovery of diamonds has caused the desire for ibis
appropriation, although contrrry to existing treaties. The desire
and intention to trample on our rights as an independent and
sovereign nation, notwithstanding a solemn convention, existing'
between this State and Great Britain, have ?lso been more than
once and are now again shown by the present government, liy
giving expression in public documents to an unfounded claim of
paramountcy over the whole of South Africa, and therefore also
over this State.

ORANGE FREE STATE

407

With regard to the South African Republic, CJreat Britain has
moreover refused, until the present, to allow her to regain her
original position in respect to foreign affairs, a [< ition wliich she
has lost in no sense by her own faults. The ori<,'iiuil intentio»i of
conventions, to which the republic had consented under pressure
of circumstance, has been perverted, and has continually been used
l)y the present British administration as a means for the practice
of tyranny and of injustice, and among other things for tlie sup-
port of a revolutionary propaganda within the republic in favor of
(.ireat Britain.

And while no redress has been offered, as justice demands for
injustice done to the South African Republic on the part of the
Hritish government; and while no gratitude is exhibited for the
magnanimity shown at the request of the British government to
British subjects who had forfeited, under the laws of the republic,
their lives and their property, yet no feeling of shame has pre-
vented the P]nglish government, now that gold mines of immense
value have been discovered in the country, to make claims on the
republic, the consequence of which, if allowed, will l)e that those
who or whose forefathers have saved the country from barbarism
and have won it for civilization with their blood and tlieir tears,
will lose that control over the interests of the country to which
they are justly entitled according to divine and human laws. The
consequence of these claims would lie, moreover, that the greater
part of the power will be placed in the hands of those who, for-
eigners by birth, enjoy the privilege of depriving the country of
its chief treasure, while they have never shown any loyalty except
loyalty to a foreign government. Besides, the inevitable con-
!se(inence of the accei)tance of these claims would be, that the

468

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

independence of the country as a self-f,'overning, independent,
sovereign republic would l)e irreparably lost. For years jcist,
British troops in great numbers have been placed on the frontiois
of our sister repul)lic in order to compel her by fear to accede to
the demands which would be pressed upon her, and in order to
encourage revolutionary disturbances and tlie cunning plans of
those whose greed for gold is the cause of their shameless under-
takings.

Those plans have now reached their climax in the open vio-
lence to which the present British government now resorts. AVhile
we readily acknowledge the honorable character of thousands of
Englishmen, who loathe such deeds of robbery and wrong, we can-
not but abhor the shameless breaking of treaties, the feigned pre-
texts for the transgression of law, the violation of the internatioiuil
law and of justice and the numerous right-rending deeds of the
British statesmen who now force a war upon the South African
Republic. On their heads be the guilt of blood, and may a just
Providence reward all as they deserve.

Ihirghera of the Omnijc Free State! Rise us one tuan against the
oppressor and the violator of right!

In the strife to which we are now driven have care to commit
no deed unworthy of a Christian and of a burgher of the Orange
Free State. Let us look forward with confidence to a fortunate
end of this conflict, trusting to that Higher Power without whose
help human weapons are of no avail.

May He bless our arms. Under His banner we advance to
battle for liberty and for fatherland!

Given under my hand and the great seal of the Orange Free
State at Blo(>mfontein. M. T. Steyn, State President.

ORAK^ : FREE STATE

M'A)

Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic, was named
in honor of the picturesque and talented old general, Andrius Pre-
torious, who was made commander-in-chief of Natal. It was he
who ori<j[inated the plan of the rounding up of wagons in a ring
or rampart, with the men and animals inside, whenever attacked
by native tribes. This method was used with great success in his
campaign against the famous Zulu chief, Dingan, whose power was
hioken in a battle so sanguinary that the stream upon which it
WHS fought has since borne the name of Blood River.

Among the names prominent in the Transvaal war is that of
John Henry Hofmeyr, chairman of the Cape Town Afrikander Pund,
which exercises an all-powerful influence over the plans of the
Dutch, or Afrikander party, which has more or less supporters in
the South African states. Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State
and the South African Republic. He is looked upon as that all-
important personage, the power behind the throne, in the movement
which has in view the alliance of the countries named — a project
that looms up threateningly behind the effort of Great Britain to
conquer the Transvaal.

General Nicholaus Smit commanded a detachment of Boers in
LSSl, who attacked General Colley's forces near the Ingogo River,
while on their w'ay to Newcastle. The fight was a furious one and
histed until darkness, when, two-thirds of the English being dead
or wounded, the remainder ran away before the fierce charge of
the Boers, made at dusk, amid a d^enchin^ :ain storm.

General Piet Joubert, " Slim Peter," led the Boers in the battles
of 18S1 — Newcastle and Laings Nek — while General Frans Joubert
couinianded at Bronkhurst Spruit. In these engagements, the
English loss was more than seven hundred men, while that of the

470

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRIJA

Boers was seventeen killed and thirty wounded. In the famous

contest at Majuba's Hill, already referred to, 280 of the Britisli
«

were killed outri^^ht, or dropped wounded on the field, while tlie
loss of the Boers was five killed and wounded. These fights includtMJ
that of Jameson's raid, where 100 British were killed and only tivo
of the Boers fell.

We insert in this place the national hymn of the South African
Republic:

THE TRANSVAAL VOLKSLIED.

The four-colors of our dear old land

Again float o'er Transvaal,
And woe the God -forgetting hand

That down our flag would haul !
Wave higher now in clearer sky

Our Transvaal freedom's stay !
(Lit., freedom's flag.)
Our enemies with fright did fly ;

Now dawns a glorious day.

Through many a storm ye bravely stood,

And we stood likewise true ;
Now, that the storm is o'er, we would

Leave nevermore from you
Bestormed by Kaffir, Lion, Brit,

Wave ever o'er their bead ;
And then to spite we hoist thee yet

Up to the topmost stead !

Four long years did ve beg — aye, pray —

To keep our lands clear, free
We ask you, Brit, we loath the fray :

" Go hence, and let us be !
We've waited, Brit, we love you not,

To arms we call the Boer ; "

(Lit., Now take we to our guns.)
You've teased us long enough, we troth,

Now wait wo nevermore.

ORANGE FREE STATE

471

And with God's help we cast the yoke

Of England from our knee ;
Our country safe — behold and look —

Once more our flag waves free !
Though many a hero's blood it cost,

May all the nations see

(Lit., Though England ever so much more.)
That God the Lord redeemed our hosts ;

The glory His shall be.

Wave high now o'er our dear old land,

Wave four-colors of Transvaal !
And woe the God-forgetting hand

That dares you down to haul !
Wave higher now in clearer sky

Our Transvaal freedom's stay !
Our enemies with fright did fly ;

Now dawns a glorious day.

latinn—ijBiM..

The
October
killed, r
wounde<
Kimber
(lant Bo
The Wi
were: o
killc^d, ^

ThJ
to the e
was a r
the mai

Sir
tion re\
and pri
five bal
(•outer c
witli ei^
with si
tlie rig!
wliile t
the adv
all thei

CHAPTER XXV

HOPE DEFEKRED

The report of losses in the engagement at Riefontein farm on
October 24, to cover General Yule's retreat was: British loss thirteen
killed, ninety-three wounded, three missing; Boers, six killed, nine
wounded. On the same day. Major Scott made a reconnaissance at
Kimberley, when he lost four killed and eleven wounded, Comman-
dant Botha of Boshof being killed. The Boer loss was not given.
The War Office returns of British losses to the 25th of the month
were: officers, eighteen killed, fifty-five wounded; men, seventy-six
killod, 435 wounded; missing thirteen; total, 597.

The news from the seat of war on the last day in October was
to the effect that the British movement to the eastward of Ladysmith
was a reconnaissance in force which failed to come in touch with
the main body of the Boer army.

Sir George White expected to find the Boers in the posi-
tion revealed by the captive balloon several days before. The right
and principal column was composed of three cavalry regiments,
live battailous of infantry and had twenty-four field guns ; the
center column of two cavalry regiments and four infantry battalions,
witli eighteen field guns; the left column of two infantry battalions,
with six seven-pounder screw guns. Emerging from Ladysmith,
the right and center columns moved to assault the Boer positions,
while the left column was sent to occupy the hills on the left of
the advance. It turned out, however, that the Boers had evacuated
all their positiohs during the night, taking with them the heavy

(478)

474

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

guns with which they had bombarded Ladysmith from Lombard's
Kop. The change in their positions was wholly unexpected by the
British commander who was disconcerted and compelled to turn
what was intended as a movement of assault into a reconnaissance
in force. He did not have to hunt long for the enemy when lie
found them posted in large numbers and well supplied with artillery.
The result of the brisk action that followed was that the advan-
tage was with the Boers and the British were obliged to withdniw
and return to Ladysmith without accomplishing the purpose of
their advance.

While the two main columns were thus fruitlessly fighting, the
left became entangled among the hills, were attacked by a large
force of Boers and fought desperately, but, having lost the greater
part of their regimental and reserve ammunition and mountain
artillery equipment, were compelled to surrender as soon as their
ammunition was exhausted. The affair was a striking proof of the
danger attending operations at night in a strange country.

Naturally the result was highly unsatisfactory to the Br'tish,
promising further disadvantageous consequences, while the prestige
of the Boers was greatly increased among the natives, of whose rising
they had felt many misgivings. The Boers have shown an astonishing
quickness to learn lessons, whether from defeat or victory, which
they turned to the most effective account. One cause of surprise to
the British was the mobility of their artillery, for the general belief
was that it would be ineflBciently served and prove an incumbrance
rather than a help.

A striking display of the activity of the Boers occurred on
Monday, when it was discovered that they were back in their former
positions that had been found evacuated the day befoie, and.

HOPE DEFERRED

475

from the accounts of this battle, had the Boers been alert and
seized the opportunity offered them, they could have inflicted a
still greater disaster upon the British arms. There was one moment
during the fighting, at the time the three infantry battalions of the cen-
ter column were sent to reinforce the right and one of its brigades fell
hack in disorder on its artillery, when the center column was wholly
at the mercy of the Boers and the retreat of the right could have
been cut off. Had this chance been seized the blow would have been
overwhelming and decisive.

The War Office report gave in addition to the list of killed and
wounded, placed at 272, some 4G5 missing besides those belonging to
the left column, who were taken prisoners. Colonel (Jrimwood's
l)rigade of the right column was not only compelled to make a pre-
cipitate retreat, but lost its ammunition. It was clear, therefore,
that the heaviest fighting of the day was on that part of the field
south of the Helpmakaar road, the number of killed and wounded
being so large that an armistice became necessary to attend to the
burying of the dead and carrying off of the wounded.

Passing to the southern boundary of the Orange Free State,
the movements indicated active perations on the part of the British,
with a view of relieving the pressure upon Ladysmith, by drawing
the attention of the Free State forces on the Van Reenen's Pass
road from that side.. The Free State commandos were nt that time
encamped near Norval's Point, protecting the railway bridge, 1,690
feet in length, which crosses the Orange River, on the line connect-
ing Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. Another strong force of
Boers were at Bethulie, covering the bridge 1,486 feet long, on the
East London-Bloemfontein line, with still another force at Rouxville
in command of tiie bridge, 840 feet long, which crosses the Orange
liiver at Aliwai North.

476

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Sir Alfred Milner, the British high commissioner in Soutli
Africa, officially reported the annexation of the territory north of
the Orange and Vaal rivers, between the Transvaal and the Ger-
man West African protectorate. This was an imi^ortant step, since;
it placed at the com n? and of the Transvaal several thousand
mounted burghers, of Wi n a number had already taken part in tlie
operations against Kimberley and Mafeking.

A telegram dated November 2 was received in London from
Pietermaritzburg announcing that the women and children had
been sent away from Ladysmith, and it was apparent that Sir
George White was determined to make a desperate defense. At
the same time, it appeared that the Boer forces were extending
their imes to the southw?,rd with the object of completely isolating
the city. The Boers occupied Colenso, thereby adding to the grave
danger of the garrison of Ladysmith, thus shutting off all commu-
nication by rail or wire with the city. Reinforcements were reported
to be coming down through Zululand and they could not fail to
form an important addition to the command of General Joubert.
Another important advantage gained by the Boers was that of
impressing the observant Zulus with the strength they had dis-
played.

A brilliant exploit of the ga,rrison was performed on Thursday,
November 2, Avhen a force composed of cavalry, artillery and
infantry dashed out of the town and struck a blow at the Boers,
the point assailed being the camp of the Free Staters at Bester's
Hill, on the road leading to Van Reenen's Pass. The Boers, after a
brisk defense, were driven out. The news of these movements was
sent from Ladysmith by carrier pigeons. But for this means of
communication it would have been impossible to secure any definite

HOPE DEFERRED

477

information of the city and its garrison, respecting whom the
greatest anxiety prevailed in Europe.

The proof that Great Britain had an exceedingly difficult and
costly task on her hands became more manifest every day. The
state commandos advanced upon Cape Colony and the peril of a
general uprising among the Afrikander population became imminent.
As a precautionary measure, the British destroyed the railway
bridge across the Orange River at Hopetown, on tlie railway
l)etween Kiml)erley and De Aar, thus effectually closing one of the
most impoi-tant avenues, by which it was expected to send help to
Kiinl)erley from that s* V The Boers destroyed the l)ridge over
the Colesburg River, twelve miles from tlie town of that name,
and tore up nearly twenty miles of the line south of Norval's
Point, whose approaches were mined. It was reported that the
Boers had occupied (laberones in the direction of Rhodesia.

The British, after evacuating Colenso, prepared to make a stand
at Estcourt, covering the railway coming from tlie pass through
the Mooi range of hills north of Pietermaritzburg. The Boers dis-
played great activity, often overturning the plans of campaign of
their enemies. From the chaff of rumors and exaggerated reports,
the wheat was found to be that the fighting on the second and third
of November was in the nature of skirmishing. The Boer big gun,
which was repeatedly reported disabled, was soon in active service
ugain, it being c'liefly aimed at the forts and the I?»'itish naval
^nns. The Boers held their former positions, though the invest-
ment was not strict enough to prevent several excursions being
made to the westward. The General at Estcourt sent the foUow-
in<jf dispatch through the Governor of Natal:

" November 6. Since Friday there has been a cessation of

478

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

hostilities. A note was sent on that day to General Joubert by
General White, asking permission for the non-combatants and the
sick and wounded to go south. Joubert refused to grcnt the request,
but agreed to allow them to go to a special camp four miles from
Lad3\smith.

"The townspeople refused to accept this offer. The sick and
wounded and a few of the inhabitants moved yesterday. A few
shots were exchanged yesterday between outposts. Friday's bom-
bardment was heavy. Shells fell in the hospital and one burst in
the hotel during luncheon. No one was injured.

"The only casualty in the town from the shells, up to tlie
present time, was one Kaffir killed last Wednesday.

"On Friday there was a smart action toward Dewdrop (the mil-
way station for Ladysmith). The troops under Colonel Brocklehurst
drove the Boers back a considerable distance and disabled one gun.

"There was also fighting near Bulwana. Our loss altogether
was eight killed and about twenty wounded.

"Ninety-eight of our wounded, who were sent here, have arrived
and are doing well.

"Our position here is now believed to be entirely safe. It has
been greatly strengthened during the last twenty-four hours. The
people have deserted their dwellings and are living in bomb-proof
places. There are plenty of good stores of all kinds."

General Sir Redvers Buller arrived at Capetown on the trans-
port Dnnottar Casfh^ on the 31st of October. An enormous crowd
cheered him as he was driven in an open carriage to the Govern-
ment House, where he was received with a salute of seventeen
guns. He sailed from Southampton on October 14 to assume
command of the British forces in South Africa.

BFTT^F

ggHMgn

l^'^^.yS-

^S-^^mlL* ^1

^r ^

'v.'W*- A^^l

M^^^^^^l

u
h

to try a
are unji
one to I
of Gene
due to I
extent, i
ing the
lie made
to suspe
and Mil

"Co
parednes
a Britisl
ultimatu
able to
themseb
knew th
strategic
hold an
ti^diting
left isols
to come
which \\
in similiJ
achieve(3

Wit

^'Giieral

surely 1
2e

HOPE DEFERRED

481

When a disaster befalls the arms of any country, it is natural
to try and fix the blame. It often happens that those thus censured
are unjustly condemned, but the impatient people must have some
one to be held accountable for the misfortune. The frank avowal
of General White, in v^rhich he declared that the failure was wliolly
due to him, and to no one else, disarmed criticism to a certain
extent, and caused much sympathy for him. A good many, includ-
ing the service publications, held that he was less responsible than
he made out, and that the least that could be honorably done was
to suspend judgment until all the facts were learned. The Naml
and Military Record said:

"Considering the nature of the country, the lamentable unpre-
paredness of England and the unwillingness of the opposition to allow
a British regiment to go to South Africa until President Kruger's
ultimatum was received, it is almost surprising that we have been
able to hold our own so far. Not only have the Boers proved
themselves determined fighters and splendid sharpshooters, as we
knew them to be, but they have developed surprising military and
strategic qualities. They have nearly surrounded every garrison we
hold and have invariably occupied almost unassailable positions,
tighting with great courage. Against such fighters our little force,
left isolated far from our base and without hope of relief for days
to come, has not only done splendid work, but has gained successes
which we venture to believe no other soldiers in the world placed
in similar positions and in similar unfortunate conditions could have
achieved."

With the disheartening news from the seat of war and the
^'eiieral misgivings concerning foreign interference. Great Britain
surely had enough trouble to cause anxiety. It is the latter

482

THE STORY OF b'OIITH AFRICA

question which is of far-reaching importance. At the Lord Mayor's
banquet in London on the evening of November 9, Lord Wolseley,
Commander-in-chief of the army, announced that orders had been
issued for the formation of another division, which would be sent
to South Africa, and he added that, if found necessary, the Second
Army Corps would be mobilized.

Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister, spoke words for which it may
be said the nation was intently listening and which caused vast
encouragement. He deprecated certain criticisms and statements
which he said were not well founded. There was a feeling that the
lack of troops was due to want of action on the part of the
government.

" It was stated abroad," said he, " that we were a strong nation
attacking a weak one. But, surely, as our forces are so far distant.
it would be nearer the truth to say that we were a weak nation
attacking a strong one.

"What was the cause of the war and the Boer ultimatum? It
was said that it was because we had taken measures to increase
our force in South Africa. If we had increased this force earlier.
the Transvaal ultimatum would have been sent earlier. The real
"cause dated back to the unfortunate arrangements of 1881, whereby
we permitted a community admittedly hostile to us to enjoy the
rights of accumulating unbounded munitions of war.

"Our troops are now beginning to arrive in South Africa.
Foreign nations have complimented us on the coolness with which
we have received news of checks. But we knew that checks were
always possible at the outset."

Lord Salisbury declared that his faith in the British soldier was
unbounded. "I must deprecate," said he, "such strong assertions

HOPE DEFERRED

4s;]

as that the war had for its object greed for a share of the gold
and diamond mines. England would derive no advantage from the
possession of these mines.

"Every industry that was successfully prosecuted bred commerce
and that, of course, was to the adavntage of England. That was
all we desired. We sought neither the gold temtory nor the diamond
mines, but equal rights for all men. It cannot be doubtod that we

shall so arrange the issue of the conflict as to confer good govern-
ment on the area concerned and give that security which is solely
n^'eded against the recurrence of any such strife in that portion of
tliG world."

Lord Salisbury characterized as wild the suggestions that foreign
powers would interfere in the present conflict and would dictate
in some way the manner in which it would be terminated. "Do
not let any man think," he continued, "that it is in that fashion
that this conflict will be concluded. We will have to carry it
through ourselves and no interference will have any effect; in the
first place, because we shall not accept such interference quietly,
and in the second place because I am convinced that there is no
such idea in the mind of any government in the world. There have
been within my memory five or six great wars involving territorial
modification, but, except as provided by treaties, in none of these
cases has a third power ventured to interfere either in the campaign
or in the terms of settlement. The powers have not claimed the
right to interfere because they knew that according to international
law they did not possess any such right. Dreams of that kind,
therefore, should be dismissed as no more than dreams.

" Wherever we are victorious we shall consult the vast interests
committed to our care and the vast duties we have to perform.

484

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

We shall take counsel of the uniform traditions of our Colonial
government and maintain that equal justice to all races which it
has been our uniform practice to observe."

It was on November 8 that Colenso was occupied by the Boers.
The town, it will be remembered, is in Natal, on the Tugela River,
and its occupation fixed the Boers at a vital point in the Britisli
communication by rail with Ladysmith across the Tugela. They
had previously occupied Pomeroy, on the road connecting Dundee
through Helnmakaar with Greytown, and had also strongly guarded
their left flank. The occupation of Colenso closed the reti-eat of Sir
George White by railway, while at the same time the Boers were
in a position to check the advance of a column to his relief, ;iiid
they were enabled to bring their own entire force against Ladysmith.

The crossing of the Orange River by the Free Staters and the
destruction of the railway lines and bridges toward Colesl)iir<r,
Stormberg Junction and other points rendered it necessary to
strengthen the British garrison at De Aar, in order to preserve
communications with the southern part of Cape Colony and the
coast.

Public feeling in England demanded that the first and supreme
effort of General Sir Redvers Buller was to be the relief of Lady-
smith. The military critic pronounced this bad military tactics
for it was virtually playing into the hands of the Boers. Instead
• of fighting the decisive campaign in the spacious veldt above the
Orange River, it was likely to be among the rough hills of Natal.
where the Boers could choose their own battleground and briii^'
into full play their deadly marksmanship. ,

While the nation took courage from the assurances of Knrd
Salisbuiy that there would be no foreign intervention, the more

HOPE DEFERRED

485

thoughtful did not lose sight of the possibility of an attack upon
Great Britain's interests in the far East or at other points Avhile
her energies were engrossed by the war in the Transvaal.

One keen cause of exasperation was the delay and the unrelia-
hiUty of the news from the seat of war. There were many explana-
tions offered for this, such as the breaking down or overloading of
the cable, but the censoring of the dispatches was as stupid as our
own during the war with Spain, which is saying a great deal. The
worst of it was that many of the seemingly important dispatches
had not the slighest basis of truth. Thus it was stated in huge
headlines that there had been a battle in which the Boers lost in
killed, wounded and prisoners fully 2.000 men, and it was claimed
that one of their leading generals had been captured. Nothing
resembling either of these incidents occurred. This was not the
iirst instance of such falsitication and naturally it was not long
liefore the public came to look upon the dispatches with suspicion.
J. B. Robinson, the well-known South African millionaire, is one
of the best of living authorities on all subjects relating to that
])()rtion of the Dark Continent. When he was asked concerning
those contradictory reports, he replied:

" I have no hesitation in saying, from knowledge and experi-
ence of Boer warfare, that England has never yet encountered a
hody of men who will fight with such tenacity and such dire results
as ihe Boer army. It must be remembered that these peoi)le are
li-hting with a determination to gain the ascendency throughout
South Africa, and their prochunations annexing British territory
clearly indicate that they are resolved to establish theuiselves as
liu,' paramount power.

"The numbers of the forces given as constituting the two

486

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

armies of the Transvaal and the Oranj^e Free State are grossly
exaggerated. I maintain that the two Republics cannot put more
than 23,000 or 25,000 men in the field, but they may have the addi-
tion of 3,000 mercenaries. They are all splendidly armed, and the
artillery forms an important element of the armaments. The
Transvaal has expended within three years about three millions in
armament and in equipping its own and the Free State's burghers.
I know that cannon were sent by the Transvaal to the Orange Free
State, and every preparation was made to carry on the strugj2:le
with the utmost determination. The Natal country is well adapted
to tjie Boer tactics."

The first fighting in connection with the relief of Kimberloy
occurred on November 10, some nine miles west of Belmont, which
is a station twenty miles north of the Orange River, and on the
railway to Kimberley. The British, who held the bridge strongly,
sent out a rcconnoitering force which came iu collision witli the
Boers at the place referred to. In the fight fhat followed, the
British lost, in killed and wounded, four officers and two soldiers. The
railway bridge which spanned the Modderspruit thirty-five miles
above Belmont had been destroyed by the Boers, so that any relief
sent over that line would have to overcome this serious obstruction.

The reports that filtered through the investing lines from
Kimberley were vague. It became known that the garrison and
inhal)itants wore on short rations, and a dispatch to the War Ottice
stated that one of the outposts at the waterworks had disappeared,
which looked very much as if it had been captured by the Boers.
The reports further said that Boer patrols had been seen in the
vicinity of De Aar, and strong commandos had crossed the Orange
River at Bethulio and Aliwal North.

HOPE DEFERRED

487

Pietermaritzburg was known to be in danger, aiul the British
put forth the utmost exertion to place it in a condition of defense.
The special fear was that of the burgher force under the command
o{(ieneral Schalk-Burger, which was reported as approaching through
Zululand.

No one could doubt that the situation of Ladysmith was critical.
The hope was general that relief would reach General White by the
close of the month, but the principal fear was of the breaking out
of malarial fever among the garrison, because of it'^ being compelled
to use the muddy water of the Klip River, which runs through the
town. One of the eventualities which some military critics in fJng-
himl looked upon as possible, was that Ladysmith would hold out
long enough for General Joubert's army to be caught between two
tires, thus compelling him to retreat with the loss of all his artil-
lery, and this would be the "beginning of the end."

Signs of unrest among the natives caused the organization of
a strong commando in the north of the Transvaal, and a place of
refuge was chosen in the Zoutpansberg district in one of the old
native fastnesses, to which the women and children could be sent.
The South African Company's police in Rhodesia had their arms
carefully examined and placed in the best of order against the
same grave peril.

N
that d
Revoli
doubl(
have (
with '
the U

It
to the
theUi
only c
of hot
Engla
of Rui
with \

the re
while
l)ecau!
years
<liscip
so far
total 1
also 1

CHAPTER XXVI

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

No higher type of human heroism has ever been seen than
that displayed by the British soldier and sailor. In the War of the
Revolution, the population of Great Britain and Wales was about
double that of her American colonies, and at no time did England
have 50,000 soldiers in America. And yet, though she was at war
with France, Spain ai... Holland before the close of the struggle,
the United States should have failed but for the help of France.

In the war of 1812, when the British troops had been trained
to the highest point of efficiency in the struggle against Napoleon,
the United States won precious little glory (New Orleans being the
only conspicuous example) on the land, while the brilliant exploits
of both navies filled the world witn wonder. A generation later,
England maintained her prestige in the Crimea, against the legions
of Russia, since which period she has fought many wars, but none
with those of her own race, until her struggle with the Boers.

Edgar S. Maclay in his History of the American Navy says
the reason why the British suffered some defeats on the sea in 1812.
while her seasoned land forces were doing splendid work, was
because of the great confidence of the British officers. For twenty
years they had been waging a naval warfare against France, whose
•liscipline had been destroyed by the Revolution. This had extended
so far that the captain was styled " citizen captain" and there was a
total lack of real discipline on the French frigates. The English hao
also been fighting against the Spaniards, whose deficiency in

(MB)

490

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sustained valor was shown recently in the Spanish-American war.
The easy victories of the English hurt the British sailor for battle
against Anglo-Saxons, and those of his own blood, and it was only
in the natural order of things, that when their sui erb warships
encountered our own, that the contest should be exceedingly bitter.

England's mighty navy enables her to hold her supremacy on
the sea, but, as has been stated, her soldiers have fought only
black, yellow or brown men, for nearly a half century, with the
result that, in some respects, she has really suffered from her many
victories. This can be illustrated by a summary of the wars \n
which Great Britain has been engaged since that of the Crimea,
which ended in 1856.

It was only a year later that the appalling Sepoy mutiny
broke out in India. Then it was that the English soldier showed
his thrilling heroism, his capacity to bear hardship and suffering,
and his readiness to face death in every conceivable form for the
sake of his country and of humanity. Through that pestilential
region, smitten by cholera, throbbing with infernal heat, and
arrayed against a devilish fanaticism, the soldiers swept like a
cyclone, releasing Cawnpore, Lucknow and Delhi from the grip of
the tiger, and restoring peace and order to a country whose native
population is five times that of England.

All admit that the British flag means a good deal in this
world. Let an English tramp be kicked a little too hard from the
door of an official on the other side of the globe, and let the sub-
ject make his grievance known to the British consul. The next
step in the programme is the arrival of British force, with notice
to the offending official that he has the choice of apologizing to
the offended subject and paying him a handsome indemnity,

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

491

or uf having his town knocked about his ears by the guns of the
warships.

In 1856, a Canton river boat was seized and the crew disci-
pHned. The boat was flying the British flag, but, as a matter of
fact, had no right to do so, and its purpose in hoisting it was to
conceal and aid a band of Chinese pirates. Technically, however,
tlie British flag had been insulted and the consul would not be

placated. The quarrel grew into a war, and Sir Michael Seymour
bombarded Canton from October 23 to November 13, while an
infantry force made demonstrations near the city.

The course of England in this matter was criticised at home,
and there was so much dissatisfaction over the action of the British
representatives in China, who, it is alleged, were acting under
the instructions of their government, that on motion of Mr. Cobdeu,
the House of Commons passed a vote of censure, whereupon Lord
Palmerston's ministry dissolved Parliament, appealed to the country
to stand by its sailors and soldiers, and was overwhelmingly
re])laced in power.

Poor, miserable China soon discovered that France had been
offended by the ill treatment of some of her missionaries. England
let China alone during the time of the Sepoy mutiny, but in the
latter part of 1857, she joined France in an attack upon Canton,
which was captured, including the Chinese Commissioner, Yeh. A
treaty resulted with England and France, highly advantageous to
each.

In June, 1859, English and French representatives set out for
Pekin to exchange ratifications of the treaty with the Emperor's
representatives. The fleet acting as an escort to the foreign repre-
sentatives, was fired upon when ascending the river, and the

492

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

expedition forced to withdraw. The following year, the two Euro-
pean powers sent their representatives with a strong force to compel
obedience to the provisions of the treaty, one of which was that
the foreign ambassadors should be admitted to Pekin. The Chinese
made a brave resistance, but could not withstand the vastly superior
armament brought against their antiquated forts and means of
defense. In this business, Sir Garnet Wolseley won distinction and
the conquerors were granted everything they demanded.

Somewhat earlier than' these occurrences, the British minister
to Persia had a quarrel with the Shah's government, in consequence
of which General Outram and General Havelock entered northern
Persia with a powerful column, whereupon Persia made haste to
grant every demand of England.

The Sepoy mutiny referred to spread to Afghanistan where the
fanatical population thought the opportunity too good to be lost.
The Indian tribes on the frontier were incited to rebellion l)y
Russian agents on the other side of the country, and there has
been tension between them and the English for most of the century.
In the latter part of 1859, a British expedition was sent against
the Kabul Kheyl Wuzzerees, and a second, some months later
against the Mahsood Wuzzerees. The flames of resistance were
fanned by the fugitive Sepoys and Hindu devotees, and a number
of border raids were made.

In October, 1863, when the state of affairs had become intoler-
able, the Punjaub government sent thither a column of 6,000 men,
with nineteen guns, who, upon entering the Umbeylo, Pass in
October, encountered furious resistance. A fortnight later, 2,000
natives attacked an advance post on a pinnacle so small that only
110 soldiers could find footing on it, while about the same number

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

were posted at the base. A fierce fight raged one whole afternoon,
resulting in the defeat of the natives who left the ground covered
with their dead. Of the British, three oflicers and twenty-six men
were killed, and nine officers and eighty-six men wounded.

The news of the teriffic fight was carried to the neighboring
tribes who came swarming over the hills, determined that not one
of the foreigners should escape alive. In a brief time, 15,000 of
the tribesmen were encamped near the outlet of tlie pass, and
attacked by turns with the utmost ferocity of the gallant little
band. Armed only with spears, they frequently fought their way
into the breastworks, where they v/ere shot down and bayoneted.
The fighting lasted at intervals for three weeks, at the end of w^iich
time the defenders were relieved and the sullen natives w^ithdrew.

Eesolved to teach the barbarians a needed lesson, a force of
7,800 men in December, set out to capture the principal fortress
on a hill near the entrance to the pass. It was so steep that it
resembled the side of a house, and was encircled by a number of
stone breastworks. One of the attacking columns lined the sur-
rounding ridges with infantry and artillery, and the charge straight
up the hill was covered with another column. The amazing
audacity of the assault threw the tribesmen into a panic, and,
flinging down their w^eapons, they fled for their lives, leaving
more than 400 killed and w'ounded, that of the British being 83.
In quickness and sharpness, this action has not been surpassed
in modern times. The blow was a severe one, and the natives
retired to their homes, after making a tveaty not to go upon any
more border raids.

At different times. from 1863 to 1880, similar expeditions were
sent against the Mohmunds, and into Bhootan, Lushai and the

494

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Naga Hills. It was in the year last named, that Lord Roberts, of
Kandahar, appointed in December, 1899, to the chief command in
South Africa, won his peerage in Afghanistan. This fighting was
much of the same character as that of our own against the Indians
on the frontier. While it gave no training in regular warfare, a
sentinel learned that it was sure death to be neglectful, even for a
brief time, while on duty.

The Abyssinian campaign was an extraordinary one. In 1855,
Lij Kasa, who had spent several years in a convent on the Blue
Nile, conceived that he had a mission to build up a Christian
dynasty in Abyssinia, and he proclaimed himself "Theodore, King
of the Kings of Ethiopia." This project was more or less encour-
aged by the English consul. Theodore wrote a letter to Queen
Victoria in 1861, and sent it through Captain Cameron, the succeed-
ing British consul. In the letter he dwelt with rude eloquence on
his mission, but said he was lacking in the means of carrying it
into effect, and he begged that the Queen would provide him with
arms and the sinews of war.

When Captain Cameron returned to his post, in January, 1864,
he found Theodore very angry because he had received no answer
to his letter. In truth it never went further than the foreign
office, which did not think enough of it to deliver it to the Queen,
or indeed to pay any attention at all to it.

There is no record in history of such momentous consequences
following the failure of a lady to answer a missive addressed to her.
When an explanation was demanded of Captain Cameron his reply
was a lame one, for it will be seen that it was impossible for him to
make one that would satisfy the bigoted monarch, who next sharply
asked why the consul, instead of coming direct to Abyssinia, had

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

495

turned aside to enter Soudan. Perhaps Cameron might have done
better in smoothing over this seemingly discourteous act, had he
been given the chance, but it was denied him. Without waiting
for his words, the king declared English Christianity a sham, and
added that he meant to punish Queen Victoria for the slight put
upon him. He made prisoners of all the foreigners in his dominions,
including Cameron, and some of the captives were subjected to
torture.

As might be supposed, England was indignant when she learned
of the outrage. Theodore received enough letters from the foreign
office to compensate him a dozen times over for the Queen's neglect.
He replied that he was keeping Great Britain's subjects in prison
because he wanted men and machinery with which he could make
gunpowder and guns. To placate the savage ruler, the government
sent him several skilled artisans. The King made use of their
services, and caused an arsenal to be built, but would not release
his captives.

By this time it was apparent that he was amenable to only
one argument — that of force. He felt secure in his far away
African empire and looked upon the concessions of England as
proofs of her helplessness to punish him. He was still soured over
the failure of his first letter to bring a reply from the Queen, and
remained as self-willed and resentful as ever. Finally, Sir Robert
Napier was placed at the head of an expedition to Magdala with
orders to upset the obdurate king.

The army, numbering 12,000, was marched 400 miles over
the rugged mountains to Magdala. Learning of their coming Theo-
dore set free his captives with the impudent remark that he had
held them on purpose to induce the Queen to send an army

41)()

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

respectable enough to put up a fair fight. Since he could not very
well go to her country with an adequate force he adopted this
method of bringing a British force within striking distance. One
of the prisoners told him the approaching army was sure to defeat
him.

"Let them come," was the contemptuous reply of the Theodore;
"If I do not crush all of the Queen's soldiers, then you may set,
me down as a woman."

No intelligent person could fail to forsee the result. The
British army arrived, fully armed, in good shape, and under the
command of excellent leaders. The king's followers were charged
and scattered like so much chaff. One thousand were killed, nearly
all the rest put to flight and the fortress surrendered in April, 18(57,
the loss of the assailants being only one officer wounded. Theodore
proved himself a monarch in one respect; for, when he saw all
was lost, he killed himself, dying without receiving the long
expected letter from the Queen of England, a failure which cost
Oreat Britain $10,000,000.

An irritating state of affairs existed for a long time in New
Zealand, over the right of the native chiefs to sell land to the
English settlers. The quarrel was much the same as that between
the great Shawanoe chieftain Tecuniseh and the United States
government, previous to the war of 1812. Tecumseh insisted that
no tribe could sell land without the consent of all the tribes, since.
as he maintained, it belonged to all in common. In New Zealand,
after such sales had been made by a sub-chief, one higher in rank
than he would angrily declare the sale void. The quarrels increased
in acuteness until 1860, when the Maoris, who are brave and
resolute, united in a w^ar to the death against what they considered

■"'^j;^

not very
ited this
;e. One
o defeat

heodore;
may set

t. The
der the
charged
1, nearly
dl, 1867,
'heodore
saw all
tie long
ich cost

in New
to the
between
States
)ed that
IS, since.
Zealand,
in rank
icreased
,ve and
isidered

0^*

THE TOWN HALL, LADYSMITH, CONVERTED INTO A HOSPITAL.

AN INCIDENT IN THE BOMP \RDMENT OF LADYSMITH-A SHELL IN THE

KITCHEN OF THE I8TH HUSSARS.

^i^J'MR

-^i

^B''^'

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

490

ITAL.

e^%-

jiA

English injustice. The Maoris are men of great stature, magnificent
physique, capable of withstanding incredible fatigue, as fierce and
courageous as Zulus, were armed with muskets which the tribes
had used for many years against one another, and, though many
were nominally Christians, owing to the efforts of early mission-
aries, they would not give up the hideous practice of eating the
prisoners whom they took in battle.

In addition to this they were good engineers and skilled
tacticians, and the sight of a body of them engaged in a war dance
was enough to to terrify the stoutest soldier. The war upon
which they entered was prosecuted with more or less fury for ten
years. As evidence of the lofty state of civilization attained by the
Maoris, it may be recalled that one of their number visited America
some years ago, and posed as a trained athlete and wrestler.

The natives adopted the most effective method of fighting
disciplined troops, which may be described as modeled in many
respects after that of our own Indians. They cut off small detach-
ments, burned and plundered villages, and, when the troops arrived,
skurried off to the bush. They showed no little skill in erecting
fortifications, which usually consisted of three rows of bamboo
fences, backed by earth. When driven from the first, they ran
behind the second and shot the white soldiers as they swarmed
over the first line.

Exasperated by this destructive resistance, the commanders
ordered the defenses to be undermined and blown up. When the
hard task was completed and everything was ready for the explo-
sion, it was found that the Maoris had withdrawn to a similar
fortification a safe distance away. Once, when the laborious min-
ing was under way, a flag of truce arrived from the opposing chief,

. IN THE

500

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

conveying his compliments and the message that he was growing
impatient over the delay; he added, that finding he had a number
of sappers idle, he would lend them to the English in order to
hasten the completion of the channel under his fort, and thus
bring matters to an issue.

This audacious letter was an exhibition of the Maori sense of
humor which is one of their most marked characteristics. Despite
the many sanguinary incidents of the war, they extracted a good
deal of fun from it. A letter from one of them to his family said
he and his comrades were so happy that they ate the English bul-
lets. Sir Duncan Cameron, who advanced at the rate of a mile a
day along the sea coast for two months, was dubbed "The Lame
Seagull."

The difficulty of conquering these humorous wretches was so
great that England kept pouring troops into New Zealand until they
were ten times as numerous as the natives. One of the most extra-
ordinary of all incidents occurred in January, 1863, when 300 Maoris
were surrounded in a stockade by an overwhelming British force.
They had no water, were raked by artillery and small arm fire, and
a shower of hand grenades was rained upon them. They repulsed
five despp ate charges, but, seeing that their situation was hopeless,
and admiring their wonderful bravery. General Cameron asked
them to surrender with all the honors of war. To this demand the
notable answer was returned:

"Kawhawhai tome, ake, ake, ake!" ("We fight right on, forever,
forever, forever!")

When General Cameron received the message he asked the
Maoris to send their women away, to which the reply came: "Our
women want to fight as much as we do."

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

501

Three days later the Maoris charged out, leaping directly over
one regiment of infantry that were lying in the rifle pits in front.
Half of the daring fellows made their escape into the bush.

The greatest fight of the war was at a stockade between two
swamps which effectually guarded the flanks of the Maoris. Their
force was insignificant as compared with the British. A regiment
of infantry was sent around to the rear to cut off the retreat of
the Maoris, when oamerou proceeded to batter down the stockade
with his eleven Armstrong guns, two howitzers and six mortars.
When a breach had been made, a charge was ordered. All this
time the natives, by lying low in excavations inside the stockade,
had escaped receiving so much as a wound. Waiting until the
English were directly upon them, they leaped to their feet and
fought with the fierceness of tigers. The British were decisively
repulsed and fled tumultuously out of the intrench n;ents, but two
of them won the Victoria Cross by bravely rescuing wounded
comrades who were in danger of being left behind.

Matters remained at a standstill until darkness, when the
garrison fought its way out, suffering only a slight loss, while that
of the British was ten officers and one hundred and one men.
Some days later the British came upon a party of Maoris working
u[K)n new fortification^, and in a fierce attack killed one hundred
iiiul forty-five of them. A partial cessation of hostilities followed,
l)ui the war continued fitfully for a number of years. The Maoris
refused to surrender or compromise their quarrel. The British
troops were gradually withdrawn, and skillful diplomacy at
last brought permanent peace. Franchise was granted to the
native men and women, who have long had representatives in the
Colonial Parliament, while New Zealand itself is at this writing on

502

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the eve of joining the federation of Great Britain's Australian
colonies.

Over on the west coast of Africa lies the Ashantee territory,
formerly owned by the Dutch, who paid tribute to Great Britain.
In 1873, the King of the Ashantees notified the English government
that it must pay to him the same tribute that had formerly been
received by it from Holland. England refused, wiiereupon tho
Ashantee ruler took his revenge by a murderous onslaught upon
a tribe friendly to the English, and nearly wiped them out of
existence. Sir Garnet Wolseley was ordered to West Africa with
a force which conquered the Ashantees in January, 1874, captured
the capital, Coomassie, and burned it. The invaders suffered slight
loss, and the king, thoroughly cowed, submitted without protest to
the terms of the conquerors.

An insurrection broke out among the Kaffirs along the Oranj]fe
River, in 1857, but Great Britain was so bu ily occupied elsewhere,
that she made no attempt for three years to restore order. Then
it was effected, but trouble occurred again in 1877; this time, how-
ever, it was soothed with little difficulty,

Afghanistan has long been a thorn in the side of Great
Britain, mainly because of Russian intrigue, that country being
exceedingly jealous of British advancement in that quarter. If
war ever occurs between the two powers, it will probably be on
account of mutual encroachments in this part of Asia where
England sees her Indian possessions threatened by the "earth
hunger" of the Czar. As has been stated, there had been strong
tension for years, and finally the Emir of Afghanistan, in 187S,
backed by Russian encouragement, made an effort to shut
out the British from his temtory. In November, of that

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

503

year, three British columns advanced from India into Afghan
territory.

Sir Donald Stewart moved from Kandahar; a second column,
under Sir Samuel Brown, passed through the Khyber Pass, while a
third under Major Roberts (now Lord Roberts, of Kandahar),
marched out through Kuram. It was the last column which had
the lion's share of fighting. The position of the Afghans, on the
side of a steep mountain at the other end of the pass, was impreg-
nable against a direct attack. At night, Roberts moved the larger
part of his force to the left flank of the position, and the next
morning, in a valiant charge, drove out the natives pell mell.
His success would have been greater, but for the treachery of
several Sepoy guides, who managed to warn the Afghans of their
danger.

Their defeat, however, was so disastrous that they consented
to negotiations, and agreed to allow a British residency to be
established at Cabul. Within less than a month after such estab-
lishment, all the English were attacked and massacred by an
Aff^han mob. There was no doubt that the Emir encouraged this
outrage, or at any rate, he took no steps to prevent it. He would
not punish the criminals, and England determined to do it herself.

Roberts reorganized his force, and, with no serious resistance,
fought his way to Cabul, at which place the Emir came out to
meet him. A severe ])attle was fought in September, 1879, during
which the unprecedented spectacle was seen of the army, techni-
t'iilly in rebellion against the Emir, being directed by him while in
tlu^ British camp. This was suspected by Roberts, and, though
srcMuing incredible, he afterward i)roved it was true. The British
loss was eighteen killed and seventy wounded, that of the Afghans

504

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

being five times as great. The engagement figures in history as
the battle of Charasia.

Roberts and his troops remained in Cabul throughout the
winter, during which stern justice was meted out to those directly
responsible for the massacre at the residency. All northern Afghan-
istan was practically under English rule, but in December, it may
be said, the whole Afghan population rose in revolt. There was
no way by which reinforcements could reach Roberts, and his
situation daily grew more critical. The most painful anxiety was
felt throughout England for him and his troops, and the fear
became general that all would be annihilated. In several battles
fought with the fierce natives among the hills, the British were
defeated, and finally they were forced out of Cabul, and compelled
to make their final stand in what is known as the Sherpur fortress.
The Afghans assailed the position with irrestrainable fury through
a period of more than a week, but the coolness and discipline of
the troops held them off and the repeated failures discouraged
them. While engaged in their last attack, a sortie was made by a
portion of the garrison which turned the flank of the besiegers
and scattered them so effectually that the peril of the garrison
was ended.

The fighting that followed was in the nature of skirmishing
until the month of July, when Roberts, who was making ready to
take his force back to India, learned that General Burrows, who
had less than 3,000 men, was in imminent peril from 25,000
Afghans, who held him surrounded near Kandahar. He was
attacked at Marwand in the latter part of the month, and, his
ammunition giving out, he lost 1,100 men, the rest escaping to
Kandahar where they were penned in. Roberts, with a force of

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

505

10,000 men, set out to rescue Burrows and his command, after
which a full month passed before any news was received from
him. Then the thrilling tidings came that he had succeeded in
relieving the imperilled force apd had administrated a severe defeat
to the Afghani.

Diplomacy was again appealed to and Russia and England
united in installing Abdur Rahman as Emir. He pledged himself
to keep the passes open and to protect British residents, whereupon
Roberts returned, with his army, to India, having well won the
honors which a grateful country showered upon him. The situa-
tion in that part of Asia, however, is best described as an armed
truce between Russia and England, liable to broken at any time.

Our attention once more turns to South Africa, where the well
organized and daring Zulus caused trouble. This has been referred
to in another part of this work, but it may be recalled that as
early as 1873 they were at war with the Boers, and in December,
1878, a special British Commission was sent to invite Cetewayo,
head chief of the Zulus, to dissolve his military organization, to
protect missionaries and to allow his subjects to be fined when
they did not behave well. This invitation was really the gloved
hand of steel, and Cetewayo was informed that he must do as
requested or go to war. He went to war.

The reader hardly needs to be reminded of Lord Chelmsford's
advance into Zululand toward Ulandi, the capital, nor of the anni-
hilation of two battalions of British troops with 3,000 native allies,
at Isandhlwana on January 22, 1879; the repulse of the Zulus at
Roshe's Drift and Ekowe; the withdrawal and return of Chelmsford
in March with a force of 6,000 men, and his defeat of the Zulus at
Ginquilvo; of another defeat and the suing for peace by the Zulus;

506

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFKICA

their dissatisfaction with the terms and renewal of the war; of a
second battle at Ulandi and the burning of the town, and finally
of the capture of Cetewayo by Sir Garnet Wolseley, who sent him
to England, where he was placed on exhibition, and afterward sup-
ported as a distinguished pensioner upon the bounty of his conquerors.

It was the Zulu raids on the Boers in 1877 which started the
first war of Great Britain with the Boers, the particulars of which
have already been given.

That royal miscreant. King Thebaw, of Burmah, hated the
English with such implacability that when he ascended the throne
in 1878, he set on foot a system of persecution intended to drive
them out of his domains. He encouraged his subjects to insult the
English officers and residents, and, growing bolder, determined to
force every Englishman from the Irawaddy Valley. One of his
outrageous acts, in 1884, was to fine a British company again and
again without any pretense of justice, and with the evident
intention of securing' all their property. His conduct became so
unbearable that Great Britain presented an ultimatum, demanding
that he should receive their resident without humiliating cere-
monies. Thebaw treated the notice with contempt, but was
compelled to give heed to it when a force of 10,000 men and
seventy-seven guns advanced against him. His army was routed,
Mandalay captured, and Thebaw taken to India as a prisoner. The
final chapter was reached in 1886, when England annexed Burmah.

The next subject demanding attention is the English occupa-
tion of "Egypt, where troubles made by the Mahdi in that country
caused England to send 11,000 men, under Hicks Pasha, to Suakim,
in behalf of the Khedive. The expedition reached Khartoum early
in 1883. It remained there until November, when Hicks Pashii

THE DISADVANTAGES OF VICTORY

507

tried to take the Mirhdi's headquarters at El Obeid. The army was
hemmed in the Kasgil passes, and, though it fought desperately for
several days, the 50,000 Mahdists annihilated it.

Ahrped Arabi, colonel of the Fourth Egyptian Regiment,
headed a military revolt at Cairo, was made commander-in-chief of the
Egyptian army without the consent of the Khedive, and the war cry
was raised of "Egypt for the Egyptian." Ahmed began strengthen-
ing the defenses of Alexandria, which was bombarded by the
British fleet on July 11, 1883. A good defense was made, the ships
being repeatedly struck, and five men we're killed and twenty-eight
wounded, but the Egyptian loss is not known. When a force was
landed it was found that Arabi had used the white flag, hoisted
the day before, to cover his retreat. The city was sacked during
the bombardment and many of the Christian inhabitants massacred.

A month later Sir Garnet Wolseley amved in Egypt with a
force sutficient to crush the rebellion, and, acting in conjunction
with Admiral Seymour, he seized the Suez Canal and joined an
Indian contingent at Ismalia. Some skirmishing followed, when
Wolseley attacked Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir and defeated him after some
sharp fighting, but Arabi succeeded in escaping.

The mission of Chinese Gordon to Khartoun and his imprison-
ment there by an overwhelming force will be remembered. England
was slow in going to his rescue and many to-day bitterly blame their
government for its neglect of one of the most valiant and chival-
rous soldiers that ever fought under her flag. Finally, a force of
7,000 men were started in that direction. A fragment of this force
was attacked by an immense body of Arabs near Metemneh, but
they were beaten off with great slaughter. The expedition fought
its w ay to Khartoum, but when it arrived there, found that Gordon

508

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

had been killed, having been attacked at his quarters, where lie
defended himself to the last gasp, and died only after slaying a
number of his assailants. The expedition of rescue, therefore,
accomplished nothing.

Since then there has been continual friction on the northern
frontier of India, due to the causes already named. By her vigi-
lance in punishing rebellious chiefs Great Britain has succeeded
thus far in keeping the Russian "sphere of influence" from creeping
too near her borders. Some of the fighting displayed by tlie
English has been of the highest quality, such as the subjection of
the Kaniut tribes of the Kashmir in 1891, the Chitra campaign
of 1897, and the Tira campaign of a year later.

From the incidents related, it will be seen that, with the single
exception of the Boer war of 1879-80, hardly a British officer or
soldier has seen any service against white men. It may be repeated
that no greater daring and skill have ever been displayed than that
of the British in many of these battles with the fiercest of fanatical
wild men, who look upon death as the open door to eternal glory
and happiness, and who fought, in many instances, without an
emotion of fear. Nevertheless, such foes are less formidable than
civilized soldiers, with their perfect discipline, their knowledge of
tactics, their superior modern arms and their trained leaders.

CHAPTER rXVII

THE TUG OF WAR

The student of history will note many striking parallels (some
of which have been referred to in another place) between the war
waged by Great Britain in South Africa and the suppression of the
great rebellion in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The North,
like England, commanded overv/helming resources; the South was
greatly outnumbered, and, in respect of financial ability, there was
no comparison between the two sections.

The South fought a defensive war; the Southerners were united,
resolute and determined; they believed they were fighting for their
homes, their firesides, and their most cherished principles; they
were as brave and skillful as their conquerors, but not braver nor
more skillful; when the strife began, they were better prepared
than their more numerous foes, and, for a time, as must always be
the case, victory was on the side of the weaker party.

In the North and in Great Britain were two distinct parties;
those who favored an appeal to arms, and those who opposed, and
at least believed that such an appeal could be postponed, if not
wholly averted. This division of sentiment lasted until the actual
outbreak of hostilities, when there instantly came a majority
opinion to maintain the integrity and honor of the country, no
matter how great the cost and sacrifice demanded.

In some respects Great Britain, in 1899, was at a greater dis-
advantage than the North in 1861. The Federal Government, after
mobilizing its volunteers, had to march or transport them only a

(501 )

510

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

few miles in order to enter the territory of the enemy. The
Union troops sent to the defense of Washington, in April, ISO!,
were among cheering friends in Philadelphia, and two or three
hours later were fighting secessionists in Baltimore, and later, on
the same day, cheered to the echo in the national capital. The
armies of tlie North and South were often carried by rail or boat
to desired points.

On the other hand, Great Britain has had to carry the bulk of
her troops and munitions of war more than a fourth of the way
round the globe. After reaching South Africa, they were obliged
to march a long distance into the interior, across a strange country,
as extensive as that lying between Chicago and the Rocky Moun-
tains, sometimes under the direction of treacherous guides, or
over railway lines that had been wrecked, and through sections
where every foot was familiar to a brave enemy, armed with the
best modern weapons, led by skillful oflBcers, and inspired by a
patriotism that was fantical in its intensity.

The conditions being such, British defeat in the earlier stages
of the war was as certain as the rising of the sun. Great Britain
showed commendable patience with the military leaders when they
were overtaken by disaster, for, in every instance, officers and
privates fought with the same splendid valor that their ancestors
displayed on hundreds of crimson fields, but, after all, there is no
escaping the fact that while some of the first blunders were
excusable, many of those that followed were not, for they were
only repetitions of the first. It has been said that the wisest man
is liable to make a mistake, bnt mistakes should be accepted as a
warning and should not be repeated.

Away back in 1755, the French and Indians lured General

THE ^UG OF WAR

511

Braddock into a trap and then destroyed his army. The Boers
resorted to the same tactics with the British forces, and the
exasperating feature of it all was that they were repeatedly suc-
cessful. The English officers have been slow in learning the fright-
fully dear lesson. The Boer methods which brought Jameson's
raid to a disastrous end were used again and again on a larger
scale against the well-equipped armies of (jreat Britain, and it
cannot be wondered that impatience and indignation stirred Eng-
land, but in every instance this feeling was followed by the flashing
eye, the compressed lip and the unalterable resolve: "We shall
win, if it takes the last Englishman in the Empire!"

Previous to the telegraphing of the Transvaal's ultimatum to
England, the Boers, well aware that it meant war, set a number
of military movements on foot and pushed them with character-
istic vigor. A dispatch from Newcastle, Natal stated that they
had left the laager at Volksrust and were moving toward the
frontier, where the situation was most critical. The women and
children were ordered to leave for the interior of Natal. The camp
on the Natal border was said to number 8,000 men, all stirred by
a deep religious fervor and a great enthusiasm in the struggle for
independence.

The news from both sides in the region of hostilities was
rigorously censored, so that it was often unreliable, and the accounts
received from the British commanders were naturally one-sided.
But history was making fast in South Africa, and the tidings sent
to England soon became of the most exciting nature. On the 14th
of October, Mr. Cecil Rhodes declared in a dispatch from Kimberley
that the city was as safe as Piccadilly, but this message was
followed by another the next day, conveying the intelligence that

512

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Kimberley was besieged by the Boers and all communication with
the place, either by mail or telegraph, was cut off.

Mr. Conyngham Greene, formerly the diplomatic agent at Pre-
toria, left that city on the outbreak of hostilities and arrived at
Cape Town on the evening of the 14th. A number of horses belong-
ing to the police patrol were seized by the Boers near De Jager's
Drift, on the Buffalo River, some ten miles northeast of Dundee,
Natal, and the riders captured. Shots were exchanged between
British and Boer scouts in the neighborhood of Glencoe, a few miles
west of Dundee, Natal, where a British force was encamped, ))ut
no injury was douj on either side. Later dispatches were to tlie
effect that the Boers had cut the railway at Belmont, fifty-six miles
south of Kimberley, and also at a point considerably nearer Kim-
berley. They seized the railway station at Spyfontein, near the
city, and fortified it with earthworks, their eager desire being to
capture Cecil Rhodes, who would prove a strong card to play against
Great Britain. The inhabitants were calm and confident and had
a force of 4,000 men ^ath which to defend the place.

An armored train, preceded by a pilot engine, was wrecked by
the Boers near Vryburg, the incident being thus described by the
driver of the pilot engine :

"The train consisted of an armored car, in which were fifteen
men, a short truck loaded with ammunition, and a bogey car carry-
ing two big guns and a quantity of shells. An officer of the mounted
police at Maribogo warned Captain Nesbitt, who was in charge of
the train, that Boers were on the line, but Captain Nesbitt gave
the order to go ahead. It was dark at the time. The pilot engine
was about forty yards in advance of the train. When near Kraai
Pan it ran off the line. I got down and showed a red light,

THE TUG OF WAR

513

stopping the train behind. I found loose rails near the track and
began to fix the line where the Boers had removed the rails.
Almost immediately shots were fired from a dried water-course,
where the Boers were hiding. Some of the train crew were wounded.

"The Boers snipped us all night and at daybreak started with
their big guns. All their shells were aimed at the engine, which
was soon in a bad way. All this time 1 was lying down inside the
truck, until I heard an officer order a flag of truce to be shown.
Two flags were raised, but the Boers paid no heed to them for
about a quarter of an hour. When they ceased firing, I got out of
the truck and crawled on my stomach for about a mile and a half,
until the Boers were out of sight. I had a miraculous escape. I
made my way to Maribogo. I do not know what became of the
otliers, but feel certain that all were taken prisoners. The Boers'
sliolls did not touch the trucks containing the guns. The ammuni-
tion must have fallen into the hands of the Boers undamaged."

Newcastle was occupied on the 14th by the Boers under Com-
mandante Viljoen, who sent a message warning the inhabitants of
his coming and assuring them that no one would be molested.
He said he only wanted forage and food, for which he would pay.
An official statement was issued on the Ifith, stating that Natal
had been invaded by three columns of Boers by way of Bothas
Pass, Laings Nek and Matts Nek, respectively, with an estimated
force of 11,000 men, all of which columns were converging upon
Newcastle. An express rider from Kimberley succeeded in passing
through the Boer forces surrounding the city and reached the
Orange River. He reported that the troops and residents in Kim-
lierley were free from all panic, and confident of being able to liold
out against any force the Boers could bring against them. All the

514

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

same, the messenger urged the necessity of sending reinforcements
at the earliest possible moment for the defense of the town. Com-
plete possession of the railway from Orange River to Kimberley was
obtained by the Boers.

The magnificent railway bridge over the Tugela River was
destroyed by the Boers on November 15. A few days later the first
authentic account of the terrific charge at Dundee and of the
strange battlefield of Elands Laagte was received, and, although the
news was three weeks old, it is of such stirring interest that it
deserves record. What a word picture is drawn by the cool, clear-
headed correspondent of the London Times:

"As soon as the Boer guns were silenced by our artillery, Gen-
eral Symons gave the order for an assault on Talana Hill. The
hill rises 800 feet and the distance to the top is more than a mile.
The first portion of the. ascent is gentle and over open ground to
a homestead suiTOunded by broken woods. Above the woods the
ground is rough and rocky, the ascent is steep, and half way up a
thick stone wall runs around the hill as the fringe of a wide ter-
race of open ground.

"Above the terrace the ascent is almost perpendicular, and at
the end of this was the Boer position, on the flat top, so character-
istic of African hills. Altogether the position seemed impregnable,
even if held by a small body against large forces, and General
Symons must have had extraordinary confidence in his men wiien
he ordered 2,000 of them to take it in the teeth of a terrible and
well-sustained fire from superior numbers of skilled riflemen. His
confidence was fully justified.

"It is said that he deliberately resolved to show the Boers that
Majuba Hill was not the measure of what British infantry could

5lt.^ -^ ■ 'S^

•■:y ■ . jl*^)«»'fl..^*i5*'K*J,/;i^fe

N^v*iT>:<">t-;i-' ■ "■ ''^'i

J'^jSJ^^^^^K^^Ai ''^'^'^'

^Ir . "

-.<

' ' "^ '''^*^^iHHP!''i^

«?,*-t«*"^ ■ .Sis'

1^kK--^^^3SI

<i *" '''^>w*^^ ■ '' "' .i^.'P^3

Ip^w "

^^j^^Jm^

^:Sim» f-^ I"**"

1P\'

i^Hiaera

^QBwn^B^^K^H

^^^' t y^^ ''-•■■<■ ■ 1

r •...■■ .'■>- '

y*<^ / Iff V^ "-^ >; I

.•s.

^il|/' '.

\
'i**'^

\>^

• *

liH^M

\ \

w^l" ^In^B^yB ^^HIm^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I

^74 1

mv^?^

( % \

■

j^A 1* ^ v^i|«^

\ '-^^ \

^C^v/ ^if^^

■"^ I ., ^ »~^J

^^ f '

\^ . ■

IN THE NICK OF TIME-SAVING THE WIRE.

THE TUG OF WAR

517

do, and, if so, he more than succeeded. To find a parallel for the
endurance, tenacity and heroic determination to press forward over
all obstacles and at all hazards, one has to go back to Wellington's
invincible infantry in the Peninsula.

"The men had to go through eight hours of fighting without
breakfast. The wood was the first cover available, and in the rush
for this position the Dublin Fusiliers led the way, though afterward
the three regiments went practically side by side.

"The advance of the infantry was covered by a vigorous can-
nonade, but the appearance of our men in the open was the signal
for a storm of rifle fire from the Boers. Though our losses at this
stage were extraordinarily small, in the wood, which for some time
marked the limit of the advance, they were considerable, and here,
about 9:30 o'clock. General Symons, who had galloped up to tell the
men that the hill must be taken, fell mortally wounded. Through-
out the morning he had exposed himself perhaps unnecessarily.
His position was always marked by a red flag carried by his orderly.

" By ten o'clock our men, creeping up inch by inch, and taking
advantage of every available cover, had gained the shelter of the
stone wall, but for a long time further advance seemed impossible.
As often as a man became visible the Boers poured a deadly fire in his
direction, while, whatever their losses from our artillery fire, they
rarely afforded a mark for the rifie.

"About twelve o'clock, however, a lull in their fire afforded our
men an opportunity for scaling the wall and dashing across the open
ground beyond. Then the almost sheer ascent of the last portion of
the hill began. Here our losses were greatest, the Rifles losing most
heavily.

"Colonel Gunning, who was always in front of his men, was shot

S28

'AH

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

through the head. Near the top of the hill Captain Pechell, who had
only arrived two days before from the Soudan, also fell. Out of
seventeen officers the battalion lost five killed and seven wounded.
As our men neared the top of the hill our guns were compelled to
slacken their fire, and the Boers, of course, were enabled to strengthen
their rifle fire accordingly. The last portion of the ascent was rushed
with their bayonets, but the Boers did not await the charge. A few.
who stood ground to near the end, were seen flying precipitately
across the top of the hill when our men reached the crest. About
thirty dead and wounded were lying on the ground, and cases of
ammunition and Mauser rifles strewn about showed the hurry of the
flight. Boer ponies were galloping abom , and one of the humorous
sights of the day was to see the Dublin Fusiliers gaily riding back
these captive steeds."

The following vivid account of the remarkable battle of Elands
Laagte is by G. W. Stevens:

"Our guns moved to a position toward the right and the. Boer
guns opened fire. Lord, but those German gunners knew their
business! The third or fourth shell pitched into a wagon full of
shells with a team of eight horses hitched to it. We held our
breath for the explosion, but when the smoke cleared away only
the near wheeler lay on his side and the wagon had its wheels in
the air. Our batteries bayed again and the Boer guns were silent.

"The attack was to be made on their front and left flank.
The Devonshires formed for the front attack and the Manchesters
on the right. The Gordon Highlanders edged to the extreme right-
ward with a long, bowlder-freckled hill above them. The guns flung
shrapnel across the valley. The cavalry were in leash, straining
towards the enemy's flanks.

THE TUG OF WAR

519

"It was about a quarter to five and it seemed curiously dark.
No wonder, for as the men moved forward the heavens opened and
from the eastern sky swept a sheet of rain. With the first stabbing
drops the horses turned their heads and no whip or spur could
bring them up to it. It drove through mackintoshes as if they
were blotting paper. The air was filled with a hissing sound, and
under foot you. could see the solid earth melting into mud and the
iuikI flowing away iu the water. The rain blotted out hill, dale
and the enemy in one gray curtain of swooping water. You would
have said that the heavens had opened to drown the wrath of man.

"Through it the guns still thundered and the Khaki columns
pushed doggedly on. The infantry came among the bowlders and
began to open out. The supports and reserves followed. Then, in
a twinkling, on the stone-pitted hill face burst loose that other
storm, a storm of lead and blood and death. In the first line,
down behind the rocks, the men were firing fast, and the bullets
came flickering around them. Tlie men stopped and started, stag-
leered and dropped limply, as if a string that held them upright
had been cut. The line pushed on and a colonel fell, shot in the
arm. The regiment pushed on, and they came to a rocky ridge
twenty feet high. They clung to the cover firing, then rose and
were among the shrill bullets again. A major was left at the bot-
tom ol' the ridge with a pipe in his mouth and a Mauser bullet
through his leg. His company pushed on. Down again, fire again,
up again and on. Another ridge won and pa?- ed and only more
hellish hail of bullets beyond. More men down, more men pushed
into the firing line, more death-piping bullets than ever. The air
was a sieve "^^ them; they beat on the bowlders like a million ham-
mers; they tore the turf-like harrows.

520

THE STORY OF SOUTH AI'RICA

"Another ridge crowned, another welcoming, whistling gust of
perdition. More men down, more pushed into the firing line. Half
the officers were down. The men puffed, stumbled on, another
ridge taken. God, would this cursed hill never end ! It was sown
with bleeding and dead behind, it was edged with a stinging fire
before.

"On and now it was surely the end. Merry bugles rang like a
cock crow on a fine morning. 'Fix bayonets.' Staff officers rushed
shouting from the rear, imploring, cajoling, cursing, slamming every
man who could move into line, but it was a line no longer ; it was
a surging wave of men. The Devonshires, Clordons, Manchesters
and liight Horse were all mixed — subalterns commanding regi-
ments, soldiers yelling advice, officers firing carbines, stumbling,
leaping, killing, falling, all drunk with battle. And there beneath
our feet was the lioer camp, and the last of the Boers galloping
out of it. There, also, thank Heaven, were squadrons of Lancers
and Dragoon Guards storming in among them, shouting, spearing,
stamping them into the ground.

"'Cease fire.' It was over. Twelve hours of march, of recon-
naissance, waiting and preparation, and half an hour of attack, but
half un hour crammed with the life of a half lifetime."

Lieutenant Webb, a well-known Johannesburger and a member
of the Imperial Light Horse, who shared the charge up the precip-
itous hill at Elands Laagte, writes that the battle was a terrible
slaughter, too terrible for the victory, which had yet to be won.
"The artillery shells burst wit 'n ten yards of us all around,'" \\?
says, "yet some of our men h: to sit on their horses at 'attention'
under this fire for an hour. I saw some horrible sights. One
Gordon Highlander got a shell right in the face, knocking his head

THE TUG OF WAR

521

clear off. We charged to the cannon's mouth, the Gordon High-
landers using the bayonet. The Boers were very plucky, shouted-
to us to come on, and stood to the last. The Lancers charged
those who ran. Some who went on their knees and prayed for
mercy were let off. Others did this and then shot our men as they
went away. One cur killed a Gordon Highlandor officer who had
spared him. Colonel Schiel played the part of a man, when badly
wounded, refusing help until our men had been attended to. We
killed and wounded all their officers."

The Boers displaced great activity. In the latter part of
November they occupied the railway and the hills behind Estcourt,
and destroyed the bridge over the Mooi River, thus isolating the
command of General Hildyard at Estcourt. The British force at
tluit time actually in the field, including the Colonial levies of all
kinds, was about 60,000 strong, but of these fully 1(),000 were neu-
tmlized in the blockaded towns. There was general uneasiness
over the attitude of the Dutch population of Cape Colony, and,
despite the efforts of the politicians of the Afrikander Bond to
prevent these people openly declaring in favor of the Boers, large
numbers of the young men joined their ranks.

The following terse dispatch from General Lord Methuen caused
a pleasant thrill upon its reception by the War Office in London :

"Belmont, November 23. — I attacked the enemy at daybreak
this morning in a strong position on the three ridges, which was
carried successfully, the last attack being prepared by shrapnel.
The infantry behaved splendidly and received support from the
naval brigade and artillery. The enemy fought with courage p.nd
f^kill, Had I attacked later I should have had severe losses. The
victory was complete. I have forty prisoners. I am burying a

522

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

good number of Boers, but the greater part of the killed and
wounded were taken away by their comrades. I have a large
number of horses and cows. I destroyed a large amount of ammu-
nition."

General Methuen reported his losses as 25 oflBcers, 2,183 men
killed and wounded and 18 men missing. This success seemed to
remove the first obstacle in the path of the Kimberley relief
column, but the incompleteness of the dispatch left room for mis-
givings.

Matters did not look so promising in Natal, where, from Pieter-
maritzburg to Ladysmith, the situation was most peculiar. Such
an alternation of forces was never before seen. There were British
troops at Pietermaritzburg, Boers at Balgowan, British at Mooi
River, Boers at Willow Grange, British at Estcourt, Boers at
Ennersdale, British within Ladysmith and Boers without. The
able military critic of the Morning Post said:

" Whatever General Joubert's intentions may be, he is undoubt-
edly playing a deep and brilliant game. To have paralyzed the
British advance the moment it began, to have cut the relieving
column into three parts and compelled each to stand on the defen-
sive, cut off from its base and leaving the latter almost at the
mercy of the foe, is an achievement which must always be remem-
bered to his credit as a general, however his future operations may
be mishandled."

The reports which immediately followed General Methuen's
dispatch represented the moral effect of his victory as immense,
since the enemy had boasted that they could hold their position
against all the forces England was able to send against them. The
Boer prisoners admitted that their loss was considerable, and paid

THE TUG OF WAR

528

warm tributes to the Britisli tVoops, who climbed the steep koi)je.s
ill the face of a nuirderous discharge as coolly as if on i»arade, not-
withstanding the fact that their comrades were dropping in e\ei'y
direction. The lioer tire, although furious and well sustained,
became wild, and they were completely demoralized l)y the British
shell tire. The Ninth Lancers, i»ursuing the enemy, cut them up
severely or turned the retreat into a rout. The \ictory would have
been more decisive if the British had had more cavalry.

The battle was the first important one on Cape soil. (General
Methuen's force of 7,00() men was opposed to the Boers from Boshof,
.liikobsdal and Fauresmith. Their cannon were placed in excellent
positions and they made a stubborn resistance. The British carried
at the point of the bayonet a position which liad been occupied for
weeks. They buried the Boer dead and cared for the wounded.
Among the prisoners were a German commandant and si.x field
coi'uets. The Grenadiers suffered the most, and in storming the
hills lost two officers and twenty men.

The Boers had a force of 5,000 occupying the strongest possible
position, and their defeat, therefore, was of the highest credit to
ihitish arms. The Queen sent her congratulations to dlen. Lord
Muthuen upon the brilliant action of her Guards, the Naval Brigade
;iii(l other brave soldiers.

The public in England were vastly encouraged l)y the success
nf General Methuen, and believed that the tide had turned in South
Africa, that that military leader would march almost unopposed to
Kimberley, that General Gatacre would soon drive the Orange Free
Staters across the Orange River toward Bloemfontein, and that
tieneral Duller would quickly start with a resistless force to the
rf^lief of Estcourt and Ladysmith.

524

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

But more thoughtful men were less sanguine. A far heavier
battle, they were confident, awaited General Methuen at Moddor
River than he had fought at Belmont, and even then the relief of
Kimberley could not be assured. With heavy reinforcements General
Gatacre would l)e faced by a most difficult campaign against
Stormberg and other Boer strongholds, and a strong force would
be necessary to hold in subjection the rebellious Cape Colonists,
while beyond all this loomed vague and frightful the bloody work-
awaiting the British army in the Natal passes.

Other serious problems could not be forgotten, among which
was a threatened Basuto rising and the need of relieving Colonel
Baden-Powell's gallant little force at Maf eking, but all this must
needs be done slowly and with the utmost care. The feeling was
general that a second full army corps should be sent out at the
earliest moment.

The Kimberley relief column, under General Methuen, again
came in collision with the Boers, November 25, at a place called
Graspans, which was carried after a severe fight, in which both
sides lost heavily. The Boer force was composed of Transvaal and
Free State commandos, some 2,500 strong, supplied with artillery,
and the whole under the command of the Transvaal general, Delei-
raye. The principal fighting on the British side was done by the
Ninth Brigade, the artillery and the Naval Brigade, while the
cavalry, as usual, assailed the flank of the retreating Boers, who,
however, carried off their artillery from the field.

The following dispatch reached the London War Office on
November 26:

"Gen. Lord Methuen reports that he moved yesterday, Novem-
ber 26, at 3:30 A. M., with the Ninth Brigade, the mounted corps

THE TUG OF WAR

525

and the Naval Brigade, the Guards following with the baggage. A
force of 2,500 Boers, with six guns, including two machine guns,
opposed him near Graspans. The 'action commenced at six A. M.
The batteries fired shrapnel very accurately until the heights seemed
clear. Then the Naval Brigade and infantry assaulted the position.
The fighting was desperate until ten A. M., when the heights were
carried, the Boers retreating on a line where the Ninth Lancers
liad been placed to intercept them. The result is unknown at the
time of telegraphing. The artillery took immediate advantage of
tiie enemy's retirement.

"Early in the action 500 Boers made an attack on the rear
fijuard brigade. They met this and also protected the flanks. The
Naval Brigade acted with the greatest gallantry and has suffered
heavily. No particulars are yet known.

"The enemy showed the greatest stubbornness. They must
have suffered heavily. Twenty have been buried. Thirty-five killed
and forty wounded are known of. More than fifty horses were
found dead in one place. One battery fired 500 rounds,

'' The force must halt one day at Graspans to rest and replenish
their ammunition. The force worked splendidly, and are prepared
to overcome any difficulty. The Naval Brigade, Royal Marines,
Second Yorkshire Light Infantry and First North Lancashire Regi-
ment especially distinguished themselves.

" Regarding Thursday's fight, 81 Boers were killed or otherwise
accounted for, 64 wagons were burned, and a large quantity of
powder, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and 750 shells were blown up.
Albrecht commanded the Boer artillery. Delerraye was in chief
command."

One of the wounded Boer prisoners, when asked his opinion of

526

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the British bayonet charge, replied: "Great heavens! do you think
1 waited for that?''

The number of British prisoners in the hands of the Boers tip
to Novembei" 15 was given out in London as 39 officers and 1,287
men, together with 62 others known as political prisoners. The
official statement of losses from October 15 to November 15 was;
Two hundred and twenty-two killed, 881 wounded and 1,676 missiiij^^,
making the total loss, from all causes, 2,779. On the 1st of Decem-
ber the statement was made that the total casualty list amounted
to 4,180, of whom 408 were killed, 1,806 wounded and 1,966 missing.

The Kimberley relief column, under (Jeneral Methuen, reached
the Moddei' River, which was at full Hood, November 28, and found
the Boers intrenched on the north bank, witli two heavy guns and
four Krupp guns in position, and a force said to number S,0(l().
though later reports showed it was less. The action was opened
on the part of the Britisli by a cainionade from the field batteries
and ritle fire from the infantry on the southern side of the river.
The fire, which was at long range, lasted the entire day, and undei-
its cover a small British force was enabled to cross the stream on
pontoons, the loss on both sides being slight. The Boers weiv
finally driven from their position, and the British column found
itself within twenty-two miles of Kimberley, a tremendous iwAs
still confronting it before it could relieve the beleaguered garrison.

General Methuen added, regarding this battle: '* It was one of
the hardest and most trying fights in the annals ( ;f the British
army. 1 speak in terms of the highest praise of all engaged, espe-
cially the two batteries of artillery."

The making up of a Hfth division for South Africa now began.
to number 11,013 officers and men, with 1,263 horses, IH field and

THE TUG OF WAR

527

9 machine guns. A detailed list of the British army in South
Africa at that time was: Thirteen cavalry regiments or parts of
regiments, 4 batteries of horse artillery, 22 field batteries, 2 mountain
batteries, 2 companies of garrison artillery, 54 battalions of infantry,
30 companies army service corps, 16 companies army medical corps
and 5 companies army ordnance corps. There were besides 3 com-
panies of fortress, 4 companies of field, 2 companies of railway,
1 division of telegraph engineers, 1 section of balloon engineers, 1
bridging battalion and 1 engineer field troop. To be accurate, it
should be added that in this list were 1 battery of mountain artil-
lery, 2 battalions of infantry and a part of a regiment of cavalry, who
were undeniably in South Africa, but they were prisoners of the Boers.

On November 26 a junction was made between the troops
from Mooi River and those at Estcourt, and the entire garrison
moved to Frere, on the railway, ten miles north of Estcourt.
Although General Methuen had made some progress toward Kim-
berley, it was only trifling, and the real work was still before him.
That he underestimated the difficulty was shown by his call for
rctuforcements, which were promptly forwarded. They comprised
two ])attalions of infantry, a battery of artillery and a squadron
of cavalry.

The isolf.tion of Ladysmith, Estcourt and other points by the
Boers compelled the beleaguered forces to resort to the only method
left them of communicating wdth their friends outside. This was
l»y means of carrier pigeons, a method employed long before the
discovery of the telegraph, and one which, under certain conditions,
such as those named, must remain the most effective until some
new means is brought into use, such as that of wireless telegraphy,
which, it would seem, ought to supply the *' long felt want."

528

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

A good pigeon will fly more than sixty miles an hour over
short distances. H Germany, by means of p.n ingenious arrange-
ment, the speed is ascertained with great care and accuracy. The
bird is taught to announce its arrival at its loft by pecking with
its beak against the closet trapdoor of the dovecote. This action
sets in motion machinery, which throws open the door, admits the
bird and at the same time rings a bell hanging in the attendant's
room. It requires the utmost jiatience to train these intelligent
birds, but, as in the South African war, this labor is more than
justified.

If the message to be carried is a long one, it is reduced from
the original by photographic process, writing covering fully a foot
of surface being thus compressed into an area of a square inch.
This tiny photograph is then rolled and placed within a quill,
which is introduced among the tail feathers and carefully bound
there. The dispatch is removed by the officer at the receiving
station and with the aid of the powerful oxyhydrogen microscope
the writing is magnified to more than its first dimensions. At
Liidysmith, probably due to defective appliances, the dispatches
were not subjected to this process, only a few words being sent.
Wlien these dispatches came under the eyes of a reporter or
correspondent, he did all the magnifying necessary.

News from the seat of war was delayed so long that a feel-
ing of uneasiness spread at home, the fear being that the
government was holding back important dispatches of new disasters
to their arms. When at last the official telegrams were given out,
they were not so important as suspected, and by no means satisfactory.

As illustrative of some of the grim humor of the war, it was
stated by a coiTespondent that, while efforts were being made u(

THE TUG OF WAR

529

Estcourt to heliograph to the beleaguered troops, the watchful Boers
caught the messages and returned the reply : " Will be with you
tomorrow."

On November 15 an armored train ran off the track north of
Frere station, near Estcourt, and was shelled by the Boers, who
repeated what they had already done almost tim.es without number —
outwitted the British. The train was net disturbed on its outward
trip, but derailed as it was returning, so that the cars were over-
turned. The moment this occurred the Boers opened with a hot
fire at close range The only gun aboard the train was a naval
seven-pounder, which had time to fire but three shots when it was
shattered by the heavier artillery of the enemy.

The Durban Infantry and Dublin Fusiliers, who manned
the train, formed in skirmishing order and kept up a rifle fire, but
the enemy were much more numerous and rained shot and shell
upon them. The British officers displayed admirable coolness, and
no man was more conspicuous than Winston Churchill, who was
acting as a newspaper correspondent, was taken prisone. and after-
ward escaped. While a number of men were working desperately to
release the engine and the wrt '!ked ca^-s, he seized a rifie and joined
the covering party, who were under a heavy fire. Three charges were
made upon the Boers, who were driven back, but the British were out-
numbered and finally worsted. Their loss was three killed, nine
wounded and about fifty prisoners, who were taken to Pretoria, where
it was said they were received with bared heads and treated with all
courtesy.

