THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES /%- Co. At the BiUlantyne I'ress f\56 As TO Mr /FiT^ PREFATORY NOTE The pages which follow are not intended in any way to deal exhaustively with what is known as "The South African Problem." They claim to be nothing more than a series of cameos of the past, extending back over a period of fifty years, and covering the life and growth of a British Colony from its birth to the developments of to-day. It is hoped that these sketches (some of which have already appeared in the pages of Comhill Magazine) may serve to show not only how the Empire of Great Britain has been and is being extended in the wild places of the earth, but how valid and unassailable is the title by which that Empire holds its position of paramountcy in South Africa. J. R. October 1900. CONTENTS PAGE PREFATORY NOTE vii AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT . . . xi CHAPTER I The Outgoers ........ 1 CHAPTER II The Governors 21 CHAPTER III The Voertrekkers ....... 43 CHAPTER IV The Settlers as Pioneers . . . . . .69 CHAPTER V The Settlers as Soldiers ...... 99 CHAPTER VI The Settlers as Lawmakers 139 X CONTENTS CHAPTER VII PAGE The Settlers as Traders and Civilisers . . . 180 CHAPTER VIII The Settlers as Neighbours 210 CHAPTER IX Tiie Settlers as Neighbours — Continued . . 256 CHAPTER X The Natives 278 CHAPTER XI The War — its Genesis and its Revelations . . 325 CHAPTER XII The Outlook ........ 379 APPENDIX 401 [NDEX . 409 AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT Looking back after a half- century's lapse to the years of my boyhood, when as a child of eleven years, and as one of a large family, I first made acquaintance with South Africa, I am keenly conscious of two dominating deprivations — the lack of regular school- training and the absence of youthful companionship. In 1850 there were no proper schools of a higher class in Natal, and lads of my own age and tastes were almost entirely out of reach. Shortly after our arrival it had been my father's hope to send me as a pupil to Capetown, where good schools existed, but want of means — at that time the prevailing colonial disability — blocked the way. I had at once to take my part in the active struggle for subsistence, and for such education as I acquired I had to depend upon my own studies, carried on during leisure moments, under the stimulating direction of cultured parents. It was a desultory and fitful experience, devoid altogether of academical training or order, but I daresay it sufficed to equip me as usefully for the battle of life, as might have done a costly and conventional school course at Xll AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT establishments of world-wide renown. I read at all times, when not otherwise engaged in work or relaxa- tion — for " play " properly so called there were few opportunities. Books were not very plentiful in those days — the modest collection of standard volumes we took out with us included, however, a good many classics, and the original issue of all the Waverley Novels — we had to borrow and to lend ; but I read anything I could get hold of — tales, textbooks, his- tories, manuals. In Maritzburg and in Durban there was a small public library of volumes lent or given by generous contributors, and I levied constant toll upon their shelves. Bonn's libraries were a great resource, and to them I was indebted for much of whatever knowledge I picked up. In fiction, the green shilling volumes of the Railway Library — forerunner of all the multitudinous tribe of yellow-backs — were a con- tinuous diversion, the mild romances of G. P. R. James being read with an avidity that is now a constant astonishment to me. As years Avent on, and as cheap reprints multiplied, enterprising storekeepers would now and then receive consignments of those paper- clad publications, and great would be the demand therefor. During many years an English book-dealer, named Lumley, sent out assortments of second-hand books, made up into small parcels, and accompanied by yellow catalogues. These were sold by auction, and tho sales, lasting two or three days, were eagerly anticipated events. My first appropriation of pocket- AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT Xlll money — carefully saved up through many months — was represented by a small selection of standard books, specially imported through a friendly watchmaker, consisting, so far as I can recollect, of Alison's History of Europe (5 volumes), Prescott's Histories of Peru and Mexico, Bancroft's History of the United States, Shakespeare, Longfellow, Byron, a tale or two, and some Latin class-books. The case containing these treasures went down in a sailing-ship which foundered near the line, and the order had to be repeated ; so nearly eighteen months elapsed before it was actually executed, and the foundations of my future library were laid. Though circumstances made it necessary, even be- fore I entered my teens, that I should be a working member of the household, it happened that with the exception of the first nine months, spent rather fruit- lessly in a commercial office, the whole of my boyhood and youth was passed in association with my father, who found in the pursuit of journalism a congenial field for his talents and energies. In November 1852, in conjunction with the proprietor of a local printing- office, he started the Natal Mercury. Two years later he became the sole proprietor of that newspaper, and from the first I helped him in his work. It was a little weekly sheet, containing twenty short columns of matter, the preparation of which at the time seemed to absorb as much time and thought as does to-day the daily broadsheet of many pages. For years the XIV AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT cost of printing absorbed nearly the whole of the very modest incomings, while there was little left for the support of the proprietor and editor, and nothing whatever available for the payment of outside assist- ants. My father's health, moreover, never strong, gradually declined, and more and more of the routine work of the business fell on my shoulders. For many years I was reporter, proof corrector, accountant, and collector, and as the fifties advanced towards their close, much of the editorial work was superadded. In March 1800 the state of his health compelled my father to hand over to his son, then just of age, the full control of the business as a responsible partner ; and six months later he retired altogether from direct connection with it. A valued friend of much com- mercial experience joined me as partner in the estab- lishment of the firm that has been for forty years connected with my name. Much to my relief and satisfaction, he took entire charge of the financial and business departments of the newspaper, and continued to do so up to the day of his lamented death in 188G, after an unbroken and perfectly harmonious association of more than a quarter of a century. It will thus be seen that throughout my life, up to the time when I finally relinquished editorial work on taking office in 1893, I was engaged in journalism, and have been actually my own master. The two facts have undoubtedly co-operated to shape and influence my career : the first focussed my mind and interests AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XV at a very early age on public life and current events, while the last accustomed me to think and to act under a sense of responsibility that was not ordinarily an accompaniment of my years. In both cases circum- stances rather than choice have controlled destiny ; nor, let me gratefully add, do I in any way regret the kindly compulsion. Though journalism became alike my profession and my pursuit, I was not as a youth without leanings in other directions. When about sixteen or seventeen, mission work amongst the natives had strong attrac- tions for me, and my father was in actual correspond- ence with members of the American mission to receive me as an assistant. If I remember rightly, lack of years was the chief impediment. For nearly a whole year, however, I devoted every night of the week to attendance at a Church of England native school, where, for at least two hours, I did my best to teach such native men as could be induced to come the rudiments of knowledge in the shape of pothooks and letters. When I think now of the clamour of barbar- ous tongues, and the reek of barbarian exhalations which assailed the senses throughout these spontane- ous ministrations, the sacrifice of time and energy in the work seems distinctly heroic ; but it meant a change in the dull routine of early colonial life, and it indicated the extreme paucity of other means of juvenile diversion. The school flourished as long as its novelty lasted, and it was kept going by one or two XVI AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT feasts and magic-lantern entertainments. It fell to my lot on one of these occasions to act as executioner to an aged bullock that had been provided for pur- poses of refreshment. I shot the poor animal through the head with an ancient musket, and two hours later it had been devoured by an eager crowd. These, how- ever, were costly methods of attraction, and had to be relinquished, whereupon the attendance rapidly de- clined. Slates and blackboards ceased to lure, and before a year was over the school perished from in- anition. This experience quenched any enthusiasm I had cherished for mission work, and although the Bishop (Dr. Colenso) offered to facilitate as far as he canonically could my admission to Holy Orders, the Church failed to draw me further within its fold. After that the Law proved seductive. I nibbled at proposals made by friendly local practitioners, and I went so far as to enter into correspondence with an eminent firm of London solicitors, with a view to qualifying as an English barrister. Oxford and Cam- bridge being inaccessible, my idea was to graduate at King's College, London, and thus to gratify a morbid longing to visit the old world, and to breathe life in the great metropolis. But other considerations inter- vened. My father's failing strength made it more and more incumbent on me to help him in his work, and the visions of professional activity in other spheres had to be abandoned. A journalist I had become, and a journalist I had to remain, AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XV11 Nor did I grieve over the fact. The calling of a journalist seemed then — and indeed has seemed ever since — full of honourable possibilities. There was the further satisfaction of feeling that I was in a way — though but a small way — associated with the sphere of letters. A passion for writing beset me from a very early time. At the mature age of thirteen I amused myself by composing a descriptive account of the Colony of which I had then been two years a resident. This crude performance covered some sheets of foolscap, and was sent by fond parents to my grandfather in England. Those were days when postage rates were counted by shillings, not by pence, and I rather fear that my juvenile essay cost more than it was worth. Two or three years later I yearned for the distinction of print, but mistrusting the impartiality of the paternal judgment on my verdant performances, I determined to write my production in a feigned hand and to transmit it anonymously to the editor. Church controversies were beginning to rage furiously at the time. An eminent dignitary had affronted a certain religious community by saying that he did not think the erection of their new place of worship would conduce to the well-being of the Church of God, and I felt moved to enter the lists as a champion of religious equality and tolerance. The letter fell in with my father's views on the question, and I had the satisfaction not only of seeing my heated protestations appear in the Mercury, but of hearing b xviii AN INTRODUCTORY R KTIM »SI'K« T the probabilities of their authorship gravely dis- cussed iu the family circle. Encouraged by this success, I followed it up by other anonymous contributions on public topics. They included a series of five letters on " Immigra- tion," at that time an urgent need of the Colony. Another long production discussed a proposal — most fortunately nipped in the bud — to bring convicts to Natal for the execution of public works. At last, through some accident or suggestion, my father got on the track of his anonymous contributor, and ap- pended to the last of my letters a footnote of decidedly snubbing tendency. I never spoke to him on the subject, but confined myself henceforward to such composition as came in the way of ordinary duty. Looking, however, further afield, to quarters where my age and personality might be unknown. I sent con- tributions to the South African Commercial Advertiser, at Capetown, at that time under the conduct of Mr. John Fairbairn, long recognised as the ablest writer and most statesmanlike politician in South Africa — outside the public service. The first of these com- munications, which continued for some years, was on the question of Confederation, so that as far back as 1856 that absorbing theme had engaged my thoughts and pen. In 1857 the Cape Monthly Magazine first appeared. One of the editors was my good friend of later years, Professor Noble. To him I sent some lines on "A Zulu Massacre," and also a paper on " Colonisa- AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XIX tion." Both promptly appeared, and elicited kindly and appreciative letters from the Professor, with whoin np to the time of his death, more than twenty years after- wards, I maintained a constant and most agreeable correspondence. I became a regular contributor to the Magazine, in verse, in fiction, and in descriptive essay. Whether the time thus spent might not have been more usefully employed in graver studies is, I must now admit, more than probable, but the enjoy- ment I derived from these efforts can only be under- stood by other young aspirants in the literary field. It was one of my ambitions to establish a monthly magazine in the Colony itself, but successive efforts in that direction bore no result. The time was far from ripe for any such venture. A quarterly periodical called the Natal Review was issued for a time under the auspices of Bishop Colenso, but it failed to com- mand adequate support. Some verses I published in it, entitled " A Zulu Mother," were pleasantly noticed. A very modest literary development was started on my own initiative in 185 9 in the form of a " Christmas Supplement " to the Natal Mercury. I was the sole contributor to the first issue, which consisted in the main of a would-be humorous sketch headed " Mrs. Mitfins's Experiences." It also contained some patriotic stanzas entitled " The Home Land : a Colonist's Song." This was the forerunner of an annual series which con- tinued for several years. It was not until 1868 that I gained entry into any Home periodical, and it was in XX AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT the hospitable pages of the Cornhill Magazine that 1 first met the British reader. " A South African Watering- Place" was the theme ; and its novelty probably won me ingress into that famous monthly, to which from the first issue I had been a subscriber. Two or three other contributions thereto followed at intervals, to the great satisfaction of the writer. I shall never forget the surprise and exultation I felt when, in November 1868, I chanced to take up from the counter of a London bookseller the October number and found in it two articles from my pen. I had only a week or two before arrived in England, and during the voyage had amused myself by prepar- ing a long and rather elaborate account of " The South African Gold Discoveries," then in their earliest infanc} 7 . This article was accepted by the Cornhill and put into type. I had corrected the proof - sheets before leaving for Italy, and looked forward to the appearance of the essay in the January number. Imagine therefore my disappoint- ment on receiving in Rome a note from the editor, regretting that the receipt of contradictory tidings from South Africa had made it inexpedient to pub- lish the contribution. It was quite true that the first discoveries of gold in Matabeleland had been dis- credited by premature and sinister denials, but sub- sequent events have not only borne out the accuracy of the narrative, but have shown how immeasurably below the mark the predictions of that time were. I may AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT xxi add that in the years which immediately followed, the Westminster Review, Frasers Magazine, and All the Year Round found room for contributions on such topics as "South Africa," "The Pilgrim Fathers," "The Future of the British Empire," and " A Voice from the Colonies on the Colonial Question." At that time apathy, ignorance, and pessimism were the prevailing notes on all Imperial and colonial questions, and it seemed a duty to do what one could to propagate a truer and more inspiriting faith. Any tendency I may have had towards literary work was confirmed and strengthened by a success which closely identified my name with the first official hand- book on the Colony. In 1856, when I was seventeen years of age, the Government offered three prizes, of £50, £25, and £15 respectively, for the three best essays upon Natal as a field for immigration. Encouraged by my father, I determined to compete for one or other of these distinctions, and proceeded very care- fully with the work. Gathering information from all quarters, and reducing to manuscript the impressions of boyish years, I covered 150 foolscap pages with a discursive, though not unmethodical, survey of the land which had been our home for the past six years, and confidently despatched it to the three scholarly gentlemen who had been chosen as judges of the rival essays. The remark casually made to me by one of the arbiters, to the effect that mine was a long way ahead of its competitors in amplitude and information, XXII AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT led me confidently to await the result; and I was not a little disappointed when it appeared to find that the first prize had been jointly awarded to two of the essayists, myself and another, and that the residue of the funds was to be applied to the compilation from both our manuscripts of a separate and expanded monograph from the facile pen of Dr. Mann, who had recently come to the Colony in quest of health and rest. My share in the authorship of this volume was duly acknowledged in the preface, and I had the satis- faction of finding that a large proportion of the pages was practically a reproduction of my own matter, revised or paraphrased by the gifted compiler. The association thus established with Dr. Mann, who for several years acted as the first Superintendent of Edu- cation in Natal, and was subsequently Natal Emigration Agent in London, was the source of much subsequent benefit and pleasure. Meanwhile, as time went on, editorial cares and duties multiplied, and political responsibilities accumu- lated. Both left little leisure for purely literary diver- sions. The Natal Mercury gradually developed from a weekly issue into a bi-weekly, a tri-weekly, and finally, in 1877, into a daily publication. With the exception of those periods of absence which were spent in visits to the old world, I kept practically the whole of the leader-writing in my own hands ; primarily because I liked the work, and partly because it was extremely difficult to find any one who could be trusted to say AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT xxili exactly what one wished to say on any given subject. In a small colonial community the personality of an editor counts for much. He is directly responsible in the eyes of the public for the opinions and utterances of his journal. He is known to everybody, and this is particularly the case where and when he happens to be also an active representative politician. The diffi- culty of detaching or dissociating the editorial critic from the responsible legislator has always been a cause of solicitude and anxiety. Looking back over the past, I am surprised that it has not been attended by greater complication and trouble. No doubt much unnecessary strain might have been saved had I been content to depend more upon the help of others. Seven years have elapsed since I relinquished active connection with editorial work, and it is comforting to find how successfully and well that work is done by others. In 1861 occurred the greatest event of my earlier life. For years I had yearned with a mighty longing to see a little of the vast outer world — to breathe the air of an older civilisation — to come into touch with the past — to realise by sense what books had im- pressed upon mind and imagination. The acquisition of an active and zealous colleague enabled me, a few months after my father's passing, to gratify this desire. A friend — much older than myself — wanted to travel homeward by way of Mauritius and the Red Sea, then an unattempted route. He wished for a companion, and XXIV AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT one morning ho spent all his powers of persuasion in urging me to accompany him. At first it seemed a wild and preposterous idea, on the score of expense, and in view of my own ordinary engagements. But the idea being planted, grew with astounding rapidity. It possessed and overpowered me. It converted a craving into a passion. That night I got no sleep, thinking of my friend's arguments, and consumed by my own de- sires. The next day I communicated with my partner on the subject, and he lent a sympathetic ear. He saw difficulties, however, and so did others, but as the event proved they were not insuperable. At any rate they disappeared under the stress of my eagerness. One after another they were disposed of. Through the kindness of friends I was able to borrow the neces- sary funds. Other friends offered their help as writers for the Mercury during my absence. They all recog- nised the educational value of the proposed expedition. Three weeks after the proposal had been mooted, I stood on the deck of the Village Pride, a cranky little brig of 160 tons, with 100 sovereigns stitched by loving hands into a belt that I wore next my skin, with a letter of credit for £200 in my pocket-book and with a heart as full of enthusiasm and expectation as ever throbbed in a youthful pilgrim eager for novelty and experience. Never were time and money better spent than on this journey. Tt gave life; and tixity to all the desul- tory reading of previous years, and stored the mind AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XXV with impressions and recollections that have never been effaced. They are as vivid to-day as they were at the moment. During the year of my wanderings, the panorama of history seemed to unfold itself under my eyes. Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, the Isles of Greece, Athens, Sicily, Calabria, Naples, Rome, and Paris were all touched and trodden, and London, the final goal where the second, and last, Great Inter- national British Exhibition was that year held, closed the pilgrimage. How well do I remember the early morning in late winter when, followed by a boy bearing my bag, I exultantly trudged from London Bridge Station, across the river and past St. Paul's, to the quiet little inn in Norfolk Street, where I had decided to take up my first quarters ! I piloted myself along the much-conned route without an error, and thought the murky air of the mighty metropolis more enchant- ing than the divinest ether of the Orient or the South. The five months which followed were another period of experience and revelation. Though London was, as it has ever been, the centre and focus of interest and activity, both England and Scotland were visited from end to end. The introductions I bore with me opened, when delivered, hospitable doors. Kind friends everywhere — though never seen before — offered cordial welcome, and the old country, indeed, proved itself to be " Home." A short summer trip to the Continent, with three South African companions, gave me plea- sant glimpses of Belgium, Holland, Rhineland, and of xxvi AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT Paris again, while the whole expedition was closed by a voyage back to South Africa in a noble " frigate-built " sailing-ship, the St. Lawrence, Indiaman, Since then I have travelled northward many times, and have paid five visits to Italy ; but the memory of that first trip (I do not count the original voyage out, as a child, in the category) is fresh as ever, as my friends know, perhaps, to their cost. It was the turning-point of my life, and enabled me to see events and things in their true proportions. It gave me standards of estimate and comparison apart from those that came within the narrow sphere of merely local observation. The world outside and the world of the past became concrete realities, not abstract expressions. The passionate cravings of the poet in "Locksley Hall" had rung in my ears ever since I chanced to read them, and — "... Heard my days before me, and the tumult of my life ; learning for the large excitement thai the coming years would yield, Eager-hearted as a hoy when first he leaves his father's field, And at night along the dusky highway near and nearer drawn Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn ; And his spirit leaps within him to be gone 'before him then Underneath the light he looks at in among the throngs of men." Yet let me also add, with infinite thankfulness, that the joy of travel amidst old-world scenes and sur- roundings lias only abated in so far as the ardour of youth lias been moderated by the sobriety of age, AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XXV11 cand that an added and a purer zest has been found in those experiences when shared with the cherished companions of my life. It was during this first visitation northward that I made my debut as a public lecturer. The friend with whom I had travelled homeward persuaded me to give a lecture on " Natal " before a small provincial audience in the quiet little town of Woodbridge, in Suffolk. It was a daring venture, as I had been in the dentist's hands, and a swollen face was not con- ducive to a favourable effect. As every one present, except my friend, was absolutely a stranger, consider- ations of vanity were overborne by his importunity ; and I daresay that the temporary disfigurement was regarded as normal by my bucolic auditors. I sub- sequently delivered the same lecture before much larger and more critical gatherings — and under less painful physical conditions — in Aberdeen and Glas- gow ; and as listeners seemed appreciative, I suppose the effort was not unsuccessful. It was published subsequently by Street & Co. as a sixpenny guide to the Colony. That was the first venture in book form for which I was individually responsible. After my return to Natal, having felt my feet on the rostrum, I lectured — always by request and without fee — on many subjects and occasions. It was very difficult in those days to find persons ready and willing to take the platform in such a capacity, and having once broken the ice it was no easy matter XXVlll AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT to withstand the appeals that were made on behalf of the many public institutions that sprang up all over the country for " the improvement of the mind " ; though I was ever conscious of being but inadequately equipped as a public teacher. I think that the lecture