Th
of Dut(
The Di
those
with
of Gen(
These
main a
guard
divisior
Cape C
steps V
division
raise it
Africa.

Gei
Decemt
active
Eii<jflan(
battle \
cut, by

and sev
after a
Wh

CHAPTER XXVIIl

ON CHRISTMAS DAY EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE.

The most disquieting news was that which indicated a possibility
of Dutch disaffection in the Afrikander population of Cape Colony.
The Dutch here would naturally hold the ties of blood closer than
those of political feeling and many of them naturally sympathized
with Oom Paul's followers. For a time this neutralized the work
of General Gatacre's division and General French's cavalry command.
These commands temporarily were forced to withdraw from the
main advance and do police duty in the disaffected districts and
guard the railway communications essential to the safety of the
division. Sir Alfred Milner issued a proclamation calling out the
Cape Colony Volunteers and Rifle Clubs for service. Meanwhile,
steps were taken at Aldershot Camp in England to form a sixth
(li\ ision by calling for volunteers from the militia reserves, so as to
raise it to its full strength, with a view of reinforcing the army in
Africa.

Gen. Duller and his staff started for Frere on the night of
D(>cember 5. This news, and also that Gen. Methuen had assumed
active command of his division, awakened intense interest in
England, for it clearly indicated that an important and decisive
battle was at hand. Methuen's communications were temporarily
cut, by the Boers blowing up of a railway culvert near Graspan,
and severing the telegraph wires, but the enemy were dislodged
after a day's work.

When all were in this high state of expectancy, England waa

(631)

532

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

shocked December lOtli by the receipt of the following message
from Gen. Gatacre:

"I deeply regret to inform you that I have met with a serious
reverse. In an attack this morning, on Stormberg, I was misled by
the guides, and found impracticable ground."

In a later dispatch to the War Office, Gen. Forestier- Walker
said: "In reference to my telegram of this morning the casualties
so far as known at present are:

"Second Royal Irish Rifles, killed, none; wounded, Lieut-Col.
Eager, Major Seaton, Capts. Dell and Kelley, and Lieuts. Stephens
and Barnardston.

"Suffolk Regiment, Capt. Weir and three Lieutenants missing;
rank and file, none killed, 12 wounded and 290 missing.

"Berkshire Momted Infantry, one killed.

"Seventy-fourth Batte^ry, a Lieutenant and three men severely
wounded, a Major and one man slightly wounded, and one gunner
killed.

"Northumberland Fusiliers, Major Stevens, Capts. Fletcher and
Morley and three Lieutenants missing; also 306 non-commissioned
officers and men missing.

"The remainder of the casualties will be wired as soon as
known."

It will be remembered that Gen. Gatacre was in command of
the division operating against the Free State and Afrikander
insurgents on the line of East London Burghersdorp railway.
The following is the report made by Gen. Gatacre to Gen. Sii
Frederick Forestier-Walker at Cape Town:

" The idea of the attack on Stormberg seemed to promise cer-
tain success, but the distance was underestimated by myself auJ

? message

. a serious
misled by

.er-Walker
casualties

Lieut-Col.
. Stephens

/S missing;

n severely
ne gunner

3tcher and
imissioned

3 soon as

inmand of

A.frikander

p railway.

Gen. Sii

omise cer-
uyself auJ

(/)

the loca'
sequentb
weie Ian
error wa
"Th(
hill and
the oper
Fusilie^ r?
Battalioii

support LM

under Je
ovc ♦■iirn(
not be e:

"See
news, an
miles dii
They car
lloek an
Fusiliers
Queensto

"The
Northum

Ther
this reve
virtually
triunping
four o'ck
Gatacre
cousolati(

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

535

the local guides. A polico>^">an took us round several miles; con-
sequently we were marcbir^ from 9:30 P. M. to 4 A. M., and
were landed in an impossible position. I do not consider that the
error was intentional.

"The Boers commenced firing from the top of an unscalable
hill and wounded a good many of our troops while they were in
the open plain. The Second Battalion of the Northumberland
Fiisilie^ tried to turn the enemy out, but failed. The Second
Battalion " the Irish Rifles seized a kopje near by and held on,
supporr{?d by the mounted infantry and Cape police. The guns
under ."effreys could not have been better handled. One gun was
ovc turned in a deep ravine and one sunk in quicksand, and could
not be extricated in time to be available.

"Seeing the situation I dispatched a rider to Molteno with the
news, and collected and withdrew my force to a ridge about nine
miles distant. The Boers' guns were remarkably well served.
They carried accurately for 5,000 yards. I am holding Bushman's
Hoek and Cypher Clat. I am sending the Second Battalion of
Fusiliers to Sterkstroom to recuperate. The wounded are at
Queenstown.

"The number of the rank and file reported missing from the
Northumberland Fusiliers is 366, not 306, as previously reported."

There was more than one exasperating fact connected with

this reverse. It will be seen that the success of the movement

virtually depended upon a single policeman! He kept the army

tramping back and forth from half-past nine Saturday night until

four o'clock the next morning, and the expressed belief of General

Oatacre that the policeman honestly blundered was precious poor

consolation for the disaster. Moreover, the worse than useless
20 . . . ^

536

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

guide finally piloted the British force into an impossible position,
where it was murderously raked on all sides by the Boer rifle and
artillery fire, and with not an earthly chance of replying. General
Gatacre admitted that both he and the local guides underestimated
the distance to be traversed, which, of course, destroyed all the
calculations upon which success was based. The British suffered a
loss of 672 officers and men and two guns (the Boers claimed throe),
and it is believed that 175 of the men were lost before the surrender.

There was a good deal of impatience and irritation caused by
this blunder. Lord Durham, in a speech which cooler heads con-
demned, declared that General Gatacre should not have had a
command in South Africa. While he was brave to the point of
rashness, he seriously overworked his men in the Soudan by
forced marches, and when they w^ere hundreds of miles from a
possible enemy. There was no denying that General Gatacre was
a most exacting commander. The war office gave the number of
killed as twenty-three. Sixty-seven of the British wounded were
captured by the Boers. General Gatacre's men shot their horses
and spiked their guns before abandoning their position on Sunday.
A dispatch from Cape Town said: "Further details of General
Gatacre's defeat show that he walked blindly into an ambush.
This has caused great indignation here, as he has with him the
Cape police, who are the best scouts. They know the country
well. These men appear to have been in the rear and the infantry
in front. Unfortunately the defeat occurred in a disturbed district."

The Boers claimed that their force at Stormberg numbered
only 800 men and they were astonished to see the British retreat-
ing. Had the latter arrived a half hour sooner, the Boers would
have been surprised.

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

537

The following dispatch from General Methuen was dated at
half-past seven on the evening of December 12:

"As the Boers occupied the trenches strongly this morning, I
retired in perfect order here, where I am in security. I gather
from prisoners and from Boers speaking to ambulance men that
their losses were terrible, some corps being quite wiped out. They
have been most kind to my wounded."

The War Office account of the battle, sent by Gen. Sir Fred-
erick Forestier- Walker from Cape Town, was as follows:

"Methuen wires as follows under date of December 12:
'"The artillery shelled a very strong position held by the enemy
on a long, high kopje from four o'clock till dusk on Sunday. The
Highlanders attacked at daybreak on Monday the south end of the
kopje. The attack failed. The Guards were ordered to protect
the Highlanders' right and rear.

"'The cavalry and mounted infantry and a howitzer artillery
battery attacked the enemy on the left, while the Guards on the
right and center were supported by field artillery and howitzer
artillery which shelled the position from daybreak. At 1:15 P. M.
I sent the Gordons to support the Highlanders.

" ' The troops held their own in front of the enemy's entrench-
ments until dark, the position extending, including the kopje, six
miles toward Modder River.

" 'At one o'clock Tuesday I am holding the position and entrench-
ing myself. I have to face at least 12,000 men. Our losses were great. ' "

General Methuen shelled the Boer position at Magersfontein on
Sunday, December 10, and early the next morning began an infantry
attack which was a omplete failure. Despite severe losses, the
British held their advance ground until Tuesday morning, when

538

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

General Methueii withdrew to his former position. These actions
were thus described by the Daily News correspondent:

"After shelling the Boers all day Sunday with our howitzers
and naval guns, the whole force, with the exception of those left
to guard the camp, moved forward. The attack was opened at 3:20
o'clock Monday morning by the Highland Brigade. In front were
the Seaforths, Argyles and the 'Black Watch,' with the Gordons
and the Highland Light Infantry in support. The men marched
in quarter column formation. The Highlanders had reached to
within two hundred yards of the Boer trenches when a deadly fire
was opened on the front and the right flank. Here about two
hundred men were mown down, and those leading were forced to
retire. The supports were then brought up, but they also failed
to carry the kopje, and the right flank was thus in serious jeopardy.
The guns, however, dashed to the rescue and, protected by their
fire, our shattered force was able to retire. The 4.7-inch naval
gun opened on the enemy at six A. M. When our right flank was
threatened, two squadrons of the Twelfth Lancers were dismounted
and skirmished through the bushy country, clearing and holding it
until the afternoon. Our terrific artillery fire provoked no response
except from the enemy's rifles.

"All efforts to cany the position having failed, the action at
mid-day sank into a desultory artillery fire, with the exception of
some sharp skirmishing on the right flank.

"At 3:45 the Highlanders formed up to renew the attack on
the entrenched kopje, but the Boers, who had made no use of
their artillery during the whole day, now opened on them with a
heavy shrapnel fire. The brigade was immediately forced to retire
again, and the fight between the guns continued until dark.

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

539

"The losses on both sides were very severe. Many Boers were
killed in the trenches and wire entanglements."

The great losses of the Boers were due to their coming upon
open ground on the British front with the purpose of attacking
their enemy's flank, but they were checked by the Guards and
artillery. The fearful loss of the Highlanders came almost in a
single minute at 200 yards. " Startled and overwhelmed," says one
correspondent, "the brigade retired quickly, but rallied and retained
their position." The Guards, having crossed the open veldt against
the trenches on the right, fought an invisible foe for fifteen houn;.

But for the disaster to the Highland Brigade, the British loss
would have been slight. These men were pushed forward in the
darkness in the hope of surprising the enemy, who, being well
informed by scouts, were too cautious thus to be caught, From a
British point of view the failure was peculiarly trying, since it
approached so near success.

The news of General Methuen's defeat, following on the heels
of General Gatacre's reverse, caused intense depression in Great
Britain. Cape Town was filled with dismal forebodings. There were
reports of more Dutch disaffection from the eastern border of
the Colony.

The list of casualties at Magersfontein, as given by the War
Office, showed that the Highland Brigade alone lost 656 in killed
and wounded, beside which there were 8 killed and 106 wounded,
making the total casualties 833.

In his telegram after the fight, General Methuen said it was
one of the harde- and most trying in the annals of the British
army. Such a st'Aiement is generally accepted as being decided by
the loss incurred in overcoming the danger. On this point, it is

540

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

interesting to compare the action of Modder River with some other
actions in which the British army has been engaged in the present
century.

General Methuen's force was about 6,500 strong. His losses in
killed and wounded, as stated, was 833. The figures given below
are taken from a table published as to percentage losses in historic
battles.

KllleJ and Per-

Strength. Wounded. centage.

Talavera, 1809 2U,5U0 6,250 30

Albuera, 1811 8,200 8,990 48

Barossa, 1811 ■. . . 4,400 1,210 27

Salamanca, 1812 26,000 8,38« 13

Quatre Bras, 1815 12,000 2,504 20

Waterloo, 1815 23,9ul 6,932 29

Firozahah, 1845 16,000 2,415 15

Sobraon, 1846 15,500 2,068 18

Chilliauwallah, 1H49 15,000 2,888 15

Alma, 1854 21,500 2,002 9

Inkerman, 1854 7,464 2,857 81

Modder Rivor, 1899 0,500 838 18

Lord Methuen's loss in officers was: Killed, 4; wounded, 19;
Total, 23. One battalion of British infantry entered the action at
Salamanca with 27 officers and 420 rank and file; it had 24 officers
and 342 rank and tile killed and wounded.

This was the first heard of the use of barbed wire by the
Boers, who had evidently read of the American operations in front
of Santiago. Undoubtedly the obstruction was vei'y effective and
prevented the British, in making their bayonet charges, from reach-
ing the Boer iiitrenchments, from which came the deadly fire of
the riflemen. Of necessity, the failure of the attack caused the
English i , withdraw to the shelter of the intrenchments at the
bridge-head on the Modder River, where they were less liable to
an attack than of having their communications cut with the
Orange River, and of sulTering from a hu^k of supplies.

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

541

There can be no question as to the bravery of the English any
more than the skill and ability of the Boer military leaders. The
Boers possessed an inestimable advantage in having a perfect
knowledge of the country. Also the mobility of their forces
seemed to be supplemented by a penetration of the designs of the
English generals. This enabled them to concentrate with over-
whelming rapidity at all threatened points, and, when repulsed, to
move away swiftly pnd prepare for the next collision.

The charge that General Methuen neglected to reconnoiter
before making his attack on Monday morning, was unjust, for he
had spent the two previous days in reconnoitering, and that pre-
caution doubtless told the Boers precisely where the attack would
be made. Nor is it just to blame the British for fighting upon
grounds chosen by their enemies, for such was the logic of the
situation. The Boer tactics were new to the invaders, who were
conipelled to keep to the railway lines in order to maintain their
supply of food and ammunition. There was much truth in the
remark credited to President Kruger that the British were com-
pelled to fight in the dark. The defeat decided the British Gov-
ernment to send out the Sixth Division, and to organize an eightli.

These two reverses in such close succession, it would seem,
were enough to test to the utmost the equanimity of the British
nation, and yet within that same fateful week, came the most
staggering blow of all, in the form of the folb)wing dispatch fi-oni
(Ion. Sir Uedvers liuUer, commander of tlio IJrilish forces in South
Africa, who was moving to the relief of Ladysmith:

"Chieveley Camp, December 15, 6:20 P. M.— 1 regret to report
a serious reverse. I moved in full strength from the camp near
Chieveley at four o'clock this morning. There are two fordable

542

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

places in the Tugela River, and it was my intention to force a
passage through one of them. They are about two miles apart and
I intended to force one or the other with one brigade supported by
the central brigade. Hart was to attack the left drift. Hildyard had
the right of the road. Lyttleton was in the center to support either.

"Early in the day I saw that Hart would not be able to force
a passage, and directed him to withdraw. He had, however,
attacked with great gallantry. His leading battalion, the Connauglit
Rangers, I fear, suffered a great deal. Colonel Brooke was severely
w^ounded.

"T then ordered Hildyard to advance., which he did. His lead-
ing regiment, the East Surrey, occupied Colenso station and the
houses near the bridge. At that moment T heard that the whole
artillery I had sent back to that attack, namely, the Fourteenth
and Sixty-sixth Field Batteries and six naval twelve-pounder quick-
firers, the whole under Colonel Long, were out of action.

"It appears that Long, in his desire to be within effective
range, advanced close to the river. It proved io be full of the
enemy, who suddenly opened a galling fire at close range, killinu:
all the horses, and the gunners were compelled to stand to their
guns. Some wagon teams got shelter for troops in a donga.

''Desperate efforts were made to bring out the field guns, but
the fire was too severe. Only two were saved by Captain Scholield
and some drivers, whose names I will furnish. Another most
gallant attempt with three teams was made by an officer whose
name 1 will ol)tain. Of eighteen horses thirteen were kii )d, and
as several drivers were wounded 1 would not allow another attempt,

"As it seemed there would be great loss of life in an attenij'*
to force a passage unsuppoi-ted by artillery, I directed the troops

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

548

to withdraw, which they did in good order. Throughout the day a
considerable force of the enemy was pressing my right flank, but
was kept back by the mounted men under Lord Dundonald and
part of Barton's Brigade. The day was intensely hot and most
trying on the troops, whose conduct was excellent.

"We have abandoned ten guns and lost by shell fire one. Tbe
losses of Hart's Brigade, are, I fear, heavy, though the proportion
of severely wounded is not, I hope, large. The Fourteenth and
Sixty-sixth Batteries also sustained severe losses.

"We have retired to the camp at Chieveley."

The news did not reach London until midnight, too late for it
to become generally known to the public until the morrow, but
not too late for the leading journals to express their consternation.
It seemed, indeed, as if the cup of bitterness was filled to overflow-
ing. The Moniiufi Post thus expressed itself:

"We venture to say that a disaster to General Buller's column
luis seemed beyond possibility to the man in the street, for on
(Jeneral Buller's victory he had pinned his faith. The British
people must accept the reverse with the calm that has already
[)i-oved their pluck and bear themselves as true men in adversity,"
The Pdsfs military expert regarded the affair rather as a repulse
ihan a defeat. He said that the attack was not pushed liome, but
was broken off in the middle.

The Ihnh/ Xc/rs said the intelligence was the saddest that had
reached England since the Indian Mutiny. General BuUer, it
• It'clared, was not routed, but was seriously checked. " What, perhaps,
is most of all to be feared, is the effect it will have on Cape
<'olony. EeKnforcements urgently needed both in Natal and at
Modder Uiver may have to be employed elsewhere."

544

THE '^TORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Another military critic, one of the ablest of authorities, said:

"General Duller proposed to push his way across the river by
main force, without attempting to gain any advantages over the
enemy by maneuvering. What occurred was the now famil.ar
story of concealed Boers and British troops marching blindly to the
very muzzles of their rifles. It would not be fair to criticise with-
out knowing more of the facts, but it is bitter to have to use
almost the same form of words three times in one week in com-
menting on three separate reverses."

The Dailij Graplnc said: "It is difficult at the moment to
measure the possible consequences of the reverse. It is not easy
to see how General Buller can again advance until he is reinforced,
and meanwhile the situation at Ladysmith is most perilous.
Greater issues, however, than the safety of General White's gar-
rison are involved. The credit of the empire and the allegiance of
British South Africa are at stake. The situation demands calmness,
but resolution. The South African field force should be made up
to at least 150,000 as soon as possible."

The CJn'onicJe said: "Three reverses within a few days make
this the gloomiest week since the war began. We wanted victory
sorely and we have not got it. General Buller's failure to force a
passage of the Tugela River offers another disquieting illustration
of that element of surprise in Boer tactics which is the most strik-
ing characteristic of the campaign. General Buller appears to have
made a direct frontal attack on the central Boer position. Wo
hear nothing of any turning movement, but we shall not cry out
against him. Some cheering news must be sent from this side to
the commanders in South Africa, even when no cheering news
comes from them. Let them bo assured that we are basing neither

ON JHiUSlMAS DAY, 1899

545

confidence nor patience, bit tlia-t vve trust them to make good all
their errors and be stead ir hammering to conquer to the end,
'I will fight it out on this .inb if it takes all summer,' is a famous
saying of General Grant's after one of his defeats. That is a
happy reminder for General Duller in the very serious task to
'tvhich he will apply himself with all the more resolution if he
knows he is backed by something better than cavil at home."

The Morning Leader said: "It will not affect the nerve or cow
the resolution of the people, who have not forgotten in a long
experience of prosperity how to put up with a reverse of fortune.
There is a courage that is not evoked by victory, the courage of
endurance in the day of evil things, and there is none higher. We
have now to stiffen our lip, looking neither to ^he "igiit nor to the
left, and determine to see the thing through. It i? a ch?i,lienge to
our blood, our manhood, a? id there is only one answer.'"

The TelegrapJi "aid: "The moral fibre of the British Empire
is now being te; tec* a'^, nrver since the Crimea and the Indian
Mutiny. We pas- - ;! then through times of terrible stress, and the
present trial surely .vilj not fir ' us wanting."

The latest reports 'showed that two Boer camps having been
located, General Hart's brigade was sent from Doom Kop westward
to Bridle Drift, and ordered to cross the Tugele. Kiver, ai ancing
T'long its western bank to the bridge. («eneral llildyard's brigade
was directed to crosH the structure and capture the kopjus on the
northern bank, while a cavalry brigade wdth a battery of artillery
was dispatched to the extreme ri^rht fiatik to enfilade the bridge.

Fire was opened by the naval -.^uns a few minutes l)efore six
in 'ue morning. For some time, t'lere wap no reply, and then a
:5evere musketry fire opened from the rear of Fort Wylie, Only

54(;

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

800 yards separated the Seventh and Fourteenth batteries from the
Boer rifie pits. A shell fire was also opened from Grobler's Kloof
by the Boers, who killed the British artillery horses, wounded all
the officers of artillery and compelled the abandonment of ten guns.

The brigade under General Hart pushed forward on the left
toward the drift, but encountered a tremendous shell fire and a
cross fire from musketry and was compelled to retire. Firing
began at seven o'clock on the extreme right, where Thorneycroft's
Mounted Infantry lost nearly fifty men in killed and wounded.
Their retreat was covered by a regiment made up of the King's
Royal Rifles, mounted, the Imperial Light Horse and the Natal
Carbineers. A good many men were also lost by the South African
Light Horse.

A second advance was made by General Hart's brigade, sup-
ported by General Lyttleton, but they were again driven back,
after which the entire force withdrew to Chieveley. All the
British officers and soldiers fought with the greatest heroism, but
they had undertaken an impossible task. The Times account said:

" The Boer position was an exceedingly strong one. There was
a line of kopjes elaborately iortified with entrenchments and
emplacements, while our advance was without cover.

"The bombardment began at five A. M. and was heavy till
6:30. At seven o clock, Generals Hildyard and Hart opened fire.
Hart's attack lasted till ten o'clock.

"The men advanced in the most gallant manner across the
open ground, facing a terrific fire from the enemy's masked
batteries and rifie pits. The Dublin Fusiliers crossed the river, but
retreated. The Counaught Rangers and the Dublin Fusiliers lost
heavily.

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

547

"General Barton made directly for Colenso. He reached the
"^ngela by a series of brilliant rushes, but was unable to hold the
posiuion against the awful fire poured in by the enemy, and
eventually retired with heavy loss.

" Lord Dundonald, with the mounted men, gallantly attacked
Blangwan Hill, but was repulsed.

"The naval battery made excellent practice."

In order to follow intelligently, events in South Africa, the
reader must study the map of that section. In the east. General
Duller had advanced from Durban, on the coast, toward Ladysmith,
only to the neighborhood of Colenso, when he met the serious
reverse just described. Thus Ladysmith, the most northern position
held by the British under Gen. Sir George White, in Natal, was
surrounded by the Boers. To the northeast are (Jlencoe and
Dundee, which were occupied by the British early in the war, and
severe battles occurred at both the towns, and also at Elandslaagte,
before the English were driven out and compelled to take refuge
in Ladysmith, where they were besieged by the Boers.

Now pass to the west to the railway leading from Cape Town
to Kimberley and Mafeking. Over this line General Methuen's col-
umn was transported north for the purpose of raising the siege of
Kimberley, and of invading the territory of the enemy by enter-
ing the Orange Free State. After hard fighting near the Orange and
Modder Rivers, Methuen advanced to Magersfontein, hardly ten
miles south of Kimberley, where he encountered the decisive defeat
already described, and was forced to retreat to Modder River.

Dt.^Ides opposing the advance of Methuen, the Boer forces in
the Orange Free State pressed down into the mountains in the south,
thereby compelling the British, under General French and General

548

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Gatacre, to face them in that section. General French, with his cav-
alry and mounted infantry, turning off at right angles from the line
of Methuen's advance upon Kimberley, made his way to Naauwpoort,
and thence to Arundel, where he had a busy time fighting the Boer
invaders of Cape Colony, a short way beyond that town. General
Gatacre's advance was to Molteno, a little distance beyond which,
among the Stormberg Mountains, he was entrapped, defeated and
compelled to fall back to Molteno. Counting upon victories by
Gatacre and French, the plan of campaign was to invade the
Orange Free State, but disaster to both columns overthrew the
project. It was useless to attempt longer to conceal the fact that
the Dutch Afrikanders of Cape Colony had joined the Boers by the
thousands, raising them to a strength that baffled the calculations
of the British commanders.

So much depended upon the success of General Buller that his
reverse was a far-reaching calamity. The relief of Ladysniith,
aside from its immediate inspiring effect, would have quenched the
flames of insurrection in the British South African colonies. But
now the question expanded into the alarming one of British
supremacy in South Africa, of the ward to India, and of Great
Britain's Eastern empire, for there is no difference in the real
meaning of these expressions.

General Buller was held powerless by the loss of his artillery
on the banks of the Tugela; General Methuen's division was in the
same predicament at the Modder River; General French was
kept busy in maintaining his communications with his base and in
watching the enemy in front, and General Gatacre's position was
complicated by the growing disaffection around him.

In a dispatch dated December 16th, General Buller said:

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

549

"Our losses in the battle on December 15, were: officers and
men killed, 82; wounded, 667; missing, 348.

"The foregoing includes 7 officers killed, 41 wounded, 14
prisoners, and 3 missing."

The War Office's list of casualties in the Black Watch (Royal
Highlanders) Regiment in the battle of Magersfontein, was 41
killed, 163 wounded, and 111 missing. The total number of casual-
ties from the outbreak of hostilities to December 15, not includ-
ing deaths from disease, was 7,630.

The expectation among military critics was that General
Buller's attack near Colenso would be simply a feint, but it was
more than that. The chief blame for the disaster was laid upon
Colonel Long, whose impetuosity led him to exceed his orders, with
the result of a loss of a large portion of the artillery. And yet,
with a patience and magnanimity that were wonderful, few criti-
cisms were heard upon that rash officer, or the woeful failure of
Duller himself.

It was a blow to England, but, courageous to the last, she almost
instantly rallied, and gave the world an impressive exhibition of the
majesty of her wrath. There was no thought of stopping short of
iinything less than the utter stamping out of the rebellion, no matter
what the cost or how great the sacrifices demanded. On Sunday,
December 17, the War Office issued orders to send to the seat of war,
all Great Britain's reserves, a powerful force of yeomanry, others
of mounted volunteers, her entire available colonial troops, and a
strong division of militia. In other words, almost the entire might
of the British Empire was to be hurled into South Africa, under
the command of her best military leaders, for Field Marshal Lord
Roberts was to go as Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Lord Kitchener,

550

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of Khartoum fame, was to accompany him as second in command,
and an army of 180,000 was to be assembled in South Africa,

Field Marshal Lord Roberts, of Kandahar, was born at Cawnpore,
India, in September, 1832, entering the Bengal Artillery in the
service of the East India Company in 1851. His services were
conspicuous throughout the Mutiny, his bravery in the field, in
1858, W'inning him the Victoria Cross. He was Assistant Quarter-
master-General to Lord Napier in the Abyssinian campaign of 1868.
He commanded the Luram field force in the Afghan war, and
afterward held chief command of the army in Afghanistan. He
reoccupied Cabul in 1879, and, in the following year, made the
famous march to Kandahar (referred to in another chapter), which
gave him his title, and relieved that fortress, besieged by Ayoobkhaii,
the pretender to the Afghan throne, who was crushingly defeated.
Later, Lord Roberts became Commander-in-Chief of the Indian
army. He was sent to Natal in 1881, to succeed General Colley,
killed at Majuba Hill, but did not reach the post until after peace
had been concluded. He returned to India, commanded the Burmese
expedition on the death of Sir H. MacPherson, and when ordered
to South Africa, was commander of the troops in Ireland.

Gen. Lord Kitchener, Chief of Staff of Lord Roberts, was born
in 1850, and entered the British service as Lieutenant of Engineers
in 1871. He served as a volunteer in the French army, during the
Franco-Prussian war, and in 1874, was on duty under Major Conder
in the survey of western Palestine. He became attached to the
Anglo-Egyptian army in 1882, then being organized by Sir Evelyn
Wood, and steadily rose to the chief comma nd, the climax of his
career and fame being attained by his capture of Omdurman, the
particulars of whicli brilliant campaign are familiar to all.

)mmand.
ica.

iwnpore,
in the
es were
field, in
Quarter-
of 1868.
^ar, aud
tan. lie
ade the
), which
'ol)kluin,
efeated.
Indian
Colley,
31- peace
Burmese
ordered

as born

igineers

ring the

Conder

to the

Evelyn

of his

lan, the

[l4

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

U£|Z8 |25
■^ lU 12.2
2.0

1.25 III ,.4 IIL6

►

<p%^

'K^

^'j!"'

Hiotographic

Sdences

Corporation

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WHSTIt.N.Y. USIO

(716)a73-4S03

«>

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1899

55a

No people coulcJ have met a crisis with more unflinching
bravery than did England in the middle of Deconiber, 1899. She
saw and admitted her mistakes, and a<l(hc'sse«l herself resolutely to
the task of correcting them.

An essential requisite in which she was deficient was artillery.
One of the most acute of British critics said the IJoers liad derived
"the greatest advantage during the last few weeks from the
absence of position or heavy artillery on our lines of defence in
Natal." Sir George White was almost helpless until the arrival of
the guns of the Powerful at Ladysmith. The lack of a chief of
artillery was disastrous, for it would have been his duty to make
sure that the army was supplied with siege artillery, position guns
and howitzers. This deficiency is u strange one, for there was no
responsible staff officer at headquarters.

The strategy of the Boers at the beginning was superior to
that of the British. Joubert, after investing Ladysmith, left a
sufficient force to maintain the siege, and then sent three columns
over Colenso, Weenen and Greytown, all converging onPietermaritz-
burg, with perfect communication maintained between the columns
and his lines or retreat absolutely secured. A similar movement,
conducted with equal strategical skill, was executed by the Orange
Boers on the southern border. At the same time the corps that
had entered the Zulu country was ordered to cross the lower
Tugela and threaten the communications between Pietermaritzburg
and Durban. All this was strategy of a high order.

The British, however, divided their forces, leaving the columns
of Duller and Methuen too weak to do the work expected of them,
and with no possibility of supporting each other. The consequences
of these errors may be said to have been inevitable. England did

;'»;') 4

THh: fclTOltV OF yOUTIl AFRICA

not close her eyes to the distasteful truth, but set to work, as we
have shown, with grim heroism, to retrieve her blunders. So it was
that Christmas day, 1899, was one of grave anxiety throughout the
Empire, with many darkened hearthstones and saddened hearts,
but with the unalterable resolution to caiTy the cause of tlit
country to triumph not lessened one jot or tittle.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

Perhaps one of the most natural things in the world is the
existence of considerahle sympathy for the Boers in their war with
Great Britain. This has shown itself at various times in different
places, but especially in Europe. The latter is to be expected, for
there the jealousy of England's mighty power and transcendent
^'rowth among nations is deepseated and widespread. The United
States had its wars and wrangles with England, but no men respect
each other so thoroughly as those whose mettle and courage have
boon tested. But all that was ended long ago, and Americans
should now be in a position to regard the contest in an unpreju-
flicoil light. It is plain that our interests, commercial and financial,
Wo with England. The future greatness of the United States, never
.so promising as now, depends upon the unfaltering progress of the
world and upon the dominance of liberal principles among the
|)0()ples that are settling and developing the waste places of the
earth. Can progress be helped by the humiliation of England ?
After all, what more fearful calamity could bofall the cause of
hiuuanity than a hurling of her to a depth below that of any
rival powers? When conscienceless governments foi-m a league for
the oppression and parceling of helpless nations, a reckoning must
l>o made with England. Many a time nations would have coml)ined
to check the march of humanity but for the stern interposition ot
<Ireat Britain's thunderous "Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther!''
Can we join in the gleeful exclamation of the leading German

[660]

556

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

newspaper that "the clecadeiico of England is now apparent to the
whole world?" Can any man name a single point in which the
United Slates would be benefited by the overthrow of the British
Empire?

It was when the Holy Alliance was planning to crush the
South American republics struggling against the tyranny of Sptiin,
and virtually to parcel the western hemisphere among themselves,
that the British ministry "called into existence a new world to
redress the balance of the old." It was England that made tho
sacred "Monroe Doctrine" possible. Had Canning thrown (Jvciit
Britain's influence on the side of the Holy Alliance, the history of
this continent would have had to have been written in another
way. No comparison is possible between the mission of the two
peoples, Boer and English, in the march of civilization. Any
calamity that befell England would injure us. What her friendship
is worth was proven in our recent war with Spain. Again she was
able to say " Hands off ! " to the nations who would have been
eager to interfere against us, and none of them dared to brave
her wrath. Every continental power shrinks from making war
against England when it knows that the United States is her friend.
Thus, Americans should not be quick to condemn or wish for the
unworthy humiliation of a nation which has given to the world
the best it possesses.

It has been noted that a great deal has been said and written
about the mistakes of the British forces in South Africa. Manv
seem to think they are tho only offenders, in this respect, but ;iii
analysis of the tactics of the iJoers, while showing unexpeeteil
successes, shows also that they have committed their full share of
blunders. The initiatory stage of the struggle failed to show ;i

-^*^-

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

557

single brilliant offensive movement on the part of the I3oers, a fact
which plainly indicates an element of weakness either tactically or
a failure to understand their advantage and to reap its full henotit.

The subdivision of the Boers into numerous small columns has
heen explained on the ground that the nature of the country and
roads made it necessary, but it is likely this primitive plan was
adopted without any such supposed necessity. All that saved them
from paying the fearful penalty of their rashness was the failure
of the 'British to concentrate before those assailed could unite with
the nearest column. All wars teem with impressive lessons of the
almost invariable fatal consequences of such a violation of the
siinpld^t rnles of warfare. What a feast those opportunities would
have been to Napoleon Bonaparte or any great commander!

The advance of the Boers beyond the Tugela, while British
reinforcements were arriving, was saved only by a retreat from a
serious reverse. General Joubert finding himself compelled to with-
draw some of his besieging force from in front of Ladysmith to
receive the attack of Hildyard. It was fear of imperiling the
general strategical situation that caused him to retire when he
luid one of the finest of all opportunities for decisive offensive
operations. Again, had the Boers selected the connti-y north of the
Tn^'ela for making their stand, they would have secured a much
stronger position for defense than that to the south.

"An American Soldier," in the Neir York Sxn, declares that, as
regards tactics, the chief fault of the Boers is their inability to
initiate or execute a tactical offensive action, usually the most
<1(»cisive in war, and also their failure to reap the full i*ewards of
victory. At Estcourt they had the best opportunity for a decisive
(tfTonsive action, when they had both of the British forces south of

558

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Ladysmith cut off, but they preferred to retire rather than take
their chances in a battle which they would have to initiate. The
defeat of Methuen at Modder River would have been followed up
by an energetic pursuit, had the situations been reversed, but tlic
Boers chose to let the British withdraw. Had Gatacre been opposed
by a Sheridan or Stonewall Jackson at Storniberg, his army would
have vanished as utterly, so far as future effectiveness was con-
cerned, as did that of the Confederate Hood before the " Rock of
Chickamauga."

The Boers have also made mistakes in the selection of tactical
positions, as at Elands Laagte, where they occupied two kopjes, or
hills, and left two others on their left, over which a flank move-
ment by the British might have defeated them. While their
strategic advances, as a rule, are well conceived, their tactical defense
of positions good and their reconnaissances excellent, it would seem
that if the British preceded an infantry attack by an overwhelming
artillery tire, waiting until then before trying to turn their posi-
tions, instead of throwing away energy and life by a direct frontal
attack, the introductions "I regret to state" would disappear from
the official reports of the officers. It was precisely these tactics
which succeeded at Elands Laagte and at Colesburg, which were
the only victories in the early part of the war with which England
had to console herself.

No more convincing instance of tha woeful error of disregavdin<;
these elemental rules was furnished than that of General BuUer at
Tngela River. As the full particulars of this battle were learned,
it showed that the British disaster was caused by the hopeless
assault upon the . protected positions of the enemy. Again and
again were the brave troops led into a slaughter like that of the

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

551)

rnioiiists before Fredrirkslmr^, until tlie liritisli losses in killed,
wounded and captured exceeded eleven hundred, while the reported
loss of the JJoers in kille<l and wounded was only thirty-two.

Why it was that (leneral Bnlit r persisted in throwinj; his
(loomed troops int(> the murderous hell-hlast is hard to understand,
for the hideous futility of such atta(;ks had l)een ilenionstrateil
a^'ain and again, and no ofti(;er should be better acMjuainted with
the effectiveness of modern arms. Moreover, he had served in the
lioer war of 1881, when General Joubert was also in comnuind. The
siiuie tactics were repeated then with precisely the same lesults.
There is no more seasoned army officer in the tield than (xeneial
Muller. He did tine service throughout the Ashaiitee war of 1873-74,
was active in the Kaffir and Zulu wars of 1878-711, was, as we
have said, in the Boer war of 1881, was decorated for his conduct
at Tel-el-Kebir in the Egyptian war of 1882. was chief of staff to
Wolseley in the Soudan campaign of l884-'85, and received further
decoration for his service. It was unjust, therefore, to bring
accusations against the War Office, when it is unquestionably true
tliat the ))est generals had been sent into South Africa.

The statement, late in December, that the British army in
South Africa would be speedily increased fully fifty per cent., was
misleading to the general public, for the reinforcements in view at
that time were as follows: Volunteers, 7.000; yeomanry, 3,000;
tirafts to replace the men lost in action and to bring the regiments
then at the front up to their full war strength, 12,(XKJ; cavalry
Itrigade, 1,200; Canadians and Australians, 2,0(X); fifth division,
11,000; sixth division, 11,000; seventh division, 11,(X)0, making a total
of 5! ,200. The forces availal)le in South Africa before this call was
estimated to be: Infantry. ()I,8(KI; cavalrymen, 8,H60; artillerymen.

560

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

S,940, including 210 guns; engineers, 3,200; service corps, 3,175;
medical corps, 2,380; ordnance corps, 590; other special corps, 765;
naval brigade, 1,100, with 38 guns; colonial forces, 2,400; local
forces, 13,200, the aggregate being 106,210. The misapprehension
arose from the fact that, when the notice of the intended reKnforce-
ments was posted at the War Office, the fifth division was being
landed at Cape Colony, the sixth was on the way, and the seventh
was in process of mobilization. It would be more correct, there-
fore, to refer to the increase as twenty-five per cent.

A gratifying announcement from the War Office was that in a
single day offers of service had come from 100,000 of the yeomanry
and volunteers, all prepared to equip themselves, while the offers
from the British colonies on the part of troops wishing to be sent
to the front were so overwhelming that immediate attention could
not be given to them. The fountains of the deep were stirred to
the bottom, and the exhibition of British patriotism was thrilling
and magnificent.

The news which limped to England was to the effect that
General BuUer had moved his army back five miles on December 17
and had taken up a better position, sending two brigades to Frere
to protect his lines of communication.

A dispatch from Modder River, on December 22, stated that
the finely constructed treuv^hes of the Boers under Cronje reached
for twelve miles, in the form of a crescent, with guns mounted at
[)roper intervals, and a force of probably 20,000 men, on the alert
for a British advance in any direction. Methuen's army was inferior
in numbers, and firmly held its own at a pomt midway in the
circle formed by the trenches and a bend in the river.

On the day succeeding this dispatch, Field-Marshal Roberts,

THE PENDULUiM OF BATTLE

501

appointed to take rommand of all the British forces in South
Africa, left London for Southampton. Hi immenso i)()i)nlarity was
shown by the great crowd which gathered » witness his departure,
and he was cheered to the echo. He sailed on tiie Ihotofiar Castle
that evening. The grim old hero, ready always to ;jis\ver the call
of his country, carried a sore heart with him, for almost on the
eve of setting out for the field, thousands of miles distant, news
reached him of the death of his only son, killed in battle. The
hearts of the father, mother and daughter were wrapped up in this
brilliant youth, who, seeking glory at the cannon's mouth, met the
fate that has cut off unnumbered heroes in the flush and prime
of life.

Although we have already given the main points in the career
of Lord Roberts, who thus became the central figure in the war in
the Transvaal, anything concerning him is of interest, and we add
some particulars contributed by those who knew him well and
were associated with some of his most remarkable achievements.
Like the Iron Duke of Wellington, he is an Irishman, familiarly
known to his men as "Bobs," and idolized by all. He began his
military career as a lieutenant with a mountain battery of native
artillerymen at Peshawar, and for eight years built up a reputation
as one of the most daring and promising young officers in the
service. Ten years later he was attached to the staff of the
quai-termaster-general's department, where he learned thoroughly
the indispensable lesson of the movements of troops and of their
equipment. A few years afterward he returned to the artillery
iind then became quaitermaster-general of the Indian army. It will
thus be seen that he had the best possible training for the peculiar
and exacting duties to which he was called in South Africa.

062

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

It was ill 1S7S that Roberts was i)laced in command of tlie
Punjaii)) frontier forces, and finally in charge of the entire army
in Eastern Afghanistan. Hy that time he had become the idol ot
the army, and at their gatherings the principal conversations were
regarding tlie wonderful ability, the lofty conrage and tlie lovablr
traits of "dear little Holis,'' who had endeared himself to every
officer and soldier under his command. He had the magnetic
faculty of inspiring all with an unbounded faith in his skill, ami.
as an officer expressed it, "he never failed to show that such con-
fidence was justified." Soldiers fought for him as they would t'of
no other leader. They had come to believe that he never made u
mistake, and, therefore, whatever he called upon them to do was
the very best and only thing to do. It need not be added that
such a commander gets everything out of his troops that is in tliem.

Every heart ached for the grand old hero, when, standing in
the room of his club as several of the members were listening to
the war news as it was ticked off the wire, he overheard one of
them, unaware of his presence, exclaim that the son of "Bobs" !iad
been killed. Without a word, he walked out of the building and
then passed to his home. Who can picture the scene there when
the stricken father broke the awful news to his wife and daughter,
and all bowed their heads with a grief which none can fully under-
stand who has not shared in something of the same nature? But
like the true hero, he did not carry his sorrow to the world. When
he appeared before the public he was the same well-poised and
self-possessed man as when directing military movements on the
far away Indian frontier, or hurrying to the relief of a beleaguereil
officer and his command, whose salvation depended under heaven
upon that powerful arm.

THE ^ENDULUM OF BATTLE

One impressive incident in liis career is not ^'enerally known.
It was on his suggestion that Lord Beaconslield sent the ^ iperb
Indian troops to Malta as a warning that, if (Jreat IJritiun bad to
Hght the Russian Bear single-handed, she would do it with all the
forces of her mighty empire. No more convincing object lesson can
be conceived, and it produced a tremendous effect.

Lord Roberts is one of the few leaders of whom the remark is
true that he never knows when he is lieaten. In the Kuran Valley,
the officers declare'! he was defeated beyond all possibility of doubt.
He quietly smiled and refused to take that view of it. He was
ready for the fray next morning, and lo! a great victory was won.

One peculiarity, seemingly unimportant of itself, doubtless has
added to his popularity — he never forgets a face. No matter if
the interview lasts only a few minutes and Roberts does not see
the man for years and then meets him on the other side of the
world, he is sure to recognize him on the instant. This was shown
in the case of a young lieutenant, who was introduced to him at
a mess dinner. The next time they met was on a narrow mount iiin
road between Peshawar and Jelalabad. The officer sa.vited, where-
upon Roberts extended his hand with the hearty inquiry, as he
called the lieutenant by name:

"Well, old fellow, how are you?"

The recognition was so unexpected and delightful that the
lieutenant felt willing to lay down hi'' lifo for his leader, and the
feeling of devotion is with all his meii to this day. On tlie march
from Cabul to Kandahar, he would never sit down to his mess
dinner until he had seen the soldiers properly fed. Many times
this thoughtfulness delayed the mess bugle for half an hour. At
the Queen's Jubilee, when Lord Roberts was in the procession to

564

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

St. Paul's, he received an ovation from the populace hardly secoml
to that of the beloved Queen herself. But enough has been told
to show why this remarkable leader is held in such high esteem
and affection by all England, and to exphiin why, when he was
summoned to the supreme command in South Africa, the nation
felt that the right man had been sent thither, one who could never
forget the lessons of experience and who would guide the move-
ments of the forces with a wisdom and skill that could not fail to
bring decisive results.

A dispatch to the Transvaal government stated that the British
garrison at Mafeking made a sortie on Christmas day and attacked
one of the Boer forts with cannon, Maxims and an armored train.
It was said that the fighting was pressed to the walls of the fort
and the British loss was heavy, two captains being killed, Lord
Edward Cecil and Lord Charles Cavendish wounded, with perhaps
a hundred more of Colonel Baden-Powell's force sacrificed in the
futile attempt.

Another interesting statement confirms, what has already been
said, that much of the success of the Boers has been due to the
aid of foreign officers, who had given their best services to their
cause. Apparently the authority was the Afrikander Bund, which
asserted that S,000 European officers and men, skilled in military
tactics and experts in artillery, were at Pretoria as a reserve force
An Austrian officer was generally credited w^ith the skill displayed
by the allies at Modder River, and it was believed that the Tugela
defenses near Colenso were planned l)y an ex-colonel of the French
army. It will be remembered that at the latter place the hills had
been converted into fortresses of vast strength, with bomb-proof
trenches and covered passages connecting the main positions and

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

565

witli tramway lines with which to shift the guns to different [)osi-
tionis.

As pointing to the accuracy of these reports, it may be added
that at a meeting of Boer sympathizers, held in Cincinnati Decem-
ber 29, a relative of President Kruger made the statement that
there were 4,000 well-drilled Americans in Pretoria, that 2,0(X)
111 ore were on the way and funds were being sent from all parts
of the United States. This speaker said further that 50,000 men
might be needed, but he was confident that they would be on the
ground in time, despite the British l)locka,de.

Immediately following this was news that caused a disquieting
effect in some quarters. It was to the effect that the steamer
Ihindesrath, belonging to the German East-African line, had been
captured by the British cruiser Mayicicnnc and taken to Durban as
a prize. This vessel had sailed from Hamburg on Novem!)er 8 for
Kast Africa and her capture naturally intensified the anti-British
feeling of the Hollander and German population on Delagoa Bay,
while England was delighted with the evidence that her navy was
alert to check the inflow of foreign adventurers to the assistance
of the Boers in South Africa.

Reference has been made to the genuine British success at
Colesberg, wiiich, coming as it did amid general gloom and depression,
sent a glow of delight throughout England. News was received on
the first day of the new year that General French, in whose
column was a large number of mounted men, had succeeded in
flanking the enemy at Colesberg, which is a town on the railway
running northeast through Bloemfontein to Pretoria. Two days
previous he had come in touch with an intrenched force at Rends-
l>erg. Mindful of the previous costly experiences, General French

566

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

did not deliver a frontal attack, but left at that point to hold tlio
enemy, half of the First Suffolks and a section of the Royal Horse
Artillery, and on the afternoon of the last day of the year started
on a circuitous course, his force consisting of cavalry, mounted
infantry, infantry carried in wagons and ten guns. Before it was
light on the following morning, he occupied the kopje overlooking
Colesberg from the west.

This movement was a complete surprise to the Boers, which
was natural enough, since its nature was altogether new to them.
As it was growing light, the laager was shelled and the right of
the enemy's position enfiladed, their guns being silenced while
delivering a hot fire from a 15-pounder, captured from General
Gatacre at Stormberg. Thus, when Gereml French adopted the
tactics of the Boers, he gained an unquestionable advantage.

Still another confirmation of the wisdom of this policy was
afforded on the same day, when Colonel Pilcher decisively defeated
a command at Sunnyside laager, west of Belmont. His mounted
force included 100 Canadians of the Toronto company, 200 Austral-
ians and the same number of Cornwall Light Infantry and several
field guns. By acting quickly, a surprise was effected and the
position captured with forty prisoners. This having been effected,
Colonel Pilcher pressed on to Douglas, where he was in communi-
cation with Lord Methuen's mounted troops.

The Canadians were delighted when they received the order,
"Double into action!" many of them exclaiming exultingly, "At
last! " as they dashed into the fight. They pressed forward until
within a thousand yards of the enemy, who had run from their
laager up a hillside, and, opening a withering fire, they effectually
silenced that of the Boers. At the same time, the Queensland

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

5G7

troops with Colonel Fletcher were pushing rapidly in another direc-
tion. Their behavior fully justified the high expectations regarding
them. All were in fine spirits and skillfully secured cover when
the enemy was discovered, every man displaying coolness and self-
confidence.

To show how complete the surprise was, the guns were within
a fourth of a mile of the laager and had planted two shells before the
Boers knew the British were upon them. While the affair of itself
was insignificant, it was gratifying proof of the mettle of the
Canadians and Australians, and had good effect in checking a
threatened rising among the Dutch colonists.

A singular incident occurred at Rendsberg, Cape Colony, on
January 2. A train loaded with supplies, but without an engine
attached, began moving down an incline toward the Boer lines.
The speed momentarily increased, and it soon passed beyond control.
In a few minutes It would have been among the Boers, where, of
course, the valuable supplies would have been welcome. Orders
were hurriedly given to the British gunners to destroy the train,
and their aim was so good that cars and their contents were sent
flying in all directions and the train reduced to a wreck.

The members of the Masonic order will appreciate the follow-
ing occurrence, the like of which has never occurred in the history
of the order: At a Masonic meeting in Durban, the startling dis-
covery was made that the Master and all the officers of the lodge
had been killed in battle. Consequently the charter and regalia
could not be kept, since there was no one who could be held
responsible by the craft.

The Foreign Office at Berlin sent a note to Great Britain pro-
testing against the seizure of the German steamer Bundesntf/i,

ii-

568

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

which it will be remembered was arrested by a British crusier off
the east coast of Africa on suspicion of carrying contraband of war.
The note, of course, gave the German view of the case, which
asserted that the action infringed maritime law, inasmuch as the
seizure of contraband is only allowable if the vessel carrying it is
on her way to a belligerent country, while the Bundesmth was
bound to a neutral port. Both nations showed a disposition to
investigate fairly and to act in accordance with what facts such
investigation should bring to light.

In the meantime, the alertness of the British blockaders
resulted in the seizure of American flour at Delagoa Bay and the
overhauling and detaining of three American vessels, all carrying
mixed cargoes of American goods. Two of these ships had British
registers and the other flew the Dutch flag. They sailed from New
York for Delagoa Bay, a neutral port, in consequence of which the
United States regarded their seizure as an unjustifiable act. The
tlieory of the seizure was that the cargoes were to be shipped over-
land from Delagoa Bay to the Transvaal for the use of t\e Boer
forces in the field. Inasmuch as none of the ships had an Amer-
ican register, the United States had no concern with the arrest of
the vessels, since no question of indignity to the Stars and Stripes
was involved.

Secretary Hay sent instructions to Ambassador Choate in Lon-
don on January 2, to inform the British government that the
United States considered the seizure of American flour, at Delagoa
Bay as illegal, and that, in asking indemnity for such seizure, the
American government regarded its position as sustained by the law
and the facts.

Ambassador Choate held a long conference on January 4 with

crusier off
nd of war.
iSe, which
ich as the
•ying it is
'smth was
Dsition to
facts such

)lockaders
i^ and the
carrying
^d British
rom New
i'hich the
act. 'J'he
aed over-
t\e Boer
Ji Amer-
arrest of
i Stripes

in Lon-
:hat the

Delagoa
5ure, the

the law

'^ 4 with

AKl'ER THE BATTLE-ANXIOUS INQUIRERS AT THE WAR OFFICh.

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

571

Lord Salisbury, and presented Secretary Hay's note with reference
to the seizure by British warships of flour and other commodities
shipped by American firms and consigned to merchants at Lorenzo
Marquez. The reply of Lord Salisbury was satisfactory, being to
the effect that the American flour which was seized on board the
neutral Dutch vessel, the Maria, had been released and the British
government promised not to treat breadstuff s as contraband of war,
unless destined for consumption by an enemy's armed force. Indem-
nity, of course, was to be granted where injury had been done.

At the beginning of the South African war, Charles E. Macrum
was the United St'^t'^s consul at Pretoria. In return for similar
favors done by Gre ... Britain for us during our war with Spain,
the consul was instructed by the State department, on the request
of the British government, to apply to the Boer authorities for
recognition as the representative of British interests in the Trans-
vaal while hostilities continued. The Transvaal would have been
justified in refusing this request had not the United States been a
neutral nation; but, in accordance with custom, Mr. Macrum was
courteously received and recognized as the British representative
ad interim.

No matter what may have been said or done by Americans in
their private capacity, the United States observed its neutrality
with scrupulous exactness, and our government was pleased to
recognize in this manner the favor done us, as has been stated,
during the Spanish-American war. When, however, uritish prisoners
l)egan arriving at Pretoria, Mr. Macrum applied, under instructions
from the State department, which received a request from the
British government on the subject, for lists of the British prisoners
and a weekly statement showing tlie condition of the sick and

572

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

wounded among them. Our consul, about this time, was informed
by the Transvaal government that the care of the British prisoners
was purely a military matter, in charge of the Boer commanders
in the field, and that his consular jurisdiction did not extend to
communication with them.

Representations were made by the United States to the Trans-
vaal authorities, which in reality was a protest again. ^ their refnsal
to permit Mr. Macrum to continue his kindly offices. These pio-
tests received no notice until Mr. Macrum, having requested and
obtained his relief, was on the eve of departure, was officially notiiied
that the lists for which he asked would be furnished, but instead
of being given to him would be sent to the British minister of war
whenever he chose to apply for them. This look:;d very much like
a shrewd attempt on the part of the South African Republic to
secure recognition by the British government as an independent
state, but the effort did not succeed.

Mr. Macrum asked permission in behalf of Great Britian to
distribute money among the British prisoners with which to pur-
chase tobacco and such things as are consider d delicacies, but
permission was refused. His request to be relieved was granted.
and Mr. Hollis, United States consul at Lorenzo Marquez, Portu-
guese Africa, was ordered to Pretoria to serve as the American
representative until Adelbert S. Hay, tie new consul, should arrive,
Mr. Hay having sailed from England for South Africa at the
beginning of the year.

The United States was inclined at first to resent the refusal of
the Boer government to permit Mr. Macrum to carry out the func-
tions usually relating to a representative of the interests of a
belligerent, but reflection led to the charitable belief that tlie

THE PENDULUM OF BATTLE

5715

refusal was due to the unfamiliarity of the Boers with the courtesies
which obtain between friendly nations. This spirit of tolerance
was shown by the United States all through the negotiations.

It looked as if it was misinterpreted when the Transvaal gov-
ernment notified the United States on the 8th of January that it
could not permit Mr. Mollis, the American consul at Pretoria, to
rppreP9nt the interests of Great Britain in the South African
Kepublic during the war in the full sense of such representation,
though the consul would h allowed in his personal capacity to
care for the British priponers of war in confinement at Pretoria.
The reason given for this remarkable course was that the Boer
(iovernment did not wish any British representative within its ter-
ritory. The action was unprecedented and would have brought
iihout the withdrawal of our representative but for the wish to
continue the humanitarian work among the prisoners. Such of
the latter, however, who were exchanged brought with them the
gratifying statement that they were treated with kindness by the
Boers, who granted many favors that were wholly unexpected. So,
after all, though the course of the Boer Government was discour-
teous, it might be too much to say that any real suffering to the
prisoners resulted therefrom.

CHAPTER XXX

8T0RIE8 FROM THE BATTLEFIELD,

It is safe to say that there is one point to which a j^ovemment
can never educate the public — that is the necessity or prudence of
concealing the truth from it. Nothing is more apparent than that
generals in the field are often obliged to prevent news of their
movements from being sent out by the newspaper correspondents,
for there is always danger that such premature publication will
iiffect the success of the movements themselves. Numberless illus-
trations will occur almost to everyone. When General Sherman
was making his important advance througli the southwest toward
the close of the civil war, Jefferson Davis, in order to cheer the
drooping hopes of his people, announced in a public speech what
his generals were preparing to do to bring the plans of the Union
leader to naught. The southern papers published his speech, they
quickly found their way through the lines, and Sherman gleefully
set to work to defeat the project of his enemy, and succeeded.

When General Miles went to Puerto Rico he seemed apparently
to change his mind regarding his intended landing place, and selected
a point which was in the mind of nobody else. There was no change
of mind on his part; he was carrying out an intention formed long
before, and which was the only means of keeping his plans from the
knowledge of the enemy.

But, admitting all this, the question arises as to what possible

K'ood is accomplished by suppressing the facts respecting any important

action after it has succeeded or failed. The truth is certain to come

57(>

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

oat sooner or later, and the indignation against tliose uiio iiinc
trifled with us is intensified. Such, however, seems to be the polirv
of all governments. The first announcement generally is of a greal
victory, with the promise that particulars will be sent later. Then
come mystifying accounts of strategic movements, of having attjiiiicil
the point desired, and the return of our ariny to its former pr)siti(»ii,
of severe losses, owing to the unsurpassable heroism of our attiick,
and of the far greater and more tremendous losses on the part of tlio

. enemy. My and by the real truth begins to glimmer; we huvc
suffered a disastrous defeat; our losses have been much gretiter tlniii
the enemy's, and possibly our whole army is in danger of beiii^'

, destroyed.

Now this thing has been repeated over and over again in South
Africa, and will, no doubt, continue to be the policy of the future.
There is not a word that can be said in its favor, but everything:
against it. It is a woeful blunder thus to seek to mislead the
public.

The hot soil of South Africa has steamed with the blood of
some of the best and bravest men that ever went foith to battle
for the honor of their country. Mistakes have been made by tlioii
leaders, as must be the case in every war; condemnation of those
who made them has not always been just and no slur can be en -I
upon the courage of officers and men, but we repeat, what has l)eeii
said in another place, that the British forces were called upon t"
face wholly new conditions in the Transvaal. The Boers are no*
only skillful marksmen, but they have able commanders and t!o
not fight in the open. Away back in 1755, General Braddoek
undertook to battle with red Indians and French who were in
ambush, and, heedless of the urging of young George Washington

STOKIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

577

f(» adopt the same tactics, he persisted in Hrin*? by platoons at a
foe hidden behind trees and rocks, with thf> awful result that every-
one knows. True, the IJoers are insignificant iji number as com-
pared with the armies that (Jreat Britain can pnt into the Held,
liut they were on their own ground; iiiey had more men at the
()j)ening of the war; they were provided with the l)est arms and
e(|uipments; they were familiar with every road of the country,
and were fanatically devoted to their cause.

Some other facts should be borne in mind, the most signiKcant
of which perhaps is that hundreds of soldiers of fortune, including
many others who sympathized with the lioers, have joined their
ranks. These recruits are some of the most highly educated oflicers
to be found anywdiere, and they helped far more than is generally
supi)Osed in winning the early successes for the burghers.

Shrewd old President Kruger ai:d the far-seeing -loubert per-
ceived long ago what was coming, and trimmed their sails to meet
the storm. In another place has been shown the admirable and
simple system by which the whole military force of the country was
always held in hand. Well aware that one of the first objective
points of an invading force would be the capital, Pretoria was
magnificently fortified long before an enemy could penetrate far
enough to gain a glimpse of it.

According to report, the defenses consist of five powerful forts
and five lines of mines, and immense entrenchments with redoubts,
with the mines so laid as to cover all the approaches to the leading
[loints of defense. The center of the system of forts lies about a
fourth of a mile to the westward of the northern end of Pretoria, and
lias a radius of more than four miles. The center of the city itself is
about half a mile due south from the fort on Signal Hill, which is

578

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

some 400 feet above the plain on the west side of the railway to
Johannesburg and not quite a mile from the fort on the hill to the
east of the railway and the Aupies River, whose course is to the north.
Pretoria obtains its water supply from the fountains between this fort
and the river. The forts on either side of the river are separated by
about half a mile, and immediately outside of the city on the southern
side is the railway station where the lines from Johannesburg on the
south, Delagoa Bay on the east and Pietersburg on the north form a
junction.

The westernmost fort is on the hills behind Pretoria, not quite
six miles north of the center of the city. The formidable reloul»t
to the southwest of Pretoria, more than two miles from the center
of the city, on the range of hills through which the road to Johan-
nesburg passes, makes up the circle of the larger works that defend
the Boer capital. To the rear of this redoubt are the principal
magazines, one of which has been excavated out of the solid rock,
with a bomb-proof roof, and the other, also bomb proof, built into
the kloop, communicates with the redoubt through a covered way.
All these forts are connected with the capital, and they not only
have pipes laid with water, but electric cables for the search lights.

The number of guns mounted on the forts and redoul)ts
is given at 120 of large caliber and quick-firing of all kinds.
Among these are several 15-centimetre guns of French make from
the Creusot works, and of long range. Besides, there are Krupps,
Maxims and other machine and quick firing guns. Toward the
open country the forts are of masonry, heavily faced with earth,
but are open to the rear toward Pretoria.

The shipment of a siege train from England to South Africa
showed that she expected before the close of the war to invest the

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

579

Boer capital. It is interesting to note that this is the first siege
train sent out by Great Britain for forty-six years, the last previous
occasion being when sixty-five heavy guns and mortars were shipped
from Woolwich for the siege of Sebastopol, where they took part
with the French siege train in the bombardment of that city.
The skillful Todleben, however, developed the Russian defense so
rapidly that the number of guns in position in the besieging bat-
teries was raised to 806 before Sebastopol fell.

The train sent from England for South Africa comprised thirty
howitzers, fourteen of 8-inch caliber, eight of 5-inch and eight of
4-inch. If they throw lyddite shells the train will prove a formid-
able one and will probably require 40,000 troops to invest the city,
leaving the remainder to guard the communications, occupy certain
points and operate against that part of the Boer army not needed
for the defense of Pretoria.

Now, it is an ungracious thing to censure the actions of those
who are in the field, and who must of necessity know far more of
the difficulties encountered than those at home ; but, on the other
hand, it must be remembered that the criticisms which we quote
are not wholly from laymen and civilians, but from some of the
ablest of military leaders. Nothing is gained by glossing over the
faults of the campaign, and, on the principle that it is the best to
know the truth at all times, we submit a number of such expres-
sions, asking the reader to remember that they are not ours, but
tliose of English authorities, whose dearest prayer is that, through
such criticisms, similar blunders may be avoided in the future and
the triumph of the British arms secured. As far back as November
12, according to the correspondent of the Standard, the Boer circle of
nearly twenty-four miles around Ladysmith was held by twenty-two

580

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

guns, which were protected by thick parapets. The Enghsh
line of half that extent was held by the British artillery, consist-
ing of thirty-six guns, which were wholly ineffective against tlio
long-range guns of the enemy. The correspondent says:

"Only live of our guns can reach the enemy's guns of position.
These are the naval pieces, whose ranges vary from 10,000 to 12.(10(1
yards. Had the Boers cut our railroad communication before the
battle of Lombard'^ Kop, they would have had us at their mercy, tor
we should have been without long-range guns. Our field ai-tillcMv
would have been powerless. This is one of the lessons of the cam-
paign. We must reilrm our artillery. Quick-firing guns, long ranges
and smokeless powder have revolutionized the conditions of warfare,
(luns of longer range and longer-time fuses we must have. The
present governing factor of safety must be seriously considered and
reduced. Onr equipment must be lightened. These are essential
changes. If they can be made without sacrifice of mobility and shell
power, so much the better; but mude they must be, unless we are to
run terrible risks in the first encounter with an active and enterpris-
ing enemy. Except in reconnaissances, our field guns are useless as
long as the siege lasts. The fault lies not with officers or men. Bui
they have to face fearful odds. The Boer shrapnel is fused for 5.20(1
yards, whei-eas our fuse ceases to be effective at 4,100 yards. At 5,000
yards, the length of the probable rectangle of our guns is lOfi yards.
At 4,000 yards it is only 46, so that within this critical last thousand
yards the accuracy of the guns is so reduced that the length of the
probable rectangle is increased 225 per cent. The meaning of this
will be clear when T say that for 1,100 yards — or nearly three-quartiMs
of a mile — our artillery are exposed to the fire of a i)ractically
invisible enemy, without being able to fire a really effective shot in

STOUIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

581

seif-defense. In other words, our guns woul'l never get within
effective range of a French or German field battery. We must have
■A gun that will shoot with much greater accuracy at 5,000 yards, and
•d fuse that is effective at 5,000 or 6,000 yards. Whether this involves
loss of shell power, or increased weight and consequent loss of
mobility, is a question on which experts may differ. This much,
however, is certain. Our equipment is unduly heavy. Our guns
ciivvy too much weight. The double teams that brought the Twenty-
Hist Battery to Elands Laagte — a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles
— had not an ounce left in them.

"The Boer guns are admirably served — doubtless by French
and German gunners, assisted by the Staats artillery. Though they
have done little damage, the shooting is, on the whole, very
accurate. They have the latest telescopic sights, as well as some
cross-bearing signaling system which helps to eliminate errors of
range. Their errors of direction are practically nil. Our compara-
tive freedom from serious casualities is due to the fact that the
oiieiny's sliells are not always properly fused, that long ranges
diminish their i)enetrating power, and that the material of some of
tlioir explosives is bad. The projectiles are, for the most part,
segment ov ling shells, with the regular German percussion fuse,
and the shi'a[)nel contains 300 bullets of steel or lead. The erroi's
in fusing may, in many cases, l)e accounted for by the readiness
with which the Boers Kre at chance ranges, our practice being
never to fire a shot except at ranges that are sure to be effective.
<>l' tiie inferior quality of some of the shells there is al)undant
testimony. One morning, while in the camp of the Irish Fusiliers,
1 saw six shells fall without bursting, while one, after burying
itself live feet in the hard ground, blew l)ack nearly a hundred yards."

582

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

With reference to the poor quality of the Boers' ammunition
for their big guns, another correspondent shut up in Ladysmith has
been amusing himself by making a calculation as to the number
of shells sent into the town by the Boers since the beginning of
the siege to the time of the departure of his dispatches (Saturday,
November 25). "The grand total is given as 2,680, and of that
number 1,070 went into the town itself, 860 were directed at the
naval batteries, and the remaining numbers reached the different
camps. Taking the larger type of shells thrown by the Boers and
the smaller, and giving an average value of £17. 10s. for each shell,
it is seen that the monetary cost of the bombardment of Ladysmith
to the Boers has been about £50,000. Eight British soldiers have
been killed by shells, or one man for every 335 shells. It has thus
cost the Boers (according to the statistics quoted) between £6,000
and £7,000 to kill a man in Ladysmith."

The correspondent of the Telegraph declared that one of the
principal weak points of the Natal campaign was the indecision
and lack of mobility when the troops took the field. "Whether at
Dundee, Ladysmith, Estcourt or elsewhere to the seaboard and
Durban," he writes, "there has been a worrying, too frequent
change of plans, by no means all of which were rendered necessary
by the enemy's movements and surprises. Work done yesterday or
to-day has too often been ordered to be undone in the course of
the next few hours. Men have been marched or*}: early and late,
in all weathers, to give battle, and, after being kept upon tho
ground, marched back to camp without being allowed to fire a
shot. As with the infantry, so it has been with the artillery. In
two weeks one mounted volunteer force has had its camp changed
fifteen times! Nay, there are instances where linesmen's tents have

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

583

been ordered struck, packed, unpacked, repitched, struck, and so on
again, twice, yea, thrice, within twenty-four hours. As to our
acquired immobility. It appears that each infantry battalion
requires nine wagons, capable of carrying 4,000 pounds apiece.
Nor is that all that is set apart for the transport of their stores
and equipment. There are, besides these, two Scotch carts, one
water cart and two ammunition carts. A tolerably long train these
make, and, as they are set down authoritatively as indispensable,
our armies don't move until they get them. Except — except when
circumstances alter cases. It is for the want of transport, more
than all else, th: , the operations of commanders are said to have
been sadly hampered, plans abandoned, and successes in battle
minimized or lost."

We have referred in another place to the fierceness of the fight
at Modder River, which General Methuen well described as one of
the most trying in the annals of the British army. The following
account makes clear why tho commanding officer applied such
description to it :

"The battle of Modder River may be aptly and fitly described
as a soldiers' fight. There is little generalship required to place a
dozen infantry regiments squarely before a line of entrenchments
and tell them to go in and win. The youngest newly-joined officer
from Sandhurst could have threaded the regiments at regular inter-
vals before the five miles of Boer entrenchments and have issued
the orders which resulted in the victory. It is to the indomitable
pluck of the British infantry and artillery, to their individual
clogged determination to make Modder River one on the list of the
victories of the Kimberley relief force that Lord Methuen owes the
succnss of the day. For sixteen hours the battle raged. For

584

THE STORY OF SOUTH VFRICA

sixteen hours, on a plain as bare of cover as the dome of St. Pauls.
the infantry advanced by the shortest of rushes in the sweltering
heat, to shoot — and get shot. For sixteen hours the artilleiy.
innocent of that shelter w^hich tacticians in books lay down ;is
absolutely necessary, pounded away at their invisible foe. The
wounded fell out, and were in most cases left, for the stretcher-
bearers did not dare to enter the zone of fire. Each wounded nuiii
was made a mark for the enemy's riflemen. The wounded men
were useful for the Boers — they took sighting shots at them, aixl
got the range perfectly. Our men fought splendidly — that sounds
trite enough, but no plain English word can possibly describe the
magnificence of their behavior. A company would advance a few
tortuous paces, a man here and there would collapse with a gasp.
a few shots would be fired, a few more men would double up and
again the advance. Tf the stretcher-bearers could not get to the
wounded they were left till it was possible to reach them. In
some instances wounded men were left all night on the field. Tliu
historian who writes a truthful story of the battle of Modder Kivei'
will have a strange story to tell, if all one hears is gospel. Stories
of guides who reported Modder River to be held by 600 Boers, of a
regiment sent to clear them and finding 12,000! Of regiments
flanking the enemy's position and within a few hundred yards of
his guns having to retire because they were shelled by their own
artillery! Modder River was an Alma."

One of the best known men in South Africa is J. B. Robinson.
a wealthy mine owner, who fought with the Boers in the Basuto
war and knows them as intimately as it is possible for anyoni^
to know them. He says no braver fighting has ever been shown
than that displayed by the British soldiers in their charges against

STORIES FROM THP] BATTLEFIELD

585

intrenched positions, which could not have l)een carried by any
army in the world. Mr. Robinson adds that the war " has demon-
strated that the man with the gun, provided he knows how properly
to handle it, is the force that rules the world. No bravery, how-
ever great, can overcome him. England lias not yet realized, and
your generals refuse to understand, what a man armed as the Boer is
armed, and trained as he is trained, can do against tlie bravest
men who try to storm his position. Remember, that the Boer is
taught from boyhood to hit his living mark, and to hit it in the
right spot. When I was a small boy a shotgun was put in my
hands, and I was encouraged to fire at birds. When I got a little
older I had my double-barreled hunting piece, and, as parties of us
went out, the elders would show me just where to fire so as to
[)ierce the game behind the shoulders when running at full speed.
This is the training the Boers have had, and one man, taught in
this way, can successfully resist a hundred men who try to rout
him out from an intrenched position. On the other hand, twenty
men who are poor shots can be driven from their position by
twenty-five determined opponents."

Mr. Robinson relates a thrilling experience of his own in the
Basuto war to prove what can be done by the Boers. While Pot-
gieter was out with a company of thirty scouts, he made the
alarming discovery that he was l)etween two large Kaffir war par-
ties. A desperate attempt was made by four of the Boers, who
were well mounted, to escape by a dash, but only one succeeded in
getting through and he was unable to reach the laager with the
news of the dire straits of the larger party. The party rode to a
small ridge at headlong speed and began throwing up what stones
they could lay hold of to form a rampart. Mr. Ro])iMson continues:

586

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

(< rr

They had only raised the rampart two feet high when tlie
Kaffirs were on them. Potgieter quickly issued his orders. The
men had dismounted, and two held the horses behind the ridge.
* No one is to fire until after me,' the leader said. ' I will briii<'
down the chiefs, so many of you are to fire at the horses, and the
remainder are to shoot uown the dismounted men when they get
on their feet.' All the Kaffirs were mounted, and they rode up to
the little band in apparently irresistible numbers, the chiefs, gay
with their war plumes and heavy with Kaffir beer, at their head.
The first body that had been sighted consisted of between four and
five hundred men, and a second strong force was afterward discov-
ered in the rear. Potgieter let them approach to within seventy-
five yards and then fired. Down fell chief after chief. The rifles
of his men rang out, and all the horses of the leading men
stumbled, shot through the breasts. The fire was so resistless that
the charging party edged off to the right and the left, and made a
circle in retreat. Again the Kaffirs came on. They were armed
with rifles, and a number of them kept up a rifle fire at the sides
while the mounted forces again charged forward. But the result
was only the same as before. They would draw off, their chiefs
exhorting them by the valor of all their forefathers, by the great
deeds of Moshesh, not to allow so puny a band to defy them. As
the hours passed there came a rampart of dead Kaffirs and Kaffir
horses all around the Boers. Once the charging party got so close
that when the horses were shot two of them plunged right over
the kraal, into the Boer horses behind, before they fell dead, nearly
causing a stampede among the horses of the scouting party.

" The fight started at eight o'clock in the morning. By two o'clock
five or six of the Boers were so exhausted they declared they could

I when the
rders. The

the ridge.

will briiij;
es, and the
n they get
rode up to
chiefs, gay
their head.
n four and
ard discov-
n seventy-

The rifles
Lding men
istless that
id made a
ere armed

the sides
the result
leir chiefs

the greit
them. As
md Kaffir
t so close
•ight over
ad, nearly

wo o'clock
jhey could

■J >

h i I

U - j;

(ij

O s^

a; E

-3 1^ r3 —

11
O * * d £

. a* P3 >

r ^ o

3 i

1 Z i: s^ Q.

._ 3 S = < i

P ^

i *

■- o a»

= >- c

CQ Ji X.

" * i ^

■a ^ c c

: S

2 aj X, >

x: Z

& -

~ o

3 &c x: —
p c - n

w 2

O 5
(X] ^

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

589

do no more. Their mouths were parched, their tongues were swollen
with intolerable thirst. Their arms ached so that they could hardly
move them, and they were stiff in every liml). They said: 'We
cannot fight any longer,' but their leader laughed at them. ' Put two
pebbles in your mouths,' he said. 'That will lessen your thirst. If
you cannot fire any more, let me have your guns. You keep them
loaded, and I will do the shooting. We must fight or die; there
is no escape.' And so he heartened them. The fighting kept on
till six in the evening, and then the Kafiirs drew off. The Boers
quickly took advantage of the opportunity. They knew that their
one hope was to get clear away, for ammunition was running short,
and if the Kaflirs surrounded them during the night they would be
done. Half their horses had been shot by the Kaffirs, but the
hungry, aching and thirsty men got two each on the remaining
horses and made a detour home.

"They should have been back in the laager by six that night,
and when they did not come, though all the other scouting parties
returned, we grew anxious. We organized relief parties, and set
out hunting for them. They were too far away, and the wind was
blowing the wrong way, so that we could not hear the sounds of
firing in the camp. We went out, firing at intervals. At last
they heard our shots, and signalled back. When we came up to
them they could hardly move. We poured brandy down their throats,
and cheered them, and got them in. But we had no idea of the
wonderful battle they had fought. They said little about it, for
they were too exhausted to speak. It was only next day, when we
came up to the field of battle, and saw the great number of the
dead and dying, that we knew what deeds they had done."

It is against such men as described by Mr. Robinson that the

690

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

British infantry have been hurled with no possibility of siK'cess.
"Even our artillery fire," says he, "inflicts very little loss of life, 1
believe. The Boer trenches are made after a manner learned from
the Basutos, like a great S. It is impossible to have a raking lire
down them, and unless shells fall directly in the trenches, which is
very seldom, they do comparatively little damage. I am also con-
vinced that all the estimates of the Boer strength circuhited in
this country are great exaggerations. At the outside, including the
mercenaries and the recruits, the Boers have not, I believe, more
than thirty thousand men in the field at the present moment.
This is exclusive of recruits from northern Cape Colony or ^atul.
It is their mobility that gives them the enormous advantage over
us. Take one illustration. They had their forces on the Cape border
ready to resist us, expecting, as all who knew the country made
sure, that the three British army corps, under Methuen, Gatacre
and French, would move simultaneously into the Free State. Had
they done so the Boer armies would have been scattered and our
troops could have marched on, avoiding their strong hill positions
and gone right on to Pretoria. He would have captured their cattle
and have fought in the enemy's country at the enemy's expense.
An invasion of the Cape Colony would have been impossible.
Instead of that, the Boers were allowed to seize the bridges across
the Orange River, to sweep over the country far into the Colony,
and Methuen was sent forward alone, bearing all the brunt of the
attack. The Boers at once took their cue, and saw that we were
giving them the chance of their fighting our divisions in detail.
They threw all their strength which, brave soldier and good fighter
as he w^as, he could not overcome. Remember, w^e are fighting the
Boer on his own ground, and, semi-civilized though you may think

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

51)1

him, he had such knowledge of the veldt, and such power of moving
about on it, that no other men can eqna'

"To put the matter briefly, if the ^ent tactics are to be
continued, the mere sending out of large numbers of ill-trained
men will not meet the case, unless we are prepared to suffer an
enormous loss of life. The whole sjstem of fighting must be altered.
Tens of thousands of infantry such as those who are no\v going
lire of little service. Their magnificent courage is thrown away.
They are not what we call crack shots, they lack mobility, all fatal
faults, when you have to face sharpshooters intrenched in a strong
position. What is wanted is a strong force of iiTegular horse, men
.raised at the Cape from the same classes as the Boers who are now
lighting us. Some one from the Cape told me the other day that
this could not be done, because there is a scarcity of saddles at
the Cape. Saddles! The men I mean would bring their own
saddles, and their owm horses, too. They are trained shots, and
know every inch of the country. I do not mean the loafers about
Cape Town streets, but the hardy farmers. If Methuen had a force
of 5,000 such men helping him, nothing would stop him on the road
to Bloemfontein. While his army was attacking the Boer front
these irregulars would sweep round, by a ford further down the
river, to the Boer rear. Moving with great rapidity, they would
seize the Boer horses, drive off their cattle and render them lielpless.

"The British soldiers are too dependent on their commissariat,
too slow. A Boer commando, the men armed with their rifles
alone, will take with it sufficient food for four or five days, each
man carrying his own provisions in saddlebags. In that four or
five days the commando can, with ease, cover 150 miles, a distance
that infantry would require from twelve to fifteen days to cover.

592

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

This Boer war will lead to the revolutionizing of European militury
methods, and the hope of its speedy end is the liberal use of
properly selected irregular horse. There is no question but that.
as I said before, the rifle and straight shooting with an eye to
judge distances, in conjunction with a powerful artillery force, will
supersede all other weapons of warfare. The man, however, who
carries the rifle must be a smart rider and able to handle his hor^e
in the same way as South Africans are taught to handle theirs."

The general reader gains the best ideas of the realities of war
from those who are participants. The official reports are not only
misleading, but colorless. The accounts of the special correspond-
ents are often picturesque and perhaps truthful, but no one can
see the fighting as it really is so well as he who takes part in it,
and it is these letters, written to families and friends at home, that
are the most interesting. We are sure that our friends will be glad
to read a number of such, for every one will repay perusal.

Second Lieut. C. E. Kinahan, of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, writing
to his father, Mr. G. P. Kinahan, Bagshott, from Staatsmodel Schule.
Pretoria, says:

"We were all taken prisoners, together with the Gloucester
Regiment and a battery of mountain artillery, which accounts for
us being in Pretoria so soon. We went out at night to occupy a
hill right in the midst of the enemy in order to protect White's
flank for an intended attack next day. Everybody knew that to
be able to relieve us he would have to be entirely successful, and
from what we hear he was not. As we were going up the hill in
the dark a small party of Boers dashed through our ammunition
mules, causing them to stampede. By this move we lost all our
mules (200), and with them all our ammunition and artillery. We

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

593

started fighting at five A. M., and in a few hours' time the Boers
were firing on us from all four sides, until by two o'clock they were
tiring at about 200 yards' range and doing fearful execution. You
don't know what it means shooting at a Boer; he is behind a rock
and all you can ever see is his rifle sticking out. For the last
hour of the figlit I had a rifle and ammunition which T took from
a dead man, and blazed away for all I was worth. Then we fixed
bayonets and prepared for a rush when the cease fire sounded.
We were all then taken prisoners, except two officers killed and
eight wounded, and marched to the Boer laager, and sent off that
night to a station twenty miles distant in wagons. While we were
in their laager they treated us extremely well and gave us food
and tobacco. All you read about the Boers in England is absolutely
untrue; they ad'e most kind to the wounded and prisonei-s, looking
after them as well as their own wounded, and anything they've got
they will give you if you ask them, even if they deprive themselves.
We came up to Pretoria in first-class sleeping carruiges, and the
way they treated us was most considerate, feeding us and giving us
coffee every time we stopped. The day we arrived we took up
(juarters on the race course, but we have been moved into a fine
brick building, with baths, electric light, etc. They provide us with
everything, from clothes down to tooth brushes. They also feed us,
and we are constantly getting presents of vegetables and cigars
fioni private people. In fact, we can have everything we like
except our liberty; for some reason or other, they won't at i)resent
^n\e us parole, and we are surrounded by sentries. There are close
upon fifty officers in this building, and they have got any number
t»t wounded ones in different i)laces. They say they won't exchange
the ollicers at any price."

594

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

A letter, dated November 29, received from Alexander and
Robert Car^yle, Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, addressed to
their father in Dumfries, regarding the battle of Modder River, says:

"Bullets and shells vv^ere falling among us and going over our
heads in hundreds. It began at seven A. M., and it was between eight
and nine P. M. before it finished, and it never slackened one moment.
The Boers had a splendid position and trenches, and if our troops
had been in them an enemy vvrould never have got within a thou-
sand yards. The Boers lost heavily and we are burying their horses,
lying in the river and on its banks, in hundreds. We have been
over two days without food and on foot all the time. We are
lying in a farm and have nothing for it but to steal whatever we
can lay bands upon. I caught a hen and Bob got potatoes in :i
field, and these are being cooked in an old can. The rest are kill-
ing pigs, goats or anything."

The writers have been missing since the Magersfontein battle.

A letter lias been received from Gunner Alfred Beadnall of
Scarborough of the Sixty-second B. R. F. A., dated from Orange
River, November 12, in which he says :

" How T often wish I never had enlisted, what with the liard-
ship'" such as half starved, and we have not had over five hours'
sleep at a time. Perhaps we have just got our topcoats on the

ground and tried to catch a few minutes' wink when those d

Boers have come dodging al)0ut, when we have had to stand to our
guns as far as eight and ten liours at a stretch, without anytliiug
to eat. 1 am just about sick of this life. 1 often wish I was back
at Mr. .

*' You couUl hardly realize what an awful scene a battlefield is.
some poor fellow asking you for a drink as you pass him. Perha])s

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

595

lit anything
1 Wiis l)ack

some will never ask for water any more. The most painful thing
to see was a Dutch spy who was caught, and he was tried and
sentenced to be shot, and the poor fellow was marched to dig ids
own grave, and when he had finished it he was stood over it and
then twelve soldiers marched out and had to pick up a rifle cit of
a group of twelve. There were six of these loaded and six unloaded,
so none of them knew who shot him and the poor chap never said
a word ; it w:i3 all over in a few minutes.

"We were just about to eat our humble tea (which is a hard
biscuit and a drop of water) when the alarm sounded and we went
into action, and we had not been out over twenty minutes when
there was one officer out of the Northumberland Fusiliers shot
through the heart and another got shot and died in the saddle and
three more wounded. That was on Friday night, and we buried
them on Saturday night with military honors. Things are so dear
out here. We pay 4kl. a pint for beer, and we can only get two
[lints a day; so you can rest contented that we don't get drunk.
We had a very bad time of it at sea. We lost nearly forty horses
and we have had ten die out here; so we did not do so well, i shall
he thankful when we get into barracks, if ever we do so, as we
shall have a bed to sleep on. It will be quite a change from
sleeping on the hard, l)are ground and only your topcoat to cover
you from the wind and rain. I suppose you have been scanning
the papers every night to see if you could see any news about me,
lint we are in a country where all communication is cut off and
they can only take letters every fortnight, and it takes it over a
month to come, so it will be close on Christmas when you get
this, and I shall have to wish you all *A Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year' when it comes. I think myself this will be the last

596

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

letter that I ever shall be able to write, because we are in u ter-
rible position, completely surrounded by Boers, and we are going
to try to get out, so let us hope for the best.

"I am writing this on my water bottle, so you must excuse
the writing. We start fighting again in the morning."

The following letter is from a private in the Royal Field Artil-
lery, at present on duty in South Africa:

"I think it is my duty to inform you of the way our British
soldiers are treated at present in South Africa. We rise at four A. M.
— sometimes earlier — and are out in the burning sun all the day.
At night we are bullied about like dogs, and fed by chance on dry
bread and coffee. I am a driver in the Fourteenth Battery R. F.
A., and I am bound to tell you that I never saw such treatment
of our men — cleaning harness, grooming horses, driving drill, rid-
ing drill, gun drill, besides seven hours' stables. We are like slaves
more than British soldiers. All our boys of the battery hope that
you will publish this letter, as we are lighting for our Queen and
country."

Lance-Corporal Enright, Third Battalion Grenadier Guards,
writes under date, in camp. Jacobsdal, November 26:

"I write to let you know I am alive and kicking, though, as
you will have seen by the papeis, we have been twice in action.
The first time, at Belmont, on the 23d, was awful. We left camp
at about three A. M. and marched about four miles in pitch darkness.
Just as daylight was breaking we opened out for the attack, and
just then the enemy caught sight of us and opened fire. We had
then an open space of about 2,000 yards to cross, and as the Boers
were behind tremendous rocks on a succession of hills about 1,00(1
feet high, while we had no cover at all, it was not pleasant. Well,

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

597

we got across this all right, and went for their first position, whicli
was among some hills shaped like a horseshoe. Here we lost our
adjutant and our colonel and two officers wounded, while the men
were falling right and left. As soon as we got to the top the
Boers cleared out, as they hate cold steel. We then saw thej^ had
occupied a much stronger position on another very pi-ecipitous hill
in the rear. We then formed line again and went for them. It
was a tremendous struggle to get up this place, as the side was
like a wall, partly made of loose bowlders, and the bullets were
falling round us like hail. You can imagine the strength of the
position when Lord Methuen said he gave us three weeks to take
it in. But the Guards rushed it in three hours of the hardest
fighting ever seen. One of the war correspondents with us says he
was at Dargai, and that was nothing to it. T had tlie luck to
bring in two prisoners, and we captured all the enemy's ammuni-
tion and provisions. The fight yesterday was pretty good, but I
did not see much of it, as we were in the reserves, and only a few
cannon shot fell near us, doing us no damage."

Private J. H. Owen of the Third Grenadier Guards, serving under
General Lord Methuen in South Africa, under date of November 26, says:

"I cannot describe to you my feelings wlien T first went into
action, but I am glad to be able to tell you that I have come
through unharmed. We started at two o'clock in the morning in
the direction of the position held by the enemy in great strength.
We advanced to within some SOO yards, when the Boers opened
fire. We were ordered to lay down, which we did for about half
an hour, the bullets all the while whistling over our heads. Then
Major Kinlock gave the order to v. Ivance, and addressed the men
thus: 'Now, my boys, all together as hard as you can go'; and

598

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

with a silent prayer to Heaven, and a thought of all at home, I
dashed across the bullet-swept zone. The Boers, fighting from the
right, drove us into another party of the enemy firing from the left;
then we 'faced about' and received yet another terifhc fire from
the front. Thus, you see, we were exposed to a terrible onslaught
from three sides, and up to this we had not fired a shot. The
Boers have a horror of the bayonet, and, courageous as they have
proved themselves to be, they cannot stand cold stcv^l. So strongly
fortilied was the position of the enemy that they boasted of their
power to hold it indefinitely. Yesterday we had another big battle
(Clraspan) and I am thankful to say I have come through safel\
again; but steel, 'best cold Sheffield,' again asserted its superior
powers over the enemy. Just before starting yesterday (battle of
Graspan) we had a biscuit divided between four of us and a drink
of coffee, and did not get another mouthful for twenty-six hours.
T long for a good square meal. We shall be marching again
to-morrow (Monday) towards Kimberley, and we are expecting
shar[) work l)ef()re we reach there."

An exciting bit of outpost work is described in a letter from
Private Albert James, serving with the mounted infantry:

"Another of our fellows who was out scouting came across a
nigger minding some sheep, or pretending to be, anyway, and he
had an Express rifle with him. So our chap loads his own rifle in
the saddle, gallops up to him, dismounts and covers him with it.
makes him put his rifle down and then go back a step or two.
Our chap then goes and picks it up, questions him on different
things, and he tells hiiu there are no Boers knocking about. He
is going to take him prisoner, when all of a sudden he hears
voicL!S shouting Dick,' and 'Joe.' So he leaves his prisoner and

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

599

goes up toward the rocks until he is in speaking distance of them.
Then he sees he has been led into a trap, and he mounts again
and rides for his life. You can tell what shots they are. There
were, I'll swear, at least fifty shots tired after him at random, and
not one hit the mark.

"That was the commencement of the firing and we had to gal-
lop and go as hard as ever our horses could take us over ground
you would scarcely believe a horse could walk on. It was full of
holes — some like rabbit holes, and lumps of rocks and stones and
one thing and another for at least ten or twelve miles. The
colonel v'lio is in charge of us wouldn't let us dismount and fire,
as he said we should all be cut up, and they were too strong for
us, as we were only a small party — and he has got a fine breast

of medals — but, d them, let's get it over. A month to-day

and it will be a bit nearer I hope. We chaps were swearing like
one o'clock when he wouldn't halt us and let us have a packet at
'em, but I expect we shall have another pop at 'em yet."

Private J. Maddison, Second Northampton Regiment, who holds
a medal and three bars for Dargai, Somani and Tirah Valley, writes:

"We have had two battles— one at Belmont and one at Eiislin.
We are having it pretty stiff, I can tell you. The Boers have some
good rifles of German make, but their shots all seem to go over our
heads. At the battle of Belmont we captured some biscuits from
the enemy; they were shared among the troops. In the last fight
we captured a lot of horses, and I had one myself. I was about
done up, same as the remainder, fighting about four hours on a
drop of hot coffee. When we got in camp we had to wait for the
train to come with our rations. Water is very short out here.
The guards are in the rear as usual."

600

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Sergeant Stockwin, of the Northamptonshire Regiment, writing
to his brother from the battlefield of Enslin, says:

" If this is warfare we have had about enough. Three battles
in one week, and we have not shaved for a fortnight or washed
for a week through the scarcity of water. It's not the fighting we
don't like; it's the hideous sights of mangled corpses afterward."

Private J. Argent, of the Third Grenadiers, in a letter to his
parents at Swansea, says:

"At the battle of Belmont we fought hand to hand. I was
just behind David St. John when he was shot. He stuck his
bayonet right through a Boer and could not get it out again. He
tried to throw the man over his shoulder to get him off, and then
another Boer came up and shot him through the head. Then
another of our men put his bayonet through that Boer's heart."

Here is a grim picture from a private's letter:

" One of our fellows was talking to a parson who went over the
battlefield of Elands Laagte a day after the fight. He says there
were terrible cv hts, the most awful of which was a Boer sitting
down quite naturally, with a bayonet clean through him and about
six inches of the muzzle of the rifle as well, while the Tommy who
had given the mighty thrust was lying down as if asleep, with
a small bullet hole in his forehead. The Boer was grasping the
barrel of the rifle with both hands, and his eyes were staring out
straight in front of, him with a horrified look in them, as if he
had seen a ghost."

One of the ladies who went out to see the fighting at Lady-
smith has described that experience in a lively letter. A shell landed
not many hundred yards aw^ay, and she ran to get a piece of it :

"Off I scampered. Spoke to the first soldier I came to. He

STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

601

said: 'Come with me; I can warn you in time to clear before
another comes.' So I went gayly on, talking away. Another sol-
dier said: 'Here comes another,' and before we had time to think
the awful booming and shrieking came— and I wish you could have
seen your younger sister. I just shut my eyes tight and clung to
a barbed-wire fence, and whispered: 'Good God!' It exploded
about twenty feet away; perhaps not so much; the earth shook
under me, and my legs felt shot all over." *

A member of the Army Service Corps, writing from Orange
River some weeks ago, said:

"We have 300 Zulus and Kaffirs here working as laborers for
the Army Service Corps t;t 4s. per day. They are stacking hay,
biscuits and peat. So when they brought the Boer prisoners to
the railway station these Zulus and Kaffir? made a charge for the
trucks, and if it were not for the sentries with bayonets facing
them they would have torn the Boers to pieces. They were in a
of a rage, shouting 'La Boer!'"

Bay

thai

atte

prec

tim(

Bay

wer

for

Brit

on 1

mik

(lepl

and

in \

and

non
ser\
aim
Fift

CHAPTER XXXI

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

As the war in the Transvaal progressed, the name of Delagoa
Bay was more frequently mentioned, and there could be no question
that this main door to that section of South Africa was to prove
an important factor in the stirring events that have attracted the
attention of the civilized world. We have referred to it in the
l)receding chapters, and doubtless it will be spoken of many more
times before the end of the bitter struggle. It was in Delagoa
Bay that the British warships seized three vessels, whose cargoes
were American flour, while a Norwegian bark, laden with supplies
for the Transvaal railway, was taken into custody by another
British cruiser.

Africa has no finer natural harbor than Delagoa Bay and none
on the eastern coast that can compare with it. It is twenty-five
miles wide at its broadest part and seventy miles long, with a
depth sufhcient for hundreds of the largest vessels to ride safely at
anchor. With an entrance fifty feet deep, and fully a dozen miles
in width, it is accessible at all seasons and in every kind of weather.
At almost any time steamships from America, England, Germany,
and Cape Colony may be found there.

The Transvaal has no seaport — that is to say, nominally it has
none— but the town of Lorenzo Marquez, at the head of the bay,
serves every such purpose. Three hundred and forty-eight miles
almost due west carries one through Portuguese Africa to Pretoria.
Fifty-four miles of this distance is through Portuguese territory.

(C03)

604

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFUICA

A little way beyond the border, a branch line runs to Barberton,
the center of the De Kaap gold fields, among the most valuable in
the world.

England would have been blind had she not perceived long
since the immense importance of Delagoa Bay. Just twenty-one
years ago the British minister to Portugal persuaded the Portuguese
minister of foreign affairs to sign a treaty which gave permission
to Great Britain to embark and disembark troops at Lorenzo
Marquez, including free passage for them and their munitions of
war across Portuguese territory. This was a most valuable acquisi-
tion, or rather it would have proved such had the treaty been
ratified by the Portuguese Legislature, but that body refused its
consent. Then, in 1883, Great Britain set up a claim to the posses-
session of the bay on the basis of rights said to have been granted
in 1720. Portugal vigorously resisted this claim and the dispute
was referred to Marshal MacMahon, President of the French
Republic, who decided in favor of Portugal. The decision was in fact
in favor of the Transvaal, since the whole business of the port, with
a fractional exception, is hers, and the very policy desired by Pres-
ident Kruger was carried out in spirit and letter.

The most formidable obstacle to England's acquisitions in that
quarter has been and still is Germany, whose material interests in
the Transvaal are larger than is generally supposed. A great deal
of German capital is invested in the mines and various kinds of busi-
ness. At this time, there are considerable German colonies in
twenty of the Transvaal cities, including Johannesburg, Pretoria,
Barberton, Utrecht, Standerton and Lydenburg. Next to the Dutcli,
they are the most favored of all Outlanders.

The statement has been made on excellent authority that in

TOLi) BETWEEN BATTLES

605

every month succeeding the collapse of th6 Jameson raid, war sup-
plies had arrived in Delagoa Bay to be shipped by rail across
Portuguese territory to the capital of the Transvaal. In the year
following that raid (1897), the Transvaal government expended
$4,717,550 for war purposes, and the rifles, cannon and ammunition
thus purchased found their way over the railway line to Pretoria.
Had the whole territory belonged to the Transvaal, the situation
would have been in substance precisely what it is to-day.

With such a steady inflow of war material into the Transvaal
for several years, it is easy to understand why her armies are so
abundantly supplied with everything needed to offer their formidable
resistance to the troops of Great Britain. Dr. Leyds, the agent of
the South African Republic in Europe, no doubt speaks truthfully
when he says tliese supplies are sufficient to last for years to come,
and it is not difficult to believe the other statements that an
immense armory and several warehouses are packed to the roofs
with rifles and ammunition. In a preceding chapter we have
described the defenses of Pretoria, and, when it is added that the
railway trains going westward have to climb to the lofty plateau
through the steep and narrow defile at Komati Poort, w^hich bristles
with cannon, some idea will be gained of the enormous difficulties
that confront the British forces in capturing Pretoria from Delagoa
Bay.

It was the discovery of the measureless deposits of gold and
the completion of the railway line into the interior of the Trans-
vaal that roused Delagoa Bay from its slumber to its possibilities,
and gave it a boom and development that otherwise would have
remained only a dream. It was a filthy, lazy, unhealthful town,
whose principal industry was the reception and forwarding of tho

C06

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"oceans of rum" into the interior for tlie natives. Now the steam-
fihips in the New York African trade make regular calls at Lorenzo
Marquez, and the goods sent inland include machinery, squared
timber, wheat, maize, lumber and petroleum, the port being really
a forwarding point. The gold, however, has its outlet in the Cape
and Natal ports.

Less than half the population of Lorenzo Marquez is Portuguese
and the place has become what it is through German and English
capital. The former government subsidizes the German steamships.
As evidence of the boom of the town, it may be stated that land
which in 1889 was worth less than a dollar per square metre is
now worth $150, with the tendency still upward, and houses in the
same time have increased ten times in value.

From what has been said, an idea may be formed of the
immense value of Delagoa Bay to Great Rritain. It is not so long
ago that Portugal declared she would not consider any proposition
to sell it, but it is not unlikely she may be compelled to do so in
the near future. Her treasury is in bad shape, and she has not
yet paid for the building of the fifty-four miles of railway line
through her territory. Upon its completion in 1889, she hunted up
a pretext for declaring the concession of the railway line forfeited,
the line confiscated, but the prompt action of the American and
British governments brought her to her senses, and, when she comes
to settle the bill, she may find herself compelled to sell Delagoa
Bay as the only way of obtaining the necessary funds.

Naturally the tendency of all inventions in the line of war is
to secure the greatest destruction of human life. It may be that
when universal peace comes to bless mankind, it will bo because
tlio engines of war have been made so awfully destructive that no

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

f)()7

nation can afford to resort to such means for the settlement of
disputes. It will be a case of simply who gets in the "first blow"
which will annihilate or render helpless the other.

It is a rare thing for a new weapon to prove more mercifu)
than the implement it displaces, especially when no such intention
enters the brain of the inventor; and yet that extraordinary fact
applies to the Mauser rifle, used in our war with Spain and figur-
ing in the battles in South Africa. It has been shown that the
Mauser has a range and penetrating power so prodigious that a
few years ago it would have been deemed the wildest impossibility,
but nevertheless it is true that, in securing this wonderful power,
a distinct and marked advance in lessening the horrors of war was
made. The wounds inflicted by the Mauser are so small and clean
cut that they quickly heal, and soldiers readily recover from hurts
which, if inflicted by the older weapons, would inevitably result in
death. Col. Albert L. Mills, superintendent of the West Point Mili-
tary Academy, was struck by a Mauser bullet at San Juan, which
entered one temple and passed out the other. It destroyed an eye,
l)ut to-day, in other respects, he is as strong and in as sound health
as ever. Had the missile been fired by a Springfield or any otiier
weapon, he would have been instantly killed.

Sir William McCornuick, the President of the Royal College of
Surgeons, volunteered his services for the South African war. He
made a careful study of the effects of the Mauser bullets and has
published a report of the same in the Lancet, the cases to which
lie reports being from the Wynberg Hospital, near Cape Tov/n.
They form most interesting reading:

"I saw a large number of injuries inflicted by the Mausor
bullet, which is remarkable for the small external wound it

008

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

produces. In three-fourths, if not even a larger proportion, it was
impossible to tell the exit from the entrance wound, they were so
similar in a[)pearance. Some were quite healed, but most were
slits covered with an adherent black scab slightly depressed and
saucer-like. Doubtless some contraction had taken place in healinj;,
but the size was much smaller than the end of a lead pencil and
quite circular. A few exit wounds were slits due to slight deflec-
tion of the bullets in their passage. These were already healed
like an incised wound and showed a linear cicatrix about half an
inch long. Probably most of these injuries were inflicted at a range
of 1,000 yards, although the men said 500 was the distance, in very
many instances, at which they had been hit. One man, a Gordon
Highlander, had his elbow smashed up into small pieces. He
believed it was an explosive bullet, but it may have been a Mauser
at short range, for he was hit at a distance of 300 yards. Tlie
Boers, however, use other weapons. A Martini-Henry bullet was
removed from the ball of a man's thumb yesterday — an almost
solitary example of lodged bullet. They also fire hollow bullets
which would have explosive effects. The Mauser bullet weighs, I
believe, about 2.3 grains. Our Lee-Metford is a little heavier, about
2.7 grains, and does not carry so far by some hundreds of yards ;
while the old Martini-Henry is nearly double in weight, or some
4.0 grains. In the wards I noticed quite a number of perforating
chest wounds and some remarkable perforations of bone without
any solution of continuity or complete fracture; in one instance
there was a perforation of the shaft of the tibia at the junction of
the upper with the middle third of the bone, an injury which my
previous experience would pronounce quite impossible.

" There were several cases in which the bullet had entered the

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

609

groin and emerged through the central portion of the buttock, the
direction taken making it difficult to conceive how the femoral ves-
sels, the sciatic nerve and arter}^ the femur and other important
parts had escaped all injury. There were four abdominal injuries.
In two severe haBuiaturia followed and the direction of the wound
suggested injury to the bladder. In another the bullet entered the
buttock and emerged in front a little below the ribs. In a third
instance the abdomen was traversed in a similar direction. There
were heematemesis and bloody stools for three days without any
further symptoms. In another case the bullet apparently traversed
the abdomen from the right linea semilunaris in front at a point
a little above the level of the umbilicus to emerge two inches to
the right of the lumbar spine. There were no symptoms in this
case of any kind.

"I will mention in the briefest way some of the cases I saw
during my visit to the hospital at Wynberg.

" 1. Bullet entered the chest on left side close to margin of
sternum, just below the sixth rib. It must have passed between
the internal mammary artery and the bone near its division; the
ball then traversed the lung and emerged at the tenth rib about
four inches from the spinal column; rapid convalescence — practi-
cally no symptoms; wounded on October 21.

"2. Bullet entered just beh)w inferior angle of right scapula,
between seventh and eighth ribs probably, and emerged just below
center of right clavicle; result, similar to case 1.

"3. Bullet entered opposite center of infra spinous fossa of
light scapula, emerged through rib in front three inches below
middle of right clavicle. Man had huemoptysis for a week ; no
dyspnoea or other symptoms.

610

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"4. Bullet entered level of fourth dorsal vertebra, about two
inches from spine on right side, emerged two inches below center
of right clavicle. Man spat blood for a week ; says he felt no
inconvenience otherwise.

"5. Perforating wound of surgical neck of left humerus with
sor ? detached fragments. Skiagram shows extent of damage clearly.
The fragments were removed; patient convalescent.

"6. Wound across knee; bullet entered one and a half inches
behind, and on level of head of right fibula, emerging on inner
side opposite middle of internal condyle. Wounds healed; joint
mobile.

"7. Bullet entered anterior aspect of thigh two inches above
upper border of patella and in the middle line, emerged over the
inner tuberosity of the tibia, which appeared to be grooved by it.
Wounds healed, joint mobile, yet it is difficult to suppose the joint
escaped.

"8. Bullet entered middle of outer side of right knee and emerged
through center of patella, causing a complete transverse fracture
with about a quarter of an inch separation. The wounds had healed
and the man liad been able to get about, but on the previous day
he had fallen and had hurt the injured knee, which caused a great
deal of swelling. There is no rise of temperature and he is doing
well. Tlie joint is fairly movable. This man is a Boer field cornet,
Pretorius by name. He is a fine looking man, with a cheery,
pleasant face, and speaks English perfectly.

"9. Bullet entered opposite center of patella, through which it
passed, and emerged opposite inner condyle, which was grooved by
the ball. All evidence, save tlie scars of entrance and exit wounds,
had disappeared and the knee was apparently as good as ever.

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

611

"10. Scar of entrance wound immediately over the right
femoral artery and two inches below Poupart's ligament. The
artery can be felt pulsating exactly beneath it. The bullet then
passed apparently inside the upper end of the femur without
impairing the bone and emerged just posterior to the great troc-
hanter.

"11. Bullet entered in front of and an inch below the top of
the great trochanter, which it grooved, and emerged through the
middle of the buttock.

"12. Bullet entered anterior surface of thigh at junction of
middle and upper thirds and, passing internally to the femur, emerged
through the center of the buttock. In none of these last three
cases had any important structure been damaged, and the wounds
were either completely healed or were still covered with the small
black scab already mentioned.

"13. In this case the man was wounded on October 21 and
operated on by Colonel Stevenson twenty-four days afterward in
the base hospital — viz., on November 14. He was doing quite well
when I saw him, and three days later I heard he was practically
quite well. The bullet entered from behind two inches below the
fold of the axilla and emerged in front just beneath the anterior
axillary fold. When Colonel Stevenson savv him he diagnosed a
damaged artery from the gradually increasing tense swelling and
absence of radial pulse. He made an incision, which had subse-
quently to be enlarged to five inches, and, after turning out nearly
a pint of dark clotted blood, found a large breach in the vessel
where the axillary becomes brachial. When the final portions of
clot were removed, a formidable rush of arterial blood occurred, but
this was immediately controlled and both ends or the vessel were

612

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

securely ligatured. When T saw the man a week exactly after the
operation the external wound had healed except where the drainage-
tube emerged. The temperature was normal and the general
condition excellent. The wound was not quite aseptic from the
start, but all went well. There was, when 1 examined him, no
perceptible radial pulse.

** 14. One man had four wounds in the upper extremities,
caused by the same bullet. It entered the arm on the outer side
two inches above the elbow joint and emerged two inches below,
and then entered the ball of the thumb, smashed the metacarpo-
phalangeal-joint, and finally emerged over the first phalanx.

"15. Bullet entered subcutamous surface of tibia, a little
below the junction of upper with middle thirds of the shaft of
that bone. There was a clean cut perforation through the tibia,
but no general fracture or solution of continuity, which is very
remarkable in the compact tissue. This man says he was hit at
500 yards, but more probably it was 1,000.

"16. Bullet passed transversely across forehead about an inch
above the level of the orbits; the bone is deeply grooved and along
the upper margin there is an elevated fracture parallel to the
groove. The man describes himself as being 'knocked silly' for a
time and there was a temporary diplopia, but the wounds at each
side of the forehead are healed and he claims to be perfectly well.

"17. Bullet entered right malar bone close to its junction
with zygomatic process, passed almost transversely across, and
emerged just above the center of the left zygomatic arch, which it,
grooved. There was copious bleeding from the mouth and the left
ear, in w^ich the patient is now deaf. H'^ complained of loss of
smell for a time, but this is restored. He is going about the ward,

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

6ia

the wound quite healed, and says he is perfectly fit and well.
This man was wounded on October 30, distance said to be 250
yards.''

On January 4, a largely attended meeting was held in Brnssells
to formulate a national address to President McKinley, urging his
intervention in South Africa. The following is the text of the
address:

" Deeply moved by the terrible and sanguinary conflict in which
two civilized nations are engaged in South Africa, the undersigned
make an urgent appeal in favor of that mediation that you alone
are in a position to offer. We implore yon to fulfill this sacred
duty toward the fraternity of mankind."

Bearing upon this point, the statement was made by the United
States government that no : ■>quest of the nature referred to had
been made by the Transvaal government and no attention would
be paid to such requests unless made by both governments.

Attention was now fixed upon Ladysmith and the campaign of
General Buller for its relief. The widespread anxiety was not
allayed by the receipt of the following dispatch from General Buller:

"Frere Camp, January 6 — 12:45 P. M. The following has been
received from General White (the commander at Ladysmith): 'I
have beaten the enemy off at present, but they are still around me
in great numbers, especially to the south, and I think a renewed
attack very probable.' I see the sun has failed, so I cannot get
further information from Ladysmith unt'l to-morrow."

A second dispatch soon followed, as follows:

" Frere Camp, January 7. I received the following to-day from
General White: 'At 3:15 P. M., January 6, the attack was renewed
and was very hard pressed. I have absolutely no more news.'

614

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

There is no sun. There is a camp rumor that General White
defeated the enemy at five P. M. and took 400 prisoners. I sent
all available troops to make a demonstration against Colenso. The
trenches there are all occupied by the enemy."

The two days' fighting in front of Ladysmith was of the hard-
est character. The Boers made desperate efforts to secure possession
of CseR^-r's Camp and its redoubts on Bester's Hill, which is less
than tv/o miles south of the British headquarters in Ladysmith and
five miles west of the Boer position on Isambulwana Mountain.
More than once it looked as if they must succeed, but they were
met with unsurpassable courage and at one time were repelled
at the point of the bayonet. Believing that General White's helia
graphs meant that he urgently needed relief, General Buller
responded by ordering an advance by the two brigades of General
Clery's division with a body of cavalry supported by artillery
toward Colenso, on the afternoon of January 6. Night descended
as the British troops approached Colenso, but although the Boer
intrenchments were occupied in force, no reply was made from
any of their positions to the British fire. The indications were
that General Joubert was forcing matters to an issue. Much con-
cern was felt for the garrison at Ladysmith, for it was known that
a great deal of sickness was there and it was feared that the
ammunition of the garrison was running low.

A minor reverse befell the British at Colesberg, where four
companies of one of the battalions made a night attack on a Boer
position, but were repulsed with the loss of seven officers and sev-
enty men taken prisoners. The result most to be deplored was
the moral effect produced uy this incident upon the Boers, who
were sure to be greatly encouraged.

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

615

Regarding General Gatacre, it may be said his attention was
occupied with the doings of the Boers and insurgent Afrikanders
to the east of his headquarters at Sterkstroom. It was stated from
Cape Town that they were strengthening their position in Barkly
East and were continually joined by members of the Afrikander
population in the northeastern districts of Cape Colony.

One reason given for the delay of the Kimberley relief column
was not generally known. It appears there were but three points
in the direct advance to Kimberley where a sufficient supply of
water could b ■ depended upon, and all of them were held by
Boers, who, as usual, had erected strong defensive woi'ks.

A dispatch on January 11 announced the arrival of Lord
Roberts and General Kitchener and his staff at Cape Town, where
they were received with great enthusiasm, but since days must
pass before the hand of the commander could be felt, the general
attention was directed northward, where everyone knew important
events were impending.

The news from Cape Town was that the Boer successes had
caused an outburst of enthusiasm in their favor. Even the children
in schools, less than fifty miles to the northward, were practicing
their songs of triumph and exultation. There seemed basis for the
statement that President Kruger asked Boer headquarters why
Ladysmith was not attacked, to which the reply was made that
the losses would prove too heavy. Then the President suggested
that the Orange Free State force be put at the front. This was
done, and they gave the best possible account of themselves. They
managed to seize a hill from the British, and when afterward the
Transvaal Boers retreated before General White's counter attack,
they were taunted and jeered by the Free Staters, who held their

616

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

captured position until driven out by the British at the point of
the bayonet.

There was no concealing the fact that the distrust of Geneial
Methuen was not only general, but was growing. He had been
guilty of great rashness, and it was reported that he was to he
relieved of his command of the Kimberley relief column at the
Modder River. The statement was made by the Liverpool Post that
the War Office had in its possession a letter from General Wauchope,
written on the eve of the battle of Magersfontein, in which he lost
his life, containing these words:

" This is the last letter I shall ever write. 1 have been ordered
to perform an impossible task.

"I have vainly remonstrated, but must obey or surrender my
sword."

It was said further that when Wauchope fell, he exclaimed:

*"For God's sake, don't blame me, boys; it is not my fault."

There was wonder on the part of many why General Methuen
ever received the important command with which he was entrusted.
He possessed no more than mediocre ability, and social influence
had much to do with his promotion, the proverbial "pull" across
the water being as effective at times as in Washington, U. S. A.
The Magersfontein defeat was similar in its main features to
Balaklava. There Nolan was killed in executing the movement
when "someone had blundered," and the lips of General Wauchope,
who might have told the whole truth, were sealed forever.

The first move of General Duller for the relief of Ladysmitli
was in the direction expec*:od. He reported in his dispatch from
Springfield (between the upper stream of the Tugela and the Little
Tugela) that he had occupied the south bank of the main stream

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

617

een ordered

at Potgieter's Drift and seized the crossing. The intention to
attempt a movement by the Boer right flank was evident from the
numerous reconnaissances in the direction named. That the Boers
themselves expected it was shown by their disappearance from
Springfield a number of days before and their taking up of a posi-
tion on the north side of the Tugela, commanding Potgieter's Drift.
There, it need hardly be said, they strongly fortified and intrenched,
mounting some of the guns captured at Colenso weeks before.

The official statement of the losses on January 6 put them at
13 officers and 135 men killed and 27 officers and 245 men wounded.
That of the Boers was much less, though no reliable figures were
given. The statement was persistently repeated that General Methuen
had been only nominally in command of his division since the Magers-
fontein defeat.

There had been such flagrant violation of the rights of neutrality
in Delagoa Bay, that the Portuguese minister called "by appoint-
ment " at the Foreign Office on January 6. The call was followed by
a declaration on the part of Portugal that thenceforward she would
use greater care in observing the duties of a neutral.

At the same time no little irritation was felt over the attitude
of Holland. The right of the young Queen to hold what sentiments
she pleased could not be questioned, but England maintained that
something was due her official position. She showed marked favors
to Dr. Leyds, the Transvaal agent, who, with his associates, had
shipped munitions of war and enlisted officers without the least
hindrance. Moreover, she wrote to the Pope, the Kaiser and the
King of Italy, praying them to take the diplomatic initiative to
stop the cruel war.

England has had no stancher friend in her troubles than

618

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Italy. From the beginning she placed every facility at the com-
mand of the British agents engaged in buying mules and other
things, and at the same time strictly enforced her neutrality posi-
tion against the Boer agents. Furthermore, when the Creusut
Company absolutely refused to sell guns to Great Britain, word
was telegraphed from Rome to the War Office in London that the
great gunmakers, the Acieries Company, had ready for shipment a
battery of large quick-firers, equal in all points to the famous
French weapons. It took but a short time for a bargain to be
struck. Dr. Leyds sent a written protest to Rome and received au
acknowledgment of its reception, which was all.

A notable incident occurred on January 6, when a small Brit-
ish force from the Orange River bridge camp occupied a position
on the north side of the river at Zoutpan's Drift, just within the
Free State border, this being the first lodgment on Boer territory.
A reconnaissance, a week later, by General Methuen, into the Orange
Free State, from several points on the railway between the Orange
and Modder rivers toward Bloemfontein and Jacobsdal, showed the
country within twenty miles of the border to be free apparently
of Boers, though signs were seen of them near Jacobsdal.

A sortie was made by the Kimberley garrison on the 9th
toward Kamfersdam, north of the town and near the waterworks.
There was a sharp exchange of artillery fire, but nothing was
accomplished. The Rhodesian force, feeling its way for the relief
of Mafeking, found the bridge four miles south of the Gaberones
destroyed. Later dispatches stated that, as a result of the
bombardment of Mafeking, the eastern fort defending the place
was demolished and abandoned by the British garrison, which
withdrew into the town. Nothing seemed more probable than that

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

619

Colonel Baden Powell, unless speedily relieved, would be obliged
to capitulate.

On January 15 the Boers made a desperate attempt to take a
hill at Rendsberg, Cape Colony, held by the Yorkshires and New
Zealanders. They displayed great daring, creeping up the hill and
using everything that could be turned into a cover. When close
to the wall they made a rush, but the Yorkshires, consisting of
only one company of the battalion and a small party of New
Zealanders, some of whom had never been in battle before, bounded
over the wall and made so fierce a bayonet charge that the Boers
were put to a headlong flight and had to abandon their killed and
wounded. Their loss was given as twenty-one killed and fifty wounded.

It was characteristic of President Kruger that he should see the
hand of God in all events that took place in his country. It would
be the same if his people were overwhelmed with ruin and destruc-
tion. He issued a circular letter to his generals urging them to
zeal and promptitude, and declaring that God so blessed their
efforts that, with energy, a successful issue might be expected. He
urged them to read Psalm xxxiii, adding that the enemy had fixed
their faith on Psalm Ixxxiii. His final w^ords were: "We must
continue to fight in the name of the Lord."

In the earlier portion of this work we have given a description
of the home life of President Kruger and of that remarkable man's
personality. Since that was written, the following, from the
Christian Intelligencer, has appeared, and it seems appropriate that
it should dose our reference to Oom Paul, thus comideting a pic-
ture which cannot fail to be interesting, though framed in the
grim setting of bloodshed and war:

"It is during the Jameson raid. The first lady of the land is

620

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFIUCA

knitting stockings for her grandchildren. She is sitting on the
porch of the simple cottage which constitutes the executive man-
sion of the South African Republic. In the "zykamer" (parlor)
the president confers with his cabinet. "Tonte" (aunt) Krugers
attention seems to be entirely taken up by her work. She is count-
ing the stitches. Suddenly she raises her head and listens. Some-
body is speaking English.

It is one of the guards which have been placed around the
cottage in order to protect Oom Paul from any treacherous design
on the part of the " Uitlanders." Mrs. Kruger has an invincible
aversion to the tongue of the British, although she speaks it fairly
well. She immediately puts her knitting down and enters the
room where the cabinet is in session. She unceremoniously inter-
rupts the proceedings and informs "Neef" (cousin) Joubert that
one of the guards was an "Engelsman" (Englishman). Through
the window she points out the man in question. Piet Joubert
laughs and assures her that the guard is a loyal '* Afrikander."
Her husband supports him, but his good wife is not satisfied. She
quotes the old Dutch Droverb that "caution is the mother of the
china closet," and insists thai: the guard be replaced by a man who
will speak "de taal" (the language) when on duty. The members
of the cabinet know from experience that there is no gainsaying
"Tonte" Kruger in matters which pertain to her husband's safety,
and under some pretext or other General Joubert sends the offend-
ijig guard home. " The first lady of the land " returns to the porch
and quietly resumes her knitting.

A truly remarkable woman is this old lady, in whose veins
flows the blood of the Duplessis family, one of her ancestors having
boon the great Due de Richelieu.

TOLD BETWEEN BATTLES

621

around the

When the writer's informant, Mr. H. Verschum, the well-known
Dutch traveler, visited President Kruger at Pretoria, he found
Mrs. Kruger engaged in preparing dinner, the incarnation of u
simple housekeeper; yet, when an hour later the conversation turned
on matters political, he was surprised to find her remarkably well
informed, her husband evidently having a deep respect for her
judgment. Mrs. Kruger reminded Mr. Verschum distinctly of the
Princess Bismarck, whom he had met in Varzin years before, and
who, though never openly mixing in politics, seemed to him to be
a very valuable counsellor to the man of blood and iron.

Kindhearted, as she is, there is a peculiar gleam in her eyes
whenever the subject of England is mentioned, and her mistrust
of all that is British is so deep that to the casual visitor it may
seem unjust. But when she begins to tell of the dangers and the
misery of the long "teks" to which her family has been forced by
British soldiers, it is easily understood how deeply this aversion
is rooted in her heart as well as in the breasts of " Afrikanders."
(it may be noted here that this is the name which all Boers invari-
iibly give to themselves, they never using the word "Boer," except
as a designation for a farmer).

It is a common thing in the Transvaal to hear mothers bring
their chUdren to obedience by telling them that the "Engelsman'"
will catch them unless they mind their parents.

When we take this hatred of their enemies into consideration,
tiie kindness and humanity with which the Boers — even according
to English testimony — treat the British wounded and prisoners in
tile present war becomes a strong proof of the true Christian spirit
among the people of the Boer republics.

A very pretty example of this is furnished when Mrs. Kruger

622

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and her husband every morning gather the whole household in the

parlor and a chapter from tlie Scriptures is read by either the

President liimself or his wife.

The firvSt lines of Mrs. Kruger's favorite hymn, translated from

the Dutch, read as follows:

"Where love doth dwell, there the Lord's blessing raineth,
There dwells the Lord, there man His bliss obtaineth
In life and in eternity."

Though always afraid of publicity, Mrs. Kruger, in conjunction
with her most intimate friend, the wife of Gen. Piet Joubert, put
herself at the head of the temperance movement which was inaugu-
rated in the Transvaal only a few years ago. Before that time
there had been little necessity for temperance work in the two
republics, the Boers being a very abstemious people, but tlm
great influx of foreign adventurers and miners, especially at Johan-
nesburg, changed the situation, and there was serious danger tor
the younger generation of Boers at least. Mrs. Kruger and Mis.
Joubert have from the beginning worked earnestly for the good
cause and have succeeded in minimizing the danger which threatened
their people.

And now, while the cruel war is going on, who is there more
deserving of the sympathy of the Christian world than the kind
old woman who has seen seven sons go into battle and is now
praying to God for her country and for them?

H. Van den Bergii.

slated from

CHAPTER XXX FT

THE STRUGGLE FOR LAUYvSMlTH

While all England was in a state of anxious suspense over
impending movements for the relief of Ladysmitli, particulars arrived
of the Boer assault upon that place on tiie 6th of January. They were
contained in a dispatch to the Staiidanl, dated the 17tli, and made it
plain that the purpose of the Boers was to capture Ca'sar's Camp and
Wagon Hill, for if they succeeded they would have heen within riHe
range of the town. Caesar's Camp was held hy the Mancheriter regi-
ment and hetween them and the Boer position was a rocky ravine.
The correspondent says:

"In the early hours of the morning, under tlie cover of darkness,
the Heidelberg Commando succeeded in evading our [lickets, making
their way througii the uhornbush, and reaching the foot of tiie slope.
At half i)ast 2 o'clock an alarm was raised by our semries, but before
the full extent of the danger could be realized the outlying sangars
had been rushed and thei" defenders slain.

"Two companies of the Cordon Highlanders went to the help of
the Mancdiesters. The Boers had then already secured a, footing on
the plateau, but their a/lvance was checked by infantry volleys and
an automatic gun. It was soon evident that the catnp was l)eing as-
sailed on the left flank and in front. By daybreak reinforcements
from the Gordons and the Rifle lirigade had b(U3n hurried to the
tiling line. Lieut. -Col. Dick-Cunyingham, while hauling the Cordons
nut of the camp, was mortally wounded by a stray bullet whilo
still close to the town. Tlie Fifty-thiid Battery crossed the Klip

(6iB)

624

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

River and shelled the ridge and the reverse slope of the front position,
where the enemy were lying in the bushes. Shrapnel was used and
it did terrible execution. The fire effectually checked the Boers and
rendered it impossible for them to receive reinforcements through
the ravine.

" The enemy throughout the engagement displayed the most
stubl)oni courage. They were evidently determined to succeed or
die. Meanwhile their guns were very busy. They threw more than
a liundred shells at the Fifty-third Battery and the troops aiding
it. Tlie British, however, were equally gallant and resolved. They
pressed the enemy back step by step until the remnant broke and
fled in disorder.

"A terrific storm of rain and' hail had meanwhile swelled the
streams into torrents and numbers of the fleeing Boers in tryinj,'
to cross them were swept away.

'■ The struggle at this point had now ended, but there was a
more exciting contest going on in the direction of Wagon Hill. At
two o'clock a storming party from the Harrismith commando crept
slowly and cautiously along the donga in the valley which divides
the British posts from their camp. A few rifle shots killed the
British pickets.

"Then, taking advantage of the cover, the enemy gradually
reached the crest of the hill, where the South African Liglit Horse
were posted. The latter were forced to reti»'e, not having breast-
works. The Boers continued to advance until they reached the
emplacement, where they surprised some working parties. Lieu-
tenant Jones, with a handful of men, made a gallant effort to hold
the position, but the liritish were outnumbered and driven back.
Tlie Boers then took possession of the summit of the hill. The Free

THE STRUGGLE FOR LxVDYSMITir

625

Staters, however, were unable to venture far, having to face a heavy
ttre from a sangar.

"The Twenty-first Battery and some cavalry arrived and pre-
vented the stormers from being reinforced. l)ut the British position
was critical. They had retired for cover beyond the slope While
the enemy were making their way into the intervening pass, Major
Bowen led a charge with a few rifles against them, but fell shot.
Lieutenant Tod took his place and met the same fate. Then Major
VVallnutt, calling the scattered Gordons together, charged and
drove the Boers back and joined Lieutenant Jones.

"A pause then took place in the fighting, but soon after, tak-
ing advantage of the storm, the enemy attempted to rush the
position. Three of their leaders reached the parapet, l)ut Jones
and Wallnutt shot them down. Major Wallnutt immediately after-
ward fell. This renewed check discouraged the assailants. Never-
theless, small parties of the braver ones maintained a murderous
fire from behind the rocks. The finjil blow was a chf^rge made by
three companies of the Devonshires across the open under a terri-
})le fire. They fairly hurled the enemy down the hill at the point
of the bayonet. In the charge Captain Lafone and Lieutenant
Field were killed and Lieutenant Masterson and ten men wounded.

■'Our position was now secure. Attacks on the north and east
had also been repulsed and the assault had failed all along the
line. The Boers lost heavily. They admit that the engagement
was the most severe blow their arms have sustained since the open-
ing of the campaign.

"They were confident of their ability to capture the town.
They had called for reKnforcements from Colenso to assist them.
The Ladysmith gairison can now await the coming of relief with

626

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

renewed confidence. The PJarl of Ava, like Lieut.-Col. Dick-Cuny-
in^^ham, was mortally wounded while j,'oing forward."

Deeply interesting^ as \vas this news, it was almost overlooked
in the excitement prodiu^ed by the announcement that General
Buller liad begun his advance upon Ladysmith, and tidings .of
the highest iniportan(;e were imminent. Lord Dundonakl, with
the mounted brigade, dashed forward on the lltli and seized the
Springfield bridge. Then he pushed on and took a strong position
at Swartz Kop, which commanded Potg'eter's Drift. The Boers
were completely surprised, a numl)er of them being in the river
bathing when Ijord Dundonald's troops api)eared.

With the ex(!epti()n of the garrison left to hold Colenso, the
whole British force advanced without further dehiy. The South
African Light Horse wished to bring the ferryboat to the south side
of tlie river, and six of their daring fellows, under command of
Lieutenant Carlyle, swam tiie stream and brought over the boat.
While doing this they were exposed to a brisk fire, but no one
was hit.

Tu a dispatch fi'om S[)earman's Camp, dated .January 18, tlie
War Office was informed by General Buller that one l)attery of
field artillery, a howitzer and General Lyftlefon's brigade had
crossed the Tugela at Potgieter's Drift and were l)ombarding the
Boer position hve miles higher up. The troops of (Jeneral Warren
had passed the river on a pontoon bridge. The news was confirmeil
by a dispatch from General Lord Roberts.

A reconnaissance, made on January 12, showed the Boers were
strongly intrenched on a number of h)W hills near the river an!
extending to Ladysmith. Their second main line of defense was at
the edge of an e\ien>i\o plateau, itself flanked and fortified by a

THK STRUGGLE FOR LADYSMITH

627

hill of considerable elevation. The winding course of the Tugeia
lidded further strength to their position.

On the eve of impeuding events, all were interested in knowing
what forces were at the disposal of General Duller. In Ladysiiiith
itself were what was left of four cavalry regiments, nearly all the
members of one being prisoners at Pretoria; there were also the
remnants of eleven infantry battalions, the greater part of two
also being in Pretoria, and six field artillery batteries, General
White's mountain battery having been captured at Nicholson's Nek.

Outside of Ladysmith there were twenty-one battalions of
infantry, making up six brigades and four battalions employed to
guard the base and communications, three regiments of cavalry, none
more than five hundred strong, ni ' *ield batteries, aid one mountain
battery of artillery. It must be remembered, however, that two of
the former batteries no longer existed, they having had one gun
destroyed and ten captured in the defeat at Colenso. The last
u(!COunts represented General IJuUer as also having six naval guns,
the intention 1)eing to iidd eight others.

Summing up the forces against which General Joubert was to
act, there were thirty-four infantry battalions, six regiments of
cavalry, nine field batteries, a single mountain battery and eighteen
naval guns. In addition, there were tlie colonial and other irreg-
iihirs, numbering some 2,(iO() men.

The Tugeia being [)assed, the first important ac'tion reported
was that in which the mounted force of Lord Dundonald was
engaged on -lanuary 17. It took place west of Acton Homes and
the Boer force was said to number 250. They were defeated with
the loss of 21 killed and 2-) prisoners, the Britisli losing one officer
killed and three men killed and wounded. The fact that the Britisli

628

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

occupied the position thus secured showed that it was considered
of importance. The Boers were in such force in the neighborhood
that General Warren, the superior of Lord Dundonald, found it
necessary to reinforce him with a detachment of a cavahy regi-
ment.

Such momentous issues depended upon the results of this for-
ward movement that General Duller, like an experienced general.
took every step with extreme care. The statement that Ladysmitli
still contained enough food to last for days if not weeks, was reiis-
suring and removed the necessity of General Duller hurrying his
movements On the other hand, the report of twenty deaths in
three days from enteric fever showed there was no time to be
wasted in the relief of the garrison, upon which anxious attention
has been fixed for so long a time.

The news that was allowed to pass the censor showed that Gen-
eral Duller was proceeding with extreme caution, fully sensible of the
momentous issues at stake. These reports, arriving on January 20.
were that his artillery had opened on the Doer positions which
blocked the forward movement of his infantry and which had to l)e
carried before he could complete the turning movement on which his
operations for the relief of Ladysmith depended. It was apparent
that the Doers occupied a very strong position on Tabanmyana Moun-
tain, well in front of General Warren's right and General Lyttleton's
left. There could be no doubt that the Doers were preparing for the
encounter with the same skill and iron resolution that they hail
shown in their previous engagements. The reconnaissances failed to
induce them to unmask their positions.

The relief of Ladysmith had become a military necessity. Not
only was the prestige of the Dritish army involved, but the call for

THE STRUGGLE FOR LADYSMITH

629

such relief was imperative in order to hold the Dutch of Cape Colony
in submission. It uad been found necessary a short time before to
proclaim martial u\v in the Philipstown, Hopetown and Prieska dis-
tricts, the last being well to the west. If the G0,000 Dutch capable of
bearing arms should choose to rise, the British troops would be placed
in a most critical situation. The reports of Geneial Bnller showed
the difficulty in attaining effective positions, the Boers mainly falling
back from the advanced ridges between it and the British advance, as
he artillery of the latter was pushed ahead to cover the infantry.
When night approached, about a hundred wounded were brought in,
the number of killed not being stated.

On January 22, however, a dispatch was received from General
Buller shedding light on General Warren's attack. It was as follows:

"Spearman's Camp, January 21, nine P. M. — General Warren has
been engaged all day, chiefly on his left, which he has swung for-
ward a couple of miles. The ground is difficult, and, as the fighting
is all the time up hill, it is difficult to say exactly how much we
have gained, but I think we are making substantial progress."

The War Office also received the following from General Buller,
dated Spearman's Camp, January 21, 6:55 A. M.:

"In order to relieve the pressure on General Warren, and to
ascertain the strength of the enemy in the position in front of
Potgieter's Drift, General Lyttleton made a reconnaissance in force
yesterday. This kept the enemy in their trenches in full strength
all day. Our casualties: Third Battalion King's Royal Rifles, two
killed, twelve wounded, two missing."

The following from a correspondent:

Spearman's Camp, January 21, 10:20 P. M. — After ten hours of
continuous and terrible fire yesterday. Generals Hart and Clery

680

PHE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

adviuiced 1.000 yards. The Boers maintiiiiied an irregular fire durin;^
the night, but the British outposts did not reply. This morning at
daybreak the Boers opened a stiff fire. The British stood to tiie
guns, where they had slept, and the engagement was renewed vigor-
ously. Tlie field artillery poured shrapnel into the enemy's trenches.
A rumor tiuit Ladysmith had been relieved enlivened tlie British,

who sent up a ringing cheer. This was taken for an advance.
The first kopje was carried at the point of the bayonet, and the
Boers retreated to the next kopje, which, like most others, was
strewn with immense bowlders, surmounted l)y mounds on the
summit. The British advanced steadily and the Boers relaxed
slightly. The Boers did not show such tenacity as previously. Their
Nordenfeldts fired at long intervals and their cannon fired but
seldom. Ap})arently the Boers w'ere short of big ammunition. All
day the roar of musketry fire continued. The British took three
Boer positions on the mountain and found shelter behind the
bowlders.

On January 23 absolutely no news was given out in England,
in connection with the opei'ations of General Buller. in the way of
official dispatches. The Ileuter agency and the Associated Press,
however, managed to get through several messages from Boer
sources, and it is intei'esfing to note their account of the desperate
struggle going on in tlie vicinity of the Tugela River. One cor-
respondent states that Commandant \'iljoen narowly esca])ed being
killed by the explosion of a lyddite shell.

Head Boer Laager, Ladysmith, Monday, January 22. — A battle
has been raging along the Olivers Hook road since Saturday
between the Boers under Pretorius and G,000 British. The fighting
is in full swing at Spierrs Kop. The Boers under Botha and

THE STRUGGLE FOR LADYSMITH

()31

Cronje have been sent thither. The British elsewhere are only
making a reconnaissance of the }3oer positions. President Steyn
was under fire at the foremost position of the Free Staters. The
([uarters of Generals White and Hunter were smashed this morn-
ing by a shot from "Long Tom." It is not known whether any of
tiie occupants of the building were killed.

Boer Camp, Upper Tugela River, Sunday, January 21. — After
Commandant Botha checked the British advance yesterday morning
it was expected that there would be no further action until to-
morrow.

Tiiis afternoon, however, signs were discerned of an intended
movement in tlie British northern camp. When the heat, which
was more frightful than any yet experienced, had w^orn off, the Brit-
ish cannon started in full force and the infantry advanced in
extended order. Generals Botha and Cronje held the high hills
over which the road to Ladysmith passed. When the Mauser fire
opened a pandemonium of sound filled the air. The vindictive
crash of lyddite shells, the sharp volleys of Lee-Metfords iind the
whiplike crack of Mausers were interspersed witli the boom of the
Boer ]\laxims.

The battle ended with darkness, but not without evidences of
execution among the British that were manifest at sunrise. Field
Cornet Ernst Emilio was killed, nor did the generals escape
unscathed. At the central position. Swart Kop, where the other
road to Ladvsmith crossed the hills, the British advanced from low
kopjes on the banks of the Tngela unmolested. Then they entered
the zone of Mauser fire, and, although their naval guns kei)t up
the usual teriibl ■ racket, the advance was stopped and the British
had to count out their dead and wounded. Commandant Viljoen

6a2

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

and two burghers were knocked senseless by an explosion of lyd-
dite, but Commandant Viljoen recovered. Field Cornet Heilbroii
was wounded, and, on refusing to surrender, was shot.

The British loss was probably insignificant. They complain
that expansive bullets in Mausers were found in the field and soft-
nosed bullets with Lee-Metfords. The Boers admit that sporting'
Mausers were occasionally found, but they deny the charge resiiect-
ing expansive bullets. Not a shot was fired by the Boers with
cannon or rifle at the Swart Kop position this side of the river.
One thousand infantry and a battery advanced into the second row
of low^ hills between the republicans and the river. Heavy cannon-
ading proceeded at a range of 2,000 yards, but the Boers maintained
the silence of death. This must have staggered the British, as the
advance was stopped, and this morning they had retired to tlieir
old positions.

For several days no definite news came of General Buller's
effort to take Spion Kop, "the key to Ladysmith." Spion Kop is
described as a hill 4,800 feet high, of which the summit is about
four miles north of Wagon Drift. It stands on the eastern edge of
a plateau, five or six miles long and three miles wide, the western
edge overlooking the line from Wagon Drift to Acton Homes.
From Spion Kop the Boer big guns hold a position against Lady-
smith. Rifleman's Ridge is about e, n'^en miles away in a straight
line and may be seen with a good glass. The task before General
Buller's force was, first, to take Spion Kop and any other part of
the plateau then still in the hands of the Boers. After that he had
eleven miles to cover, and perhaps fifteen to walk, and the Boer
big guns to capture.

England, and in fact the whole world, waited breathlessly foi

THE STRUGGLE FOR LADYSMITII

G3;]

news of BuUer's advance. Then suddenly came the aiiuouucenient
that Spion Kop had been taken by the British January 26. There
w as great joy in England, for here was something in the way of real
success. London glowed with the hope that the end was now near
;md that the Boers would be driven back at once. But this hope was
only transitory, for three days later it was given out that General
Warren had been unable to hold the hill, and after tremendous loss
of men had been compelled to abandon Spion Kop in the night-time
after holding it only a few hours. Warren's lack of success w^as fol-
lowed by the further painful announcement that General Buller had
retreated with his whole army across the Tugela. The following is
the text of General Buller's dispatch posted by the l^ritish War Oflice
January 28 :

On January 20 Warren drove back the enemy and obtained
possession of the southern crests of the high table land extending
from the line of Acton Homes and Monger's Poort to the western
Ladysmith hills. From then to January 25 he remained in close
contact with the enemy. The enemy held a strong position on a
range of small kopjes stretching from northwest to southeast
across the plateau from Acton Homes, through Spion Kop, to the
loft bank of the Tugela. The actual position held was perfectly
tenable, but did not lend itself to an advance, as the southern
slopes were so steep that Warren could not get an effective artillery
position, and water supply was a difficulty.

On Jaraiary 23 I assented to his attacking Spion Kop, a large
hill, indeed a mountain, which was evidently the key of the posi-
tion, but wa^ far more accessible from the north than from the
south. On i '• »3 night of January 23 he attacked Spion Kop, but
found it very difficult to hold, as its perimeter was too large, and

<)84

THE 8T01IY OF SOUTH AFRICA

wjiter, whicli he had been led to believe existed, in this extraordi-
nary dry season, was found very deficient. The crests were held all
that day against severe attacks and a heavy shell fire. Our men fouu:ht
witii great gallantry. T would especially mention the conduct of
the Second Cameronians and the Third King's Itifles, who suppoittMl
the attack on the mountain from the steepest side, and in eacli
case fought their way to the top, and the Second Lancashire
Fusiliers and Second Middlesex, who magnificently maintained the
best traditions of the British army throughout the trying day of
January 24, and Thornycroft's mounted infantry, who fought
throughout the day equally well alongside of them.

Cleneral Woodgate, who was in command at the summit, having
been wounded, the officer who succeeded him decided on the night of
January 24 to abandon the position, and did so before dawn January
25. T reached Warren's camp at 5 A.M. on January 25 and decided
that a second attack on Si)ion Kop was useless and that the enemy's
right was too strong to allow me to force it. Accordingly I decided
to withdraw the force to the south of the Tugela. At 6 A. M. we
commenced withdrawing the train, and by 8 A. M. January 27
(Sat.irday) Warren's force was concentrated south of the Tugehi
without the loss of a man or a pound of stores. Tlie fact that tlie
force could withdraw from actual touch — in some cases the lines
were less than a thousand yards apart — with the enemy, in the
manner it did, is, T think, sufficient evidence of the morale of the
troops, and that we were permitted to \vithdraw our cumbrous ox
and mule transports across the river, eighty-five yards broad, with
twenty-foot l)anks and a very swift current, unmolested, is, I think.
l)roof that the enemy lias been taught to respect our sohliers'
lighting powers.

TIIK STiUKRiLK VOH LADYSMITH

68r.

The following was the Boer account of the battle: Boer Ilead-
({uarters, Modder Spruit, Upper Tugehi, Wednesday, Januaj'y 24,
midnight, via Lorenzo Marquez, Thursday, January 25. — Some
Vryheid burghers from the outposts on the highest liills of the
Spion Kop group rushed into the huiger saying that the kop
was lost and tluit the English had taken it. Reinforcements were
ordered up, but nothing could be done for some time, the hill being
enveloped in thick mist. At dawn the Heidelberg and Carolina
contingents, supplemented from other commandos, began the ascent
of the hill. Three spurs, precipitous projections, faced the Boer
positions. Up these the advance was made. The horses were left
under the first terrace of rocks. Scaling the steep hill, the Boers
found that the English had improved the opportunity and intrenched
lieavily. Between the lines of trenches was an open veldt, which
iiad to be rushed under a heavy fire, not only from rifies, but of
lyddite and shrapnel from field guns. Three forces ascended tlie
three spurs coOrdinately, under cover of fire fi'om the Free State
Kru})ps. a Creusot and a big Maxim. The English tried to rnsh the
Hoers with the bayonet, but their infantry went down before the
Boer rifle as before a scythe.

The Boer investing party advanced step by ste[) until two in
the afternoon, when a white flag went u[) and 150 men in tiie front
trenches surrendered, being sent as prisoners to ihe head huiger.
The Boer advance continued on the two koi)jes east of S[iion Kop.
Many Boers were shot, l)ut so numerous were the burghers that
the gaps filled autonnitically. Toward twilight they reached the
summit of the second koi)je, but did not get further. The British
Maxims belched flame, but a wall of fire from the Mausers held
the English l)ack. Their center under this pressure, gradually gave

63fi

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

way and broke, abandoning the position. The prisoners .speak
highly of the bravery of the burghers, who, despising cover, stood
against the sky-line edges of the summit to shoot the Dublin
Fusiliers, sheltered in the trenches. Firing continued for some
time, and then the Fusiliers and the Light Horse, serving as
infantry, threw up their arms and rushed out of the trenches.
The effect of the abandonment of Spion Kop by t'.ie English can
hardly be gauged as yet, but it must prove to be immense. An
unusually high proportion of lyddite shells did not e?:plode.

A London war correspondent, writing from Frere Camp, Janu-
ary 26, described the action at Spion Kop as follows:

"I have just ridden in here, having left General Buller's forces
in the new positions south of the Tugela, to which they retired in
consequence of the reverse at Spion Kop. The fighting, both before
and after the occupation of tiie mountain, was of a desperate char-
acter. Spion Kop is a precipitous mountain overtopping the whole
line of kopj«\s along the Upper Tugela. On the eastern side the
mountain faces Mount Alice and Potgieter's Drift, standing at
right angles to the Boer central postion and Lyttleton's advanced
position. The southern point descends in abrupt steps to the lower
line of kopjes. On the western side, opposite the right outposts of
Warren's force, it is inaccessibly steep until the point where the nek
joins tlie kop to the main range. Then there is a gentle slope, which
allows easy access to the summit. The nek was strongly held by
the Boors, wlio also occupied a heavy spur parallel with the kopje,
where the enemy wiis concealed in no fewer than thirty-five HHc
pits, and was thus enabled to bring to bear upon our men a damag-
ing cross Hre, the only possible point for a British attack being the
southern side, with virtually sheer precipices on the left and right.

ners tspeak
;over, stood
the Dublin
for some
serving as
e trendies.
Ini^lish can
nense. A n
)de.
imp, .Tanu-

ler's forces

retired in

)oth before

3 rate char-

tlie whole

1 side the

anding at

advanced

the lower

utposts of

e the nek

)pe, which

y held by

:he kopje.

^-five riHe

a daniiij^-

being the

md rigiit.

General Lord Kitchenrr.

THi*; SriliJbOLZ FOR LADYSMITH

637

"A narrow foo- /laiii, admittint^ men in single file only, to the
summit, opens ini. a yerfectl} flat table land, probably of 300
square yards area, upon whicli the Boers had hastily commenced
to make a transverse trench. Our men were able to occupy the
further end of this table land, where the ridge descended to another
flat, which was again succeeded by a round, stony eminence held
by the Boers in great strength. The ridge held by our men was
faced by a number of little kopjes at all angles, whence the Boers
sent a concentrated fire from their rifles, supported by a Maxim-
Nordenfeldt and a big long-range gun. What with the rifles, the
machine guns and the big gun, the summit was converted into a
perfect hell. The shells exploded continually in our ranks, and the
rifle fire, from an absolutely unseen enemy, was perfectly appalling.
Reinforcements were hurried up by General Wai'ren, })ut they had
to cross a stretch oi flat ground which was liter;illy torn up by the
flying lead of the enemy. The unfinished trench on the summit
gave very (|fv stionabie slielter, as the enemy's machine ^nins were
so accural ' V trained upon the place ihat often sixteeri shells fell
in the trenc]; in a singh minute.

"Mortal men couid not permanently hold such a position. Our
gallant fellows held it tenaciously for twenty-four hours, and
then, taking advantage of tiie dark ni^;ht, abandoned it to the
•Miemy.'"

On February 1 it was given out that the total list of casualties
above the Tngela was 1,1)85 n\en and oflicers and 200 missing. It
was thought at first thut UuUer s retreat meant the abandonment
of Ladysmith, but a more hopeful feeling prevailed after the opening
of Parliament. The Queen's ; peech gavti no indication of an aban-
donment of the struggle. The London Times called Spion Kop a

(;8S

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

*• second Yorktown," ))ut insisted on the dispatch of 50,000 more
men to South Africa.

Mr. Wyndham, in behalf of the <:^overnment, declared in the
House of Commons that (treat Britain would shortly have in South
Africa 180,000 regulars, 7,000 Canadians and Australians, and 26,000
South African volunteers, making a total of 213,000 troops, with
452 guns.

When, in times of peace, Oreat Britain pauses to enshrine the
heroes whose l)lood was shed for the relief of Ladysraith, the name
of General Sir Redvers BuUer will not provoke adverse criticism.
Few commanders in the history of war were called upon to
accomplish such a stupendous task as that which General Buller
('om})letpd, wdien. after four months of almost unparalleled fighting,
constant vigilance in repelling forces, and desperate struggles with
the death dealing fevers and grim starvation, he sent his troops
into the dusty streets of the long-beleaguered city. All the English
speaking world said that costly as the campaign had been, March
28 was a day long to be remembered as marking the greatest
substantial result of the British advance on the federals. The sick,
sore, weak and half starved garrison cheered faintly, because of its
physical condition, but the cheer was heard ti round the world-
Weeks afterward, when some of the powder-marked and bullet-
toi-n heroes who had driven the Boer forces from the besieged
city reached Albion's shores, an awaiting people emphasized the
cheers until the farthermost boundaries of the belt of atmosphere
surrounding this mundane sphere must have been agitated.

(Jeneral Buller had been commander-in-chief of the Biitish
forces in South Africa until December 17, 181)1), when the Tmperial
War Office issued the order conferring on Lord Roberts that com-

THE STRUGGLE FOR LADYSMITH

639

mand. Three attempts to succor Ladysmith, as the world well
l.new, had been as gallantly made as any fighting man of the
world could make.

The fourth and successful attempt at rescue had been accom-
I)lished by the expenditure of much blood and effort. Ladysmith
was a prize that the federal armies battled hard for. Millions of
pounds sterling worth of supplies and munitions of war were
stored in the beleaguered city. It was apparent that Natal could
never be quieted until the Boers were driven from their points of
advantage in the vicinity of the city. Crivics not blinded by the
desire of the commander for his three attempts to surmount
obstacles that have never been adequately described to the world,
admit that the story of the relief of Ladysmith is at once the
most thrilling tale of blood and fire, and the most inspiring chapter
of the war in Natal. Having established a camp at Chievely and
put his army in good condition. General Duller moved to the ford
across the Tugela River near Colenso and attempted a crossing
December 15. He was with the main column under Gen. Sir
Cornelius Francis Clery, numbering some 15,000 men, and although
he knew the Boers were strongly entrenched, not only on the
north bank of the stream, but had placed sharpshooters in the
middle of the river as well, the charge was ordered.

Commandant Joubert was indisposed at the time — his illness soon
resulted in his demise — but he had laid out a line of defense to which
his second in command, General Schalkenberg. strictly adhered, and
the result was a reverse for the British arms. The Imperial forces
fought with a bravery that challenged the attention of the world, but
the unseen foe worked great carnage. Nearly 1,150 officers and men
wore killed, wounded or missing, or included in the list of prisoners.

040

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

All but two of the guns of the Fourteenth and Sixty-sixth
batteries, under command of Colonel Long, were captured. Field
Marshal Roberts' son was killed in a gallant attempt to retake the
guns, and the nation sliared with the gray-haired hero of Kandahar,
his intense grief, which even the granting of the much prized
Victoria Cross to his dead son, did not assuage.

General Clery's force was disposed in three columns; that of
General Hart attacking on the left. General Hildyard's on the right
and General Lyttleton's in the center, the latter being prepared to
go to the assistance of the other two if necessary. As the English
advanced to the ford they were met by a fire that mowed down
the brave lads in files; when they dashed into the water they
became entangled in the strands of barbed wire hidden under the
surface of the water, and while floundering there, were easy victims
of the infilading volleys from the marksmen ensconced behind
well-concealed positions.

Meanwhile, the two batteries named, having been ordered to
the support of the infantry, took position by order of Colonel Long,
on the river bank within fair range of the Boer riflemen, and
before the guns were fairly it work, the horses and artillerymen
were nearly all shot down. Colonel Lyon's bravery and zealous
desire to hit the enemy a telling blow from a close range, may
have blinded his judgment, and while he was not entirely responsi-
ble for the reverse, the loss of the guns convinced (Jeneral BuUei'
that further efforts to effect the crossing would be futile, and lit!
therefore ordered a return to Camp Chievely. The Dublin and
Inniskilling Fusileers, the Connaught Rangers and tlie Devon regi-
ment were the greatest sufferers.

Great Britain was plunged into grief by three reverses — General

THE STRUGGLE FOR LADYSMITH

041

Gatacre's at Stormberg, Lord Methuen's at Magersfontein and
General Buller's at the Tugela, but the indomitable spirit of the
Imperial army was not broken. Tlie rank and file was even more
eager to crush the Boer forces. Withholding comment on General
Duller, the people settled down to await further advices. Lord
Roberts, from his headquarters, gave General Duller full swing in
Natal, and on January 11, 1900, Sir Red vers again massed his forces
on the south bank of the river, occupying Potgeiter's Drift, fifteen
miles west of Colenso, eight miles north of Springvaal on the road
to Dewdorp and Ladysmith, his advance line being about fifteen
miles from Wagon Hill, where General White, commanding at
Ladysmith, administered such a sound thrashing to the Boers
January 6.

Fighting began in earnest on January 19, when General Warren
began working over the ridges, the Doers keeping him busily
engaged that day and the day following. General Lyttleton
occupied a position near Drakfontein, and then General Warren
tried a flanking movement on the left toward Spion Kop. The
occupation of the position, and the subsequent abandoning of the
Kop, have been exhaustively treated in this work. On the 27th
General Duller was again south of the Tugela, his second effort to
reach Ladysmith having cost him 1,985 officers and men, removed
from the field of service. General Woodgate, who was wounded on
the 24th, died the following day.

On February 2, General Buller again recrossed the Tugela, this
time with his determination to succeed so palpa))le that the cor-
respondents wired home their positive assurances that General
White's garrison would soon be freed. It was even said that
Duller had resolved to win or die in the attempt. No burgher

642

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

resistance could withstand such determination. The commander
had learned the efficacy of artillery in those rocky valleys, and his
guns were called upon to do a great deal of execution. Vaul
Krantz was occupied and a feint attack at Potgeiter's Drift was
made, the idea being to form a wedge that would separate the
Boer forces at Spion Kop and Colenso. The thin edge of the
wedge was driven into the range of hills south and east of Bruk-
fontein with the object of drawing the burghers out of their
entrenchments so that the British could get at them in the open
near Ladysmith. General Lyttleton, on Vaal Krantz, v/as com-
pelled to sustain a heavy artillery fire from three sides for two
days, February 5 and 6, the most effective work being done by the
Boer guns on Doom Kloof, besides repelling attacks from the
infantry of the burghers, which made repeated charges. These
were met in gallant style by the Durham Light Infantry, King's
Royal Rifles and Scottish Rifles, who not only held their own
ground, but forced the Boers back at the point of the bayonet.
British steel was too much for the enemy that had hitherto care-
fully avoided many close encounters with the dashing British
troops.

Towards sunset on the 6th, General Lyttleton was relieved by
General Hildyard, but even fresh troops could not stand such
persistent pounding. The army was at length forced to withdraw,
having lost 368 killed and wounded. All England, and indeed the
entire world, was astonished that General Buller had wavered in
his determination — that he had retired again to the south bank of
the Tugela. His three failures had cost him 3,500 men, and the
outlook for raising the siege was dark. But it was the darkness
that preceded the coming of the dawn.

THE STRUiJGLE FOR LADYSMITH

643

Almost as if some mighty pendulum of war had swung from
the Modder River country to the Tugela, the ''up-and-at-them"
spirit became simultaneous. Lord Roberts was beginning his great
movement toward Kiinberley and Bloemfontein and Duller caught
the spirit and crossed the Tugela, not to see the ill-fated river
again, for his progress was steadily onward, even to the Transvaal
country through Laing's Nek. Ruller did a great deal of hard
fighting and it counted toward the general result. On the 20th he
was but twelve miles from Ladysmith. The garrison could hear
the welcome booming of the naval guns, and the impending release
of general White seemed as certain as the capture of Cronje over
in the western district.

Gradually step by step, BuUer's army surged towards Lady-
smith, the opposition of the Boers steadily lessening, the reports
from Lord Roberts evidently having a depressing effect upon the
burghers. By hard work the country to the south of Buller's
position had been cleared of Boers; Colenso was under the Union
Jack, every position and point of vantage from which the burghers
could harass or delay the English was occupied, and the clouds
which had so long hung over the fortunes of the Queen's troops in
Natal began to disappear. For ten dajs before the actual relief of
the garrison, the British troops fought continuously, but with the
knowledge that victory would shortly be theirs. The troops
endured every conceivable hardship and privation, confronted every
danger, dared death to reap them in, and had the j)roud privilege
of accomplishing the task set for them.

General Buller's men entered Ijadysniith on the lirst of March,
three days after the surrender of General Cronje. The last position
taken outside the town w^as Pieter's Hill, General Warren's men

^v^

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

I I.I
1.25

bi|2£ 115

■uuu

U 11.6

liJ4l

Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

:i>^

33 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIISTIR.N.Y. I4SI0

(7I«) •73-4S03

^ 5?^>

644

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sweeping over it in fine style in the face of a hot fire. Then the
lioer stampede hegan. The great gune on Bulwana Hill were
removed, the burgher infantry and cavalry broke into squads and
scattered in all directions in hasty and ignominious flight. These
forces got out of reach just in time to escape the headlong dash
of Lord Dundonald's cavalrymen, who came tearing across the
veldt in a hot race, each man being anxious to be the first to
greet the brave men who had stood out against shot and shell,
starvation and disease for four long months.

The formal entry into Ladysmith was a signal for much
rejoicing among the men who ha<l been besieged. But General
White gained the affection of all loyal followers of Her Majesty
by his speeches. "God Save the Queen" was a song that the
soldiers sung before they v»ouId call for the mess song. Service in
the trenches during long daya of short rations had not dulled the
love of these fighting men for their sovereign. Hunger was driven
out by the entry of supply trains, and after the thin, weak soldiery
had been removed ^o convenient places for recuperation, Genernl
Duller began to use Ladysmith for his base of operations. General
White, bowed with his own deep thoughts, went to England, where
he Wfis enthusiastically received. " You are kind to a man who
lost England regiments" he said, as the tears trickled down his
cheeks. But he had also saved Great Britain many thousands of
soldiers and treasure by his tact and skill and courage.

CHAPTER XXXIII

LORD ROBERTS IN COMMAND -THE RELIEB^ OP KIMBERLEY, CAPTURE OP
CRONJE AND OCCUPATION OP BLOEMFONTEIN

Matters in tlie western campaign in early February demanded
tliat the cunning of the mobile Boer forces be matched not with
the prodigal but wasteful personal bravery on the part of British
troops, but with a superior article of strategy. None saw quicker
than Lord Roberts from his position at Cape Town that a decisive
stroke had to be given from the Modder River.

Thn press censor let pass the news that Lord Roberts and his
cool-headed chief of staff, Lord Kitchener, had started from Cape
T'^-.vn about February 8th, bound for tiie theater of action on the
Modder River.

With the hero of Kandahar giving the army his personal
direction, the troops inspired by the sentiment and dash of the
situation, it became patent to all that the Boer forces would soon
be put on the defensive. Tlio long expected aggressiveness that was
nipped by the repulse of Metliuen, would follow the leadership of
tlie gallant *' Bobs." From the colonies there came a chorus of
ioyful statements. Canada was especially grateful, for her contingent
would have abundant and immediate opportunity to show Lord
Ivoberts of what stuff they made men in tlio Dominion.

Cronje, the "Lion of South Africa" must have learned soon
iifter Lord Roberts* arrival that ho had at last to render an account
to Oreat Britain's greatest general. From the moment Lord Roberts
i)cgan to direct matters the burgher commandant seemed to be

(946)

646

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

disheartened. None knew Lord Roberts' plans. If Lord Kitcheiior
liad a move to carry out he successfully instituted the strictesi
press censorship the correspondents had ever felt. " On to Kimberley '
became a slogan of as much importance as the relief of Ladysmitli.
History will tell to many generations how frought with l.iu^
results was the irresistible strategy of Lord Roberts. With ;i
rapidity that was almost marvelous, he not only relieved the lon<,'-
beleaguered garrison at Kimberley, and struck the Boer cause Ji
telling blow by capturing Cronje and over 4,000 prisoners, but lie
marched his troops in triumph to the capitol of the Orange Vnv
State, there to lay plans for one of the greatest forward movements
in the enemy's country that has ever been made. There was so
much of great importance to Lord Roberts' achievements that tlie
people did not know which to celebrate the most. Rut Majiihu
Hill was avenged and that sufiiced to assuage the spirit of grief
over Magersfontein. Achievements that few commanders coiiM
boast in the history of any nation were accomplished by "Hobs."
To the colonies there came a wave of patriotism that v/as almost
unparalleled, when Lord Roberts told of the dash and personal
bravery of the Canadian troops that forced the surrender of Cronje.
Nothing but an irresistible advance to Pretoria could be the ulti-
mate execution of the great commander, said the critics. February
10 the expectant Empire heard from liOrd l{oberts in two sliort
disp'.tches. (Jeneral (latacre has repulsed tlie Roers and (Jenoial
Macdonald has successfully established himself at Koodoosberg to
bnlk the enemy in the attempt to block the main drift at that
[dace. It became apparent at once that tlie Ihitish leader wisl-.cil
to make certain that his plans would not l)e disturbed by new
arrivals from the Ladysmitli country. With Cronje forced to abau-

THE RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY

64V

Ion his strongly entranched positions, no relief could be sent him
from the Tugela, and Kimberley, shut up for long weary months,
would be entered by British troops. With all his scheming to
overthrow Cronje, Lord Roberts had time to receive the reports of
General Duller and order the third advance on Ladysniith. Thus
were the stages of the two great theaters of war put upon a mutual
basis.

Cronje knew he had met more than his match. The wily leader
began at once to retire from the trenches at Magersfontein and
concentrate his forces near Kimberley. The phlegmatic tactics of
Cronje were to be met by the brilliant strategy of " Bobs." How to
protect the De Aar and Modder River lines of railway communica-
tion from flank attacks, was one of Lord Roberts' earliest problems.
In some inexplicable manner the British commander sent word to
Colonel Kekewich in Kimberley that relief was coming. The feverish
anxiety of the Boers to strike Lord Rol)erts a hard blow before
they retired, prompted them to renew their bombardments of the
diamond city, but with greatly increased force. Kimberley held on.
In fact all the garrisons that were besieged and instructed by Lord
Roberts to "hold out" did as directed. The British commander
was at once attracted to the brilliant and dasliing young officer,
General French, and a friendship was established that gave French
every opportunity to distinguish himself, even to the action at Six
Mile Spruit near Pretoria. "Strike a blow at the Boers' l)ase of
supplies," ordered the leader, and General French faithfully executed
tlie command. With three brigades of cavalry and mountod infantry,
liorse artillery and a colonial contingent, French swept away a Boer
force at Clip Drift, forced a passage of the stream, occupied the
surrounding hills and captured three Boer laagers that were rich

G48

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

in supplies. Instant success had marked the invasion of the Free
State.

Tlie trenches that the Boer riflemen had so long occupied at
Magersfontein were made unavailable. It was a "retreat" all
along the line for the burghers and " advance " by French's mounted
troops. Some skirmishing not dignified with exhaustive mention
by the British commander, followed the dashing movements of
French, and tlien came the news that Great Britain had waited so
long for. February IG "Bobs" sent the dispatch "Kimberley
relieved." From October 15 the garrison at that city had been
beleaguered. Malignant Boers thought they saw in the capture of
the city and Cecil Rhodes an opportunity to deal a crushing blow
to Great Britain. " French with artillery, cavalry and mounted
infantry, reached Kimberley last evening," wired the Field Marshal,
and he supplemented this with General French's dispatch, dated
Jacobsdal: "I have completely dispersed the enemy from the
southern side of Kim))erley from Alexandersfontein to Olipantsfon-
tein, and am now going to occupy their ground.

** Have captured the enemy's laager and store depot supplies
and supplies of ammunition. Casualties about twenty, of all ranks,
wounded. Kimberley cheerful and well."