which gave its author the keenest enjoyment was one on " Charles Dickens," accompanied by illustrative readings. The genius of that marvellous writer never failed to evoke the enthusiasm of the appreciative colonists, who, often in remote localities, responded with laughter, or with tears, to the magic of his unmatched creations. Of this, and other lectures delivered in out-of- the-way country places, many anecdotes might be told did space permit. I can truly say that as much pleasure was derived from addressing a handful of pleased and grateful auditors under the unceiled thatch roof of some rural shanty, as in appearing before a crowded and fashionable assembly in one or other of the towns. Sometimes the lecturer would have to spend the night as the guest of a friendly neighbour. At others he would have to ride back by moonlight along lonely bush-paths, or in the dark, with a lantern-bearer, possibly, to guide him. Once, when camping out, he returned to his tent to find it robbed of the morroAv's provender by a prowling dog. I may here add, that whatever my own performances as a lecturer may have been — or may not have been — they were far outstript by those of my old associate AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT xxix and later colleague, Mr. Escombe, whose discourses on astronomical subjects held his audiences spellbound. Lasting for an hour and a half, replete with elabo- rate figures and calculations, and delivered without a note or a break, they were marvels of fluency and exposition. Though there were no schools of elocution in Natal opportunities for practice in that art were not wanting. The first time I ever spoke in public was at a library meeting in a little village, and the agonies of nervousness I then endured were but the prelude of many a similar experience. Though circumstances have often forced me to speak without premeditation, I prefer, if possible, to have more or less time for preparation. Yet to this day it is a moot question with me whether it is best to prepare elaborately or not at all. Everything de- pends upon the occasion, the subject, and the physical condition of the moment. Most true it is that " out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh " — best and most effectively, but the body must also be in tune, and the tongue will be not the less persuasive if memory has had opportunity to equip it with some suitable phrases. The longest speeches are certainly not the most successful from a rhetori- cal point of view, though they may be unavoidable. Five minutes' earnest speaking will often produce better effect than hours of laboured exposition, and there cannot be a doubt that with the multitude XXX AN IXTKOIXVTOIIY KKTUOSrECT delivery is a greater factor than language in the achievement of platform success. This reference to work as a public speaker, associ- ated as it has been with my labours as a journalist, naturally leads to that other aspect of my life which may be said to have been the direct result of both, namely, political and parliamentary activity. It was inevitable, under the circumstances I have named, that politics should become something more than an interest or a pastime. They soon became the absorbing pursuit of life. As in the sphere of physical development the fruits of men's toil and energy are more immediately manifest in younger than in older lands, so in the field of public or legislative work are the results of individual effort more quickly perceptible in a colony than in a parent country. In other words, a colonial politician has, I think, a greater sense of direct immediate power than he would, or could, have ordinarily in an older community. The stimulus to public service and effort is therefore all the more effective. Apart from the committee work of local institutions, or business connected with Church movements, two openings for representative aspirations presented themselves in Natal. One was in connection with municipal work, which never had any special attraction for me, and the other was in the direction of legislative action. It was the latter which from the first claimed and commanded all my sympathy and attention. AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XXXI At the age of nineteen, having taught myself the rudiments of shorthand (though never techni- cally proficient as a stenographer), I went to Maritz- burg to report the proceedings of the Legislative Council, then in the second session of its existence. That duty I discharged for four years, until the trip to Europe interrupted the work. Practically, therefore, I became associated with the parliamentary life of the Colony from the threshold of its exist- ence, and, in spite of my years, was on a footing of personal intimacy with the non-official members and, as far as as a non-member could be, was one of themselves. I shared the same quarters with most of them, first at the old Crown Hotel (which still stands), and later at the Victoria Club, of which I was one of the earliest members. Admitted to their full confidence and often participating in their private consultations, I was frequently able to be of use in the drafting of resolutions and reports, and may be said, therefore, to have served a practical apprentice- ship to the calling of a Colonial Legislator. Six months after my return from Europe (in March 1863), when I was just twenty-four, one of the two mem- bers for Durban announced in my hearing his intention to resign, and a very few days afterwards a well-known and active townsman of electioneering proclivities suggested to me that I might fill the vacant place. I did not deny that the proposal was agreeable, but submitted that the electors might probably desire xxxil AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT an older candidate. That, he said, would be their business, not mine, and the end of it was that before many days had passed I was the recipient of a requisi- tion headed by the mayor of the borough, and signed by a number of voters so large and influential that I felt justified in at once accepting it. The retiring member, however, vigorously opposed the candidature of one so young and inexperienced, " a slip of a boy," who ought rather to be learning his lessons than aspiring to a seat in the legislature. A good many others, and especially men who supported the exist- ing official regime, followed his lead. They put for- ward as an opposing candidate an estimable retired officer of the East Indian Service, a gentleman of independent means, but of no special political experi- ence. He and I maintained the most cordial relations all through the contest which followed. At a meeting called to hear us address the electors he excused him- self from much speaking on the ground that he was a soldier, " not a scribbler," and that his weapon had been the sword, not the pen. That meeting was a momentous occasion to me, as I had done no political speaking so far, and was quite in the dark as to my ability to face a heated or hostile audience. Warmly encouraged by sympathetic friends, however, I got through the ordeal without discredit. Public opinion was percep- tibly on the side of the " young horse," and not the less so because he was " agin the Government " AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT xxxiil in a general way. After speaking for half-an-honr there was a good deal of heckling, in which I did not seem to come off second best. A little chaff goes a long way on such occasions, and the meeting broke up in high good-humour. It was a lively but not embittered contest. I made a house-to-house canvass of the constituency, and met my committee every night of the week, when each vote was care- fully classified and discussed. Never had a youngster a more enthusiastic or devoted body of supporters. Placards, skits, colours, favours, and banners were the vogue of the day. In those days " treating " was not impermissible, and I fear that a good deal of money was squandered in that way by both sides. When the two polling-days arrived the whole place was given up to the excitement of the struggle. There were less than 300 votes to be registered, and each had a solid and obvious value. The sandy roads did not permit of wheel traffic, so carriages were not in evidence, but horses were in great request. I do not think that the actual result was ever doubtful, but the struggle continued keen to the end, when a majority of about two to one placed me at the top of the poll. After the declaration had been made I was carried round the town in a chair on the shoulders of cheering electors, whose ardour and ex- citement sometimes threatened to plunge me in the sand. It was distinctly one of the perilous periods of my life, but it fortunately ended without disaster. XXXIV AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT Not that the election was finally over. When the next session of the Council opened, the Governor declined to swear me in on the ground of a formal irregularity, but that incident will be found recorded elsewhere. Thus began a legislative career which has lasted, with one or two intervals of rest, up to the present time. This record of thirty-seven years is, I think, in point of length at this moment almost, if not quite, without parallel in South Africa. It not only covers nearly the whole of my own active life, but it covers also nearly the whole parliamentary life of Natal. To itttempt any narrative of it would be to review the political history of the Colony throughout the period, a task which is altogether beyond my present scope or purpose. Succeeding chapters embody the more salient aspects of my experience as a representative, and all that I need add here is a brief statement of the chief aims that have engrossed me — of the prin- ciples that have governed my action — of the main objects for which I have striven, and of the more memorable incidents that have marked my experience of public service. Looking back to that far-off time when I first entered the legislative arena, I think that I may without any arrogation of superior rectitude, say that my aim was from the start to be useful and inde- pendent. Taught from a child to detest prescription, intolerance, and subserviency ; confirmed by study in AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XXXV love of freedom and admiration of patriotic service ; taught by observation to appreciate the necessity of expansion and progress, I merely trod the only path that seemed to stretch in front. Nor, in fact, had I any incentive to do otherwise. Time-serving or self- seeking found little favour in those days from any class of colonist. In small and isolated communities public representatives speak and act in the white light and under the searching scrutiny of keen and constant observation. Woe to any lapse of faith or conduct on the part of a chosen and trusted recipient of public confidence ! I can truly say that under such con- ditions the better part is also the easier part to play, and that singleness of purpose, incorruptibility of action, and fidelity to duty are in the long run and at all times their only great and exceeding reward. It would be quite impossible to refer, no matter how generally, to the various questions and measures that have at different times engaged my attention. I took the position and duties of a legislator — even in the limited area of a small South African colony — very seriously. Natal was a new country, Avith all its future to be made and shaped. Natal was a part of South Africa, and South Africa was a part of the Empire. Those were elementary thoughts, never absent from my mind. They probably led to the recognition, at a very early stage, of three great car- dinal lines of policy, which should dominate all others. Railway Extension, Responsible Government, xxxvi AX INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT and South African Union represented this trinity of political aspirations. The one would develop and enrich the Colony, and link it with its neighbours. The next would give it freedom, dignity, and self- rule. The last would merge the narrower provincial life into the larger and nobler national existence, and help on the evolution and consolidation of the then formless and embryo empire. It has been my good fortune to witness and assist in the realisation of the first two of these policies, while the last seems nearer its fulfilment than it has ever been. In one of the chapters which follow I sketch the progress of railway extension in Natal from the time when, just forty years ago, the first line opened for traffic in South Africa began work at Durban, to the day when it fell to my lot, as Prime Minister, to link the final rails connecting the Natal system at Heidelberg, in the Transvaal, with the rest of the railway systems of South Africa. In another chapter I recount the steps and struggles which led up to the establishment of responsible government in 1893, and in a third I endeavour to trace the action and attitude of Natal in connection with her neigh- bours. So far as railways and responsible government are concerned, I see no cause for regret in the retrospect, nor do I believe that the coming federalisation of South Africa will prove in any degree less conducive to the welfare of all who may be affected, noAv or AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XXXV11 hereafter, by its achievement. I may add here that the cause of Confederation engaged my thoughts long before I became a responsible politician. How it came to attract my fancy as a boyish dreamer, I cannot now explain or recollect, but it did so. In 1857 I published in Capetown articles dealing (1) with the whole question of Colonisation from historical, Anglo-Saxon, and colonial standpoints, and (2) with Confederation as a goal of South African policy. In addition to speeches and writings in the Colony during subsequent years, in 1869 I treated the same subjects in papers read before the Society of Arts and the Royal Colonial Institute, and subsequently in con- tributions to Home periodicals. In 1876 the Legis- lative Council appointed me one of its three delegates to the South African Conference held that year in London under Lord Carnarvon's presidency, and in 1887 the same body chose me as its sole representative at the first Imperial Conference, held in London just before the Queen's first Jubilee. A year later I was again one of three delegates at the first South African Customs Conference, that was the precursor of the Conference which, ten years later (after my retirement from office), brought Natal for the first time into the pale of the Customs Union. It was a cause of profound disappointment to me that I was debarred by the collapse of my health from accepting the invitation which Mr. Chamberlain addressed to the Premiers of the self-governing XXXVlll AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT colonies, with their wives, to take part in the cele- bration of her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It was the receipt of that invitation which deter- mined me, under medical advice, to retire from both official and public life, and seek that rest which was imperatively enjoined as an absolute condition of the case. As it was manifestly necessary that Natal should be represented on so unique and his- torical an occasion, and being physically incapable, for the time being, of taking part in the proceedings, I deemed it my duty to make way for a more fortunate successor, and in the person of my old associate and colleague, the late Mr. Harry Escombe, the Colony had a worthy and most successful representative in that marvellous demonstration of an Empire's loyalty and enthusiasm. Of the many experiences in my life that have seemed to me at the time to be memorable — the one which stands out most prominently — is the occasion when, on May 5, 1887, together with all the other delegates at the Colonial Conference of that year, I was received by her Majesty at Windsor, and placed in her hands the casket which contained the address of congratulation from the town of Durban on the attainment of her Jubilee. It was the realisation of long hopes and dreams, cherished in remote South Africa, amidst wild colonial conditions and naked savage races, to whom the Great White Queen, though far off and unseen, was yet a presence and a power. AN INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT XXXIX From ray mother's lips in a northern home I had first heard of that Qneen, and all my life up the idea of her personality had been a very vivid and ever present association. To see her and to hear her in the ancient home of her ancestors, and to do this as one of the spokesmen, gathered from all parts of her world-wide Empire, was a privilege that I had never looked for. All the circumstances of the reception — its stately yet simple ceremony, its gracious cordiality, its restriction to the delegates themselves, above all, the pathos and dignity that invested the central figure — were in har- mony with one's expectations and with the occasion. The calm and quiet which pervaded the Castle and its precincts well befitted the august position of its mistress, " Queen of innumerable realms," to whom " The envoys of her Empire " thus bore the collective and the individual tributes of their love and homage. At least eleven out of those twenty-five colonial representatives have since passed to their account, but to each one of them the memory of that day must have remained a precious possession to the last. A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA CHAPTER I THE OUTGOERS Some twenty-three years ago a visitor from South Africa called upon an eminent firm of publishers in London to make inquiry concerning a certain manu- script that had been left with them many months before. It was the work of a busy man who had been relegated to private life by his constituents in conse- quence of political differences which, for the time being, had placed him on the unpopular side. In other words, having been released at a recent election from legislative duties, I had occupied my unwonted hours of leisure by the production of a novel. Mr. Lamprey, who then filled the position of Librarian to the Royal Geographi- cal Society, a post held by him to the time of his death, was primarily responsible for the genesis of that work. We had both lamented the lack of interest and apprecia- tion which then prevailed in regard to British colonisa- tion, and he had suggested that a work of fiction setting 2 \ LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA forth as simply as might be the early experiences of British colonists in the southern world might prove useful and popular. On my return to South Africa, being, for the reason I have named, in command of the time required for such a literary diversion, I set to work and wrote " George Linton ; or, the First Years of an English Colony." Confided to the care of a friend in London — whose younger brother was himself a very eminent novelist — the manuscript had been submitted to different publishers and readers, without having as yet found acceptance. The theme was not then as fashionable as it has since become. For some time past I had heard nothing of the venture. Being in England on official business, and armed with a letter of intro- duction from a mutual friend, I called upon the firm with whom the package had last been left. The genial head of the publishing house, when the matter had been named, gave an exclamation of relief and pleased surprise. " Was it in a little case about this size ? " he eagerly asked. I replied in the affirmative. " Then it is not dynamite," he rejoined, with obvious satisfaction. That the humble and inoffensive offspring of my brain should be capable of such, a classification was too as- tounding a proposition to need denial. Nor did the effect it subsequently produced upon the public mind in any way justify such an imputation of explosive quality. I could not help feeling, however, that the relief engendered by the discovery that the little case did not contain either dynamite or any other " infernal " THE OUTGOERS 3 compound or contrivance contributed to the favourable reception accorded by the publishers to the contents. It appeared that somehow the case had been left with- out address or explanation. It was a time when dyna- mite " scares " were rife, when " outrages " were not infrequent. The mysterious little package, of sinister size and aspect, with neither owner nor sponsor, had been, not unnaturally, regarded as "suspect," and had been suffered to remain in the cellar, untouched and unmolested, until such time as circumstances might lead to its identification. So "George Linton" appeared in the autumn of 1876. Though the edition was, I believe, sold out, the book was hardly to be regarded as a success. Owing perhaps, to its own defects, and also to the prevailing indifference at that time to colonial subjects, the recep- tion given to the book was only lukewarm. The writer had striven to be realistic, but as the reality itself excited neither interest nor enthusiasm, the effort was necessarily a failure. One journal, it is true, and the one whose good opinion I valued most, gave it the dis- tinction of a long and even flattering review. The Spectator closed that kindly notice by asking "for more." I had originally intended to follow up " George Linton " by other recitals of experience and adventure, but more pressing duties and labours supervened, and both impulse and opportunity were lacking. I have been told that " George Linton " failed in not being either one thing or the other. It was not sum- 4 A LIFE TIME TN SOUTH AFRICA ciently either all fact or all fiction. I now propose, without any drafts upon imagination, to recall from the recollections of fifty years' life as a colonist certain re- miniscences that may serve to illustrate the birth and the growth of a British colony during the last half of the present century. Of all the decades covered by the history of Anglo-Saxon colonisation, the " fifties " of the nineteenth century were in a social sense the most pro- lific and significant. They were in a peculiar sense a period of fertilisation and seed-time. It was then that to Australasia and South Africa the stream of outgoing population flowed forth from the parent shores. In the first case gold discoveries were the magnetic power that drew men southward. California had already, during the closing years of the previous decade, been the goal of a similar migration. In South Africa the golden lure was not to operate until the century should near its close. As far back as 1820 a body of British settlers had emigrated to the eastern province of the Cape Colony, there to be the pioneers of a thriving com- munity. They were succeeded by no others until a speculative Irishman — one Joseph Charles Byrne— or- ganised a scheme of emigration to Natal. He had ob- tained from the young Government there certain grants of land, upon which he proposed to plant English settlers, who for a payment of £10 each were to receive, per head, a free passage out and twenty acres of ground in the colony. Both bait and grant were ridiculously small — at that time the normal area of a South African THE OUTGOERS 5 " farm " was 6000 acres — but they sufficed to tempt forth the class which of all others was perhaps the least fitted for the life that lay ahead. Society at that time was suffering from the effects of speculative madness. The great railway gamble, in which George Hudson was the dominant figure, had blasted many fortunes and ruined many households. People of all classes, but especially middle-class folk, had been smitten hard. Persons accustomed to more or less comfort, if not affluence, had risked all their possessions, only to find themselves and their families — had they any — stripped and destitute. With little, if any, prospect of speedy retrieval in the old country, the lure of golden opportunities in un- known lands beyond the sea to men in such plight was irresistible. They were the easy prey of the wily specu- lator. Reckless of their own inexperience and ignorance, they accepted the terms offered them with a confident optimism that took no heed of warnings or of facts. They were told that the African land to which they were being beguiled was fair and goodly, with a soil of marvellous fecundity and a climate of rare excellence. " Port Natal " was in their eyes a Land of Promise, where two crops, at least, could be reaped yearly, and life was free from the hard conditions that beset it in the old world. So in dozens, in scores, and in hundreds, they took their passages and packed up their traps, and set sail in one or other of " Byrne's ships," to begin from the moment of their setting foot on board a piteous and inexorable process of disenchantment. 6 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTII AFRICA Half a century has passed since those days, but my recollections of that first voyage are as vivid as ever. The experiences of childhood are sometimes more deeply graven on mind and memory than are those of a much later age. One or two of them may be worth recalling, as there are none such nowadays, when gigantic steam- ships — those " mighty shuttles of empire " — carry men to and fro across the ocean with a speed and comfort of which passengers fifty years ago had no conception. In 1850 hardly one steamship had yet crossed the Equator. The vessels which bore the emigrants were sailers, mostly, though not always, of an inferior class. Badly found, poorly manned, horribly provisioned, they were abodes of misery to most of the wayfarers in them. The space between decks, where the latter herded, had been hastily fitted up in the coarsest fashion. The intermediate or second-class passengers had rough pens, miscalled " cabins," assigned to them, run up on either side, with a rough plank table and backless benches dividing them. The steerage passengers, whether married or single, occupied sleeping-berths opening end- wise direct upon the common feeding-space, with such curtains veiling them as, for decency's sake, the inmates might themselves provide. Admission to these dark and stifling depths was obtained by ladders fixed to common hatchways, down which the only light available found scanty ingress. Feeding arrangements were equally primitive. Once a week the stores, provided according to a dietary scale, THE OUTGOERS 7 were served out to both classes ; the recipients had to do the rest. The rough old "salt" dignified by the style of " cook " had charge of the " galley " on deck — an open stove, where he boiled or baked, in the order of their coming, the contents of the nets, cloths, or pans, promiscuously shoved into oven or boiler, as prepared by the owners below. Of the quality of the stores thus dealt with the less said the better. Bought in the cheapest market, subject to no inspection, in too many instances foul, rotten, weevily, such as in these days would be condemned as unfit for human food, it is marvellous that the stuff so consumed did not breed pestilence amongst those who had perforce to subsist upon it or to starve. That it failed to do so can only be ascribed to the counteracting effects of pure sea air. It is bad enough for hardy and seasoned seamen to live for months on impenetrable "biscuit" and leathery junk, but it is infinitely harder for women of softer fibre and gentler lives to have to do so — as did, with strangely little murmuring, Byrne's emigrants to Natal at that time. But, in truth, these experiences are best forgotten. There is no satisfaction in recalling their squalid aspects. I was a child then, and thought less of them than I should at a later age. Those upon whom the brunt of them fell — the mothers and the grown-up women — God bless their sweet and ennobling memories ! — have mostly passed to their rest, full of all the honour due to bravely-borne trials and patient toil. It is well, 8 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA however, that a later and more happily endowed genera- tion should know what sort of life the earlier outgoers of Greater Britain had to face and to endure in days that are not yet venerable. The ship in which I first sailed to South Africa was 117 days on the voyage from London to Natal, and 98 days from Plymouth to Durban. During that period she sighted land only once before the shore of South- east Africa rose in view. In the middle of the great South Atlantic, about half-way between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, three small islands rise out of the ocean. Of all the islets of the sea they are perhaps the most lonely. Tristan d'Acunha is the largest and the only inhabited one of the group. Its companions, Gough Island and Inaccessible Island, regard it bleakly from a distance. Stern and forbidding as is the aspect of the first-named, it nevertheless was a very welcome spectacle to the weary emigrants aboard. Live stock, poultry, and vegetables had long vanished from the gaze of the few favoured people in the cuddy, and when, the morning after we first sighted the island, Corporal or " Governor " Glass came on board with his crew of skin-clad islanders, and with a modest store of flesh, fowls, and sheep, he was welcomed as heartily as though he had been a gold-laced representative of the Queen he served. Some of our passengers rowed ashore at the back of the island in one of the ship's boats and never returned ; for the next morning a dead calm fell, and our ship — there being no safe anchorage THE OUTGOERS 9 — drifted in shore and got entangled in long masses of trailing seaweed. So closely were we drifting in towards the breaker-crested rocks that much alarm was felt as to the issue, and all the remaining boats were let down to do what their crews could to drag the ship's head off shore. It was an anxious time, and fears were freely expressed until, as afternoon drew on, a blessed breeze sprang up from the island and bore us merrily on our way. It would profit nothing in these days to recite the repulsive details of life in a mid-century emigrant ship. In the case of old and seasoned voyagers there might be some mitigation, but as most of the hapless passengers had never crossed the sea before, experience was seldom available. Tin pannikins and platters mostly formed the table equipage. Floors and tables were seldom if ever scrubbed. Scraped they were, as the voyage ad- vanced, at long intervals, the dirt of weeks being thus removed. Of the atmosphere 'tween decks the less said the better. For months or even years afterwards, the "smell of the ship" haunted the nostrils of the emigrants with a sense of loathing that no words can describe. Long before shore was neared the water supply ran short, and the foul contents of the wooden butts that did duty for tanks were doled out in pints and half-pints for the relief of palates parched by the sun of a southern summer. Occasional sips of lime- juice were more precious than nectar ever was. But why continue the dismal record ? I recall it now only 10 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA by way of encouraging a spirit of contentment with the happier conditions of the present time. Let those who grumble, as some do, at the food and accommodation enjoyed (and I use that word in its literal sense) on board the great ocean liners of to-day, think of the experiences which befell their forerunners, and be abashed by the contrast. And yet there are redeeming touches in the retrospect. The expansive influences of the sea as seen from deck, combined with the bitter lessons that were being learnt below, helped to train and fit the pioneers for the work before them. The majestic and ever-changing aspects of the encircling ocean must always have a tonic and bracing, if not an elevating, effect upon the human mind, while the hardships and privations of the new life schooled the sufferers for the business that awaited them ashore. As distance grew between the old world and the new, as the southern stars displaced the familiar constellations of the north, the emigrants became inured to novelty, and nerved to face with equanimity what- ever surprises or disappointments might be in store. There is much pathos in the vision of these slow and shabby little sailing-ships following each other across the mysterious ocean, each with its company of help- less, ignorant, trustful people, wandering to a wild and unknown country on the shores of savage Africa, in quest of a new home and a new life, amidst scenes and surroundings utterly alien to all past experience, and absolutely without any personal knowledge of the con- THE OUTGOEES 11 ditions they had to encounter. Had any of them been questioned as to their expectations in setting forth, the answer would probably have been largely tinged by recollections of "Swiss Family Robinson" or "Master- man Ready," or by the romantic stories of imaginative travellers and adventurous missionaries. But the voyage, with all its unsavoury associations, was soon forgotten when the emigrant- — or "immi- grant" as he then became — was once ashore. How passing fair the coast of Africa seemed on that Sunday morning in March when first we saw it closely ! For a month our ship had beaten up and, down the seaboard, vainly trying to make the roadstead of "Port Natal." Again and again foul winds had driven her out of her course and sent her southward ; but at last fate was kindly, and a light breeze off the land found us running cheerfully to the north-eastward, within full view of as soft and sweet a coast-line as ocean's surges lap. The shore of Natal is neither mountainous and frowning like that of the Cape of Good Hope, nor . flat and marshy like that of Delagoa Bay. It is hilly, sylvan, and singularly attractive. Every few miles, streams that have passed down wooded valleys run into the sea. From the strip of dazzling sand-beach below, upon which the breakers pound or croon incessantly, hills of modest height rise more or less abruptly. They are skirted with thick bush, over which the plumes of the dwarf palm or strelitzia droop grace- fully, while their grassy brows are dappled with patches 12 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of woodland. Beyond, the land rises rapidly to higher altitudes, seamed by deep gorges, but keeping a level continuity of outline until the far western horizon closes the pleasant prospect. The outlook from the sea reveals a luxuriant and attractive land, with a manifest capacity for tilth, depasturage, and home- making ; a wilderness, as we knew it to be at that time, but a wilderness, nevertheless, of bounty and of beauty. Africa as seen from the sea seemed an idyll. Africa as it proved to be ashore was disenchantment. Natal, when I first landed there, had only seven years been a British dependency. But eight years had passed since the Boer trek farmers fought with British troops for the possession of Durban. Ten years before that the country had been devastated by the trained hordes of Chaka. Though so young in the eyes of civilisation, the land had already a history, and a bloodstained one. Somehow, none of us thought anything about that as we drifted over the harbour bar in a flat-bottomed surf-boat. It was a fine day, and the sea was smooth, and the bush-clad bluff which guards the all but land- locked bay looked as beautiful as Ellen's Isle as we passed along it. Nimble and naked figures bounding along the sand-dunes opposite were taken to be baboons or monkeys, but we were told that they were " Kaffirs." That was our first introduction to the baffling savage. Not long had we to wait for a closer acquaintance, as the women and children of the party were borne ashore on the backs of laughing barbarians. THE OUTGOERS 13 Then began our first experience of the Dark Con- tinent. On a sand-mound above the landing-place stood the little block-house, with its garrison of a dozen redcoats, who then sufficed to uphold the majesty of British rule at that remote outpost of the Empire. Two or three old carronades of a type now extinct peeped harmlessly out of the undergrowth. Three or four small thatched cottages, with a more solid brick building in their midst — the Custom-house — represented commerce and civilisation on the threshold of the colony. A winding track, deep in sand, led for two miles through a jungly thicket mantled with sheets of gorgeous convolvuli to what was supposed to be the " town." Durban then consisted only of about a score or so of thatched shanties with walls of "wattle and dab," scattered about a trackless waste of blown sand, with clumps and patches of " bush " to redeem it from desolation. It was no uncommon thing for new arrivals to wander from end to end of the place without know- ing that they were there. The immigrants were mostly encamped in tents pitched on the outskirts of the bush, the rough wooden "barrack" provided for their accommodation being wholly inadequate for their needs. Some of them, who might have a little money in their pockets, were fortunate enough to secure tenancy of such small hovels (for to English eyes they were nothing better) as might have been erected and left by predecessors. Rougher or humbler abodes could hardly be imagined, and yet to women of gentle nurture M A LIFE TIME IN" SOUTH AFRICA they seemed havens of rest and comfort after the ships they had left. Nothing by way of domicile could be more crude. The floors were of mud smoothed over with cow-dung. Walls might or might not be white- washed. Doors and window-places might or might not be filled in with planks, calico, or matting. Ceil- ings were not. The little enclosure outside, which did duty for "cook-house," might or might not be roofed in, but it was certainly without grate or stove. Fires were lit upon the ground, and bits of stone held up the frying-pan, pot, or kettle which sufficed for culinary purposes. As for food, that was as it might be. Happy they who could manage to make and bake a loaf that was not leaden, or a " scone " that could be masticated. If firewood were not gathered amidst the surrounding bushes, it could be bought for twopence or threepence a bundle from the natives, who were also ready to sell fowls at threepence or sixpence each, and pumpkins, calabashes, or water melons at like prices. They also brought maize in baskets, with wild fruits, and es^s of doubtful age ; milk in bottles, too often half churned in transit, and with a flavour, alas ! all its own. Mats and baskets, reeds and brooms, of native workmanship also helped, at trifling prices, to equip the simple households of the pioneers. It is astonishing, when reduced to rudimentary con- ditions, with how few of the accessories of life civilised men can get along. Though it was the fashiou in those days to lament the conveniences and luxuries THE OUTGOERS 15 that had been left behind, I do not know, on looking back, that people were actually much the less happy because they had to do without so much and to be content with so little. With very few exceptions they were all in the same case, though those that had been used to least came off the best in the experience of privation. Yet not wholly so. It is worthy of note — it ought never to be forgotten — that the gentler bred of these outgoers faced their privations, in most cases, with a brave disdain of circumstance and a cheerful acceptance of their lot that might well be called heroic. Coarse and humble though their surroundings might be, they never forgot what they had been, and never ceased to be what they were. In those days casual travellers would often be surprised on reaching some distant homestead, and after begging there a night's lodgment — the common and necessary practice — to find within its rough walls and amidst its slender resources the unmistakable evidences of personal culture and refinement — the tell-tale accent, the stray books, the treasured print or picture, the manner, the allusion, and the mien, that betokened a different past. As an old colonist I love to think and am proud to write of these scattered households, veritable oases of gentle life in the wilderness, reproducing in savage Africa the best qualities of our race, and sending forth sons and daughters to perpetuate those qualities through other generations amidst the changeful conditions of a new land. 16 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Yet let me not be mistaken. I have no desire to imply that mere grade of birth or class secures any superior capacity for the work of civilisation. My only aim is to show that gentleness of birth or breeding was not in itself any disqualification for the rough- and-tumble business of pioneering. It is not less pleasant to be able to say that to people of humbler upbringing the colonist's life almost invariably proves a ladder that leads upward and onward. It means social advancement and mental expansion. Even to the original settler himself — possibly the home labourer, or artisan, or the cottage farmer — the life has a mellowing and broadening tendency. It is proverbial that pos- session of property develops the conservative instinct, and most effectively converts the restless agitator into the steadfast supporter of law and order. This truth is being constantly exemplified in the colonies. As his acres multiply and his wealth increases, the man who lands an eager and clamorous agitator or Socialist soon changes into a cautious and circumspect citizen, by no means anxious to upset existing systems or institutions, and always bent upon knowing the reason why. The less education he may have had himself, the more anxious he is that his children should have advantages denied to him. While, as regards himself, it is astonish- ing in many instances how soon the prosperous colonist of humble origin acquires a certain fitness for public duties and social responsibilities which would seldom have been open to him in older spheres. THE OUTGOERS 17 At that time, however, the sphere of public activity in Natal was as contracted as it could be ; at any rate in Durban, the seaport. The little inland town of Pieter- maritzburg was the seat of government and the centre of official authority, but on the coast signs of admini- strative activity were almost imperceptible. The collector of customs acted as magistrate, and he was supported by a badly-paid person in plain (and very shabby) clothes, known, politely, as a policeman. At first there was no place of confinement for prisoners, but ere long a tiny cottage was secured as a jail. Its walls were built of clay and twigs, and could easily be broken through by the hands of an enterprising inmate ; but the rigours of existence there were slight and escapes were rare. Unruly captives were clapped into the stocks, or handcuffed, while the certainty of a flogging if caught again acted as an effective deterrent upon efforts for liberty. Municipalities and juries were all unknown. Postal facilities came first as acts of grace on the part of the worthy old Baron, who was good enough to receive and to dispense the corre- spondence of the community. Commerce was trans- acted in an easy and dignified fashion which mocked any thought of vulgar competition. Storekeepers — there were no "shops" then — were gentlemanly and friendly persons, who did not disdain to exchange for coin or kind anything that their motley stocks might include, whether food, hardware, or dress. Wrapping- paper and twine being as yet superfluities, purchases B 18 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA were carried away in canisters, baskets, or bags by the grateful buyers. Civilisation in its rudimentary stages implies unconstrained equality, artless confidence, and cheerful content. It is sad to think how soon these qualities disappear as the community advances, never to exist again. It is something, fifty years later, to feel that one has witnessed life under such primitive, if not Arcadian conditions, and to know from actual experience that it is possible for European men to live, not unhappily, with so little to help, to guide, to serve, or to equip them in the struggle of existence. One's faith in human nature is strengthened, one's disdain of mere conventionalism is quickened, by the memories of those early days. Byrne's earlier emigrants were not long ashore before they discovered that the conditions under Avhich they had been decoyed across the sea were delusive and visionary. The lands promised them were unsurveyed and unsuitable. A twenty-acre lot was a ridiculously inadequate area under any circumstances as a means of subsistence. The cotton plantations of which they had heard existed only in imagination. It was still an open question whether cotton could be grown with success or not. As a rule the emigrants knew nothing whatever of agriculture, while those who had been accustomed to farm life in the mother country found their knowledge and experience all at fault in South Africa. Of cotton cultivation the whole were equally ignorant. Not many weeks sped before meetings were THE OUTGOERS 19 held, committees appointed, and memorials signed for the purpose of securing better terms. Unfortunately, the first Governor of the colony died early in his administration. His successor (Mr. Pine) had yet to arrive, and relief had to await his advent. When he landed in April 1850, from the little gun-brig em- ployed to convey him to his scene of duty, he found a band of Englishmen ready to meet him with a list of grievances worthy of their nationality; and it is but right to say that he at once perceived the hard- ships of their case, the justice of their claims, and the necessity of redress. So the twenty-acre lots became forty-five-acre grants, and other concessions were authorised. It is pleasant to know that some of the grantees personally occupied their allotments and left their mark in several localities of the colony. The story of their struggles would be an honourable record, and would suffice clearly enough to show how it is that the Anglo-Saxon has proved man- kind's best coloniser. Failures did not daunt nor disappointment outweary them. " The drawbacks of agriculture " became a common phrase of sinister sig- nificance. But still the pioneers strove and struggled on, and still the fair wilderness continued to blossom under their labours, while stubborn Nature wrestled with them for the produce of their hands. But this is a theme to which I shall return in a later chapter. My desire in these pages is to depict as briefly 20 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA as I can from my own experiences and recollections the evolution of a British colony, and if in doing so the recital should be somewhat grim, fidelity to truth compels me to make it so. With later developments brighter aspects may reveal them- selves. CHAPTER II THE GOVERNORS With Governor Pine's advent in Natal in 1850 there came to the infant settlement an era of change and progress. What ministries are under responsible government, that governorships are under Crown rule. The) 7 mark periods and indicate stages of development. Sometimes they make or mar reputations. It may be of interest to gather up here certain recollections of some of the governors I have known during the last fifty years. Two or three of them bore names that have since become famous. All of them were faithful. even though in certain instances misdirected, servants of their country. The position of governor in a colony which is still under the rule of the Colonial Office has no exact counterpart. If invested with the dignity of sovereignty, it is also weighted by all the cares of administration. Though in no sense responsible to the people of the land he rules, the governor is directly and personally responsible to the Ministers of the Crown he represents, who in their turn are responsible to the lectorate of the mother country. His ultimate responsibility is therefore to a power which knows little or nothing 21 22 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of the affairs he is called upon to deal with. The anomalies and difficulties besetting such a position are apparent. To a conscientious and high-minded man, sincerely anxious to do his duty to the people under him on the one hand, and to his chiefs in Downing Street on the other, these conflicting conditions are often intractable. Many a governor has succumbed to misfortune, not because he failed in duty or in purpose, but because he found it impossible to reconcile duty with obligation. In Governor Pine's days the position was made more onerous by the difficulties of communication. There were no telegraphs either by land or sea. For a year or two he was directly subordinate to the Governor of the Cape Colony; but correspondence with Capetown was often a matter of months. The need of immediate action sometimes made it impossible to await instruc- tions. A few months after Mr. Pine's arrival the "Kafir War" of 1850-54 broke out, and he was con- fronted by a critical situation of the most acute kind. Though the scene of outbreak was four hundred miles distant, the intervening country was occupied by kindred tribes, and the native population of Natal outnumbered by twelve to one the white inhabitants. Immediately beyond the northern border lived the Zulu people — the race of warriors who, less than twenty years before, had carried death and devastation to the confines of the older colony. Then, and for many years later, the only garrison in Natal was a small force of Imperial infantry, THE GOVERNORS 23 about 400 strong. The European settlers were unarmed and unorganised. Except at Maritzburg, forts and rallying-places were unknown. In such circumstances panic was inevitable, and panic is too often the parent of disaster. To understand aright the alarm begotten in such a community by sudden outbreaks of " native " rebellion or disorder, or by rumours of native invasion, one must have lived amid the prevailing conditions. The massacres which followed the great Boer " trek " into Natal were still vivid and ghastly memories. So lately as 1838, more than 600 men, women, and children had been surprised and slaughtered on Natal soil by the hordes of Dingaan. A few weeks later the handful of British settlers on the coast had been slain in combat by the exultant Zulu hordes, and all that remained of them at the port which is now known as Durban had been forced to take refuge on a small island in the bay. Not five years before these events settlers on the Cape frontier had been slain and their homesteads destroyed by insurgent Kafirs. Tales were rife of atrocities committed upon helpless women and children by savage assailants. The older settlers told the raw immigrants of their own tragical experiences in language whose vividness did not suffer by repetition. Those experi- ences might, it seemed, be at any time the lot of the later arrivals. The naked Kafirs, who mixed con- tinuously in their daily lives, were a constant reminder of these possibilities. At that time there were no rules 24 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA or regulations in force to restrain the actions of anybody. The natives roamed the so-called roads or footpaths in unbridled freedom, shaking their assegais, shouting their war songs, or brandishing their clubs and sticks as they stalked along, the embodiment of bloodthirsty barbarism. Far into the night they would chant their eerie songs, which blended with the dreams or disturbed the slumbers of their white neighbours and kept alive the day's alarms. ' It was no easy matter to pacify the minds or appease the clamour of people suffering under such excite- ments, and demanding protection or news. Governor Pine was a sympathetic, impulsive man, anxious to do something, but hampered by want of a free hand. One of his first projects was to organise a native force and march through Kafirland to the succour of the imperilled garrisons and settlers on the Cape frontier, but the proposal was vetoed as too precarious. Some doubt existed as to the absolute loyalty of the natives within the colony, and still more uncertainty prevailed as to the possible attitude of the Zulus beyond the northern border. Though the Zulu king, M'Pande, was a nominee and professed ally of the English Government, he might prove as treacherous as his brother and predecessor Dingaan, who fell upon and slew the Dutch pioneers while they were in the very act of negotiating a treaty with them. Then, and for many years afterwards, the "Zulu Avar cloud" brooded over the little colony, until in 1879 it was THE GOVERNORS 25 dissipated amid disaster and bloodshed by Sir Bartle Frere. As a matter of fact the colonists were at that time, and for long after, at the mercy of the natives around them. Had the latter chosen to combine and fall upon the settlers, they might have swept the country. Only their own intertribal differences, a salutary dread of the Boers, and the mighty though mysterious name of England availed to keep the peace which for fifty years, with but two interruptions, was the happy fate of Natal. Governor Pine knew how to make the most of all three influences. He kept the chiefs and tribes divided. He fostered and flattered Boer sensibilities. He invited deputies from Zululand to see the little garrison of redcoats at Maritzburg parading, to hear the voices of the small cannon at the fort there, and to watch rockets exploding. Insignificant though the demonstration was in point of magnitude, it sufficed to impress the un- tutored minds of the shrewd savages who witnessed it with a due sense of the resources of English war- power. They went back to their king and told him of the speetacle with natural embellishments of descrip- tive speech. The Governor was supported in his action by the counsel and co-operation of the head of the Native Department, Mr. Theophilus Shepstone, whose name has been so closely and prominently identified with the native affairs of South-east Africa during forty years. Not that the two were by any means at one in questions of native policy. It was no secret 26 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA that they differed widely on many points, but between them they managed to keep the natives in hand and the colonists in security while war was raging in the Cape Colony and Basutoland. An instance of the alarms that were frequent during this period may be cited. One winter evening a simple-minded, not to say silly, European arrived in Maritzburg with a sensational story. On the hills overlooking the town he had seen two large " impis " of armed natives evidently advancing on the town. That was all he had to tell, but it sufficed to spread the alarm from end to end of the scattered township. Everything in the shape of a gun was loaded ; windows were barricaded, and people went about the brook- skirted streets eagerly asking for news. Mr. Shepstone had the good sense to ride through the town in person, visiting each house and carefully advising the inmates to keep indoors, so as to avoid panic, but by no means to disregard preparedness or to ignore contingencies. The consequence was that all kept calm through that dark night, though none went to bed, while ears kept on the alert listening for the long drone — half hum half roar — with which Zulus beguile the war-path. That ominous sound, however, did not arise, and with the morning's light came