But all this had not been accomidished without the baptism of
blood for the Canadian contingent. In the Sunday engagement at
the Modder River, nineteen Canadians were killed and sixty-one
wounded.

SuHUENDEIi OF GeNKRAL CuON.IE

Leaving Colonel Kekewich and his relieved garrison to hoKl
the Boer trenches, General French started out anew on the expe-

'^^'

THE UELIEF OE KIMHEIM.EY

()49

of the Freo

(litions that Lord Roberts had mapped out for him. The enemy
was terror stricken. The flight of Cronje and his attempts to plant
his guns in positions that would be regarded as impregnable by
the onrushing British, formed a prelude for the story of one of the
most desperate but hopeless resistances in history. Hoei's escaping
fiom the Magersfontein country seeking dry river bottoms, Boers
fleeing in all directions and being constantly pressed by the British,
all afforded the people of the British Empire a most cheering
[jossibility of a decisive victory. Meanwhile, what of CJeneral
French? This leader of cavalry was scouring the country north of
Kimberley. One of General Kelley-Kenny's brigades of ii.^antry was
in hot pursuit of a Boer convoy moving towards Bloemfontein.
Subse(iuently it was the good fortune of that general to capture
this rich prize. Tn the booty were seventy-eight wagons and plenty
of supplies and ammunition.

The lion of South Africa was at bay. Hard Scots, who stood
over the trenches when the mortal remains of General Wauchope
and his brave men were interred, recalled the Highland oath. It
was to be no mercy for the foe. The death trap that Roberts had
set for Cronje, and which was sprung at Paardeburg after a fierce
cannonading of several days, when the gallant Canadian contingent
sapped, burrowed and charged to within eighty yards of the deep
burrows of the surrounded Boers, was plainly apparent to every
expectant reader of liord Roberts' brief dispatches.

British correspondents writing from Paardeburg Drift, February
'20th, praised the magnificent strategy that Cronje had used in
making his night march from Magersfontein. The Boer position
was described as hopeless, as it was commanded by the British
artillery and inclosed on the east and west by British infantry.

650

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Althoupfh tired and harassed, the foe made a bold stand. After the
Boers had effectually stopped the advances of mounted infantry,
the Highland brigade, which moved up the river bed and partly in
the open, lay Oii the ground exposed to a merciless fire wrhich did
not cease until nightfall. But the remainder of the infantry com-
pleted the enveloping process, the Welsh regiment seizing the
drift. Cronje's laager, full of carts and ammunition, was then in
full view of the British troops.

General Smith-Dorrien, with a large body of men, including
the Canadians, crossed the river by Paardeburg Drift and advanced
toward the laager, which was being vigorously shelled. The force
made a gallant effort to charge into the laager, but the fire was
murderous. That night the artillery of the British kept up good
practice on the Boer laager, and death and destruction was dealt
out to the enemy. The beginning of the end of Cronje's force was
at hand.

In reply to General Cronje's request for an armistice of twenty-
four hours to bury his dead. Lord Kitchener told the Boer com-
mander that he must fight to a finish or surrender unconditionally.
The Boer leader thought to hold out until assistance might reach
him. It was about this time that a delayed message from Lord
Roberts, dated February 22, 4:17 P. M., conveyed this official intel-
ligence; "Yesterday afternoon I v/as satisfied by a careful recon-
naissance in force of the enemy's position that I could not assault
it without very heavy loss, which I was most anxious to avoid.
Accordingly I decided to bombard him with artillery and turn my
attention to the enemy's reinforcements. The result was most
satisfactory. The Boers were driven off in all directions, losing a
good many killed and wounded and about fifty prisoners, who,

SUIIKENDER OF GENERAL CRONJE

fiol

they say, amved from Ladysmith two days ago. They also say
that it was our artillery fire which caused them to abandon the
kopje they were occupying. Our loss was two officers, Captain
Campbell, of the 9th Lancers and Lieutenant lioiston, of the
artillery, and four men, all slightly wounded."

From the same place, under date of February 22, Lord Roberts
sent the following telegram to His Excellency, the Governor Gen-
eral of Canada:

"The Canadian Regiment has done admirable service since its
arrival in South ^frica. I deeply regret the heavy loss it suffered
ti^'liting the 18th inst., and beg you will assure the people how
much we all here admire the conscious gallantry displayed by our
Canadian comrades on this occasion." What a harbinger of the
harvest of death that was to be read in the public prints when
Canada again went into action.

Versatile Lord Roberts found time to turn from contemplating
the work of the shells on the Boer positions, to do some thinking
for the economical welfare of his charge — the relieved garrison at
Kimberley. He directed Methuen to push forward food and sup-
plies as quickly as possible, and to do whatever was best for the
people about starting up the De Beers mines. Coal was needed
and Lord Roberts saw that it was obtained. He wished to afford
e)n[)loyment, and thereby alleviate misery. The hospital at Kim-
Ix ley was manage<l so well, said the British leader, that he
wished he could send his wounded there.

For days Lord Roberts contented himself with slowly coiling in
the toils on the doomed Cronje. There was little use in wasting
his men by attacks when the result could be foreseen. February
27, General Roberts announced the unconditional surrender of

052

TllK STORY OF SOUTH AITUCA

General Cronje with all of his force. The particulars were given
in the following message from Paardeburg, dated February 27,
11:20 a. m.:

" From information received from the Intelligence Department
it became apparent that the Boer forces were becoming depressed
and discontented. This, no doubt, had been accentuated by the
disappointment caused by the fact that the Boer reinforcements
had been defeated.

"I resolved, therefore, to bring pressure to bear on the enemy's
trenches. We pushed forward gradually so as to contract his posi-
tion and at the same time I bombarded heavily. This was materi-
ally added to by the arrival of four six-inch howitzers which were
brought from De Aar. In carrying out these measures the captive
balloon greatly assisted in giving the necessary information as to
the disposition of the enemy.

"At "three o'clock this morning a most dashing advance was
made by the Canadian regiment and the engineers, supported by the
First Gordons and the Second Shropshires, which resulted in our
gaining a point GOO yards nearer the enemy and 80 yards from his
trenches, wh jre our men intrenched and maintained the position
till morning. It was a gallant deed, worthy of our colonial soldiers,
and one which, I am glad to say, was attended with comparatively
slight loss.

"This apparently precipitated matters. At daylight a letter
signed by Cronje was sent in under a flag of truce, in which he
stated that he surrendered unconditionally. In my reply I told
Cronje he must present himself at my camp and his force must
come out of the laager after laying down their arms.

"At seven o'clock I received Cronje and in the course of the

SUUREXDEll OF BLOEMFOXTEIN

653

conversation Cronje asked for kind troatiiient at our hands; also that
his wife, jjrandson, private secretary, adjutant and servants might
accompany him wherever he miglit be sent. I reassured uim and
tokl him liis rec^uest would be complied with. I told him a gen-
eral officer would be sent with him to Cape Town to insure his
being treated with proper respect and that he would start to-day.

"The i)ris(mers number about three thousand and will be
formed into commandos under their own officers. They will leave
here to-day, reaching ]\Iodder River to-morrow, whence they will
be sent to Cape Town in detachments."

In a later dispatch, the number of prisoners was given as about
4,000, of whom some 1,150 were Free Staters. General Roberts
referred to the " very successful attack by the Royal Canadian Con-
tingent on the enemy's trenches this morning." In a message to
the Governor General he characterized the conduct of the Canadians
at Paardeberg as worthy of their colonial comrades.

urse of the

Surrender of Bloemfontein

It was taken for granted that the ultimate result of Lord Roberts'
strategy would be the occupation of Bloemfontein. The hero of
Kandahar might have accomplished this feat within a few days
after the defeat of Cronje's army, Ijy hurrying General French's
division to the practically defenseless capital of the Orange Free
State, but he had in mind a flank movement which might be suc-
cessful in surprising the Boer force before the railroad stock could
be destroyed. Lord Roberts had demonstrated that he was a past
master in the art of furnishing transport, and his i)lan was wortii try-
ing, he thought. After several skirmishes, the British were entirely
successful, and March 13, the British flag floated over the executive

(>r)4

THE STOHY OF SOUTH AFRICA

mjinsion so hastily abandoned by ['resident Steyn. With commend-
able modesty the commander of the English foices apprised the wjii-
oftice of the occupation in the following oliicial dispatch, dated
liloemfontein, Tuesday, March 13, S p. m.: "liy the help of God,
and the bravery of Her Majesty's soldiers, the troops under my com-
mand have taken possession of liloemfontein. The British flag now
flies over the presidency, evacuated last evening by Mr. Steyn, late
president of the Orange Free State. Mr. Eraser, member of the late
executive government; the mayor, the secretary of the late govern-
ment, the landrost and other ofticials, met me two miles from the
tov/n and presented me with the keys of the public offices. The
enemy have withdrawn from the neighborhood and all seems quiet.
The inhabitants of Bloemfontein gave the troops a cordial welcome."

Bloemfontein surrendered at 10 A. M. and was occupied about
noon. General French was within Kve miles of the town on the
afternoon of Monday, the 12th, and sent a summons thither, threat-
ening to bombard it unless it surrendered by 4 A. M. the next day.
A white flag was hoisted at daylight, and a deputation of the Town
Council, with Mayor Kellner, came out to meet General Roberts at
Spitz Kop, five miles south of the town, and made a formal sur-
render. General Roberts marched into the captured town at noon
and was received with tremendous cheering. He visited the public
buildings and the official residence of the president, followed every-
where by an enthusiastic crowd, who waved the British flag and
roared the national anthem.

President Steyn and a number of leading officials fled to Kroon-
stad, to which point the government was transfen'ed.

There had ueen a lively session of the City Council of Bloem-
fontein to consider the question of surrender. The Transvaal Boers

SIJUUENDEK OF BLCiM FONT KIN

655

were defiant and bitter and urged upon the Free Staters to tight to
the "last ditch," but they replied that that simply meant the utter
destruction of the town with the end inevitably the same. A mes-
senger made all haste to the Boer camp on Modder Kiver with
this statement of the situation. The Transvaalers were so indignant
that they returned word that they themselves would destroy Bioeni-
fontein in payment for such cowardice. One cause, therefore, of
the welcome given to Lord Roberts will be understood.

President Steyn presided at the meeting of the Council. He
was denounced by his rival, Mr. Fraser, as a moral coward for
refusing to accept the situation. General Roberts calmly awaited
on the summit of a hill or kopje the arrival of the deputation,
which included in addition to Mr. Kellner, the Mayor, Laudrost
Papenfus and Mr. Fraser. They were on horseback and were
received and treated with the utmost courtesy by General Roberts.

Although Bloemfontein was secured without fighting, its fall
was preceded by a number of exciting occurences. General Gatacre
crossed the Orange River and occupied Bethulie on the morning of
March 15th. General Pole-Care w with 2,000 of the Guards Brigade,
two guns and a small body of mounted infantry, left Bloemfontein
in three trains to join hands with Gatacre and Clements. The
Boers had mined the wagon bridge at Bethulie, but Lieutenant
Popham of the Derbyshire Regiment stole across amid a fearful
lire of shot and shell and cut the connecting v.ires. Finding several
Ijoxes of dynamite he returned, secured a smaH party ii\d brought
away the explosive. At night. Captain Grant removed the charges
from the borings, threw them into the river and cut the remaining
wires.

Meanwhile, to the north of Bloemfontein, Major Weston of the

656

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

engineers made his way through the Boer lines on the evening of
March 12th with several men, and by cutting the telegraph and
blowing up the railway mado it impossible to remove the engines
and cars in Bloemfontein. Before, however, the line was cut,
thirteen trains, each consisting of forty crowded cars, steamed
northward. Several thousands of the residents thus escaped, and
those who wished to continue their defense had the chance of
joining General Joubert.

Having given an account of the fall of Bloemfontein, it is now
necessary to refer to a matter of a different and far more important
nature.

Peace Proposals

Under date of March 5th, presidents Kruger and Steyn sent the
following peace proposals to Lord Salisbury: "The blood and tears
of tlie thousands who have suffered in this war, and the prospect
of the moral and the economic ruiu with which South Afnca is
now threatened make it necessary for both belligerents to ask
themselves, dispassionately and in the sight of the triune God, for
what they are fighting and whether the aim of each justifies all
the appalling misery and devastation.

"With this o])ject and in view of the assertions of various
British statesmen to the effect that this war was begun and is
carried on for the set purpose of undermining Her Majesty's authority
in South Africa and to set up an administration over all of South
Africa independent of Her Majesty's government, we consider it
our duty to solemnly declare that the war was undertaken solely
as a defensive measure to safeguard the threatened independence
of the South African Republics and is only continued in order to

PEACE PROPOSALS

657

securo and safei^uard the incontestable independence of both
republics as sovereij^n international states, and to obtain the
assurance that those of Pier Majesty's subjects who have taken
part with us in this war shall suffer no harm whatever in person
or in property.

"On these conditions, and on these conditions alone, are we
now as in the past, desirous of seeinj^ peace reestablished in the
South African republics and of putting an end to the evils now
reigning over South Africa, While Her Majesty's government is
determined to destroy the independence of the republics there is
nothing left to us and to our people but to persevere to the end
in the course already taken.

''In spite of the overwhelming preeminence of the British
Empire we are confident that the God who lighted the inextinguish-
able fire of love of freedom in the hearts of ourselves and of
our fathers will not forsake us, but will accomplish His work in us
and our descendants.

"We have hesitated to make this declaration earlier to your
Excellency as we feared that as long as the advantage was on our
side, and as long as our forces held defensive positions far in Her
Majesty's colonies, such a declaration might hurt the feelings and
the honor of the Hritish peoi)le. Hut now that the prestige of the
British ICmpire may be considered to be assured by the capture of
one of our forces by Her Majesty's troops, and that we were thereby
forced to evacuate other positions that our forces had occupied,
that difficulty is over and we can no longer hesitate clearly to
inform your governmr.it and peoi)le, in the sight of the whole
civilized world, why we are fighting and on what comlitions wo
are ready to restore peace."

658

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The reply of Lord Salisbury was dated March 11th and was as
follows : " I have the honor to acknowledge your Honors' telegram,
dated March 5th, from Bloemfontein, of which the purport is
principally to demand that Her Majesty's government shall recoj?-
nize the incontestable independence of the South African Republic
and the Orange Free State, and to offer on those terms to bring
the war to a conclusion.

"In the beginning of October last, peace existed between Her
Majesty's government and the two republics under the conventions
which were then in existence, and discussions had been proceeding
for some months between Her Majesty's government and the South
African Republic, the object of which was to obtain redress for very
serious grievances under which the British residents in the South
African Republic were suffering. In the course of those negotiations
the South African Republic had, co the know^ledge of Her Majesty's
government, made considerable armaments, and the latter had con-
sequently taken steps to provide corresponding reenforcements to
the British garrisons in Cape Colony and Natal. No infringement
of the rights granted by the conventions had up to that point
taken place on the British side.

"Suddenly, at two days' notice, the South African Republic,
after issuing an insulting ultimatum, declared war upon Her
Majesty's government, and the Orange Free State, with whom they
had not even been in discussion, took a similar step. Her Majesty's
dominions were invaded by the two republics, siege was laid to
three towns within the British frontier and large portions of the
two colonies were overrun, with great destruction to property an<l
life, and the republics claimed tlie right to treat the inhabitants of
extensive portions of Her Majesty's dominions as if those dominions

PEACE PROPOSALS

(>.■)•)

had been annexed to one or the other of them. In anticipation of
these operations the South African Republic had been accumulating^
for many years past stores on an enormous scale, which, by their
character, could only have been intended for use a^'ainst Great
Britain.

"Your honors make some observations of a negative character
upon the object with which these preparations were nnule. 1 do
not think it necessary to discuss the questions you have raised, i>ut
the result of these preparations, which were carried on with great
secrecy, has been, that the British Empire has l)een compelled to
confront an invasion which lias entailol upon the empire a costly
war, and the loss of thousands of precious lives. This gi-eat calamity
has been the penalty which Oreat Britain has suffered for having
in recent >8ars. acquiesced in the existence of the two rei»nbli('s.

"In view of the use to wiiich the two iei)ublics liave i»nt the
position which was given them, and the calamities which their un-
provoked attack has inflicted upon Her Majesty's dominions. Her
Majesty's government can only answer your honors' telegram by
saying that they are not prepared to assent to tlie indcpeiulence
either of the South African Republic or of the Oi-ange Free State.''

The Sfandan/ said that as a declaration of Hritish iM)licy, Lord
Salisbury's reply to tln^ pi'esidents reflected with absolute fidelity
the, general opinion of (Ireat iiritain and the emi>ii'e. Sncdi was
the verdict of the rest of the press. Moreover, (U)nsiderahle indig-
nation was expressed over what was denounced as a willful misreji-
resentation of facts by presidents Kruger and Steyn.

This all-important jihase of the situation being established, let
lis now follow the militaiy nnivenunits.

A disi atch from (reneral Wol torts showed that the railway line

660

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

south of Bloemfontein was not damaged nor threatened, and with
General Gatacre across the Orange River at Bethulie, General
Clements at Norvals Point and General Pole-Carew at Springfon-
tein, the British situation was in a most satisfactory condition. The
occupation of Bethulie by General Gatacre was not opposed, the
enemy evacuating the town upon his approach, and a deputation
of citizens coming forth and making the surrender. They informed
the British that President Kruger had, on Marcli 18th, annexed the
Free State to the Transvaal.

In a despatch dated March 20th, General Roberts informed the
War Office that General Kitchener had occupied Prieska the day
previous without resistance. The rebels were laying dowm their
arms and Transvaalers were escaping across the river, while the
Boers in the Basutoland were beginning to surrender. General
Roberts prudently sought to pacify the region behind him before
advancing further. Resentment was shown towards President Steyn
because he failed to inform the inhabitants of Bloemfontein of
General Robert's offer to spare the town if it surrendered.

About the same time, the Earl of Ranfurly, Governor of New
Zealand, cabled to Colonial Secretary Chamberlain that that colony
wished to endorse the position taken by Great Britain in regard to
intervention in South Africa. She warmly supported the mother
country, as she would to the end, and a large number of good
shots and riders were volunteering and awaiting a chance to go to
South Africa.

A despatch from Kroonstad, Orange Free State, dated March
ISth, stated that the Pretoiia Federal commandei's were there in
high spirits and impatiently awaiting tlie British advance. Presi-
dents Kruger and Steyn made impassioned addresses, rousing their

DEA.TH OF PIET JOUBERT

661

hearers to a high degree of enthusiasm by declaring the war woiihl
be fought to the end and would surel}' result in Boer independence.
They warned the Free State burghers not to believe Lord Roberts'
proclamation nor to accept his invitation to lay down their arms.

The military situation for the following week or more did not
show the improvement which w^as hoped for and expected in Eng-
land. Since the relief of Ladysmitk, interest centered in Mafeking,
which, far over to the westward, had been entirely cut off and
besieged by the Boers. The troops of General Roberts w^ere so
exhausted when they reached Bloemfonteiu that a prolonged rest
was absolutely necessary, Not only was he thus prevented from
following up his advantage, but the Boers gained time in which to
make new^ intrenchments and formidable disposition of their forces.

The sad plight of Colonel Baden-Powell and his brave garrison
at Mafeking awakened universal sympathy and anxiety. Reports of
its capture and of its relief were made daily, and all came to
believe that the former was much the more probable. Strong hope
was placed upon the success of Colonel Plumer's column pushing
to the relief of Mafeking, but, on March 16th, his advance guard
was repulsed and his whole force retired orthward. It looked as
if Colonel Baden-Powell would have to rely upon himself until the
Kimberley column or General Rol)erts should relieve him.

The severest blow to the Boer cause was inflicted on the night
of March 27th, 1900, when Piet Joubert, Vice-President of the
Tiansvaal and Commandant General of the republic's military
loiccs, died at Pretoria, in his sixty-ninth year, fmm an attack of
acute inflammation of the kidneys, after a short illness. The body
was taken the next day to the Wakkerstroom district and there
interred in the family cemetery on a farm owned by him. The

^.'^

662

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

whole country was thrown into deepest gloom and his loss was
regarded as irretrievable.

We have given, in the preceding pages, a sketch of this re-
markable man. The English papers, while recognizing that he was
a life-long and consistent enemy of Great Britain, admitted liis
freedom from the rancor asc>'led to some of the other Boer
leaders and paid tribute to his chivalrous character. It was of him
that General White said in a speech at Cape Town: "He is a
poldier and a gentleman, a brave and honest opponent."

The most remarkable exploit of General Joubert was his victory
over Sir George Colley's force at Majuba Hill in 1S81, where 2S0
British were killed and Joubert lost but five men. When in the
United States, some years later, he w^as asked about the affair ami
replied: "DonV talk to me about Majuba Hill. I hate the very
name. I am positively disgusted with it. We fought against the
English for our rights, and would do so again if necessary. Bat it
will not be necessary, as w^e are a peace-loving people. I don't
know the locality. I don't know the name. Please don't ask me
about it."

Although Oom Paul and Joubert w^ere bosom friends, their views
radically differed on important points. He believed that if the
franchise were given the Uitlanders thpy w^onld, in a reasonable
time, become good citizens, and sncli he tliought wjts the true
solution of the problem. He was Puritanical in his sense of justice.
and when Jameson's raiders were landed in jail, he favored shootinj,'
them. It took all of Kruger's persuasive powers to induce him to
change his mind. Joubert's speech by which he gained the consent
of the burghers to turn the prisoners over to the British is given
elsewhere.

his loss was

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG — BY AN EYE-WITNESS

From the Canadian Magazine

War is a great game of chess. Instead of inanimate pieces the
moves are made with regiments of men. In the deadly game at
Maagersfontein Methuen moved first and was severely checked by
Cronje. It was again Methuen 's turn to move, but, instead of
changing the position of affairs, • merely pondered over the situ-
ation until Roberts made the most stragetic movement of the war.
The Field-Marshal "went around."'

When French's magnificent force of 8,500 horsemen left Modder
lliver Station on Feb. 11th for the relief of the Diamond City, they
did so in full view of the Boer forces entrenched at Maagersfontein,
but they completely hoodwinked Cronje by leaving all the tents
standing as though this were merely a review, or at most a recon-
naissance. It was not until a huge cloud of dust marking the
position of French's cavalrymen, appeared in his rear on the 15th
Feb., that Cronje fully realized the gravity of Lord Roberts' move-
ment. The Boers' magnificent position at Maagersfontein had been
rendered untenable, and Cronje issued orders for a general retreat
eastward. So with a force of 10,000 men and a huge convoy A
nearly BOO wagons the Boers began a retreat. It was masterly, but
disastrous.

On Thursday night and Friday morning Cronje's whole force
Itassed between Kimberley and Rondeval's Drift, just south (»f

(6ti:t)

()()4

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Abon's Dam. The post of "Robert's Horse" was too weak to inter-
pose. Crouje got about eight miles east of the Drift when he was
fiercely attacked by the energetic bulldog Kitchener, who had with
him the 0th Division and some mounted iiircuitry. It had been
Kitchener's purpose to head off the retreating force, hut so rapidly
had it moved that the Chief of staff was too late. In tiie desperate
rearguard action that followed all day Friday and Saturday Cronje
displayed the most masterly tactics, but in vain; the tenacious
Briton could not be shaken off.

On Friday the brilliant French had sent the Boers investing
Kimberley trekking northward, after a severe action, and then had,
by a rapid march across country on Saturday, arrived at Koodoos-
rand on Sunday to head off Cronje and his force.

In many minds there is not the least doubt that Cronjo com-
mitted a serious military blunder in clinging so tenaciously, or
rather, obstinately, to his huge convoy and guns when he found
himself so hard pressed by a much superior force, It is more than
possible that he could have escaped from Roberts with the great
bulk of his troops on Saturday or Sunday, had he left his exhausted
oxen and their wagons, destroyed his guns and sacrificed a small
rearguard to cover his retreat. From their lor.g march on Satur-
day French's horses were too weary and famished to pursue farther.
The want of forage for the cavalry was what absolutely stopped the
instant advance on Bloemfontein. Of the horses themselves, large
numbers had died in the long ride from Kimberley to Koodoos-
rand.

But Roberts saw Cronje's mistake as soon as he appeared upon
the scene, and it was to hold Cronje where he w'as that the attack
was ordered on Sunday, Feb. ISth, a date that will long remain a

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBEKG

(365

blood-letter day in the history of our Dominion, for on that day was
the Empire cemented in Canadian blood.

One could hardly have chosen a place more calculated to inspire
peaceful thoughts than the one where the bloody battle was fought
on that awful Sunday. Once more can I see it. I am facing the
east. All about are trees. Behind me a house, a typical little oblong
box-like affair, the floor of which is soon to run red with blood, for
already over the roof floats the sigma of the Geneva Convention.
In front is the river, the Modder River, flowing on peacefully, silently.
It takes a sweeping turn to the southeast, then to the north, then
again to the east. Through the green trees I can see it glitter in
the sunlight. It, too, will soon run crimson and muddy as it bears
upon its bosom the life-blood of many a heart that now beats high
with hope. Slightly to the left and on the south side of the river
is a kopje. In a line at right angles to the line from my point of
observation to the first kopje, and across the river, its top rising
above the trees that cover the river banks and dot the veldt, is
another kopje, held since midnight by our troops, and now used
as a signal station. Away over to the north is another kopje,
much longer and higher than the other.

In front of me is the red sandy road, about a foot below the
level of the surrounding veldt. It runs past the house behind me,
turns and goes on to the river, where it disappears, only to reappear
on the farther side. On it runs until with a dip down into a little
valley it is lost amid the trees. From here it runs on through a
wooded donga, and in that valley, in that donga, and in the river-
i)ed, Cronje, the "Lion of the Transvaal," is making his desperate
stand.

But the scene is no longer peaceful either to eye or ear.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Already the action has hejj:un. From every side, from every coign
of vantage, cnnnon are hurling death and destructian into the
bedraggU J desperate army that fill the rifle-pits on both sides

of the river and huddle in gully, valley and donga under the
friendly shade of the green trees. The very earth is shaken by
the heavy, crashing boom of great guns. The fierce shrill shrieks
of shrapnel mingle with the incessant rattle of musketry. The
damnable inferno of battle has broken loose, and everywhere swarm
the khaki-clad imps of war !

Away to the w^est on the road hangs a slowly approaching
cloud of dust. Nearer and nearer it comes. It is Colonel Smith-
Dorrien's brigade, the 19th of the 9th Division, and with them are
the Canadians. All night long they had been marching and now
at 6:15 a. m. they were arriving. Tired and weary from their long
march, the Canadians thought they would be kept in reserve, but
they were soon made aware that their brigade was to form an im-
portant factor in the attack. A biscuit and a ration of strong
pure rum was served out to each man. Ropes were thrown across
the river and secured to trees on each bank. Some of our men
crossed by this means, others locked arms and plunged into the
river four abreast, struggling against the current and almost lifted
off their feet; for the water often reached the chins of the tallest
men. Little Bugler Williams, of *'C" Company, was almost swept
away in the crossing, but big Jim Kennedy reached out a strong
helping hand and Williams reached the north bank in safety.
Once safely over the companies reformed and immediately went
into action, with "A" and *'B" Companies leading. It was about
7 o'clock. On our left were the Gordon boys ; on our right, the
Shropshire regiment.

THE BATTLE OF I'AARDEBERO

()l')7

The enthusiasm of the Canadians was simply splendid, for all
seemed to be filled with a dashing ardor that nothing could with-
stand. Before us along the river bank and on the slope of the
valley lay the Boers, their position being such that no matter at
what point a charge might be made, a deadly cross-tire could be
[)()ured into the attacking force.

The leading companies broke into open order, Colonel Otter
remaining with the supports, while Major Buchan took charge of
the firing line. When our lines were fully extended the advance
began in real earnest. At first there was no visible sign to show
that we were marching against an armed enemy. The men were
laughing, joking, happy. A fight at last! All signs of fatigue had
vanished and the fighting man alone was shown. Then the bullets
began to sing, at first few in number and then more thickly.
Then smiles faded into earnest looks and rifles were grasped more
lirmly; fingers nervously touched triggers, and eyes gazed more
anxiously to the hidden foe. The old hands at the game of war
could tell the singing "wheet!" of the Martini bullet from the
sharp stinging "phit!" of the swiftly flying Mauser.

Closer and closer we crept. Such was the contour of the valley
upon the edge of which was the first Boer trench, that while part
of our line was firing at 1,000 yards, the men on the right extrem-
ity of the firing line were only 500 yards away from the trench directly
in front of them. On the south and southeastern bank the Highland
brigade, the Yorkshire, Welsh, Essex, and a part of the Shrops regi-
ments were contending with the rifle pits upon that side of the river.
Thus Cronje was completely hemmed in, but in spite of all pre-
cautions some of his men succeeded in escaping from the net.
Near Koodoosrand was French and his cavalay keeping guard, ready

(;(;s

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFKICA

tc charge should the enemy attempt to break through, or to make
prisoners of those who attempted to get away.

Cooped up in a siiace not much over a square mile were the
Boers, while from every point our guns were pouring shrapnel and
lyddite into that small territory. The rifle fire became one contin-
uous snapping rattle, punctuated by the threatening earth-shakin;,'
roar of a big gun, or momentarily silenced by the quick "boum—
bourn— bourn " of the Maxim-Nordenfeldt.

It was simply murderous for Cronje to hold out any longer, but
hold out he did and in the face of such frightful odds.

All through that Sunday morning and late into the afternoon
our Canadians advanced steadily, gaining yard by yard. Some of
the men were almost mad with thirst, although bottles were filleil
at the river. The thirst that comes over a man when in battle
shows the fever that is raging within him. It was five o'clock.
The center of our line was about 700 yards, the right 250 or 80(1
yards away from the Boer trench. Then was made one of those
blundering, disastrous moves in which the British soldier proves
himself a hero and dies like a man; a fatal blunder, made by whose
orders no one seems to know.

The Cornwalls were near us, but slightly in our rear, and the
Colonel of that regiment, thinking the fighting too slow, asked
Colonel Otter's opinion as to the advisibility of a charge. Otter
evidently did not agree, and the Cornwall's Colonel went back to
his regiment, which fixed bayonets immediately and prepared to
charge. At the same time our Canadians fixed bayonets. A thrill
ran through the men. It was coming at last.

In front was an open space devoid of cover. Across that space
was raining a hail of bullets that converted it into a perfect zone

1, or to make

ly longer, but

A. D. WOLMAUAN'S.

BOER DBLEOATE TO TUB L'NITBO STATES.

ABRAHAM FISCHER,

BOKB UBI.KOATB TO TJIB ilNITBD STATES.

nil. W. J. LEYUS.
TRANSVAAL COHMISSIONBU TU EUHOrK.

GRN. PIET CRONJE. M. J. STKYN,

SURBINOEBEI) TO OBNEHAL KOBBKTS, FEB. 27, EX-PBSBIUENT OKANUE FREE STATE.

AT MOUDEH RIVER.

LOUD Dl'NDONAM),

COMMAMUNO CAVAI.UY ItltlUADK.

LIKIT. OEX. SIKCnAULKS WAUUKN.

(iKNKKAl, IAN llAMII/POX.

ORN. SIR. WM. 1'1;N\ '^VMONS,

SILLED AT (ILKNfOK, 0( TUIlbU CJ, IhUO.

MAJOUQEN. II. A. MoDONALD.

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

671

WAUUKN.

ONALD.

of death. In a strong cross-fire nothing can live. Yet in spite of
this our men began their desperate rush. Ah! the madness of it
all. Heavens! what heroism! What mockery of grim death was in
that charge! Like the great heroes of old they rushed upon the
foe. Immediately the men began to drop. A shell bursts overhead.
Here and there a man stumbles and falls, but he does not rise
again. That was his last step on this earth. Another hero stops
for a second and sinks down in a heap, motionless, silent. A few
throw up their arms with a sobbing gasp and fall prone upon the
red sand, now stained a deeper red by the life-blood that oozes
irom the little round hole in the dust-colored tunics. Pierced
through the body by two balls a Canadian falls, but so strong is
the combativeness of his nature that with his last effort he points
his rifle toward the trench, presses the trigger and — dies. But one
Canadian that started from the center of the line reached the
trench, where he gave up his life. The Colonel, the Adjutant and
a Captain of the Cornwalls fell within a few seconds of one another.
It was awful.

Poor Harry Arnold, the captain of "A" Company and one of the
finest men that ever buckled on a sword, went down with a bullet
through his head and another through his arm. He never recovered
consciousness. Lieutenant Mason was leading his half company when
a ball struck him in his left shoulder and came out beneath the right
arm-pit. Lister and Jackson were killed quite early in the charge.

On the right Captain Joe Pelletier and Captain Stairs succeeded
in reaching the trench with their men after many narrow escapes;
but on their arrival they found that the Boers, true to their tradi-
tions, had not waited for the cold blue steel, but had fled to the river
banks. Standing up to survey the scene Pelletier noticed that the

672

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

position was commanded by the Boer trenches on the bank and
immediately ordered his men to lie down. Hardly had the order
been obeyed when a crashing volley came sweeping over their
heads. Some of the men of "C" Company, finding the trench
empty when they had succeeded in gaining it, started over to the
left, in the words of Pte. Kennedy, "to look for trouble." They
got it. Struck in the arm and thigh Kennedy went down. A per-
fect hail of lead tore up the ground about them, but Pte. J.
Jordan, a medical student, coolly proceeded to dress Kennedy's
wounds, and after successfully pertorming this kindness, ran on
after his comrades.

Within the deadly zone it was impossible for the bearers to
remove the wounded. Tied up in the trees along the river bank
were Boer sharpshooters, and many a wounded man was struck
again and again as he lay upon the ground. Three of our stretcher-
bearers were struck. It meant almost certain death to attempt to
help the wounded, and yet a noble deed was done there. The
bullets were keeping up their sickening song when a Highlander
noticed a wounded Gordon trying to roll into a little depression to
escape from the bullets. Still clinging to his rifle he ran out,
threw the wounded man over his shoulder, and staggered back
amid the cheers of his admiring comrades.

Throughout the live-long day the ambulance wagons came and
went in a steady stream. Glance where and when you would tlie
red cross met the gaze. The fortitude of our troops, suffering the
most intense agony, was simply wonderful. Men maimed for life,
men whose bodies had lost all human semblance, but who were
still breathing, were borne to the rear; yet from their lips came
never a sound or whimper.

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

673

As the evening wore on more artillery came into action. With
a rush and a rattle of chains, with a thud of armed hoofs and
shouts of command, a battery came galloping up on the south bank
to the right of the Highlanders, got into position and began co-
operating with guns on the other side of the river. The air fairly
screamed with a storm of shrapnel. The sighting of the guns was
very accurate, the "hell scrapers," as the Boers called our slirapnel,
falling with wonderful precision in the river bed and along its
rifle-pit lined banks.

That night the scene at Paardeberg was one to be remembered.
It was terribly picturesque ; it was awe-inspiring. The great sky
and distant tree tops reflected the red glare of the burning am-
munition wagons and carts that had been fired by our shells.
Great columns of brown smoke rose in the air only to mingle with
the sickly greenish-yellow smoke of the deadly lyddite. The rattle
of musketry gave sound to the awful picture. Even the sense of
smell WPS awakened by the faint odor of burning flesh that came
through the trees on the evening breeze as it floated towards us
from the Boer laager, while the booming crash of heavy artillery
made the valley echo and re-echo.

Many were the strange sights to be witnessed that day on both
banks of the river. Seated behind an ant-hill was a man. He had
been shot in the ankle, and after taking off his shoe and sock, had
drawn out his little medicine packet preparatory to bandaging up
the wound. He had the long bandage held out before him, appar-
ently looking at it in surprise and not knowing whicli way to begin. I
called out to him, but receiving no answer came closer. There he
sat, but motionless, dead, dead as ever a man was. A little dark
ruddy stain on the dust-colored tunic showed where he had been hit.

674

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Not far away a thin blue column of smoke was seen rising
behing a clump of shrubbery. Two Gordon Highlanders, one a
mere boy, shot through the right shoulder, the other a deep-chested,
bearded man with a Martini bullet in his thigh, had bandaged up
their wounds and were calmly smoking while waiting for the am-
bulance to bear them away to the field hospital.

Near the trenches both Briton and Boer lay dead, now forever
reconciled with one another. By their attitudes as they lay upon
the ground I could tell how long they had been dying. Some of the
Boers lay with a cartridge just shoved into the breech of their Martinis,
for the rugged old back-veldt Boer often prefers the familiar heavy
rifle to the more modern Mauser. Many who had been shot in the
head lay with their faces on the sod, and their rifles under them;
and when struck in the heart, death had been so instantaneous
that all retained the positions in which they had been shot. One
man had just pressed tlie trigger when hit. His finger still held
back the little crooked piece of steel; his eye still glanced over the
sights, but it was with a glance of mingled horror and surprise, a
look that saw nothing. It was the glance of death! Quite close to
one another lay four of our Canadian boys, all dead. Involuntarily
I reined in my horse and gazed silently at them. The countenances
of some seemed as though still in life, as far as expression went.
And such varied expressions! In some faces I could read a ghastly
and defiant smile, as though, even in death as in life, the fierco
hot thirst for human lives and the defiance of the grim destroyer
were the dominant passions. Some were calm and resigned; others
were fierce and stern; some as if in prayer; but all were pale, and
white and cold as the icy northern winter they would never see
more. There they lay with the life-blood stiffening on their khaki
uniforms, ah! so stained and torn.

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

675

And we spoke of Arnold with hushed voices. He would die,
away out there. And we spoke of those that had been our com-
rades through the long marches. And yet their fate to-day might
have been ours, might be ours on the morrow, and this idea turned
our thoughts homeward, homeward across the leagues of land and
water to those that love us and those we love.

Daybreak on the morning of the 19th found tne Boers still
there, dogged in their murderous resistance. During the night all
hands must have worked like slaves, for their position was consid-
erably strengthened by fresh entrenchments. In fact, the remarkable
quickness with which the Boer f . .•: entrench himself and adapt him-
self to the natural defences of the country is wonderful. The Royal
Canadians were given a well-earned rest to the rear of the position
they occupied just before the charge on the previous day, until
two o'clock in the afternoon, when came the order to stand to arms.
At five o'clock they moved to the left to complete the cordon that
was being drawn tighter and tighter about the Boer general.

The position of the enemy on the little kopje to our left
engaged the attention of the Mounted Infantry and a battery of
the Royal Horse Artillery. These on approaching met with such a
heavy fire that they were compelled to fall back. Later on they
took the kopje, and after garrisoning it, returned to camp at
nightfall.

Early that morning Cronje asked for a 24-hour truce to bury
his dead. Kitchener was not to be fooled into granting the slim
Boer so much precious time and promptly refused, answering that
the dead might be buried after the surrender. Then came a reply
from Cronje, curt and biting, saying that since the British were
inhuman enough to refuse such a natural and humane request that

676

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

«0

General Cronje saw nothing else than to surrender. Kitchener had
started toward the Boer laager to arrange for the capitulation, when
a messenger from the Boer general was met who said that Cronje
stated that the second message was a mistake, and that he had not
the least idea of surrendering, but would fight till he died.

And Kitchener of Khartoum returned to the British lines.
Those well acquainted with the man can well imagine the steely
glance, the right eye blazing like a live coal, and the firm pro-
truding jaw as he ordered the 18th, 62nd and 75th Field Batteries
and the 65th Howitzer Battery to bombard the position. This last
battery took up a position immediately in front of the main laager,
aud all began a terrific fire which drove the Boers to the trenches
in the river-bed. It was vain to seek for cover, for no cover could
protect them from the close, accurate and deadly fire that was
poured into them. The howitzers dropped shell after shell of lyddite
into the river-bed until it seemed that no living creature could
come through that awful hail of death. Still the Boers held out.

Away over on the other side of the laager a small party of
mounted Boers endeavored to break through the cordon. Gallopers
went madly coursing between French and a half battalion of cavalry
that were far out on the veldt. Suddenly from the cavalry leader's
side away went an orderly, his horses belly stretched to the ground
at every bound of the powerful limbs. He soon becomes but a
cloud of dust. The cloud stopped at the head of the motionless
half battalion. Like mad the Boers are urging on their horses.
Then came the orders: "The battalion will advance. First squad-
ron, march! Trot! Gallop! Charge!!" A bugle blares out.
A huge cloud of sand rises. And then — then all was a mad, wild
chaos of khaki uniforms, pugareed helmets, slasher hats; coats,

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

677

brown, black, blue, grey; of brandished lance points, flashing rifles;
of fleeing, shrieking, cursing men; of tumbling bodies, and horses
kicking, plunging, biting and rolling on the turf, giving vent to
that shrill, half-human, agonizing cry as they tore up the ground
with their armoured hooves. Few of the Boers escaped.

The third day of the siege was to witness one of the grandest
efforts on the part of the artillery that the British army has ever
witnessed. For a short time the infantry engaged the enemy, driv-
ing them back, for the morning light showed thtm hard at work,
strengthening their position on all sides round their laager. Soon
there came a strange, wierd lull in the fight during which we could
hear the guns with French away to the east, engaged with the
the reinforcements which were hurrying to Cronje's assistance.

But the morning gave place to the afternoon, and Roberts,
seeing that the Boer general had no intention of surrendering,
although invited to do so in humanity's name, determined to
thoroughly crush his enemy and so finish the work we had been
prevented from performing nineteen years ago. On the south bank
he ordered the guns already there into new position, 2,000 yards
from the laager. On the north side were two long-range, naval
12-pounders enfilading the river, the naval 4.7 guns and three more
batteries, the 76th, 81st and 82nd, 47 powerful guns in all. This,
of course, does not include the Maxims which were continually at
work. It is hard for the mind to conceive such a scene when so
many powerful weapons were turned upon a space so confined.
Finally the naval guns were advanced to within 1,000 yards of the
Boer position. The crash and roar v/as deafening and appalling.
The very ground shook as the mighty report rolled up the river
valley, echoing and resounding, rolled down again among the hills

G78

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

with a crashing roar as though a thousand fiends were shrieking
in chorus over the destruction! Every bush, every little hillock,
every ravine that might shelter the enemy was made a mark by
the gunners. The banks on both sides of the river were simply
torn to pieces by shrapnel. The Boers attempted to snipe the men
manning the naval guns, but were driven back by the fierce
counter-fire that was poured among them by the Maxims.

Meanwhile the command of Smith-Dorrien had been at work
since five a. m. Advancing continuously in open order, they suc-
ceeded in establishing themselves within 600 yards of the Boers,
where they rested themselves until four p. m., many without a
bite to eat or a drop to drink. Indeed the rations that were served
out were hardly enough to keep body and soul together. About
four o'clock, however, the Canadian's transport came up with ket-
tles, water and tea, and the men crowded round in a hungry mob.
So conspicuous was the crowd that the Boers turned one of their
"pom-pom" guns upon the throng; the majority of the deadly little
shells, fortunately, fell too short or passed harmlessly overhead. A
few did explode among our men, but the damage done was slight.

Tuesday night found our men resting, without a sound to dis-
turb their well-earned repose. Silent were the cannon, silent the
spiteful rifle. There in the donga lay the Boer general fighting
against hope. Who can tell what his thoughts were on that night?
Majuba day was coming. Could he hold out until then? Would
that day bring him the savage joy it brought nearly a score
years before? But all was silent and still. Nature, in her tragic
moods, is silent.

Dawn on the 21st brought anxiety with it. The men were not
all awake when suddenly a terrific fusilade broke out on our left

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

679

front over towards the north side of the Boer laager. The men
sprang up and looked at one another in astonishment. Some grasped
their rifles. The incessant rattle and crackling of the rifle fire was
the heaviest probably that had occurred since the beginning of the
war. It sounded as though regiment after regiment were pouring
in volley after volley in one continuous roar. Was Cronje making
a desperate rush to break through? Had the whole Boer army
come to the relief of their greatest fighting general?

But the news soon came to set their minds at rest. Two
British regiments had lost their way the night previous and had
bivouacked quite close to the Boers' trenches. The enemy, working
in the early dawn on their position, discovered the close proximity
of the British and at once began firing upon them, but so wretch-
edly bad was the Boer marksmanship that the caualties were very
slight.

In the early morning Smith- Dorrien's brigade began working
northward toward the laager, while French advanced to the eastern
kopje held by a strong force of Boers who had previously been
strongly reinforced by a commando from before Ladysmith. While
French was advancing, another brigade and a battery of H. A. worked
round to the rear of the same kopje. When the artillery un-
limbered and commenced to shell the hill, the Boers suddenly
started in the direction of French, who forced them toward the
drift by vigorous shell fire. Many escaped, but we captured about
lifty, and in the kopje found a lot of forage, provisions and equip-
ment. This position was of great strategical value, as it prevented
any relieving force from marching to the assistance of the
beleaguered general.

The fighting during the day was broken by several short truces,

680

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

but Cronje not only refused to surrender, but declined Roberts'
humane offer of safe conduct for women and children, and a free
pass to any point they wished to reach.

All through the evening the heavy artillery fire was kept up,
and, when the last gun was fired, the Shropshires, who had been
occupying the river bed since Sunday, made a splendid rush of 200
yards, where they took up position and spent the whole night
entrenching themselves. Just after this fine movement a heavy
thunderstorm, accompanied by rain, broke out, and soon every man
in the field was soaking wet, but in spite of their discomfort the
men manned the trenches as cheerily as ever.

Just as when we are happiest we are nearest sadness, so in the
time of extreme danger, many amusing, even ludicrous sights are
to be seen, but perhaps the most amusing was to see the way in
which the Gordons relieved the Shrops on Thursday. The Boer
sharpshooters were ever on the alert and a glimpse of khaki brought
a bullet. Extreme caution was the price of safety, so the High-
landers wormed their way to the trenches on their stomachs, while
over their prostrate bodies crept the men of the Shropshire regi-
ment.

The day was marked by the triple repulse dealt to the reinforce-
ments that had hurried to the help of Cronje. At daybreak a most
determined effort to break the cordon was made by over 2,000
Boers. Part of these endeavored to take up one position after
another, but found each of the three coigns of vantage they
attempted to occupy were held by the British. They finally rode
to a kopje that was unoccupied, but the "Borderers" who had
hurled them back from each of the three positions, and whose reg-
imental badge, covered with glorious names, shows it to be one of

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

681

the finest regiments in the service, raced to the kopje, and getting
there before the enemy, again drove them away. Botha, the general
who came to Cronje's assistance, was forced to flee, pursued by our
cavalry, which cut up his rear guard and took sixty prisoners with
seven wagons.

On the 26th we knew the end was near. The rains, which had
been prevailing for the last few days, had swollen the river, forcing
the Boers from the security of the river bed. Upon the muddy
bosom of the stream there floated dead horses and dead men. The
stench arising from the dead bodies was horrid and the sight
ghastly in the extreme.

And then Majuba day came, the day of all days to the Boer.
The sun was not yet above the horizon. It was five minutes to
three o'clock. Silence reigned supreme. Two minutes to three and
still all was quiet as the tomb. Then the hour of three was
ushered in by a sharp rippling fire of rifle shots that broke the
silence of the morning. The reports echoed along the river bank,
sweeping up stream and down again, gaining in volume and then
dying away as the sound rolled on. Thousands of bullets cut up
the plain, the flash-lights were working like mad from kopje to
kopje, and the rumor spread again that Cronje was trying to break
through. Soon the crash of British volleys broke the rattle of the
well known report of the Mausers. Every man wns awake. Then
over the sound of the rifles came the blare of the bugle, "Cease
fire," and, save for a few scattered shots, all was again silent. And
once more dawn brought explanations.

The Canadians had again shown the fine fighting qualities
exhibited on the 18th. Two com.panies with fixed bayonets
advanced up the north bank, keeping touch with one another in

682

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the darkness by locking arms. Following them came others with
picks and shovels and some Royal Engineers. On they went, 500
yards, 600 yards, 700 yards, 800 yards, and then began to entrench
themselves. They were only fifty yards from the Boers. The sound
of steel pick and shovel alarmed the Boers and at once the Mausers
were at work. But the men, following instructions, threw them-
selves upon the ground and the leaden hail passed harmlessly over-
h^ id. The Canadians were told not to return the fire. The Gordons
in the river could not fire for fear of hitting their colonial comrades,
but the Shrops, from their trench, poured a destructive enfilading
fire that formed a good cover. The Canadians succeeded in occupy-
ing the edge of the trenches along the river, completely enfilading
the rest. Suddenly the first ray of the sun appeared over the tree-
tops and the regiment stationed on the crest of the hill saw a white
flag and burst into cheers. "Hurrah" after "Hurrah," burst from
their throats. Cronje has surrendered.

Our wounded was still being brought in when General Colvile
and Colonel Ewart, of his staff, arrived, and the rumor quickly
spread that 1,^.^0) rat had come out of his hole. But our men were
too tired and weary to cheer at the time, yet hand met hand in
friendly firm clasp as comrade turned to comrade without saying a
word. Shortly afterwards a note arrived for Lord Roberts stating
that General Cronje surrendered unconditionally, and General Pret-
tyman was sent to take the surrender. At six o'clock Cronje came
out of his retreat accompanied only by his secretary and in charge
of General Prettyman. This small group crossed the plain toward
headquarters. Lord Roberts, pacing silently to and fro near the
cart in which he sleeps, ordered the guard of Seaforth Highlanders
to form in line to receive the surrendering general,

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERG

683

The group of horsemen came nearer, and on the right of Pret-
tyman rode an elderly man wearing a rough, short, darl ereoat,
wide brimmed hat, much the worse of wear, ordinary twee ousers,
and shoes difficult to tell whether they were brown or black, so
covered were they with the red dust. The face, shaded by the
wide brim, was almost black from sun and exposure to all kinds of
weather, and the thick beard was tinged with grey. This was the
"Lion of the Transvaal," Cronje!

The face of the Boer was like a mask. Was he thinking of
Potjesfontein then? Who can tell? The Field-Marshal's staff stood
waiting.

"Commandant Cronje, sir," said Prettyman, addressing his chief.
Cronje touched his hat in salute; Roberts returned it. The whole
party dismounted; Roberts stepped forward a pace or two, shook
hands with Cronje and said, "You made a gallant defense, sir."
This was the first salutation of the Marshal to the conquered leader,
who then entered the mess tent, where he was entertained with
food.

And over among the Boers were strange sights. The men stood
np unarmed on the trench banks, and white flags showed among
the trees and along the red earth trenches. Men were wandering
aimlessly to and fro, each carrying his blanket. They did not seem
to be sorrowful at the surrender, but wdiat troubled them was their
ultimate destination, where would they be sent, or if they would
be paroled. Over on the other bank were women and children, good,
faithful hearts that had accompanied their husbands, fathers,
brothers, sons, to the field, not to fight against the hated "Rooineks,"
but to cook for their men. The women were red-eyed and crying
and wringing their hands at the dread thought of being torn from

684

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

those they loved. And little children clung piteously to their
mothers' skirts and looked up pathetically, wondering what it was
all about. Weeping, the women begged for something to give their
children to eat: All were hungry. Their oxen had perished, their
horses stampeded; they were helpless, and this — this of all days
was Majuba day !

Within the laager the sight was a doleful one. Burned wagons,
red crooked pieces of iron, heaps of ashes, and everywhere great
holes splashed with the pale yellowish green of the exploded lyddite.
The foot crunched on shrapnel, shreds of steel lay all about, while
a great 100-pound shell lay unexploded upon the sand. Death and
destruction reigned supreme. The whole place stank with putrid
flesh, notwithstanding the fact that thousands of Boers, horses and
cattle had been thrown into the river in the vain endeavor to rid
the place of the stench. It seems impossible that human beings
could have existed in such a noisome place. The trenches were
constructed in a most marvelous manner, making it quite probable
that oux' bombardment was not as deadly as might have been
expected.

The wounded lay unattended under the trees or hid in holes in
the ri^ r bank. Broken boxes, dead horses and men were every-
where. Further up the river three Krupps poked their black
muzzles from a wall built with parapets of sand bags. Some
artillerymen were hurrying about the guns. When we came to
take possession the breech blocks were gone and doubtless rest in
the mud at the bottom of the river.

Then the soldiers began to arrive, and order grew out of chaos.
Sharp words of command were shouted, the confusion grew less;
the mob sifted itself into queer-looking groups, forming by

THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBERQ

685

commandos, just as we form by regiments. Squatting upon their
rolled or folded blankets, they awaited further orders.

And these, this rabble, unkempt, dirty, ill-clad — these men with
their old-fashioned faces and peasant clothes — these were the men
who had hurled back the flower of the English army at bloody
Maagersfontein, and there they sat or stood slouchily, prisoners of
war. There was the old grey-beard of three score, the clean-lipped,
keen-eyed youth of sixteen, the fathers and the sons, hard men all.
They did not look like the men to roll back our British lines, or
stand a bombardment that would have broken the morale of even
the finest army. And they, with pardonable pride, looked pleased
when told that they fought well, and gazed at the Mausers and at
the ammunition that overflowed the trenches, at the munitions of
war that alone linked them to modern times.

And then came the order to cross the river. In two ever-
increasing heaps the rifles were thrown. Some cast their rifles
aside as though glad to get rid of them. Others among the grey-
beards placed their rifles slowly and tenderly upon the heap as
though parting with some well-beloved child, and then went on
with bowed head. The scene at the ford was one of the most
marvelous ever witnessed. Each man took with him all he could
carry — pots, pans, and blankets. The river had swollen and many of
the prisoners took off their trousers to cross. The whole scene was
that of a picnic rather than a scene from the tragedy. War. Laughing
and splashing one another, the men crossed, appearing to look upon the
surrender as a huge joke, but among them were serious faces, grim
and old, which looked with anger or sorrow upon the sporting of
the others. The women waved their hands in farewell. Loving
words of parting were shouted from bank to bank. A young Boer

686

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

stops, looks back. His mother is standing over there. One kiss,
one more caress he must hav3. He starts back. A gleaming bay-
onet is lowered to his breast. But the mute look of appeal in his
honest grey eyes touches the heart of "Tommie," who has a grey-
haired old mother at home, and the boy is soon at his mother's
side, only to be back in his place again before the section reaches
the other bank. War is not all glory.

And so Cronje surrendered over 4,000 men and six guns, and
the shot-marks on the surrendered pom-pom gun showed how fierce
had been the leaden hail.

. One kiss,
jaming bay-
ppeal in his
has a grey-
lis mother's
;ion reaches

if guns, and
d how fierce

^ ft!

d H

= Q

CHAPTER XXXV

THE TRAMP OF THE BRITISH LION— THE FAMOUS SPION KOP DESPATCHEy

= Q

I-
<

" wi

h
ui,. Hi
y. >' a\

55 S

:^^

>'. -i u

^ *«^

/;
ui
s
■J
■J]

President Steyn having removed the seat of the Free State
government to Kroonstadt, some one hundred and sixty miles north-
east of Kimberley, the main body of the Boers rested there while
their leaders did all they could to repair the demoralization natur-
ally following General Kolierts' brilliant advance on Kimberley and
Bloemfontein. The terrific strain upon horse flesh caused by the
rapid and continuous movement of Generals French and Kelly-Kenny
in the capture of Cronje and the advance to Bloemfontein, com-
pelled General Roberts to wait several weeks for remounts. Tiie
thorough, frank soldier never hesitates to put blame where it be-
longs, and dissatisfied with the inefficiency of General Gatacre, he
sent him home. He was succeeded by General Sir H. Chermside, a
younger officer with an excellent reputation for energy and ability.
With General Cronje at St. Helena as a military prisoner. General
Joubert dead and Colonel de Villebois-Mareuil killed in battle, it
will be seen that the Boers, aside from their losses in privates, had
suffered severely in the way of leaders.

A new factor was introduced into the British campaign by the
landing of General Sir Frederick Carrington at Beira, in Portuguese
East Africa, with a body of colonial troops, chiefly Australian
))ushmen, with a battery of Canadian troop.

On Marcli 31st, a force of Boers at Thaba N'Cliu, fifteen miles
east of Bloemfontein, ambushed Colonel Broadwood ^ horse artillery
with such skill that that officer lost nearly four hundred men, seven

(OHO)

1)90

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

guns and all his baggage, the Boers securing possession of the water-
works near by. A few days later five hundred British cavalry and
infantry troops at Reddersburg were taken prisoners, thus proving
that the Boers were as active and alert as ever. About the same
time Lord Methuen's troops captured a party of Boers near Boshof,
the importance of the incident being heightened by the death of
Colonel de Villebois-Mareuil, already alluded to.

Colonel Dalgetty having been shut up with a small force in
Wepener, General Roberts in the latter part of April, made a deter-
mined effort to draw a cordon to the east around the Boers, who
numbered 4,000 or 5,000; but, when success seemed certain, Com-
mandant Botha succeeded in withdrawing with all his men and
supplies. General French closely followed with his cavalry and the
mounted infantry and there was a continual exchange of firing, but
all that the Boers accomplished was slightly to delay the advance
of General Roberts northward from Bloemfontein.

This delay, however, was of no importance. General Roberts
had revived his transport service and equipped his men with fresh
horses, so that his advance against Pretoria began almost at once.
His army was deployed along a front of forty miles. With almost
iucredi))le rapidity, he swept northward, and ten days later entered
Kroonstadt, the Boers fleeing in consternation before the approach
of the resistless army,. President Steyn made an early start and
announced that Lindley, some 50 miles east, would take its turn in
serving as capitol of the Orange Fv'ee State until further notice.

General Hunter, in command of the British forces north of
Kimberley, kept step with the advance of Lord Roberts. Crossing
the Vaal River at Windsorton, he fought a severe engagement on
May 4th, a d then joined General Paget's forces at Warrenton, not

THE TRAMP OF THE BRITISH LION

01)1

far from Fourteen Streams. The following week he entered Christiana
without opposition, and for the first time since the opening of the
war, the British ensign was given to the breeze in the Transvaal.
General Buller also began an advance in Natal, and no serious
opposition was offered to his occupation of Glencoe, Dundee or the
Biggarsburg passes.

Snialdeel, half way between Bloemfontein and Kroonstadt was
occupied by the British without opposition April 6th, several Boer
railway officials remaining to surrender. General Roberts' despatch
contained this tribute to tho colonial troops who have never failed
to perform their duty brilliantly and fearlessly: "We crossed the
Vet River this morning and are now encamped at Smaldeel Junction.
The enemy is in full retreat toward Zand River and Kroonstadt.

"The turning movement made by the mounted infantry just
before dark yesterday, was a very dashing affair. The Canadians,
New South Wales Rifles, New Zealand Rifles and Queenstown
Mounted Infantry, vied with each other in the determination to
close with the enemy and Captain Anley of the Essexes behaved in
a very gallant manner.

"The naval guns and the artillery made excellent practice,
particularly two 5-inch guns, which were used for the first time by
this force. We captured a Maxim and 25 prisoners. Our casualties
were few. One killed, 25 wounded and 3 missing."

After such news, the occupation of Kroonstadt, as already stated,
followed as a matter of course. It was provided with most form-
idable defences and intrench ments and doubtless the Boers would
liave made a determined fight bat for the numerical superiority of
the British, which rendered all resistance absolutely hopeless. The
tremendous sweep of General Roberts' line and his flanking operations,

Cl)2

TME STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

rendered possible by his immense mounted force, completely
baffled the burghers, who had simply to choose between retreatinj^
or remaining to be strangled in the resistless coil. What a differont
story would have been told in the early stages of the war, had
this wise policy been followed!

Major Weston, of the Engineers, and Scout Burnham, endeavored
to repeat the line cutting which secured the rolling stock at
Bloemfontein for the British, but they were just too late, and the
Boers were thus enabled to save several trains and engines, one of
the former containing a large amount of specie. The Landdrost
was very reluctant to go out and meet Groneral Roberts, who
waited outside the town while the head of the column passed in.

On May 15th, the London war office announced that the total
casualties to date, exclusive of those sick in hospitals in South
Africa, have been 18,799, the losses being made up as follows:
Killed, 2,322; died of wciinds, 571; died from disease, 2,492; acci-
dentally killed, 54; prisonors 4,459; invalided home 8,901.

General BuUer's advance and occupation of Dundee was reported
in the following despatches through Lord Roberts: ''Kroonstadt, May
14th. — General Buller reports that, in accordance with instructions
to keep the enemy occupied at the Biggarsburg, on May 11, 'he
concentrated the Third Cavalry on the Helpmakaar road. On May
13th he sent Hamilton and Bethune up Witchcock Hill, and the
enemy hurriedly abandoned the position. On May 14th the enemy
evacuated Helpmakaar."

Another despatch from General Buller dated May 15th, says:
" Dundonald drove the rear guard on the main body of the enemy
near Zuslinden. The enemy were 2,000 strong. We move on
Dundee to-day. Hildyard moved on Wessels Nek on May 13th."

THE TRAMP OF THE BRITISH LION

Gua

General Buller, under di\te of May 15th, 1 P. M., says: " Twenty-
five hundred of the enemy yesterday left Dundee for Glencoe,
where they entrained. Their wagons left yesterday for De Jaager's
Drift and the Dannhauser road. The Kaffirs said the Boers were
going to Laing's Nek. Almost every house in Dundee was com-
pletely looted and damaged. The machinery of the collieries has
been destroyed. Hildyard occupied Wessels Nek to-day. Our small
loss w^as due to Hamilton's, Dundonald's and Bethune's excellent
leading."

These details regarding the advance are added: "May 14th. — The
enemy evacuated Helpmakaar Nek during the night, leaving a rear
guard of 1,000 in front of us. These we forced back throughout
the day under considerable difficulties, as they set fire to all of the
grass on top of the Berg while retreating, and the wir:? being
unfavorable to us, we were scarcely able to see. I halted the
infantry, who n?a-rched well through the hot smoke, at Beith. The
cavalry has not yet reported, as they are some miles ahead. We
have taken a few prisoners."

''Kemp's Farm, May 15th, 6:30 A. M. — Dundonald reported late
last night that he had driven the rear guard on to the main body
of the er.omy near Zuslinden, where they occupied in force a strong
position, wath three povrerful guns. Major Gough, with a com-
posite regiment maneuvered to the right round their left flank.
The enemy retired and Dundonald halted. He was twenty-five
miles as the crow flies from last night's bivouac. He had covered
nearly forty miles during the day in a waterless country, most of
the time riding through smoke. I think his pursuit was a very
fine performance.

" From prisoners I learn that the enemy were over two thousand

694

THE STOBT OF SOUTH AFRICA

strong at Helpmakaar. Having been now joined by those who
had been left at Van Jonder's Pass, they must be nearly three
thousand strong."

Relief of Mafeking

Meanwhile, the anxiety regarding Mafeking deepened, and there
were many who were in despair for its safety. All the news that
filtered through the hostile lines showed that the garrison and its
inhabitants were on the most meagre rations possible, and yet no
one seemed to lose heart or was disposed to give up hope that
relief would reach them in time. One of the messages from the
beleaguered place said: "We have now come to eating anything'
that can be eaten, and are thankful to get it. Horse, locust and
mule are familiar articles of diet to everybody, and horsehide
brawn is extensively made. It is not bad, though it is somewhat
gluey. The whole garrison have relinquished their daily allowance
of an ounce of sugar to each man to enable the women's and
children's amount to be increased."

Lady Sarah Wilson, on May 3rd, telegraphed to her sister in
London that her breakfast en that day consisted of horse sausages,
and her lunch of minced mule and curried locusts. The family of
Colonel Baden-Powell wired him an invitation to dinner on March
28th. On May 15th they received the following reply: "Mafeking,
May 9th, by runner to Ootsi. — Will be delighted to accept your
kind invitation directly fortune permits."

Months before Lord Roberts predicted that Mafeking and
Colonel Baden-Powell's gallant garrison would be relieved by May
18th of their long and trying confinement, but the feat was accom-
plished two day earlier— that is, on the 16th. The siege began on

THE TRAMP OF THE BRITISH LION

Gl).')

October 14, 1899, General Cronje investing the town with about
3,000 Boers and three gnns. When Cronje moved south to the
Modder, General Snyman was in command of the besiegers. In
Mafeking were a few hundred English soldiers and about 1.200
irregular troops.

The relieving force passed the Vaal River below Fourteen
Streams, and then made a wide detour to the westward. The

Boers must have learned of this march, but they could not offer

serious opposition, since they were threatened at that time by the

expedition under General Carrington approaching from the north.

With tlie abandonment of the siege of Mafeking, the Boers
were everywhere placed on the defensive, in a narrowing semi-
circle to the south from Mafeking to Laing's Nek.

Who shall describe the scenes in England, Canada, Australia
and all the British colonies when the news reached them? None
but those who saw the wild, hilarious rejoicing, and heard the
shouts, the cheering and the songs of triumph, can picture the
wonderful exhibition. Throughout the irrestrainable demonstra-
tions, the soul-cheering thought was: "The end is in sight; the
triumph of old England is near at hand."

The progress of Colonel Mahon's march to the relief of Mafeking
was, until the fighting on May 13th, uneventful. Leaving Barkley
West on the 4th, the column advanced at an average speed of
twenty-five miles a day, although encumbered with twenty wagons
and stores. Upon arriving at Vyburg, on May 10th, the Boers were
found in force on the right flank. A race on parallel lines followed
to Koodoosrand. The Boers aiming to head off Colonel Mahon.
They arrived first, whereupon Colonel Mahon made a wide detour
to the west in the night. The enemy followed closely, and attacked

096

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sharply on the 13th, but suffered a repulse, leaving a number of dead
on the field. Then the column made a wide detour and joined Colonel
Plumer. The combined forces marched against the besiegers and
heavily bombarded their laagers. The Boers, after a brief resistance,
fled in order to preserve their line of retreat.

Colonel Mahon's expedition was one of the most complete and
best managed incidents of the campaign. Every possible care was
exercised in selecting the men and animals, the former being drawn
mainly from the regiments that themselves had undergone the pri-
vations of a siege, namely, the Kimberley Light Horse, including a
section of the Cape police and the Imperial Light Horse, which
formed part of the garrison at Ladysmith. All were excellent
horsemen and good shots.

Prince Alexander of Teck w^as Colonel Mahon's aide. Colonel
Frank Rhodes, brother of Cecil Rhodes, was chief intelligence officer
and was assisted by Major Baden-Powell, brother of the defender of
Mafeking. In the fighting on the 13th, the major's watch was
smashed by a Boer bullet wdiich, but for this check, must have
killed him.

When Colonel Mahon's forces joined Colonel Plumer's, the
march of both having been admirably timed, the latter was found
as splendidly equipped as themselves. The expedition was well
armed, owing principally to the brilliant marching of the Canadian
artillery. The united force, numbering 4,300 mounted men and
artillery, encountered the enemy outside of Mafeking, some ten
miles to the WTst. The Boers had withdrawn nearly their entire
fighting force from the trenches around the town, and 2,000 strong
had taken a position directly in the line of the British advance.
The task of dislodging them was a heavy one, taking five hours.

THE TRAMP OF THE lilHTISH LION

0t)7

The greatest as.sistjince was rendered by the I'ritish guns, and the
Canadians did excellent work. Only the fact that the C<)U)nials
were born bush fighters saved the British from heavy loss. As it
was, they had thirty killed or wounded. The Boers sustained severe
losses. Eventually they evacuated all their positions and fled, the
small investing force around the town immediately raising the
siege. There was no further opposition.

A detailed narative of the assault made by Commandant Eloff,
President Kruger's grandson, shows that it was a daringly brave or
stupidly foolhardy feat, according to the point of view. The old
fort which Commandant Eloff, with 150 men, rushed, is practically
in the centre of the town, being less than five hundred yards from
the market square. Colonel Iloare and the fifteen men who occupied
the fort mistook the Boers in the darkness for comrades and did
not fire on them. Colonel Hoare was conversing by telephf no with
headquarters and the latter's first intimation of what had happened
was the interruption of Colonel Hoare's voice by a confused din,
which was followed by a strange voice saying: "I am a Boer. We
have taken Mafeking."

"Have you indeed?" was the prompt reply, and measures were
instantly taken by which the invaders were cut off. It was then
that Baden-Powell sent a white flag and, on receiving a refusal to
surrender, the British surrounded the fort and poured fusillades
into it, killing and wounding many. The Boers, however, held out
throughout the day. Later some of the Boers found the place
getting too hot for them and attempted to desert their comrades,
whereupon Commandant Eloff himself fired on them. The burghers
then decided that their position was untenable and their surrender
followed.

698

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The Famous Spion Kop Despatches.

Parallels there may be in plenty in the archives of the war
oflBce of Great Britain for the now famous "Spion Kop despatches"
of Lord Roberts, but the people are disposed to forget. Commenda-
tion of ranking commanders, not adverse criticism, is what lives —
is what nations keep upon tablets so that he who runs may read.
It is true that Lord Roberts dated his despatches February 13th
and these were not printed in the Gazette until April 17th, pursuant
to a call from a parliamentary source. But it is not the palpable
intention of the war office to k'^ep the matter from the people, so
much as the feeling of sorrow that the occasion should have come
for the publicity that has kept warm the discussion of the des-
patches throughout the British empire. It is the belief of a great
many that the answer should have been made to those clamoring
for the strictures on commanders. "We cannot make them public
because of incompatibility with pu])lic interest."

Lord Rol)erts' despatches describe the terrible Spion Kop action
and other operations covering a period from January 17th to
January 24th, inclusive. General Warren is severely dealt with,
and General Buller does not escape censure. Lord Roberts com-
plains that the plan of operations is not clearly described in the
despatches of the generals. Sir Charles Warren, who commanded
the whole force engaged at Spion Kop, was made aware of General
Bailor's intention, and, as Lord Roberts pointed out. General Warren
seems to have concluded, after consultation with his officers, that
the flanking movement ordered by General Buller was impracticable
and, therefore, so changed the plan of advance as to necessitate
the capture and retention of Spion Kop. Lord Roberts' official
despatch says: "As Warren considered it impossible to make the

THE TRAMP OF THE BRITISH LION

699

wide flanking movement which was recommended, if not actually
prescribed in the secret instructions, he should forthwith have
acquainted Duller with the course he proposed to adopt. There is
nothing to show whether he did so or not. But it is only fair to
Warren to point out that Duller appears throughout to have been
aware of what was happening."

In some exhaustive detail Lord Roberts discusses the withdrawal
from the shell-raked face of Spion Kop, the point of advantage which
had become of vital interest to the army, because the retention of
the position had become essential to the relief of beleaguered Lady-
smith, and adds: "I regret to be unable to concur with BuUer in
thinking Thorneycroft exercised wise discretion in ordering the troops
to retire. I am of the opinion that Thorneycroft's assumption of
responsibility and authority was wholly inexcusable. During the
night the enemy's fire could not have been formidable, and it would
not have taken more than two or three hours for Thorneycroft to
communicate by messenger with Major-General Coke or Warren.
Coke appears to have left Spion Kop at 9:30 P. M. for the purpose
of consulting with Warren. Up to that hour the idea of with-
drawal had not been entertained. Yet, almost immediately after
(Joke's departure, Thorneycroft issued the order, without reference
to superior authority, which upset the whole plan of operations and
lendered unavailing the sacrifices already made to carry it into
effect. On the other hand, it is only right to state that Thorneycroft
appears to have behaved in a very gallant manner throughout the day.

"It is to be regretted that Warren did not himself visit Spion
lu)p in the afternoon or evening, knowing, as he did, that the state
of affairs was very critical and that the loss of the position would
involve the failure of the operations. He consecpiently was obliged

700

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

to summon Coke to his headquarters, and the command of Spiou
Kop thus devolved on Thoriieycroft, unknown to Coke, who was
under the impression that the command devolved on General Hill,
as senior officer. Omissions or mistakes of this nature may be
trifling of themselves, yet they may exercise an important influence
over the course of events, and I believe Duller was justified in
remarking, 'there was a want of organization and system, which
acted most unfavorably on the defense.'

"The attempt to relieve Ladysmith was well devised, and I
agree with BuUer in thinking it ought to have succeeded. That it
failed may in some measure have been due to the difficulties of
the ground and the commanding positions held by the enemy, and
probably also to errors of judgment and want of administrative
capacity on the part of Warren. But whatever faults Warren may
have committed, the failure must also be attributed to disinclination
to the officer in supreme command to assert his authority and see that
what he thought best was dc ne, and also to the unwarrantable and
needless assumption of responsibility by a subordinate oflicer."

Tlie despatch concludes: "The gratifying feature of these des-
patches is the admirable behavior of the troops throughout the
operation."

Ceneral Buller's report, commenting on General Warren's re-
ports of the capture and evacuation of Spion Kop, after disputing
the correctness of some of Warren's assertions and describing the
dangerous situation occupied by Warren's force, tells how he saw
the force at Spion K()[) had given away before Warren knew it.
Buller tlierefore telegraphed to Warren: "Unless you put a really
good hard fighting man in command on top you will lose the hill.
I suggest Thorneycroft."

THE TRAMP OF THE BRTTTSH LION

701

General Duller continues: "I have not thought it necessarj^ to
order an investigation. If at sundow^n the defense of the summit
had been taken in hand, intrenchments laid out and the dead and
wounded removed, the whole place would have been brought under
regular military commands and the hills would have been held, I
am sure. But no arrangements were made. Coke appears to have
been ordered away just as he would have been useful and no one
succeeded him. Those on top were ignorant of the fact that the
guns were coming up, and generally there v;?«i a want of organiza,-
tion and system that acted most unfavorably on the defense. It is
admitted that all of Thorneycroft's command acted with the greatest
gallan, throughout the day, and really saved the situation. But
preparations for the second day's defense should have been organ-
ized during the day and commenced at nightfall. As this was not
done, I think Thorneycroft exercised wise discretion."

General Warren sets forth the fact that the Spion Kop oper-
ations had not entered into his original plans, as his instructions
were to occupy a plain north of it. On consultation with tlie com-
mander-in-chief on January 21st, however, when the question of
retiring from or attacking Spion Kop was discussed, Warren ex-
pressed his preference for attacking. This was successfully accom-
plished by General Woodgate. Then came the order of the com-
mander-in-chief to put Thorneycroft in command of the summit.
In the meantthie Warren had sent General Coke up to reenforce
him, with orders to assume command. Ineffectual efforts were made
to heliograph Thorneycroft and ask whether he had assumed com-
mand. Toward sunset he was finally enabled to get orders through,
and concluded the position could be held the next day if guns
could be provided and shelter obkiined.

702

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"Both these conditions were about to be fulfilled when, in the
absence of Coke, whom I had ordered to come and report in person
on the situation, the evacuation took place under orders given on
his own responsibility by Thorneycroft. This occurred in the face
of the vigorous protests of Coke's brigade major and others."

In conclusion Gi mineral Warren said: "It is a matter for the
commander-in-chief to decide whether there will be any investiga-
tion into the question of the unauthorized evacuation of Spion Kop."

It should be stated that the annexation of the Orange Free
•?tate to Great Britain was formally proclaimed at noon, on May
28th, in the market square of Bloemfontein. General Pretyman, the
military governor of Bloemfontein read the proclamation of Gen-
eral Lord Roberts annexing the Free State and renaming it the
Orange River State. In announcing this action, the proclamation
referred to the Orange Free State as "having been conquered by
Her Majesty's forces." This part was received with tremendous
cheering, the British national anthem was sung and a salute of
twenty-one guns was fired.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

By Ernest Herbert Cooper

Defense by a siege is one means by which a weak force can
withstand a stronger enemy with some hope of success. It is a
method of warfare long ago resorted to, and it seems to breed as
many glorious incidents in the wars of the nineteenth century as
it did in the days of Troy. The sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley
and Maf eking, and the pluck and generalship of Sir George White,
Colonel Kekewich and General Baden-Powell redound to the
glory of the Empire, because the success of the British arms rested
in a great measure upon the gallant action of the bold and
undaunted defenders. Had the Boers been able by dint of superior
forces to carry out their policy of crushing speedily the British
forces in South Africa when they brought on the war, there is no
telling what trouble would have been in store for us in the Dark
Continent. Much depended upon the holding of the mobile Boers
in check. There were many subjects of the Queen in Cape Colony,
and many native Africans who were sitting astride the fence wait-
ing to see in which direction the tide of victory should turn before
they w^ould engage in the melee. The besieged in these towns did
as much as human energy could do to hold this tide in check.
The regular forces sat in trenches day and night, wet or dry, and
defended, as best their inferior weapons permitted them, their posi-
tions against a wily enemy. Yet all difficulties were surmounted,
iiud the names of three more heroes are inscribed in British annals.

(T03)

704

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

On the 7th of October, 1899, the British reserves were called out.
This was a practical intimation to the Governments of the South
African Republic and of the Orange Free State that the British
authorities began to despair of arriving at a satisfactory amelioration
of the Uitlander grievances through diplomacy, and that a resort
to arms was to be prepared for — perhaps intended. It was received
by the South A.frican Governments as an intention, and on the 9th
of October an ultimatum was handed to the British agent at Pre-
toria demanding tlie removal of the forces from the Natal and Ca[)e
Colony Borders, and an engagement that the troops then on the
way out should not be landed in South Africa failure of com-
pliance before the evening of the 11th to be regarced as a declaia-
tion of war, The object of the Boers was to bring on the inevitable
hostilities as soon as possible. This indicated, what circumstances
later revealed more plainly, that the Boers were ready for battle
and Britain was not. While the British nation prepared for the
struggle, the enemy was kept busy with sieges of Ladysmith, Kim-
berley and Mafeking.

During the early part of the war Great Britain was on the
defensive, a defense which rested almost entirely upon the garrison
of these three towns. The British then in South Africa were
entirely unable to cope with the forces and armaments that the
Boers were able to place in the field.

Against a formidable and mobile force of 70,000 or 80,000 men
when war was declared. Great Britain had in Cape Colony an
irregular force of mounted infantry at Mafeking, the North Lanca-
shire Regiment at Kimberley, the Munster Fusiliers at De Aar, half
the Yorkshire Light Inf.tutry at Naauwport and the other half nt
Stormberg, and the Northumberlands— the famous Fighting Fifth— at

IX)K1) MINTO, GdVERNOR (rENERAL,

SIU WILFRED LAURIEK, Premier uk Canada. SIR CHARLES TIPPKR.

Lord STRATHCONA. dr. BORDEN, Minister of Militia.

MAJOR-GENERAL HUTTON

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

707

De Aar. The total was, say, 4,100 infantry, of whom 600 were
mounted — no cavalry and no field guns. In Natal, scattered along
the railway line from Newcastle to Durban, were close on to 15,000
infantry, the bulk of the British army in South Africa. No wonder
was it, then, that the. British forces were on the defensive, even
though they represented the strongest power in the world, no
wonder was it that the people of Kimberley and Mafeking com-
plained to the Imperial authorities on account of the defenseless
state of their homes, and no wonder was it that after some disastrous
offensive ventures like the armjd train sortie at Mafeking or the
excursion at Nicholson's Nek, the British settled down behind
trenches and schanzes and awaited the arrival of the army corps
from England! Six policemen defended the bridge at Aliwal North,
and 350 Boers were reported in the neighborhood. We see some
reasons to warrant the belief of the Boers that they would drive
the British into the sea. But they had not reckoned on the pluck
and endurance displayed by these garrisons. The opposition at Mafek-
ing, Kimberley and Ladysmith saved the prestige of British arms.
Mafeking and Kimberley were invested on the 15th of October.
In Natal the British had already evacuated Newcastle, and were
preparing to hold the line from Dundee to Ladysmith. But Dundee
became untenable, so, protected by the Ladysmith garrison at
Elandslaagte, General Yule retreated in a masterly fashion and
joined forces with General White in Ladysmith. The Boers thought
the British on the run. Ladysmith was invested on the 2ad of
November, and the Boers openly boasted that it would be entered
before the 9th. From that time the attention of the whole world
was centered upon the garrisons of these three places of suddenly
acquired celebrity.

708

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Immediately upon the arrival of the army corps from England,
General BuUer set out to relieve Ladysmith and General Methuen
to free Kimberley and Mafeking. Both leaders failed to attain
their ends, and it was not till Load Roberts made his masterly
stroke which raised the siege of Kimberley on February 15th, that
of Ladysmith on March 1st, and that of Mafeking on May 17th,
that the days of investment, famine and fever ended for the
beleaguered but well defended towns.

Kimberley was the first town relieved, and it was in most
respects the least dangerous siege of the trio. The land around
Kimberley is, on the whole, favorable for defense, as the nearest
extensive system of kopjes lies ten miles away, and the cover on
the intervening ground is very slight. This may explain why no
assault was made on the town. The defenses of the diamond city
were about eleven miles in circumference. The town is almost
surrounded by a series of "tailing heaps" — hillocks formed of the
refuse earth after the diamond washing. On these tailing heaps
were placed the sandbag forts which were manned by the town guard.