the explanation. The alarmist had mistaken in the dimness of evening two droves of cattle for native impis ! A similar false alarm visited a country settlement on the high-road from Durban. The white inhabitants all THE GOVERNOKS 27 mustered together and spent the night in throwing up an enclosure, or laager, of sods and branches, within which they meant to hold their own, with their fami- lies, against the expected foe. The attack never came, but " Fort Funk," as it was derisively christened, re- mained a memorial of troubled times for many a day. The hastily-reared "bastion" is now a bushy mound, crowned by a summer-house ! Governor Pine's great abilities were unfortunately marred by personal eccentricities, which too often gave occasion to the reviler. In small communities, where people know each other's private affairs far too intimately, the memory of high and abiding public service is too often crushed out by personal animosi- ties or envenomed criticisms. Governor Pine gave Natal a magisterial system, municipal institutions, popular district control, trial by jury, administrative independence ; he did what he could to make roads and provide harbour improvement ; he settled the land claims of the Dutch farmers, and thereby did away with their chief grievance ; he encouraged the volun- teer system before it was established in Great Britain, and urged upon the Imperial authorities the necessity of legislative representation. He recognised the im- portance of keeping on good terms with the Dutch communities of the interior, and steadfastly discouraged race animosities or jealousies. All this and much more may be entered to his credit, yet his individual idiosyn- crasies won for him obloquy on the part of opponents 28 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and distrust on the part of his chiefs. Though the colonists at large generally recognised the value of his services, his erratic actions in minor or more personal directions too often obscured the value of his work. Had he been more humdrum, his career might have been less embittered. Mr. Pine left Natal in 1855 to return as Sir Ben- jamin Pine in 1873. During the interval many of his former adversaries had disappeared, but the remem- brance of his work was fresh in the minds of most of the older colonists, and he met with a warm welcome. Four months later he was called upon to cope with the only serious native rising that has taken place in Natal. The story of the Langalibalele rebellion is a long business, and has been told in many books. I shall have occasion later on to refer to that strenuous controversy. I only mention it here to show that Governor Pine retained to the end his old qualities of clear insight and statesmanlike impulse. The nettle of danger was there, and he did not hesitate to grasp it. Again sustained by the Secretary for Native Affairs, Mr. Shepstone, and by the sympathy of the whole colony, he took prompt and decisive measures to put down the insurrection and to punish the offenders. Those measures were completely successful, and they did not cost the mother country a penny. But in carrying out these measures incidents occurred which excited the ire and indignation of Bishop Colenso, and led him to champion the cause of the rebels with an ardour which fed itself. THE GOVERNORS 29 It is not uiy purpose here to re-enter that troubled field of contention. A quarter of a century has passed since the contest raged, but I see no reason to change the opinion which I held then, and lost no opportunity of expressing, namely, that both the Government and colonists were right in the course pursued, just as Sir Bartle Frere and the colonists were risrht in regard to the affairs of Zululand. Piles of blue-books and dozens of volumes have been printed on both questions, but convictions on either side pro- bably remain unchanged. No one desires to dispute the sincerity of the motives which inspired the Bishop and his English allies in their crusade against the local authorities, but not less sincere were the latter in their aim and purpose — the maintenance of British supre- macy and the guardianship of peace and civilisation. Though the term of Sir Benjamin Pine's second administration was short, it cannot be described as merry. It was embittered throughout by the Langali- balele affair and its consequent complications. In 1874 Mr. Froude, the historian, visited Natal and formed erroneous impressions on many points. He saw the country at its worst, parched by drought, blackened by grass fires, and generally upset by the late rebellion. These impressions, reproduced in his own fascinating style, created a prejudice which time has hardly yet outworn. That they greatly influenced the mind of the late Lord Carnarvon, whose unofficial emissary in a sense Mr. Froude was understood to 30 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA have been, is not denied. They led to the injudicious attempt to force on confederation, to Sir Garnet Wolseley's special mission to Natal, and to the abortive London Conference in 1876. Though that meeting bore no direct fruit, it was followed by the return of Sir Theophilus Shepstone to South Africa armed with the commission under which he subsequently annexed the Transvaal. What that meant we did not know then, but all the world knows to-day. A few days before the British flag was hoisted in Pre- toria, Sir Bartle Frere reached Capetown with larger powers than had ever before been confided to any Gov- ernor of the Cape Colony, and with a splendid concep- tion of the work that lay before him. A year later the last Kafir war broke out on the Cape frontier, to be followed in a few months by the invasion of Zululand. Once again Sir Garnet Wolseley was despatched to Natal, to supersede Sir Bartle Frere in his functions as High Commissioner, so far as South-cast Africa was concerned. Twelve months subsequently the last- named servant of the Crown and Empire left Capetown discredited and recalled, another victim to circumstance and misconception. Then followed in quick succession Sir George Colley's appointment as High Commissioner for South-east Africa; the war of independence, Laing's Nek, Majuba, and retrocession. What has happened since need not be set down here, but it is worthy of note that this long chain of varied and stirring events began with Governor Pine's successful repression of THE GOVERNORS S] Langalibalele's rebellion in November 1873. All that he, poor man, gained by bis action was obloquy outside the colony and humiliation within it. Sir Garnet Wolseley's first proceeding on his arrival in 1875 was to send for Sir Benjamin and to let him understand that his early departure from the colony would be conducive to Imperial interests. How bitterly this summary treatment rankled in the Governor's mind no one knows better than myself. Unfortunately he had, against the advice of friends, lingered on at his post until after the arrival of the Special Commissioner. Procrastination was in certain cases a weakness with him. It was a sad termination, however, to a useful, though chequered, career. Not often have England's African proconsuls borne homeward with them the full sheaves of their labours in that Dark Continent. Governor Scott succeeded Mr. Pine in his first term of office, and his experiences deserve more attention than can be given here. Charged with the inaugura- tion of a liberal though limited or " hybrid " con- stitution, he might confidently have looked forward to a popular and brilliant career, but he soon drifted into antagonism with the representative legislature, which it was his first duty to establish. He allowed himself to become imbued with the belief that the white colonists were hostile to the natives, he came too readily under the influence of the existing official clique, and he failed to give large and sympathetic effect to the spirit of the charter he had been called 32 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA upon to administer. No good end can be served at this distance of time by recalling incidents that are best forgotten. They were a natural outcrop of Crown government, now happily a fast diminishing quantity in British colonies. It is pleasant to remember, how- ever, that Mr. Scott remained long enough at his post to secure the recognition by the colonists at large of his many sterling qualities of head and heart, and that when he left after eight years of rule he bore with him abundant evidences of respect and regard. One little instance may serve to indicate the causes of Governor Scott's unpopularity. It had been my misfortune, as a very young man, to incur his Excel- lency's displeasure by criticisms in the press, which were, perhaps, more forcible than polite. I have little doubt now that they seemed to older men flippant and improper — youth is prone to excess. Unhappily the hostility thus engendered extended itself to other spheres of action. In 1863 I first entered the Legis- lative Council as one of the members for the seaport, and it was no secret that my appearance in that arena was regarded with disfavour at Government House. Among the many wants of the young colony at that time European immigration was regarded as one of the foremost. Governor Scott, whose general policy pointed to his conviction that Natal belonged rather to the natives than the white man, did not share that view, nor did he hide his opinions. One of my earliest legislative efforts was to move and carry a resolution THE GOVERNORS 33 asking that a sum of £5000 might be appropriated to purposes of immigration. That proposal was seconded by the oldest member — as I was the youngest — of the Council, and in accordance with custom it became our duty to present it in person as a " Respectful Address " to the Governor. To the viceregal presence, therefore, we betook ourselves one morning. In due course we were ushered into his Excellency's sanctum, and for the first and only time I had audience with him. The object of the address was briefly explained, and the document handed over. With angry mien and im- patient gesture the Governor received it, and ejaculated in wrathful tones : " Childish nonsense ! childish non- sense!" Possibly, had the object of this thrust been a few years older, the words would not have seemed so aggressive, but they sufficed to cut short the interview. " It may be that, your Excellency," was the rejoinder, " but it is, at any rate, the proposal of the Legislature of the colony." And bowing our adieux we left. Our next Governor, Colonel MacLean, had the rare distinction of being able to read his own obituary. An invalid to start with, he had soon to return to his old home in British Kafraria in quest of health. Thence issued one day the announcement of his death. A special Gazette was published containing the black-edged notification of the sad event. The local newspapers contained long and fortunately appreciative notices of the deceased's character and career. A day later came the authoritative contradiction of a report which C 34 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA was, however, only an anticipation of what actually happened a few weeks later. Poor Governor Keate's name and fate may be men- tioned as a melancholy instance of an empire's hard treatment of its servants. It fell to his lot to administer the government during a period of extreme depression. Trade collapsed and revenue dwindled. Finances had to be readjusted. The Legislature and the colonists insisted upon the equilibrium being restored by re- trenchment, and especially by the abolition of offices and the reduction of salaries. The Governor opposed this policy as an injustice to the service and as a breach of faith. He preferred rather to effect the process by the stoppage of public works and the increase of taxa- tion. A long and bitter struggle ensued, and in the end the Governor was rewarded — for persisting in a policy approved, if not proscribed, by his chiefs in Downing Street — by being "promoted" to the governorship of the Gold Coast colonies. His status there as a governor- in-chief was titularly higher, and his stipend was £4000 a year instead of £2500. But — the climate ! He had to exchange a healthy place of abode for the least healthy in the Empire. Necessity left him no alternative but to accept, and he went out, despite enfeebled health, to undertake his duties on those pestilential shores. Humour said that he had, in doing so, to sacrifice his insurance policies. The inevitable happened, and in a few weeks another name was added to the list of Eng- land's faithful but sacrificed proconsuls. THE GOVERNORS 35 Apart from the political differences which clouded his administration, Governor Keate's term of office was marked by many pleasant aspects. It improved and elevated the social tone. Government House for the first time became a centre of gracious and impartial hospitality, and no one impugned the conscientious sense of duty which guided alike the policy and the conduct of her Majesty's representative. Sir Garnet Wolseley's special administration in 1875 offered many points of interest. It was, as I have indi- cated, the outcome of misunderstandings connected with the rebellion of Langalibalele, and the attitude of the Government and settlers of the colony towards the natives. It was headed by a man who was described by one of his own lieutenants in the local legislature as " the strong arm of the British Army and the long arm of the British Empire." Lord Carnarvon selected the most brilliant soldier and most successful general in that army to remodel the constitution and reorganise the administration of the little South African colony. In undertaking this rather incongruous task, the o-allant commissioner was responsible for the boldest exploit of his life. He had to win success not by arms, but by the arts of peace. He had to persuade an unwilling colonial community to part with its legislative independence. He had to induce a colonial legislature voluntarily to efface itself. The existing Legislative Council of Natal consisted of five members nominated by the Crown, and fifteen members elected by the colonists. The Bill 36 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA which was at once submitted to the colony after Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival, proposed to substitute a body in which fifteen members would be appointed by the Crown, and only fourteen would be elected by the people, so that in the last resort the Crown would always be able to secure the passing of a in en sure, however un- popular or unpalatable it might be. The colonists of Natal have always plumed them selves upon being " English " in origin as well as in instincts and characteristics, and it was altogether improbable that they would part with their privileges — such as they were — without a struggle. Yet their loyalty was beyond question. Sir Garnet equipped himself for the work before him. He took out with him from England a " brilliant " staff of carefully chosen and specially qualified officers, who after arrival were all gazetted to positions of high local responsi- bility. Mr. Napier Broome Avas translated from the staff of the Times to the post of Colonial Secre- tary. Colonel Colley became Colonial Treasurer. Major Butler, who had acquired literary fame as author of " The Great Lone Land," was appointed " Immigration Agent." All these three had seats as official members in the Legislative Council. Major Henry Brackenbury acted as Private Secretary. Lord Gifford, with his lately- won Victoria Cross, was A.D.C. Never before had a representative of the Crown come to South Africa attended by such a galaxy of able and famous men. Arms, diplomacy, administration, literature, and pluck THE GOVERNORS 37 were all notably represented. Her Majesty's flagship Raleigh took the illustrious party on from Capetown to Durban. There were no cables in those days, and the first news we had in Natal of Sir Garnet's appointment and mission was followed by his arrival two days later. I was up-country at the time, and hurried down to Durban in complete ignorance of this latest move on the part of Imperial statesmanship. While sitting on the box of the post-cart, a few miles from the seaport, a "special extra" of the local journal was handed me by a passing traveller, giving particulars of the Administra- tor's advent. An hour or two later I heard from the lips of poor Governor Pine that he had already been asked to leave the colony at the earliest opportunity. He was bewildered, as we all were, if not stunned, by the sudden and startling stroke of policy thus swiftly de- cided upon and carried out. Next morning I had an interview with the genial Administrator, and subse- quently with Mr. Napier Broome, whose duty it was to have the objects and policy of her Majesty's Govern- ment fully explained to the colonists. In the evening- some of us dined with Sir Garnet at the first of those little functions which were subsequently said by a cer- tain witty judge to have " drowned the independence of the colony in sherry and champagne." As I voted against the proposed constitution, I can repeat this caustic saying without confusion. As a matter of fact, it not inaptly described the campaign upon which Sir Garnet then entered. Persuasion, not coercion, was his 38 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA motto. Better instruments for such a process could not have been chosen. Famous, gallant, gay, masterful, yet accessible and courteous, the brilliant general and his lieutenants did their best to disarm hostility and over- bear opposition by hospitality and personal charm. Space would fail me to describe the many amusing incidents that marked the Wolseley mission. One of graver import may, however, be given. It has already been referred to in print by Sir William Butler and Sir Henry Brackenbury. Theirs, of course, was the strictly Imperial point of view. Mine was that of the colonist — one of the colonists whose rights were being shorn. The new constitution, considerably modified already in compliance with local protests and repre- sentations, was to be considered in special session by the doomed Legislature. The hall occupied by the Assembly was crowded with eager spectators. Members sat in their cane-bottomed armchairs round a horse-shoe table. The Speaker, oddly clad in tail-coat and tartan trousers under his silken gown, was in his place. The galleries overheard were packed. The judges' bench behind was filled with gaily - dressed ladies. Every spare foot of room was occupied. " The Bill " had been called on for second reading. One or two less important introductory speeches had been delivered. Then came Colonel Colley's turn. As chief of the staff he would, it had been understood, deliver the principal speech in support of the measure. Alike popular anil respected, lie was the cynosure of every eye. If not sympathetic THE GOVERNORS 39 his audience was manifestly appreciative, and his lead- ing opponents greeted his rising with cordial cheers. He was carefully prepared with copious notes for his undertaking. No one doubted that he would do his best, by argument and moderation, to make his chief's mission a success. Amid profound attention he began his speech. In calm and measured tones the reputed strategist and accomplished soldier opened up his theme. For three or four minutes all went well, and then he hesitated, paused, looked at his notes and then at his auditors with that look of deprecation which in a public speaker means so much. A friendly and en- couraging note of applause went round the tables. Again the gallant officer seemed to pursue his thoughts vainly through the air. Again he rubbed his brow as though to dispel the mist that had obscured his memory, and then, murmuring gently, " Mr. Speaker, excuse me, I cannot proceed," he sat down, and, with his head resting on his hands, remained in gloomy silence as the debate proceeded. Members cheered as warmly as though the arrested speech had closed with a well-rounded peroration, but there was in the mind of every listener the keenest sense of regret and sym- pathy. I thought at the time, and still think, that Colonel Colley's collapse of memory and effort on that occasion was due to the distaste with which he, a high- minded Irishman, had undertaken a duty so repugnant to his instincts, and probably to his co nvictions. 40 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA This misadventure on his part only served, I think, to enhance the respect and esteem in which he was held in Natal. He did much good work in connection with administrative inquiry and reform, and when five years later he returned to fill the high position of Governor as well as High Commissioner for South-east Africa, he was welcomed with open arms by all classes of the community. Nor was there anywhere throughout the Empire deeper lamentation or more acute distress than prevailed in Natal when the terrible tragedy of Majuba was added to the thrilling episodes of those eventful years. If Colonel Colley had been beset by any misgiv- ings as to the wisdom or justice of the constitutional experiment attempted by Sir Garnet Wolseley, it was fully borne out by the result. The measure finally agreed upon by a bare majority of the Legislature left the nominative and elective elements in the new body almost evenly balanced, with the inevitable result that they only served to thwart and paralyse each other. Fortunately the measure was given but five years of life, and on Sir Garnet's own suggestion no effort was made to continue it when it had run its course. It simply lapsed by effluxion of time, and the old con- stitution came into force again, to be gradually amended and liberalised, until in 1893 what was practically a new charter, establishing responsible government in its full form, was adopted and approved. It was not the fault of Imperial statesmen that Natal did not earlier THE GOVERNORS 41 acquire her enfranchisement. In 1882 Lord Kimberley, through the hands of that able and popular Governor, Sir Henry Bulwer, offered the colony that boon, but the electors refused it by a substantial majority. The dread of unknown consequences, more especially as regards the natives, deterred the colonists from taking what to many of them seemed a perilous plunge. Eleven years were spent in further agitation and discussion before the advocates of a progressive policy succeeded in their crusade. Whatever other results may have followed the Wol- seley administration, it certainly lifted the politics of Natal to a higher and broader plane. It extended the political outlook of the colonists, and made them feel that they belonged to an empire as well as to a small bit of South Africa. It was an assurance to them that their interests were not wholly disregarded by the mother country. Though it left them, nominally, more of a "Crown Colony" than they were before, it gave them an expressed hope of rising to a better state hereafter. The mission may be said, I think, to have marked the birth of the new era of " Imperialism." If the present Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's forces ever looks back to that episode in his brilliant career, he must perceive that it was coincident with the first ripple of the refluent tide. It was a demonstration of awakening feeling on the part of the Home Government and the home people. After forty years of apathy and indifference, both seemed at last aroused to a conscious- 42 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA ness of Imperial interests and obligations. From that time onward there has been a quickening of Imperial vitality and a growing recognition of Imperial duties. To South Africa Sir Garnet Wolseley's errand proved the preface of a whole volume of eventful history. Wars, expeditions, controversies, negotiations, all repre- senting Imperial action and intervention, crowd the records of the last quarter of a century, and as I write these words * the most tremendous crisis that has yet menaced the country is impending, and a struggle fraught with incalculable issues to the continent and the Empire seems inevitable. 1 October 1890. CHAPTER III THE VOERTREKKERS The time was a summer night in January 1851. The place was the stony brow of a long table-topped hill or plateau, overlooking the broad sweep of the Natalian coastlands, a wilderness of grassy slope and bush-clad valley, stretching to where, ten miles away, and fifteen hundred feet below, the dazzling Indian Sea closed the outlook. At that hour, however, only the stars and the dim outlines of adjacent hills were visible. No dwelling-place was in view, but a roughly tented African waggon, scotched from rolling backward by blocks of stone under the hinder wheels, representing the resting- place of its inmates. They were three, a young English girl and her brother, a boy of twelve, travelling from Durban to Maritzburg in the care of a rough English- speaking colonist, who both owned and drove the waggon, and who had graciously consented, on payment of a few shillings, to carry them by what was then the only means of conveyance between the seaport and the capital. Horses they had none. Light though the load was, the " span " of fourteen oxen had failed to drag the cumbrous vehicle over the stones which encumbered the steep and rutty track, and, as darkness fell, the 44 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA easy-minded proprietor decided to remain perched up on the hill crest for the night. The situation was, or seemed, somewhat precarious, for had the stones under the wheels given way, the waggon must have rolled backward and downward to destruction ; but South African life in those days was rich in such risks and possibilities, and the young travellers, rolled in their blankets inside the waggon, slept not less soundly than did their hardy guardian underneath it. There were no sounds to disturb their rest except the occa- sional bark of a prowling hyena, or the drone of a native chant from some distant kraal. That night's experience was the counterpart of several others during the week's journey that ensued. For, after the murmuring oxen, refreshed by their rest and goaded by the merciless lashes of the driver, had managed to drag the waggon on to a safer halting-place, by the side of a friendly clump of brushwood, they in their turn disappeared amongst the neighbouring gorges, only to be recovered after a two days' search. Then came rain, which made the rough roads — falsely so called — impassable for three days more. Time dragged very wearily during these compulsory delays. Books there were none. An old newspaper found in the "wasreon chest" had been read more than once i'mm the first line to the last. The uncouth but good-hearted driver, however, sought to enliven his young companions by stories from the past, his own past, which in its way had been as fruitful in stirring incident as any THE VOERTREKKERS 45 novel of Scott or Fenimore Cooper. It was there, from his lips, that I first heard of the experiences of the Voertrekkers. John Tosen was an Africander of mixed birth. His father had been English — an old soldier, I fancy — his mother Dutch. His accent was that of a cockney ; he had read one book in his life, and was ever quoting it, " The Wicar," as he pronounced it, " of Wakefield." Short, hirsute, and insignificant, he was not lacking in either pluck or independence. He deemed himself socially the equal of anybody, and spoke with bitter disdain of the lofty pretensions and affectations of " them emigrants," the poor folk who were then pouring into the country. He " couldn't abide those stuck-up snobs who turned up their noses at men who were their betters," albeit dressed in moleskin and veldschoens. " Reel ladies " put on no airs, and he cited with high commendation the wife and sister of an eminent Govern- ment official who had lately travelled to Durban with him. It was from him that I learnt, while crouching out of the rain, the story of the Bushman's River massacres, which were then an episode only twelve years old. It seemed ancient history to my boyish mind, though some of the survivors of the tragedy were still little more than children. The story, as yet, had not been told in England, and to this day its ghastly incidents are little known outside South Africa. There, however, they are household legends in many a Boer family, and thev shed a lurid light upon subsequent 46 A LTFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and now pending events. John Tosen's tale as told me at that time has been confirmed in all its main details by officially authenticated documents, and a moving narrative it, is. Mnch lias been written and printed concerning the expatriation of the Cape Boer farmers in the years 1835-37, but the genesis of that movement cannot, 1 think, be better described than it was by Mrs. Anna Elizabeth Steenekamp in the quaint and artless record that was published in the Cape Monthly Magazine for September 1876. The writer was a niece of the great and gallant Boer leader, Piet Retief. " The reasons for which we abandoned our lands and homesteads, our country and kindred, were the following : — "1. The continual depredations and robberies of the Kafirs, and their arrogance and overbearing conduct ; and the fact that in spite of the fine promises made to us by our Government we nevertheless received no com- pensation for the property of which we were despoiled. "2. The shameful and unjust proceedings with reference to the freedom of our slaves ; and yet it is not so much their freedom that drove us to such lengths, as their being placed on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the laws of God and the natural distinction of race and religion, so that it was intolerable for any decent Christian to bow down beneath such a yoke; wherefore we rather withdrew in order thus to preserve our doctrines in purity."' THE VOERTREKKERS 47 These simple but honest admissions on the part of the pious-minded old Dutch lady who made them, suffice to show how irreconcilable are the two stand- points : that of the British statesman and the British citizen, to whom the mere thought of slavery in any form is abhorrent, and that of the South African trek Boer, to whom a black skin was the badge of bondage, and the inferiority of the black man a canon of religious belief. The whole history of South Africa during sixty years has been moulded by this difference. The Boers not only regarded the blacks as an inferior race, but they treated them as such, not with the atrocious cruelty falsely imputed to them by censorious philan- thropists, but with a parental stringency which too often gave colour to the slanders of their traducers. These calumnies, accepted by British Governors and repeated in official documents, added bitterness to the more substantial Avrongs of which Mrs. Steenekamp complained. Unable to obtain redress for the losses suffered through native depredations, debarred from exacting retributive and substantial reparation in their own way, cheated, as they considered, out of adequate compensation for the liberated slaves, continually feeling the pressure of new restrictions and obligations, they lent a ready ear to the stories that reached them of vast pasturelands and rich wildernesses in the north, where they might find new homes and fuller freedom, and rule themselves — and the natives round them — under their own laAvs and in their own way. 48 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Of the adventures which befell the emigrants in their quest of freedom, a properly pictorial account has yet to be written. Their experiences embody all the mate- rials of an epic. No one who reads the published records of them can doubt the courage, the simple faith, or the natural resourcefulness of the pious and sturdy pioneers. That these qualities were tempered by an innate distrust of the black man was, under the circumstances, not unnatural. Though the perils of the wilderness they had to encounter were such as to test their endurance to the uttermost, their chief and constant cause of anxiety was the treacherous savage. Though their avowed wish in setting out was to remain at peace with the tribes around them, the hostility they aroused soon put an end to any hope of peaceful ad- vance through the territories traversed. Their original purpose was to settle in the neighbourhood of Dclagoa Bay, but the accounts which reached them of the deadly climate in that country, led them to turn their faces towards the nearer and more attractive region to the southward, now known as Natal. A small colony of Englishmen, some fifty in number, had for years been located at the port, but the country inland, devas- tated and depopulated by the Zulu tyrant, Chaka, was unoccupied, and the emigrants determined to pitch their tents and establish themselves permanently there. I cannot pretend here to review the circumstances, that attended the earliest settlement of Natal by both Boers and British. It must suffice to say that THE VOERTREKKERS 49 after all sorts of sufferings and adventures, the emi- grants, early in 1838, passed down the eastern slopes of the Drakensberg to the meadowy hills below, and encamped along the banks of the Tugela Kiver and its affluents, between the present — and now his- torically famous — townships of Colenso and Estcourt. The country, as first seen by them, offered a refreshing contrast to the bare and arid plains of the interior. Its widespread basking hills were clothed with long or crisp grass, and the many watercourses winding between them were dotted about with the fragrant mimosa, which there grows to a greater height than elsewhere. Along the beds of the streams thicker vegetation nestles. The southern and western outlooks — free and open — were closed by the distant ramparts of the great moun- tain range that bisects East Africa from end to end. The view of this region as you approach it from the coast, whether suffused with the dreamy haze-glow of evening, or clarified by the sparkling atmosphere of morning, reminds you of a picture by Claude or Turner, and may well have captivated the fancy and appeased the longings of the weary wanderers in their search for a new home. To them this, indeed, seemed a Promised Land, an abode of peace and contentment, where, un- vexed by tyrannic governments, they might live liter- ally under their own vines and fig-trees, as the patriarchs did of yore. Not long, however, was Arcadia to be enjoyed. One of the first steps taken by the emigrants was to secure, D 50 A LIFE TIME [N SOUTH AFRICA as far as they could do so, a possessory title to the country. They commissioned one of their leaders, Piet Retief, a man of singular capacity and character, to visit Dingaan, Chaka's successor in the sovereignty of the Zulus, rightly styled a " monster," with all the ferocity of his predecessor, but with none of his savage kingliness, and to establish with him relations of amity and concord. Taking with him an armed and mounted party, Retief approached the king, and after much parley he gave the wily savage the most effective guarantee of his good faith by rescuing from the clutches of a neighbouring chieftain about 7000 head of cattle, of which he, the king, had been despoiled. A few weeks later, having during the interval visited and propitiated the English settlement at the seaport, Retief, with an escort of about sixty followers, returned to Dimraan's on-eat kraal and obtained from him, in return for the service he had rendered, a document ceding to him and his countrymen "the place called Port Natal, together with all the land annexed, that is to say, from Tugela to the Umziinvubu River west- ward, and from the sea to the north, as far as the land may be useful and in my possession." This document, which is dated February 4, 1838, is now in the archives at Pretoria. Its practical value, however, as an act of cession, was destroyed by the immediate sequel. Three days later the king invited his visitors to see him in his kraal, where ho assured them of his desire that the farmers should "come and possess the land he had THE VOERTREKKERS 51 given them." He wished them a pleasant journey, and he asked them to sit down and drink native beer as a parting cup. Unversed as yet in the arts of Zulu treachery, the farmers accepted the invitation. We are told that " after drinking some beer together, Dingaan ordered his troops to amuse the farmers by dancing and singing, which they immediately com- menced doing. The farmers had not been sitting longer than a quarter of an hour Avhen Dingaan called out, ' Seize them ! ' upon which an overwhelming rush was made upon the party before they could get on their feet. They were then ' dragged with their feet trailing on the ground, each man being held by as many Zulus as could get at him, from the presence of Dingaan, who still continued sitting and calling out ' Bulala amatakati ! ' (Kill the witches). He then said, ' Take the liver and the heart of the king of the farmers and place them in the road of the farmers,' who were then all clubbed to death, Retief being held and forced to witness the deaths of his comrades before they despatched him." It is for jurists to determine what validity could attach to a deed of cession signed under such circum- stances. That it in no sense expressed the wish or will of the grantor was proved by the bloody act of cancella- tion. So far from being desirous to encourage the settlement of the farmers, or even to tolerate their existence, within two hours of the massacre Dingaan gave orders to his irrvpi to set off and destroy the wives 52 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and children of the murdered farmers left behind on the Tugela. And shouting out, " We will go and kill the white dogs ' " the bloodthirsty warriors rushed off on their cowardly mission. And thoroughly they accom- plished it. With the same noiseless celerity which marked, forty years later, so many swift attacks on British camps or garrisons, the Zulus swept across the broad uplands of the Buffalo and through the broken defiles of the Tugela Valley, to the unsuspecting bivouacs of the Boers. Heedless of treachery and danger, they had broken up into detached parties, and were camped out in sylvan nooks and resting-places, confidently awaiting the return of their representatives. Let one of them tell the tale as it is recorded in Bird's " Annals of Natal " : — " We had remained behind with the women and children under the Drakensberg, along the Blaauw- krantz and Bushman's River — not in a camp (laager), but in little bivouacs of three or four waggons each, every family separately, all along the course of the Blaauwkrantz downwards. We were in tranquil security, for there was peace ; and as Retief had re- covered the cattle belonging to Dingaan's people, we could hardly imagine that matters would not all go right. This Dingaan knew, and, in order to come upon us unawares, immediately after the murder of Retief and his sixty men, he sent a Zulu commando to fall upon us by night. Blaauwkrantz is between Klip River and Weenen, towards the sea. THE VOERTREKKERS 53 " The first assault of the Zulus was on Barend Johannes Liebenberg's bivouac, the second on that of Wynand Frederick Bezuidenhout (my father). Each stood with its cattle separately, no camp. " Of the Liebenbergs, four sons came forward, who, together with young Biggar, went to meet the Kafirs. All the other Liebenbergs Avere murdered. Young Biggar was an English bastard from Port Natal. He and the Zulus understood each other; and he must have acted treacherously, for he went among the Zulus without receiving any molestation from them. When Van Vooren, who was Liebenberg's son-in-law, and was in his bivouac, saw this, he shot at Bicrgrar, breaking: his arm. Upon this Biggar said, ' Uncle, you have shot off my arm ! ' Van Vooren said, ' What, then, are you seeking among the Kafirs ? ' And then he shot Biggar, and killed him. Liebenberg's bivouac was the lowest down along the Blaauwkrantz Kloof and was thus first attacked. "The second attack was on Adriaan Js. Rossouw, who was murdered with his wife and four children. We found two children, badly wounded, on the follow- ing day, but they were still alive. Elizabeth Johanna Rossouw had sixteen wounds, and died next day. Adriaan Johannes Rossouw, son of Adriaan, had thirty- two assegai wounds, and escaped with life. He lived on my farm till his eighteenth year (he was my sister's child), and then died of one of the wounds, which had never been completely healed. It was a wound which 54 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA lie had received under the breast, and it had penetrated through the shoulder-blade. The film of the stomach remained always exposed, and when he breathed one could see the him open. The third attack was on my father's bivouac, consisting of five waggons and three skin tents, and there were three men with it, namely, my father, Roelof Botha (my brother-in-law), and myself." An even more piteous narrative is that given by Mrs. Steenekamp — Retief's niece — from whom I have already quoted: "On the 17th February the Kafirs attacked us also. Oh dreadful, dreadful night ! wherein so much martyred blood was shed, and two hundred innocent children, ninety-five women, and thirty-three men were slain, and hurled into an awful eternity by the assegais of those bloodthirsty heathens. Exclud- ing the servants, the number was over four hundred souls. Oh ! it was unbearable for flesh and blood to behold the frightful spectacle the following morning. In one waggon were found fifty dead, and blood flowed from the seam of the tent sail down to the lowest. Ah ! how awful it was to look upon all those dead and wounded! I must also tell you, my dear children, how it was that the Kafirs could so easily perpetrate the massacre that night. It was on account of disobedience and imprudence : the greater portion of the people were on the mission, and others engaged in buffalo-hunting ; others, moreover, were on the road to the Drakensberg, to assist their families in coming down, so that the Kafirs found the women and children quite alone THE VOERTIIEKKERS 55 and sleeping peacefully. . . . The Commandant had the dead buried and the wounded attended to. On all sides one saw tears flowing and heard people weeping by the plundered waggons, painted with blood ; tents and beds torn to shreds ; pregnant women and little children had to walk for hours together bearing the signs of their heavy flight. Oh, how weary and fatigued were those women and children! . . . When the women came up to us they fell upon their knees and thanked God for their deliverance from the hands of the cruel tyrant. In our encampment there was nothing but lamentation and weeping." The district in which these scenes were enacted was called and still bears the name of "Weenen," or weeping, and it is therein that yet heavier carnage — though, thank God, not amongst the weak and helpless — has been witnessed during the last twelve months. The butchery so vividly depicted by Mrs. Steenekamp by no means closed the tale of Zulu ferocity. Further on she says: "On the 10th August we were again attacked by the Kafirs at Bushman's Kiver. Their bands were stretched out by thousands as far as the eye could see. It was a terrible sight to witness. I cannot describe their number, for one would have thought that entire heathendom had gathered together to destroy us. But thanks and praise are due to the Lord who so wonderfully has rescued us out of the hands of our numberless and bloodthirsty foes, and granted us the victory. Their foremost band wore the 50 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA clothes and had the guns of the killed, and swarmed down whilst the others surrounded us. Our number of fighting men was considerably diminished, for a portion was with Maritz at Tugela, and another portion had gone ahead to Port Natal, so that our strength consisted of only two field commandants and two field cornets with their men." They, nevertheless, succeeded in routing the savage hordes, who retired discomfited beyond the Tugela. It was of these tragical incidents that I first heard from the lips of John Tosen, as we travelled in his waggon to Maritzburg thirteen years after their occur- rence. He had witnessed them while still a lad in his teens. He told us of the morning's shock when the unsuspecting denizens of the camp were startled out of their sleep by the fierce Zulu war-cry. He described the vain and pitiful attempts of women and children to shelter themselves in and under waggons from the spears of the furious savages. He gave us thrilling instances of marvellous escapes ; one Boer girl of thir- teen, though stabbed in twenty places, lived to a green old age, the head of three generations. Even more stirring was his story of the later engagement when, with a small carronade loaded with nails and bullets, the farmers kept thousands of Zulus at bay, as they strove with linked hands to cross the Bushman's River. That was probably the Boer's first essay in the art of field gunnery, in which, with ordnance from Creusot they are now so proficient. THE VOERTREKKERS 57 The natural instinct of the Cape Dutchman for border warfare — and all the emigrant farmers came within that category — was more signally demonstrated later in the }^ear. Rightly convinced that there could be no assured peace or security as long as Dingaan held power over the Zulus, the farmers decided to try conclusions with him by an expedition the avowed object of which was revenge and reparation. Mr. Andries Pretorius, who became afterwards the first President of the Transvaal Republic, was unanimously elected Commandant, and well did he justify the con- fidence reposed in him. The force which thus proceeded to chastise and vanquish the terror-striking Zulu king, with his thousands of seasoned warriors all thirsting for bloodshed, consisted of 460 men and fifty-seven waggons. Among the former were several " persons of colour," in whose behalf and for whose protection a special "ordinance" was issued at the outset. This small but compact and united force marched in five divisions, each under its own officers and sub-officers, but all subject to the leadership of the chief Com- mandant. A full and elaborate record of the march was kept by the clerk of the Volksraad, acting as secretary, and this document, together with the official report of Pretorius himself, supplies as luminous an account of the expedition as any student can desire. Then, as ever since, the Boers entered upon war in a spirit of exalted religious enthusiasm. Neither Israelite nor Crusader, Covenanter nor Roundhead was more 58 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA constant in the invocation of Clod's help and in dependence upon God's favour, than have at all times been the Boers when engaged in battle. Wrote Pretorins after liis victory : " We had full confidence in the justice of our cause. Our only hope was in God ; and the issue has proved that ' He who trusteth in the great God, has certainly not built on sand.' " The narrative of the commando reads more like the report of a camp meeting in the backwoods than the story of a critical campaign. Pretorius appears to have been not less effective as a pulpit orator than his famous successor. He was ever exhorting and ad- monishing his men. Calling around him his officers of all ranks "down to the corporals," he bade them " behave with courage and prudence when necessary ; reminded them that any design undertaken without God is frustrated ; how every one was to act when engaged with the enemy ; that we as reasonable crea- tures, born under the light of the gospel, should not be equal to them in destroying innocent women and chil- dren ; and that we may pray of God everything which is not contrary to His great righteousness. He ad- monished them further to press on the minds of the men under them to submit every morning and evening their duties and their doings to the Lord in prayers, and to spend the holy Sabbath to the honour of God, and not to use that great name in vain, nor to calumniate the Most High. . . . Finally he repeatedly reminded us that 'unity createth power.' Amongst other things he THE VOERTREKKERS 59 strictly prohibited any one to interfere with Kafir chil- dren or women during the conflict or to take them prisoners." Whatever views may be held as to the methods thus pursued by the Boers — and they are as much in vogue to-day as then — it cannot be denied that they were amply vindicated by results. In less than three weeks the expedition accomplished its purpose. In those days there was not the vestige of a waggon track, but the route followed was very much the same as that taken by Lord Chelmsford in 1879 in his advance to Ulundi. Every possible precaution was taken against surprise. The Boers were never caught napping. Patrols were sent out in all directions. Several Zulus who were taken prisoners were sent to the king with white flags " to inform him that if he would return to us the horses and guns which he had taken from our people we should be willing to enter into negotiations for peace." No answer was received, and the march proceeded. At length, on Saturday, December 15, 1838, the Zulu army was discovered posted on a very difficult mountain. The rest of the story cannot be told better than in the pithy words of the Commandant himself. " On receiving this information I immediately proceeded there with two hundred men, but finding it unadvis- able to attempt anything with so small a force, and in such a place, I returned to camp. The next day, being Sunday, we intended to remain quiet, but as soon as day broke upon us we discovered that our camp was GO A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA surrounded by, as we thought, the whole of the Zulu forces. The engagement instantly commenced on both sides. The Zulus Jived upon us, and made several attempts to storm our encampments, and on being repulsed they only retreated for short distances. They stood their ground firmly for two hours, and then were reinforced by five more divisions. At this juncture you will scarcely be able to form an idea of the sight presented to us. It was such as to require some nerve not to betray uneasiness in the countenance. Seeing that it was necessary to display the most desperate determination, I caused the gates of our enclosed camp (formed of the laagered waggons) to be simultaneously thrown open, from which some mounted men were to charge the enemy, at the same time keeping up a heavy fire upon them. The Zulus stood our assault firmly for some time, but at last finding their number rapidly decreasing they fled, scattering themselves in all direc- tions. They were pursued on horseback by as many of our men as could be spared from the camp." The Commandant started off himself, and shortly overtook a Zulu warrior, with whom, after a brief and bootless parley, he found himself engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand tussle. <: At last he closed with me and attempted to stab me through the breast ; I averted this by grasping at the weapon with my left hand, but in doing so received it through the hand. Before he could extricate it I seized him and threw him to the ground, but as the assegai remained pierced through my hand, THE VOERTREKKERS Gl which was under me as I lay upon him, I had but one hand to hold him and use my dagger whilst he attempted to strangle me. At this crisis one of my men came to my assistance, pulled the assegai out of my hand and stabbed the Zulu on the spot. My hand bleeding very much I was obliged to return to the camp, and it was apprehended some of our men had fallen. However, it pleased the Almighty to give us this victory without the loss of a single life, only three of us being wounded. The following day we resumed our march." On December 22, the commando reached Dingaan's great kraal, which was set on fire as the Boers approached, and destroyed. There, however, were found the bones of Retief and his men, and the papers, among which was found the celebrated "treaty," of which a certified copy was piously taken and kept. Though the victory thus achieved did not actually end the reign of Dingaan it destroyed his power. During the ensuing year the Boers entered into alliance with the despot's younger and more placable brother, M'Pande, and recognised him as the future sovereign of Zululand. Early in 1840 another commando, also led by Pretorius, advanced against the fugitive king, who had established himself amongst the northern moun- tains. M'Pande, with an army of 10,000 men, co-oper- ated, and by that force another signal defeat was inflicted upon Dingaan, who disappeared into the forests and was finally assassinated by some of his own people. Mean- while his brother was formally installed as head of the 62 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Zulus, and the boundary of the new "Republic" was extended northward of the line assigned by Reticf's treaty from the Tugela River to the Black Umvolosi, where it enters St. Lucia Bay. These incidents were attended by the seizure of large herds of cattle, and the capture of large numbers of " apprentices," whose services helped to supply the lack of labour which made life in the depopulated territory of Natal so difficult. In spite of the pious professions of the Boer leaders and the artless repudiations of the Boer annalists, Boer methods in dealing with subjugated native races then, as since, practically demonstrated the white man's claim to be his black brother's keeper. Such were the incidents which made " Dingaans Day " so memorable an anniversary to the Boer. By him it is kept not only as a day of victory, but as the Day of Independence. It is associated not only with the deliverance of his people from the power of a cruel tyrant, but with the deeds and the events by which they purchased their claim to be a free nation. In later years it was again identified with the Boer struggle for freedom. On December 13, 1880, the malcontent farmers of the Transvaal anticipated the date by three days, when at Paardekraal, near Pretoria, they pro- claimed their independence. More recently, and especially since 1895, the yearly celebration round the National Monument on that spot has been a great popular function. Let me now proceed to describe another even more interesting occasion identified with THE VOERTREKKERS 63 the fateful day. The immediate succession of more startling events diverted attention from an incident whose pathetic and romantic significance deserved far more notice than it received. For many months, if not for years, prior to December 16, 1895, endeavours had been made to collect on the site of the Weenen massacres such vestiges as might remain of the victims. From the river-beds, the dongas, and the veld around, as time went on, bleached bones had been carefully gathered and reverently pre- served by the neighbouring farmers, together with rusty bullets, implements, knives, and other relics or frag- ments, from the devastated camps. A movement, carefully fostered and directed by the Dutch ministers of the districts — those Predikants whose influence over the minds and hearts of their flocks has contributed so greatly to present events — was set afoot for the