The force which defended the besieged area, with the exception
of 600 regular troops, was made up entirely of citizen soldiers,
literally fighting for their hearths and homes. When war broke
out about twelve hundred civil guards had been enlisted, and
altogether the citizen force at its maximum strength numbered
some forty-five hundred. Of these some few were Cape Mounted
Police, who had come into the town when it was no longer safe
for them to remain in isolated twos and threes about the country.
The artillery of the defense consisted of _si: seven-pounder mountain
guns and six seven-pounder field guns, described by one correspondent
as "pop-guns." There wer3 also some Maxims which had been stored

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

709

in the mines by the foresight of the Ue Beers Company, which is
said to be only another way of spelling Rhodes. Mr. Labram's
long range home-made 4.1 gun later materially strengthened the
artillery of the place.

The place was, of course, under martial law, and Colonel Keke-
wich was in supreme command of everything, though there is no
doubt that Cecil Rhodes for the four months of the siege was
Kimberley's actual king. The non-combatants consisted of some
5,000 white women and children, and 10,000 natives in the mine
compounds. After the check was received by Methuen at Maagers-
fontein, and the city for the first time settled down to a long
siege, about 8,000 of these natives were sent through the Boer lines.
In the early days of the siege there was no alarm, everyone think-
ing that it would last, at the longest, not more than three or four
weeks, but it was not until December 1st that Kimberley even got
in^;0 communication with the relieving force. Three sorties were
made by the garrison up to November 20th, when Scott-Turner
and twenty-one men were killed; after that the garrison contented
itself with keeping clear a sufficient space of ground for grazing
purposes for the rapidly diminishing cattle.

Although the shelling went on continuously, and at times
unexpectedly, beyond putting an end to business it was not
extremely troublesome. A source of far greater discomfort, sickness
and death, was the scantiness of the food supply. Fortunately a
variety of circumstances placed the town in a better position than
might very well have been the case. For some months previous to
the declaration of war the De Beers Company, who appeared to
have anticipated the possibility of a siege, laid in large supplies of
food-stuffs, coal, fuel, and other mining requisites. The new crop

710

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

of mealies and Kaffir corn had just been secured, and the former
were used during the siege for horses, while the Kaffir corn was
converted into meal and sold to the natives. The Kimber^ey rail-
way station furnished a considerable supply of stores, stopped in
transit, for Kimberley is what is known as a tranship depot for the
northern system of railways. Moreover, the town was not entirely
cut off from supplies of fresh meat from outside until nearly a
month after the beginning of the siege. However, about January
3rd Colonel Kekewick and his staff proceeded to take over the sup-
plies and regulate prices. Horse-flesh was first served out on Jan-
uary 8th, and from that date on it became almost the staple food
of the population. Towards the end a few mules and donkeys were
thrown in, but cats and dogs were not resorted to. Mr. Rhodes
also started a soup kitchen, selling vegetable soup at 3d a pint.

Needless to say, typhoid and scurvey were prevalent. The heat
was terrible. Towards the latter part of the siege, the deaths from
different causes averaged about 200 a week. In February the daily
supply for whites was limited to an order for ten and a half ounces
of bread, two ounces of mealie meal, one ounce of dried mealie
split, two ounces of sugar, and four ounces of horse-flesh. The
cadaverous look on the faces of the inhabitants, and the amount of
illness which was everywhere prevalent when French's 20,000 cav-
alry rode into the town on the 15th of February, proved how
hardly the prolonged state of affairs told on the people. Men
in health who lost but a dozen or fifteen pounds in weight were
not plentiful, while to have decreased twenty-five to thirty pound*^
was considered only a fair and moderate loss. .

So it was in Ladysmith, where there was more danger of the
flag being struck. The investment was close, the bombardment

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

711

heavy, the supplies shoi-t, the population large, the town badly
situated for defense purposes, and the water saturated with fever.
Srveral considerations probably weighed with General White in
favor of withdrawing to a more suitable place than Ladysmith,
such as Pietermaritzburg, before he was surrounded by superior
forces. The fact that Ladysmith was the Aldershot of Natal, and
that to abandon it meant the loss of £1,000,000 worth of militia
stores, led him to take up his stand in this unfortunate position
which was commanded by guns placed on the hills that surrounded
the place. That he maintained his position without flinching an inch
from November 2, the day after the Nicholson's Nek disaster, when
his communications were cut off, until March 1st, in spite of these
natural forces working against him, in spite of the triple defeat of
the relief column, in spite of personal sickness, and in spite of the
raging fever and dysentery, marks him a man of uncommon pluck
and ability. The siege was started on the British side with 12,000
fighting men and over 2,000 white civilians, besides the natives and
Indian coolies. Although this garrison was much larger than that
of the other garrisons, an enterprizing force of the Boer strength,
supported as they were by long-range guns and surrounding hills,
could probably have taken Ladysmith in the early days of the
siege. The English papers often attempted to prepare the British
public for the shame of a surrender of the town, and the Boers
thought of no other possible outcome of the siege.

General White had his headquarters in the center of the town,
with which the various stations of the regiments were connected
by telephone. He acquired speedy information about the move-
ments of the enemy's forces by this means as well as by a Balloon
Intelligence Department. The saving in time by the telephone

712

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

system can be readily imagined when it is mentioned that it took
half an hour to ride from headquarters to the Manchester's trenches
on Caesar's Camp.

The greatest annoyance to the British came from the fact that
they were inferior to the Boers in artillery equipment. Large siege
guns had been brought from the forts about Pretoria and were now
trained upon the Lady smith garrison. They had three Long Toms,
a five-inch Howitzer, about a dozen twelve-pounders, four screw
guns, and three Maxim automatics. Against these the British had
about fifty pieces, including two 4.7-inch, four naval 12-pounders,
36 field guns, an old 64-pounder, and a 3-inch quick-firer, two old
Howitzers, and two Maxim-Nordenfeldts. The naval guns, mounted
by Captain Percy Scott, of H. M. S. Powerful, were the only weapons
that could reach the long-range shell-firers of the enemy. Only
they could touch Pepworth's Hill or Bilvvan. Besides, the Lady-
smithians had to husband their ammunition. The Boers fired about
twenty shells to their opponents' one.

The siege was characterized chiefly by its dullness, which was
interrupted only by several gallant sorties led by General Hunter.
On January 6th, however, Kruger ordered an assault upon the town,
and the Boers forsook their cautious policy for a daring one. They
soon returned to their former tactics. The attack, desperate as it
was, resulted disastrously to the Boer forces. Out of the only
position they gained by the day's fighting, they were driven at
nightfall by a gallant bayonet charge of the Devons. When they
counted their casualties, if they did, they must have tallied a score
that amounted to 1,200 or 1,500. The Lady smith garrison also
suffered severely.

Starvation and dysentery and fever played greater havoc with

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

713

the garrison. Owing to casualties and sickness over 8,000 fighting
men passed through hospital. The death rate remained small until
January, and then increased, as the medical appliances had been
nearly exhausted. A man once down was practically lost. The
reduced rations were just sufficient to keep men alive. Every day
thirty old horses and mules were slaughtered for food, and con-
verted into soup and sausages. The last fortnight of the siege saw
the majority of the field batteries unhorsed, and the guns perma-
nently posted on the defenses. The total number of casualties
during the investment were: Killed or died of wounds, 24 officers
and 235 men; died of disease, 60 officers and 340 men; wounded,
70 officers and 520 men.

Doubtless the garrison could have held out six weeks longer,
but its privations from hunger and living in trenches or under-
ground quarters were already great, and General White and his
staff had difficulty in maintaining a cheerfulness in every quarter.
The gari'ison was disappointed in not being relieved. Finally the
continuous hammering and boring of General Duller discovered the
road to Ladysmith. The advance of Lord Roberts and the capture
of Cronje weakened the Boer forces in Natal, and Duller, after seven
days of arduous toil a'ld fighting, and after capturing Peter's Hill
with the bayonet, wai. able to put the enemy to flight. Then Lord
Dundonald, with 300 men of the Imperial Light Horse and the
Natal Carbineers, entered the town on the first day of March. It
is impossible to describe the enthusiasm of the beleaguered garrison.
Cheer upon cheer rang from post to post. The staff officers, civilians
and soldiers flocked down to greet them at tlie ford of the poison-
ous Klip River. Women with children in their arms tearfully
pressed forward to grasp the hands of the gallant l)and. Even

714

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

strong men shed tears at the contrast between the robust troopers
of a dozen battles and the pale, emaciated defenders of Ladysmith.
General White and his staff met the troops in the center of the
town, and thanked them, but his thanks to the gamson for the
assistance rendered him in keeping the flag flying were heartier and
more deeply felt. For four months the garrison in a town, unfitted
and unprepared for a siege, had maintained his strategic position
against overwhelming odds. To them and their gallant commander
are due all the honors to which heroes are entitled.

Here is something to illustrate the temper of Mafeking, B.-P's.
little town, which was besieged from October 15th to May 17th—
seven months: A correspondent w^rote on February 9th. "Next
Sunday we sliall have a cricket match in the morning, cycle sports
in the afternoon, and a grand concert in the evening, to celebrate
the eighteenth Sunday of the siege. The bachelor officers will give
a dance in the evening. We are all more anxious about Ladysmith
than about our position here. Our advance posts are within
250 yards of the enemy's trenches." What a cheerful equanimity
for a garrison nearer Pretoria than any British settlement, and not
able to walk about the outskirts of the town, or raise a head in
the trenches without meeting death nine times out of ten! Yet it
was the temper of the garrison throughout — a temper that strikes
home to the hearts of ail who can appreciate bravery, a temper
that has made Baden-Powell probably the greatest hero of the war.

He was certainly the man of the siege. Before the war began
he expressed a wish to be in a tight corner, should arms be resorted to.
He was placed in the tightest corner assigned to any British leader
in the war. For seven months he led the garrison in an heroic defense.
On October 16th the first sho' was fired of a bombardment that

)ust troopers
f Ladysmith.
3nter of the
ison for the
heartier and
own, unfitted
igic position
b commander

resorted to.
itish leader
'oic defense,
dment that

LONG CECIL.

Built by Uie DeBecrs Company, for the Defense of Klmberley durlnjr tlu' Siege.

SIEGE OF KIMBERLEY.

Tyburn Street Diiu'imts Siielieriiig from the Hours 100-Pounders.

SIEGE OF KIMBERLEY.

\'icw iif' the Bomb I'root' Dugout?, HiMcon.-^tiflil.

MR. RHODES, AT FORT RHODES, KENILWORTH.

Dining the Siege (i( K.imlietley.

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES.

717

continued almost daily until the place was relieved. From that date
the history of the little town and its gallant garrison has been a
daily record of bombardment endured, attack repulsed, hand-to-hand
fight sustained, amid conditions of constantly increasing privation,
sickness and even famine. In its isolation it sent out only messages
that were heroic in their cheerfulness.

Mafeking is a little town situated on the banks of the Molopo
River, just inside Buchuanaland, and eight miles from the Transvaal
border. Its only preparations for siege were due to Lord Cecil,
who made some successful efforts to bring in supplies before the
siege began; and by Colonels Baden-Powell and Plumer, who
recruited a protectorate regiment of 500 men. The defending force
consisted of this regiment, 250 Cape mounted police, 200 mounted
police, about 100 volunteers, and two 7-pounders and six machine
guns. Tlie town was entirely devoid of fortifications when Colonel
B.-P. assumed command.

In this brief review it is impossible to give an account of the
incidents connected with the seven month's siege and of the hopes
and fears of the garrison. The big Pretoria artillery got to work
on October 22nd. Thirty-five hours afterwards Commandant Snyman
sent to know if the garrison would surrender, adding: "Do not
attempt to disguise facts. Your losses must have been terrible."
The reply was: "No surrender. As for our losses, without disguise,
they are terrible, and consist of one dog and an hotel window."
The Boer forces about the place numbered probably about 4,000
men. In accordance with their custom they avoided as far as
possible direct onslaught, yet the besieged and besiegers came into
contact several times. On the first day of the heavy bombardment
the Boers approached in force, but were driven back by the rifle

718

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

fire. On October 27th Captain FitzClarence led a brilliant sortie
with about 100 men, against Commandant Louw's laager, and
attempted to take it by a bayonet charge. The attempt was unsuc-
cessful and costly. Camwn Kopje, held by the besieged, was also
a contested position for some days, but it was firmly held by its
first occupants. On November 7th the Boers made a general attack
on the town, but Baden-Powell's resourcefulness repelled them.
Then Cronje left for the Kimberley district. The dullness of the
siege was frequently broken after this by sorties of the garrison.

A memorial sortie was made the day after Christmas when out
of sixty engaged on the British side only nine came out unwounded,
while thirty were killed. On January more heavy artillery arrived
from Pretoria and casualties from shell-fire increased. But short
rations, poor water and unsanitary dwelling places were more
fruitful causes of removal to hospital.

On March 20th, the western laager of the Boers was observed
breaking up. From this time relief was daily expected. News of
Colonel Plumer's march south arrived, but also that of the check
he received at Lobatsi. The messages sent out by the garrison
were still to the effect that they were well — "that grand and heroic
lie" — and that they could hold out till the middle of May. The
locusts afforded a change of diet. Lord Roberts now asked the
town to hold out until May 18. On May 7, Colonel Baden-Powell
telegriphed, "all going well; fever decreasing, garrison cheerful, and
food will last till about June 10." How they strained themselves
to do all and more than all that was required of them ! On the
12th of May the Boers made a last desperate attempt to take the
town by assault. But the garrison was still "game," and Baden-
Powell was as resourceful and cunning as ever. So, although, the

THKEE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

719

KaflBr stands were temporarily taken, Commandant Eloff and 120 of
his men were made prisoners by strategy much similar to that
employed by the Boers on various occasions. This closed the
brilliant record of Colonel Baden-Powell and his plucky little
garrison of irregulars and civilians in Mafeking. The relief forces
under Colonel Plumer, from the north, and Colonel Mahon, from
the south, effected a junction on May 14, at Jan Massibi's, on the
Molopo River, 18 miles west of Mafeking. It is worthy of note
that a battery of Canadian artillery joined Colonel Plumer the
same day, having made a forced march from Beira in exceptionally
short time. It rendered effective assistance in the relief. Some
fighting was necessary before the Boers gave up the investment
but on the evening of May 16, Major Karl D" vis and eight mon
of the Imperial Horse entered the town. At three o'clock in the
morning more forces entered and all the relief columns headed by
Colonel Baden-Powell, Colonel Mahon and Colonel Plumer entered
Mafeking at noon on the 17th. The garrison drew up on the
market square and gave three cheers for the Queen. Then Baden-
Powell went after his old friends, the Boers. When we heard of
that, we said for the fiftieth time, "Isn't he game?"

The Three Heroes
Although Colonel Kekewich is forty-five years of age he is one
of the men who had no public reputation before the war. He
began his military career when he was twenty. He has l)een with
the East Kents and the Inniskilling Fusiliers and recently lieutenant-
colonel with the North Lancashires. He served in the Perak
expedition of 1875-6 and in the Nile expedition of 1884-5, and
was at Saukim three years later. Two of his uncles are well known
in England; Mr. Justice Kekewich. and Sir George Kekewich of

720

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the Education Department. His grandfather was Mr. Samuel
Trehawke, who at one time represented South Devon in the British
Hcnse of Commons. Among the earliest messages sent to Kimber-
ley afier the siege was one announcing that, by favor of the Queen,
Lieutenant-Colonel Kekewich was promoted to be a full Colonel.

Lieutenant-General Sir George Stewart White, V. C, G. C. B.,
G. C. S. I., G. C. IE., was born in 1835. He is a Scoto-Irishman,
who joined the army in 1853 and who has been on active service
ever since. He first saw service in the Indian Mutiny. Up till
1880 he had only gained the rank of major, but from that time his
promotion was rapid. In 1877 he was transferred to the Gordon
Highlanders. In 1879 the Afghan war broke out, and his chance
came. He was in the grand march from Cabul to Candahar under
Roberts, and for his services was made C. B. Additionally he won
the Victoria Cross. At Candahar, on September 1st, 1880, Major
White again won the Victoria Cross. He led his men straight up
a hill into an Afghan battery and captured the guns. In 1884 he
served in the Nile expedition as quartermaster-general. In 1885 he
took command of the 2nd Infantry Brigade for the Burmese war
After the capture of Mandalay he was given supreme control of the
Upper Burmese force. He received the thanks of the government,
and was promoted to be major-general for distinguished conduct in
the field. In 1890 he lead the Zhob Valley force. He has since
been commander-in-chief of the Indian Army, and is colonel of two
battalions of Gordon Highlanders.

Colonel Robert Stephenson Smythe Baden-Powell was born on
February 22, 1857, in a rectory, being a son of Professor Baden-
Powell, of Oxford and Langton Manor. He joined the 13th Hussars
in 1876, and served in India, Afghanistan and South Africa. He

THREE SIEGES AND THREE HEROES

721

served in the Zululand operations and received mention. For work
in Ashanti operations, where he ,as in command of native levies,
he was made lieutenant-colonel. Afterwards, in the campaign in
Matabeleland, he was mentioned in dispatches for conspicuous
bravery. "B-P," as the Mafeking people affectionately call him, is a
soldier whose accomplishments peculiarly fit him for modern war-
fare. He is an authority on cavalry tactics, and has written
manuals on reconnaissance and scouting. He is a natural leader
of men, and ra^'^ed around him at Mafeking not only a group of
well-knowr offi'^.ers of high social position, but also a seasoned band
of frontiersmen and adventurers. His bouyancy, as displayed in
his dispatches from that isolated town, which even he could not
see relie . ^d for some time to come, will not be forgotten by the
British public for many a long day. He has received more recog-
nition from the military authorities than has any other officer in
Africa, being made Major-General immediately subsequent to the
relief of Mafeking.

r
t
b
n
n
o'

t]
b

CHAPTER XXXVII

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

A despatch from Lord Roberts, dated May 23rd, and sent from
the south bank of the Rheuoster River, stated that upon his arrival
there that morning, he found the enemy had fled during the night.
They had occupied a strong position on the north bank of the
river, w^hich was carefully entrenched, but they deemed it unwise
to defend it when they learned that Hamilton's force was at Heil-
bron and that the British cavalry had crossed the Rhenoster several
miles lower down the stream and were threatening their right and
rear. Before their departure the Boers had destroyed the bridge
over the river and a number of miles of the railway.

A few days previous the Boer leaders suggested terms of sur-
render, but General Roberts replied as before that no terms other
than unconditional submission would be accepted. These conditions
the enemy declined and their resistance therefore went on.

The position abandoned by the Boers at Rhenoster River was
exceptionally strong. The precipitous banks were forty feet high and
the stream was entrenched on the south side, the whole position
being commanded by kopjes a thousand yards from the river on
the north side. It is easy to credit the report that General De Wet
was angered over the abandonment and exchanged hot words with
the other commanders.

The steady advance of Lord Roberts northward was accompanied
by contributory movements. In Natal, General Buller was reported
from the Boer camp at Volksrust to be fortifying his advance at

(723)

724

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Schins Hoogte, the scene of the British repulse in February, 1881,
and he sent a force across the Buffalo River from Ingogo to turn
the left of the Boer position at Laing's Nek.

A disaster befell a squadron of Bethuen's Horse on the 20th at
Scheeper's Nek, about eight miles southwest of Vryheid. All the
squadron, with its five officers, were either killed, wounded or
captured.

By the 26th, Lord Roberts had reached Vredefort, thirty-five
miles from the Vaal River. The Boers retired to the north side of
the Vaal, leaving the country open to Viljoen's Drift, on the
Transvaal border. Everywhere the signs of the coming collapse of
the enemy's resistance increased. The farmers in arms in the
Thaba N' Chu district continued to surrender by the score; trust-
worthy advices from Johannesburg and Pretoria stated that the
majority of the Boers favored surrendering, while those sure readers
of the situation, the newspaper correspondents, agreed that the
crises has been passed and that the war in the Free State was
entirely over. Information from Pretoria described an influential
peace party in that place headed by Mr. Eloff, son-in-law of Presi-
dent Kruger, and a man of great wealth. Not only he, but strong
influence in Cape Town united in a determined effort to undermine
the influence of the President.

The advance of Lord Roberts, who seems to have t partiality
for anniversaries, crossed the Vaal, near Parys, on tlie Queen's
birthday. In his despatch he added that General Hamilton's mounted
division was at Boschbank and scouting parties were at Viljoen's
Drift. Lord Roberts himself crossed the Vaal on the 27th and
established his headquarters at Vereeniging, the opposition of the
Boers being so slight that a loss of only four was reported. The

MAJOR GIROURD.

The Canadian Engincor wlio won I'ame in ICjjypt, uiitl was miule Director-Cioiieral of till
the Ki,'yptian Mailways. Now iittaclud lo Kiigineeriuif Corps in Souih Africu.

d fl

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

727

a
00

o
a

h §

o
z

Z?1 d

■T

advance guard found the coal mines intact, but the railway bridge
had been destroyed and the main body of the Boers fell back
toward Johannesburg. A despatch dated the following day stated
that Lord Roberts had advanced eighteen miles that day and was
within eighteen miles of Johannesburg, The enemy had prepared
several positions, wliich they abandoned one after the other upon
the approach of the invaders.

All this prepared the public for the thrilling news contained in
the following despatches: "Germiston, May 29, — We arrived here
this afternoon without being seriously opposed. There were no
casualties, so far as I am aware, in the main column, and not
many, I trust, in the cavalry and mounted infantry. The enemy
did not expect us until tomorrow and have not carried off all the
rolling stock,

"We have possession of the junction connecting Johannesburg
and Natal and Pretoria and Klerksdorp by railway, Johannesburg
is reported quiet. No mines, I understand, have been injured.

"I shall summon the commandant in the morning, and if, as I
expect, there should be no opposition, I propose to enter the town
with all the troops at 12 noon,"

The marvelous rapidity of Lord Roberts' advance prevented the
wrecking of the mines, which w^ould have taken place had there l)een
time for the spirit of anarchy and revenge to gain the ascendancy.

The postscript to the foregoing despatch was added by Lord
Roberts at Germiston, May 30th: "The l>runt of the fighting yes-
terday fell on Hamilton's column, I had sent him, as already
mentioned, to work around the west of Johaiuiesburg in support
of French's cavalry, which was directed to go north to the road
leading to Pretoria. I have not heard from French as yet.

728

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"Hamilton's report, which has just reached me, stated that
about 1 o'clock in the afternoon he found his way blocked by the
enemy, who were strongly posted on kopjes and ridges three miles
south of the Rand. They had two heavy guns, several field guns
and pompons. Hamilton immediately attacked them. The Gordons
led on the right and captured one extremity of the ridge. Then
they wheeled round and worked along it until after dark, clearing
it of the enemy, who fought most obstinately. The City of London
Imperial Volunteers led the other flank and would not be denied.
But the chief share of the action, as in the casualties, fell to the
Gordons, whose gallant advance excited the admiration of all.

"Hamilton is now at Florida, due west off Johannesburg.
French is a few miles to the northeast. Gordon's cavalry, the
mounted infantry and the seventh division hold the heights north
of the town. The eleventh division, with the heavy artillery, is
south of Johannesburg. Hamilton speaks in high praise of the
manner in which Bruce Hamilton and Spens of the Shropshire
Light Infantry handled the men under Smith-Dorrien's direction."

"Germiston, May 30, 4:50 P. M. — In answer to a flag of truce
I sent to Johannesburg this morning for the Commatidant to come
and see me, he begged me to defer entering the town for twenty-
four hours, as many armed burghers were still inside. I agreed to
this, as I was most anxious to avoid the possibility of anything
like disturbance within, and as bodies of the enemy still hold the
hills in the immediate neighborhood, from which they will have to
be cleared off beforeiiand.

"Handle reports tljLtt he attacked a large party of Boers near
Senekal on May 28. His casualties were not heavy.

"Brabant reports that two of his patrols, consisting of two

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

72i)

loers near

officers and forty men, were cut off by the enemy on May 28 and
made prisoners."

The final postscript was added the next day in the form of
the announcement that the British forces were in the possession
of Johannesburg, and their flag was floating over the government
buildings. The Queen telegraphed her congratulations to Colonial
Secretary Chamberlain on the "joyful news of the occupation of
Johannesburg," and all England, Canada and the colonies, as the
tidings was flashed to them, broke into rejoicings hardly less than
that which greeted the news of the relief of Mafeking.

Surrender of Pretoria

Indescribable confusion and turmoil in Pretoria followed the
news of the fall of Johannesburg, for all read the inevitable
sequence in the capture of the capital of the Transvaal The
banks were strongly guarded, the government stores looted by the
burghers, while foreign residents and members of the fighting com-
mands rushed through the city. President Kruger, State Secretary
Reitz and other prominent officials left for Middleburg during the
night. The scene at the railway station was solemn and affecting,
and men and women wept as the train drew out. The unnecessary
and precipitate flight of the president, and his taking away of the
gold bullion intended for coinage, and the leaving of a majority of
the officials unpaid, caused deep indignation among the burghers.
Learning of this. President Kruger, some time later, sent orders
that the new treasury notes Avould be redeemed in gold. These
were the notes issued for the payment of salaries.

On June 5th, the London ^ar office posted a despatch from
General Lord Roberts, announcing that he was in possession of

730

STOE>

OF rOUTH AFRICA

Pretoria and would make his official entry at 2 o'clock on the
afternoon of that day. Later these details were sent: "Pretoria,
June 5, 11:55 P. M. — Just before d:,rk yesterday evening the enemy
were beaten back from nearly ?11 tlie positions they had been
holding, and Hamilton's mounted infantry followed them up to
within 2,000 yards of Pretoria, through which they retreated hastily.
Delisle then sent an officer with a flag of truce into the town,
demanding its surrender.

"Shortly before midnight I was awakened by two officials of
the South African Republic, Sandburg, Military Secretary to Com-
mandant-General Botha, and a general officer of the Boer army,
who brought me a letter iioai Botha proposing an armistice for
the purpose of settling the terms of surrender. I replied that I
would gladly meet the commandant-general the next morning, but
that I was not prepared to discuss any terms, as the surrender of
the town must be unconditional. I asked for a reply by daybreak,
and stated that I had ordered the troops to march on the town as
soon r.s it was light.

'*iii his reply Botha told me that he had decided to defend
Pretoria, and that he trusted women, children and property would
be protected.

" At 1 A. M. to-day, while on the line of march, I was met by
three of the principal civil officials with a flag of truce, who stated
their wish to surrender the town. It was arranged that Pretoria
should ])e taken i)ossossion of l)y Her Majesty's troops at 2 o'clock
this afterno(>n. Mrs. Botha and Mrs. Kruger are )joth in Pretoria.

" Some few of the p -isoners have been taken away, but the
majority are at Waterval, Ovoi- one hundred officers are in Pre-
toria. The few T have seen are looking well."

JOIIANilESBURG, PRh^TOPJA A>.D THE END

Lord Roberts told of the baide before Pretoria in the following
despatch: "Six Mile Spruit, J-ne 4, 8:40 P. M.— We started this
morning at daybreak and marched about ten miles to Six Mile
Spruit, both banks of which were occupied by the enemy. Henry's
and Ross's mounted infantry with the West Somerset, Dorset, Bed-
ford and Suffolk companies of Yeomenry quickly dislodged them
from the south bank and pursued them for nearly a mile, wlien
they found themselves under a heavy fire from guns which the
Boers had placed on a well concealed and commanding position.
Our heavy guns of the naval and regular artillery whit'h had
purposely been placed in a front part of the column, w^ere hurried
on to the assistance of the mounted infantry as fast as the oxen
and mules could travel over the great rolling hills by which Pre-
toria is surrounded.

"The guns are supported by Stephenson's brigade of I'ole-
Carew's division. After i\ few ViUinds we drove the enemy or.t of
their positions.

"The Boers then ti iempted to turn our left flank. In thi.s
they were again foiled hy the moiaited infantry and Yeon anry,
supported ^>y Maxwell's bvigaJo of Tucker's division. As, however
they still kept pressing to our left, I sent word to Tan Hamilton,
who Vi-as advancing three miles to oui' loft, to incline loward tlicvn
and fiji up the gap between the two columns. This linally < :\rcked
the enemy, who were driven back toward Pretoria. I h()})e(l we
should have been able to follow them, but the days now are very
short in this part of the world, and after nearly twelve liours'
marching and fighting we had to bivouac on the ground.

"Dui ig the day the Guards Brigade was (juito liv^ar the most
southern fort i>y which Pretoria was defended, and less than four

732

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

miles from the town. French, with the Third and Fourth Mounted
Brigades and Hutton's Mounted Infantry, is to the north of Pre-
toria, Broadwood's Brigade is between French and Hamilton's
column and Gordon's is watching the right flank of the main force
not far from the railway bridge at the Irene station, which has
been destroyed by the enemy.

"Our casualties, I hope, are very few."

"After Pretoria, what?" asked the world. General Apathy
seemed to take command and reply — " little, for the Boers are
broken in spirit, in finances, in forces and courage, and nothing
remains but a fatuous policy of guerilla warfare." General Roberts
could not forecast his plans for the world. He had to grasp each
day's situation as it arose. But with the cheers of the people of
Pretoria — and there were many released British prisonei's in the
throngs tiiat gathered at the flag-raisings — ringing in his ears, he
saw his duty. Kruger was wily and determined to keep alive his
semblance of power as long as a commando of his men would
endure the privations of the opera bouffe resistance. To General
Hunter Lord Roberts gave the injunction, "get control in Pot-
chefstroom and keep control of the railway between Klerksdorf
and Johannesburg." The clearance of the eastern district of the
Orange River State was another task he knew he had to perform.
And General Buller with his army at Laing's Nek was to be
advanced to compel the evacuation of the strongly entrenched
positions. Until Buller joined hands witii the other army, com-
munications and bases of supplies would not bo safe.

That Buller was determined to do his part of the work assigned
liim was signitied in the following official communication dated
Yellow Boom Farm, June 8: "On June (i General Talbot Coke, with

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

738

the Tenth Brigade and the South African Light Horse, seized Van
Wykp Hill. The enemy made some resistance and a good deal of
sniping occurred. Our casualties were about four killed and thirteen
wounded. During that day and the following we got two 4,7 and
two 12-pounder naval guns onto Van Wyke Hill, and two 5-inch
guns onto the southwestern spur of Inkewelo. Under cover of
their fire General Hildyard to-day assaulted all the spurs of the
berg between Botha's Pass and Inkewelo. The attack, which was
well planned by Hildyai'd and carried out with immense dash by
the troops, for whom no mountains were too steep, onlf^i.nked the
enemy, who were forced to retire from their very strong position.
I think we did not have any casualties, and I hope I have obtained
a position from which I can render Laing's Nek untenable."

Driven to desperation by their reverses, the burghers became
perniciously active. They aimed at cutting off communications and
for a time startled the world with their well-timed attacks. From
Lieutenant General Frederick Forester- Walker, came the official
report of a disaster to British arms at Roodeval, where the Boers
cut Lord Roberts' line of communications. The fourth battalion
of the Derbyshire regiment was severely cut up. The message
received by the War Office from Cape Town, on Sunday, June 10th,
follows: "The following telegram has been received from Charles
Knox: 'Kroonstad — The following casualities, reported from Roode-
val, June 7tli, received from Stonham, commanding the Imperial
Yoemanry hospital, dated Rhenoster River, June Stli, received here
by flag of truce June 10th: The fourth battalion of the Derljyshire
regiment (^^« Sherwood Foresters) — Killed, Lieutenant Colonel
Baird-Doughis and liieutenant Hawley, and fifteen of the rank aud
file; wounded, Colowel Wilkinson, Captain Bailey. Lieutenants Hall,

734

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Lowder and Blanchard, and fifty-nine of the rank and file. The
Shropshire Light Infantry, one. Cape Pioneer Railroad Regiment,
seven. Ammunition Park, Royal Marines and Imperial Telegraphers,
one each. Postoffice corps, one. Stonham reports that many were
severely wounded and the remainder of the Fourth Derbyshire and
details of prisoners, except six of the rank and file, are in his camp.
All the wounded are in his camp, lately occupied by the Fourth
Derbyshire. Inquiries are being made as to the names.' "

From General Buller's headquarters in Natal came the intelli-
gence that on June 11 the forces concentrated on the Klip River
at its junction with the Gansvlei the night previous. He anticipated
at that defile a force of the enemy about 3,000 strong, who had
to occupy it, and retired as soon as the heavy guns
hich were very quickly brought into action by Major
May Oi. the Royal Artillery and Captain Jones of the Royal Navy.

Tlie South African Light Horse and the Second Cavalry brigade
were anartly engaged while covering the left front. The casualties
were about six killed and seven wounded.

Precisely eight months after the war began, General Buller com-
pleted the deliverance of Natal from invasion. The carrying of the
last defile at Charlestown and the planting of his army in the
Transvaal, gave the tenacious leader who had fought so long for
the deliverance of Ladysmith, this distinction. The defeat of the
Boers at Honing Spruit by forces from the north, about the same'
time cleared the situation between Kroonstad and Pretoria, gave
the British fresh hope of completing all the turning movements
and dissipating any threatening return of serious encounters. Buller
forced the evacuation of Laing's Nek and Majuba Hill without any
butchers hills. After brilliant maneuvers the bayonet charges of

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

735

the Second Dorsets and the cavalry charges of the forces under
General Hildyard, Duller was free to act in his advance to either
Standerton and Pretoria or to operate with General Rnndle, Lord
Methuen and General Colville in running down the Orange River
forces.

Meanwhile Lord Roberts, with a firm conviction that the best
way to keep Pretoria and Johannesburg quiet was to advance
against General Botha's forces, sallied out fifteen miles from the
Boer capital and soon gave the world tidings of two victories over
the enemy. The Boers, adapting themselves to the British tactics,
chose a strong position with an almost impregnable center. They
washed to meet Lord Roberts with a scheme for flanking move-
ments. However, they reckoned without those dashing leaders,
Generals French and Hamilton, and their ends were turned as if
they were composed of a rabble of undisciplined men. Lord Roberts
wanted that key to the position. He got it. But one of the fallen
in that fight was the Earl of Airlie.

Again the public heard of the daring and irresistable striking
of the foe by Lord Kitchener. Ordered to restore communications
with Kroonstad, the Sirdar and General Metheun met De Wet's
forces at a point on the Rhenoster River and scattered the enemy.
Metheun lost nineteen men. His march on forced orders from Lind-
ley to Heilbron, thence to the Rhenoster to the scene of the attack
did much to brighten the military reputation of the leader. The
De Wet raid, like many another that followed, ended in disaster
for the burghers and served to read the Boers a lesson that they
were too dull to accept — that they must succumb to the inevitable.
President Kniger, who had established his executive government in
a railway car at Machadoorp, where he had a locomotive constantly

736

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

under steam to draw himself and capital to a plaice of greater safety,
became the object of pity by many. They wondered why the pres-
ident still maintained a show of resistance.

Desultory fighting with the prospect of bringing the guerilla
warefare to an end in a few months, was the situation in the mid-
dle of June. Occasionally the movements in South Africa took on
the dignity of some extensive operation and Lord Roberts apprised
the War Office. Returning to Pretoria, the British leader under
date of June 13 sent the following: "The enemy evacuated their
strong position during the night and have retired to the eastward.
Buller's force and mine have afforded each other mutual assistance.
Our occupation of Pretoria caused numbers of Boers to withdraw
from Laing's Nek, and Buller's advance to Volksrust made them
feel their rear would be shortly endangered."

Lord Roberts reports under date of Pretoria, June 13, 9:55 a.m.,
as follows:

"Methuen advanced to Honingspruit yesterday and found all
quiet. Kroonstad is strongly held. Methuen returned to-day to
Rhenoster River, where the railway is being repaired. We were
engaged all day yesterday with Botha's army. The enemy fought
with considerable determination and held our cavalry on both flanks,
but Ian Hamilton, assisted by the guard's brigade of Pole-Carew's
division, ijushing forward, took the hill in his front, which caused
the enemy to fall back on their second position to the eastward.
This they are still holding. It is slightly higher than the one we
have captured. The great extent of country which has to be cov-
ered under modern conditions of warefare renders progress very
slow.

" Details of the casualties have not reached me, but I under-

.lOHANXKSHlRli, I'KHTOKIA AND TIIK KM)

737

3, 9:55 a.m.,

t I uiider-

stiintl they are moderate in numbers. The only further casualties
repoited to date are two officers wounded."

When the attention of the world seemed to have been tempo-
rarily diverted from the arena of war in South Africa by the
momentous happenings in China, Lord Roberts lost no time in
preparing his plans for the inevitable conclusion of serious hostili-
ties in the Transvaal. The doughty campaigner read the hand-
writing on the wall, which penmanship Kruger could see without
his glasses. The war cloud in China was just casting its densest
.shadow, while in South Africa the umbra had given place to the
penumbra. Engagements would have to be fought. Lord lioberts
knew, but he did not expect to see many of his men in line of
battle many times before the tieeing executive of the South African
l^epublic crossed the borders into Portuguese territory. It was
<'haracteristic of Lord Rolierts that he should maintain that the
war would be hopelessly concluded when Kruger fled his country.
Hut for a brief time would the loyal lieutenants in the struggle be
able to hold together the heterogeneous groups of Boers. To Lord
lioberts the preparation of a proclamation of annexation for the
Tiansvaal was but the work of a few minutes. He defended the
writing to make good his plan of policing and preparing the
country for its occupancy by the garrisons of the Queen's soldiery.

It was with pleasure that the Hritish leader, sitting in his
ii'sidency in Pretoria, learned from Sir Charles Warren that the
robellion in Cape Colony, noi'th of the Orange River, had been
ended. This was one of the problems out of the way, and the
irresistible onward . march of British concjuest could be depended
upon to do for the Transvaal what the overthrow of the rebellion
ill the Orange River State had accomi)lislied. The last formidal)le

1^.

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

'< ^>

1.0

I.I

UitM 125
*^ Ui2 |2.2
2.0

Its

\\25 m 1.4

1.6

'^:^'*
■>

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

lO'

'."i»
^
^ *

<!^. t.

23 WIST MAIN STRUT

WIISTM.N.Y. MStO

(71*) •7a-4»03

'4^

'^5^

73S

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

body of rebels to surrender was commanded by Com m and an t
de Villiers, and great quantities of supplies and ammunition were
diverted to the British storehouses. It was about this time that
General Baden-Powell was able to report that the Rustenl)erjr
district was quiet and satisfactory. Guerilla operations in the
eastern part of the Orange River State, planned by Commandant
Christian De Wet, seemed to be the direct result of the Boer
leaders to break up their forces into effective marauding bands.
A great show of force was made from time to time by the strag-
gling Boers, their small parties harassing the British columns, cut-
ting off scouts and sniping pickets. But nothing the wily Boer
leaders could do could withstand the columns of the British that
contracted the circle of their advance. Transvaal officials at
Machadodorp declared that the Boers would hold out to the last.
Kruger, in mortal feai of being surprised and taken prisoner,
heard tiie edict of his pliysician, who refused him permission to go
to the high veldt, planned to retire to Waterval or Nel Spruit.
Commandant-General Botha, east of Pretoria, was doing all in his
power to keep the British soldiery busy.

It was the rare good fortune of the Canadian Rifles to be in
the neighborhood of De Wet's forces when the latter attacked an
outpost of D squadron. Many of the Canadians were scattered along
the railways in the northern sections of the ()range colony, and
often the Boer forces would outnumber them.

In a iiot engagement three Canadians were killed — Privates
T. E. Patteson, J. F. Morden and Kerr were killed, and several
soldiers were badly wounded, in this little affair, of which tluMc
were many almost similar during the many weeks of "rounding iq'"
the broken forces of the Boers, a private soldier gained consideral»le

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

TS\)

distinction for liis bravery and won from his comrades salvos of
cheers that will have their echoes in Calgary when the soldierly
young man returns from the field of war. IJoers pursued the party
to within rifle shot of the camp. Many a soldier longed to dis-
mount and, after scratching a bit of a fortification of dirt, pour a
few rounds into the troublesome enemy. Private Ed. F. Waldy
refused to be driven into the camp without getting a shot other
than a possible Mauser missle in the back. Hurling himself from
his horse he sighted his trusty gun, and he had the satisfaction of
sending two rebels to the long account. While he was firing so
well some of his comrades killed another of the attacking party.
So thoroughly convinced were the Boers that the British marksmen
were on the alert, that they left their dead. The boys from Canada
gave the silenced Boers a respectful burial.

Countless instances have been recognized in general orders of
the signh-l bravery of the volunteers from the great American por-
tion of Her Majesty's empire. Sufficient is it to say that the
troublesome days following the practical disintegration of the main
Boer resistance. Lord Roberts had many opportunities of which he
gladly availed himself to cable his pleasure over the fighting of
the Canadians. Among the troops signally distinguished by the
great leader was the first battalion of the C. M. R. for their gallant
capture of two Boer ^.2-pounders at Rustfontein l)etween I'retoria
and Rustenburg. Defended stiffly by the natives, these guns were
filially dismounted and craftily concealed in a native kraal. Here
the diligent soldiers found the guns and earned for themselves the
iiighest commendation of their commander-in-chief. As a species
of additional reward, perhaps, it was fated that the men from
Canada should soon be joined by C battery which had been present

740

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

at the relief of Mafekiiig, and whicli subsequently formed part of
Major General Baden-Powell's forces sent across the Transvaal.

Temporarily commanding Hamilton's Brigade, Hunter obeyed
Lord Roberts' instructions and marched from Heidelberg towards
Frankfort, but the ruse did not result in scaring up Boer opposition.
The armored train was successfully used at the Uoodevaal Spruit
post on the supply railway, together with one of those favorite
fifteen-pounders backed by a detachment of Derbyshires and Aus-
tralians, and the enemy held that post in great respect there-
after.

The success of Baden-Powell about this time, in persuading the
natives to surrender rifles and accept the terms of the proclama-
tion, was gratifying. He reported that the Boers had so concealed
the proclamation from the people that thirty Transvallers going
from their homes to join Delarey's commando were apprehended.
They were surprised to learn of the hopelessness of the Boer cause,
and speedily accepted the terms of the proclamation. Meanwhile
Kruger was at Machadodorp -his mind racked by a thousand suspi-
cions, his phlegmatic nature rebelling to its utmost limit again.st
the convictions that were gradually pushing him to flight, and
fearful of the very culverts and bridges being undermined in tlie
fulfillment of some terrible plot to blow him up.

There was no material change in the situation up to July 4.
when the columns seeking to hem in De Wet, were permitted to
relax to some extent their hard work. One thousand Boers under
a guerilla leader hu'ig on the right flank of General Clery in liis
advance to Greylingstad. July 1, Strathcona's Horse, that glorious
contribution of the western hemisphere to Her Majesty's forces in
South Africa, received its baptism of fire and one trooper was

JOHANNESBURG. PRETORIA AND THE END

741

killed. Captain Cooper was reported as missing. When Kriiger
was pressed about this time to tell whetlier or not he had opened
peace negotiations, he said: "The president and people of the South
African Republic most earnestly desire peace, but onl}' on two con-
ditions: The complete independence cf the Republic and amnesty for
colonial Boers who fought with us. If these conditions are not
granted we will tight to the bitter end." But (ireat Britain had not
proceeded thus far to grant any such conditions. The war office
had a record of total losses to date, exclusive of the sick and
wounded of 29,460, of which the killed in action were 254 officers
and 2,403 non-commissioned officers and men — a dreadful cost which
the empire paid to resent the attack on the Queen's territory.

Lord Roberts, in announcing the engagement of Paget with the
enemy July 3 at Pleisirfontein, said that all of Steyn's Cabinet and
the treasurer-general, were at Bethlehem, which had been proclaimed
the capital. Steyn himself fled to the mountains. Tlie Boer
officials, from Kruger down, therefore, seemed to be enjoying a
monopoly in the fleeing business. Simultaneously with the report
of Reitz's advance party came the news from Lord Roberts that he
had learned from the general commanding at Ladysmith that 800
British prisoners, belonging to the Yeomanry and Derbyshires, had
l)een put over the Natal border line. This surrender of the men was
taken to indicate that the Boer commandos were running short of food
and that the same commandos were feeling keenly the pressure of the
Ihitish column's advance. General Buller left the Transvaal capital
looking well and apparently none the worse for his arduous campaign
of eight months, to resume his command, and the strategists began to
li^Mire on an early coup. The British situation at this time indicated
ii continued scheme for envelopment. Paget was within striking

742

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

distance of Bethlehem, with Clements behind him ; IJrabant's force
had been shifted to Senekal, where cooperation with Paget's forci^
was easy; Uiindle held important positions in the south, towards
Ficksbur^; Methuen was in reserve at Paarde Kraal, on the west;
Hunter's division, with McDonald's brigade, was at Frankfort, and
a large column was marching from Standt-rton toward Vrede.

Made desperate by these strategetic maneuverings by Roberts,
the Hoers desperately attacked General Button's position in an
effort to retake Rustenburg. But the Boers were cut off and driven
away by the British with one casualty — Lieutenant Young of the
First Canadian mounted troops sustaining a scalp wound. Lord
Roberts subsequently reported that he had sent Hutton to reinforce
Mahon and to drive the Boers to the east of Broenkerspruit. Mahon
succeeded in doing as he was ordered, although attacked by some
three thousand of the enemy, with six guns and two Maxims.
Captain Nelles of the Canadian Mounted Rifles and 26 men were
slightly wounded. Rustenburg was attacked seriously by Limmer,
but the British troops held off their eager foe, and when Holdswortli
and his Hussars arrived from the neighborhood of Zeerust, after a
4S-mile march, the rout of the Transvaalers was made perfect.
This paved the way, doubtless, for the peaceful march of Baden-
Powell to Rustenberg, July 10. That leader found no menacing
foe at that time.

The situation July 10 was one of cheer, for the British Generals.
Clements and Paget had moved upon Bethlehem, and, after two
fights, one of two hours and the other from dawn to noon, took
the town. One of the caiitures made, singularly enough, was one
of the British guns lost in the disaster to Gen. (Jatacre's forces at
Stormberg the pn^ceding December. De Wet and his commandos

'>^^'

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

743

retreated to Fouriesburg, some distance to tlie southeast, and a
point regarded as favorable to the Boer's method of warfare.

Prospects for peace began to assume definite shape in the
minds of the close followers of the fortunes of the Queen's soldiers.
All of President Steyn's government, excepting the president him-
self, had surrendered. The prisoners were permitted to communi-
cate with Mr. Steyn to prove to him the criminal uselessness of
continuing the strife. Canadians were greatly interested in the
bulletins that began to come from the scene of the skirmishes.
From Standerton July 10 came the following:

Following casualties reported near Standerton, July 5, Strath-
cona's Horse — wounded, Trooper John C. McDougall, Alex. McArthur,
George A. S. Sparkes; missing, acting Sergeant Alfred Stringer and
Trooper Colin J. Isbester.

With Colonel Mahon, reinforced by Gen. French's brigade suc-
cessful in his move to take all the Boer positions in the neighbor-
hood of Reitfontein, the cordon that was being formed about the
struggling Boers seemed to be drawing tighter. One discordant
chord was struck about this time, but the tones of the dispatches
had to be accepted, harsh as they might be, for the Anglo-Saxon
people. The brave Lincolnshires sent to hold the pass through
Magalesburg, in the neighborhood of Daspoort Fort, leaped into
fame by their terrible experience. Three companies with two guns
took up a position and camped for the night with the slight light
showing the eastern hills as rocky and well nigh inaccessible.
The other companies were left bivouacking on the plain south of
the pass. Imagiiie the surprise of the British to see the Boers on
the summit of the eastern kopje and to hear the heavy fire that
was started. The Lincolnshires took up a position on the west of

744

THE STORY 0¥ SOUTH AFRICA

the gap and kept up a return fire during the entire day. Two
guns placed out in advance, and nobly escorted by some Scots
Greys, were captured after a stout resistance. Nearly every defender
was killed or wounded. A sergeant and several volunteers went
out in a galling fire and saved a Maxim that had been in action
frora early morning and which had got too well under the zone of
fire. The Boers soon began to seek means of infilading their
gallant opponents. Getting to the left, the Boers poured in a gall-
ing fire. A British officer and fifteen men essayed the desperate
chance of charging the well placed foe. Fourteen men were either
killed or wounded in the charge.

Here was another such a scene as that which had made the many
similar ones at the Tugela a storehouse for writers of British
bravery. Although three companies of soldiers were practically
surrounded, the men continued their fire. Nightfall alone saved
the British some terrible losses.

Supplementing this, the news that General Kundle had made
such a rapid advance from Senekal that the Boers had got into a
bad corner, gave a brighter color to the movement. Many stories
began to come from the Boer ranks. One was that President Steyu,
giving up all hope after the loss of Bethlehem, had considered sur-
render, but this idea had been quickly thrust from his mind by the
threat of DeWet to shoot him. Strathcona's Horse got into some
of the thick of the guerilla fighting, and the cable reported as
missing the following troopers : Acting-Corporal Mills, Shoeing-
smith J. J. Griffiths, S. Simpson, N. Gilroy, P. Bourne, and J. Morris.

A touching incident of the war, removed many thousand miles
from where the Mauser bullets caused the sand to spurt on the
veldt, but as certainly a part of the awful drama of blood and gun-

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

745

powder as any frontal attack or bombardment, was the home-
coming at Quebec of the thirty bullet-seared and fever-racked men
who had been among the tirst that Canada sent as her offering to
the Queen's forces. The invalided volunteers were given such a wel-
come and were greeted with such tender expressions of a nation's
sincere gratitude that they will remember the occasion until taps
is sounded. Mayor Paret who was not able to be present when
the brave fellows set foot on Canadian soil for the first time since
their embarkation for the scene of war, telegraphed that he was
sure the citizens of Quebec would do their duty on that occasion,
as they had done it before. They did. It was early in the day
when the boys landed and cheers from the thousands for the men
in khaki were freely given. Disdaining the carriages that had been
provided for their transportation to the Citadel, the war heroes
walked. And such a triumphal route as that was! Flags were to
be seen everywhere and banks of people in the streets vied with
the soldiers and sailors who were to escort the returned men, in
ringing out salvos of welcome and cheers of happiness. After the
great welcome the boys told stories of their experiences. Private
Kennedy of the Queen's Own Rifles told how, at Paardeberg, he was
struck by seven bullets, four of which passed completely through
some portion of his body, and he was voted to be a man with a
charmed life. The soldier wanted to return to fight, but his right
arm in a sling showed how useless was his wish.

Some idea of the effectiveness of the Canadian contingent in
the movement to round up General Botha's forces, may be gained
from one who was with the detachment in that march from Pre-
toria. Meeting the enemy at Pinar River, the Canadians had to
face the Boers who were ensconsed in a position of great natural

746

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

strength. The Boers seemed constantly to enjoy the good fortune
of getting singularly .'ormidable natural positions. Writing from
the front one of the soldiers said: "The field in which we lay was
very stony and the men built cozy shelters for the night out of
the rocks. To the surprise of Mr. Boer, in the morning the place
was dotted with little fortifications, behind which the Canadians
could smoke their pipes and prepare their meals with comparative
safety, although the Transvaalers poured plenty of Mauser bullets
and even shell fire on the location.

Under date of July 16 the news was cabled from Africa that
General Hamilton's column had advanced to Donderboora, west of
Pretoria, and had driven the enemy from Pyramid Hill. After this
victory the troops bivouacked at Watervaal. "D" battery of the
second Canadian contingent was with this column. In this advance
a simple mode of attack was followed. General French's cavalry
sallied out and first engaged the Boers, who fell back, and then the
infantry was called into action. Several pieces of artillery possessed
by the enemy were poorly served. At this time General Hutton's
mounted infantry was within a score of miles of Pretoria, resting
at Bronchoest Spruit. Lord Roberts, under date of July 17, con-
veyed sad news to Canadians when he reported the death of Lieu-
tenant Borden in action. Lieut. H. L. Borden was the only son of
the Minister of Militia, and although in his third year of a medi.al
course at McGill University, he dropped his books to obey the call
of duty to his country. The militia life had an infatuation for
this young man — he was but twenty-three — when he was made
major in the King's Canadian Hussars, Canning, N. S., and he went
out as second senior lieutenant in the B'irst Battalion Canadian
Mounted Rifles, under Colonel Lessard.

JOHANNESBrUG, PRETORIA AND THE END

747

All the world loves to hear of the exploits of a brave soldier.
Instances of the gallantry and courage of this officer in battle were
frequently given by the correspondents afield. When tlie enemy
was encountered at the Vet River, May 5, the squadron in which
Borden served was engaged with the Boers in a deep gorge. For
hours the Canadians were exposed to a galling shell fire. D squadron
was particularly exposed and remained under fire so long that
there were many who criticized the commanding officer for keep-
ing the brave men under shell fire so long. This gorge was an
admirable place for the retreating Boers to put up a stiff resist-
ance. Major Forrester, with A squadron, was assigned the task of
escorting the guns. B squadron was ordered to feel the enemy,
draw his fire, and engage him if necessary. The Imperial Mounted
Infantry led the way down the steep banks of the river and Cokmel
Alderson ordered B squadron to follow dismounted. They found
no Boers on that side, says the correspondent who was an eye-
witness, whereupon Lieutenants Borden and Turner, with five of
their men, offered to swim across the river, which at that point
was unfordable. They did so and discovered a kraal with about
forty Boers in it. These Boers had rested in supposed security,
believing that the roaring river was a certain protection. Like
true heroes that they were the seven adventurous spirits opened
fire on the squad of Boers and the enemy, so surprised by the
fusilade that they could scarcely keep from burrowing in the
ground to escape the bullets, sought refuge at last in a neighbor-
ing kopje. It may not be generally known, but it is an undisputed
fact now with the army officials that the late Lieutenant Borden
and his comrades were the first British troops to cross the Vet
River on that memorable march.

748

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

!, .

Lieut. J. E. Hurch, of the second dragoons at St. Catharines,
was killed in action at the same time that Borden met his death.
In his official dispatch Lord Roberts pays the following tribute to
the gallant officers: They were killed while gallantly leading their
men in a counter attack on the enemy's flank at a critical juncture
of their assault on our position. Borden was twice before brought
to my notice in dispatches for gallant and intrepid conduct.

In the fox chase after Botha, Lord Roberts brought on a des-
perate attack on General Pole-Carew's position east of Pretoria at
a time when General Hamilton was rapidly moving northward in
his game of driving Delarey's com.mando. A counter stroke had to
be made by the Boers, who found that the wily British leader had
cut off communication between two Boer forces and was rapidly
driving back the weaker column towards Watervaal. Canadian and
New Zealand mounted infantry and the Irish Fusileers, those
intrepid fellows who had suffered so much at the Tugela, were
very much in evidence in the defense of the British position. The
losses were about equal in this brush, and although Lord Roberts'
army was virtually on the defensive near Pretoria, he had not for-
gotten that the western districts needed clearing out, and had sent
Lord Methuen and General Smith-Dorrien to Rustenburg to make
a display of strength.

Oliver had broken away with his force and was well in the
Harrismith district, yet Lord Roberts had not cried out that he
had the war all but ended. He foresaw many diflBculties in the
way of pacification and the adjustment of Her Majesty's govern-
ment to meet the exigencies of the country devastated by the
Boers, and shrank from predicting the exact end of the campaign.
Yet he was optimistic enough to feel that no great pitched battles

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

749

remained for tlie future, on account of the disorganized condition
of Kruger's forces.

To digress for a moment from Roberts' advance, it is apparent
that the work of the gallant Canadians in Roberts' campaign will
never be forgotten so long as fathers can tell stories to their
children. In some interesting correspondence that was sent from
Pretoria, the story of the way the C\ M. R. led the army on the
Rand and into Johannesburg, is told with much credit to the
Canadians. Colonel Evans' command and C and D squadrons
played strange parts out on a shell-swept kopje. These men had
to make targets of themselves at intervals for the purpose of show-
ing the Boers that the hills were still occupied. Theirs was a
subordinate duty compared with the detail work of the columns
under direct supervision of the leader, but it was the most perilous
work, as the men subsequently learned.

Think of being for hours under the fire of those pestiferous
pom-poms with no chance to make reply! Rapping all day, that
incessant pom-poming, suggesting some great power begrimed, the
impatient visitor made life quite exciting for those little squadrons.
Finally when the last of the army had crossed the river General
Hutton, with a sigh of relief, sent word to the squadrons that they
might retire. In the big theater of war, men play various and
often "non-speaking parts," but here were a few men who had
marched up to the ridge to outline themselves against the sky as
perfunctorily as if they were out getting their pictures taken for
an illustrated paper. To them the panoply of war was very much
frayed on the edges because of the lack of excitement! Troops
get so accustomed to battle that a simple siege or being under fire
is regarded as a signal for an opportunity to catch a few cat naps.

750

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Bu :.t what a cost did the squadrons carry out their orders
durii 4 the^e days? The accounts of their work seem to be
exagg r.^-'ias when it is learned that but three men were hit in
two t ' i, and all of these belonged to D squadron. General
Hutton, in a speech to the men, said it was little short of incred-
ible that men should play that sort of a part in an engagement
and suffer so little. Many horses were seen to fall but the artillery
fire did not do much damage to riders. In almost every ct.se their
comrades saw the dismounted troopers marching for new mounts.
Corporal Stephens of D squadron was severely wounded — it was
first thought that he wap mortally hit. Dr. Devine attended him
at Van Wyck's Rust jail, that had been converted into a hospital,
and eventually the injured man pulled through. Troopers Dore
and J. W. Grey were hit, but not seriously.

Another incident of interest was the killing of one of the horses
attached to Captain Bliss' Maxim gun and the blowing of Trooper
Champion from his horse. The immunity of the battalion from
more serious loss, says an eye witness, was truly providential. Spec-
tators thought surely that before the day's shelling was over there
would be many sorrowful homes in Canada. The marksmen showed
good judgment in placing shells, and their distance seemed to be
accurately measured, but the conclusion was forced that the enemy's
ammunition was defective. The difference between the screechers
that burst and those that went into the earth was so palpable that
the soldiers cared as little for the cloud of gray-blue vapor that
followed a bursted shell as they did for the dull red cloud of smoke
that seemed to rise wherever a shell went into the ground. In his
address to his brigade, General Hutton thanked all for their great
service, and while it would be invidious to particularize, he thouglit

JOHANNESBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

751

he would be but fair to lay particular stress on the services of
Colonel Evans and his men. These men had been selected for the
difficult and dangerous duty of covering the retirement of the army,
but they performed it under galling fire with a resolution and a
discipline that was beyond all praise.

General Hutton said that he had stood with General French
observing the manner in which they carried out their duty, and w.is
able to convey to them that distinguished general's praise. The
commanding officers feared that great loss would result and were
pleased beyond description by the felicitious words of the general
who had lost but few men.

Many of the soldiers thought that with the occupation of Pre-
toria by the British the war might end. It would be idle to attempt
to conceal the fact that many were disappointed that the campaign
would be indefinitely prolonged. The boys put in some time view-
ing the fifteen million dollar forts and remarking how queer it was
that virtually not a shot was fired from them for the defense of the
city which Kruger was wont to say would not fall until humanity
was appalled. The British guns actually scratched the masonry
about one of these fort's formidable casements, and, as there was
no reply, the British peacefully occupied them. These forts will
ever be specimens of the consummate folly of the men who built
them.

Followers of the fortunes of the British were on the qui vive
for news of Kitchener— Kitchener the brave, resolute soldier who
struck hard and often with little warning. From Pretoria came a
message saying that Lord Kitchener was with the force south of
the Vaal River. There he was joined by a large command of
Brabant's Ho''se and the Canadian Regiment. Simultaneously with

752

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

this news of Kitchener came the authentic report that Harrismith,
occupied by a large force of the enemy, had surrendered to General
Macdonald. This victory was more important from a stragetic
view than for any great moral weight it could convey. It had the
effect of reestablishing railway communication with Natal and the
Orange River State. Beyond this, the student of the field of con-
flict could see little more in the news of the day. Sir Frederick
Carrington, with his mounted infantry from Rhodesia, was in touch
wdth the enemy in the center of the Transvaal, but the Boers
wisely refrained from annoying him.

A sample of the treacherous acts that the Boers often had
recourse to is noted in the dispatches about the notification given
at Standerton by a party of Boers that they were ready to sur-
render. Fifteen of the Strathcona Horse were sent to receive the
submission of the officer in charge. Little dreaming of an ambush,
these Canadian soldiers repaired to the rendezvous appointed and
were fired upon by the concealed Boers. A sergeant rallied his
men and charged in the direction of the foe. "Surrender," cried
the Boers. " Never," shouted the Canadian, and this was his death-
defying retort. The next moment he was shot dead. Another
brave man found his billet and expired while three of the British
were carried away wounded. It was sucli affairs as this that caused
the soldiers of the Queen to feel that they were combating with a
foe little removed from the Zulu in ideas of the correct manner
to make legitimate warfare.

While little of great import was coming from the seat of war,
there did not seem to be a feeling in the minds of the government
leaders that the war would be soon settled, for reKniorcing drafts
were sent to two regiments to hold themselves in readiness for

JOHANNESBURG, PKETOKIA AND THE END

7r.

753

embaikation. The Boer delegates and Dr. Leyds, roaming over
Europe in their canvass for sympathy and possibly something more
tangible in the way of an essay at intervention, had just visited
the Foreign Office at Berlin. But Germany had turned a deaf ear.
Generals Ian Hamilton and Baden-Powell were working in con-
junction in the Transvaal, and Kitchener was moving his column
in pursuit of De Wet. Methuen, on the right bank of the V'aal, had
come into touch with De Wet's advance guard. The sound of
Methuen's guns could be heard by Kitchener's troops. It did not
take long to stay De Wet's northward flight.

But all thought of following the progress of the practical
guerilla warfare was abandoned about this time by the news of
a discovery of a conspiracy to murder the British officers at Pre-
toria and kidnap Lord Roberts. So thoroughly well planned was
this vile conspiracy that it just missed execution by a miraculous
discovery at the eleventh hour. Houses had been marked for those
in the plot to enter, ply the fire brand, and slay the officers who
would be caught unawares. About fifteen of the ring-leaders were
arrested. Everywhere Lord Roberts was made the subject of dis-
cussion. Many said that his leniency towards the treacherous foe
was misplaced and assisted in prolonging resistance long after all
chance of successfully opposing the British advance in the field was
at an end. The call was for drastic measures. They were required
to bring about pacification, as small bands of burghers continually
carried on sniping and caused much annoyance. Many declared
that Lord Roberts was absurdly moderate in his demands, and
called for the shooting outright of the burghers who, after taking
the oath of allegiance, turned themselves into virtual banditti.
But the calm, deep-thinking leader whose life had beer in such

754

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

peril, had his plans for the completion of the conquest. He did
not wish to see blood shed if the alternative were possible. Yet
when the time came for the summary punishment of the arch con-
spirators who hatched the dastardly plot, the people saw the hero
of Kandahar in all his resoluteness. For the time being, however^
Lord Roberts was of the opinion that the plot was a clumsy one
and that his main business was not to hang rebels and burn farm
houses, but to hasten the cornering of De Wet, to suppress Botha,
and to get the heavy Boer guns with which so much execution
could be wrought. Kitchener was doing his best to affect the
cornering of the wily De Wet. Buller, on the north bank of the
Reitspruit, was moving to Ermelo, having occupied Amerepoort the
evening of August 7. Buller had a brief engagement with the
enemy within six miles of Amerspoort, his casualties numbering
twenty. The Boers evacuated Machadodorp in large numbers and
proclaimed Barberton as the new seat of the Transvaal govern-
ment.

Although it was not generally considered within the bounds of
probability that Lord Roberts' army would have many engage-
ments of large importance with the enemy, for the very good
reason that the dissolution of the Boer resistance was so near that
only bands of burghers could be found dodging among the kopjes,
the scraps of information sent to the war office were eagerly
scanned for proof that the final curtain fall was about to come
and hide war from sight. Kitchener's daily report of De Wet and
his flight, the report that Mr. Steyn was a prisoner, or that he
was held in close surveillance in the camp of De Wet, Buller's occu-
pation of p]rmelo and its moral effect on the burghers, the sur-
render of a Field Cornet and 182 burghers of the Standerton

JOHANNP]SBURG, PRETORIA AND THE END

755

commando to General Clery, the report of the safety of Colonel
Eland's River Garrison and the capture and destruction by Kitch-
ener and Methuen of De Wet's stores and supplies, all had the effect
of continuing interest in the one-sided, though prolonged campaign
in Africa.

Commandant Prinsloo, who surrendered to Hunter, was quoted
as saying that his people were heartily tired of war and that they
were ready to make terms with the British. Great dissatisfaction
was felt over President Kruger's tenacity in clinging to a forlorn
hope. That Prinsloo was right was subsequently developed when
Kruger stealthily went aboard the ship that was to bear him from
South Africa's shores, alarmed over the turn in the tide against
him. Kruger feared the culmination of the three months of grow-
ing hatred of him and his counsellors who brought about the war.

Cordua was convicted and Lord Roberts was given the findings
of the court to pass upon. Two sharp engagements then came
to arouse the sluggish critics. Ventnersburg was the place where
Lieutenant-Cok .lel Sitwell engaged the Boers and lost two in wounded
and twenty-four in missing. Hamilton crossed the Crocodile River
and Paget and Baden-Powell had a brush with the comman'-^s that
were out protecting De Wet, losing two in killed and having six men
wounded. Operations in the latter part of August widened into a
movement of considerable dimensions in the attack on Botha in the
Machadodorp district. JJuUer, French, Pole-Care w and Bruce Ham-
ilton were engaged at various places. Commandant Oliver, who gave
the British so much trouble, and his three sons were taken prisoners.
Then came the information that BuUer had driven the enemy before
him with little loss and had occupied Machadodorp. Part of
Buller's force in the operations against the Boer stronghold were

756

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Strathcona Horse and Troopers. D. Burnett and F. C. Y7hiteley
were severely wounded.

Shorn of details the story of the war from the engagements
in the Machadodorp district to October 10, is but the recounting
of numerous petty skirmishes, hastily planned expeditions to seize
the heavy guns that the Boers carried with them so > <g before
they finally were forced to render them useless, and the ..ontinual
pounding of De Wet's band of skulking hill marksmen. Near Vrede-
fort Colonel Delisle battled for three days with De Wet's forces.
Fleeting Boers passing through Wepener and Rouxville, looted the
stores, but their exultation was short-lived. The British closed in
on them leaving no avenue of escape except the Basutoland border.
There many were taken prisoners. At Kaapmuiden the Boers
ambushed a truck containing a party oi engineers of Paget's rifle
brigade and Captain Stewart and one of his men were killed. The
other casualties were, unfortunately, quite severe. De Wet had
cheered on his remnant of fighters by the tale that Europe would
intervene if the contest could be continued until October 10.

Boer activity about October 15 was noticeable over a wide field,
but at their best the affairs could not be much more than irritating
delays, but Lord Roberts' proclamation annexing the South African
Republic and naming the new territory of the British Crown "The
Transvaal," was the official notification of the end of the most
momentous war waged by Great Britian in a century. The
departure of Kruger for Europe on the Dutch cruiser Gelderland,
sailing from Lorenzo Marquez at noon, October 20th, was a fitting
finale to the closing chapter of Boer rule in South Africa.

Proclamation.

^Vhere&S» certain territories in south

AFRICA, heretofore known as the Orange
Free State have been conquered by Her Majesty's forces, and it
has seemed expedient to Her Majesty that the said territories should
be annexed and should henceforth form part of Her Majesty's
Dominions, and that I should provisionally and until Her Majesty's
pleasure is more fully known, be appointed Administrator of the
said territories with power to take all such measures and to make
and enforce such laws as I may deem necessary for the peace, order
and good government of the said territories.

Now, therefore, I, Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of Kan-
dahar, K. P., G. C. B., G. C. S. I., G. C. I. E., V. C, Fi!:^ Marshal
Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in South ^frica, by
Her Majesty's command, and in virtue of the power and authority
conferred upon me in that behalf by Her Majesty's Royal Com-
mission, dated the 2 1st day of May, 1900, and in accordance with
Her Majesty's instructions thereby and otherwise signified to me,
do proclaim and make known that, from and after the publication
hereof, the territories known as the Orange Free State are
annexed to and form part of Her Majesty's Dominions, and that,
provisionally and until Her Majesty's pleasure is fully declared, the
said territories will be administered bv me with such powers as
aforesaid.

Her Majesty is pleased to direct that the new territories shall
henceforth be known as The Orange River Colony.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

Given under my hand and seal at the Headquarters of the
Army in South Africa, Camp South of the Vaal River, in the said
territories, this 24th day of May, in the year of our Lord, 1900.

ROBERTS.

Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief Her
Majesty's Forces in South Africa.

(Tliis was read on the Market Sc|uare of" Bloenifontein, on May 2Sth, l>y tlv- Military (governor, in the presence
of a large body of otficials and troops. Lord Aciieson unfiirle<i the Royal Standard, the band played "God Save the
^ueen," and the Naval Brigade fired a salute of twenty-one guns. — The Editor. )

Proclamation.

^VhereaSy certain territories in south

AFRICA, heretofore known as the South Afri-
can Republic have been conquered by Her Majesty's forces, and it
has seemed expedient to Her Majesty that the said territories should
be annexed to, and should henceforth form part of Her Majesty's
Dominions, and that I should provisionally and until Her Majesty's
pleasure is more fully known, be appointed Administrator of the
said territories with power to take all such measures and to make
and enforce such laws as I may deem necessary for the peace, order
and good government of the said territories.

Now, therefore, I, Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of Kan-
dahar, X. P., G. C. B., G. C. S. I., G. C. I. E., V. C, Field-Marshal
and Commanding-in-Chief the British Forces in South Africa, by
Her Majesty's command, and in virtue of the power and authority
conferred upon me in that behalf by Her Majesty's Royal Com-
mission, dated the 4th day of July, 1900, and in accordance with
Her Majesty's instructions thereby and otherwise signified to me,
do proclaim and make known that, from and after the publication
hereof, the territories known as the South African Republic are
annexed to and form part of Her Majesty's Dominions, and that,
provisionally and until Her Majesty's pleasure is fully declared, the
said territories will be administered by me with such powers as
aforesaid.

Her Majesty is pleased to direct that the new territories shall
henceforth be known as The Transvaal.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

Given under my hand and seal at the Headquarters of the
Army in South Africa, Belhist, in the said Territories, this 1st day
of September, in the year of our Lord, 1900.

ROBERTS.

Field Marshal Commanding Her Majesty's
Forces in South Africa.

COMMON BOER NAMES AND THEIR MEANING.

OUTIT

ith Afn-
5, and it
s should
/Tajesty's
Majesty's
r of the
:o make
;e, order

of Kan-
Marshal
xica, by
uthcrity
d Corn-
ice with
to me,
)lication
blic are
nd that,
ired, the
wers as

ies shall

; of the
1st day

lajesty's

The language of the Boers is that of Holland, modified by two
centuries of contact with the native African tribes (especially the
Kaffirs) by the Malays, and by French and Spanish settlers and
traders.

In the Boer language a has always the sound that it has in law.

Uit is pronounced ate.

Ein is ain.

Oo has the long sound of o as in home.

Ou is the same as ow.

Oe is the equivalent of oo in boot.

Ij and j correspond to y in English.

Berg is mountain, the plural being formed by the addition of
en after the g. A drift is a ford, and a dorp a town, or village.
Thus we have Krugersdorp, Legdsdorp, etc.

Stad also means town ; and winkel (pronounced winkle) a
store, where almost everything is sold. Fontein, as the name implies,
means spring, and krantz, a cliff or precipice. Boschveld (pronounced
bushfelt) is an open plain covered with bush. To trek is to travel ;
voortrekkers meaning pioneers.

A vlei (flay) is a pool of water, mostly formed in the rainy
season. Rooinek is the term of contempt applied to Britishers, and
means '"red-neck"; it is not infrequently prefixed by the adjective
"verdomde" (ferdomdy). Rooibaatjes is Cape Dutch for "Tommy
Atkins," or redcoats. A stoep (pronounced stoop) is a raised platform
in front of a house — something like a verandah — on which the Boer
loves to take his weed.

Vrouw (meaning housewife) is pronounced ''frowr Slim (often
applied to General Piet Joubert) is cunning, or artful, or, slangingly
speaking, fly. Kerel is chap, or fellow. Baas (pronounced so) is
master, and baas op, boss up. To inspan is to harness, or tether.

(759)

7G0

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

horses or cattle; to nifsjmn is to unharness. Uitspan is also applied
to the resting place of the animal« Oorlng is tear.

The following are the mori ^raon words used in the Trans-
vaal, with their proper pronunciation and definition :

Boer (boo-er),

Buitenlander (boy-ten-lont-er),

Burgher (buhr-ker),

Commando,

Jonkher (yunk-hair),

Kopje (koppy),

Kraal,

Kriiger (kree-er),

Laager,

Com (ome),

Baad (rahd),

Raadslieer (rads-hair),

Raadhuis (rahd-hoys),

Baadzael (rahd-zaahl).

Rand (rahnt).

Spruit (sprate),

Staat (staht),

Staatkunde (staht-kuhn-de)

Stad (stot),

Stemmer (stemmer),

Transvaal (irons- fahl),

Trek (treck),

Trekken (trecken),

Uit (ate),

Uitlander (ate-lont-er),

Vaal (fahl),

Vaderlaudshafde (fah-ter-lents

Veld (felt),

Yeldheer (felt-hair),

Veldwachter (felt-vock-ter),

Volksraad (fulks-rahd),

Voorreght (fore-rekt),

Vreomdelling (frame-da-ling)

Witwaterstrand (vit-vot-ters-ront),

Wallaby, ....

Farmer

Foreigner

Citizen

A body of armed men

Gentlemen, or members of the Volksraad

A hillock or piece of rising ground

Settlement ; place of rounding up

Camp, or fortified enclosure

Uncle
Senate
Senator
Senate house
Parliament house
Edge ; margin
Creek
State
Politics
City
Voter ; elector
Across the yellow or yellowish river
Draught; journey
To travel ; to draw
Out ; out of
Newcomer ; outsider
Valley

te), .... Patriotism
Field ; plain ; open lands
Com m andant- General
Rural Guard
Lower House of Congress
Franchise ; privilege
Stranger
Margin of the white water
To tramp or wander

leef

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AT THE BEGINNING OF

THE WAR.

BOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC (Independent) :

President— Stephanus J. Paulus Kruger— "Com PauL"

VicE-PREsiDENr— General P. J. Joubert.

Secretary of State— F. W. Reitz.

Chairman of First Volksraad — F. G. Wolmarans.

Chairman of Second Volksraad — N. Steen Kamp.

Capital — Pretoria.

ORANGE FREE STATE (Independent) :

President — M. J. Steyn.
Secretary of State — P. J. Blignaut.
Chairman of the Volksraad— C. H. Wessels.
Chief Justice Supreme Court— M. de Villiers.
Capital — Bloemfontein

BECHUANALAND (English) :

Governor — Sir Alfred Milner.

Resident Commissioner— Major Hamilton John Goold-Adams.

Cape Town governs the colony.

NATAL AND ALSO ZULULAND (English) :

Governor — Sir Walter F. Hely-HutchinBon.
Premier — Sir Henry Binns.
Attorney-General — Mr. Bale.
Capital — Pietermaritzburg.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AND CAPE COLONY (English) :

Governor — Sir Alfred Milner.

Imperial Secretary — George V. Fiddes.

Commander of Troops— Lieut.-Gen. Sir William T. Butler.

Premier — William Philip Schreiner.

Speaker of the Assembly — W. B. Berry.

Capital — Cape Town.

BASUTOLAND (English) :

Resident Commissioner— Sir Godfrey Y. Lagden.

Capital — Maseru.

(Wl)

DISTANCES BY RAILROAD IN SOUTH AFRICA.

The British-Boer war has emphasized the fact that South Africa is a
country of few railroads, vast distances, discouraging topographical conditions,
and few good seaports. But cities and places comparatively unknown to the
world are now marked with especial significance on the maps. Precious human
blood has dyed the sun-baked soil, and the sieges of Kimberley, Ladysmith and
Mafeking will live in history. Many other places that were insignificant and
scarcely worthy of specification on the maps are now shown in big type.
Among these will be noticed, Elandslaagte, Paardesburg, Estcourt, Modder
River, Colenso, Spion Kop, Glencoe, Dundee, Aliwal North, etc.

But four railway routes pierce the interior, running from as many seaports.
The chief line, that which runs from Cape Town to Buluwayo, the present
northern terminus of the projected "Cape to Cairo" road, has been taxed to its
greatest capacity by the English army as a means of transport for supplies and
soldiers. The trunk line north from Port Elizabeth taps the Cape Colony
territory and gives access to the Orange Free State. The road leading towards
the South African Republics from Durban, the Natal seaport, has been of
incalculable valuo as a transport system for the British army. From Lorenzo
Marquez, in Portuguese territory, the railroad affords the most direct communi-
cation with Pretoria and Johannesburg. But for the neutrality laws this line
would have been used by Great Britain for the invasion of the Transvaal.
Distances between principal cities, figured by the most direct routes from the
four ocean termini, are as follows :

Capetown to miles.

Kimberley 647

Mafeking 870

Modder River 622

NorvalsPolnt 628

Buluwayo 1,861

Johannesburg 1,014

Pretoria 1,040

De Aar 501

Bloemfontein 750

Naauwpoort 570

Vryburg 774

Paardesburg 672

Delagoa Bay to miles.

Pretoria 349

Johannesburg 395

Bloemfontein 609

MajubaHill 515

Port Elizabeth to miles

Naauwpoort 270

Norval's Point 328

Bloemfontein 450

Eroonstad 590

Johannesburg 714

Pretoria 740

Durban to miles

Pietermaritzburg 70

Ladysmith 189

Spion Kop 195

Harrismith 249

Glencoe 231

Newcastle . . . , , 268

Laing's Nek 301

Volksrust 308

Johannesburg 483

Pretoria 511

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OTTER.

In Command 2nd Battalllon, R. C. R. I. First Canadian South African Contingent.

2 T

J 2

5 o

01 -J

s ~ Ph .2 >
5 Z 0^

C 3)

< -3

£•3

O II
O s2

I
8

h
Z

W
O

H
Z

o
u

h
Z

<
Z
<
u

a ,^

-I

s -

a -

5 i-

« 3

** ■

Pi
W

X
h

'SO

c a

THE PREMIER SPEAKS

Sir Wilfrid Laurior (center of picture) addressing the Canadian Transvaal Oontinffent at Quebec. On the

left of tile picture is Colonel Bucban, and on the right in front of the Orand Stand,

the Oovernor-Oeneral, Qeneral Hutton, Mr. Blair, and

other Cabinet Ministers.

HIS EXCELLENCY SPEAKS

Behind Hia Excellency is General Hutton, Sir Wilfrid and other Cabinet Miniatera.

photo, by Savannali.

THE VICTORIA QUOTA TO THE CONTINGENT

Photo. l>.v Shanuiin & MoCoiineV

THE LONDON CONTINGENT

THE OTTAWA QUOTA TO THE CONTINGENT

PhotoKruph by H. F. AlhriKlit.

THE FREDERICTON QUOTA TO CONTINGENT

^ . - . ~ • . "i ■

4>-

'%^^*' it'

'«:'!^>

I'hdid. Iiy West hike Urns., Chiirliitli'towii. Co|iyrlK>it l)y Uul)urtTi. PiittoiL

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND TRANSVAAL CONTINGENT

Photo, by Notman, Montrenl.

THE SARDINIAN LEAVING THE WHARF AT QUEBEC.

A REVIEW ON THE ESPLANADE AT QUEBEC.

The Thoupund "Royal CaiKidlacs" wore dniwii up in lines of llulf Batalllons, the Flank Conipanles being after-
wnnls formed as sliown In the Photograph. In the distunue is Kent Gate, and on the left the Glacis and Old
Wall of Quebec.

^'53,

inles belni? after-
e Glacis and OKI

te 5

■o -5

3 c

O J

d ° •

2 f.

c«£

ji o

2 a

Drawn from a Photograph.

THE SARDINIAN, WHERE THE MEN EAT AND SLEEP.

SPECIAL BADGE OF CONTINGENT.

Exact Size.

Photo, by 11. M. Henderson.

THE VANCOUVER CONTINGENT.

I'iinto. bv Steele.

COLONEL L. W. HERCHMER.
Commandant X. W. M. Police, with Second Canadian Contingeui.

. (i/ ,

MAJOR V. A. S. WILLIAMS, K. C D., WINNIPEG

Now Major of "B" Squadron Canadian Mounted Kifles, Second Canadian Contingrent.

fpoto. by Steele.