solemn burial of these remains and for the erection over them of a suitable commemorative monument. In both the republics, as well as in the two colonies, subscriptions were collected, and on the date named the solemn ceremony of interment took place. It lasted three days. Families and visitors from far and near re- sponded to the call. They came in waggons, in carriages, on horses; a few by rail. As in ordinary times the Boers troop to their quarterly Nachtmaal, or Com- munion Service, so, though with more pious fervour, they gathered to this patriotic festival. Amongst them 64 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA were members of the families whose relations had been slain on the spot fifty-seven years before. To them it was not only a celebration; it was literally a funeral. After all these years of exposure and decay, the bones of their kindred were at last to have Christian burial. Summer after summer the scorching sun of South Africa had blazed pitilessly down upon the remains of the pioneers ; storms had raged furiously over them : floods had whirled them about ; and now, amidst peace and contentment, they were to be laid reverently to rest. There were some — a few — amongst the throng, white-haired and aged, yet hale and keen-minded, who had escaped from the massacre. One old lady bore in her body the scars of the wounds she had suffered from as a child. Among other bearers of names familiar in the annals of the Trek, was Mr. Pretorius, son of the redoubtable Commandant, and at that time a loyal member of the Natal Parliament. Piet Retief had his descendants there. A grandchild of Maritz, the other namesake of Natal's capital, was to have reinterment. General Joubert was present to represent the Govern- ment of the Transvaal. The Government of Natal was represented by the Prime Minister and two of his colleagues. The spot chosen for the monument was about a mile from the railway station at Chieveley, from whence, on the 15th of last December, the forces of General Puller vainly, though valiantly, strove to force the passage of the Tugela, in the face of impregnable THE VOERTREKKERS 65 Boer entrenchments. Little recked we then of what history had in store. The weather was bright but sultry. The two previous days had been passed in religious exercises, participated in almost exclusively by the Dutch themselves. About 1200 visitors — mostly family parties — had encamped close to the Blaauwkrantz River. Their waggons and tents gleamed cosily amongst the spreading and fragrant mimosa trees. All had brought their own supplies, any place of entertainment being miles distant. The public services took place in a huge tent, and there, about ten in the morning, the official visitors from Maritzburg were received by General •Joubert and others, and escorted to their places on a rough platform in front of which stood the great square " casket " or box, draped in black, in which had been deposited all that could be found of the murdered Voertrekkers. The rest of the tent was filled with the Dutch visitors, a large proportion of whom were women and children. Of the service itself little need be said. The Dutch Reformed Church follows very closely the Presby- terian order of worship ; simplicity and severity are its prevailing notes, combined, let me add, with the devout earnestness of a religious-minded people. If the hymns sung and the prayers offered Avere devoid of liturgical embroidery, there could not be a doubt as to their sincerity and fervour. The slow sad cadences of the ancient psalmody were joined in by old and young, and the words of the ancient Book seemed racy of the E 66 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA soil and reminiscent of the past. There were depths of suppressed passion in the extemporised prayers uttered over those crumbling bones, and the written sermon was listened to with profound and unbroken attention. It was a powerful appeal for the unity and brotherhood of the Africander race, and there was, no doubt, in its glowing words a deeper significance than was suspected then. The service over and the benediction given, all trooped out of the stifling enclosure into the hot midsummer air. Preceded and flanked by representatives of the foremost Voertrekkers, the humble ox-cart which acted as hearse was followed by a cortege nearly a mile long, headed by the Commandant of the Transvaal and the Prime Minister of Natal as chief mourners. Two abreast the procession wound its way over the sun-baked veld, past mimosa, and by donga, the prospect bounded by hills that have lately belched forth shells on beleaguered garrisons and khaki-clad battalions, to where the foundations of the monument awaited the relics that were to rest below. There, the sombre casket was lowered into the pit prepared for it, amidst further hymns and prayers, while reports were read of the steps that had been taken to secure the commemoration. Then came the laying of the corner-stone by General Joubert, followed by speeches from himself and others; all breathing unity and goodwill. One — delivered by the British spokesman — expressed a hope that in the grave below would lie buried not only the sacred relics THE VOERTREKKERS 67 that had been deposited there, but the seeds of all the animosities and discords of the past, and that thence- forward peace, and concord, and common interests would bind together the two peoples and fuse them into one race. Speeches over and function ended, the visitors re- turned to the encampment. There, in one of the marquees supplied by Government for the occasion, the veteran Pretorius, with his friendly household, entertained the chief guests of the day to a bountiful repast of roast - beef and plum - pudding, and much kindly talk ensued about things past, present, and to come in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Of what passed then this only may be said now, that there was not in General Joubert's mind the smallest apparent apprehension of any imminent explosion, but there was on his part a very strong persuasion that a policy of reasonable compliance with the demands of the Uitlanders would be the best means of meeting the difficulties of the situation. " What is the use," he said to me, " trying to dam up the flowing stream ? It will be all the worse when it bursts through in the end." Wise words and prophetic ! Before luncheon was over the gathering clouds burst in a tempest over the camp. Wind raged, rain fell in sheets, lightning flashed and deafening thunder pealed. The river rose to flood level, and trickling streams became almost impassable torrents. It was in such weather that we bade our hosts a hearty farewell, and GS A LIFE TIME TX SOUTH AFRICA that the latest celebration of Dingaan's Day came to an end. Just a fortnight afterwards Dr. Jameson, with his band of troopers, crossed the frontier of the Transvaal and marched on Johannesburg ! Four years later the Bishop of Natal buried the dead on the battlefield of Chieveley. slain by Boer shells and bullets on the day preceding. CHAPTER IV THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS If the old Dutch Voertrekkers won the grateful recog- nition of posterity for their bravery and heroism in facing the perils of the wilderness, and in doing battle with the pitiless forces of barbarism, the first English settlers of Natal deserved, I think, hardly less credit for the pluck and endurance with which they bore the many trials and disappointments of their new life in a new land. Though they did not come into collision with any of the savage tribes around them, nor win their title to the soil occupied by any blood-bought deed of cession, they nevertheless purchased their right to its possession by the sweat of their brows and the strength of their arms — by patient though often battled industry, by unflinching struggles against hardship, failure, and adversity, and by the gradual reclamation and development of a desert land. The Boers of to- day, sixty years later, loudly boast that Natal is theirs, by virtue of the bit of paper to which Dingaan set his mark — meaning to falsify it, as he did on the morrow, and of the subsequent victory obtained by Pretorius over the tyrant when the same primitive document was recovered. The British Government and settlers base 70 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA their claim to possession upon the prior occupancy of the seaport by Englishmen, upon the final reconquest of the Colony by British arms and Boer surrender, but yet more effectively by unbroken and unchallenged occupancy of the soil for fifty years. In the making of Natal, as it exists to-day, a place of enterprise, industry, and energy, the Boer settler has had but small share. His flocks and his herds have multiplied by natural increase, under the peaceful rule of Great Britain, and with the price of their produce he has been able to add to his acres and enlarge his untenanted domains. His homestead and its surroundings have improved some- what on the primitive type, though not always. In some instances the force of example has led him to erect fences and plant trees. His ox- waggons, in charge of native drivers, have added materially to his income as carriers of merchandise. But in all that concerns real progress and development, he has taken little, if any, part. His race is scarcely represented in the larger towns. Had he been left alone in possession of the land, it would have shown few, if any, of those evi- dences of activity and advancement which now place it in line with the rest of the civilised world. The " Republic of Natalia " might have been a Paradise — of sluggishness and stagnation — according to Boer ideas and aspirations. It would certainly not be the busy, prosperous, progressive colony of Natal, the defence and retention of which have been deemed worth the most strenuous efforts of a vast empire. THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 71 When the British Government formally took pos- session of Natal, and when British immigrants began in 1849 to arrive in the country, the desire of the Dutch Voertrekkers was to get as far as possible from the reach of the one and the sight of the other. They were glad to dispose of their " farms," or land-grants, on almost any terms. The result was that the new- comers were able to acquire holdings of much larger area than those they had expected to occupy. I know cases in which tracts of 6000 acres were sold for a waggon and " span " of twelve or fourteen oxen, where- with the owner enabled himself to " trek," with his family, into the far interior. A further result was less conducive to the public weal. Speculators in many cases purchased these Boer farms at an almost nominal cost, and kept them locked up until such time as they might succeed in obtaining relatively extrava- gant prices for them. In some cases they were later on thrown into the hands of a great land company, which, in its turn, relet them to native tenants, thus consigning them anew to the occupancy of barbarism. A large portion of the best lands in Natal has thus been deprived of the civilising influences of European settlement. But it is not of absentee proprietorships or Boer drones that I now write. It is of the men, not many thousands in number, who have made Natal what it is. My readers know what a motley throng they were, and how devoid of capital or local knowledge. Yet they 72 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA spread themselves over the country and occupied it. It by no means followed that the most ignorant — of farming or commercial conditions — were the least suc- cessful. Townsmen sometimes made the best aerricul- turists. Men who had never stood behind a counter in the old country occasionally throve as storekeepers or tradesmen in the new. The first greengrocer in Durban was a tinsmith; one of the earliest market-gardeners had been an auctioneer ; a leading lawyer in later years began his colonial life by carrying a hod. Most of our sugar - planters had been men in business. Schools were established by persons who " at home " had never taught a lesson. The category of topsy-turvydom might be continued indefinitely. The point of interest is that in a new country the true qualification of suc- cess is the stout heart nerving the ready hand. Experi- ence is undoubtedly a good thing, but under changed conditions and the stress of necessity, it may be re- learnt without waste of effort or failure of effect. The purpose which possessed the minds of most of the early immigrants, was to plant cotton. There were doubts as to the sufficiency of the American supply of that staple, and there was a desire that it should be grown by free Africans instead of by slave labour. Yet cotton-planting has never prospered in Natal. Some forty bales were grown by German settlers in 1848, and some years later several hundreds of acres were planted by a company, to say nothing of smaller ventures by private individuals. A small fly, however, and other THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 73 pests attacked the crops ; prices fell, and the indusl ry made no headway. Other pursuits proved more attrac- tive. Of these sugar-planting is the one that has held its own most continuously. I well remember the sen- sation that was caused by the first production of sugar in 1852. The canes, after nearly two years in growth, had been crushed by most primitive appliances, the juice being boiled in large three-legged pots. It was drained and dried in the same crude way, but the result was unquestionably — sugar — though sugar in its stickiest and most treacly form. Those specimens were hailed by the whole community with pride and delight as being — what they indeed proved to be — the heralds of a new "industry," to a people ever in those days on the watch for new products and openings. The experiment was followed by more ambitious ventures. Money was scraped together for the importation of improved plant. A company largely supported by Cape merchants was established, and if it did little else, it availed to encourage confidence in the enter- prise, and to lead others to engage in it. Though after the lapse of forty years the industry has not de- veloped the anticipated proportions, it still holds its own as a mainstay of colonial prosperity, and central mills, representing a vast outlay of capital, and equipped with every modern appliance of manufacture, are fed by ever-growing areas of plantation. The wild and tangled bush growth of the past has been replaced by monotonous breadths of rustling cane-field. The Pic- 74 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA turesque has made way for the Profitable, and the beautiful coastlands, shorn and trim, have ceased to be natural and romantic. ( 'ivilisation is no doubt a good thing — is any one bold enough to dispute it ? — but it has its drawbacks. If it adds to the fulness and utility of life, it takes from it much of pristine charm. Possibly it was youth — the zest of spring-time — that lent a glamour to the experi- ences of those days, but one thinks of them now with regret. Earth in her virgin freshness, before axe had stript or man had clothed her, had a grace which one fails to find in spreading field, in measured orchard, in metalled road, or rushing railway car. The free unordered outlines of wild bush and jungle, the wind- ing, scarcely traceable track over hill and down valle}-, the sudden glimpse of stump-strewn clearance and rude shant} r , or of native mealie garden and hive-like huts, the absence of all sounds save the voices of the forest or the veld, the closeness of nature everywhere uncon- strained and " unadorned," the strange commingling sense of age and of newness, of immemorial antiquity in the past and of incalculable possibilities in the future — all, even though unconsciously and indefinably, tended to make country rides in the earlier years a joy which is but a memory nowadays. One scrupled not then, after a long amble, to claim the hospitality of any neighbouring homestead, knowing that however bare the larder might be — and bare it usually was — it would be freely at the welcome traveller's service. Where THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS i 5 little was looked for, little was abundance. The simplest fare sufficeth when hunger sharpens appetite, and a blanket on the floor, if nothing better were forth- coming, would srive a night's sound rest to a tired man. I never slept better than I did many years ago in a deserted outhouse, far from the road, to which I had groped my way in the dark and the rain. My pony found stable-room in one corner, and I found a bed on a heap of straw in another corner, in company with a dog and her progeny already in prior occupation. It is a fact that, of the hosts of soldiers who have lately been in the field, those have fared the best who have slept most continuously in the open, on the bare ground with only their rugs under and over them. The spread of sugar-planting led to a social change of far greater import than was at first realised. Cane is a product of slow growth and costly preparation. The industry requires both large capital and a per- manent labour supply for its successful prosecution. The African native, good worker in the field though he be, after a few months' toil tires of the daily round, and insists upon returning to the free and idle life of his kraal. To meet this difficulty steps were taken, after much negotiation, to import from India indentured labourers, bound to serve a five years' term with an employer and to live at least ten years within the Colony. I well remember one evening late in 1860 watching, from a height overlooking the sea, the ship Trwro sail up to the anchorage. Her wdrite canvas 76 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA towered over the blue sea-line, and we all regarded her as the harbinger of a new dispensation. And so she proved to be, though in a sense far wider than Ave expected. For the system has continued, despite difficulties and steadily growing opposition on the part of the European working - classes. At that time all the trade of the Colony, and especially that of the smaller storekeepers and " Kafir dealers," was in the hands of white men, and there were none but English mechanics and operatives. Now, the " Asiatic " popu- lation equals in number the European. Country and Kafir stores are almost wholly run by Indian traders. The vending of fruit and vegetables, and to a con- siderable extent their growth, are the business of the frugal and irrepressible "coolie," who, after his term of service is over, settles on the soil, squats in a small, kennel-like shanty, and lives at a cost which to an Englishman would spell starvation. Thus it has come to pass that the poorer classes of settlers have been elbowed out of the minor walks of trade and agri- culture — shopkeeping, market - gardening, hawking, rough labour of all kinds — and the prospects of Natal as a home for white men are being gradually narrowed and restricted. Fortunately, the skilled artisan, the cultivator and stock-breeder on a larger scale, the clerk and the shopman, with other superior classes of em- ployee, still occupy the field, and seem likely to do so, and it is by them that the steadfast opposition to an indis- criminate "Asiatic invasion"' is likely to be sustained. THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 77 As the Indian can now acquire the franchise only under very restricted conditions, the fetters imposed by law upon Indian immigration are not likely to be lightly or suddenly relaxed. Experience shows, how- ever, that in a subtropical climate indentured Indian labour is indispensable to successful enterprise in the field. Whether the colonist likes it or not, the free and voluntary Indian immigrant or trader finds his way into the country and silently works on there. As a purveyor of household supplies, as a domestic servant, or as a farm hand, he has made himself a necessity of life, and, as far as one can see, the Asiatic has come to stay in South-east Africa — at any rate under such conditions as restrictive legislation may impose. Sugar was the contemporary of other and smaller industries, which at one time engrossed more attention than they have done since. Arrowroot-growing for some years in the later fifties was a favourite pursuit. The tuber with its upgrowth of broad rustling leaves was scraped or grated to powder, which, having been cleaned from the fibrous pulp, was exposed in granu- lated particles, on calico trays, to the sun. Absolute whiteness and purity from speck or impurity of any kind are essentials of quality. The process of pro- duction is very simple and inexpensive. Women and children can easily assist in it. " Natal arrowroot " soon acquired an honourable position in the market, and the industry grow more and more in favour, but its success and popularity brought about its collapse. 78 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA The market was ultimately overstocked. ; prices fell below a paying limit, and arrowroot was abandoned. The same fate befell the production of cayenne pepper. This condiment is the product of a small, shrublike plant, of which there are many varieties, yielding glistening sac-like pods ranging in size from the tiny yellow or scarlet chilli, of fiery pungency, to the bulkier and fleshier green or crimson capsicum, which in its raw and unripe state is a wholesome and appetising adjunct to the table. These pods, crushed and ground, yield the familiar " cayenne " of commerce. It is still produced in Natal, but the prices obtainable are hardly remunerative. Tillers of the soil in old countries, where the capabili- ties of the earth have been tested and proved by cen- turies of experiment and industry, know little of the interest which attaches to the agriculturist's work in virgin fields, whose resources are unknown and un- developed. Tilth in these regions has the zest of novelty and surprise. All is uncertainty and specu- lation. The seed sown is the matrix of indefinite possibilities. The sprouting plant is the subject of almost parental hopes and fears. Promise is often belied by fulfilment. The unexpected continually happens. Plants do not always fructify. Trees some- times fail to bear. Sub-tropical countries like Natal, which belong not wholly to cither the temperate or the torrid zone, and possess different grades of climate within a relatively narrow area, are natural hotbeds THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 79 of experiment. The expectations of their pioneers are apt to be strangely falsified. Cotton failed, but sugar succeeded. Coffee, after a prosperous start, fell back and tea took its place. Wheat, from which two crops yearly were predicated, has never made headway. For many years peaches were the staple fruit crop of the uplands. Summer after summer waggons loaded loosely with them would arrive in Durban and be cleared of their contents by eager purchasers at 2s. or 2s. 6d. a hundred. Now they are less abundant, but the more wholesome and familiar apple abounds. It was thought in the early days that hardy English fruits would never succeed, but now strawberries, pears, and plums are com- mon, though cherries, gooseberries, and currants are seldom seen. On the coast most tropical fruits have at all times flourished. Pine-apples, oranges, naartjes, bananas, mangoes, papaws, guavas, loquats, granadillas, and avocado pears (daintiest of Pomona's gifts), in their season, are often drugs, and for miles the hillsides near the railway are covered with fruit plantations. The spread of railways and the outgrowth of steamship lines, with their " cold " chambers, have opened out markets where none existed in the old days. The first settlers had to reckon with the absence of markets as one of the chief hindrances to industry. They could grow, but they could not sell. The wants of the few householders in the two towns were soon supplied by producers in the immediate vicinity. There were no means of export, and growers at a distance, after 80 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA bringing their produce to the port along wretched, unmade roads, would more often than not find no purchasers. In addition to the want of labour and the want of markets, there were, and are still, other besetting draw- backs in the paths of the South African farmer and planter. For many years the sugar-planter's triad of afflictions was known as the three F's — frost, fire, and flood. Strange as it may seem, the first was for a long time a real and recurrent source of dread. Until experience taught otherwise it was assumed that sugar- cane could only be successfully grown in the valleys, along the river-banks. It often happened in those days, before the lowlands had been drained and culti- vated, that once or twice during the months of winter hard frosts would visit vegetation in those localities and cruelly nip the leaves of the cane-plants, strong and st al wart though they seemed to be. Many a time has the planter risen at dawn to see his rustling fields blighted by the gelid touch of the crisp, sharp air. In such cases nothing else could be done than at once to cut down the frosted cane and crush it with the least possible delay. In course of time it was found that cane flourished just as well on the slopes and hill crests as on the lower levels, and frost has ceased to be a terror. Fire continues to be one of winter's perils. After months of drought, plantations became so much tinder, and should by chance any field take fire, and a "hot wind " be blowing, the devastation wrought was wide- THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 81 spread if not ruinous. One "Black Monday" nearly thirty years ago will long be memorable for the destruction wreaked through two counties by the ruthless fire-fiend. " Fire-breaks " of trees or bare spaces, combined with vigilance in suppression, have greatly lessened the risks of conflagration, but the dangers of grass fires will long be a menace to the tree- planter and pastoralist in the upper districts. Natal has been described as a " vast meadow." Its hills are clothed from foot to brow with crisp and waving grass. The latter often overtops a man's head. From the earliest recorded times it has been the fashion, and a wasteful, barbarous fashion it seems, to burn these luxuriant pastures. Old navigators, passing along the sea-coast during the winter months, wrote of Natal as a " land of smoke." To-day the exquisite atmosphere of that season is blurred by the smoke that hangs or broods, like a brown veil, over the prospect. Efforts are made by the farmers, and encouraged by special laws, to regulate the practice, by confining it to certain seasons, and heavy penalties are imposed upon the wilful firing of grass. But it is difficult to prevent either accidental or wanton transgression. Should a fire break out when a high wind is blowing, it is vain to try to stem its progress. On it sweeps over hill and dale, licking up any inflammable thing that may be within its track, leaping over roads, attacking tree plantations, destroying buildings, should they interpose ; after dark lighting up the heavens with the lurid glow of its 82 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA encircling names, and girdling the mountain sides with the contortions of its blazing outlines. It is the aim of most good farmers in these days not to burn their grass until the spring rains have fallen, and a new growth is assured ; and thus it came to pass the other day that General Joubert's column of raiders, by tiring the grass between themselves and our own