MAJOR S. B. STEELE OF THE N. W. M. POLICE

Now Second In Command of the Force of the N. W. M. Police with the Second Canadian Contingent.

ingent.

'*S

'( ,

■■■.-1

" .*

,•1
1

<-■

-. •--•^'V'

■^'•'-'.i^

'■■■"5

WINNIPEG SECTION.
With Second Contingent for South Africa Royal Canadian Artillery,

' /

'■^MMHiii»iiixi^iS'"<iliiiiiM

■ T"**!^!?^ -A . '" ,

"^^^WM^MSi 'IKKM

mm^ wm^r-^^m^:-^ '^^m^^^'^

.>. . ■

n-i<*. ^5»r^?^:'^§(VN^3Bii

iaffil^K^^Mi

jfUg^^

■ '•■

&:■=-■ ^^j%@»iiii ""in

mm ^ ^'^mi!-''^^/

^UPP-^'-

fe.^::::? ■■

- -^m^ • ■'"m*" ' ^"^^f^^^^^^

:|^, -

* 1 •

*/ - , . . .

w^ * *

PIP-

••^r* ,4

^^a

' / . t ■ ■ ' '. ■

■■^, . .sff^ ^ ^ '^

' ', '<■

L : :

- "Ml

an Contingent.

R. S. M.. J. C. PaRe. S. I., L. J. Ingl'.s. Arms Sgt., D. Carroll, Q M. S. F. G. Semplfln.

S. M., J. R. Sparkes. Capt. C. M. Nelles. . Sgt. P. Dalton.

OFFICERS FROM WINNPEG.
With Mounted Infantry Second Canadian Contingent. - -.

KINGSTON ARTILLERY SECTION.

With Second Contingent for South Africa.

^85^teh-

S. M. Gimmlet. Sergt. Long. Lieut. Leslie.

Lieut. Irving, Toronto. Capt. Mackie. Major Hudson. Lieut. King. Major Massie.

OmCERS WITH KINGSTON SECTION OF ARTILLERY.

South A'.'ican Second Contingent.

\Xf-.^'- ''*■-: -'-i^

r^::^fmSi^^

TORONTO SECTION

With Second Contingent for South Africa Royal Canadian Artillery.

if*IIBifflWf ss^^* ^ , -^ifljai-W^IIWSfti.

iitfm^, ■<>!!. ■-trf>'-'-'>'-^^'

■^;- •*:;^

'■9" 4 f

«> #

^•)

THE HAMILTON QUOTA

To the Second Canadian Contingent. "C" Battery.

A GROUP OF CANADIAN MOUNTED RIFLES, ON HALIFAX COMMON.

Second Contingent, before Kmbarking.

TROUP OF CANADIAN MOUNTED RIFLES EMBARKING ON THE POMERIAN,

HALIFAX HARBOR.

!:li

, t s :* ;3

COMMON.

Qu
J «

•<;«

=35
s5

^.8

\tfi.

OJU

•o a

a5SS

^11
■35

, ^Q o

2:B

; POMERIAN,

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENTS

o
w

h
<

BY JOHN A. COOPER
Editor of the Canadian Magazine, Toronto

THE COLONIES CEASE TO BE DEADWEIGHTS — THE REVIEW OF THE
FIRST CONTINGENT AT QUEBEC BY THE EARL OF MINTO AND SIR
WILFRID LAURIER — ITS OFFICERS AND HISTORY — THE SECOND
CONTINGENT — ITS ORGANIZATION AND EMBARKATION — DETAILS OF
THE MOVEMENTS AND ENGAGEMENTS OF THE TWO CONTINGENTS
— STRATHCONA's horse — PRAISE FOR ALL FROM LORD ROBERTS.

"The British Empire, with her colonies, in time of peace, is an
open hand; in time of war, it is a closed fist. " Such was the oratorical
utterance of an eloquent journalist at a press dinner in Toronto some
four years ago. Those who heard that statement, thought it striking
but problematic. But during the two last years of the nineteenth
century, the proof of the orator's prescience has been given to the
world. Wiien the Australian Colonies and the Dominion of Canada
offered their contingents of soldiers to fight in the battles of the
Empire in South Africa, the fist was clenched, the knell of the little
Englander was sounded, the history of five centuries of colonial
development was suddenly changed. The colonies ceased to be dead-
weights on national progress and became coequal powers with the
motherland, making for the supremacy of the race.

Was the war between Boer and Briton a just one on the part
of the Briton? That was a question Canada did not ask. The Boer
ultimatum reached London, and Great Britain replied wMth the
despatch of troops to protect her frontiers. The war was on. It was

(770)

780

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

no time for the colonies to discuss the merits of the impending
struggle. The statesmen who had the confidence cf Her Majesty
and of the majority of the British House of Commons had declared
the war to be inevitable. Canada had nothing to do but to send
assistance or remain passive. She sent nearly three thousand of her
noblest and brawniest sons, and the Britisher everywhere, all over
the world, felt his heart throb with a new-born, enthusiastic pride.

On the morning of October 30th, 1899, that part of the old wall
of the city of Quebec which lies directly in front of the present
handsome Provincial Legislative Buildings, between the Kent and
St. Louis Gates, was covered with thousands of enthusiastic spectators
looking down on a sight but once before seen in Canada. A thousand
Canadian soldiers were being reviewed by the Governor-General and
the Premier of Canada preparatory to their embarkation for service
in a distant portion of the empire. In 1858, while the Crimean
struggles were still fresh in the mind of the public, the 100th Regiment
was raised in Canada for service under the British flag. Never since
that time had Canada contributed a regiment of soldiers for service
outside the Dominion. Therefore, the sight from the top of the old
wall, was an unusual one. The troops had been camped in half
battalions at the citadel and at the immi^ ation sheds, and they
marched into the historic square known as the Esplanade, in two
detachments. Here, about ten o'clock on that morning, the second
battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry was on parade
for the first time. Lieut.-Col. Otter was in command of the "Royal
Canadians," as he called them, and under him were, as Majors,
Lieut.-Col. Buchan and Lieut.-Col. Pelletier; as Adjt., Major Mac-
Dougall ; and as Quartermaster, Major S. J. A. Deniaon.

It was an imposing sight. The men were clothed in dark uniforms

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENTS

781

of a new style, with the tan belts, v^hite haversacks and brown knap-
sacks of the Oliver equipment. After company inspection by Major-
General Hutton, the Imperial OflBcer in command of the Canadian
"Army" (as he loved to call the small permanent corps of the militia),
the troops were drawn up m double line forming three sides of a
hollow square facing the grand stand on which were already congre-
gated some very notable men and many fashionable and beautiful
women. Sharp at 12 o'clock His Excellency the Earl of Minto,
accompanied by his staff, as well as Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Hon.
Mr. Blair, the Hon. Mr. Dobell, the Hon. Mr. Fielding and the Hon.
Mr. Sutherland, came upon the field and was received with a general
salute. His Excellency and the Premier inspected the corps, made
notable and pleasant addresses, to which Colonel Otter replied, and
the march to the point of embarkation began.

Down the narrow streets of old Quebec, where the noble Montcalm
had often walked and ridden, where Wolfe would have marched
victorious had he not died at the moment when his soldiers won their
famous battle on the Plains of Abraham, past the house where Mont-
gomery was laid out after his brave but vain attempt to scale the
cliff of Cape Diamond in 1775, under the shadow of the monument
erected to the joint memory of Montcalm the Frenchman and Wolfe
the Englishman, past the terrace Lord Dufferin gave to the historic
city, past the old English Cathedral, the venerable Basilica, and other
historic structures, under mottoed arches and waving decorations of
all kinds, along through Lower Town amid an enthusiastic populace,
marched the proud thousand. The number of them was not great.
But from the twin cities of the golden West to the fair Island in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, that thousand had come — an epitome, a precis
of Canada's loyalty to the Empire's Queen.

782

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

At two hours past noon the thousand were drawn up in line
of half battalions in front of the S. S. Sardinian, which had been
fitted up to carry them upon the long voyage. In another two
hours, the booming of the Citadel guns announced that the task of
enrolling and equipping a thousand volunteers, gathered from points
scattered over 3,500 miles of territory, had been accomplished in
little more than a fortnight. The Sardinian had started for Cape Town.

The minute guns thundered their fareweP., a thousand brave
Canadian lads cheered and wept on the decks and in the rigging;
fifty thousand Canadian men and women on the wharf and the
terraces above wept, hurrahed and prayed. The Sardinian was
joined by the screaming, whistling tugs and yachts which were to
accompany her a short distance down the river; the bands played
"The Maple Leaf" and "God Save the Queen" and so they
vanished in the gathering dusk. Those who witnessed that scene
never expect to witness one which will stir them more. (The
official strength of the Royal Canadians was 1040 and the list of
officers and men will be found elsewhere in The Story of South Africa.)

The Second Contingent.

Canada's First Contingent had gone but a few days when an
offer of a second force for service in South Africa was sent to the
Colonial Office. It was not, however, until the eighteenth day of
that dark month that the announcement was made from Ottawa
that a second contingent had been accepted and instructions issued
for its preparation. At once telegrams poured in upon the Minister
of Militia from all over Canada, even from distant points in the
United States. Officers of high rank were willing to serve in any
capacity and all branches of the Militia were anxious to be enrolled
as privates. There was no scarcity of volunteers.

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

783

As in the case of the First Coiitinj^ent, the Militia and Defense
Department had its plans all made ahead of time. The permanent
forces, both artillery and cavalry, had been warned that they might
be required. It was not until the second day of the New Year
(1900), however, that the last plan was announced and the full list
of officers made public. The force was to consist of two battalions
of Mounted Infantry, one under Commissioner Herchmer and the
other under Lieut-Colonel Lessard, and a brigade of three batteries of
artillery under Lieut-Colonel Drury. The First Battalion Canadian
Mounted Eifles was to consist of the Royal Canadian Dragoons and
complements from the volunteer cavalry of Eastern Canada. The
Second Battalion was similarly to represent the North-west Mounted
Police and the plainsmen of the west. The artillery represented
the regular R. C. A., and complements from the volunteer artillery.
The full list of officers and men will be found near the end of
this volume.

The sailing point — winter having set in — was Halifax. On
January 20tli, two batteries of artillery embarked on the Laurentian
and headed for the South. Six days later the Second Battalion
Canadian Mounted Rifles embarked on the Pomeranian. The
remainder of the Contingent consisting of one battery of artillery and
the First Battalion of the Mounted Rifles left later on the Milwaukee.

One of the most remarkable features in connection with both
contingents — remarkable in a nation that has known so little of
war as Canada- was the spontaneous liberality with which the people
provided extra comforts for the men who volunteered, and adequate
provision for those who might be dependent upon these "absent-
minded beggars." The men of the First Contingent were given
sums of money by committees and corporations, and many individ-

784

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

uals and firms sent contributions of food-stu£fs, books, clothing,
and general supplies. The Second Contingent was similarly treated.
The City of Toronto gave each ofBcer who was a resident of that
city, a present of $125, a pair of field-glasses, and a revolver; while
each private received $25 and a silver souvenir. The citizens of
Toronto placed $1000 life Insurance, paid for one year, on every
man, payable to his next of kin. The Corporation of Montreal gave
each member of the Second Contingent two sovereigns before the
embarkation at Halifax and provided two sovereigns more to be
given each after the landing at Cape Town. The City of Hamilton
gave each man $50.00; London $10.00; Guelph $5.00 to each man
recruited in the district; Port Dover, Berlin, Petrolia, Ayr, Picton,
Flora, and other Ontario towns were similarly generous. In the
Maritime provinces no man went away empty-handed. Halifax,
Sydney and other towns weie liberal. New Brunswick raised a
fund to give every man from that Province 50 cents extra per day
while on service. In the west, the enthusiasm was even more
marked, for the west draws deep breaths. Every Winnipegger
received $40 and Edmonton, Calgary and Regina handed out
money and banquets without stint.

In addition to all this, the people of Canada contributed many
thousands of dollars to the Red Cross Fund and sent Lieut.-Col. G.
Sterling Ryerson, M. D., to South Africa to direct its distribution.
Greatest of all their liberal work was their prompt response to the
appeal of the Governor-General for a "National Patriotic Fund,"
which amounted to nearly $350,000.

The readiness of Canadians to enlist, and the generosity of the
people in providing for the comforts .nd welfare of those volun-
teering, are proofs of a strong nationp-1 life.

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

7H5

The Royal Canadians at Work

The First Contingent, which sailed from Quebec on October
30th, arrived at Cape Town on November 30th, and next day
entrained for De Aar Junction, five hundred and one miles north.
At the Cape Town Railway Station, Sir Alfred Milner, the Mayor,
and other officials and citizens, gave the Canadians a hearty send-off.
Four days were spent at De Aar and two days at Orange River.
The next two months were spent at Belmont drilling and perform-
ing camp duties. Some good work in the making veterans out of
this raw material had been done on the long voyage, and a little
more was done at De Aar. But the months at Belmont were a
necessity. Soldiers are not made in a day, nor even in three
months. That this particular three months' work was effective and
even remarkable is seen in later events. The officers and men
worked hard learning the new drill required in the kind of warfare
in which they were to engage against the wily, far-shooting Boer.
Continuous rifle practice was necessary, for many of the men had
never fired a shot out of a Lee-Enfield before the Morris-tube
practice on board the Sardinian, The officers were many of them
quite unskilled, and they, too, had to learn much about the new
attack, outpost, and advance and rear guard duties. They had also
to gP'n the confidence of their men and the ability to control them
under all circumstances.

In the last day of 1899, a flying column under Colonel Pilchei
left Belmont to march to Douglas. One Company, C, or the Royal
Canadians, was chosen for this column, which consisted of some
650 of all ranks. The enemy was discovered at Northern Spud Hill
where he was attacked and driven back. His laager was captured
and forty-three prisoners were taken. The column had ono officer

786

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

wounded, two men killed and five wounded. The Canadian Officers
present were Major Denison, Major Wilson, Captain Barker, Lieuts.
Lafferty, Wilkie, Marshal and Temple. For the first time in the
history of the Empire, Canadians, Australians and Englishmen
fought side by side — and they were victorious. Next day the column
entered the village of Douglas, collected the loyalists there and
returned to Belmont. This expedition is known as the Sunnyside
Expedition as this was the name given to the Boer's Laager,

A few days later, A. B. and H. Companies under Major Pelletier
took part in a similar raid eastward. Later on in January there
was a reconnaisance into the Tredear district by an Australian and
Canadian force, which had nearly a fortnight of marching.

Early in February, the Canadians were brigaded in the 19th
Brigade of the 9th Division. Their Brigade Commander was Major-
General Smith-Dorrien, who inspected the Canadians for the first
time on the 12th of February. The forward movtment upon Modder
River under Roberts and Kitchener was beginning, the long period of
inactivity was at an end, and the Canadians set ouc on a march
which was destined to land them at the Capital of the Orange Free
State. On February 18th, they were at the Modder River, thirty
miles east of Jacobsdaal. Two days later they took part in the
Battle of Paarderberg, losing a score killed and three score wounded.
This battle is described in another chapter. For six days longer,
the Canadians held their ground as part of the force which had
caught General Cronje and his 5000 Boers in a trap. Just before
dawn on the final day of this siege they made a splendid charge upon
the Boer lines, such a brave and vigorous attack that they are
credited with having forced Cronje to surrender more quickly than
he would otherwise have done. In this charge they lost 13 killed

n Officers
er, Lieuts.
ne in the
aglishmen
le column
there and
Sunnyside
ger,

r Pelletier
lary there
:alian and

the 19th
^as Major-

the first
)n Modder

period of

a march
ange Free
^er, thirty
,rt in the
wounded.
ys longer,
vhich had
st before
irge upon

they are
ckly than

13 killed

C/)

H
<<

— .. y

t/i

o z

O M
O

h
w

KKV. W, li

LANE, rAKKsr.OKi >, N. S., Chai'I.mn ok Si:( ond Cum inhkm .

CAIT. II. li. STAIKS, HALIFAX, N. S.
LIBIT. R. H. WILLIS, HALIFAX,

,li;rr. II. L. HOKDKN, Sus m thk Misimkh oi Mii.niA.

H SnlA

hUii.N, SKI )Mi CnNI IS'.l'.Nl', Kll.l.l'.U IN AiTMiN.

LIKI'T. .1 I- III AND

Cai']-. Fredrick Cavkrhii.i. (onks

3d Regiment Canadian Artillery.

Now Lieut. F. C.Jones, G Company, 1st Coniiiiyenl

Canadian Infantry, South Africa.

j"llN H. I'AKKS

('.raduate Kciyal .Mliitary (.'ullut;e, KiimsKm.

I.:eut. Wtli Hussars; lUrporal N'o. 4 'I'rdi)]), H Scpiadron,

Isl liattalion Canadian Mounted Rifles,

Field I'orce, South Africa.

Cati-. I!i vm;i i:\ k. AimsiuoN,;, M. A., \i. C. I,.

:<d KcKiment Canadian .Ariillory, St. John, N. I).

Re« uned hi'. Coniniission and enlisted as a Private in 1st

battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, 2d Contingent,

for Service in South Africa.

I.iir \ . K. 1'. Maiv'Kiiam

J^lh llu>sars, CaiKula

Now Corporal R. K, Markhain, Nci. I l'ri)i)p, H Scjuadron,

1st Hattalidn, tanadian Mounted Rilles,

South Africa.

CaIT. CiIARI.F'.S F. II AKRISciN

8th, \. I!. Hussars.

Appointed Transport (Officer, Canadian Mounted

Rifles

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

791

and 31 wounded, but they gained undying praise for their valour.
The world rang with the news that the Canadians had proven
themselves soldiers of the highest quality.

Cronje surrendered with 4,000 of his famous fighters and Lord
Roberts' huge army moved on to Bloemfontein. Worn and weary,
emaciated by the lack of food, burning with fever brought on by
drinking impure water, ragged and unkempt, the Canadian Infantry
held up its chin and marched proudly on. It was a long march on
short rations, with various small engagements along the route, but
when Lord Roberts entered Bloemfontein the Canadians were not
far behind.

For several weeks they bivouacked on Bloemfontein Common,
where they suffered greatly from exposure to the rain and cold,
their tents being slow in arriving. On April 21st, when they moved
out of that camp, the thousand had ])een reduced to six hundred
and thirty-seven. Three days later they assisted in the occupation
of the Waterworks. The next day they formed the advance guard
in the attack on Yster Nek, a strategic position in the maze of hills
to the east of Bloemfontein. They were thus in the center of the
storming party and made the frontal attack. They performed their
work well, but had one killed and several wounded. It was here
that Lieutenant-Colonel Otter, their gallant commander, nearly lost
his life. He was struck in the neck by a bullet, which passed close
to the jugular vein.

On the 26th, the division moved on to Thabanchu, the Cana-
dians now being under Lieutenant-Colonel Buchan. On the 30th,
they were a little to the north and took part in the attack on
Taba Mountain, an engagement lasting nearly two days. Their losses
here were two killed and six wounded.

? I

792

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

On May Crd, the division started north as one of the easterly
columns of Roberts' general advance on Kj-oonstad. The delay at
Bloemfontein was over. Roberts had collected supplies, ammunition
and remounts. The southeastern portion of the Orange Free State
had been cleared of the hard fighting Federals and the army was
free to move north. Then began one of the most famous marches
in history, which ended in the capture of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

On May 4th, the Canadians were at the Vet River, and the
next day at Winberg. In thirteen days they had marched a hundred
miles and taken part in nine engagements. Here they left sixty-
nine men in hospital, and were strengthened by the draft of one
hundred men that had been sent out from Canada to fill vacancies.
Then, reorganized and rested, they went forth again. They fought
at Sand River, where they lost several men, and on the sixth day
encamped with Roberts' hosts at Kroonstad.

During the next fortnight there was little of note. On the
26th of May Colonel Otter took command again, having recovered
from his wound, and the regiment crossed the Va.il — the first
infantry of all that army to enter the Transvaal. Three days later
their brigade fought at Klipspruit, and their companions, the
Gordons, har! their Paarderberg. The Gordons lost 20 killed and 7(5
wounded, while the Canadians had only 7 minor casualties.

Next day the march was continued. During the succeeding
fourteen days the Canadians saw Roberts enter Johannesburg and
Pretoria, and marched triumphantly through the latter city on the
fifth of June.

But the duties did not end there. They went east and south
and on the 13th foun 1 themselves garrisoning Springs, a railway
terminus eivst of Johannesburg.

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

793

For nearly two months they occupied this village, the monotony
of outpost and police duties broken only by threatened assault and
a real attack on June 28th which was easily turned aside. They
went into Springs about 300 strong and marched out of it on August
2nd, 700 strong. This fact shows that Lord Roberts knew that they
deserved and required a rest.

From Springs they went out by rail to Wolverhoek, in the
Orange Free State, some forty miles north of Kroonstad, presumably
to help in rounding up DeWet, the famous Boer leader. This will-
o-the-wisp evaded them, and with other troops they marched north
for tiresome and trying work in the Transvaal.

The Mounted Infantry.

The story of the Mounted Infantry is more easily told. One
important fact must be noted in the beginning. Commissioner
Herchmer commanded the Second Battalion C. M. R., only a short
time, and was succeeded by Lieut.-Colonel Evans who went out as
second in command of the First Battalion which was and remained
under the leadership of Lieut.-Colonel Lessard.

Part of the Mounted Rifles and D and E Batteries were sent
from Cape Town to march through the Kenhardt district of Cape
Colony where the farmers were inclined to be rebellious. Another
part of the C. M. R. went up to the district around Nauwpoort,
Bethulie and Springfontein on the southern border of tlie Free
State. It was not until Ploemfontein was captured and the two
Battalions had been united in General Hutton's brigade that the
C. M. R. saw dangerous work. On May 3rd, nearly two months after
they had landed, they had their first important engagement at
Boschman's Kop. They were in the van of Lord Roberts north-
marching columns and fought at the Vet and Sand Rivers, reaching

794

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Kroonstad on May 13th. Lieuts. Borden and Turner swam the Vet
River and entrenched themselves on the other side — a daring feat
which gave the C'. M. R. the honor of being the first British troops
to pierce the enemy's lines at that point.

After a week at Kroonstad they moved north again and four
days later entered the Transvaal at Lindeque's Drift. After a
narrow escape from being cornered in the Klipriversberg Hills,
they found their way through Doornkop, where Jameson surrendered,
into Johannesburg, A few days later they marched through Pretoria
and were sent on with the forces marching against Botha's army.
On June 11th, they had a dangerous collision with the army at
Camel Drift. Two days later they were again separated, the Second
Battalion under Lieut.-Colonel Evans being sent back to the Free
State and the First continuing with General Hutton in the general
advance eastward along the railway between Pretoria and Lorenzo
Marquez.

Lieut. Vauluven had been wounded at the Srjid River. The
other officers were very fortunate. On September 7th, however, in
an engagement near Pan, Major Saunders and Lieut. Moodie were
wounded. A force of Boers tried to surround 125 of the C. M. R.
who were guarding the railway. The movement was unsuccessful,
but the C. M. R. had three wounded and six missing.

The Canadian Artillery

The story of the Canadian Artillery is a story of a divided unit
working in parts without biinging to its members any more glory
than that which comes from having done their duty, however
unimportant or insignificant. I) and 1^] Batteries arriving first wen*
sent to the Kenhardt district witli part of tlie C. M. R. Tiiis column
marched five or six hundred miles, doing a sort of police duty, and

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

795

turned up at De Aar about the middle of April, where they remained
a month.

On May 16th, E Battery was ordered from De Aar to Douglas,
to join Sir Charles Warren's punitive expedition into Griqualand.
On Warren's stafiF were also Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes, Surgeon-
Major Worthington, Veterinary-Major Massie and Captain Ma.ckie.
This column saw some fighting, its chief engagement being at
Fabersput on May 30th, where the enemy attempted a surprise in
the early morning. The column beat off the Boers, but had fifty
casualties. Only one Canadian was killed.

D Battery saw little fighting. After returning from the Ken-
hardt district it was sent u, ^o Bloemfontein for a time, then by rail
to Pretoria, where it garrisoned Wanderboom Fort for three days.
It then proceeded to Watervaal with General Ian Hamilton's force,
where it was placed in Cunningham's Brigade. On July 21st, Lieu-
tenant Van Tuyl's section w^as engaged in a rear guard action and
lost some men. On the same day the other sections under Major
Hurdmiui were also engaged. A few days afterward the battery
was again engaged near Bronkhurstspruit, where, in 1880, Colonel
Anstruther met defeat and death. Later it returned to Pienuarsport,
15 miles east of Pretoria.

C Battery, arriving at Cape Town later than the other two,
was sent on up the coast to Beira and attached to the garrison at
Marandellas Camp in jMashonaland. On May 5th it loft there and
marched overland some four hundred miles along the northern
border of the Transvaal to join Colonel Plumer's Mafeking relief
force. It performed good service, got to the front in time to assist
in relieving the famous garrison, saw some fighting and received
part of the glory and praise. From Mafeking it proceeded with

796

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Major-General Baden-Powell through the western Transvaal and
participated in several engagements in which that famous British
ofiicer added to his fame. It was rather more fortunate than the
other two batteries, having seen much warm work. Lieutenant-
Colonel Drury, who w?^ given command of the Artillery Brigade
when it left Canada, saw little active work on account of this break-
ing up of his unit. His friends must always regret this, because
he has the reputation of being Canada's most skillful artillery
commander. ,

Strathcona's Horse

It is doubtful if any citizen of the Empire has, in any age,
made a more timely or generous gift than has Lord Strathcona
and Mount Royal in providing for the enrollment, equipment and
organization of half a thousand Canadian horsemen to serve Her
Majesty in South Africa. Lord Strathcona, when he was plain
Donald A. Smith, had been chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany and knew the kind of men that Western Canada produces.
It was natural that he, a rich citizen anxious to aid the illustrious
sovereign who had bestowed a title upon him, should turn to the
Canadian plains for a body of mounted men who would be brave
and courageous, hardy and intelligent, worthy to bear the "Strath-
cona" crest and the British banner in the Empire's great war. He
offered to raise and equip a mounted force of 500 plainsmen and
land them at Cape Town charges prepaid. His offer was accepted
and the corps was raised by the Canadian Minister of Militia under
Lord Strathcona's directions. Lieutenant-Colonel Steele of the N.
W. M. P. was given the command. Recruiting commenced on
February 5th and closed, all lists full, on the 10th.

The men were enrolled at Winnipeg, Portage La Prairie, Brandon

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

7*17

and Virden in Manitoba; at Mossomin, Regina, Prince Albert, Calgary
Edmonton, Macleod, Pincher Creek, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat,
in the Territories, and at several of the mountain villages of British
Columbia. Most of these men were sure shots, all of them riders
of experience, and many of them the sons of British fighting stock
who had been seeking experience and excitement in Western Canada.
The officers were from the N. W. M. P. and other western corps,
with several easterners of experience.

By the first of March they were concentrated at Ottawa where
they were uniformed, equipped, mounted and drilled. On the 8th,
they were reviewed by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Governor-
General. On the 12th, they left for Halifax, parading in Montreal
en route. Three days later they embarked at Halifax on tlie S. S.
Monterey and sailed for Cape Town, which was reached in due course.

Owing to the loss of many horses on the voyage — the horses
seem to have been badly selected — tlie Strathconas were detained at
Cape "Town for some time. Eventually, they were ordered to embark,
May 25th, and proceed to Durban. Five large steamers took them
up to that port. Two Squadrons lauded there and took the train
northeast to the Tugela and then on to Eshowe in Zululand, not
far from the coast. The third Squadron coasted nortli to Kosi Bay
and was ordered to disembark and move througli Tongaland and
Swaziland into the Transvaal. During the disembarkation, the order
was cancelled and the third Scpiadron went back to Durban and
there joined the other two Squadrons en route to Esliowe. The
idea apparently had lieen to march this force upon Koomatiport
where the Transvaal railway to Lorenzo Man^uez enters Portuguese
Territory and by blowing up the bridge at that point stop ammuni-
tion and supplies from coming to the enemy in that way.

798

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The reunited Corps had been at Eshowe but one day when it
received orders to return to Durban. It marched the 100 miles in
three days, the last day doing 38 miles. Here it was at once
entrained and in 27 hours reached Newcastle. From thence it
rode to join the army under General Buller who had just led his
troops through Laiug's Nek into the Transvaal. At Sand Spruit,
they joined General Bnller's force and were posted to the Third
Mounted Infantry Brigade under Lord Dundonald. Next day they
reached Standerton where General Buller had just hoisted the Union
Jack which the British had buried on Majubvt; Hill after their defeat
there in 1881. In this way, sailing, camping, railroading, and
marching the Strathcona's spent March, April, May and June.

The rest of their story is the story of General Buller's campaign
in which he marched towards Pretoria along the railway line which
runs from Natal through Standerton, Greylingstadt, Vlakfontein and
Heidelberg to Johannesberg. To describe that campaign in detail
would require a volume. Suflice to say, the Strathcona's covered
themselves with undying fame and glory. They mn relied and
fought, scouted and transported with the best of the army and
were never found wanting. On July 1st, Canada's natal anniversary,
they received their baptism of fire, losing one man killed and Lieut.
Howard and a private taken prisoners. On July 24th, they were
at Watervaal for Buller had done his work in the south and had
moved north. Up to that date they had lost nine killed, fourteen
wounded and six captured.

August was a month of similar experiences, fighting daily with
an enemy that shot and ran. At North Standerton, Sergeant
Ricliaidson won a Victoria Cross.

On September 4th, near Bedfontein they had a serious engage-

THE CANADIAN CONTINGENT

799

lus engage-

ment, losing six men killed and several wounded. About this time
Captain Howard, captured on July 1st, was released. The other
officers were very fortunate.

TnE Praise

The Canadians received great praise. No arm of the service
was overlooked. Lord Roberts thanked the Infantry after Paarde-
berg. General French and General Hutton praised the Mounted
Rifles after the engagement before Johannesburg. When the bat-
teries came into action they always won. On July 6th, Lord
Roberts cabled the GovL;rnor-General of Canada as follows:

"Pretoria, July 6, 1900. — I have much pleasure in bringing to
your Excellency's notice the good work done by the First and
Second Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles, who have been repeat-
edly conspicious for their gallant conduct and soldierlike instincts.

"During the attack by the Boers on Katbosch, on the 22nd
June, a small party of Pincher's Creek men of the 2nd Battalion
displayed the greatest gallantry and devotion to duty, holding in
check a force of Boers by whom they were largely outnumbered.

"Corporal Morden and Private Kerr continued fighting till
mortally wounded. Lance-Corporal Miles and Private Miles, wounded,
continued to fire and held their ground.

"On June 18 a party of 1st Battalion, under Lieutenant Young,
when operating with a force under GBueral Hutton to the north-
west of Pretoria, succeeded in capturing two of the enemy's guns
and brought in a herd of cattle and several prisoners without
losing a man." (Signed) "Roberts."

On July 16th, Major-General Smith-Dorrien issued the following
order to thank the brigade in which the Canadian Infantry served:

" The 19th Brigade has achieved a record of which any infantry

800

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

might be proud. Since the date it was formed, namely, the 12th
of February, it has marched 620 miles, often on half rations and
seldom on full. It ^las taken part in the capture of ten towms, fought
in ten general actions, and^on twenty-seven other days. In one
period of thirty days it fought on twenty-one of them, and marched
327 miles. The casualties have been between four and five hundred,
and defeats nil."

X "»

, the 12th
atioQS and
WMS, fought
57^8. In one
nd marched
ve hundred,

iZl.

(■W

C/3

w
o

Q
5

N
h

<
o

w
o

03
N

h
<
h

tfri>i*Hl tiy ill* ni>rli< riiMmhinr i>iii|>kn^
ditiT( A.iui tliitit iiiaok|pi 111 Hoiiih AIVl<'«.

HOWICK FALLS, UMGEIN RIVER, NATAL-365 FEET

-365 FEET

o
o

lii

ir.

i^ti

• v^ is.'!'

^^ . ' >

• ■ ' «»

• -J -

*■ -mm

<^^..

'- *' ^' ^^

^ " ■

"■ ~^--

* ■

■•-*»*-

^f ■

1 JB^' ' 1

^'^^'^fc^

;.-. ■ ■' v^^P' ''

]

Xs, V-^^' ■"'

sS^

-*,,%•:..»,.' •

' ■?## ■ •

V ; ■ »■

%sl

\^^^^: ■' .

♦• < ■ ;_. #il , ,f ■'-

*ifzs

^ . ^A:i^; ■■■• ' ■

■■'v- '(■••-"u _. '

y^ ^ya

^m-mm

■' /■' ^. c - -#t^».*^tw

■ w^\^

">f^"W«

4t ;^,-

\i 'Cf

^ WtoO^

^^H

AT**^ v^

r*%- 7i*..#^^4C» l^M

^■»

>-^

■^k^

*^iML'

"'J^i

■*?3

'-^^H

•, fJM

a^^JHr

(

.J*
*

■'

i'l^^l

- i«

4.i^*i> ^.f^ .^

Sv.

-1

Hji^

.?*'

C-

,1 y

I^KL *»*-■ ■ «'

, V'' 1

E£^" i

Ik.

. ';§#--

♦yj

0^
H

CHAPTER XXXIX
A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

BY J. H. AIKEN '

"I hear the tread of pioneers,
Of nations yet to be;
The first low wash of human waves,
Where soon shall roll a sea."

It is said that the gold fields of South Africa were known and
worked in the days of King Solomon. Historians five hundred years
before the birth of Christ speak of a country and its products that
would indicate South Africa; but throughout the past ages the
world at large has known very little about, and, in fact, has taken
little or no interest in the southern part of the Dark C(,ptinent.

The average English reader has, for almost generat'ons past,
associated Africa witli wild animals and war-like savages, with
jungles and fever-infested districts, and with missionaries w)io have
languished and died, far away fn)m home and loved ones; dark
pictures and sad tales indeed. Few know or realize that ii.l the
southern part of the great continent of Africa has been wrested
from tlie power of savagery; that trade, commerce, })()litics and art
already flourish there; that it is a vast country with beautiful towns
and villages, and even nuignilicent cities, with electric light and
electric street cars; tluit it possesses the gi-eatest diamond mines of
the earth, and by far the richest gold li(dds yet known to the
world; a place where law, order, and civilization will, after the
present conflict, reign suprem(% undei- the "(J rand Old Flag," that
has braved for a thousand years the battle and the breeze.

(809)

810

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

It has remained for the old Boer president to be the means of
enlightening the nations regarding this hitherto almost unknown
part of the world. Truly, the great English novelist, Conan Doyle,
is right in saying that the British nation ought to erect a monu-
ment as high as St. Paul's to PauJ Kruger, who has made it possible
for statesmen to solve the great African problem and bring about
the long-hoped-for confederation of South Africa, and thus secure
liberty, justice and equal rights to every white man south of the
Zambesi, irrespective of race or creed.

Fifteen years ago this month, I left my home in Canada in a
blizzard and was driven to the railway station through great banks
of snow many feet deep, to commence my first journey to the
"Land of the Southern Cross." To me, at that time, the starting
to Africa, and the voyage there, was indeed a great event; every-
thing was so new. New York, with its overhead railways, its
hurly-burly and rush of business; the sea; the mighty deep in a
storm; Liverpool, with its miles of docks and shipping; smoky
Glasgow, with little children on its streets speaking the broadest
of broad Scotch; beautiful Dublin, and glimpses of Irish life and
character; historic Edinburgh; old London, with all its wealth and
reeking poverty, were sights and ex])erionces seen and felt for the
first time, and made impressions thEut can never fade from memory.

Intensely interesting and novel as this part of the journey
proved to be, we cannot take time in this brief narrative to enter
into details; so let us proceed at once to the steamer -the "Rosliii
Castle" — lying at anchor in Dartmouth harbor, in the south of
England, about to start on her long voyage to the Cape. On board,
hundreds of men, women and children were hastily getting settled
in their new quarters — their homo f«.-r the next few weeks. Great

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

811

stacks of trunks, portmanteaus, handbags, boxes and parcels of every
conceivable size and shape, deck chairs and baby carnages, were
being carried about by two or three dozen energetic porters ;
while sailors galore were throwing on board tons of mail bags.
The officers, working at high pressure, were seeing the last of the
cargo and baggage stowed away, and everything from stem to stern
in proper order; and the captain, performing the functions of host,
was welcoming those who were to be under his roof, so to speak,
and in his keeping, until landed in Africa. Several hundreds of the
friends of the passengers were on board to see us off. All was
bustle, excitement and confusion, when the third and last l)oll rang
out the final warning of departure.

The last good-byes and fond farewells were l)eing uttered. Jack's
aithful and devoted sweethearts being much in evidence. The
captain and pilot took their jdace on the bridge, the anchor was
weighed, and, amid clieers and waving of handkerchiefs, enthusiasm
and tears, the noble ship, ol. eying the propeller and helm, moves out;
and soon the beautiful harbor, and the green cliffs of Devonshire,
recede from view, and we are at sea.

Two great steamship companies, the ''Castle" and "Union,"
each with large fleets of new, handsome and commodious passenger
steamers, ply between England and South Africa. The voyage,
which occupies from two to three weeks, is generally a most
delightful one. There are several ports called at by different steamers,
at various times. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is a magnificent"
city, beautifully situated, with clean, broad and woll-paved streets,
and possesses one of the finest catholic cathedrals in the world.
Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese islands of Maderia, is an
exceedingly pretty and interesting place, although to tlie casual

812

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

visitor, the hundreds of beggars — the blind, the maimed the ragged
and dirty — are in strange contrast to the beauties of nature, and
the ocean of flowers, that make this little island of the sea such a
delightful spot.

Leaving Madeira, the steamer seems like a huge conservatory
of fruit and flowers ; the passengers have become acquainted, and
all are in tlie best of good humor. At this stage of the voyage,
the weather is invariably flne, and the ocean like the proverbial
"sea of glass;" and as there are many days' continuous sailing, the
passengers feel that they are entirely cut off from the outside
world, l)ut that they constitute a little world of their own; and all
seem to vie with ""..cli other in making it a bright and happy one.
Lrtiwyers, doctors, ministers, merchants, farmers and mechanics, all
mingl' together like the mem])ers of a happy family. Cricket,
tennis, and atldetic sports and games of all kinds, are in order by
day ; and cards, music, dancing and flirtations by night. So the
days and nights go l)y. We pass the Canary Islands, gaze at the
snow-capped peak of TeneritTe, towering 12,000 feet into the
heavens, and, after crossing the equator, skirt Cape Verde, and
for a few hours view tiie dim and distant shores of Western Africa.
Thus we sail along, until one flne morning, we go on deck and
find all excitement, for we are approaching the island of St. Helena,
famous and interesting as having been for some six years the
prison-home of the (Ireat Napoleon. This lonely rock in the South
Atlantic is likely to become even more interesting and famous, as
the British are inviting the Boers' great fighting general, the
redou))table Cronje, and his friends, to pay it a visit. P'rom St.
Helena, we sail direct to Cape Town.

The popular verdict of travelers from all parts of the world,

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

813

■ the world,

is, that for beauty of scenery and general excellence of climate,
Cape Town with its suburbs approaches perfection. Grand old
Table Mountain, with its lofty and precipitous walls of granite,
looming up some four thousand feet above the sea level, gives this
important port and metropolitan city of South Africa, a unique
and imposing appearance. The city reposes peacefully at the foot
of the great mountain, in a sort of semi-circle extending for about
twenty-five miles. It has in parts a somewhat Eastern aspect.

On landing at the docks, one's attention is immediately drawn
to the hundreds of hansom cabs, driven by Malays and Cape Boys.
These drivers are generally reckless, dare-devil sort of fellows, but
are usually good horsemen. The "Cape Boy" is a sort of Creole
or half-caste, a class quite numerous throughout the whole country.
The servant population of many parts of South Africa is recruited
largely from these "Cape" people, as they are called.

The population of Cape Town is decidedly cosmopolitan. Both
British and Dutch are well represented; young men from all the
colonies, as well as the enterprising Yankee, are there; and repre-
sentatives from all the nations of Europe are to be found; in fact,
all sorts and conditions of people, races and creeds; the Salvation
Army lads and lasses with their barracks, the Jew with his syna-
gogue, the Malay with his mosque. Of Cape Town it may truly be
said that the East meets the West, and the old and new join hands.

Among the people of all shades of color, from ebony black to
Saxon fairness, who are to be met with, the Malays, with their
clear, olive-brown skins, dark, sparkling, heavily-shaded eyes, and
gorgeous Oriental costumes, are decidedly the most picturesque.
Their footwear still consists of the old wooden sandals of the East.
The dresses of the women are not only striking, but often

S14

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

immensely becoming. Over an apparently unlimited number of
stilfly-starched petticoats, is worn a skirt of brilliant colors, attached
to a bodice with full sleer'^s. Over the shoulders is worn a bright
shawl, or large silk square. On the head is daintily arranged a
smaller square, or silk handkerchief, of many colors, coquettishly
fastened ul 1 r lO chin, and usually showing a few stray locks of
curly, jet-bk. k rri,.r. They are, indeed, as one writer* has aptly
said, "the most raiii' w-appareled feminines at present on view
on this sublunary sphere." Their priests, however, present the
most gorgeous appearance of all, with their snowy white silk
turbans, arranged in true Oriental style, their long, full beards, and
rich flowing robes of sacred green, or crimson silk, or plush, open-
ing in front to show an underdress of purest white; their high-
heeled patent leather shoes, worn on special gala days, and inevit-
able green umbrella, giving the finishing touches to a stately and
striking costume.

A Malay wedding is only surpassed in interest by a Malay
funeral, which is a brilliant spectacle, the defunct being carried in
a sitting position, and buried on a hillside with his face turned
towards Mecca. They practice polygamy, a custom which, in them,
is tolerated by the Cape government, and they invariably keep
four days each week for rest and holidays; yet they seem a happy,
contented, and fairly-prosperous people.

To an Ameii'^an, accustomed to the sky-scrapers of Chicago
and other cities ol the United States, the buildings of Cape Town
do not appear pretentious. This was especially true fifteen years
ago, but the past decade has brought about marvelous changes.
When I first went there, the population of Cape Town was about
thirty or forty thousand, and a three-story building was almost .i

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

SI 5

novelty; while to-day there is a population of about one hundred
and fifty thousand, and there are scores of fine four t ,d five-story
buildings. The general postoflice, in Adderley strjv x, (the main
thoroughfare), is a splendid structure of five stories, built of
Saldanha Bay stone. There is probably no building of tlie kind in
Canada approaching it, either in cost, appearance and beauty of
design, internal fittings, arrangements or convenience. The Stan-
dard Bank, next door, is a handsome and well-eciuipped building,
and is the headquarters of a ban inr institution larger than any-
thing of the kind in Canada, r'ld vJiich has over one hundred
branches throughout the country. The House of Parliament,
centrally and charmingly situates at the entrance of the beautiful
Government Avenue, with a mtage of 2()4 feet, built principally
of Paarl granite, and costing over $1,000,000, is an edifice to
astonish the average Canadian with the generally-accepted '" Dai'k
Continent" ideas.

The avenue just mentioned, with its rows of great, hoary oaks,
is nearly a mile in lengtli, and was planted by the early Dutch
settlers, more than two centuries ago. It is flanked on cither side
by lovely botanical gardens and forest-like squares of liuge oak
trees.

The railway station, across the street from the postothce, is a
commodious structure, and is always a \erital>lc beehive of life
and animation. Residents of Cape Town are deservedly pioud of
their splendid suburban railway service, it is u most creditable,
double-tracked line, well managed and equipped, and affords a large
number of citizens an opportunity of attending to tlieii- daily voca-
tions in the city proper, while I'osiding many miles out in the
beautiful suburbs; and this privilege is taken advantage of by

816

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

greatly increased numbers each year. As I have just said, Cape
Town railway station is a decidedly busy place. I suppose that,
including the suburban service, upwards of one hundred passenger
trains arrive at, and depart from, this station daily. It is the
southern terminus of the Cape government railways. The main
line of the railway already extends inland about fourteen hundred
miles, to Buluwayo, the headquarters of the government of
Rhodesia, and the ancient capital of the old despot, King Loben-
gula; and in the near future, in all human probability, one will be
able to take the train at Cape Town, and travel right through
Africa to Cairo on Mr. Rhodes's great trans-ccntinental line.

Cape Town possesses really charming and fashionable suburbs.
Wynberg, Kenilworth, Claremont, Newlands, Rosebank and Ronde-
bosch are almost smothered in verdure; while beyond, at Constantia,
are extensive vineyards and fruit farms. On the seaboard side,
suburban Cape Town is equally fortunate. Green Point and Sea
Point being exceptionally favored localities. Some of the most
beautiful coast scenery I haye ever w'itnessed is to be found in
that delightful drive through Sea Point, to Hout's Bay, and thence
by rounding Table Mountain, returning to Cape Town by way of
Constantia and Wynberg.

It is a most enchanting spot for the naturalist, the botanist,
and the lover of flowers. . There being no frost or snow the year
round, there is no season of the year when the eye is not rested
and delighted with the luxuriant foliage and bright flowers. On
the slopes of Table Mountain are rich heaths in great variety and
abundance, and higher up are numberless brilliant wild flowers,
including a great many varieties of exquisite orchids. Beautiful
arum lilies, by the acre, grow wild under the blue canopy of

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

S17

heaven, while geraniums, poppies, zennias, gladioli, and a great
many other familiar flowers grow in wild luxuriance.

Driving, cycling, or walking through the many delightful
suburban roads and avenues, on either side are seen homes embow-
ered in climbing roses and gay creepers. Gigantic cacti and
century plants, occasional palms and tree-ferns, magnolias, moon-
flowera, camelias and other shrubs of many colors intersect the
lawns.

The surroundings of Cape Town are so delightful, that one
would fain linger there ; and were I to devote a whole chapter to
it alone, I could not do full justice to its many interesting features.
"Groote Schuur," the country residence of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, built
away back in the seventeenth century, in true Dutch style, and
for long years the residence of the famous old Dutch Governors of
the Cape, lately destroyed by fire, and rebuilt on the exact model
of the old building, together with the magnificent estate, and the
zoological gardens in connection therewith, in which are found
rare specimens of most of the birds and animals of Africa, would
of itself be a subject worthy of a whole volume. I should add
also that this estate, the private home and property of Mr. Rhodes,
purchased and maintained at a cost of hundreds of thousands of
dollars, is freely thrown open to the public at all times ; while
once or twice each week a trained band, composed of his employees,
discourses sweet music to the hundreds of visitors. Dear old Cape
Town ! I always leave you with regret and return to you with
feelings of delight.

However, we must proceed to other parts, many of which,
unfortunately, have little to attract the eye, or satisfy the mind or
the ambition of man. We now start on a journey by rail of some

818

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

six hundred miles, to the gi-eat diamond mines in the interior.
Leaving Cape Town, a short run of about thirty miles brings us
to Stellenbosch, a pretty, quaint, old Dutch town of about five
thousand inliabitants ; where may still be seen many old-fashioned,
one-story, thatched-roofed houses, with wide halls, large rooms,
and spacious verandahs, or "stoeps," as the Dutch call them.
These old Dutch houses, which are wonderfully cool, and generally
kept spotlessly clean, are quite common throughout, this part of
the Western Province. The town is beautifully situated, well-
watered, and sheltered by low mountains. The slopes of these
mountains are often well-wooded, and the valleys produce fruits
and grain of all kinds in abundance, while great herds of cattle
roam over the fertile pastures.

Proceeding on our way about thirty miles, we come to the
town of Wellington, known by many throughout the English-
speaking world as the home of that pious and devoted Dutch
Reform minister, Rev. Andrew Murray, the gifted author of " Abide
in Christ" — a work that is found in many homes and theological
libraries the world over. What Martin Luther was to Germany,
John Knox to Scotland, John Wesley to England, such is the Rev.
Andrew Murray to South Africa ; foremost in every work having
for its object the moral, social, intellectual as well as spiritual
advancement of the people. About a quarter of a century ago.
Mr. Murray founded in Wellington a seminary for the daughters
of South Africa, and teachers from America were engaged. This
institution prospered, and to-day there are dozens of similar ones
throughout the country. Many of the girls attending these seminaries
have come from homer« in the back districts, where, through adverse
circumstances, ignorance prevails; where home life is dull and

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

SU)

me to the

gloomy, where there is neither literature nor music; and where
the English language is held in contempt — homes of the tallow-
candle age. But these young women are going hack to these
districts; and the new homes that they are establishing are centres
of a better civilization and social life. The English language is
spoken. Literature, music and art have a place. The electric light
is taking the place of the tallow candle.

Stellenbosch and Wellington are typical of the towns and
villages in this part of Cape Colony, known as the Western Pro-
vince; throughout which are many large vineyards and wine farms.
Life in these towns is quiet and restful, with none of the mad
rush, and whirlwind of excitement, characteristic of many Ameri-
can towns; and a doctor would look in vain for a case of nervous
prostration.

Max O'Rell says all the most beautiful landscapes of America
are spoiled by great flaming advertisements of patent medicines,
cure-alls for indigestion, and the sundry other ailments that afflict
the over-energetic Yankee, who at midday puts up the card, "Gone
to dinner — back in five minutes," on his office door. The genial
Frenchman admonishes the American, and tells how his country-
man under similar circumstances goes home at noon like a sensible
man to spend an hour or two in the bosom of his family. The
average Dutchman in these towns goes one better, for he locks up
his place of business and goes home, not only for an hour for
dinner, but to sleep for two or three hours in the afternoon. They
are never in a hurry, their motto being "Wacht een bietje," that
is, wait a bit.

Continuing our tour, we pass through most -iteresting, rugged,
and romantic mountain scenery, where may be seen a wonderful

820

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

triumph of railway engineering ; and, climbing I)}' winding curves
the slopes of the great Hex River Mountains, we find ourselves,
immediately upon reaching the elevated plain known as the Great
Karoo, at the small railway station called Matjesfontein — the
chosen home for many years of that little woman of genius, Olive
CronwT'ight Schreiner, the gifted author of the " Story of an African
Farm," who has done more than any otlier writer to make life on
the Karoo known to readers of the English language. Here also
repose on the lonely hillside the remains of the late lamentetJ
General Wauchope, who fell while leading the ill-fated Black
Watch in their famous charge at Magersfontein. The Karoo, which
has been likened unto a huge elongated pan-cake, is a vast,
treeless, trackless, sandy, barren-looking plain, crossed at intervals
by chains of low, table-topped hills, and is most uninteresting and
monotonous to the tourist ; being made doubly so by its sudden
and sharp contrast to the beautifnl landscapes, green valleys, and
rugged mountain scenery which we have just passed through.

Hour by hour, by day and night, the slow, tedious passenger
train creeps along through an apparently interminable desert. The
railway stations are mostly mere stopping-places ; and are all so
similar in appearance, and have such a striking family resemblance,
that, when you have seen one, you have seen them all. The small
towns and villages are few and far apart, and, strange to say, the
railway appears to have been arranged so as to avoid them. Of
farms, as understood and known to Canadians, there are none. The
land is wholly unfettered l)y fences, and inuncent of enclosures of
any kind, and you travel mile after mile without seeing a single
green shrub, tree, or human habitation. Yet you know, that, scattered
all over tliis seemingly limitless expanse, are tens of thousands of

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

821

ig curves
3urselves,
\\e Great
tein — the
lus, Olive
n African
te life on
lere also
lamentetJ
ed Black
00, which
, a vast,
intervals
sting and
ts sudden
leys, and
ugh.

passenger

ort. The

re all so

mblance,

The small

) say, the

,hem. Of

t)ne. The

osures of

r a single

scattered

u sands of

farmers, mostly of the Dutch class, living a life of extreme loneli-
ness and isolation, which would be almost intolerable to the average
Canadian or British farmer. The fn^ms are immense, often consisting
of ten, twenty or more thousand acres ! and consequently the houses
are so far apart that there is very little social life; and the education
of the children is a problem difficult of solution, which, unfortunately
in the past, has been seriously neglected, thus accounting for the
superstition, the bigotry, the careless and filthy habits, and the
hatred of the English, so characteristic of many of the Boers brought
up in this school of ignorance.

Bare, l)arren, and desolate, as the Karoo seems, it is, however,
much more hospitable and nourishing than appears to the casual
tourist; and it is remarkable how well sheep and cattle thrive on
the Karoo-bush, roaming at their sweet will over pastures not
measured by acres, but square miles in extent.

Many times when traveling over the Karoo, especially in the
old coaching days, while parched with heat, and choking with the
dust kicked up by the ten tired mules dragging their weary feet
along, and longing for cool shade, water and rest, I have been
delighted with the sudden ai)pearance in the distance, of beautiful
little lakes, surrounded by buildings and weeping willows casting
their shadows in the clear water, and hills, ko[>jes, and green
sloping valleys in tin; background. Tiiey seem so real, so refreshing
to view, that, as we jog along over the dry, dusty track, one can
only very reluctantly be brought to realize that it is only the
phantom of the plain, the much-talked-of mirage, so wonderfully
common on the open veldt of South Africa.

Bnt the longest raihvay journey, even on the Karoo, must end;
80, after being Ivvo whole nights, and nearly two days, cooped up

THE STOUY OF SOUTH AFIUCA

with probably halt'-a-dozen other passengers in a space about six
feet square, for the South African passenger cars are built on the
English system of small compartments, which you enter from a door
at the side, one is delighted to see the heaps of debris, and the
small, coiTugated-iron houses, and irregular streets of the "C^amp,"
indicating that we are at last approaching Kimberley, the famed
"diamond city*' of Africa's plains; a spot on this earth, so unique
and interesting in its history, that it would take a most facile pen,
and whole volumes, to tell its story.

Away back, about the year 70, when that poor trader, bearing
the familiar name of O'Ueilly, bought for a song, and carried away,
the bright pebble toy of a little child of the Dutch farmer, Van
Niekerk, and sold it for the price of a good farm in Ontario, there
commenced a new epoch in the history of South Africa. It is said
tliiit when O'Reilly got possession of tliis sparkling stone, not being
at all sure of what it was, he forthwitli proceeded to take both
medical and spiritual advice; that is. he consulted a doctor and a
bishop, who, after examination, i)ronounced it a genuine diamond;
and such it proved to Ite. O'Reilly's luck was quickly followed by
Van Niekerk 's starting on the trail and getting possession, from a
Kafir, of a white stone, which proved to be a gem of the first water,
and which he sold for over $50,()()(). This diamond, christened the
"Star of Soutli Afi'ica," is now, I believe, in the possession of the
beautiful Countess of Dudley.

Other rich finds followed in quick succession, and, as the news
went abroad, gathering force and volume as it travelled, there
commenced a rush of adventurous spirits, fi'om not only all parts
of South Africa, but also of mining, roving men fi'om all over the
world ; and, alnutst instantaneously, there sprung u[) a town in the

A TKJP TO AND THiiOUUH SOUTH AFRICA

Si>:]

wilderness, hundreds of miles away from the railway, with churches,
theaters, hotels, clubs, and busy thoroughfares, and, I might add,
with canteens almost as common as homes.

About this time, there went to the diamond helds, a tall, thin,
delicate young man from one of the shee]) farms of Natal, who
had gone out to tlie Cape a year or so previously, on the advice
of his physician, in the hope of, perchance, prolonging a life threat-
ened with consumption. Quiet and unassuming in nuinner,
thoughtful and studious of disposition, tluM'(> was little about this
young man to attract special attention ; but thoi-o was iu him the
latent germ of greatness. Kimberley soon became too snnill for
him. ITis name and work commenced to be talked of in Cape
Colony, and then throughout all Soutli Africa. His fame s[)read to
England, and to-day his uame is a household word in the four
quarters of the globe. I refer to the Right If on. Cecil -1. Khodes,
the most admired, and best-hated nuiti. in all South Afi-ica. For a
young man entirely without capital, and in delicate health at
twenty, to ac(nimulate a fortune of tens of millions of dollai-s; to
control the great diamoiul industry, and be i-ecogni/ed as the
"diamond king" of the world; to become Prime Minister of a
British Colony; and, withal, to found a vast counti-y (which bears
his name) ami present it to John iJull before I'eaching the age of
forty, is a record that one would think ought to satisfy the most
insatiate ambition of mortal num. lUit ''(iood old Cecil," as his
friends are wont to si»eak of him, only sighed t'oi- iiior(^ worlds to
conquer; for, ater on, when addi'essing thousands of iiis admirers
in his ))eloved town oi Kind>erley. he assuretl them that h(» f(dt
that his career was only just ('(unnuMu^ing. Truly, he is a most
extraordii.ii'v ) an, and st) great, that, as Mark Twain says, "when

824

THE STOJ^Y OF 8(jUTli AilllCA

he stands on Table Mountain, his shadow falls on the Zambesi."
May his shadow never jijrow less!

History will have little to say of Rhodes, the millionaire, the
Diamond King, or Prime Minister of the Cape ; but 'lO will be
famous throughout the ages, as the greatest Empire-builder of the
nineteenth century. He has opened up to civilization the vast
territories of Matabeleland and Mashoualand, now bearing the name
of Rhodesia — a territory larger than France and (iermany com-
bined, and wliich, in the coming years will be inhabited by millions
of English-speaking people, over whom will Hoat the British banner.

Leaving Kimberley another railway journey of ahout four hun-
dred miles brings us to Port Elizabeth, the principji' seaport town
of the Eastern Province of Cape Colony, and often spoken of as
the "Liverpool of South Africa." Tt is a pleasant place of about
ten or fifteen thousand inhal)itants, mostly British ; with electric
street cars, good su])stantial public buildings, pj'etty residential
villas, and lovely botanical gardens, on what is called the Hill.
The wool and ostricb. feath( r mirkets are important features in
the life of Port Elizabeth, The Karoo produces millions of dollars
worth of wool each yeig-, and here it finds a market. This port
boasts the proud distinction of being the largest ostrich feather
market in the world. vMl the large English, European and American
firms send their buyers there, and tlie sales each year amount to
millions of dollars.

Wheat, oats, barley, peas, fruit, and horses and cattle are raised
in thi.'i part of the country, but the two nuiin sources of wealth
ar slieep and ost iches. Many farmers have several thousand
,slit>(), and otXen one hundred or more ostriches ire to be found
on i single farm. To Canadians, "ostrich farming ' sounds some-

A TRTp TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

what romantic, but there the raising of these strange majesUc,
fleet-footed and beautifully-plumed birds, is recognized s oiie of
the staple industries of the country.

Under ordinary circumstances, the ostrich is a mild, inoffensive
creature, indeed the female is always so; but during the nesting
period the male bird is never disposed to be friendly; in fact, no
lion of the desert, no tiger of the jungle, is more ferocious, or more
savagely bent on the death of any who dare intrude on his domain.
Shortly after my arrival in Africa, I was going up-country from
Port Elizabeth, by train, when we came to a railway junction, where
I had to wait about three hours to make connections. I decided to fill
in the time by taking a walk out about two miles to a largo ostrich
farm, and making the acquaintance of the farmer and his birds.

I was going along quietly, when T observed, at the f.-r end of a
field by the road, a large black ostrich, which had also evidently
observed me, and app'^ared anxious to make the r'quiiiiv.uice of a
Canadian. He immediately raised himself to hi;, i*!; 1 hright (about
ten feet, I should judge), spread his great wiiigti, cocked liis tail-
feathers, and rushed toward me with the rapid itj of lightning. I
had little time to decide upon a cc rse of action. I vvas taken so
completely by surprise that I simply stood and faced the charging
animal. There flashed through my mind the many sad stories of
people being killed by ostriches I felt that my time had come.
On he charged, but stopped so suddenly at the i<»w wire fence
separating us, that I was astonished tliat he did not tumble over
At. He could have stepped over it quite easily, for ceitainly it was
not more than three feet liigh; but instead of that, he niarcliod up
and down, close to the fence, flopj ing his wings and stamping his
feet, with every evidence of terrible rage. 1'lien, suddenly, with a

826

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

sort of shriek, he threw himself violently upon the ground, and
rolled over and over, as is their habit when greatly enraged. As a
boy at school, I was the champion runner, and I have cups and
prizes as evidence of my ability in that direction; but when that
ostrich threw itself on the ground, then, dear reader, let me assure
you, I broke all previous records.

On looking back, I remember that when I first landed in Port
Elizabeth I considered the great tented wagons drawn through the
main thoroughfares, by eight, nine or ten yoke of oxen, a most
novel and curious sight.

The natives also appealed to me as intensely interesting, con-
sequently my first Sabbath in South Africa found me an attendant
at a Kafir church in this town. Such sights! Such sounds! What
the E.ifirs lacked of harmony 'n singing was amply made up for in
volume and heartiness. The men's deep bass voices rolled out like
peals of distant thunder. In the afternoon of the same Sunday, an
American, wlio had lived for many years in Africa, called at my
hotel, and invited me to accompany himself, his wife and lady friend,
to the Kafir location. It was just what I wanted to see, so I gladly
accepted the invitation. A few minutes' walk over a perfectly open
country, iiterally covered with brilliant wild flowers, brought us to
the l].indred:-s of huts of the heathen Kafirs, in all their ancient, fig-leaf
simplicity. It: mupt have been a sort of gala day with them, for
they had beer drinking," war dances, throwing of assegais, and
fighting galore. I'hese di'unkeii savages were in great contrast to
thtir more civilized brethren of tho churcli in the morning.

Wo now take steamer, jmd, sailing direct along the southern
coast for about 500 miles, come to Durban, the seaport of the
"Garden Colony" of Natal. Durban is also the principal clearing-

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

827

port for goods for the Gold Fields, some 500 mil'^s inland. Natal,
with its luxuriant and almost tropical vegetation, groves of bananas,
fields of sugar-cane and pineapples, plantations of tea and tobacco,
orchards of oranges, lemons, guavas, figs, and other sub-tropical
fruits, can only be mentioned in passing on our way to invade the
Transvaal, and the fabulously rich gold fields of the Rand.

On our way to Johannesburg, over the Natal Government Rail-
ways, climbing ever up and up, over ranges of mountains, we come
to Petermaritzburg, the pretty capital of Natal, the home of many
cultured and hospitable people. We cross the Tugela River ; pass
through Ladysmith, the scene of General White's heroic defense, the
point to which the eager attention of the world has been drawn for
months, and which will be historic throughout the ages ; we view
Bulwana Hill; the great rugged chains of the Drakensberg Mountains,
and the kopjes and passes, now so familiar to Canadian readers.
We pass Elandslaagte and Glencoe, and view Dundee and Talana
Hill. Further on, we pass through the English town of Newcastle,
which was taken possession of by the Boers, in the first days of the
present war, and re-christened Viljoensdorp; then, passing through
the tunnel at Laing's Nek, we see Majuba Hill; and so, reflecting
on the struggles and slaughter that these places have witnessed, and
the different stories they tell, we enter the Transvaal; and, passing
along, hour by hour,, over the prairie-like veldt, we find ourselves
approaching the Johannesburg, of a year ago. on the Natal train,
after nightfall.

Knowing that he is still nearly two hours from Park Station,
his destination, in the center of Johannesburg, the stranger is
startled by suddenly beholding millions of (^loctric liglits in front,
and to the right and left, and everywhere. They burst upon one

,828

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

as by magic. It is one of the most surprising spectacles that I
have ever witnessed; and as you speed along mile after mile, with
fresh lights looming up in all directions, as mine after mine is
passed in rapid succession, you begin to realize the immensity of
this greater ICldorado of the African veldt.

To say that Johannesburg is one of the most wonderful places
on the facv-^ of the globe is putting it mildly. It is a city of gold,
gold, gold. The people think of gold, they talk of gold, they dream
of gold; Alas! too often their God is gold. In their haste for
gold, the eager, anxious faces of the people, and the hustle, excite-
ment, pell-mell and rush of the streets, more nearly resemble those
of an American city. '' ^ 3s any other place in South Africa.

Here, too, the contra i affluence and poverty seems more

marked than elsewheio. Belgravia, one of the fashionable

suburbs, all is wealth md luxury; beautiful homes, expansive
grounds, costly equipages, s'ylish ladies, rich dresses, flashing dia-
mond> ; while in Fordsburg, close by, rags, dirt and abject poverty
are to be found; people of all nationalities and shades of color,
common thieves and harlots, being ci\3wded in small tin shanties
in unkempt, squalid confusion.

Society in "Johannesburg the Golden" is a rather mixed com-
modity, as might be expected in a place of such rapid growth
and quickly-made fortunes. There is a decidedly strong element of
the gay, gambling, fast, music-hall class; but the plain, work-a-day,
home-»loving, church-going citizen is, after all, in the majority.

Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, a small town of only
ten or twelve thousand inhabitants, is thirty miles from Johannes-
burg. It is pretty without being pretentious, and so quiet and
peaceful does it seem, resting in a green valley among sheltering

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

829

hills, that one would think it impossible for its inhabitants to
bring about the turmoil, strife, and clash of arms that for months
past have been the wonder of the world, and, for a time, threatened
to overwhelm the Mother of Nations. It is not unlike an English
town in appearance, but in language it is decidedly more Dutch
than any other on the sub-continent. Here the struggl-e for pre-
dominance between the English tongue and the " Taal " is strikingly
noticeable; commerce as ever favoring the former, and oflicialdom
the latter. In common with all the other Dutch towns and villages
in this land of gold and diamonds, there is a large Dutch Reform
church in the centre of a public square; and here the streets
radiate from it in all directions. Facing the square are most of
the finest public buildings. The Raadzaal, or government buil-d-
ings, built in a French style of architecture, is very handsome and
commodious, and is crowned with a bronze statue of Liberty.
Most of the government offices, and the two chambers of the
Volksraad are accommodated in these buildings. The Grand Hotel,
a fine three-story structure, is on the same side of the square;
and opposite these are the Pretoria Club and the Temple of Justice;
the latter a magniticent edifice not yet completed. On the other
sides are the Post Office, the different banking institutions, the
Public Libi'ary, and other blocks of stores and offices.

Towards the straggling, untidy end of one of the ])usiness
streets, there may be seen every morning a smai-t little cavalcade,
which pulls up sharply in front of the small, w^hite cottage, that is
dignified as the residence of the iron-willed desi)ot of the re[)nblic.
There is nothing about the place to mark it as different from those
around it, save the presence of a c()U])le of sentries i)aci!ig slowly
up and down, and the two great white marble lions, which were

830

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

presented to the President by the late Barney Barnato, the ill-fated
Jewish millionaire, whi(;h guard each side of the doorway. In front
stands the state coach, with its four fine, prancing, chestnut horses,
accompanied by a bodyguard of eight or ten mounted and armed
men, in blue-trimmed gray uniforms. The footman holds the coach
door open, while a rather rustic-looking, elderly, thickset' somewhat
stooped, but still vigorous figure, comes quickly and lightly down
tlie steps and enters the carriage, which rolls rapidly aw^ay in the
direction of the Kaadzaal, accompanied by its outriders. In a very
few minutes the government buildings are reached, the eager, bent
figure in black frock coat and soiled silk hat, steps out, greets in
the Taal his friends in the porch, and enters the building, the town
clock strikes nine, the flag runs up over the llaadzaal, and the
official day at Pretoria has begun.

During a visit to the capital a year ago, I had the pleasure of
meeting the president personally. Fortunately, I had known for
some time, Commandant Potgieter, the liberal-minded and pro-
gressive Burgomaster of Pretoria, and one of the most genial of men;
and he kindly invited my v^dfe and myself to accompany him to the
presidency. With such a well-known escort, we passed the sentries
unchallenged, and entered unannounced into the presence of His
Honor, who was at that moment enjoying the solace of a pipe of
strong Boer tobacco, after the morning session of the Volksraad.
Beside him was a handsome cabinet, presumably filled with the
fragrant weed. There was nothing very noti eable in the long,
plainly-furnished and ordinary-looking room, except a fine portrait
in oils of the old man himself, executed by the late Mr. Schroeder,
an eminent artist whom I met in Cape Town when I first went
there. I happened to be in Pretoria many years ago, and was the

A TRIP TO AND THROUGH SOUTH AFRICA

881

guest of Mr. Schroeder at the time he was painting lliis portrait,
and it reminded me now of the many interesting stories he had then
related of the ohi Boer President. As we entered, ]\Ir. Kruger rose
and shook hands pleasantly; and through Mr. Potgieter, who acted
as interpreter, the conversation commenced. He seemed greatly
interested in our native country, and asked many questions about
it. It is said that this astute old gentleman, who understands
English thoroughly and speaks it passably, makes it a rule to talk
to Englishmen through an interpreter, so as to gain time to con-
sider what is best to say. Seeing him tiius closely, he gives one
an impression of great natural fire and impetuousity, hidden most
of the time behind the impassive exteiior of the typical, stolid
Boer. He seemed to think it very strange that having lived so
long in the country I could not speak Dutch; but telling him that
I was too old and too busy to learn it myself, but would have my
children do so, we withdrew, and passed out into the brilliant sun-
shine, leaving our host, presumably, to the enjoyment of his
midday meal.

Pretoria possesses a well-equipped tram line, as the street rail-
ways are called out there, which takes one across the river to the
pretty little suburb of Sunnyside, where some very fine residences
are to be seen. Joubert Park is a lovely spot, with fountains, and
ponds, and magnificent trees, presenting a very beautiful appear-
ance, especially when illuminated. Small as the capital of the
Transvaal is, its society is divided into cliques; the Hollander (as
they are called locally) and Africander ladies jealously vying with
each other in the taste and richness of their dress, their styte of
equipage, and the elegance and costliness of their entertainments.
Frocks from Paris and London, and carriages built in Bond street,

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

!■■

1^128

■^ i^ 12.2

^ m

[20

— 1 '-"^ lllll'-^

►

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

4»^

33 WIST MAIN STRKT

WItSTH.N.Y. MSaO

(716) 873-4503

■ A<^

832

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

are of common occurrence. What is known as the Boer element
has no place in society. The President himself belongs to the old
school, retires invariably about eight o'clock, and takes no interest
whatever in the frivolities of fashionable society.

The ubiquitous Scotchman is well represented here, and forms
a very important and prosperous part of the population. It is
essentially a social and hospitable place, and, were it not for the
presence of the guns frowning from the strongly fortified hill-tops,
and the huge arsenal and barracks, which are constant reminder,
of the ruling power, it would be an ideal spot in which to spend
a restful, peaceful life. Apparently no one worries or works hard —
that is all done for them by the toilers and hustlers of Johannes-
burg, who have made it possible for the government officials and
employees to live a life of ease and affluence, " far from the
madding crowd."

What the future holds in store for this place, who can tell?
Here, last September, the members of the Volksraad, assembled in
session, after much discussion and prayer, adjourned to undertake
a task which they have not as yet completed. They parted,
apparently hopeful, in the significant words of their chairman
"until we meet again."

OFFICERS

OF THE FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT OF VOLUNTEERS FOR

SOUTH AFRICA

Otter, Lieut.-Colonel W. D., A. D. C. to His Excellency the Governor-Genera

Majors.

BucHAN, L. (Lieut.-Colonel Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry).
Pelletier, 0. C. C. (Lieut.-Colonel Canadian Staff).

" A " Company, British Columbia and Manitoba.

Captain Arnold, H. M. (Major 90th Winnipeg Rifles).

Lieutenants.. . .Blanchard, M. G. (Capt. 5th Regiment C. A.).

HoDoiNs, A. E. (Capt. Nelson Rifle Co.).

Layborn, S. p. (Lieut. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry)

"B" Company, London, Ont.

Captain Stuart, D. (Major 26th Middlesex Light Infantry).

Lieutenants. . . .Ross, J. M. (Capt. 22d The Oxford Rifles).

Macon, J. C. (Capt. 10th Royal Grenadiers).

Temple, R. H. M. (2d Lieut. 48th Highlanders).

" C " Company, Toronto.

Captain Barker, R. K. (Capt. Queen's Own Rifles).

Lieutenants — Marshall, W. R. (Lieut. 18th Battalion).

WiLKiE, C. S. (Lieut. 10th Royal Grenadiers).

Lafferty, F. 1). (Lieut. Royal Canadian Artillery).

"D" Company, Ottawa and Kingston.

Captain Rogers, S. M. (Major 43vd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles).

Lieutenants — Lawless, W. T. (Capt. Govornor-General's Foot Guard).

Stewart, R. G. (Lieut. 43d Ottawa and Carleton Rifles).

Caldwell, A. C. (Lieut. Reserve of OflicerB).

'*JO

834 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

"E" Company, Montreal.

Captain. Eraser, C. K. (Capt. 53d Sherbrooke Battalion).

Lieutenants .. , .Swift, A. E. (Lieut. 8th Royal Rifles).

Laurie, A. (Lieut. 1st Prince of Wales' Fusiliers).

Armstrong, C. J. (Lieut. 5th Royal Scots of Canada)

" F " Company, Quebec.

Captain Peltier, J. E, (Major 65th Mount Royal Rifles).

Lieutenants.. . .Panet, H. A. (Capt. Royal Canadian Artillery).

Leduc, L. (Lieut. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry).

Pelletier, E. a. (uieut. 55th Megantic Light Infantry).

"G" Company, New Brunswick and P. E. Island.

Captain Weeks, W. A. (Major Charlottetown Engineers).

Lieutenants.. . .Jones, F. C. (Capt. 3d Regiment, C. A).

Kaye, J. H. (Lieut. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry).

McLean, C. W. W. (2d Lieut. 8th Princess Louise Hussars).

"H" Company, Nova Scotia.

Captain Stairs, H. B. (Capt. 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers).

Lieutenants.. . .Burstall, H. E. (Capt. Royal Canadian Artillery).

Willis, R. B. (Lieut. 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers .

Gland, J. C. (2d Lieut. 63d Halifax Rifles).

G. C. Machine Gun Section.

Bell, A. C. (Capt. Scots Guards, A. D. C. to General Hutton).

Regimental Adjutant.

Mao Douoall, J. C. (Major Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry).

Battalion Adjutants.
Macdonell, a. H. (Capt. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry).
Go:lvy, J. H. C. (Capt. Royal Canadian Artillery).

Quarter-Master.
Denison, Septimus J. A. (Capt. and Brev.-Major Royal Canadian Regiment of
Infantry).

OFFICERS FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

835

Medical Officers.
Wilson, C. W. (Surgeon-Major Srd Field Battery).
FisET, E. (Surgeon-Major 89tli Temiscouata and Rimouski Battalion).

Attachkd for Staff Duty.
Drummond, L. G. (Major Scots Guards, Military Secretary to His Excellency).

Attached for Special Duty.

Drury, C. W. (Lieut.- Colonel Royal Canadian Artillery, A. D. C. to Hia

Excellency).
Lessard, F. L. (Lieut.-Colonel Royal Canadian Dragoons).
Cartwright, R. (Major Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry, A. A. G. at

Headquarters).

Medical Staff for General Service.
Osborne, A. B. (Capt. Canadian Army Medical Staff).

Nurses— Misses Geougina Pope, Sarah Forbes, Minnie Affleck, Elizabeth
Russell.

Historical Recorder.
Dixon, F. J. (Capt. Reserve of OfiBcers).

Chaplains.

Almond, Rev. J. Fullerton, Rev. T. F. (Hon. Chaplain 4th Regiment, C. A.).

Rev. p. M. O'Leary.

Headquarters of Military Districts.

No. 1. District London

No. 2. District Toronto

No. 3. District Kinj^ston

No. 4. District Kinyfston

No. 5. District Montreal

No. 6. District St. Johns, F. Q.

No. 7. District Quebec

No. 8. District Fredericton, N. B.

No. 9. District Halifax, N. S.

No. 10. District Winnipe}?, Man.

No. 11. District Victoria, B. C.

No. 12. District.. Charlottetown, P. E. I.

836

TUE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

NoN-CoMMi i()Ni:i) Officeus and Men

STAFF N. C. OFFICERS.

Sergt.-Major D. Borland, R. C. R. I.

Quartermaster Sergt. G. Galloway, R. C. R. I.

Quartermaster Sergt. (O. R. Clerk) E. Reading and Royal Canadian Dragoons.

Orderly Room Clerk, Sergt. T. D. Potter. R. C. R. I. •

Sergeant-Bugler J. Tresham, 38th Dufferin Rifles.

Transport Sergeant, Sergt. T. Leblond, R. C. D.

Staff Armourer, Sergt. A. J. Hoad.

No.

143
7001
7002
7004
7006
7003
7005
7007
7058
7010
4251
7012
7011
7015
7013
7016
7017
7018
7019
7021
7022
7020
7023
7024
7025
7028
7029
7027
7026
7030
7031
7032
7033

"A" COMPANY, BRITISH COLUMBIA AND MANITOBA.

Unnk, Name and Former Corps.
Col. -Sergt. Holmes, W. H. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Sergt. VVhimdter, P., Manitoba Dragoons

Sergt. Northcott, J., 5th Regiment, C. A

Sergt. Scott, W., 5th Regiment. C. A

Sergt. Ingram, L., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Sergt. Vinnell, A. J., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Corpl. Fowle, W. F., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Corpl. McHarg, W. H., Rossland Rifle Co

Corpl. Irvine, A. B.. 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Corpl. Moscrop. J., 6th Rifles

Lce.-Corpl. LeBar, V. E., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Lce.-Corpl. Barlow, R. H.. 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Allan. H. J., 6th Rifles

Pte. Alliston, B. D., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Adams, J., Manitoba Dragoons

Pte. Anderton, J., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Andrews. H., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Armstrong, E., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Barrett, R. J., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Beach. A. C, 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Borthour, W. H., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Battson, A. S., 6th Rifles

Pte. Bonner, H. M., 6th Rifles

Pte. Boyco, A. W., 13th Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Brooking, W., 6th Rifles

Pte. Carnegie, J.. 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Carter, A., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Campbell, R. B., Nelson Rifle Co

Pte. Campbell, A., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Chisholm. A., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Clough. P.. 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Ptp. Collins, J., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Cook, J., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Military District.

2
10
11
11
10
10
10
11
10
11

10
11
10
10
11
11

10
11
11
11
11
10
11
10
11
11

10
10
10
10

■"^^ -^."S^' ^'- .

FIUST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

837

Ian Dragoons.

7011

Pte.

7035

Pte.

7036

Pte.

7034

Pte.

7037

Pte.

7038

Pte.

7039

Pte.

7040

Pte.

7041

Pte.

7043

Pte.

7042

Pte.

7044

Pte.

7045

Pte.

7047

Pte.

7046

Pte.

7048

Pte.

7049

Pte.

7051

Pte.

7050

Pte.

7052

Pte.

7053

Pte.

7054

Pte.

7055

Pte.

7056

Pte.

7057

Pte.

7059

Pte.

7060

Pte.

7061

Pte.

7062

Pte.

7063

Pte.

7064

Pte.

7066

Pte.

7067

Pte.

7065

Pte.

7068

Pte.

7069

Pte.

7070

Pte.

4277

Pte.

7071

Pte.

7073

Pte.

7074

Pte.

7075

Pte.

7078

Pte.

7077

Pte.

7076

Pte.

7079

Pte.

7080

Pte.

7C81

Pte.

7082

Pte.

7084

Pte.

7083

Pte.

7085

Pte.

7086

Pte.

7088

Pte.

7087

Pte.

7089

Pte.

7090

Pte.

4270

Pte.

7091

Pte.

7092

Pte.

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Corbould, G. B., 6th Rifles

Cowan, H. J., Manitoba Dragoons

Cornwall, V. J., 5th Regiment, C. A

Court, S. T., 5th Regiment. C. A

Crooke, M., Nelson Rifle Co

Davies, J. E., Royal Canadian Drago<jiu;

Dickinson, F., 5th Regiment, C. A

Dickson, J. W., Nelson Rifle Co

Dixon, J. H., 5th Regiment, C. A

Duncafe, C. W., 90th Winnipeg Iimos

Docherty, M., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Edwards, H., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Findlay, T. A., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Foord, F. N., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Finch-Smiles, F., 5th Regiment, C. A

French. T. P., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Gamble, C. W., 5th Regiment, C. A

Groves, C. H., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Greaves, P., 0th Rifles

Hammond, J. L., 90th Winnipeg Riflos

Harrison, S. S., 5th Regiment. C. A

Hicks, H. P., Nelson Rifle Co

Holyoake, G. C. F., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Hughes, E. N., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Hutchings, Geo., 6th Rifles

Jackson, W., 6th Rifles

Johnson, H., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Jones, J. W., 5th Regiment, C. A

Jones. S. L., 5th Regiment, C. A

Kelly, E., Queen's Own Rifles

Kennedy, D., 34th Ontario Batt

Lee, A. S., Nelson Rifle Co

Leeman, R. W. J.. 5th Regiment. C. A

Leamy, C. L., 6th Rifles

Liston, R., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Livingstone, J., 0th Rifles

Lohman, A. O., Cth Rifles

Martin, A., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry...