forces, was able to advance behind the smoke unseen and unmolested, into the heart of our ravaged uplands. By the same ex- pedient did the retreating Boer forces shelter their retirement from the Biggarsberg. Perils by flood are by no means peculiar to Natal, and they are less formidable than they were in days when cultivation was confined to the river-sides, and when bridges and railways and hard roads were not. Then it was not a rare experience for country residents to be cut off from communication with their neighbours for days or weeks. If rains continued, streams remained impassable, and many a hair-breadth escape was recorded in attempts made to ford them. Flood rains in South Africa are torrents that appear only anxious to make up by their violence for past times of drought. I remember one which began at six in the morning and stopped at nine, when the sun shone forth and a lovely day of peace and brightness ensued. Yet during those three hours more than six inches fell, and when an hour later I rode into town, thirteen miles distant, the whole country seemed flood-swept. The road THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 83 was seamed by gullies, culverts were torn up, and progress even on horseback was only possible over the grass, across country, and along dodging by-ways. On another occasion in 1868, having finished the week's parliamentary duties at the capital, I started as usual for my home at the seaport. There was but one means of conveyance, a so-called " bus," or covered wagonette, which happened that day to be driven by a local magnate who was fond at times of thus displaying his powers as a whip. It rained smartly when we set forth, and it rained more and more heavily as we advanced, until it seemed as if no headway were possible against the driving elements. On we went, however, flounder- ing, jolting, swerving, pitching, abandoning the road for the veld whenever it were possible to do so, sticking fast constantly, breaking harness, lifting wheels out of mud-holes, and appealing to the horses with every epithet of malediction and persuasion. As we changed horses every twelve miles there were alternate spells of activity and depression, but through it all our amateur driver kept cheerful and imperturbable, his spirits rising indeed as the difficulties of the journey multi- plied. At the Half-way House the womenfolk inside were asked whether they would stay or proceed, but they all preferred to go on, though evening was advan- cing and the rain grew heavier as we neared the coast. So on we went, plunging and lurching amidst blinding- rain, and evadinsr the shattered roads wherever we could, until darkness fell and progress became merely a 84 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA meek trust in Providence. In some places sheets of water covered the roads on both sides, and nothing but an unerring instinct enabled our friend on the box to keep clear of the hidden banks and ditches on either side It was a bold and splendid feat of coachmanship, and the obvious satisfaction with which his performance was regarded by Mr. C. himself, when towards mid- night he drew up at the coach-office, was doubtless his best reward. A day later it would have been impossible, as when morning dawned nearly every bridge in the Colony had been swept away, and the main roads were impassable by wheeled traffic for weeks. In 1850 we had had even a worse flood, but as there were no bridges to be washed away and scarcely a road worth the name, its effects were not so mani- fest. Durban, however, was isolated by two raging- streams, and districts that are now thickly built over and populated were under water. Flood effects were not then, as they are now, minimised by drainage, and destruction of property had to be borne Avith grim fortitude as part of the unavoidable experiences of life. With another form of natural visitation civilisation can- not cope. It is still the haunting dread of the fruit- grower. Thunder-storms can hardly be anywhere more frequent or violent than they are during our summer months. In the upper districts they are often accom- panied by falls of hail such as Europe rarely, if ever, witnesses. After a day or days of exceptional heat, a huge blank blue-black cloud, like a giant wing, THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 85 springs up from the west and spreads over the sky. Deathlike stillness falls. The hot air stifles. A long band of greyer or coppery cloud sweeps up from the horizon. Birds dart about and twitter. All nature seems breathless and apprehensive. Mutterings of thunder are heard. Then a muffled distant roar seems to rush onward, and all at once a tornado bursts over- head, wind, rain, and then monstrous hail, all con- tending together in deafening uproar and stunning con- fusion. Though lightning blazes, the fury of the storm seems for a few minutes, while at its worst, to arrest the flash and to stifle the peal, until in a few minutes the tempest is overpast, and the storm assumes its normal character. It often, perhaps mostly, happens that in half-an-hour the sky clears and the sun shines with surpassing brilliancy, but the jagged fragments of ice have stript the fruit-trees, and battered down the crops, if they have not wrought destruction to small live-stock and outbuildings. These hail-storms, as a rule, sweep along the heights. Their tracks are com- paratively narrow, and sharply defined, . being seldom more than half a mile in breadth. Nothing can stand against their wild buffetings. If the traveller be caught by one, as I have been, on some exposed stretch of mountain road, the best thing to be done is to crouch under the shelter of the vehicle, if it be an open one, or to get under the lee of any bank or barrier that may be within reach. Insect pests are a constant harassment to the Natal 8G A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA fanner. Cotton suffered from a tiny green aphis. Coffee was attacked by a grub, or "borer," which. sapped the shrub's vitality and brought about its decay. Beetles of all sizes often prove destructive in both field and garden. A beautiful blue moth pierces and blights peaches. White ants attack the roots of many plants, especially roses, and caterpillars are apt to destroy bloom and foliage. But the plague of plagues, so far as insect life is concerned, is the locust. In the very early fifties the pioneer immigrants were startled by occasional flights of this deadly visitant. At first a few odd outfiiers — like the Uhlans of the German army — would flutter about inquiringly, as though spying out the vegetation, but ere lone: their numbers would multiply until the sky would seem alive with the rustling multitudes, and at last be darkened by the winged hordes. On the flight passed, thickening and hovering until the whole settled on every green thing below, covering the earth with a brown and quivering mantle, drawing slowly onward and leaving in its wake a stript and leafless desert. In those days there was little cultivated ground to be thus ravaged, and, strangely enough, after 1852 the locusts dis- appeared. Constantly heard of in the interior, they ceased to trouble Natal, until in 1894 they travelled dowmvard from the north, in such monstrous swarms that the Colony was panic-stricken. Crops of all kinds were devoured. In vain did the sufferers strive to drive off the invaders by the din of clamorous sound. THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 8 / In vain were tins beaten, sheets of iron banged, and other noise-creating expedients resorted to. Whenever the locusts chose to come they came to stay — until their ruthless task was completed, and the young crops were devoured. As ruin seemed to threaten the community, Government was appealed to for succour. Special plenary powers of action were granted by the Legislature, and a costly organisation was set on foot. " Locust officers " were appointed for the several dis- tricts ; barriers of wire netting were erected ; trenches were dug ; rewards were offered, per sack, for dead locusts. The services of the natives were enlisted and heartily rendered in the common cause. Human ingenuity was strained by efforts to devise remedial measures. One inventive-minded colonist appealed to the war authorities in England for assistance in a campaign he proposed to prosecute in Natal against the tenacious foe, by means of mortars and projectiles which were to scatter destruction amongst the flying hosts. Unfortunately for his scheme, the local govern- ment declined to spend money on the experiment, and the project fell through. Other plans were tried, how- ever, with varying measures of success. Microscopic investigation discovered a fungoid germ with which living locusts were infected, and, dying, spread disease amongst their tribes. More efficacious, however, has been the use of poison (a preparation of arsenic), a process which some planters have found to be quite effective in ridding their crops of the pest. Partly 88 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA because the evil has thus been coped with and partly, perhaps, because familiarity has diminished its terrors, little is now heard of the plague, and though locusts still hover about, they no longer cause a scare. Insect pests are not noxious to the vegetable world alone. Animal life knows them to its cost. I say nothing about the tsetse-fly, as it has never been known in Natal, though it is rife enough in Zululand, where scientific research is locating its area and securing immunity from its effects. The cattle tick may be less deadly, but it is far more diffusive. Ticks range in size from the pin-point-sized speck, which is so troublesome to mankind, to the large, gross, and dis- tended parasite, as big as a bean, which preys upon the helpless quadruped, and more especially upon the horse, the ox, and the cow. Gathering in the tenderest parts of the body, these greedy bloodsuckers penetrate and hang on to the tormented skin until they drop off in bloated repletion. They are worse in some seasons than in others, but they sap the vitality of their victims, and even horses have been known in bad years to die from their effects. Nothing short of care in picking them off, of vigilant attention, and proper treatment, will avail to counteract the activities of South-east African ticks. Of the maladies that afflict live-stock generally chapters might be written, as indeed volumes have been published. The first visitors to Natal, long before Chaka had swept off its native population, speak of it THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 89 as a land rich in cattle and in goats. Horses and sheep were unknown before the white man brought them, but it has always been a land of pastoral abund- ance. When I first knew the country cattle plagues were relatively few. Sleek and fat, such herds as there were did full credit to their pasture lands. About 1855, however, lung-sickness crept into the country and ravaged it from end to end. Farmers and carriers alike were smitten, and stock-raising ceased to be remunerative. It was not lon2<\ however, before inocu- lation was found to be a safeguard and palliative, if not a preventive. The virus was applied to the tail, which dropped off, and for years the comic spectacle of tailless cattle was witnessed on the roads and in the fields. An ingenious colonist — he was a cook — proposed to fix artificial wisps to the stumps that remained, in order to drive the flies away! Lung-sickness has remained in the country ever since, but laws have been passed to restrain its spread, and inoculation and isolation help to keep it in check, so that cattle thrive and multiply in spite of it. Twenty years later another epidemic — red-water — broke out and proved almost, if not quite, as fatal as lung-sickness had been. But its devasta- tions were survived. One immediate and compensating result of these outbreaks was to bring sheep-farming into vogue. Sheep at any rate were not liable to these plagues, and farmers turned their attention to the new pursuit with the eager energy that has ever nerved them under successive rebuff's and losses. Sheep in 90 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA their turn developed diseases which had to be combated with not less patience and vigour. Scab has for nearly thirty years tried the resources of both farmers and legislators. Remedial laws have been passed, and a costly veterinary department created, but the steadfast opposition of the Dutch population has seriously inter- fered with its utility. Perhaps the only perceptible grievance which the Boer can advance against British rule is the readiness of the Colonial Legislature to pass measures which impose restrictions upon his personal freedom of action, albeit absolutely for his own protec- tion and benefit. All previous forms of murrain, severe though they may have been, were in 1897 eclipsed by that most terrible type of cattle plague — rinderpest. For years it had been slowly but surely marching southward. Stories of a frightfully destructive malady sweeping off all horned animals in vast districts had come down from the far interior, but so long as the visitation was confined to the distant regions north of the Zambesi it excited only an academic interest. Gradually, how- ever, the plague crept nearer. It entered Rhodesia and played havoc with cattle and game there. It threatened and at last invaded the Transvaal. Then the European communities of South Africa awoke to a sense of impending calamity. The Republican Government took alarm and joined in action. It may easily be imagined how difficult it was to establish cordons and enforce restrictions in the case of a Boer THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 91 population, but the Dutch farmer's love of cattle overbore even his repugnance to regulation, and the rules laid down were more or less complied with. Traffic was arrested and the circulation of stock inter- dicted. In Zululand the natives submitted loyally and effectively to all the rules laid down. All the governments actively co-operated in efforts to keep back the common foe. Thousands of suspected cattle were killed, and the most stringent measures were taken to prevent the passage of infected stock. In Natal, wire fences were erected along the western frontier, and all ingress of sheep and cattle forbidden, to the great disgust of farmers who owned land on both sides of the frontier. These measures entailed upon the Colony heavy outlay and individual sacrifice, but the magnitude of the danger silenced all murmur- ing. But every effort was in vain. With cruel stead- fastness the plague advanced. Though the introduction of every conceivable medium of infection was rigorously prevented the pest evaded all barriers. The fowls of the air and the creeping things of the field, possibly the germ-laden wings of the wind, carried it past zones and fences and spread it everywhere. Within a few months the country was swept from end to end. The prize pedigree stock of the European breeder, the dairy stock of the farmer, the " trek " oxen of the carrier, equally with the cherished herds of the natives — to whom cattle mean wives, property, wealth — were all mown down by the destroyer, and for a time the whole 92 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA land was corrupted with the reek of rotting carcasses. The patience with which the natives, both in Natal and Zululand, bore their losses was the marvel of all. They had been told by their magistrates what to expect ; they knew that their Government had made stupendous efforts to drive oft" the plague ; they saw that their white neighbours suffered equally with them- selves, and they submitted to calamity when it came in a spirit of patient fortitude, which was creditable alike to their loyalty and self-restraint. Then came the struggle for prevention as well as cure. Joint commissions were appointed by the several Govern- ments. Bacteriologists were consulted. Experts were employed. Professor Koch himself came from Berlin to investigate the conditions of disease upon the spot. Laboratories for the production of protective lymph were established, with the result that rinderpest is no longer regarded with horror and dismay. It has taken its place along with lung-sickness and red-water and other controllable ailments to which stock is liable. The fair hillsides of Natal once more are dotted over with cattle, and both farmers and natives watch with complacency the increase of their herds. Plagues, locusts, drought, fire, storms, failing markets, and a capricious labour supply — such are or have been some of the difficulties and drawbacks against which the settlers of Natal have had to contend. They are not peculiar to South Africa. They, or their equiva- lents, fall to the lot of British colonists in other parts THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 93 of the world. My only purpose in naming them is to illustrate the circumstances under which a British Colony is built up; to indicate the process by which the British Empire has become so powerful a factor in the world's destiny. Severe though these trials have been, harassing though these troubles have been, they have not in any degree availed to daunt the efforts of the settlers, or to abate their confidence in the prospects of the new land. Despite these experiences life in South Africa has its compensations, and men suffering them are still content to bear the risks of them, while men knowing of them are not afraid to share the lot of their predecessors. And now another item has to be added to the category of misfortune. The hand of war has had the country in its grip, and not for the first time. In that dark year, 1879, Natal passed through all the rigours of a campaign, but except for one incident — the ever-memorable episode of Rorke's Drift — it was spared the horrors of invasion. Though for three months it was more or less in a state of panic, and for six months was beset by uncertainty and alarm, its soil remained inviolate and its homesteads were un- threatened and unharmed. A savage and ruthless foe menaced the border throughout that period of suspense and peril, but — save for the few brief hours beyond the Buffalo — the Colony was not invaded. Of the thrilling experiences of those days I may speak here- after, as well as of other occasions when the Colony 94 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA was scared by war's alarms, or threatened disturbances, but not actually chastised by war's riery scourge. Very different is the case uoav. When I write the country has for seven long months been desecrated by the presence of a foe. After nearly sixty years of peace, the quiet uplands of Natal, where the memories of past massacres had been buried with the bones of the old Voertrekkers, have echoed with the ceaseless thunder of Boer cannonading, and the frequent rattle of Boer rifles, directed against the habitations of British settlers, and the sheltering forces of the Government under whose just and tolerant rule that peace has prevailed. All the many evidences of toil and enter- prise that mark that region are the product of this period. The wire fences that enclose the farms — sure sign of order and progress — the clustering tree planta- tions diversifying and humanising the prospect — the comfortable homesteads and embowering orchards — the herds and flocks and spreading fields — are the tokens and fruits of British rule, and mainly of British industry. So, too, are the thriving townships, Estcourt, Ladismith, Dundee, and Newcastle — all centres of trade, municipal activity, and social progress. So, too, are the coal mines, whose existence and development are so invaluable a resource to a great naval power and maritime empire. So, too, is the line of well-made, stable railway that has helped so materially in the expansion of gold-mining at Johannesburg. Yet all these signs and trophies of Anglo-Saxon colonisation THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 95 were for nearly nine months in the hands, or commanded by the guns, of Boer invaders from the Republics. The graphic pens of home correspondents have told the story of the war itself — as far as the censor's pencil would allow — with a fulness and power that are all- sufficing. The actual daily experiences of the settlers, however, fell less fully within their province. It is still too early to attempt any historical narration of them. Though the tyranny of invasion is overpast, the tale of loss and suffering is not yet closed. I refer to them here only to indicate what the feelings may be of the people who have thus been called upon to witness the sudden wreck of their lifework. In their case the happening was altogether unexpected. They had failed to realise that war was inevitable. They never deemed it pos- sible that the Colony itself would be invaded. The idea of Boer commandoes swarming over the Draken- berg, and taking possession of the country, never seriously entered their minds. Though they knew that their Dutch neighbours and fellow-colonists sym- pathised more or less with their friends and kinsmen in the Republics, active and general sedition on the part of men so void of provocation was scarcely con- templated. In the upland towns residents were so confident in their sense of security that they never thought of moving until officially warned or directed to do so; and this was in spite of the spectacle of trains crammed with wretched and helpless refugees passing daily and almost hourly from Johannesburg. 96 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA In the country farmers were still less inclined to fly. They fancied that the Boer forces would remain near the border, and not until Newcastle and Dundee had been evacuated and Ladismith, after successive battles, been invested and cut oft', did the real peril of the situation force itself on the minds of the settlers south of the Tugela. Then, most of them — the British-born, I mean — hastily took flight. First went the women- folk and the children, carrying with them such port- ables as they could dispose of, and then followed the men, who held on to their homesteads until the Boers were actually in sight. Loath, indeed, were the house- wives to leave their domestic treasures to the mercy of Boer raiders. In some cases things were buried, or hidden in roofs, in cornpits, or plantations. In others they were left just as they were, trusting that apparent confidence would prevent spoliation. Cattle, horses, and sheep were in many cases driven off to the deep valleys under the distant mountains, whither the raiders were afraid to follow them. In other instances the oAvners escaped out of one door as the invaders appeared at another. Six well-dressed and well-mannered Boers rode up one morning to a country store, where some of the refugee farmers were awaiting events, and asked for " drinks," which they paid for. Mistrusting such civility, the British visitors quietly went to the back, mounted their horses, and rode away. Looking round from the hill behind they saw the slopes in front swarming with Boers, and (lie homestead in the hands of a looting THE SETTLERS AS PIONEERS 97 horde — the vanguard of Joubert's great commando — which had marched round from Ladismith, unseen and unsuspected, as I have said, its route concealed by the smoke from grass-fires purposely lighted, al- though thousands of British troops were encamped a score of miles away. On a small scale this daring inroad resembled Sherman's great march through the Southern States. It was successful and unchecked as long as its advance was mainly through country occupied by Boer sympathisers. Then, when near Fort Notting- ham, Boer farms were left behind and only British settlers met with, the hearts of the raiders failed them. Colonial scouts were encountered, and reports of reinforcements were received. So the commando turned eastward, possibly with the view of interrupting communication with Maritzburg. The country traversed offered goodly prey. Some of the finest stock-farms in South Africa are — or were — to be found there. One, belonging to the Natal Stud Company, has for years carried off the best prizes at the Agricultural Shows of the Colony for its exhibits of pedigree animals. All were swept away. Wire fences were cut or trampled down. The enterprise and toil of long years were wiped out, and the homeless sufferers — forced to find shelter where they might — were left to reflect once again upon the chances and changes that beset the Anglo-African pioneer. It is true that in some cases orders were given upon the Transvaal treasury for the value of stock or supplies thus seized, and that in certain in- G 98 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA stances there was a marked abstention from undue interference with property, more especially as regards farmers who had chosen to sit still in their homes, but the general experience was one of loss, humiliation, and indignity. Fortunately for the Colony the gar- risons of Mooi River and Estcourt were able to arrest and divert the march of the Boer commandoes, though not to cut them off in their retreat, but the injury they succeeded in inflicting upon the loyal colonists can never be adequately repaired. Nor will it ever be forgotten by this generation in Natal that the most reckless and wanton of the looters were the rebellious Dutch neighbours with whom for so many years the despoiled settlers had been living in amity and peace. Crushing though these latest experiences of trouble and disaster have been, it must not be supposed that the British colonists of Natal will faint or falter in the continuance of their mission as pioneers. The spirit that has enabled them to contend with and to over- come the antagonisms of nature will sustain them in their endurance of the blows and shocks of war. They have won, as we have seen, for the Empire and for themselves the country they inhabit; they have won it from barbarism, and have bequeathed it to civilisa- tion ; they have dowered it, through the grace of a wise Imperial policy, with free institutions; they have lough t, and many of them have died, in its defence. It is a goodly heritage, and they mean to pass it on as a homeland to their children and their children's children, let us hope, for many generations. CHAPTER V THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS Like Canada and the West Indies, South Africa has in the past been the scene of much active service on the part of British troops. Purchased in the first instance by armed conquest, British supremacy has been main- tained there throughout the nineteenth century at a cost of treasure and of life which in itself may be held to constitute an effective title to dominion. Were the lives lost and the money spent in upholding British authority there during the last hundred years reckoned up, the sum -total would surprise mankind. These reminiscences, however, are personal rather than his- torical, and I only propose to recall incidents that have come within my own experience. In view of the enormous demonstration of military strength by means of which the Empire is now main- taining and establishing its authority in South Africa, the provision made by Sir George Napier in 1838 for the occupation of Natal seems absurdly insignificant. That able Governor described it as consisting of " 1 captain, 2 subalterns, 80 men of the 72nd High- landers ; 1 subaltern, 1 sergeant, 10 men Royal Artillery, 3 guns ; 1 sergeant, Sappers and Miners ; 1 assistant 100 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA surgeon ; 1 commissariat clerk : 1 