Mackle, A. R., 5th Regiment, C. A

Matheson, K., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Maundrill, A., 5th Regiment, C. A

Mills, C A., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Monro, A. E., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Molr, W. J., 3Gth Peel Batt

Moodie, W. H., Kaslo Rifle Co

McCalmont, R. J.. 6th Rifles

Mclvor. D., Royal Canadian Dragoons

McKeand, D. L., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

McKenzie, H., Manitoba Dragoons

, Nelbergall. H. E., Gth Rifles

,Nell, G., 5th Regiment, C. A

, Nixon, F. S.. 36th Peel Batt

, Nye, A. J.. 6th Rifles

}. O'Brien, S. W., 6th Rifles

3. O'Dell, S. H., 5th Regiment. C. A

3. Parker, H. F., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

i. Patterson, W. 0.. Nelson Rifle Co

Patterson, C, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.
Perry, J. C, Royal Canadian Dragoons

Rea, J. R., Nelson Rifle Co

Military District.
11
10
U
11
11
10
11
11
11
10
10
10
10
10

11
11

• 10
10

11
11

11
u

2
11
11
11
10

11
11

11
10
11
10
10

2
11
11
10
10
10
11
11

2
11
11
11
10
11

2
10
11

tQtf

TOE STORY OF SOUTH AFKICA

No.

7097
7098
7096
7095
7094
7C93
7099
7100
7101
7103
7102
7104
7106
7105
7108
7109
7107
7110
7111
7112
7113
7115
7114
7116
7117
7118
7120
7119
7121
712L

3702
7151
7153
7152
7154
3068
203
7155
7156
7158
2500
7101
7222
7v85
7160
3046
7162
7161
7163
7171
7164
7165
7106
3115
7167
7173

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Pte. Rumsey, R, 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Rush, F., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Rorke, F. B., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Robbins, A. E., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Roberts, g. C. 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Roberts, C . M., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Sherlock, fc,. Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Sherris, J., Rryal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Sinclair, J. J. S., 6th Rifles

Pte. Smethurat, H., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Smith, James, 6th Rifles

Pte. Snider, C. H., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Soper, A. C. W., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Somers, J. H., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Stewart, J., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. St. James, S., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Stebbins, W. H., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Talbot, A., 34th Ontario Batt

Pte. Thompson, C. C, 6th Rifles

Pte. Thompson, T., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Todd, J., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Wallace, W., 6th Rifles

Pte. Wallace, G., 6th Rifles

Pte. Welch, W., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

Pte. Western, T., Manitoba Dragoons

Pte. Whitley. W. F., 6th Rifles

Pte. Wilkins, G. H., Kaslo Rifle Co

Pte. Wilkie, C. J., 6th Rifles

Pte. Wood, A. M., 5th Regiment, C. A

Pte. Wyatt, H. R., 90th Winnipeg Rifles

"B" COMPANY, LONDON, ONTARIO.

Col.-Sergt. Davies, R., Royal Caradian Regiment of Infantry..

Sergt. Macbeth, G. W., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Sergt. Bowden, R. G., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Sergt. Sippi, G. R, B., 7th Fusiliers

Sergt. Goi man, F., 27th Lambton Batt

Corpl. Bethune, A. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Corpl. Adam, S., Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl. Phillips, G. R. S., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Corpl. Smith, J., 22nd Oxford Rifles

Corpl. Little. R. H.. Ist Hussars

Lee. -Corpl. Power, L., Royal Canadian Artillery

Lce.-Corpl. Stevenson, W. R., Royal Canadian Reg. of Infantry..

Lce.-Corpl. Northwood, J., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Lcf-.-Corpl. Merrix, A. E., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Adams. W. G., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Adair, A., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Anderson, A. H.. 25th Elgin Batt

Pte. Andrews, E. C, 21st Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Atkinson, D. H., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Pte. Breedon. J., 38th Dufferin Rifles

Pte. Ballard. H. E.. 28th Perth Batt

Pte. Bnrr. H. B., 21 st Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Barrett. P., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Bangh, E., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Beers. F. C, 21st Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Burger, H., 38th Dufferin Rifles

Military District.
10
10
10
10
10
11
10
7 .
11
11
11
10
10

11
11

2
11
10
11
11

11
11
11
11

FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

880

Mo.

7172

Pte.

7168

Pte.

7169

Pte.

7170

Pte.

7174

Pte.

7175

Pte.

3088

Pte.

7177

Pte.

7176

Pte.

7180

Pte.

7181

Pte.

7179

Pte.

7178

Pte.

7183

Pte.

7182

Pte.

7188

Pte.

7185

Pte.

7184

Pte.

7186

Pte.

7187

Pte.

7189

Pte.

7190

Pte.

7157

Pte.

7192

Pte.

7193

Pte.

2735

Pte.

7191

Pte.

7194

Pte.

7195

Pte.

7196

Pte.

7197

Pte.

7202

Pte.

7200

Pte.

7199

Pte.

7201

Pte.

7198

Pte.

7203

Pte.

7204

Pte.

7205

Pte.

7206

Pte.

7207

Pte.

3206

Pte.

7208

Pte.

7210

Pte.

7209

Pte.

3188

Pte.

7215

Pte.

7211

Pte.

7212

Pte.

7220

Pte.

7213

Pte.

7214

Pte.

7216

Pte.

7217

Pte.

7221

Pte.

7218

Pte.

7089

Pte.

3676

Pte.

7219

Pte.

2499

Pte.

Rauk, Nameaud Former Corps.

Biggs. J. C. 2l8t Essex Fusiliers

Byrne, W. J., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Burrell, H., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Burwell, A. E., 6th Field Battery, C. A

Campbell, F. W., 30th Wellington Rifles

Chapman, W. H., 7th Fusiliers

Charman, A., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infant y

Coles, F. J., 7th Fusiliers

Cole, A. E., 1st Hussars

Corley, J. B., 30th Wellington Rifles

Crockett, Samuel, 7th Fusiliers

Craig, E. D., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Collins, W., 1st Hussars

Dalgleish, A. D., 29th Waterloo Batt

Day, J., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Douegan, J. A., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Dolman, E. N., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Donahue, H., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Delmer, P., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Dufl, J. B., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Edward, A., 22nd Oxford Rifles

Evans, F., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Farley, J. E., 25th Elgin Batt

Finch, C. E., 7th Fusiliers

Floyd, F. G. W., 7th Fusiliers

Fox, W. H., Royal Canadian Artillery

Foote, Wm., 29th Waterloo Batt

Gorrie, W. B., 2Cth Middlesex Light Infantry

Graham, Geo., 28th Perth Batt

Greene, C, 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Green, W. J., 2.=ith Elgin Batt

Hill, J. C, 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Herrick, ,L, 7th Fusiliers

Hessell, F. W., 7th Fusiliers

Hyman, W. J., 6th Field Battery, C. A

Hennessy, J. T., 7th Fusiliers

Ingamells, P. C., 1st Hussars

Irwin, R., 19th St. Catharines Batt

Jell, A. P., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Jones, M. L., 33rd Huron Batt

Johnston, K. G, 27th Lambton Batt

Kingswell, J., I.oyal Canadian Artillery

Leonard, G. W., 22nd Oxford Rifles

Little, G. B., 34th Ontario Batt

Lane, H., 22nd Oxford Rifles

Lundrigan, J., Royal Canadian Artillery

McBeth, G. A., 7th Fusiliers

Mcl^ren, C. D., 7th Fu.siliors

McLean, M., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

McCalla, J., 19th St. C;<thaiines Batt

McMahon, W. H., 2(;th Middlesex Light Infantry

McMillan. D. C, 27th Lanihton Batt

McMurphy, A., 2tUh Mid'ilesox Light Infantry

Marshall, A., 22nd Oxfor . ifles

McLean. A. R., 38th x/uttenn Rifles

Marentette, V. F., 21st Essex Fi'sillers

Moore, D. L., Royal Canadian Resiment nf Infantry
Mullins, '"... Royal Canadian Reciment of Infantry..

Munro. G. H., 26tb Middlesex Ltctht Infantry

Nott, Wm., Royal Canadian Artillery

MillUry District

840

TUE STUUY OF SOUTH AFKICA

No.
7223
7221
7225
7228
7227
7226
7229
3264
7231
7232
7233
7235
7230
7234
7239
7236
7237
7238
7243
7240
3246
7242
7241
7096
7244
7251
7245
7250
7246
7252
7254
7255
7247
7253
7248
7249
7256
7159

Hank, Name aud Kormer Curps.

Pte. Odium, V., 22n(l Oxforil Uillea

Pte. Odium, G., 22nd Oxtoid Uillcs

Pte. Paddon, A. E., 2l8t Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Piper, T. J., 26th Middlesex Light Infaulry

Pte. Pinel, G. R, 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Peart, E. W., 28th Perth I5att

Pte. Powell, J., 29th Waterloo Uatt

Pte. Pureell, J. J., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Reed. W. G.. 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Reid, I). A., 2lKt Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Redge. C, 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Robinson, J. IJ., 2lst Essex Fusilitrs

Pte. Rae, A. IL, 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Pte. Rorison, C. K., 2l8t Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Scott, C. R., 27th Lamhton Uatt

Pte. Smith, R., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Pte. Stanbury, F. G.. 25th Elgin Uatt

Pte. Sutherland. J., 25th Elgin Uatt

Pte. Taylor, E., Ist Hussars

Pte. Taylor, G., 1st Hussars

Pte. Thompson, C. O., Royal Canadian Artilleiy

Pte. Trolley, F. H.. 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Pte. Turner, F. W.. 6th Field Hattery, C. A

Pte. Tutt, T.. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry...

Pte. Warden. A. E., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Webb, A. li., 33rd Huron Batt

Pte. West, W., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Westaway, H., 25th Elgin Batt

Pte. Wells, Jas., 30th Wellington Rifles

Pte. Wheatcroft, A. H., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. White, G., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Pte. White, W., 21st Essex Fusiliers

Pte. Wilson, A. R., 33rd Huron Batt

Pte. Whigham, R. n., 6th Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Woodliffe, G. W., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Woodward, A. W., 26th Middlesex Light Infantry

Pte. Woodyatt. W. H., 7th Fusiliers

Pte. Wilson, H. R., 22nd Oxford Rifles

"C" COMPANY, TORONTO.

Militdry District.

813
7301
7302
7303
7304
7305
7308
7307
7364
7309
7310
7351
7313
7314
7318
7317
7324
7325
7316

Col.-Sergt. Campbell, J. S., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Sergt. Beattie, A., Queen's Own Rifles

Sergt. MIddleton, lu J., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Sergt. McGregor, v., 4Sth Highlanders

Sergt. Ramage, J. H., 346th Peel Batt

Corpl. Dixon, H. W. A., Queen's Own Rifles

Corpl. Freemantle, A. H. O., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Corpl. Rutherford, F. H., 13th Batt

Corpl. McGee, K., R. M. C. Cadet

Corpl. Hosklns, R. W., Queen's Own Rifles

Lce.-Corpl. Ramsay, J. F., 48th Highlanders

Lce.-Corpl. Hodgins, E. W., Governor General's Body Guard

Pte. Allen, L., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Anderson, F. T., 3tth Norfolk Rifles

Pte. Baldwin, Jno., 48th Highlanders

Pte. Banton, T. H.. 48th Highlanders

Pte. Black, N. D., 35th Simcoe Foresters

Pte. Blair, F., 48th Highlanders

Pte. Bird, B. M., Queen's Own Rifles

2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

2
2
2
2
2
2
2

FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

841

7323

Pte.

7319

Pte.

7320

Pte.

7321

Pte.

7322

Pte.

7315

Pte.

7328

Pte.

7330

Pte.

7329

Pte.

7327

Pte.

7331

Pte.

788

Pte.

7326

Pte.

7332

Pte.

7333

Pte.

7334

Pte.

7336

Pte.

7335

Pte.

7337

Pte.

7338

Pte.

7340

Pte.

7339

Pte.

7343

Pte.

7341

Pte.

7342

Pte.

4272

Pte.

7349

Pte.

7345

Pte.

7350

Pte.

7346

Pte.

7344

Pte.

7412

Pte.

7348

Pte.

7347

Pte.

7352

Pte.

7353

Pte.

7354

Pte.

7355

Pte.

7356

Pte.

7357

Pte.

7358

Pte.

7306

Pte.

7359

Pte.

7369

Pte.

7371

Pte.

7370

Pte.

7372

Pte.

7368

Pte.

4245

Pte.

7361

Pte.

7365

Pte.

5099

Pte.

7360

Pte.

7367

Pte.

7362

Pte.

4105

Pte.

7363

Pte.

7366

Pte.

7373

Pte.

7376

Pte.

Rank, Namo and Former Corps.

Bingham, H. S., 35th Simcoe Foresters

Blight, W. S.. Queen's Own Rifles

Brettingham, W. P. R., 12th York Rangers

Brunton, H. G., 12th York Rangers

Burkhart, F., 29th Waterloo Batt

Butler, W. B., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Calvert, F. M., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Callahan, H. A., 35th Simcoe Foresters

Christie, D. H., 37th Haldimand Rifles

Cassel, K. J., 13th Batt

Curtis, W. R., 31st Gray Batt

Coggins, A. E., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Cozzens, H., 31st Gray Batt

Cuthbert, F., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Dangerflcld. A.. 10th Royal Grenadiers

Davidson, J., 12th York Rangers

Day, E. C, Governor General's Body Guard

Dunham, F. H., 48th Highlanders

Eakins, G., Queen's Own Rifles

Ellis, G. S., Queen's Own Rifles

Fawcett, J. N., 12th York Rangers

Findlay, J. H., 16 F. B. Co

Graham, T. H.. 12th York Rangers

Grant, W. H., 48th Highlanders

Gray, N., S. S. Marie Rifle Co

Haines, W., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Hector, F. T. D., Queen's Own Rifles

Hendry, M., 13th Batt

Henderson, R. H., 35th Simcoe Foresters

Hewett, W. H., Queen's Own Rifles

Holland, W. C. S., 77th Wentworth Batt

Holland, J., Nil

Hopeson, C. W., 48th Highlanders

Hornibrook, J. L., 48th Highlanders

Inglestrom, F., Queen's Own Rifles

Ironside, G. M., Toronto Police

Jones, N. J., 31st Grey Batt

Jordan, Jos., Queen's Own Rifles

Kennedy, Jas., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Kidner, R., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Leng, J. L., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Lorsch, F. D., 48th Highlanders

Love, W. M., 37th Haldimand Rifles

Machin, H. A., 12th York Rangers

Manlon, W. T., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Martin, G. F., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Morley, N. L., 48th Highlanders

Mitchell, J. A., 48th Highlanders

Morse, T., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

McColl, A., Toronto Police

McCosh, P., 35th Simcoe Foresters

McCulsh, D., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

McGlverin, L., Queen's Own Rifles

McHugh, E., 10th Royal Grenadiers

McKenzie, L. C, 48th Highlanders

McLaughlin, R. H.. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

McNish, M., 48th Highlanders

McPherson, D., 48th Highlanders

Noble, D. A.. 38th Dufferin Rifles

Page, F. C, Governor General's Body Guard

Military District.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

7
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

843

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

No.

911
7374
7375
7312
7377
7381
7379
7380
7383
7378
7382
7388
7389
7391
7390
7386
7387
7385
7384
7393
7392

791
4267
7394
7395
7396
7397
7398
4263
7411
7399
7405
7406
7401
7402
4270
7407
7408
7400
7403
7311
7404
4279
7409
7410

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Pte. Parry, C. B., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Perry, S., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Pte. Preston, D. O., 44th Lincoln and Welland Batt

Bugler Prlngle, R., S. S. Marie Rifle Co

Pte. Rasberry, J., 77th Wentworth Batt

Pte. Rae, F. A., 34th Ontario Batt

Pte. Ridway, E. H., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Robson, A., 13th Batt

Pte. Rogers, W. R., 44th Lincoln and Welland Batt

Pte. Rooke, W. J., Queens Own Rifles

Pte. Rorke, J. H., 31st Grey Batt

Pte. Seager, Jno., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Seymour, C, 10th Royal Grenadiers

Pte. Sherritt. A. W., 38th Dufferin Rifles

Pte. Simpson, G. C. M., 12th York Rangers

Pte. Smith, J., 48th Highlanders

Pte. Smith, G. M.. 48th Highlanders

Pte. Solarl, J., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Pte. Spence, J. D., 48th Highlanders

Pte. Stewart, M. M., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Sutton, J. H., 13th Batt

Pte. Thompson, G., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Thompson, W. F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry..

Pte. Tice, C. Nil

Pte. Tomllnson, C, Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Travers, W., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Pte. Usher. J. F., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Vandewater, W. J., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. VanNorman, A. F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry. .

Pte. Vicary, S., S. S. Marie Rifle Co

Pte. Vickers, J. R., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Pte. Wallace, T. G.. 36th Peel Batt

Pte. Warde, S. M., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Warren, W. C, 13th Batt

Pte. Warwick. W. H., 13th Batt

Pte. Watson, R. G., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Weir, F. E., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Weller, E. T., 48th Highlanders

Pte. Wilson, J. A., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Pte. Wilson. N. W., Queen's Own Rifles

Bugler Williams, D. F., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Whitehead, J., 48th Highlanders

Pte. Wright, D. M., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Young, H., Queen's Own Rifles

Pte. Young, R., Queen's Own Rifles

Military Dlitriot.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

4111
7465
7540
7479
7489
4254
7498
7555
7484
7463
4065
7646

"D" COMPANY, OTTAWA AND KINGSTON.

Col.-Sergt. Thompson, C. H., Royal Canadian Reg. of Infantry..

Sergt. Chitty, L. M., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Sergt. Ross, A. L., 30th Wellington Rifles

Sergt. Carruthers. B., 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles

Sergt. Eagleson, S. H., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Corpl. Gllmour, W. J., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry...

Corpl. Hulme, G. G., loth Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Thomas, J. M., Governor General's Foot Guards

Corpl. Ell.^Td, J. F. G., Governor General's Foot Guards

Corpl. Brady, W. S., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Lce.-Corpl. Johnston, W., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry
Lce.-Corpl. Southey, E. C, 46th Durham Batt

2
4
1
3
4
7
3
4
4
4
2
3

FIRST CANADI>.^ CONTINGENT

843

No.
7529
7501
7451
7453
7513
7464
7457
7456
7458
7459
7460
7462
7461
7455
7454
7477
7467
4260
7475
7469
7470
7478
7474
7468
6092
7471
7466
7473
7472
7476
7566
7452
7481
7482
7483
7480
7485
6551
7487
7503
7486
7488
7490
7493
7492
7491
7494
7496
7495
3491
7497
7565
7500
7499
7510
7512
7504
7511
7508
7506

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Lce.-Corpl. McNaIr, J., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Lce.-Corpl. Lyon, G. U. D., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles.

Pte. Auger, E., Governor Generals Foot Guards

Pte. Ault, C. E., 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles

Bugler Cawdron, A. J., Governor General's Foot Guards...

Pte. Clunie, P., Nil

Pte. Bartlett, E. D., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Benbow, H. A., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Bennett, A., Princess Louise Dragoon Guards

Pte. Bolster, H. G., Cobourg Garrison Artillery, 0. A

Pte. Bolyea, A. W., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Bradshaw, J, L. H.. 16th Prince Edward Batt

Pte. Bull, E. W., Cobourg Co., C. A ,

Pte. Burns, 0. T., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Burns., R., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Cunnington, R., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Cairns, J. S., 2nd Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Chidlow, J., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Clarke, C. P., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Clother, A., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Cluff, N. W. H., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Cockburn, Q. G., Cobourg Co., C. A

Pte. Coleman, J. D., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Riiles

Pte. Cotton, H., 43i-d Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Cotterell, A., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Cram, J. A. C, 42nd Lanark and Renfrew Batt

Pte. Craig, C. E., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Croft, F., 16th Prince Edward Batt

Pte. Croft, P. C, 42nd Lanark and Renfrew Batt

Pte. Cunningham, R. J., 20th Halton Rifles

Pte. Dalberg, R. P., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry...

Pte. DesLauriers, E., Princess Louise Dragoon Guards

Pte. Deuchars, G. D., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Dunlop, E., 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles

Pte. Donaldson, C. A., 41st Brockville Rifles

Pte. D'mlop, J. R., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Eby, D. M., 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles

Pte. Escobel, N., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Flemmlng, A. J., 43 Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Fodrn, W. J., 47th Frontenac Batt

Pte. Foster, P. R., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Frye, C. E., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Gallagher, J., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Gibson, C. A., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Gilmour, A. E., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Graham, J. D. H., Princess Louise Dragoon Guards

Pte. Haig, H. G., 2nd Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Hatton, J., 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles

Pte. Hogan, J. R., 4l8t Brockville Rifles

Pte. Hennessy, J., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantr-

Pte. Holland, C, 16th Prince Edward Batt

Pte. Hugall, P., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Jackson, C. E. E., 37th Haldimand Rifles

Pte. Jones, H. H., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Laird, A., late Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Lamothe, G., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Latimer, W. R., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Large, A. L., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. I.rfjwrence, W. R., 59th Stormont and Glengarry Batt...
Pte. I.«wis, Z. R. E., N. W. M. Police

Military District.
3
4
4
3
4

4
4

4
3
3
4

3
4
4
3
4
2
4
4
4
3
4
4
7
3
4
3
3
2
7
4
4
3
3
4
3
7
4
3
4
3
4
3
4
4
4
3
3

.■?
.•?
2
3
3
4
4
3
4
4

844

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

No.

7502
7509
7507
7527
7518
7517
7515
7516
7525
7524
7523
7522
7514
7520
7521
7519
7528
7526
7531
7c33
75 ?5
63?0
7530
7532
7534
8004
7536
4259
7538
7103
7537
7542
7541
7539
7544
7543
7550
5748
5747
7549
7545
7551
7554
7553
5572
7558
7556
7557
7564
7563
7562
7561
7560
7559

4026
5120
7603
5136
7622

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Pte. Living, F. J., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Lynn, F., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. LeBeau, L. P., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. McCauley, A., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Martin, W. A., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Martin, H., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Mason, C. P., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

I'te. Matthews, A. J., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

iPte. Mailock, E. St. J.. 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Major, J., 56th Grenville Batt

Pte. Mills, W. W., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Mitchell, N. 42nd Lanark and Renfrew Batt

Pte. Morgans, E. F., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Morrison, W. A., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Morin, J., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Morrison, C. R., 3rd Field Battery, C. A

Pte. McCullough, C, Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. MacRac:, R, A., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. McConnell, J. F., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. McCormack, A. J., 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles..

Pto. McCoy, R., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. McDonald, F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry..

Pte. McFadden, F., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. McLennan, J. A., 59th Stormont and Glengarry Batt..

Pte. McCrea, J. M., 45th Victoria Batt

Pte. Padmore, G. T., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Pte. Parr., W. B., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Peters, A. E., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry..

Pte. Phillips, G., 15th Argyle Light Infantry

Pte. Prior, A., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Porteous, R. W., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Ritchie, V/. J., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Ross, W. J. H., Dominion Police

Pte. Rowley, J., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Schwitzer, W. C, 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. ShlUington, W. J. H., Princess Louise Dragoon Guards..

Pte. Small, H. C, 42nd Lanark and Renfrew Batt

Pte. Smith. J. F., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Smith, W. A., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Spence, C. T., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Street, L. J., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pte. Swan, N. W. D.. 14th Princess of Wales Own Rifles

Pte. Taylor, A. H., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Corpl. Thomas, C. T., Governor General's Foot Guards

Pto. Thompson, R. R., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Tllley, G., 49th Hastings Rifles

Pte. Turner, R. H., list Brockville Rifles

Pte. Turpin, T. J., Cobourg Co., C. A

Pte. Wall, A., 16th Prince Edward Batt

Pte. Walker, L. C, 16th Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Wendt, W. G., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Williamson, A. T. L., Governor General's Foot Guards. .

Pte. Wood, F. H., 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Rifles

Pte. Wright, H. 0., Princess Louise Dragoon Guards

Military

"E" COMPANY, MONTREAL.

Col.-Sergt. Young, A., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Sergt. Allan, J,, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Sorgt. Adams, J. A., 8th Royal Rifles

Corpl. Baugh, T. E., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry. . .
Corpl. Downey, G., Nil

District.

FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

S45

No.

7634
7636
6124
7633
7658
7602
7601
7604
7605
7606
7607
7608
7609
7610
7611
7612
7616
7614
7615
7616
7617
7618
6114
7620
7621
7619
7623
7624
7625
7626
7627
7628
7629
7630
7632
7631
7635
7637
6116
7639
7717
7640
7638
7642
7643
7646
7644
6102
7647
7645
7641
7648
7649
7650
7651
7716
7656
7657
7656
7663
7662

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Corpl. Gardner, J., 5th Royal Scots

Corpl. Goodfellow, R., 5th Royal Scots

Corpl. Moody, F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry. .

Lce.-Corpl. Frawley, W. M. C, 3rd Victoria Rifles

Lce.-Corpl. Molyneux, C. R., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Allan, C. E., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Ackerman, F., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Pte. Allmand, W. W., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Aspell, T. J., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Bach, R. C, 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Bailey, J., 2nd Regiment, C. A

Pte. Barry, C. H., No corps

Pte. Bigelow, J. A., late N. W. M. Police

Pte. Bolt, G. H., 3rd Victoria Rifles

Pte. Byford, R., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Byers, R. T., 3rd Victoria Rifles

Pte. Carter, M., 2nd Regiment, C. A

Pte. Campbell, C, 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Canty, R., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. Carter, W., 2nd Regiment, C. A

Pte. Clarke, R. C, 2nd Regiment, C. A

Pte. Coates, H. W., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Cox, F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Crotty, P., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. Currie, I., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Corner, F. G., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Dawson, A., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. Delaney. M. J., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. Doyle, T. H. M., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Durkee, A. A., 3rd Victoria Rifles

Pte. Dynes, E. J., Q. 0. Can. Hussars

Pte. Erskine, F., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Fisher, H., 3rd Victoria Rifles

Pte. Fisher, R. L., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Fowler, W., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Fraser, H., 41st Brockville Rifles

Pte. Gamble, J., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Gorman, J. F., 3rd Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Graham, R., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Greenlay, G., 54th Richmond Batt

Pte. Harding, E., No corps

Pte. Hill, J. K.. 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. Gunn, R., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Hale, W. J., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Hampson, G., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Hannaford, A., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Hawkins, J., Ist Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Hayes, R., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Hayward, H., 53rd Sherbrooke Batt

Pte. Home, F., Queen's Own Canadian Hussars

Pte. Hynes, P., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Irwin, F. B., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. James, A., First Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Jones, F., 5th Roj'al Scots

Pte. Jeffrey, W., 5th Royal Scots . .

Pte. Jeffrey, J. W.. 3rd Victoria Rifles

Pte. Kealey, M., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Kelly, E., let Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Pte. Lecouteur, R., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. I^e, F., Q. 0. Can. Hussars

Pte. Lewis, C. E., Ist Prince of Wales FuBlUera

Military DistricL
5
6
6
5
b
5
7
6
6
5
6
6
6
5
6
6
5
5
7
5
5
5
6
7
5
5
7
7
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
3
5
5
6
6
5
7
6
5
6
5
5
6
5
6
5
7
6
5
6
5
6
6
7
5
6

840

THE STOUY OV SOUTH AFRICA

No.
7654
7666
7665
7664
7602
7666
7663
7659
7667
7661
7668
7674
7669
5094
7673
7671
7675
7672
7670
7670
7677
7678
7679
7081
5112
7082
7080
7683
7684
7685
7086
7687
7688
7689
7690
7691
7693
7692
7695
7094
7097
7698
7696
7701
7699
7702
7700
7706
7707
7708
7713
7709
7712
7710
7711
7705
7704
7715
7714

Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.
Pte.

Nanjp and Former Corps.

Rank,

Lister, C, Nil

Malin, J., 5th Royal Scots

Margin, H., 2nd Regiment, C. A

Martin, A., 2nd Regii^.ent, C. A

Meade, D., 2nd Regiment, C. A

Middleton. F., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Mitchell, H., 3rd Victoria Rifles

Moore, T., D. Y. R. Can. Hussars

Murphy, D., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Murray, W. R., 8th Royal Rifles

Murdoch, W. A. H., 2nd Regiment, C. A

MacDonald, J. A., 5th Royal Scots

McCann, J., 8th Royal Rifles

McGill, D. R., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

McGoldrick, J., 5th Royal Scots

Mclver, W., 5th Royal Scots

McLean, R. G., 5th Royal Scots

McLeod, N. M., 3rd Victoria Rifles

McQueen, A., 8th Royal Rifles

Nash, T. B., 3rd Victoria Rifles ,

Nickle, C. R., 3rd Field Battery, C. A

O'Brien, J., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

O'Meara, J., 8th Royal Rifles

Philips, J., 5th Royal Scots

Piatt, J., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pope, A., 5th Royal Scots

Porter, W., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Prince, R. H., 2nd Regiment, C. A

Price, A. J., Nil

Robarts, G. P.. 2nd Regiment, C. A

Rupert, E., 85th Batt

Ryan, P., Nil

Richardson, F., Nil

Shaw, A. C, 3d Victoria Rifles

Shaw, R. N., 3d Victoria Rifles

Sheehan, M., Q. 0. Can. Hussars

Steming, W., 5th Royal Scots

Swift, M., 8th Royal Rifles

Sword, A., 5th Royal Scots

Sword, D. C, 1st Prince of Wales Fusileera

Thomas, A. P., D. Y. R. Can. Hussars

Thomas, G. W., 5th Royal Scots

Travers. H. B., 25th Elgin Batt

Treggett, J., Q. 0. Can. Hussars.

TuUoch, A. J.,

Turner, A. J.,

Tweddell, W.,

Walters, J. H.,

Walker. H. H.

5th Royal Scots

8th Royal Rifles

5th Koyal Scots

, 54th Richmond Batt.

Wasdell, F.. 3d Victoria Rifles

Wardle, G., o3d Sherbrooke Bntt

White, A., .Slth Richmond Batt

Wilkin, W.. r.th Royal Scots

Wllklns. A. W.. 3d Victoria Rifles...
Williams. H.. 53d Sherbrooke Batt..

Wright, P. E., 8th Royal Rifles

Wright. ,T., 8th Royal Rifles.

Yelland, J., 5th Royal Scots

Youngson, J. S., 5th Royal Scots.

Military District.
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
7
5
5
7
6
5
5
5
5
7
5
5
5
7
5
6
5
5
5
7
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
7
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
7
7
5
6
5
R

5
5
5
7
7
6

FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

S4T

No.

7868
7867
7832
6550
7869
7871
7878
7840
7839
7812
7800
7799
7781
7824
7797
7841
7809

783
7817
7804
6322

657
7821
7768
7842
7769
7819
7843
7844
7836
7825
7770
7786
7806
7813
7858
7859
7845
7827
7865
7846
7816
7872
6450
7780
7811
7771
7860
7828
7802
7822
6331
6328
7838
7861
7829
7880
7772
7873

"F" COMPANY, QUEBEC.

liank. Name and Former Cori)3.

Sergt. Bessette, W., Koyal Canadian Artillery

Sergt. Peppiatt, W., Royal Canadian Artillery

Sergt. Pol!;inhorn, J.. 62d St. John Fusiliers

Corpl. Peterson, C. F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Corpl. Withey, B., Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl. McDonald, J. A., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Warren, C, Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl. Vallee, L. C, 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Lee. -Corpl. Desjardins, J. F., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Lee. -Corpl. Gratton, E., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Col. -Sergt. Lafleur, L. E., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Arnton, C. S., 2nd Regt., C. A

Pte. Anthony, P., Nil

Pte. Atkinson, G., 8th Royal Rifles

Pte. Barclay, C. N., D. Y. R. C. Hrs

Pte. Bagot, A., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Pte. Bamford, W., 3d Victoria Rifles

Pte. Baldwin, C, Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Beaupr§, C, 85th Batt

Pte. Brown, H., 3rd Victoria R. 'es

Pte. Brown, H., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Brooker, L., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Bouck, L., Nil

Pte. Bower, J. W., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Carbonneau, E., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Pte. Casey, J. E., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Jhampagne, M., 1st Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Chatel, A., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Pte. Cloutier, J. W., 80th Nicolet Batt

Pte. Chisholm, A. W., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Cooper, W., 62d St. John Fu..ilier8

Pte. Conley, F., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Cowgill, H., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Pte. Curphy, J., Nil

Pte. D'Amour, J., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Pte. Demers, A., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Pte. Dolbec, L., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebtc

Pte. Donahue, F., late 61h U. S. Infantry

Pte, Downing, W.. 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Duhamel, J. W., 86th Three Rivers Batt

Pte. D'Orsonnens, G., 80th Nicolet Batt

Pte. Duberger, A., Ist Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Dixon, W., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Eite, Wm., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Fancy, J. G., Nil

Pte. Forest H., 61st Montmagny and L'Islet Batt

Pte. Gates, L. H., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Gingras, J., 9th Voltigeur de Quebec

Pte, Grecia, J., fi2d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Harrison, R., 2d Regiment. C. A

Pte. Harrison, Chas.. 2d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Harvey. R.. Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Hennessy, B. R., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Pte. Hill, E., 9th Voltigpurs de Quebec

Pte. Hudon, J. A., fi5th Mount Royal Rifles

Pte. Huntf-r. \V., fi2rt St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Hublcy, E., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Trwln, W., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. vers, M., Royal Canadian Artillery

Mllite,;

y DUtrict.

5
10

848

TUE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA

7847

Pte.

7810

Pte.

7862

Pte.

7818

Pte.

7808

Pte.

7879

Pte.

7874

Pte.

7814

Pte.

7856

Pte.

7795

Pte.

7849

Pte.

7820

Pte.

7848

Pte.

7782

Pte.

7785

Pte.

7850

Pte.

7831

Pte.

7897

Pte.

7830

Pte.

7876

Pte.

»;r,65

Pte.

7801

Pte.

7875

Pte.

7805

Pte.

6579

Pte.

7773

Pte.

7774

Pte.

7775

Pte.

7851

Pte.

7863

Pte.

7852

Pte.

7796

Pte.

7833

Pte.

7853

Pte.

7834

Pte.

7835

Pte.

7854

Pte.

7870

Pte.

7777

Pte.

7778

Pte.

7877

Pte.

7836

Pte.

7823

Pte.

7776

Pte.

7803

Pte.

7855

Pte.

7881

Pte.

7856

Pte.

7815

Pte.

7779

Pte.

7805

Pte.

6559

Pte.

7837

Pte.

6585

Pte.

7864

Pte.

6580

Pte.

7798

Pte.

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Jette, G., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Jewell, T., 8th Royal Rifle.s

Jobin, E., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Larue, L., 87th Quebec Batt

Lambkin, H. J., 8th Royal Rifles

Lamoureux, E., Royal Canadian Artillery

Laverdure, E., Royal Canadian Artillery

Lefebure, W., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Lescarbeau, F. X., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Lightbound, G. R., 3d Victoria Rifles

Leveillee, L., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Lewis, 0., 68th King's County Batt

Lemay, A., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Matheson, O., 12th Field Battery, C. A

Medhurst, J., Royal Canadian Dragoons

Midland, L. C, 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Monteith, J., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Montizambert, H., 3d Victoria Rifles

McElhiney, J., 62d St. John Fusiliers

McNeil, J. D., Royal Canadian Artillery

McCollom, G. H., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

McDonald, R. D., 3d Victoria Rifles

Mcintosh, M., Royal Canadian Artillery

MacTaggart, J. W., Nil

McLaughlin, H. P., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry. . .

McMillan, A., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

McMillan, W., 93d Cumberland Batt

Orman, G., 93d Cumberland Batt

Paquette, G., 87th Quebec Batt

Plamondon, J., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Proulx, H., G5th Mount Royal Rifles

Rae. J. P., 3rd Victoria Rifles

Raymond, J. W., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Reniy, J., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Redmond, C, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Robertson, J. H., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Roy, A., 89th Temiscouata and Rimouski Batt

Roberts, W. A., Royal Canadian Artillery

Scott, J. A., 93d Cumberland Batt

Sievert, J., 93d Cumberland Batt

Soucy, A., Royal Canadian Artillery

Smith, L., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Strong, F. B., Nil

Sutton. G. J., 93d Cumberland Batt

Sutherland, A., D. Y. R. C. Hrs

Tapin, J., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Tatterso.il, H. C, 3d Victoria Rifles

Tessier, E., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Therlault, A., 9th Voltigeur de Quebec

Thompson, W. B., 93d Cumberland Batt

Touchette, J., 65th Mount Royal Rifles

Utton, F. W., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Walsh, J.. 62d St. John Fusiliers

Warren, W., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Wiseman, N., 9th Voltigeurs de Quebec

Woodard, F., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Wylie, R. R., 2d Regiment, C. A

Military District.
5
7
5
7
7
7
7
7
5
5
5
9
5
4
2
2
8
5
8
7
7
5
7
5
7
9
9
10
5
7
5
5
8
5
8
8
5
7
9
9
7
8
8
9
5
5
5
5
7
9
5
7
8
7
7
8
6

FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

819

"G" COMPANY, NEW BRUNSWICK AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

No.

6553
2399
3176
3231
3229
7976
8004
6556
7915
3261
6321
7901
7902
7903
7904
6360
7905
7906
7907
7908
7909
7910
7911
6330
7912
7913
7914
7916
7917
7918
7919
7920
7921
7922
7923
7924
8006
7925
7926
6448
7927
7928
2929
7929
7930
7932
6554
7933
7934
7935
7936
7937
7938
7939
7940
7941
7942
7943
7944

Kauk, Name and Former Corps.
Col.-Sergt. Charlton, Chs., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry
Sergt. Sheldon, Alfred, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Sergt. Russell, Joseph, Royal Canadian Artillery

Sergt. Hessian, Edmund, Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl. Morrison, James, Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl. Pringle, James, 71st York Batt

Corpl. Withers, Frederick, W.. 3d Regiment, C. A

Corpl. Wallace, William V., Royal Canadian Reg. of Infantry.

Corpl. Coombs, Fred. William, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Lce.-Corpl. Ward, George, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry
Lce.-Corpl. Miller, Hugh, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Adams, Geo. Fred, 8th Hussars

Pte. Addison, Joseph, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Aitken, Joseph M., 71st York Batt

Pte. Anslow, Charles, 12th Field Battery, C. A

Pte. Baker, Warren, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Bishop, William, 74th Batt

Pte. Boudreau, John, Charlottetown Engineer Co

Pte. Bowness, Ernest William, 82d Queen's County Batt

Pte. Burnside, James, 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Brace, Nelson T., Charlottetown Engineer Co

Pte. Brown, Herbert Henry, 82d Queen's County Batt

Pte. Bryant, William, 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Campbell, Geoige, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Pte. Carney, John, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte, Chapman, George, 74th Batt

Pte. Chapelle, Montrose C. 74th Batt

Pte. Cox, Reginald Wm., 82d Queen's County Batt

Pte. Craig, Edward, 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Creighton. Crandall, 74th Batt

Pte. Dillon, Arlemas Robt., 82d Queen's County Batt

Pte. Donahue, Wm. Wallace, 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Doyle, Andrew, 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Dorion, Necy, Charlottetown Engineer Co

Pte. Durant, Henry E., 74th Batt

Pte. Dutney, John, 73d Northumberland Batt

Pte. Dyas, Frank, 36th Peel Batt

Pte. Fabre, David J., 3d Regiment, C. A.

Pte. Ferguson, Daniel, 74th Batt

Pte. Flewelling, Ernest, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Pte. Foley, Richard Jos. Charlottetown F^ngineer Co

Pte. Foster, Mlnard, r)2d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Fradsham, Harry, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Pte. Furze, Fred. Chas., Charlottetown Engineer Co

Pte. Gaudet, Lawrence S., 4th Reciment, C. A

Pte. Globe, Alex. Rankine, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Hallamore, William, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Pte. Hammond, Albert, 74th Batt

Pte. Harris, Benjamin, 12th Field Battery. C. A

Pte. Harris, John Archibald, 82d Queen's County Batt

Pte. Harris, LeRoy, 82d Queen's County Batt

Pte. Hatfield, Arthur S., 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Haydon, Arthur, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pto. Hlne, Charles Herbert, Ch.uiottetown Engineer Co

Pte. Hubley, Ruspell C. 8th Hnss-irK

Pte. Irving, Walter H., n2d St. John FusiHer.5

Pte. Jenkins, Charles Leonard, 3d Regiment, C. A

Pte. .Tohnson, James, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Johnston, Joseph M., 62d St. John Fusiliers .^

Military UiBtrict.

8
12
12

8
12

S
1"

8
12

12
12

8
12
12

S
12

850

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

No.

7945

Ptc

6066

Pte

7946

Pte

7947

Pte

7948

Pte

7949

Pte

7950

Pte

7951

Pte

7952

Pte

7953

Pte.

7954

Pte

7955

Pte.

7956

Pte

7957

Pte.

7958

Pte

7959

Pte.

7960

Pte.

7961

Pte.

7962

Pte.

7963

Pte.

7964

Pte.

7965

Pte.

7966

Pte.

7967

Pte.

7968

Pte

7969

Pte.

7970

Pte.

7971

Pte.

7972

Pte

7973

Pte.

7974

Pte.

7975

Pte

6363

Pte

7977

Pte.

7978

Pte

6548

Pte

7979

Pte

7980

Pte

7981

Pte

7982

Pte

6582

Pte

7983

Pte.

7984

Pte

7985

Pte.

6488

Pte

7986

Pte

7987

Pte

7988

Pte

7989

Pte

7950

Pte

7991

Pte

7992

Pte

7993

Pte.

7994

Pte

7995

Pte

7996

Pte

7997

Pte

7998

Pte

7999

Pte

8000

Pte

Rauk, Name aud Former Oorpd.

Jones, Samuel, 71st York Batt

Keddy, Edward, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry. . ,

Keswick, George, 73d Norihumberland Batt

Kirkpatrick, Fred. Arthur, 3d Regiment, C. A

Kitchen, William, 12th Field Battery, C. A

Lane, Walter, 82d Queen's County Bctt ,

Leavitt, Herbert, 71st York Batt

Leslie, J. P., 4th Regiment, C. A.

Letson, Joseph, 62d St. John Fusiliorf

Lord, Roland Ernest, •82d Queen's ' ' - unty Batt

Lutz, Ernest, 74th Batt ,

Lutz, John, 74th Batt

Matheson, James, 4th Regiment, C. A ,

McCain, Frederick, 3d Regiment, C. A ,

McCarthy, Michael James, 4th Regiment, C. A

McRae, Frederick B., 82d Queen's County Batt

McCreary, Patrick, 74th Batt

McDiarmid, John, 62d St. John Fusiliers

McFarlane, Bruce E., 71st York Batt ,

McKinnon, Hedley V., 4th Regiment, C. A

McLean, Hurdis Leigh, 4th Regiment, C. A ,

McLeod, John, 71st York Batt

McMullin, William, 8th Hussars

Mellish, A-thur Jas. Ben, 82d Queen's County Batt

Morley, Henry A., 3d Regiment, C. A

Munroe, JoV n Robert, 73d Northumberland Batt

O'Rielly, Josviph, 4th Regiment, C. A

Pascoe, Joseph B., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pelky, Arthur, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Penny, Roland, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Perkins, J, Albert, 71st York Batt

Pickles, John, 71st York Batt

Quinn, M. J., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Raymond, William J., 3d Regiment, C. A

Rawlings. John, 3d Regiment, C. A

Redden, H., Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Riggs, William Alfred, Charlottetown Engineer Co

Rodd, Thomas Ambrose, 82d Queen's County Batt

Roberts, Arthur, 3d Regiment, C. A

Schofleld, Allen, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Scott, Jacob Boyd, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry

Scott, John, 3d Regiment, C. A

Singer, Lester M., 78th Colchester, Hants anrl Pictou Batt.

Simpson, Alfred, 3d Regiment, C. A

Simpson, Percival, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry.

Small, James Edward, 4th Regiment, C. A

Sprague, F. W., 3d Regiment, C. A

Stanton, Leigh, 5th Royal Scots

Stevenson, Pillias Scarth, 71st York Batt

Stewart, Lome, 82d Queen's County Batt

Strange, Ernest H., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Swatridge, William Osborn, 3d Regiment, C. A

Tavlor, Roland Dennis, Charlottetown Engineer Co

Tower. Bradford G., 74tb Batt

Turner Robert M., 62d St. John Fusiliers

Unkauif, William C, 62d St. John Fusiliers....

Walker. Frederick G., 71st York Batt

Walker, James Stewart, 82d Queen's County Batt

Wannamaker, Herbert Leslie, 74th Batt

Ward, Robert, 73d Northumberland Batt

Military District.

8
12

8
12
12

8
12

8
12
I'Z

8
12

FIliST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

851

No.
8001
8002
8003
8005

8077
8051
8073
80G5
8086
8117
8143
8152
8160
8175
8052
8054
8055
8053
8056
8057
8058
8059
8060
8061
8062
8063
8084
8066
8071
8067
8069
8070
8068
8076
8072
8075
8074
8102
8078
8081
8079
8080
8088
8087
8085
8083
8084
8082
8090
8089
8091
8092
8096
8097
8098
8100
8095

Uank, Name and Former Corps.
Pte. Waye, John Fiederick, 82d Queen's County Batt.

Pte. Williama, Joseph, 62d St. John ifusiliers

Pte. Williamg, Frederick, 62d St. John Fusiliers

Pte. Wilson, John H., 71st York Batt

"H" COMPANY, NOVA SCOTIA.

Col.-Sergt. Eustace, J. D., C3d Halifax Rifles

Sergt. Grimshaw, W., GOth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Sergt. Dooley, F., Gtjth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Corpl. Baugh, B., Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl, Ferguson, W. R., l)3d Cumberland Batt

Corpl. Lyndon, H., Royal Canadian Artillery

Corpl, Pooley, C. F., C. A. M. S. C

Corpl. Rolfe, Jas., G3d Batt. Halifax Rifles

Lce.-Corpl. Stevenson, J., 1st Leicester Regiment

Lce.-Corpl. Watson, H., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Anderson, J. H. N., 6Gth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Adams, W. F., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Attwater, Jas., 94th Argyle Highlanders

Pte. Ackhurst, H. W., Halifax P-'rer Co., C. A. M. S. C

Pte. Bennett, G. B., G3d Hallfa '" des

Pte. Blaikie, H., 6Gth Princess ! ise Fusiliers

Pte. Borton, C. N., GGth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Burgess, M., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Blair, S., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Bent, E. E., 68th King's County Batt

Pte. Brown, S., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Buchanan, K., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Bingay, L. W., 1st Regiment, C. A

Pte. Conrad, W., 1st Regiment, C. A

Pte. Coons, F., 2d Regiment, C. A

Pte. Cleary, W., 1st Leinstcr Regiment

Pte. Carroll, Jas., 6Gth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Cameron, A. A., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Chapman, F., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Daly, T., 5th Royal Scots

Pte. Drake, Jas., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Duncan, J., 2d Regiment Canadian Artillery

Pte. Defoe, J., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Jewers, F., GGth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Elliott, W., GGth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Embree, G., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Ewing, J., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Ewing, D. H., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Farrell, G. P., Durham Light Infantry

Pte. Farrer. De B., GGth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Fillmore, W. A., 03d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Fitzgerald, A. E., 1st Regiment, C. A

Pie. Forsyth, A., Nil

Pte. Eraser, H. H., GGth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Gallagher, J., 4th Vol. Batt., Manchester Regiment

Pte. Grant, J. W., GGth Princess Fusiliers

Pte. Hancock, C, C. A. M. S. C

Pte. Harrison, G., 1st Regiment, C. A

Pte. Hartnett, J. W., 93d Cumberland Batt

Pte. Harris, T. J., GGth Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Hart. W. J., G3d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Hallidav, J., Royal Canadian Artillery

Pte. Hucstis, G. J., 63d Halifax Rifles

Military DUtrict.

9
o

9
5
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9

852

TDE STOllY OF SOUTH AFRICA

:'t

■_.

No.

8094

Pte.

8101

Pte.

8093

Pte.

8099

Pte.

8104

Pte.

8105

Pte.

8103

Pte.

8111

Pte.

8110

Pte.

8109

Pte.

8107

Pte.

8108

Pte.

8106

Pte.

8116

Pte.

8114

Pte.

8112

Pte.

8115

Pte.

8113

Pte.

8120

Pte.

8121

Pte.

8125

Pte.

8122

Pte.

8123

Pte.

8127

Pte.

8119

Pte.

8126

Pte.

8129

Pte.

8133

Pte.

8130

Pte.

8124

Pte.

8128

Pte.

8132

Pte.

8131

Pte.

8118

Pte.

8134

Pte.

8135

Pte.

8136

Pte.

8137

Pte.

8138

Pte.

8145

Pte.

8144

Pte.

8142

Pte.

8139

Pte.

8140

Pte.

8141

Pte.

8151

Pte.

8156

Pte.

8146

Pte.

8147

Pte.

8149

Pte.

8153

Pte.

8154

Pte.

8155

Pte.

8158

Pte.

8150

Pte.

8157

Pte.

8148

Pte.

8161

Pte,

8162

Pte.

8163

Pte.

Rank, Name and Former Corps.

Hire, J., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

Hunt, G., 1st Prince of Wales Fusiliers

Hurley, J., 1st Regiment, C. A

Hoult, B., Royal Canadian Artillery

James, Geo., Nil

, Johnstone, G., 63cl Halifax Rifles

Jones, H., 68th King's County Batt

Kelly, J., 10th Royal Grenadiers

Kennedy, Jno., Royal Canadian Artillery

Keogh, P., 66th Prinress Louise Fusiliers

Keefler, R. T., Nil

Kilcup, E., 68th Kirg's County Batt

Kirkpatrick, F., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

Lewis, M., Royal Canadian Artillery

Lanahan, Jas., 63d Halifax Rifies

Lindsay, A. C, N. W. M. Police

Lockwood, A., 68th Kinp's County Batt

I^wry, T. P., 6Cth Princess Louise Fusiliers..
MacDonald, C., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

MacDonald, D. C, 1st Regiment, C. A

McLean, W. J., Nil

McDonald, G., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers.

Miller, C, 75th Battalion

Miller, R., 1st Regiment, C. A

Munnis, M., 63d Halifax Batt

Muir, F., 1st Regiment, C. A

Murray, N. G., Nil

Murray, A., D. of Y. R. C. Hussars

McAldin, R., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers..

McCallum, B., Nil

McCallum, G. D., 93d Cumberland Batt

McDougall, H. A., 5th Royal Scots

McLean, A., Royal Canadian Artillery

McNab, F., 63d Halifax Rifles

Neily, R. L., 68th King's County Batt

O'Brien, E., 78th Colchester and Hants Batt..

Oxiey, W., 93d Cumberland Batt

Oulton, H., 93d Cumberland Batt

Osborn, D., Nil

Parkes, F. S., 3rd Montreal Field Battery

Patterson, A.. 63d Halifax Rifles

Barker, A., 68th King's County Batt

Pollock, W. J., 6Gth Princess Louise Fusiliers
Purcell, E. S., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers. .

Purcell, L. A.. 63d Halifax Rifles

Regan, W. J.. 68th Princess Louise Fusiliers..

Rector, R., 93d Cumberland Batt

Roche, W., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

Rose, J. E., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers...

Rose, F., 63d Halifax Rifles

Roue, J. F. L., C. A. M. S. C

Ross, R., 1st Regiment, C. A

Ross, W. J., 1st Regiment, C. A

Robertson, A., 3d Victoria Rifles

Rudland, R., 1st Regiment. C. A

Reld. W., Nil

Ryan, D. J., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

Simmons, W., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers.

Sloan, Ray, 1st Regiment, C. A

Swinyard, W., Royal Canadian Artillery

Military District.
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
2
7
9
9
9
9
7
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
5
9
9
9
5
5
9
9
9
9
9
9
5
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
5
9
9
9
9
9
9

FIRST CANADIAN CONTINGENT

853

No.
8159
8166
8167
8165
8164
8168
8169
8170
8171
8170
8174
8172
S176

Rank, Name and Former Corns iwiii*„- tm » ■ .

Pte. Stuart. G. W.. 66th Princess Louise Fusuiers "*"'"' o '"''•

Pte. Taylor, F. A. E.. 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Tester, S., 52nd Battalion

Pte. Trider, A., 1st Regiment, C. A. . . .

Pte. Trueman, W. E., 78th Colchester and Hants Batt

Pte. Walker. W. A., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

Pte. Walsh, r. J., 66th Princess Louise fusiliers. ...""."

Pte. Ward, E., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers. .

«i^;. T,l''^^;,^• ^- ^^*h Princess Louise Fusiliers.' ! i! .■.■.■." '

Sergt Ward, G.. 68th King's County Batt

Pte. Woods, D., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Wright. P., 63d Halifax Rifles

Pte. Zong. A. E., 66th Princess Louise Fusiliers

9
9
5
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9

Head-Quarters, Ottawa,

2d January, 1900.

By order,

HUBERT FOSTER. Colonel,

Chief Staff Officer.

REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE FIRST CANADIAN

CONTINGENT

Thr draft sent to South Africa as reinforcements for the 2nd (S.S.) Battalion,
liuvAL. Canadian IIuoimrnt, have uekn allotted numuerh and posted as follows:

"A" IPANY.
Lli J. Boyd.

No. 3407 E. H. i^rioe,

7123 F. A, Lake.

7124 W. Puddifer.

7125 C. J. Miller,

7126 W. A. McEachern,

7127 W. J. Proud.

"B" COMPANY,
Lieut. A. E. Carpenter.
No. 7257 A. V. Beclier,

7258 J. A. Fraser,

7259 J. B. Millilien.

7260 J. H. F, Dodds,

7261 P. H. Stacey,

(name not previously published.)

7262 A. Pay,

7263 R. C. Aitken,

7264 W. Eaton.

"C" COMPANY.
No. 7415 T. B. Playfair,

7416 C. W. Lillie,

7417 L. F. V. Jackson,

7418 R. J. Kirk,

7418 V. 0. McCarthy,

7419 W. A. Edmundson,

7421 F. Gerhardt,

7422 J. Ford,

7423 J. Pardee,

7424 P. G. A. Webster,

7425 W. J. Evans,

7426 A. Sinclair,

7427 C. H. Nixon,

7428 P. Bailey,

7429 J. R. D. McKerrihan,

7430 J. L Pepper.

"D" COMPANY.
No. 7565 G. H. Burrett,

7566 W. H. Hooper,

7567 T. H. Hulme,

7568 B. Lutes,

7569 J. D. Mackay,

7570 A. Mackellar,

7571 G. H. Moodie,

7572 D. Turnbull,

7573 M. P. Walters,

7574 H. A. Hodgins,

7575 E. F. Austen.

7577 E. D. F. Geen,

7578 A. R. H. Cameron.

"E" COMPANY.
No. 7717 J. Butler,

7718 H. G. Browne,

7719 R. P. Doucet,

7720 A. Dunn,

7721 H. B. Holloway,

7722 J. Lamden,

7724 H. Mudge,

7725 F. M. McNaughton,
7728 C. C. Scott,

F.
L.

7727
7728

7729 H

7730 A.

7731 J.

7752 W.

7888
7889
7890
7891

W. Dunlop,
W. Lucas,
J. Horan,
S. McCormick,
Convey,
Edwards.
"F" COMPANY.
Lieut. C. F. Winter.
No. 4217 D. Stevens, ) of No. 2 Regimen-
4291 S. Stevens, Ual Depot R.C.R.
4778 W. Pollett, J Names not previ-
ously published.
A. Evans,
S. Anderson,
A. Russell,
P. Wolfe,

7892 C. E. Rathay,

7893 H. V. Ardagh,

7894 R. J. Harne,

7895 J. W. Boulter,

7896 T. F. Gurney,

7897 T. L. Macbeth,

7898 J. A. Plgot,

7899 N. McDonald,

7900 W. H. Cawardine.

"G" COMPANY.
Lieut. J. A. MacDonald.
No. 8011 J. F. Wandless,

8012 P. Fairweather,

8013 J. Howes,

8014 J. Jones,

8014 J. Tennant,

8015 H. Phillips,

8016 J. M. Robertson,

8018 J. M. Wright,

8019 W. M. Harris,

8020 R. W. Cameron,

8021 W. C. Cook,

8022 W. E. Coombs,

8023 D. R. Kennedy,

8024 G. A. Arbuckle,
A. J. Hall.

"H" COMPANY.
H. Munnis,
Dare,

V. Tierney,
H. Watson,
G. Scott.
H. Welch.
L. Smith,
E. Barnstead,
McDonald,
S. Gladwin,
J. Wilson,
D. Nicholson,
Mills,

E. Webber,
G. Brown,
Robertson.

8025

No. 8177

8178

8179

8180

8181

8182

8183

8184

8185

8186

8187 J.

8188 J.

8189

8190 M.

8191

8192 D.

SS4

OFFICERS

OP THE SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT OF VOLUNTEERS

SOUTH AFRICA

Canadian Mounted Rifles. Ist Battalion.

e'nTt d b' lTT'7 ""^"^ ^"^^'^^ '^^^'^^^ ^'^^--)-

JiiVANs, 1. D. B., Second m Command (R. C. D.)
Williams, V. A. S., Commanding Squadrons (R. C. D)
Forester, W., Commanding Squadrons (R. C. D.)

FOR

Captains ,

• Greenwood, H. S. (3rd Dragoons).
Pearce, C. St. A. (R. C. D.)

Lieutenants .

• King, A. H. (1st Hussars).
Borden, H. L. (K. C. Hussars).
Turner, R. E. W. (Q. 0. C. Hussars).
Van Luren, R. M. (4th Hussars).
CocKBURN, H. Z. C. (G. G. B. G.)
Van Straubenzie, C. T. (R. C. D.)
Elmsley, J. H. (R. C. D.)
Young, F. V. (Manitoba Dragoons).

^^i'l'an* Nelles, C. M. (R. C. D.)

Quartermaster.... Wynne, J. A. (2nd Regt. C. A.)
Medical Officer.. ..Duff, H. R. (4th Hussars).
Transport Officer..HARRisoN, C. F. (8th Hussars).

Veterinary Officer..HALL, W. B. (R. C. D.)

855

850

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The Canadian Mounted Rifles. Snd Battalion.

Herchmer, L. W., Commanding OtTicer (N. W. M. P.)
Steele, S. B., Second in Command (N. W. M. P.)
Howe, J., Commanding Squadrons (N. W. M. P.)
Sanders, G. E., Commanding Squadrons (N. W. M. P.)

Captains Cuthbert, A. E. K. (N. W. M. P.)

Macdonald, a. C. (N. W. M. p.)

Lieutenants Chalmers, T. W. (Reserve Officers).

Moodie, J. D. (N. W. M. P.)
Begin, J. V. (N. W. M. F.)
• Davidson, II. J. A. (N. W. M. P.)

Wroughton, T. a. (N. W. M. P.)
Inglis, W. M. (Late H. M. Berkshire Regt.)
Taylor, J. (Manitoba Dragoons).
Cosby, F. L. (N. W. M. P.)

Adjutant Baker, M. (N. W. M. P.)

Quartermaster... .Allan, S. B. (N. W. M. P.)

Medical Officer.... Devine, J. A. (90th Battalion),

Transport Officer.. Eustace, R. W, B.

Veterinary Officer..Riddell, R.

Brigade Division. Field Artillery.
Drury, C. W., Commanding Officer (R. C. A.), A. D C. to His Excellency.

Majors.

Captains ,

.Hudon, J. A. G. (R. C. A.)
HURDMAN, W. G. (C. A.)
Ogilvie, G. H. (R. C. A.)

.COSTIGAN, R. (C. A.)

Panet, H. a. (R. C. A.)
Eaton, D. I. V. (R. C. A.)

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

Lieutenants Irving. L. E. W. (Keserve of Officers).

Good, W. C. (10th Field Battery C. A.)

Kino, W. B. (7th Field Battery C. A.)

Van Tuyl, T. W. (6th Field Battery C. A.)

McCrae, J. (IGth Field Battery C. A.)

OoiLviE, A. T. (R. C. A.)

Morrison, E. W. B. (2nd Field Battery, C. A.)

Leslie, J. N. 8. (R. C. A.)

Murray, W. P. (9th Field Battery, C. A.)

Attached for Duty..MACKiE, H. J. (42nd Battalion), late 2nd Field Battery.

^^i"*aiit Thacker, H. C. (R. C. A.)

Medical Officer.... Worthington. A. (63rd Battalion).
Veterinary Officer..MA88iE, J. (R. C. A.)

Medical Officer and Nurses.
Medical Officer. ..Vaux, Lieut. F., C. A. M. S.

^"^^^^ *^iS8 D. Hercum, Senior Nurse, Montreal, Q.

Miss M. Horne, Montreal, Q.

Miss M. MacDonald, Picton, N. S.

Miss M. P. Richardson, Regina, N. W. T.

C^*P^«^i°s Rev. W. G. Lane (Methodist).

Kev. W. J. Cox (Anglican).

Bev. J. C. Sinnett (Roman Catholic).

Postal Corps Ecclbston, W. R., Chief.

Johnston, Rowan.
Lallier, J.
Bedell, F. B.
Murray, K. A.

858

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MeN

REGIMENTAL STAFF IST BATTALION

•Q.M.S., Graham, J., R.C.D.

Fr. Q.M.S., Simpkins, G. J., R.C.D.

O.R.S., Dalton,- P., R.C.D.

|Sgt. Tp., Inglis, L. J. S., R.C.D.

JArm. Sgt, Carroll, D. J., R.C.D.

Tran. Sgt., Skinner, A.R., R.C.D.

Sadlr. Sgt., Dunning, J. F., Nil.

SECOND BATTALION

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Adams, David Edgerton, Edmonton.
Aston, Geoffrey Haredale, N.W.M.P.
Aspinall, Alfred, N.W.M.P.
Avery, Walter, Maple Creek.
Ayres, Charles, N.W.M.P.
Aylesworth, John Emerson, N.W.M.P.

Bagshawe, Maurice Joseph, N.W.M.P.
Baines, Harry Hewitt, Calgary.
Barker, Joseph Martin, Calgary.
Barry, John, Moosomin.
Baldwin, Henry Yardwood, Regina.
Ballantine, James Alexander, N.W.M.P.
Ball, John Everett, Edmonton.
Bassett, Percy, Calgary.
Bell, Walter Maitland, Calgary.
Bell, Campbell, Maple Creek.
Beyts, Stanley Buxton, N.W.M.P.
Bidden, Percy James, Calgary.
Birney, John Andrew, Calgary.
Bird, Arthur Lewis, N.W.M.P.
Bird, Thomas Albert, Prince Albert.
Biscoe, Vincent Henry, N.W.M.P.
Blake, James Augustus, N.W.M.P.
Border, John Wesley, Regina.
Bourne, Lutwidge Edward, Macleod.
Bolster, George, Pincher Creek.
Bolt, Herbert George, Calgary.
Bradley, Arthur William, N.W.M.P.
Bredin, Henry Hall, Calgary.
Bredln, Andrew Noble, N.W.M.P.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Brewster, John Nipissing, Macleod.
Brindle, H«rbert James, N.W.M.P.
Brinkworth, George Walter, N.W.M.P.
Brown, George A., Regina.
Brown, Hector John, N.W.M.P.
Brown, Thomas, B. C. Volunteers.
Brown, Arthur Herbert, Calgary.
Brown, Villiers Sidney, Calgary.
Brown, John Henry, Moosomin.
Bruce, Edgar Francis, N.W.M.P.
Bryans, Thomas, 30th Batt. C. Militia.
Burke, James Alexander, N.W.M.P.
Burke, Patrick, N.W.M.P.
Butler, Arthur Charles, Macleod.
Burke, William Henry, N.W.M.P.
Brennan, Robert James, N.W.M.P.

Callaghan, Thomas, Maple Creek.
Camies, Ernest Joseph, N.W.M.P.
Campbell, Aaron William. Edmonton.
Carson, Thomas Edgar, N.W.M.P.
Carter, William, Regina.
Carter, John, N.W.M.P.
Charlton, Henry Lyons, N.W.M.P.
Champion, Albert, N.W.M.P.
Charles, Allan Hughes, N.W.M.P.
Church. Frank, N.W.M.P.
Clarke. Douglas, Prince Albert.
Clark, Edward Douglas, Edmonton.
Clendlnnen, Bertram William, N.W.M.P.
Colbert, James Alfred, N.W.M.P.

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

859

mer Corps,
ig, Macleod.
, N.W.M.P.
liter, N.W.M.P.
na.
[W.M.P.

olunteers.

Calgary.

losomin.

I.W.M.P.

^att. C. Militia.

r, N.W.M.P.

I.P.
Macleod.

N.W.M.P.

i, N.W.M.P.

iple Creek.
,, N.W.M.P.
lam. Edmonton.
N.W.M.P.

|ia.

3, N.W.M.P.

y.M.P.

L N.W.M.P.

[.P.

te Albert.
Is. Edmonton.
VllHam. N.W.M.P.
, N.W.M.P.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Courtney, Thomas James Halifax.
Crawley, Alfred William, Pincher Creek.
Cudlip, Albert James, Pinctier Creek.
Cunningham, William Percy, N.W.M.P.
Clements, Harry Hammond, N.W.M.P.

Davies, Henry Bromley, Calgary.

Davies, Jefferson, Calgary.

Davy, George AUastair, Edmonton.

Davidson, Frank, N.W.M.P.

Des Barres, Hermann, N.W.M.P.

DeRossiter, Walter Wrixon, N.W.M.P.

Dewey, John, Calgary.

Dennis, Oliver George, Edmonton.

Dean, Albert, Regina.

Dill, Frank Brown, Moosomin. .

Dickson, Robert Thomas, Pincher Creek.

Dodd, Victor, Regina.

Donovan, Daniel, N.W.M.P.

Doolan, John Thomas, Edmonton.

Donnelly, John Austin, Pincher Creek.

Dore, Geoige Launchberry, Pincher Creek.

Dowler, Thomas, Macleod.

Drury, Percival Stratton, Maple Creek.

Duxbury, Thomas, Pincher Creek.

Durrant, William Francis, Macleod.

Durie, James Douglas, Calgary.

D'Easum, Basil Chichester, Edmonton.

Eaton, Robert Barry, Calgary.

Eddy, James Harden, Macleod.

Egan, Peter, N.W.M.P.

Elkington, Alfred Joseph, N.W.M.P.

Ellis, Percy, Regina.

Ermatlnger, Charles Percy, N.W.M.P.

Erwin, Milton, Macleod.

Esson, Charles, Macleod.

Ferguson, George, Edmonton.

Ferries, Charles Heury, Calgary.

Fisk, Charles Edward, Calgary.

Fisher, James, Calgary.

Fitzgerald, Francis Joseph, N.W.M.P.

Fletcher, James, Calgary,

Flynn, William Bernard, Maple Creek.

Foran, Charles Joseph, Macleod.

Forbes, Lestock Reid, Calgary.

Fortune, Andrew Park, N.W.M.P.

Foster, William Wallace, Maple Creek.

Fotheringham, David Hetherington.N. W.M.P.

French, Frederick, Spl. N.W.M.P.

French, John Poyntz, Spl. N.W.M.P.

Frost, Walter, Calgary.

Galwey, Richard Morris, Pincher Creek.
Geoghegan, John, N.W.M.P.
Giles, William A., Edmonton.
Gladwin, James Muir, N.W.M.P.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Glover, Frederick Stanley, Pincher Creek.
Goodfellow, George, Maple Creek.
Gordon, Geor.ge Frederick, N.W.M.P.
Goodman, Theodore, Regina.
Gould, Goodwin Norris, Pincher Creek.
Gow, Alexander Murray, Moosomin.
Gray, William, N.W.M.P.
Gray, John, Macleod.
Greenall, Frank, Calgary.
Green, Herbert Frank, Pincher Creek.
Green, Girshorn Wilson, Pincher Creek.
Green, Arthur Esmer Carteret, N.W.M.P.
Griesbach, William Autrobus, Edmonton.
Groat, Forbies, Edmonton.
Gunn, Henry Aitken, Pincher Creek.

Haddock, Alexander Gardener, N.W.M.P.
Hammond, William Henry, Regina.
Hanna, William Henry, Edmonton.
Harris, William James, St. Charles P. O.
Harley, Thomas, Calgary.
Hayne, Murray Henry Edward, N.W.M.P.
Head, Henry Arthur, N.W.M.P.
Healy, John May, N.W.M.P.
Hendren, George Grant, N.W.M.P.
Henry, William Alexander, Macleod.
Herchmer, Sherwood, Regina.
Hertzog, William, N.W.M.P.
Hewetson, John S., Pincher Creek.
Higinbotham. William Bruce, N.W.M.P.
Hilling, Thomas James, N.W.M.P.
Hilliam, Edward. N.W.M.P.
Hobbins, Samuel, Calgary.
Hodgkiss, Sidney Harry, Edmonton
Houlgate, Henry Laurie, Calgary.
Howden, Gordon Thompson, N.W.M.P.
Huckell, Benjamin Williams, Halifax.
Hughes, Thomas Price, N.W.M.P.
Hughes, Louis Campbell, Calgary.
Hughey, John, Regina.
Hutchinson, Charles Edward, Calgary.

Jackson, Frank Andrew, Edmonton.
Jamieson, Frederick Charles, Edmonton.
Jarvis, Arthur Byron, N.W.M.P.
Jeffery, Nichol, N.W.M.P.
Jenkins, Horace, Regina.
Johntion, Norman Spencer, Pincher Creek
Johnston, Douglas Farquhar, Pincher Creek.
Johnstone, Andrew, N.W.M.P.

Kelly, Percy Herbert, "A" Troop Manitoba

Dragoons.
Kerrigan, Michael, N.W.M.P.
Kerr, Graham, Moosomin.
Kerr, Robert John. Pincher Creek.
Klbby, Albert, Macleod.
King, Raymond Spencer, Edmonton.

8G0

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFiiICA

Rank, Name and former Corps.
King, George, Maple Creek.
King, John Edward, N.W.M.P.
Kirwan, Henry John, Calgary.
Knight, Reginald Spencer, N.W.M.P.
Krag, Carl, Regina

Lane, Harry Goldney, N.W.M.P.
Laroque, Joseph Arthur, N.W.M.P.
Lawe, Alexander Wrightson, Regina.
Laws, Burnett, Macleod.
Leach, Richard, N.W.M.P.
Leach, Frank Easton, Macleod.
Lee, Hugh, Calgary.
Leggat, Matthew, St. Charles, P. Q.
Lett, Henry, N.W.M.P.
Lett, Richard, N.W.M.P.
Lindsay, John, Edmonton
Lloyd, Benjauiln Harry, Calgary.
Long, John Franklin, Calgary.
Long, Arthur Tilney, Regina.
Long, James Patrick, Regina.

McArthur, John, Macleod.

McCallum, Archibald Duncan, Regina.

McCall, Wallace, Maple Creek.

McCallum, Louis, Calgary.

McCauley, Alexander James Henry, Edmon-
ton.

McClelland, William. N.W.M.P.

McCulloch, David, N.W.M.P.

McDougall, Duncan, N.W.M.P.

Macdougall, Harold Valdlmir, Macleod.

McGeachy, Thomas, Edmonton.

McKay, Charles Tossell, Calgary.

McKen, William, Regina.

Mackenna, Robert Joseph, N.W.M.P.

McKinly, Alexander, Edmonton.

McLaughlin, Stanley, N.W.M.P.

McLaughlin, Sidney, N.W.M.P.

McLaughlin, Percy James Scotland, Maple
Creek.

McLeod, William Baldwin, N.W.M.P.

McLeod, Robert William, N.W.M.P.

McMillan, Charles John, Regina.

MacNell, Alfred Chester, Prince Albert

McNeill, James, Calgary.

McNeil, Malcolm Reid, Moosomln.

McNicol, John, Regina.

McNicol, Peter Hector, Regina.

Maloney, Joseph Daniel, Edmonton.

Manson, James Reid, N.W.M.P.

Marchand, Charles Hilliard, Edmonton.

Marshall, Edward, Calgary.

Martin, Harry James, N.W.M.P.

Mead, Clement Gawler, Pincher Creek.

Miller, Hugh, Regina.

Miles, Thomas Routledge, Pincher Creek.

[Miles, Henry Vere Webb, Pincher Creek.

Rank. Name and former Corps.
Millie, Samuel Bouchier, N.W.M.P.
Moloney, Albert Charles, Edmonton
Mongeon, Joseph, Pincher Creek.
Mooney, John, Prince Albert.
Morden, James Frederick, Pincher Creek.
Morrison, Alfred Samuel, Col. Srgt. 90th

Batt. Winnipeg.
Morrison, Donald, Regina.
More, Peter James, N.W.M.P.
Mullen, William James, Edmonton.

Napier, William Hugh, N.W.M.P.
Near, Benjamin, Regina.
Nettleton, Thorn, Moosomln.
Nevile, Herbert Sandford, Moosomln.
Northway, Richard John, Calgary.
Nunneley, Edward, Edmonton.
O'Grady, Samuel Cecil Harvey, N.W.M.P.
O'Kelly, Andrew Nolan, N.W.M.P.
O'Kelly, Gerald Michael, N.W.M.P.
Oliver. Walter Reginald, N.W.M.P.
Olsen, James Adams.
Ouimet, Telesphore Oscar, N.W.M.P.

Paling, Ernest John, Calgary.
Parker, Frank Edward, Regina.
Patterson, Francis David, Calgary.
Paterson, .Tohn Alexander, Macleod.
Patteson, Thomas Edward, Macleod.
Peebles, Herbert Walter, Edmonton.
Perry, Frank, N.W.M.P.
Peters, Christopher Richard, N.W.M.P.
Petersen, Charles Frank, Regina.
Pierson, Alan, Edmonton.
Piper, Somerton F., Regina.
Piper, William Warren, N.W.M.P.
Pointon, Francis. N.W.M.P. Sp. Con.
Pope. Harold Williams, N.W.M.P.
Porter, William Tom, Calgary.
Pratt, Frank Edward, Regina.

Quinn, David George, N.W.M.P.

Ramsay, Thomas Morton, Pincher Creek.
Randall, Reginald Chadd Sylvester, Regina,
Raper, Arthur Clements, Pincher Creek.
Reeve, George Hepworth, N.W.M.P.
Redpath, John Reginald. Pincher Creek,
Relchert, Edward, N.W.M.P,
Reid, William Archibald. Edmonton.
Ritchie, James. N.W.M.P.
Robertson. Alistalr Irvine. Macleod.
Robertson, John, N.W.M.P.
Robinson, Charles Wilson, Regina.
Rochfort. Cowper Fred Wallarton, Regina.
Rodgers, Edmund Harper, Calgary.
Ross, Arthur. N.W.M.P.
Ross, Grant Allan, Regina.

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

861

mer Corps.

•, N.W.M.P.

s, Edmonton

aer Creek.

Ibert.

ck, Pincher Creek.

uel. Col. Srgt. 90th

na.

V.M.P.

, Edmonton.

N.W.M.P.
a.

lomin.

)rd, Moosomin.
hn, Calgary,
monton.

Harvey, N.W.M.P.
a, N.W.M.P.
el, N.W.M.P.
Id, N.W.M.P.

scar, N.W.M.P.

:algary.

i, Regina.

Lvid, Calgary.

ider, Macleod.

Bvard, Macleod.

ter, Edmonton.

Ichard, N.W.M.P.

nk, Regina.

ton.

egina.
N.W.M.P.

M.P. Sp. Con.
N.W.M.P.

Calgary.

Regina.

N.W.M.P.

ton, pincher Creek.

idd Sylvester, Regina.

its, Pincher Creek.

)rth, N.W.M.P.

lid. Pincher Creek,

A^.M.P.

aid, Edmonton.

P.
vine, Macleod.

M.P.
ilson, Regina.
d Wallarton, Regina.
rper, Calgary.
P.
glna.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Rubbra, Frank Horace, N.W.M.P.
Rubbra, Theodore Charles, Macleod.
Ruck, Lawrence, Macleod.
Russell, John, Edmonton.
Ruth, Frederick Cuthbert, N.W.M.P.

Salmon, George Francis, Moosomin.

Sargent, John Beresford, Regina.

Schell, Joseph John, Edmonton.

Scott, Thomas, Macleod.

Sexton, Frank, N.W.M.P.

Shobbrook, Heber, Moosomin.

Sharp, Lance, Edmonton.

Sharps, Stanley Lancelot, Moosomin.

Shai pe, George Grinley, Regina.

Sheppard, Walter Festing, N.W.M.P.

Sheppard, Reginald Harry, Regina.

Shunn, Abner, N.W.M.P.

Simms, John, Calgary.

Stewart, John Foster, Macleod.

Skeet, Ronald George Stewart, N.W.M.P.

Skinner, William Paxton, Pincher Creek.

Slack, Charles John, Calgary.

Smart, James, Maple Creek.

Smith, Reuben, Prince Albert.

Smith, Henry Daniel, F^dmonton.

Smith, James Alpin, N.W.M.P.

Smith, Gavin Graham, Regina.

Smith, Ovide, Pincher Creek.

Smith, William Cunningham, Regina.

Soper, Frederick Percy Watson, N.W.M.P.

Soube, Angus, Pincher Creek.

Spreadbury, Alfred, N.W.M.P.

Sprott, William, Edmonton.

Stayner, Richard Winslow, N.w.I«I.P.

Stephens, Reginald Herbert, Regina.

Stevens, Robert Carolus Hunt, N.W.M.P.

Storey, Arthur, N.W.M.P.

Strong, Harold, N.W.M.P.

Talbot, Milton Smith, Regina.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Taylor, Frank Joseph, Edmonton.
Taylor, Sydney, Calgary.
Taylor, John Edward, Macleod.
Taylor, Joseph Robert, N.W.M.P.
Thackwell, Edward Hlllyar, Calgary.
Threadkell, Frank, N.W.M.P.
Thevenet, Marcel Raoul, N.W.M.P.
Tracey, Augustus Warren, N.W.M.P.
Travers, Oliver, Edmonton.
Tryon, Charles Robert, Regina.
Tucker, Henry Walter, Pincher Creek.

Uniacke, Andrew Gore, Calgary.

Vernon, Walter Granville Harcourt,N.W.M.P.
Vlllebrum, Peter, Regina.

Walte, A. Stanley, N.W.M.P.
Waldy, Edward Fielding, Calgary.
Waller, Pitt, N.W.M.P.
Walsh, Robert George, Regina.
Walters, Paul, N.W.M.P.
Walton, Joseph, Prince Albert.
Warene, Harry Thomas, N.W.M.P.
Weatherald, Charles Edward, Moosomin.
Weaver, Oswald James, Regina.
Weir, Robert Henry, N.W.M.P.
Westhead, Charles George, Edmonton.
Wetzell, Olaf, N.W.M.P.
Whittaker, John, N.W.M.P.
Wildman, George Edward, N.W.M.P.
Wllkle, William, Edmonton.
Wilson, Maurice Studdert, Macleod.
Wilson, Thomas Goodrick, Pincher Creek.
Wilson, George Peter, N.W.M.P.
Willson, Justus Duncan, Regina.
Winfleld, Harry, Calgary.
Wood, William, Edmonton.
Wood, Percy Amble, Macleod.
Woollcombe, John, Edmonton.

"A" SQUADRON.

No.
51

Rank, Name and former Corps. No.

S.S.M., Wldgery, J., "A," Royal Can. Dra- 87

goons. 83

S.Q.M.S., Hunt B., "B," Royal Can. Dra- 151

goons. 153

Sgt., Rhoades, W., "A," Royal Can. Dra- 202

goons. 203

" Fuller, H. F., "A," Royal Can. Dra- 76

goons. 25

" Hudson, G., "A," Royal Can. Dra- 11

goons. 172

S. Farr., Harraden, 0. P., "A," Royal 154

Can. Dragoons. 63

Sgt., Smith, W. T., "A," Royal Can. Dra- 'J.'{

goons. 17

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Sgt, Till, L. A., "A," Royal Can. Dgns.
" Steer, E. A., "A," Royal Can. Dgns.
" Purdon, E. L., 7th Hussars.
" Terrill, W. H., 3rd P.W.C.D.
CorpI , O'Connell, M., R. C. R.

" McDonald, A. A., 1st Hussars.

Latremouille, S., "A," R. C. D.
" Bennett, J., 2nd Dragoons.
" Cartwright, J. W., 2n(l Dragoons.
" Price, P. R., 3rd P.W.C.D.
" Wllloughby, A. G., 3rd P.W.C.D.
Callahan, M. J., "A." R.(M).
Corp. S. S., Lovngrovo, A. J., G.G.n.G,
Pte., Agausiz, R. U. G., 2ud Dragoons.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

223

101

102

209

145

161

104

164

103

105

106

160

186

228

372

108

222

183

110

216

226

157

111

158

182

112

165

214

217

207

184

173

Rank, Name and former Corps.

Pte., Allen, B. B., Windsor, Ont. 114

Allum, D., 2nd Dragoons. 166

Anderson, C. E., "A," R.C.D. 169

Anderson, C. H., 9th Field Batt. 115

Anderson, W. L., Ayr, Out. 116

Anderson, W. J., 13th Battn. 118

Ardiel, B., 1st Hussars. 19

Baldwin, E., 2nd Dragoons. 381

Bates, E., "A," R.C.D. 142

Baxter, J., G.G.B.G. 15

Beaton, A., No. 2 Co., R.C.R.I. 156

Beers, L. M.. Queen's O. Rifles. 163

Bishop, W. G., Montreal. 70

Bragg, W. Q., "A," R.C.D. 71

Brown, A. W., "A," R.C.D. 72

Brown, F., G.G.B.G. 176

Brown, J. B., 3rd Dragoons. 229

Bouchard, A., Quebec. 177

Bowman, N., 38th Bn. 406

Builder, V. D., 38th Bn. 73

Burnett, S., G.G.B.G. 14

Burritt, J. W., Toronto. 74

Butler, A., 1st. P.W.R.F. 220

Butterfleld, W. J., "A," R.C.D. 23

Campbell, G., 22nd Bn. 24

Campbell, J. E., Orangeville. 120

Cameron, H. P., 3 P.W.C.D. 170

Chambers, E., 10th Battn. 28

Clark, J., "A," R.C.D. 75
Clendenning, G. M., 2nd Dragoons. 185

Cline, S., 25th Battn. 178

Collins, G. H. A., P.L.D.G. 208

Cook, C, "A," R.C.D. 42

Cooper, C, "A," R.C.D. 218

Cordiugly, W. E., G.G.B.G. 77

Crowe, D. J., 27th Bn. 122

DeLisle, C. D., 48th Bn. 143
De Rochejocquel&in, A., Cleveland. 125

Dougall, W., D.Y.R.C. Hus. 47

Daoust, D., G.G.B.G. 80

Duguid. J. F., 48th Bn. 181

Dunsmore, R. J., "A," R.C.D. 126

Eagleson, B., "A," R.C.D. 31

Elliott, W. v., D.Y.R.C. Hus. 81

England, G., 2nd Dragoons. 127

Evans, W. L., P.L.D.G. 128

Farrell, J., G.G.B.G. 204
Pilson, E. A., Amhorst Islands, Ont. 152

Fitzgerald, E., "A," R.C.D. 211

Flemming, G. E., 3rd Dragoons. 85

Forbes, G. A., 1st Hussars. 30

Eraser, J. E., 26th Battn. 227

Gifford, T. A., 34th Bn. 46

Glover, W. M., Ist Hussars. 78

Gold, W. S., Scotland. 13

Graham, 0. C, P.L.D.G. 123

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Pte., Gurnette, E. Q. C. Rifles.

" Hall, A. J., 57th Batt.

" Hampton, W. J., 3rd Dragoons.

" Harbottle, F., Toronto.

" Harman, J. W., Toronto.

" Hartmari, F., 12th Batt.

" Harper, J. S., 41st Batt.

" Hagen, J., 10th Batt.

" Henry, A., Toronto.

" Heron, J. B., 9th Ed. Batt.

" Hiam, H., D.Y.R.C. Huss.

" Hillyard, A. E., 3rd Dragoons.

" Hibbett, J., "A," R.C.D.

" Hodgson, W., "A," R.C.D.

" Hopkins, J. A., "A," R.C.D.

" Holland, E. J., P.L.D.G.

" Horner, H., R.C.R.I.

" Hull, M. A., P.L.D.G.

" Hubbard, J., 30th Batt.
Tpr., Hughes, N., "A," R.C.D.
Pte., Hullett, A., 2nd Dragoons.

" Inglis, A. G., "A," R.C.D.

" James, M., 7th Batt.

" Jefferson, J., 2nd Dragoons.

" Jenkins, V., Scotland.

" Johnson, I., G.G.B.G.

" Johnston, R. G., 3rd Dragoons.

" Jordan, J., Q.O.R.

" Keohler, C. H., "A," R.C.D.

" Kinsley, W. A., 37th Batt.

" Laudels, A. F., P.L.D.G.

" Loosemore, A. J., Q.O.R.

" Loosemore, H. H., Toronto.

" Lougheed, D., 1st Hussars.

" Low, J. W., "A," R.C.D.

" Lyon, H. H., G.G.B.G.

" McCarthy, P., G.G.B.G.

" McCulla, J. W., N.W.M.P.

" McCusker, F., 2nd Dragoons.

" McGahey, J. W., 'A," R.C.D.

" McGee, C. E., P.L.D.G.

" Mcllroy, F., Toronto.

" Mcintosh, 41st Batt.

" Mclver, M., "A." R.C.D.

" McKibbin, D. M., G.G.B.G.

" McRae, G. A., Toronto.

" Marsh, C. S., 1st Hussars.

" Marshall, H. W., N.W.M.P.

" Maycock, W. R., 1st Hussars.

" Mayne, Jos., "B," R.C.D.

" Metcalfe, F., Kingston.

" Miles, F., R.C.R.I.

" Mlddleton, J., Toronto.

" Mitchell, W., "A," R.C.D.

" Moluskey, W. E., 2nd Dragoons.

" Morrison, W. J., 12th Batt.

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

SOS

124
175

79
205

43
130
180
219
131
172
151

189
188
174
136
225

138

159

107

212

179

187

135

Rank, Name and former Corps.

Pte., Morrison, W. T., G.G.B.G. 109

Mulloy, L. W. R., P.L.D.G. 133

Muir, W. B., "A," R.C.D. 134

Munroe, J. H., R.C.R.I. 35

O'Brien, J. J., G.G.B.G. 244

Palmer, G. D., 2nd Dragoons. 155

Pearce, W., "A," R.C.D. 12

Pelton, R. J., P.L.D.G. 153

Peck, F. C. 88

Potts, J., (Civ.) 162

Price, P. R., 3rd Dragoons. 201

Purdon, E. L., D.Y.R. C. Hus. 213

Ratcliffe, A., 2nd Dragoons. 137

Reynolds, R. H., 1st Hussars. 171

Richardson, A. M., "A," R.C.D. 41

Robinson, R. R., Toronto. 20

Robinson, R. S., Toronto. 89

Roche, H. E., G.G.F.G. 90

Ross, A., 14th Battalion. 144

Richardson, G., R.C.R.I. 91

Richardson, J., 1st Hussars. 32

See, D.. 9th Fd. Battery. 167

Scott, C. D., D.Y.R.C. Hus. 139

Semple, W. C, 16th Fd. Battery. 210

Shaw, C. E., R.C.R.I. 206

Shipp. T. P., "A." R.C.D. l'^4

Slater, N. J.. P.L.D.G. 92

Smart, D., P.L.D.G. 140

Sparks, J., Hamilton, Ont. 221

Spence, D. M., 57th Battalion. 141
Spicer, R. W. E., Toronto.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Pte., Spink, W. B., Q. O. Rifles.

" Smith, G., G.G.B.G.

" Smith, H.

" Stewart, M. E.

" Stonor, A. F.

" Sully, W. P., D.Y.R.C. Hus.

" Taylor, H. ,T., 2nd Dragoons.

" Terrill, W. H., 3rd Dragoons.

" Thornton, F., "A," R.C.D.

" Thompson, E.

" Tilley, W., 1st Hussars.

" Tripp, E. H., 1st Hussars.

" Townley, W. J., G.G.B.G.

" Trusler, A., 57th Battalion.

" Turner, A. W., 3rd Dragoons.

" Van Every, C. P., 2nd Dragoons.

" Vine, J., "A," R.C.D.

■ Vizard, A. H., "A," R.C.D.

" Walker, J. H., G.G.B.G.

" Wa.idley, E., "A," R.C.D.

" Warren, D. J., G.G.B.G.

" Wasson, P., 3rd. F.W.R.F.

" Wheatley, W. J., G.G.B.G.

" Wigle, M. S., Ist Hussars.

" Wigle, L., Ist Hussars.

•• Willoughby, A. G., 3rd P.W.C.D.

" Winyard. W., "A," R.C.D.

" Wyatt. P., "A," R.C.D.

" Wright, W., 1st Hussars.

" Young, D. D., G.G.B.G.

'B" SQUADRON.

251
3

252
253
254
351
352
410
434
307
323
255
259
329
301
354
353
432
416
206
256

Rank, Name and former Corps.
S.S.M., McMilan, Alex., "B." R.C.D.

S.Q.M.S., Sparks, J. R., "B," R.C.D.

Sergt, Dyer, W. A., "B," R.C.D.

" McLeod, W., "B," R.C.D.

" Allison, H., "B," R.C.D.

" Bisset, W., Q.O.C. Hussars.

" Hayward, G. F., 3rd Dragoons.
' Ryan, R. H., Reserve of officers.

" Arnold, R. H., 8th Hussars.

" Bradner, Jos., Brandon Inf. Cy.
Sgt. Farr., Spencer, Jas., Manitoba Dgns.
Corpl. Square, Harold, "B," R.C.D.

" Whitlow, F„ "B," R.C.D.

" Harriot, J., Manitoba Dragoons.

" Carter, A., Manitoba Dragoons.

" Holliday, W. J., Q.O.C. Hussars.

" Pope, H. B., Q.O.C. Hussars.

" Parks, .1. H., 8th Hussars.

" Markham, R. J., 8th Hussars.

" Wiloughby, A. G., 3rd P.W.C.D.

" S. S., Warrian, J. B., Winnipeg, Man.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Pte. Allen, Cecil Crowder, "B," R.C.D.

" Arnold, Archibald F., Yorkton,
N.W.T.

" Armstrong, B. R., 3rd Regt., C.A.

" Ault, Alfred Ernest, Aultsville, Ont.

" Baker, Sydney Chas., "B," R.C.D.

" Barton, Percy.

" Beckwith, B. M., Halifax, N. S.

" Bell, W. H., 8th Hussars.

" Belamy, Geo. A., Man. Dragoons.

■■ Bettle, F., 62nd Battalion.

" Berg, Frederick.

" Bing, Andrew Blyth, Medical Col-
lege, Winnipeg, Man.

" Boulton, D'Arcy Everard, Russell,
Man.

" Brand. Wm. Elliott, Rat Portage,
Ont.

" Brown, John J., Man. Dragoons.

" Carter, Gerald St. Leger, Man.
Dragoons.

" Church, J., Toronto, Ont.

864

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Pte., Clarkson, Jos. Stone, Brandon In-
fantry Company.
" Cope, Edgar Cuthbert, Man. Drag.
" Cummings. Hugo M., Q.O.C.H.
" Currie, Claud Vernon, Winnipeg,

Man.
" Dease, J. W., Halifax.
" Danby, Ed. Sherman, Winnipeg,

Man.
" Dawson, William, "B," R.C.D.
" de Balinghard, J. C, Yorkton,

N.W.T.
" Dill, C. E., Toronto.
" Dlx, Macnamara Henry, Winnipeg,

Man.
" Dixon, Jas. Albert, 86th Battalion.
" Douglas, Henry Sholto, Winnipeg,

Man.
" Doyle, P. L., 74th Battalion.
" Drought, Thomas, Morris, Man.
" Drummond, Leopold, "B," R.C.D.
" Elmhurst, Fred Jas., "B," R.C.D.
" Findley, John, "B," R.C.D.
" Fraser, James Ross, D.Y.R.C. Hus.
" Fowler, James, 5th Dragoons.
" George, John Martin, "B," R.C.D.
" Gray. Arthur Wellington, "B,"

R.C.D.
" Hagen, T., Toronto.
" Harvey, John Jas., Man. Dragoons.
" Hawkins, J. F., 71st Battn.
" Hayden, Daniel, "B," R.C.D.
" Head, Wilfrid Robt., "B," R.C.D.
" Hawkins, Wm. Jas., Man. Dragoons.
" Hilder, Albert Ed, Man. Dragoons.
" Hobbs, B., "B," R.C.D.
" Hood, Alex. Young, Winnipeg, Man.
" Hoy, Chas. Norman, D.Y.R.C. Hus.
" Hubbard, Fred W., Canning, N. S.
" Hyry, Peter, "B," R.C.D.
" Irvine, Jo. Hume., Manitoba Drag.
" Jay, Wm. James, 5th Dragoons.
" Kaven, John, Winnipeg, Man.
" Kelller, James, Manitoba Dragoons.
" Kelly, W. D., Toronto.
" Key, Walter, Winnipeg, Man.
" Klngley, Alex. R.
" Lawson, F. W., 8th Hussars.
" Leavltt, A., 62nd Battalion.
" Linden, Thos. E., "B," R.C.D.
" Little, Andrew, "B," R.C.D.
" Lobbin, John M., Montreal, Que.
" Lockhart, J. H., 74th Battalion.
" Lord, John Wm., "B," R.C.D.
" Maoafee, Thos. R., "B," R.C.D.
" MacCafferty, John J.. Kentville, N.S.
" Mackay, John D., "B," R.C.D.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Pte., Mackintosh, A. C, Brandon Inf. Co.
McMillan, L. C, 93rd Battalion.
McCuUey, J. R., 8th Hussars.
Mcintosh, A. L., 62nd Battalion.
Mclntyre, R., 62nd Battalion.
McClintock, Guy, "B," R.C.D.
McGregor, Sam J., Brandon In . Co.
McKelvey, Albert, Manitoba Trag.
Merchant, E., Lewisham, Keat.
Mallory, A. P., 62nd Batt.
Marriott, Thos. H., Man. Dragoons.
Marshall, Herbert N., D.Y.R.C. Hus.
Massle, J. O., Sweetsburg.
Metzler, H., 74th Batt.
Miller, L. R., Lawrencetown, N. S.
Moody, D. H., Toronto.
Morrison, D. A., 8th Hussars.
Morrison, F. T., 8th Hussars.
Moorehouse, A. H., 74th Batt.
Mortimore, E. A.

Newton, C. R. R., D.Y.R.C. Hussars.
Nllant, J., 62nd Batt.
Othern, Chas. R., Bran. Infty. Co.
Owen, Clarence C., 5th Dragoons.
Palmer. Henry, "B," R.C.D.
Pawsey, Alfred J., Gore, N. S.
Pickworth, A., Toronto.
Ramsey, David Law, "B," R.C.D.
Rae, John Graham, 6th Hussars.
Rea, Louis Aytoun, Winnipeg, Man.
Reid, W. J., Holland Landing.
Reid, George, Toronto.
Ridley, Thomas, "B," R.C.D.
Roberta, Arthur H., Man. Dragoons.
Roberts, Percy C. F., D.Y.R.C. Hubs.
Robinson, Geo. M.
Rodger, Wm. D., "B," R.C.D.
Rose, Edward Percy, Medical Col-
lege, Winnipeg.
Russell, Richard, 5th Dragoons.
Ryan, J. T., 8th Hussars.
Ryan, Bertram, Man. Dragoons.
Ryan, W. Cuthbert, Man. Dragoons.
Ryerson, C. E., Toronto.
Sanford, E. A., Canning, N. S.
Shea, Isaac.
Simpson, John.

Sinclair, James, Yorkton, N.W.T.
Snyder, Wm. H., Berwick, N. S.
Stevenson, H. T., 8th Hussars.
Stevens, C, "A," R.C.D.
Sturritt, J. S., Halifax.
Thompson, John, "B," R.C.D.
Thompson, S. H., Winnipeg, Man.
Thompson, T. A., Oxford. N. S.
Treadhill, James, Man. Dragoons.
Todt, Theodore F., 5th Dragoons.

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

865

Pte

I," R.C.D.
•cy, Medical Col-

Rank. *.ame and former Corps.
, T'irner, Albert, "B." R.C.D.
Tylor, Montague H., "B," R.C.D.
Venning, W. E., 62nd Batt.
Wallace, P. W., Man. Dragoons.
Ward, William H., Brandon In. Co.
White, J. N., Toronto.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
jPte, White, Henry B., Waterville, N. S,
I " Wilkinson, Thos., Man. Dragoons.
I " Wood, John T., Man. Dragoons.
I " Woods, Robert A., "B," R.C.D.
I " Wurtele, G. E., Q.O.C. Hussara.

Brigade Division, Royal Canadian Artillery
"c" field battery.

|B. Sgt. MaJ., Gimblett, W. H., R.C.A.
Q.M.S., Bramah, W., R.C.A.
Sgt., McCully, A., R.C.A.

" Shipton, W. J., R.C.A.

" Graham, R. W., R.C.A.

" Slater, S., R.C.A.

" Kiely, W., 13th Fd. Battery.
Far. Sgt., Harper, S.
Corp., Wherry, M. E., R.C.A.

" Gray, E., R.C.A.

" Hilton, A., R.C.A.

" Aldcroft, G., R.C.A.

" Higginson, J., 4th Fd. Battery.
Bomb., Barnard, W., 4th Fd. Battery.

" Boyle, R., 7th Fd. Battery.

" Hope, R. S., 20th Battalion.

" Tennant, W. H., 13th Fd. Battery.

" Marling, B., 7th Fd. Battery.

" Williams, O. V., R.C.A.
Trptr., Robert, E., R.C.A.
Allan, Wm., 77th Battalion.
Anderson, A., 13th Fd. Battery.
Andress, B.

Andrews, Wm., 4th Fd. Battery.
Armstrong, A.
Baird, S. A.

Barker, H. A., 13th Battalion.
Bell, P., 4th Fd. Battery.
Bell, Wm., 4th Fd. Battery.
Bellamy, R. E.
Benson, W., R.C.A.
Birch, C. E.

Black, J., St. Catharines.
Blackeley, P., 4th Fd. Battery.
Blackeby, A. E.
Bond, J. C, Toronto.
Bradford, A., 4th Fd. Battery.
Burton, W.

Chandler, G., 9th Fd. Battery.
Clarkson, L., 9th Fd. Battery.
Cobb, R., 13th Fd. Battery.
Coffey. G.

Cosby, N. W., 48thh Highlanders.
Davenport. J.

Derwent, F. C. >

Derwent, W. R.
Eastwood, W.

Evans, H. C, Toronto.

Eby, — F.

I-\iIler, C. B., Q. O. Rifles.

Gare, E. C St. Catharines.

Garry, James, 4th Fd. Battery.

Glenn. M.

Goodbrand, A., 77th Battalion.

Genge, R.

George, Wesley, 13th Fd. Battery.

Gillen, J. W.

Gilespie, W.

Gordon, Hugh, 13th Fd. Battery.

Gowdie, B.

Gray, J. W.

Grant, J. A.

Green, J. F., St. Catharines.

Greenfield, J. K., 16th Fd. Battery.

Guest, J. W.

Haraill, Wm., 13th Battalion.

Hamilton, — .

Hammond, D. B., 31st Battalion.

Hanson, C.

Harrison, E.

Higginson, Jos.,

Holbrook, Geo.

Holmes, W.

Hopson, E. H., 9th Fd. Battery.

Hopklnson, Wm., 4th Field Battery.

Howe, G.

Hudson, E. A. P., 4th Fd. Battery.

Hudson. H. J.. 13th Fd. Battery.

Hughes, Charles, 13th Fd. Battery.

Hugl.os. E.

Irving, C. H., Toronto.

Irwin. J. F., 7th Fd. Battery.

Isbister, M. L., 13th Fd. Battery.

Jackson, W., 9th Fd. Battery.

Johns, J. C. M., Burlington, Ont.

Johnson. A. S., 9th Fd. Battery.

Johnson, E.

Kenny. E. L.

Laird, G. A .

Laidlaw, W. C.

LaValle, James, 13th Fd. Batt.

Letten, James, 13th Bn.

Loosemore, R., 7th Fd. Batt.

Maulthouse, H.

4th Fd. Battery.

866

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Rank, Name and former Corps.
McCalla, G. B„ 16th Fd. batt.
McCamis, H., 13th Bn.
McCullough, J. A., 4th Fd. Batt.
McCoUum, W., Royal Artillery.
McCoy, A. L., 42nd Bn.
McDonald, W. B., 4th Fd. Batt
McDonlad, A.

Macdonald, W. J., 9th Fd. Batt.
Macdonald, F. C, 9th Fd Batt.
McEachern, C. E., Q. O. Rifles.
McGregor, D. J., 14th Fd. Batt
Mclntyre, W.

McKnight, W. I.. 7th Fd. Batt.
McKenzie, K., 13th Fd. Batt
McLean, James, 4th Fd. Batt
McNabb, J. A., 13th Bn.
McQuarrie, A., 13th Fd. Batt
Marling, T. W. B., 7th Fd. Batt
Marsden, ii., 7th Fd. Batt.
Marshal, G.

Martin, Jas., St. Catharines.
Martin, T.

Mathias, C, 13th Fd. Batt
Miller, J. W.

Moore, A., St. Catharines.
Moffat, J. N.
Munsie, H. S.
Murray, H»

Newdrclt, N., Stouffville.
Newnham, T. F.
Newton, S., 7th Fd. Batt.
Norwebb, S. H. S.
O'Neill, R.

O'Reilly, J. A., 77th Batt.
Paget, O. B.

Patton, Wm., 4th Fd. Batt.
Peasnell, A., 13th Fd. Batt.
Porteous, Wm., Hamilton.
Powell, G., Q. O. Rifles.
Price, J. R.
Raynor, H., Toronto.
Richardson, J. R., 10th Battalion.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Robertson, W. J., 4th Fd. Battery.
Robertson, W. A., 37th Battalion.
Robinson, A.
Robinson, G. F.
Ryder, B.

Schell, Geo., 9th Fd. Battery.
Seward, F. W., 13th Fd. Battery.
Shaw, John, Toronto.
Shaw, E.

Shaw, E., 13th Fd. Battery.
Shedd, F.
Smith, T.
Smith, W. J.
Su'ythe, G.

Speck, F., 7th Fd. Battery.
Stallwood, R. J., 13th Fd. Battery.
Straley, Wm., 9th Fd. Battery.
Stringer, H. L., 4th Fd. Battery.
Stolteb, J. T., St. Catharines.
Sweeney, G. R., Toronto.
Sweet, C. E.

Tennent W. H., 13th Fd. Battery.
Thompson, C. W.
Tibbs, J. W., 9th Fd. Battery.
Tranter, Wm. D., 13th Fd. Battery.
Trotman, D.

TurnbuU, John, 13th Fd. Battery.
Tupper, R. R.

Turney, Albert B., 13th Fd. Battery.
Turner, T.

Tyner, B. L., 9th Fd. Battery.
Vanorman, G., 4th Fd. Battery.
Walker, J. A.

Wallls, G. T., 12th Battalion.
Watson, L.

Williams, S. T., Toronto.
Williamson, W. J. S., Burlington, Ont
Williams, A., 13th Fd. Battery.
Wilson, R.
Wilson, H.

Winger, J. C, 7th Fd. Battery.
Wood, A. H., 9th Fd. Battery.

'D" FIELD BATTERY.

Sgt. Maj., Mclntyre, W., "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.
Q. M. S.. Slade, J., "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.
Sgt., Henderson. G., "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.

" Somers, L., "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.

" Lett, K., 11th Fd. Battery.

" Barnhill, J., eth Fd. Battery.

" Stinson, W. J., "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.

" Wood, B. S., 6th Fd. Battery.
Corp., Kenealy, jr., "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.

" Berube, J. F. X.. "A" Fd. B.R.C.A.

" Curzon, J., 2nd Fd. Battery.

" Ross. M. H., 16th Fd Battery.

" Colter, C. F., 6th Fd. Battery.

Bomb., Smith, W., 2nd Fd. Battery.

" Wager, F. B., "A"Fd.B.R.C.A.

" Brown, G., "A"Fd.B.R.C.A.

" BSaven, L. B., 2nd Fd. Battery.

" Mattries, B. B., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Tptr. Barker, W., 2nd Fd Battery.
Abbs, F., 11th Fd. Battery.
Alexander, H., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Anderson, J. C, 6th Fd. Battery.
Ballantine, J., 20th Battalion.
Bancroft, G. R., 16th Fd. Battery.
Barber, S. W., 30th Battalion.
Bargette, T. E., 11th Fd. Battery.

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

867

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Barrett, G. A., 6th Fd. Battery.
Bapty, W., 11th Fd. Battery.
Belford, J. A., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Beaven, N. W., Ottawa.
Bennett, T. P., G.G.F.G,
Bolton, D., 16th Fd. Battery.
Bott, E. S., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Boyle, R., 14th Fd. Batery.
Bradley, R., Ottawa.
Bradley, S. W.

Bramah, E. J., "A" Fd. B. R. C. A.
Bramah, T., "A" Fd. B. R. C. A.
Brown, J. A., 6th Fd. Battery.
Burnhara, H. L., 14th Fd. Battery.
Cameron, H. H., G.G.F.G.
Campbell, J. A., 30th Battalion.
Cornett, H. C, 16th Fd. Battery.
Cartledge, W. R., 11th Fd. Battery.
Cause, H., 6th Fd. Battery.
Chisholm, D., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Clarke, A. R., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Crowe, A. R., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Coogan, R. J., 6th Fd. Battery.
Cormack, Jas., 16th Fd. Battery.
Daley, M. J., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Davey, W. H. G., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Davey, F.

Davidson, T. C, 2nd Fd. Battery.
Darlington, G. W., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Decasse, G., "A" Fd. B. R. C. A.
Denmark, J. C, 2nd Fd. Battery.
Denges, H. D., 11th Fd. Battery.
Dickson, W., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Donaghy, J. A., 6th Fd. Battery.
Elliott, L., 20th Battalion.
Evatt, E.

Farquharson, G. H., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Fennell, C. W., 16th Fd. Battery.
Flannigan, A., 16th Fd. Battery.
Forrest, H., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Gamble, R. B.

Garnett, C. G., 6th Fd. Battery.
Gavan, W., 29th Battalion.
Gervan, J. E.
Gillespie, J.

Glenn, Wm., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Glenister, J., 16th Fd. Battery.
Gokey, F. W., 11th Fd. Battery.
Gould, W. J., 20th Battalion.
Graham, G., Brighton, England.
Greene, E. W., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Griffin, T. M.

Hall, V. A., 46th Battalion.
Hare, W. A.
Hare, W. R.
Henry, B.
Hii'ch, J. E., "A" Fd. B. R. C. A.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Hodson, G. G., 6th Fd. Battery.
Hopkins, W., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Howard, G. V. W.
Howe, Henry, 11th Fd. Battery.
Hume, A. H., 6th Fd. Battery.
Hutchinson, E., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Igglesden, E., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Irish, V. A., Cobourg Gar. Art.
Jackson, J., 11th Fd. Battery.
James, G. W., 11th Fd. Battery.
Keeler, H., 14th Fd. Battery.
Kerr, I.

Kerr, P. A., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Kidd, C, 16th Fd. Battery.
King, C, 30th Battalion.
Kitcheman, H., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Lafloor, S., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Lamkin, W. L., "B" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Lane, B., 2nd Fd. B. R.C.A.
Lawes, G., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Leach, W. D., 46th Battalion.
Lee, P. B., 11th Fd. Battery.
Lefroy, C. J. A., 6th Fd. Battery.
LeRoy, Lewis C, "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Lyon, A., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Macdonald, D. A., 56th Battalion.
McDonald, J. C, 28th Battalion.
McCuaig, A. P., P.L.D.G.
McGibbon, D., 11th Fd. Battery.
McKenzie, H., 16th Fd. Battery.
Mason, F. W., 11th Fd. Battery.
Miller, A., 11 th Fd. Battery.
Mills, C. E., 6th Fd. Battery.
Mintram, A. M., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Moffat, J. N.

Mole, C. E., 16th Fd. Battery.
Moore, W. J., 20th Battalion.
Nicholson, H., 2nd Fd. Battery.
O'Connor, T. P., 11th Fd. Batt.
Ough, C. R., 14th Fd. Battery.
Outram, F. H., 46th Battalion.
Pape, J. J., "A" Fd. B. R.C.A.
Parker, G., 16th Fd. Battery.
Partridge, W. R., 11th Fd. Battery.
Philp, J., 11th Fd. Battery.
Picot, G., Channel Islands Fd. Battery.
Pryke, — 4th Fd. Battery.
Quinney, J., 43d Battalion.
Quirenbach, H., 11th Fd. Battery.
Randell, J. W. 6th Fd. Battery.
Ray, J., 6th Fl. Battery.
Read, H., 46th Battalion.
Richmond, A. S., 16th Fd. Battery.
Robinson, A.

Russell, D. H. N., 16th Fd. Battery.
Russell, J. M., 16th Fd. Battery.
Sandercock, J.

868

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Sargent, A., "A" Fd. Battery, R.C.A.
Scollie, P. L., 14th Fd. Battery.
Shepherd, G. K., 16th Fd. Battery.
Shore, E. R., 6th Fd. Battery.
Skirving, V. A., 6th Fd. Battery.
Smith, W. F., "A" Fd. Battery, R.C.A.
Somers, L., "A" Fd. Battery, R.C.A.
Sparrow, J. E., 16th Fd. Battery.
Street, C, 2nd Fd. Battery.
Street, J. D., 2nd Fd. Batt.
Stephenson, B., 11th Fd. Battery.
Sullivan, W. H., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Sutherland, Wm., 6th Fd. Battery.
Sutton, E., 30th Battalion.
Taylor, Thos., 14th Fd. Battery.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Taylor, W., 11th Fd. Battery.
Thomas, H. N., 16th Fd. Battery.
Thome, W. R.

Tucker, W. F., 4th Fd. Battery.
Tunstead, R. F., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Wallace, J., 30th Battalion.
Waters, H.
Welch, Wm., None.
Wideman, W. E., 30th Battalion.
Wiliams, F. W., 2nd Fd. Battery.
Williams, M. S. P., 16th Fd. Battery.
Whitten, D. A., G.G.F.G.
Woolseley, E. C, 43d Battalion.
Wright, H. A.

'E" FIELD BATTERY.

Sgt, Maj., O'Grady, J., R.C.A.
Q. M. S., Clifford, W., R.C.A.
S. Far., Cunningham, J., R.C.A.
Sgt., Lyndon, A., R.C.A.

" Hughes. A. T., R.C.A.

" Kruger, W. A., R.C.A.

" Small, J., R.C.A.

" Agins, W., R.C.A.

" Jago, J. R., R.M.C.
Corp., Crockett, L., R.C.A.

" Brown, H. M., R.C.A.

" Biggs, R. J.. R.C.A.

" Latimer, W., 15th Fd. Battery.

" Black, S., 17th Fd. Battery.

" Macdonald, J. H., 17th Fd. Battery.

" Laflamme, J., R.C.A.
Bdr., Richardson, M., R. C. A.

" Daniels, G., R.C.A.

" McGillivray, D., R.C.A.

" MacCormick, E. F., R.C.A.

" Macaskill, J., R.C.A.

" Evans, P. H., 3rd Fd. Battery.
Tptr., Roberts, A., R.C.A.

" Bradley, G. W., R.C.A.
S. Smith, Cameron, N., 10th Fd. Battery.
" Fletcher, T. E.
" Stewart, D. G., Newcastle.
Wheeler, O'Donnell, W., R.C.A.

Pedley, W., R.C.A.
Col. maker, Reid, H.

" Macdonald, D. D.
Boyce, A., 13th Fd. Battery.
Byrne, Thos., 3rd Fd. Battery.
Bartlett, —
Beauohamp, —
Blair, C. D.

Blyth, R. B., 3rd Fd. Battery.
Buck, F., 10th Fd. Battery.
Browning, J. H., R.C.A.

Borden, M.

Boone, M., 12th Fd. Battery.

Brewer, F, C, 10th Fd. Battery.

Carroll, T., 12th Fd. Battery.

Chesley, F. T., 3rd Rgt. C. A.

Creighton, J. F., 13th Fd. Battery.

Creighton, J. A., 13th Fd. Battery.

Crocker, W. J.

Coombs, F. E. S.

Cornish, H., 15th Fd. Battery.

Cunard, C. W., 3rd Rgt. C. A.

Campbell, D.

Craig, T., 12th Fd. Battery.

Dalton, D., 12th Fd. Battery.

Dysart, H. B., 10th Fd. Battery.

Duncan, J.

Duval, G. T., 12th Fd. Battery.

Eustace, M.

Everett, F. H., 10th Fd. Battery.

Ferguson, W., R.C.A.

Ferguson, D.

Fielders, G. W.

Finnamore, B., 12th Fd. Battery.

Fletcher, G. F.

Fletcher, J. E.

Fraser, W. D., 3rd Fd. Battery.

Fradette, J. G., R.C.A.

Gordon, W. S., 13th Fd. Battery.

Gorham, F. R., 13th Fd. Battery.

Galliah, J. J., 12th Fd. Battery.

Gilmore, E. F., R.C.A.

Grace, M. T.

Grey, H., 10th Fd. Battery.

Glew, —

Goslin, E., R.C.A.

Hayden, J. A., 10th Fd. Battery.

Hacquoil, E., R.C.A.

Hall, H., 10th Fd. Battery.

Hague, J. H.

SECOND CANADIAN CONTINGENT

S()0

Itery.

Ittery.

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Hamley, J.

Harrison, R. A., SH Regt. C. A.
Howard, A. G., 3rd Rgt. C. A.
Hibbs, H. H., R.C.A.
Hill. T. J., 15th Fd. Battery.
Horsfall, H. W.
Hughes, R., 10th Fd. Battery.
Huot, R., R.C.A.

Jackson, R. C, Pictou Gar. Arty.
Jay, J.

Johnson, G. H., 10th Fd. Battery.
Jones, H.
Jones, R.
Kane, J., R.C.A.
Kennedy, W., 10th Fd. Battery.
King, M. R., 12th Fd. Battery.
Kirk, G. P., 3rd Regt. C. A.
Leighton, W. L., 10th Fd. Battery.
Llghtstone, H., 15th Fd. Battery.
Longee, M. M., 53rd Battalion.
Lynn, W. P., 10th Fd. Battery.
Mason, —

Macdonald, D., R.C.A.
Macdonald, D. J., 17th Fd. Battery.
Macdonald, J. J., 1st Regt. C. A.
McLean, H. G., 10th Fd. Battery.
McLean, R.

Mackenzie, W. A., 17th Fd. Battery.
Mackenzie, C. L
Mackenzie, A.

McLeod, W. P., 12th Fd. Battery.
McLeod, G. F., 3rd Regt. C. A.
MacLoughlin, M. J., R.C.A.
Mason, B.
Miller, R., R.C.A.
Michaud, D.
Molson, E. A,

Morrison, D., 17th Fd. Battery.
Morrison, S. J., 12th Fd. Battery.
Motham, A. E., R.C.A.
Munsey, S. W., 13th Fd. Battery.
Myra, W. A., 17th Fd. Battery.
Neild, J., 13th Fd. Battery.
Nethersole, P. R.
O'Handley, D., 94th Battalion.
O'Reilly, —

By order

HUADQUARTERS, OTTAWA,

8th March, 190a

Rank, Name and former Corps.
Pegean, C, R.C.A.
Parker, G. G., 10th Fd. Battery.
Perrin, J., R.C.A.
Phillips, H., R.C.A.
Phillips, G. H., 15th Fd. Battery.
Plttman, J.

Price, W. E., 15th Fd. Battery.
Porteous, —
Pugh, S., R.C.A.
Randells, J. T.
Rawlings, —
Reynolds, W. H.
Reus, R.C.A
Roberts, W.
Ross, G. H., R.C.A.
Ross, J. G., 12th Fd. Battery.
Russell, G., 12th Fd. Battery.
Rutter, C. W., 12th Fd. Battery.
Ryan, R. J.

Scott, I. M., 17th Fd. Battery.
Searles, G., 10th Fd. Battery.
Sinclair, E. H., 12th Fd. Battery.
Smith, R., 10th Fd. Battery.
Smith, A. A.
Smith, J. W.
Smith, J.

Squires, J., 13th Fd. Battery.
State, A. J.
Stone, J., R.C.A.
Taite, H. B., 13th Fd. Battery.
Tapp, W., 63rd Battalion.
Tibbits, A., 10th Fd. Battery.
Tibbits, J., 12th Fd. Battery.
Tooker, T. W.
Vincent, T., R.C.A.
Walsh.

Wells, S., R.C.A.
Welch, R. S., 10th Fd. Battery.
Welsh, G. E., 13th Fd. Battery.
Wilson, J. W.

Wilson, T. R., 13th Fd. Battery.
Withers, S. J., 3rd Regt. C. A.
Woollard, C, 13th Fd. Battery.
Woods, J. B., 12th Fd. Battery.
Woodlean, W. J., 13th Fd. Battery.
Young, W. B.

HUBERT FOSTER, Colonel,

Chief Staff Officer.

Ittery.

STRATHCONA'S HORSE

NOMINAL ROLL OP OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN

OFFICERS

Steele, S. B., Lieutenant-Colonel (North- West Mounted Police).
Belcher, Majob R., Second in Command (North- West Mounted Police).

Majohs.

Snyder, A. E. (North- West Mounted Police).
Jarvis, a. M. (North-West Mounted Police).
Laurie, R. C. (Lieut., Reserve of OflBcers).

Captains Howard, D. M. (North-West Mounted Police).

Cameron, G. W. (Major, 5th Riittalion).
Cartwriout, p. L. (North-West Mounted Police).

Lieutenants Magee, R. H. B. (Lieut., Reeorves of Officers).

Hari'ER, F. (North-West Mounted Police).

Ben YON, J. A. (Captain, Royal Canadian Artillery).

Mackie, E. F. (Captain, 90th Battalion).

Fa P. (2ud Lieut., Manitoba Dragoons) .

White- Fraskr, M. H. (Ex-Inspector, North-West Mounted Police).

Ketciien, H. D. B. (North-West Mounted Police).

Macdonald, J. P. ("Captain, 37th Battalion).

Leckie, J. E.

Courtney, R. M. (Captain, Ist Battalion).

PooLEY, T. E. (Captain, 5th Regiment, C. A.).

Christie, A. E.

Strange, A. W.

Laidlaw, G. E. (Lieut., Reserve of Officers).

KiRKPATRicK, G. H. (Lieut., Reserve of Officers).

ToBiN, H. (Lieut., Reserve of Officers).

Quartermaster... .Parker, Lieutenant W.

Transport OflQcer.. Snider, Lieutenant I. R. (2nd Lieut., Manitoba Dragoons).

Medical Officer . . . Keenan, Lieutenant C. B.

Veterinary Officer..STEVENSON, Lieutenant G. T.

870

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
N. C. Office us and Men.

S71

"A- SQUADKON.

Reg'l No. Rnnk and Nnmo.
R.S.M. Elliott, Frank.

1 Q.M.S. Grafter. A. G.
460 F.Q.M.S. McMillan, A.

2 S.S.M. Hooper, F. C. L
79 Pte. Albert. E.

137 „ Anderson, E. F.

138 „ Archer, W.
402 „ Arnold, F. G.
129 „ Baker, W. G.

10 „ Barker, M.
120 „ Barker, W. J.

52 „ Barrett, John.
116 „ Bastlen, H.

9 „ Beckitt, F. W.
129 „ Bennett, J.

11 „ Bland, E. M.

140 „ Bourne, R.

12 „ Bradbury, John.
61 „ Bride, F.

87 „ Brigham, J. R.

141 „ Brooks, W.

5 „ Brown, A. M.
428 „ Bullough, J.

13 „ Burton, A. E.

84 „ Campbell, M. G.

85 „ Carpenter, J.
121 „ Carroll, P. E.

74 „ Carson, T. L.

14 „ Cassidy, H. E.
49 „ Clark, G.

15 „ Clark, E. H.
97 „ Common, A.

125 „ Cosens, F. C.

91 „ Currie, W. E. E.
142 „ Cuthbert, W.

51 „ Dandy, C. R.

16 „ Daykln, A. U.

17 „ Deacon, B. L.
53 „ Dingan, A.

86 „ Dickson, John.

18 „ Dodd, G. S.
114 „ Doherty. G. H.

70 „ Donnan, J. W.

71 „ Drever, A.

20 „ Dunsford, H.
107 „ Dunsmore, F. C.

60 „ Edwards, E. H.
112 „ Ewing, A.

21 „ Evans, J.
462 „ Farmer, J. T.

93 „ Fisher, C. W. D.
512 „ Fletcher, R.
78 „ Flotten, P.
62 „ Fraser, R. N.
77 „ Grammond, C.

Itcg'l .\o. Knnk and ?:,.

98
143
82
69
llf)
HI
63
64
54
144
118
103
145
23
96
146
24
148
65
25
147
80
6
149
7
56
110
119
458
150
8
466
464
27
108
67
68
124
77
66
28
151
92
130
73
75
29
131
406
72
47
57
136
101
30

Pte. Gainer, A. C.
.. Gilroy, H.
,. Glass. N.
„ Goodburn. 0.
., Gooding, J. K. P.
M Gordon. Robert.
„ Gowler, A. W.
„ Gregory. T.
,. Grestock, H.
.. Griffith, .1. J.
„ Gurney, W. L. B.
., Harley, J. A.
.. Harris, M. R.
., Hathorne, W.
,, Hazeldlne, F, R.
>, Henderson, J. J.
.. Hogarth, W. R.
., Hudson, W.
,. Inkster, John.
,. Irwin. H. M.
M Irwin, F.
,, Jackson, W. P.
„ Johnston, J. D.
,. Keeling, J. H.
„ Kempster, Henry.
„ Kermode, J. 0.
„ King. W. J.
„ Kirkpatrick, A.
„ Lambert, J. S.
„ Lamont, B.
„ Locke, Charles.
„ Lorsch, A. P.
„ Lowe, A. A. R.
„ Lyle, H.
„ Macdonnell, K. C.
„ Machen, S. R.
„ Martin, R. W.
„ Matthews, F. A. W.
„ Maveoty, J. D.
„ McAlonen, R.
„ McArthur, J. H.
, McGillivray, A.
„ McLaren, George.
, McLean, George.
, McLeod, W. R.
, McLoy, John.
, McNaught, J. Y.
, Mills, Thomas.
, Milligan, W.
, Moberley, G. A.
, Morrison, J. H.
, Munroe, H. S.
Murphy, W. M.
Neville, J. P.
Nicks, John.

872

STRATHCONA'S HORSE.

Reg-

INo.

Rank nntl Name.

102

Pte.

Norquay, A.

152

Norris, Fred.

Nyblett, R. W.

Orr, F. W.

126

Page, C. F.

106

Palmer, P. S.

123

Palmer, G. S.

153

Parker, H.

154

Parker, J.

128

Perkins, G.

Powell, F. N.

Ramsay, Douglas.

132

Reid, James.

Richardson, A. H. L

Robinson, A.

Rooke, C. W.

Rooke, R. P.

133

Ross, J. T.

117

Rushe, M. J.

Sabine, H. E.

Sawyer, W. L.

155

Saxby, H. B.

156

Sayce, W,

157

Scott, L. B.

158

Scott, W.

429

Skirving, G. M.

411

Smith, R. W.

Slnnington, A.

Uok'I Xn. Rnnk find Namo

89 Pte. Stanier, C. Y.

113

„ Starke, T. B.

100

„ Steadman, C. D.

134

„ Stevenson, A. T.

„ Stocker, J. R.

135

„ Stuart, A. W.

„ Stutt, W.

„ Sutherland, A.

„ Terry. N. F.

467

„ Thompson, H. C.

104

„ Thorne, A.

122

„ Thornton, E.

127

„ Thomas, C. F.

„ Townsend, P. H.

„ Triall. W. M.

„ Treston, John.

„ Trelevan, A.

„ Van Stan, A.

„ Wade, R.

„ Ward, John.

105

„ Watson, A.

„ Webb, Edward.

118

„ Webb, Harry.

„ Wemyss, D. N.

„ Wilkins, H.

„ Wyndham, H. S.

413

„ Zimmer, W. J.

"B" SQUADRON.

440
169
168
167
170
237
171
504
173
470
178
416
417
177
469
172
465
176
418
175
471
174
181
443
182
183

S.S.M. Steele, S. J.

Pte. A'Court, A. W. II.

„ Abbott, W. R.

„ Allison, D.

„ Anderson, J. L.

„ Armstrong, J. F.

„ Armstrong, J. E.

„ Bnnks, E. M.

„ B ines, P.

„ P rton, M. E.

„ Iteaumont, T. B.

„ Bentham, W.

„ Beresford, W. P.

„ Bingham, H. B.

„ Bertram, C. F.

„ Blick. C. A.

„ Bradley, R. H.

„ Brothers, J.

„ Brown, H. S.

,, Brown, A. S.

„ Bull, J. V.

„ Burdett, A. H.

„ Burgess, D.

„ Callin, T. A.

„ Campbell, N. M.

„ Carson, W.

„ Clayton, A.

179|Pte. Condon. F. B.

288 „ Dunn, F. J.

184 „ Corbett, W.

419 „ Cronyn, E. S.
438 „ Cross, J. R.
215 „ Crozier, J. A.
508 „ Cruickshank, C.
180 „ Cumming, F.

188 „ Dalglish, A.
506 „ Deane, J.

185 „ Dick, M. F.

420 „ Dickinson, D.
453 „ Donaldson, A. S.

186 „ Douglas, F. C. A.
444 „ Down, George.

187 „ Dupen, A. E.
288 „ Dunn, F. J.

472 „ Eastmead, — .
273 „ Edmundson, T. L.

189 „ Edwards, A. J.

190 „ Edwards, R. II.

191 „ Fawcett, N.

473 „ Fennell, — .

193 „ Fllntoff, W.

192 „ Ford, J.

194 „ Fortey, A.
194 „ Freezer, J. R.

Res'l No. Rank and Name.
Pte. Gamsby, G.
>. Ganesford, W P
.. GlUIes, A.
,. Gilmour, J, p,
» Grobll, A. C.
„ Graham, C. H.
„ Grey, W.
» Hall, p. A.
„ Hardwlck, M. D K
>. Hardy, A.
» Hart, C. A.
» Haylett, J.
.. Hayes, R. p.
., Hicks, R. c.
•> Hobson, J.
" Inglis, R. c.
.. Irwin, H.
» Jackson, H.
•> Jameson, T.
., Jenkins, A.
.. Kerr, G. T.
» Klndrew, C. E.
„ Lafferty, W.
, Laldlaw, C. E.
I Lamb, A.
. Leder, Bert.
. Lee, H. A.
. Lewis, T. A.
. Lewis, P. C.
, Lindsay, A. P.
Linton R.
Loney, M. P.
Lowry, W. A.
Lowe, S.
Lynch, W. G.
Macdonald, J. R.
Macdonald, A. D.
Madge, T. P.
Mansell, M.
Martin, H.
Martin, L. A.
Matallal, A.
McDonald. G. A.
McDonald, R. S.
McCIay, R.
McCormack, E.
McMillan, T.
McNichol, A.
McNair, E. W. C.
McNeil, P. J,
McRae, D.
McElray, G. B.
Mcintosh, E.
McKeage. P. O. E
McKinley, M.
McHugo, G,
Miller, A.
Milne, A.
Mitchell, O.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFKICA.

87a

42v
492
214
227
228
452
485
45
230
231
232
424
229
505
487
238
233
480
234
235
239
240
236
245
241
243
270
242
244
272
246
247
256
251
248
446
159
252
257
253
260
249
255
488
160
254
307
481
161
441
258
454
490
259
265
58
59
264
105

«oK'l xo. Rank and Nam,.
Pte. Moir, R. h.
Mulligan, P.
Murphy, E. D.
,, Newman, F. G.
» Niblock, B. L.
.. Nlchol, H. P.
„ Nichol, D.
.. Paul J.
i> Pearce, R. G.
., Peace, E. J.
•> Pearson, A.
.. Pinder, E. G. J.
.. Percy, H. N.
„ Perry, T.
„ Peyto, E. W.
,, Phillips, J. w.
» Pillams, R. B.
., Playfair, W. S.
.. Poole, H.
» Poole, P.
.. Purvis, A. S.
„ Quick, H. H.
.. Rackham, W.
» Reed, W. E.
>, Rice-Jones, I. E. C.
>. Robson, J. S.
„ Rogers, H. M.
„ Ross, A. M.
I. Routh. G. P.
. Saddington. W.
. Scott, H. H.
. Scott, P. W.
. Shuckburgh, W. C
, Sharpies, W. A.
, Shaw, C. W.
, Shilea, T.
Simpson, T.
Skinner, A.
Smiley, S.
Smith, J.
Somerton, W.
Spratt, A.
Stewart, J. s.
Stanger, P.
Swanston, C.
Sutherland, R.
Thomas, G I).
Thompson, F.
Tegert, H.
Townshend. N. S.
Tucker, P. H.
Vernon, A. A.
Waito, ,1. T.
Walker, J. c.
Walker, B. o.
Watts, C. C. M.
Wntts, A. H.
White, S. A.
Watson, A.

874

STRATHCONA'S HORSfi.

Reg'l No. Rank and Name.

266|Pte. Whiteley, F. C.

269 „ Whitehead, C. A. W.

261 „ Wilby, A. W. R.

267 „ Wilkin, W.
491 „ Watson, B.
162 „ WilFon, F.

268 „ Wil ?on, D.

425 „ Williams. T. H. A.

262 „ Woods, W.T.

Reg' I No.

Rank and Name.

163

Pte.

Woodward, W.

263

Woodward, A. J.

426

Wragge, E, C.

165

Wright, T. W. H.

510

Wright, H. H.

164

Wyse, D .

445

Yemen, N. W.

166

Yule, B.

"C" SQUADRON.

316

317

279

318

355

395

396

377

357

276

448

376

375

356

285

278

319

398

494

278

322

320

321

277

397

358

323

433

287

324

286

434

325

289

495

379

414

326

49C

275

280

360

361

859

S.S.
Pte

M. Hynes, J.
. Abbott, J.
Agar, O. S.
Albert, G.

Allan, P. K.

Armstrong, J. W.

Bell, P. W. W.

Bell, W. H.

Bolton, N. T.

Bonner, L. A.

Bousfield, J.

Bowers, Q. A.

Brent, W.

Brixton, J.

Broadbent, E. R.

Burke, B.

Cameron, N. C. J.

Castelaine, L.

Chancellor, E. V.

Childers, H. C.

Clark, W. F.

Cochrane, R. L.

Cook, W.

Cotterill, C. W.

Cree, A. H.

Curtis, B. F. B.

Custance, T. F. M.

Daley, H. M.

D* Amour, A. P.

Dawson, W. H. N.

Davis, R. S.

Deering, R.

Duncan, C. J.

Dunn, T.

Edwards, W.

Elliott, J.

Ellis, F. W.

Eyre, O.

Fader, O. J.

Fall, C. S.

Fanning, W.
, Faulder. B. R.
, Fernie, W. L.

Fernie, M.
, Fisher, J. C.

280|Pte.

327

474

475

290

399

329

294

293

292

436

281

363

381

282

295

296

400

330

401

501

364

362

291

328

368

382

354

331

297

383

298

315

299

403

405

332

404

»»

333

334

3?f

> .>

405

„

33f

80^

33(

} ..

83'

r ,.

Foster, J. M.
Fraser, J. A.
Fraser, H.
Fraser, W.
Fuller, J. W.
Fuller, James.
Halcro, A. J.
Hall, A.
Hambly, G.
Hammond, R. B. L.
Harding, J. B.
Harper, W. H.
Harris, C. C.
Harris, C. B.
Hawes, H.

Haynes, W. T.

Hazel, George.

Hicks. H. J.

Hirsch, .John.

Hulbert, T.

Humphrey, W. H.

Hunter, E. T.

Graham, W. F.

Griffin, John.

Grogan, R. N.

Ingram, W. H.

Jackson, C. F.

Johnson, A. W.

Johnston, H. R.

Jones, A.

Jones, B. E.

Kearney, J.

Kelly, S. A. J.

Kennedy, J.

Kerr, F.

Ledingham, G. W.

Lee, B. F.

Lefroy, L. B.

Lindsay, W. B.

Lockhart, F. C.

LoRan, A. E. H.

Malalne. J. H.

McAllistev, D.

McDonald, A.

McDonald, O. A.

McDonnell, C. R.

Reg'l No.

304|Pte.

3391

384

407

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

449

301

305

303

300

3851

365

283

386

306

307

498

340

367

308

366

369

341

342

343

309

387

410

344

345

442

346

371

Rank and Name.
McDuff, J.
McKenzle, A. W.
. McMuUen, J. H.
McRae, D. J.
McCullough, R. J.
Melton, E. J.
Montelth, W. B.
Morgan, H. E.
Murray, E.
Murray, J. w.
Nash, J. F. P
Nesbltt, J. L.'
Nicholson, C. J.
Norton, F.
Norton, C.
Noury, H. W.
O'Brien, A. W.
Ogilby, W. L.
O'Hearn, W.
Oldham, P.
Orchard, E. A.
Palmer, R. H.
Parkes, F. C.
Pearson, A. C.
Peterson, C.
Parham, H. J.
Pettigrew, J.
Pinkerton, T. A.
Powell, C. J.
Press, A.
Pym, T. M. L.
Radwell, A.

o — »»

Reg'l No

388

347

314

348

500

370

310

349

390

613

415

350

499

372

389

391

351

392

450

432

311

352

412

374

394

284

312

313

353

505

274

603

Pte

Rank and Name.

Rennie, C.

Robson, W.
. Routh, P.
. Ryan, J.

St. George, B. A.

Seymour, E.

Shaw, R.

Shaw, A. J. M,

Stillingfleet, H. C.

Simon, A. B. J,

Skene, J. G.

Simpson, P. E.

Spencer, J.

Squires, C.

Strickland, C. S.

Swift, T.

Switzer, P.

Simmill, J.
Swinburn, A.
Tennant, C.
Thomas, I.
Thomas, H.
Tuson, J.
Venuer, R. p.
Warren, F. F.
West, W.
Wiggins, H. J.
Wilkie, J. H.
Winearls, R. A.
Winkle, W. C.
Wright, S.
Woodhouse, F. W. B.

876

STRATHCONA'S HORSE.

Reinforcements.

OFFICER.

Lieut. Adamson, A. S.

A. M., the Governor General's Foo

Rank. Name.

Pte. Anderson, G.

Pte. Hutchison, W.

„ Andrews, A. M.

„ Isbester, C. X

„ Bartram, W. B.

„ Macdougall, J. G.

„ Blakmore, P. H. J.

„ Malet, C. C.

„ Bruce, G. B.

„ Martin, J. S.

„ Buchanan, J. J.

„ McArthur, A.

„ Burnet, David.

„ McDougall, J. B.

„ Campbell, T. G.

„ McMillan, C. W.

„ Campbell, W. J.

„ Morris, Cecil.

„ Clampitt, J. H.

„ Myers, L,

„ Carey, S. T. St. G.

„ Palmer, W.

„ Cooke, J. T.

„ Paton, S. C.

„ Delia-Torre, W. J.

„ Preston, A. J,

„ Fowler, W. R.

„ Robertson, D.

„ Gilbertson, J. E.

„ Robinson, H. L.

„ Greaves, J. B.

„ Rose, D. W.

„ Green-Armytage, H. R.

„ Ritchie, D. V.

„ Grey, Charles.

„ Shuttleworth, P.

„ Griffith, W. R.

„ Slocock, E. F.

„ Hall, G. L.

„ Smith, W.

„ Henderson, T. A.

„ Sparkes, F. D.

„ Heron, R, B.

„ Sparks G. A. S.

„ Hcygate, W. A. N.

„ Stewart, D. M.

„ Howell, T. B.

„ Stringer, A.

„ Hunt, W. de Vere.

„ Tucker, R.

NOMINAL ROLL OF ARTIFICERS

KNEOLLEB ,. CANADA .OH SERVICE WITH THE EEOU.AK POECES

IN SOUTH AFRICA

NAME

Belleveau, A. L. .
Blackwell, Fred'k W

Brierli', Joseph "

Cass, Patrick B

Cooper. John T.

Dickey, William J....

Hicks, John T

Lauder, George.

Layng, Wm .'

McMillan, Donald...
McMorris, Rupert . ..".'.'"'
Patton, James A.

Pierce, Herbert lick

Poynter, Arthur

Rankin, Hugh.

Smith, Alex .'.[

Smith, John

Speak, John

Thomas, William Henry* '

Wetmore, Henry A

Whiteoak, Norman ...

Ko pf*"«^ ^*''®^*' Quebec

^0 Elm Street, Toronto. .

787 York Street, London, Ont.." .' .' ! ." ".
93 Campbell Road, Halifkx ....

18 Artil ery Street, Quebec ." ' ' "

Campbellford, Ont.

Welland, Ont . . .

371 Burgess Street,' Montreal .■.■;;:'
IJJ^Ossington Avenue, Toronto. ...".';

21 Poplar Grove,' 'Halifa'x ' .' .' .*

Corbetton, Ont. .

New Glasgow, N.'s."

20 Ellis Street, Toronta '.'.

Bolton, Ont

Carp, Ont .". '.

Port Perry, Ont.! ".'.'..'.

28 Yorkshire St., Burniey' Lanes Fnlr"

Markham, Ont .'

Saddler

Shoeing-smith

Wheeler

WLeeler

Shoeing-smith

Shoclug-smith

Saddler

Wheeler

Shoeing-smith

Wheeler

Shoeing-smith

Saddler

Shoeing-smith

877

COMPLETE LIST OF CASUALTIES TO DATE.

KILLED IN ACTION (OR DIED OF WOUNDS).

tCAPT. ARNOLD, H. M., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

tPTE. ARNOLD, F. G., A Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Watervaal, July 30.

PTE. BARRY, C. H., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
tLIEUT. BLANCHARD, M. C, A Co., 1st Contingent, Roodevaal, June 7.

LIEUT. BORDEN, H. L., 1st Batt, C.M.R.. Pretoria, July 16.
tCORPL. BRADY, W. S., D Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

SERGT. BROTHERS, J., B Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept. 4.

LIEUT. BURCH, J. E., 2nd Dragoons (attached officer), Pretoria, July 16.

PTE. BURNS, 0. T., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. COTTON, H., D Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu, May 1.

PTE. CRUIKSHANK, C, B Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept. 4.

PTE. DAFOE, J., H Co., 1st Contingent, Blackmountain, Apr. 25.

PTE. DONEGAN, J. A., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. FINDLAY, J. H., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. FLOYD, r. G. W.-, B Co., 1st Contingent, Zand River, May 10.
tPTE. FROST, W., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Pretoria, June 12.

CORPL. GOODFELLOW, R., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. HARRIS, W. J., 2nd Batt, C.M.R., Booxhpoort, Sept. 23.

PTE. JACKSON, C. E. E., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. JACKSON, W., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. JENKINS, A., B Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Watervaal, July 1.

PTE. JOHNSTON, JOS. M., G Co., 1st Contingent, Crcaje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. JOHNSTONE, G., H Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. JONES, A., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept. 4.

PTE. KERR, R. J., 2nd Batt, C.M.R., Katbosch, June 22.

CORPL. LATIMER, W., E Battery, R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

PTE. LECONTEUR, R., E Co., Ist Contingent (reported killed), Oct 3.

PTE. LEE, B. H., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Watervaal, July 30.
tPTE. LEONARD, G. W., B Co., 1st Contingent Zand River, May 10.

PTE. LEWIS, Z. R. E., D Co., 1st Contingent Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. LISTER, C, E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
tPTE. LIVING, F. J., D Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

SERGT. LOGAN, A. E. H., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept 4.

PTE. MANION, W. T., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. MAUNDRILL, A., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
tPTE. McCREARY, P., G Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. McQUEEN, A., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CORPL. MORDEN J. F., 2nd. Batt, C.M.R., Katbosch, June 22.

GR. NEILJ 7., E liatttry, R.C.A., Campbell, June 10.

PTE. NORRiri, F., A Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Greylingstad, July 5. *

t Died of wounds.

878

THE STOUY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

879

PTE. ORMAN, G., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. PAGE, F. C, C Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

SERGT. PARKER, E. C, Watervaal, July 30.

PTE. RADCLIFFE, A., A Squad, C.M.R., Boschpoort, Sept. 23.
tPTE. RAY, A., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. RIGGS, W. A., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. SCOTT, J. B., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

SERGT. SCOTT, W.. . Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
tPTE. SIEVERT, J., t Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. SMITH, R., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. SOMERS, J. H., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. SPENCE, D. M., 1st Batt., C.M.R., Boschpoort, Sept. 23.
tCCRPL. TAYLOR, J. R., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Dornkop, Aug. 19.

PTE. TAYLOR, R. D., G Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. THOMAS, C. T., D Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.
tPTE, TODD, J., A Co., Jst Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
tPTE. WASDELL, F., E Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. WEST, W., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept. 4.

PTE. WHITE, W., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. WIGGINS, H. J., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept. 4.

CORPL. WITHERS, F. W., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

CORPL. WITHEY, B., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

R. M. C. GRADUATES.
tCAPT. HENSLEY, C. A., Royal Dublin Fusileers, Venter's Spruit, Jan, 20.

LIEUT. OSBORNE, J. W., Scottish Rifles, Spion Kop, Jan. 24.

LIEUT. WOOD, C. C, Loyal N. Lane. Reg't, Belmont, Nov. 10.

DIED.

PTE. ADAMS, J., A Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, March 18.

PTE. ADAMS, W. G., B Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, April 16.

PTE. BALL, J. E., 2mi Batt., C.M.R., enteric fever, July 28.

PTE. BANKS, E. M., B Squad, Strathcona's Horse.

PTE. BARR, H. B., B Co., Ist Contingent, enteric fever, April 30.

SERGT. BEATTIE, A., C Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, April 14.

PTE. BING, A. B., 1st Batt., C.M.R., enteric fever, June 7.

PTE. BLIGHT, W. S., C Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, April 15.

PTE. BOLT, G. H., E Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, June 1.

GR. BRADLEY, R., D Battery, R.C.A., accident, April 2.

PTE. CHAPELLE, M. C, G Co., 1st Contingent, tonsilltis, Dec. 13.

PTE. CLEMENTS, H. H., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., enteric fever. May 25.

SERGT. CLUNIE, P., D Co., 1st Contingent, heart disease, Sept. 6.

PTE. COOPER, J., enteric fever, June 29.

PTE. COTTERILL, C. W., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, enteric fever, July 1.

TR. COWEN, C, C.M.R., accidentally shot, April 30.

PTE. CROWE, D. J., A Squad, C.M.R., enteric fever, Aug. 5.

t Died of wounds.

880

LIST OF CASUALTIES.

PTE. CURPHY, J., P Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, April 18.

PTE. DeROCHEJOCQUELAIN, A., 1st Batt., C.M.R., enteric fever. May 27.

PTE. DES LAURIERS, E., D Co., 1st Contingent, heart failure, Nov. 3.

PTE. DUHAMEL, J. W., F Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, June 27.

PTE. FARLEY, J. E., B Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, Feb. 4.

PTE. FARRELL, G. P., H Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, Sept. 6.

PTE. FOREST, H., F Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, April 1.

PTE. HAINES, W., C Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, June 6.

PTE. HARRISON, R., F Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, April 14.

PTE. HAYES, ,W., E Co., 1st Contingent, accidentally shot, March 10.

PTE. HULL, W. A., A Squad, C.M.R., enteric fever, June 7.

SERGT. HUNT, B., 1st Batt., C.M.R., Sept. 17.

PTE. IRWIN, R., B Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, July 1.

PTE. KINGSLEY, A. R., 1st Batt., C.M.R., pneumonia. May 15.

PTE. LARUE, L., E Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, June 24.

PTE. LETT, R., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., enteric fever, July 21.

PTE. LISTON, R., A Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever. May 2.

PTE. MOORE, D. L., B Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, Feb. 14.

SHOEING-SM. McMillan, D., Artificers, enteric fever, April 20.

PTE. McNICHOL, a., B Squad, Strathcona's Horse, enteric fever, June 19.

GR. O'RIELLY, P., E Battery, R.C.A., enteric fever. May 17.

GR. PICOT, E., D Battery, R.C.A., enteric fever. May 2.

PTE. PRICE, W. E., E Battery, R.C.A., enteric fever, July 23.

PTE. PURCELL, J. J., B Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, Feb. 11.

PTE. PURCELL, E. S., H Co., Is'^ Contingent, April 22.

PTE. RAMSAY, D. L., 1st Batt, \M.R., peritonitis, March 28.

PTE. RASPBERRY, J., C Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever. May 24.

PTE. ROSS, W. J. H., D Co., 1st Co \tingent, enteric fever, March 6.

PTE. SHiPP, T. P., A Squad, C.M.R., t:^' jric fever, July 27.

PTE. SIMMILL, J., Strathcona's Horse, pyaemia, April 26.

SERGT. WETMORE, A., enteric fever, July 21.

PTE. WINYARD, W., A Squad, C. M. R., May 4.

PTE. WITHEY, W. F., A Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever, June 19.

PTE. WOOD, WM., 2nd Batt., R.C.A., enteric fever, July 27.

PTE. WOOLLCOMBE, J., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., pneumonia, April 23.

PTE. ZONG, A. E., H Co., 1st Contingent, enteric fever. May 1.

WOUNDED.

PTE. ADAMS, W. F., H Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
PTE. ADAMS, W. G., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
PTE. ALLAN, L., C Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.
PTE. ANDREWS, H., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.
PTE. ARMSTRONG, A., A Co., 1st Contingent, Zand River, May 10.
PTE. ARMSTRONG, B. R., B Squad, C.M.R., July 7.
LT. ARMSTRONG, C. J., E Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.
PTE. ARNOLD, F. G., A Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Watervaal, July 30,
PTE. ASPINWALL, A., 2nd Batt, C.M.R., Katbosch, June 22.
PTE, BAGOT, A.. F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27,

19.

W. S. BRADY, 4?,rd Hat .. Ottawa. 1)
Company. R. C. R., 'ilV.^d in the altark
on General Cronje s laager on iho dav
of his surrender, February ;>7. Ph(jt'o
by Pittaway, Ottawa,

PRIVATE r. T. THOMAS, late of O. f1.
V. G., Ottawa, mnmbor of D rompany,
R. C. R., killed in tlie nttark on Gen-
eral Crnn.le's lander February 27. Photo
by S. J. Jarvis, Ottawa.

PRIVATE O. T. BURNS, 43rd Batt , Ot-
tawa, D Co., killed.

F. J. LIVING, 13rd Batt., Ottawa, D
Company, R. C. R., killed in the attack
on General Cronje's laaser on the day
of his surrender, February 27. Photo
by Pittaway, Ottawa.

PRIVATE J. H. DONEGAN, 2r,th Batt.
Chatham. B Co., R. C. R., killed.

PRIVATE WALTER WHITE, 21st
Batt., Windsor, B Company, killed.

PRIVATE R. SMITH, 22nd Batt., Lon-
don; wounded or killed on Sunday, Ffb,
18, at Rlodder River. Mr. Prederiek
Hamilton's cable to The Globe reported
R. Smith killed, J. J. Smith wounded.
both men being members of B Com-
pany.

PRIVATE DOUGLAS MOORE, R. C.
R. I., London, Eng.. B Co.; died svt
Qraiige River of enteric fever,

R WHITE, 21st
ompany, killed.

JULIUS SrEVKRT, C3id Cumberland,

wounded in the attack on GentTal

Cronje's laapcr, Fob. 27 (since deadi.
F Co., R. C. R.

rOUrORAL K. GOODFELI.OW. 5th
Batt., Montreal, E Company, killed.

W7^T~

>^,

iS MOORE, R. C
ig.. B Co.; died at
Iteric fever,

PRIVATE R. LINDSAY, Manchester
Regiment, killed during the attack on
Ladysmith January 6. Though serving
in an English regiment the deceased
soldier was a Canadian, and served
three years at Stanley Barracks, To-
ronto, before going to England to join
the Manchesters. The family of the
deceased soldier lived in Bracondale, a
auburb of Toronto.

THE LATE Z.^OHARY U. E. LEWIS, of ot
tiiwH, I). Coiiipiiiiy, Royiil Ciiiiiulians;
killed in action at I'uardcbcrg, South
Africa, in CaiiiidlairH ii.sHiinlt on OroiiJcN
laagia-, Feb. in. i'hoto by Toplcy, (Jt-
tawu.

CAPTATN ir. :^r. ARXOLD, tlOth Halt ,
Wiiinipoj?, Captain of A Comi):iii>-,
wounded, since dead.

SI'MUiT. W. SCOTT, A Company, R. C.
U., killed in action at PaardeburK,
Oruimi' l'"rco State, February IS. Photo
iiy Savannah, Victoria, B. C. (See
Page 4.)

VV. A. RIGGS, Charlottetown Engineers,
G Co., Royal Canadians, killed in the
attack on Cronjc's laager, February 27.

I'RIVATE R. D. TAYLOR, Charlotte-
town, P. B. I., G Company, killed.

THE STORY OF SOUTH AFKK^V.

8S5

Company. R- <"•

at PiiardPburK.

•l)ruarv 18. Photo

rla, B. C. (See

'■LOR, Charlotte-
ipany. killed.

CORPL. BAINES, 11. H., 2nd Datt, C.M.R., Pretoria, June 12.

PTE. BAUGH, E., B Co., Ist Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CORPL. BAUGH, T. E., E Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. BEACH, A. C, A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeber?, Feb. 18.

PTE. BIRNE\ J. A., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Katbosch, June 22.

PTE. BRACE. N. T., G Co., 1st Contingent. Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. BRADSHAW, J. L. H.. D Co., l^t Contingent, Paardeberg. Feb. 18.

PTE. BROWN, F.. 1st Batt.. C.M.R., Blaciimountain, April 25.

PTE. BROWN, A. W.. A Squad. C.M.R., Pretoria, July 16.

CORPL. BROWN, H. M.. E Battery. R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

PTE. BURNS, R.. D Co.. 1st Contingent. Blackmountain, Feb. 18.

PTE. BURNS, W. J., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. CARTER, GERALD ST. LEDGER, 1st Batt.. C.M.R.. Wondersfontein. Oct. 7.

PTE. CHILDERS, H. C, C Squad, Strathooua's Horse, Caucatiov Geluks, Aug. 26.

PTE. CLARKE, C. P.. C Co.. 1st Contingent. Paardeberg. April 25.

PTE. COLE, A, E., B Co.. 1st Contingent. Sunnyside. Dec. 31.

PTE. COLEMAN, J. D., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CORPL. COOMBS. F. W.. G Co., 1st Contingent. Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. CORLEY, J. B.. B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. COZZENS, H., C Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager. Feb. 27.

PTE. CRAWLEY. A. W.. 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Bethlehem. July 3.

PTE. CULVER, J. W., F Co., 1st Contingent. Blackmountain. April 25.

PTE. DA VIES, A. E.. A Co., 1st Contingent, Johannesburg. May 29.

PTE. DAY, E. C, C Co.. 1st Contingent, Paardeberg. Feb. 18.

PTE. DAY. J., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. DICKSON, W. J. G., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. DONOHUE, W.. F Co.. 1st Contingent. Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. DOWNING, W., F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. DUNCAFE, C. W., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. DURANT, H. E., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. FINCH-SMILES, F., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

GR. FLETCHER, G. F., E Battery, R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

CORPL. FLINTIFF, W., B Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Devil's Knuckles, Sept. 10.

PTE. FLYNN, W. B.. 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Dornkop, Aug. 19.

PTE. FOSTER, P. R., D Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu. May 1.

PTE. FRADSHAW, H., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. FROST, W., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Pretoria, June 12.

PTE. GARNER, A. C, A Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Badfontein, Sept. 4.

PTE. GREENALL, T., 2nd Batt., C.M.R.. Pretoria, June 12.

PTE. GIBSON, C. A., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. GIFFORD, B.. F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. GORMAN, J. F., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. GRAY, J. W., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Johannesburg, May 28.

PTE. GRAY, N., C Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager. Feb. 27.

PTE. GREEN, W. J., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. HAMMOND, R. B. L., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Caucatiov Geluks, Aug. 26.

PTE. HARRIS. J. A., G Co., 1st Contingent. Cronje's Laager. Feb. 27.

PTE. HARRISON, C, F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. HARVEY, J. J., 1st Batt., C.M.R., July 7.

886

LIST OF CASUALTIES.

PTE. HAYDON, A., G Co., 1st Contingent, Johannesburg, May 29.

SERGT. HAYES, W., E Co., 1st Contingent, Driefontein, March 10.

PTE. HILL, E., F Co., 1st Contingent, Johannesburg, May 29.

PTE. HOGAN, J. R., D Co., 1st Contingent.

PTE. HOLLAND, C, D Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. HOLLAND, J., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 20.

BAMB. HOPE, R. S., C Battery, R.C.A., Warm Baths, Sept. 3.

PTE. HUDON, J. A., F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CORPL. HULME, G. G., D Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. HUNTER, W., F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

LIEUT. INGLIS, W. M.. 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Horningspruit, June 22.

PTE. IRWIN, R., B Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu, May 1.

GR. JACKSON, R. C, E Battery, R.C A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

PTE. JOHNSON, JAS., G Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. JOHNSTONE, D. F., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Wondersfontein, Sept. 7.

PTE. JORDAN, J., C Battery, Johannpsburg, May 29.

DRIVER KANE, J., E Battery, R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

PTE. KENNEDY, JAS., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. KIDNER, R., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 20.

PTE. KINGSWELL, J., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. LAIRD, A., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. LARUE, L., F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. LEAVITT, H., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. LEONARD, G. W., B Co., l&t Contingent, Zand River, May 10.

PTE. LETSON, J., G Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu, May 1.

PTE. LOHMAN, A. 0., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. LORD, JNO. W., B Squad, C.M.R., July 7.

PTE. LUTZ, J., G Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu, May 1.

BDR. MACASKILL, J., E Battery, R.C.A Faber's Farm, June 1.

PTE. McCAULEY, A., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CAPT. MacDONNELL, A. C, 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Pretoria, June 12.

PTE. MacDOUGALL, J. G., Rein., Strathcona's Horse, July 5.

PTE. MACDUFF, J., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Amerspoort.

PTE. MARENTETTE, V. F., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. MARRIATT, T. H., B Squad, C.M.R., July 7,

LIEUT. MASON, J. C, B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. MATHESON, 0., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. McARTHUR, J. H., A Squad, Strathcona's Horse, July 5.

PTE. McCALLUM, G. D., H Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

GR. McCOLLUM, W., C Battery, R.C.A., Mafeking, May 16.

PTE. McCONNELL, J. F., D Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

FARR. SGT. McCULLOCH, D., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Thaba N'Chu, May 5.

CORPL. McDonald, R. D., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. McGILL, D. R., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. McGIVERlN, L., C Co., Ist Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. MCGREGOR. S. J., B Squad, C.M.R., July 7.

PTE. McIVEU, W., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. McKENZIE, H., A Co., Ist Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA.

887

27.

27.
LO.

b. 18.

27.

Feb. 27.
f 5.
, Feb. 27.

PTE. McLaren, C. D., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. Mclaughlin, R. H., C. Co., Ist contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. Mclaughlin, H. p., Ist contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. McLEAN, A. R., B Co., 1st Contingent, Zand River, May 10.

CORPL. MILES, T. R., 2nd Batt., C.M.R., Katbosch, June 22.

PTE. MONTEITH, W. E., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Carolina, July 14.

LIEUT. MOODIE, J. D., C Squad, C.M.R., Wondersfontein, Sept. 7.

CORPL. MOODY, F., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. MOORE, T., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. MULLAY, L. W. R., A Squad, C.M.R., Pretoria, July 16.

GR. NEILD, J., E Battery, R.C.A., Campbell, June 10.

CAPT. NELLES, C. M., 1st Batt., C.M.R., July 7.

PTE. NICHOLSON, C. J., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Devil's Knuckles, Sept. 10.

PTE. NICKS, J., A Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Carolina, July 14.

PTE. NIEBERGALL, H. E., A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

LT.-COL. OTTER, W. D., Commanding 1st Contingent, Blackmountain, April 25.

PTE. PADDON, A. E., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. PALMER, H., B Squad, C.M.R., July 7.

PTE. PALMER, R. H., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Caucatiov Geluks, Aug. 26.

PTE. PARKER, A., H Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 20.

GR. PATTON, W., C Battery, R.C.A., Mafeking, May 16.

PTE. PELKY, A., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

MAJOR PELLETIER, 0. C. C, 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

SERGT. PEPPIATT, W., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager. Feb. 27.

LCE.-CORPL. POWER, L., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Fob. 18.

PTE. PROULX, H., H Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. QUINN, M. J., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. REGAN, W. J., H Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. RICHARDSON, F., E Co , 1st Contingent, Johannesburg, May 29.

PTE. RITCHIE, W. J., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. ROBARTS, G. P., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. ROBINSON, J. B., B Co., 1st Contingent, Johannesburg, May 29.

PTE. RORISON, C. K., B Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu, May 1.

LIEUT. ROSS, J. M., B Co., 1st Contingent, Thaba N'Chu, May 1.

DRIVER ROSS. G. H., E Battery, R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1

MAJOR SANDERS, G. E., D Squad, C.M.R., Wondersfontein, Sept. 7.

PTE. SCOTT, J. A., F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardol)erg, Feb. 18.

PTE. SEYMOUR, E., C Squadron, Strathcona's Horwe, Krugorsdorp, Oct. 1.

PTE. SHAW, A. C, E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

SERGT. SHREEVE, J., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. SIMPSON, A., G Co.. 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

SERGT. SIPPE, G. R. B., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CORPL. SMITH, J., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. IS.

PTE. SPARKS, G. A. S., Rein. Strathcona's Horse, July 5.

PTE. SPRAGUE, F. W., G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Loager, Feb. 27.

PTE. STEVENS, R. C. H., 2nd Battery. C.M.R., Rooiport. May 28.

PTE. STEWART, M. M., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. SUTHERLAND, A., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager. Feb. 27.

-M

ffr-'j

888

LIST OF CASUALTIES.

PTE. SUTTON, J. H., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. SWITZER, P., C Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Caucatiov Geluks, Aug. 26.

GR. TAITE, H. B., E Battery, R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

PTE. THERIAULT, A., F Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. THOMAS, A. P., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. THOMPSON. C. C, A Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

CR. SGT. THOMPSON, C. H., D Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. THORNTON, F., A Squad, C.M.R., Bosctipoort, Sept. 23.

PTE. TURNER, A. J., E Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. UNKAUFF, W. C, G Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE, USHER, J. F., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. UTTON, F. W., F Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. VANDEWATER, W. J., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. VICKERS, J. R., C Co., 1st Contingent, Cronje's Laager, Feb. 27.

PTE. WARD, S. M., C Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. WATTS, C. C. M., B Squad, Strathcona's Horse, Budfontein, Sept. 1.

PTE. WAYE, J. F., G Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. WHEATCROFT, A. H., B Co., 1st Contingent, Paardeberg, Feb. 18.

PTE. WHITE, H. B., B Squad, C.M.R., July 7.

GR. WOOLLARD, C, E Battery, R.C.A., Faber's Farm, June 1.

LIEUT. YOUNG, H. U., 1st Batt., C.M.R., Wiltlilip, July 8.

^.ug. 26.

18.

17.

pt. 1.
, 18.

o
c

O S3

O ST.

B3 to

<5 S
g 9

9 ®

Date of
Sailing.

•sj

c
or
«

5 ti

O B9

» o

B £3:
89

8»r

D
B3

: «

oB
: 'o

►t SB

i-iai*

Oo
o a
OS

ft-

fed

•

•s)

130

IS5

CD
I--
CO

-1