Kafir interpreter." This little force was placed in charge of liis Excellency's own Secretary, Major Charters, and its object was to erect a fort at Durban, " to prevent all supplies and warlike stores from entering that port, by which means alone," wrote the Governor, " I can prevent aggressions against the native tribes by these emigrant farmers, and thus put a stop to further bloodshed ; and, secondly, to prevent the emigrants establishing an independent government, by being in possession of the only seaport through which gunpowder and other necessary supplies can be ensured to them." Considering that the emi- grants numbered thousands, and had already van- quished, as my readers have seen, the trained warriors of the Zulu despot, the strength of this little expedition was modest enough. Yet so powerful were the non- colonising influences of that time in Imperial councils that Sir George felt constrained to apologise for the magnitude of his preparations : " Your Lordship may possibly be surprised," surely this was sarcasm, " at the amount of force ; but in consequence of the information I have received that there is now a large body of the emigrant farmers under one Landman, in possession of that port, and commencing building, &c, I deemed it necessary to put all idea of resistance, should there be such, out of the question ; and I can at any time reduce the force, if expedient." Small as this handful of troops might be, it availed for the time being to achieve the object in view. The THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 101 blockhouse erected by it, and the guns named, were still standing at the harbour entrance when I first saw it, eleven years later. And after the Queen's sovereignty had been fully and firmly extended over the whole Colony, a garrison not exceeding 450 in all, of regular troops (apart from the volunteers) sufficed to keep peace in the Colony for twenty years. During that period the 45th was the only regiment stationed in Natal, and some of the best colonists came from its ranks. Though the rest of South Africa was often in tumult, the little northern colony enjoyed almost un- broken repose. Two tedious and bloody " Kafir wars " on the Cape frontier, a campaign in Basutoland, a struggle with the Boers north of the Orange River, terrible fratricidal massacres in Zululand, on our im- mediate border, Boer expeditions against the natives in the Transvaal, all disturbed or desolated the adjacent territories, but Natal remained an oasis of peace. Not an additional soldier was added to or needed by the garrison. The moral influence of a just and tactful Government availed, with the aid of local forces, to avert bloodshed and disorder. It was at this time, however, that the volunteer move- ment — destined in later years to bear such memorable fruit — had its birth in Natal. I believe that to that Colony belongs the distinction of having been one of the first communities to lead the way in the modern outgrowth of citizen soldiership. If not its actual originator, Governor Pine was the foster-parent of the 102 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA organisation, as he was of so many other wise and far- sighted projects. The Crimean War had just begun. The possibility of a call from a Russian privateer was suggested. Then, as now, martial enthusiasm on behalf of the Empire spread from the mother country to its offspring. The Governor found it an easy matter to induce the small nominated and purely official legis- lature to pass an " Ordinance " providing for the or- ganisation of volunteer bodies. In 1854 the principal residents of Durban, taking advantage of this measure, met and formed themselves into a corps happily desig- nated the " Royal Durban Rangers." I believe that was the first legally constituted mounted volunteer force established in the Empire, since the close of the Great War ; at any rate, it was very nearly so. It had but a strength of some fifty or sixty men, but was officered by a captain, two lieutenants, and a cornet. Amongst its members were men who then, and for many years after- wards, held leading positions in the community. These wore a dark blue uniform, with black facings, which were very shortly replaced by yellow facings, when by special permission the corps was allowed to dub itself " Royal." Governor Pine, as Honorary Colonel and Queen's representative, as soon as the Rangers were fully accoutred and equipped, reviewed and addressed them. He laid great stress on the fact that theirs was a corps of "gentlemen," and admonished them to act as such on the drill ground and in the field. Races and a ball closed the proceedings of that memorable day. THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 103 Despite the encouragement of the local Government, and the personal good comradeship of the regular troops in the Colony, the military authorities did little to help the movement. They looked coldly on it, Members had to use their own saddles, and the only equipments forthcoming from the Imperial armoury were some surplus stores in the shape of obsolete swords and carbines. The latter were loaded with difficulty, while the blunt and cumbrous sabres were only useful as tests of the endurance and patience of the men using them. Despite military indifference, the Rangers grew in efficiency and popularity. Four years later a hand- some little banner, embroidered in scarlet and gold, was contributed by a member of the corps, and, after being- consecrated by the Bishop of the Colony, was presented by the Governor's wife amidst much ceremony. This flag was proudly displayed on parade days, and was borne in front of the corps when it escorted Prince Alfred into Durban in 1860. It now hangs in St. Paul's Church. Fired by so notable an example, other townsmen of Durban almost immediately determined to establish a foot corps for the enrolment of such citizens as might not be possessed of horses. It was as a member of this body — the Durban Volunteer Guard— that my public service, when a lad of fifteen, may be said to have begun. Her Majesty certainly had no prouder subject than I felt myself to be when my name was called out at the first muster of the corps. We were a very motley crew, 104 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of all ages, sorts, and sizes, but our enthusiasm was un- bounded. For a week or two we drilled in the garb of common. life; but little time was lost in providing the simplest type of uniform in the shape of a plain blue serge tunic, a home-made peaked kepi, emblazoned with the letters "D.V.G.," cast in pewter by a local craftsman. Trousers were supposed to be grey for pre- ference, but it did not matter. Our arms were of the crudest order. As a matter of fact — strange as it may seem — very few of us had guns of our own, and they were mostly fowling-pieces, or other homely weapons. When it was impossible to raise a firearm of any sort, a roughly carved bit of plank was made to serve as sub- stitute ; and on one occasion a humorous recruit, of Scottish origin, paraded with a broomstick ! Ammuni- tion for some time was provided out of powder-flasks, but the explosion of one in the hands of a careless member led to an appeal for military assistance. The Imperial authorities found that they had stowed away in store a quantity of venerable disused Tower muskets, that had belonged to a disbanded corps of native police. These ponderous pieces, belonging to the " Brown Bess " species, had seen service in the first years of the century. They were enormously heavy, and reached up to one's shoulder. Caps, like small Quaker hats, were served with them. Almost as big as some modern field-pieces, it required the strength — shall I say of ten ? — to pull the trigger, while the recoil was such as almost to throw one down. Aiming was a mere matter of chance, and THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 105 how the gallant soldiers who fought with them managed to hit anybody is a problem yet unsolved. A huge triangular bayonet, heavy pipe-clayed cross-belts, and a capacious cartridge-box, with pouch, completed the equipment. Yet nobody repined under its burden, nor marvelled when five shots out of six failed to hit the target. The bullets, by the way, were cast by ourselves, and the cartridges were made up in scraps of paper for each occasion. Such was volunteering in Natal in the early fifties. We were but a handful of whites amongst thousands of spear-armed and warlike savages, but Ave slept soundly at nights, and did not regard the future with any perceptible dismay. These preparations for self- defence, primitive though they might be, undoubtedly infused a sense of confidence and security throughout the community, and accustomed a large section of the people to the use of arms. The capital of the Colony soon followed in the wake of the seaport and established the Natal Carbineers, a corps which on many a foughten field has won renown, as shall be shown hereafter. It has outlived all its contemporaries, and its name is invested with such a halo of bright tradition that it will not be lightly suffered to pass away. The Rangers continued in existence for many years and took part in one or two minor expeditions ; but finally merged into the Natal Mounted Rifles, a corps which did good service in the Zulu War, and is still engaged in the present struggle. My own old foot corps struggled 106 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA on for about two years, but, without proper arms or Government encouragement, it gradually languished. The regulars declined to parade with us on Her Majesty's birthday 1855, when, nevertheless, we had a muster of our own, in pipe-clayed belts, and fired a salute from our ancient blunderbusses, with loyal hearts and a most loyal cheer. Both officers and men, how- ever, became disheartened by neglect and deprivation, and the corps may be said to have perished slowly by inanition. In future years it was succeeded by other infantry forces, one of which took a prominent part in the armoured train incident of November last. Until 1861 the only military episodes that ruffled the serenity of Natal were the expeditions against the recalcitrant chiefs Dushani and Isidoi. In both cases small bodies of regulars, volunteers, and native levies succeeded in bringing the refractory tribes to their knees without much bloodshed, and in enforcing the authority of Government. Both chiefs occupied difficult positions in broken, hilly country, but the resistance they offered was brief and weak-hearted. Deposed and outlawed, they ceased to work mischief, while the breaking up of their tribes and the seizure of their cattle had a salutary influence upon the rest of the native population. Firmness and justice have ever been the corner-stones of British rule over subject savage races. In 186.1 a more serious menace ap- peared to the northward. It was then that the little raw-cloud, which eighteen years later burst in storm THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 107 and tumult, besfan to show itself in Zululand. Kinsjf Panda (or M'Pande), first installed in sovereignty as Dingaan's successor by the Boers, and subsequently recognised by the Colonial Government, after twenty years of comparatively peaceful rule, had waxed fat and slothful. In 1856 his two elder sons, Umbulazi and Cetywayo, had waged a bloody struggle for the succes- sion, on the northern banks of the Lower Tugela near the sea. Both the rival factions met in deadly combat there, and the younger, a mere youth, got the mastery. His success was partly due to the help of a young Englishman, John Dunn, destined to play a prominent part in Zulu history a quarter of a century later. The defeated party was driven into the Tugela with tre- mendous slaughter. Umbulazi himself and thousands of his people were slain, and the country reeked for weeks with the stench of the massacre. Two years later I visited the spot. All was then still and peaceful. Not a hut was visible on the north bank, and, lounging on the crisp, flowery sward in the soft spring air, it was difficult to realise that so short a time before such a scene of butchery had been enacted there. But, scattered about, bleaching skulls and bones bore ghastly witness to the fray, and the alligators basking on the sandbanks of the river had possibly been participants in its horrors. Having in such ruthless fashion cleared his brother, the favourite heir, out of the way, Cetywayo proceeded to establish his pretensions by orthodox Zulu methods. 108 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA He dominated his father and he overawed the people. He let it be known that those who were not for him would be dealt with as beinsf against him. He restored and expanded the regimental organisation that made his uncle Chaka a tyrant and a terror. He enlisted on his side the younger men of the nation, and the older ones he either cowed into submission or drove across the frontier into British territory. During these years many thousands of Zulu refugees found an asylum in Natal. Among them was a young son of the king, a boy called M'Kungu, of whose possible rivalry Cety- wayo was suspicious. The lad fled with a brother, and found a home at Bishojxstowe. near Maritzburg. Another fugitive, of relatively low estate, called Ngoza, became a henchman of Mr. Shepstone, the Natal Secretary for Native Affairs, had a location assigned him near the Bishop's, and rapidly grew into a per- sonage of importance. Aware of both circumstances, Cetywayo's distrust was aroused. He dreaded a hostile combination between the English and his boy - brother, and he yearned for some formal recognition of his heirship by the white man's Government beyond the Tugela. The Government decided to gratify him, partly to disarm his fears, and partly to conciliate his goodwill. Mr. Shepstone's rule of policy was to keep peace by staving off evil, and, though the step Avas criticised at the time, it succeeded in its primary object. As the representative of the Queen he went to Zulu- THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 109 land, accompanied only by a few white attendants and a larger native escort, led by the despised Ngoza. It was a risky expedition, as Cetywayo and his young warriors were inflamed with many butcheries and ready for any devilry. Though the British envoy literally took his life in his hands, he went through his mission with consummate coolness and intrepidity. Surrounded by thousands of armed and bloodthirsty savages, he explained to the king and his son the reasons that had led the Government to recognise the latter as the lawful heir to the sovereignty. It was desired to establish settled authority and to prevent the recurrence of strife and bloodshed. With the dignity that was natural to him, Mr. Shepstone sought to impress upon Cetywayo the obligations which this act of recognition imposed upon him. All went fairly well until the sight of Ngoza revived the suspicions and provoked the fury of the young chief, who demanded the surrender of the renegade, as he deemed him to be. As a matter of fact, his resentment was aroused by some ill-timed assumption of authority on the part of one who was regarded as a " dog." The regiments caught the infec- tion of Cetywayo's rage, and a scene of uproar ensued, throughout which Mr. Shepstone bore himself unmoved. At one time, when actually threatened with destruction, he said : " You may kill me — we are but one or two in the face of a multitude ; but, from the country which I represent, unnumbered hosts will come to avenge my death." The unruffled self-possession of the resolute 110 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Englishman overawed and subdued the passionate Zulu. " Somtseu's " command of temper saved the situation ; the ceremony of recognition proceeded without inter- ruption, and the party returned to Natal free from molestation. Cetywayo's suspicions, however, were only lulled — they were not extinguished. In a few weeks they flared up again, and his impis were reported to be moving about menacingly near the Natal border. Wild rumours of a possible invasion began to circu- late. Alarm spread. People grew nervous. On one side of the Tugela was an army of 15,000 savage spearmen. On the other was a community of three or four thousand peaceful settlers thinly sprinkled over the land, with a garrison of about 400 British soldiers quartered in Maritzburg. Such a condition of things was manifestly conducive to panic. The Legislative Council was in session. Its sixteen mem- bers were gravely discussing one night the yearly estimates when a tremendous booming smote the still air. It was repeated and repeated. Discussion stopped. Members stared blankly at each other. Surely those sounds were from the guns at the fort, and what could they portend but the close approach of an enemy ? Though the Speaker did not leave his chair, business was all but suspended, and messen- gers were sent out to ascertain the facts. The long, unlit streets were unwontedly enlivened by groups of householders, eager, if not tremulous, vainly asking THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 1 1 1 each other what the disturbance might mean. Time, on such occasions, seems long, but many minutes did not elapse before it became known that the fancied roar of cannon was nothing more than the noise caused by the mischievous turning over of an iron tank on the part of two or three practical jokers ! Though that was a false alarm, it preceded a genuine scare, which for some weeks agitated the Colony. Stories reached town that the Zulus were across the border and inarching on Maritzburg, with the express object of seizing the king's son M'Kimgu, who had been placed in Bishop Colenso's charge at his mission station near the little city. The bishop and his household with the young "prince" made a hurried flight into town overnight, and many of the farmers forsook their homesteads and sought refuge as they might. The Governor mustered as many of the volunteers as could be got together, and, with a few mounted regulars, proceeded towards the northern border. At Greytown he was reinforced by some of the local farmers or burghers, Avho were quite ready to take the field against their traditional foe. Though not belonging at that time to an enrolled force, I arranged with a friend to go on our own account to the border in quest of such adventures as might await us there. My companion had the good fortune to possess a Westley-Richards breechloader — at that time a novelty — but I had to be content with a short, muzzle-loading Enfield carbine, the cartridges for which 112 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA I spent the greater part of the preceding night in pre- paring. Thus armed and fairly well mounted, we went forth merrily in the delicious air of a Natal winter morn- ing, ready for any experience that might be in store. The road to Greytown, then as now, traversed a hilly and picturesque country — with bush - crested bluffs skirting the horizon, rivers and brooks running through grassy valleys, and boulder-strewn ridges or kopjes breaking up the landscape. But at that time homesteads were very few and far between, and the wire fences which now stretch everywhere were wholly unknown. It was a free, almost trackless country, with many bucks and game birds picking or pecking on the burnt veld. At the start, however, bullets had to be husbanded for possible sport of a graver kind. Though some of the farms were deserted, some were still occupied, especially those belonging to certain Yorkshire settlers, who were only too glad to regale us with cheesecakes and custards while we told them the latest news. Of what was happening on the border they knew nought, and the only way to find out was to ride on and discover the facts for ourselves. At that season, however, and in that buoyant atmosphere, journeying on horseback is- little short of an intoxication to the young and ardent, so on we rode over hill and through dale, wondering whether the enemy was over the next rise, or — where ? At last, as the shadows were lengthening, we saw suddenly rising over the sharp line of the ridge in front — drawn out in single THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 113 file — a native impi ! With shields in hand and feather tufts, there was no mistaking the identity of the warriors, while the soft evening wind soon bore to us the long croon of their war-song. As they were but a mile off, or less, the thought of a retreat did not occur to us, nor were we by any means certain that they were Zulus, so we rode forward, somewhat ap- prehensively it must be confessed ; but there seemed no help for it. Anxiety soon subsided as the placable demeanour of the impi suggested no hostile intent, and we were soon assured that it was nothing more than a contingent of our own natives marching to the Governor's camp. The sun was setting when we rode up to the Hano- verian mission station, Herrnansburg, where we sought and were gladly given shelter for the night. This is a self-supporting institution carried out on practical lines, combining industry with teaching, in a fashion not wholly unlike the methods of the Trappists. An excellent boarding-school for European boys helps to swell the income of the institution, and craftsmen of all kinds ply their callings. At a patriarchal table we supped, as honoured guests, on porridge, milk, and brown bread, while the pastor eagerly questioned us about the events of which they knew so little, though they were right in the forefront of any possible in- vasion. Sound was the sleep we soon won on the hard matted floor, with our saddle-rugs to warm us, but rude was the awakening. Sometime far in the H 114 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA night a sudden uproar startled us out of our dreamless slumbers. Stampings and clatterings thundered round the building. Surely that must be an impi outside I We jumped up and looked through the blindless window into the white radiance of the moonlit night, but saw nothing. Groping our way along the passage, we found our way to the door and passed without. Not a moving figure was visible, but the noises con- tinued, though more remotely. We went to where our horses had been tethered and found them gone. Something had frightened them and they had broken loose and stampeded round the house. A weary hour we spent in recovering them, but they were caught at last, and fastened up again, and we slept on till dawn. Our early ride next morning took us on to the brow of Krantz Kop, a craggy mountain overlooking the great valley of the Tugela. From its summit, only approachable on the Southern side, the eye ranges over a superb prospect of hill and gorse — of rock and forests — far into Zululand, which stretches beyond the gleam- ing river as it winds deviously to the sea. The crest of the hill had been stockaded and roughly fortified. There the Governor and his escort had passed the night. At a humble but deserted farmhouse just below we found fastened to the door a bit of paper notifying that the inmates had heard that the Zulus were " crossing," so had taken flight. The camp itself was also tenantless, and we were considering what to do next, when a mounted body showed itself at no great distance, and THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 115 thither we went. It was the Governor with his small band of volunteers and burghers. From them we learnt that the reported " invasion " was all a scare — that no Zulus in force were anywhere visible near the border — and that messages had been received from Cetywayo, expressing surprise at the alarm that had arisen. Whether or not there had been ground for the panic was never known. Possibly the prompt appearance of an armed force on the border — though so small a body — had discouraged any hostile movement : the Zulus had not forgotten Dingaan's experiences. In any case there was not then, and never has been — with the one exception of the attack on Rorke's farmhouse — a Zulu invasion of Natal under British rule. In 1865 a somewhat similar incident occurred on the Western border. The Basutos were at war with the Free State, and a considerable body of them followed up some Boers into Natal and looted stock. The neighbouring farms were panic-stricken. The volun- teers were called out and sent to the border and other preparations were made. The Basutos, however, did not repeat their venture, and alarm soon subsided. Desul- tory strife continued between them and the Boers for several years, until in 1809 Sir Philip Wodehouse was authorised to extend a protectorate over Basutoland and terminate a struggle which was demoralising South Africa. At that time a strong desire prevailed to bring back the Free State within the pale of the Empire as the only means of restoring peace, order, and security. 116 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA I Avas one of a large deputation of Cape merchants and others who, in November 1868, Avaited upon the Duke of Buckingham for the purpose of urging the necessity of that step. Not long before I had proposed and carried in the Natal Legislative Council a series of resolutions to that effect. Strange as it may seem — but illustrative undoubtedly of the methods and temper of the time — the Secretary of State had never seen these resolutions until, on the occasion in question, I handed him a copy of them. No doubt they had been pigeon- holed somewhere in the recesses of the dingy old building which then sufficed to represent the Colonial Empire of Great Britain in Downing Street. The policy indicated was far too comprehensive for adoption in the then existing state of public feeling, and the recognition of Basutoland as a "protected" territory was all that Imperial statesmanship dared venture upon as a reme- dial measure. The year 1873, as I have pointed out already, will long be memorable as marking the turning-point of Imperial policy in South Africa. It was then that Mr. Shepstone followed up his recognition of Cetywayo in 1861 by his formal coronation of that chief as his late father's successor in the sovereignty of Zululand. For some time past Langalibalele, a chief in North- western Natal, had showed signs of insubordination. Men of his tribe had brought back with them from the diamond fields firearms purchased there, and he refused to have them registered in conformity with law. He had THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 1 1 7 in other ways evaded the mandates of the Government and given evidences of recalcitrancy. Unless such mani- festations on the part of a native chief are promptly checked they are certain to develop and strengthen ; but it was not deemed prudent to bring Langalibalele to his bearings until Cetywayo's clamant demand for installation had been complied with. He wished to be formally established as king of Zululand by the great Power that had recognised his heirship. Governor Pine's first act after returning to Natal in June 1873 was to authorise the Secretary of Native Affairs to pro- claim Cetywayo. The story of that expedition as told by Mr. Shepstone himself is intensely interesting, full of picturesque situations and adventurous incidents ; but it cannot be summarised here. It must suffice to say that our envoy was escorted by a force of about three hundred men, including the Durban Volunteer Artillery Corps, commanded by the late Mr. Escombe, and two field-pieces. They crossed the Tugela and advanced to the king's place, where, after many diplo- matic delays and much amusing observance of savage etiquette, "Somtseu" at last, in the presence of the Zulu regiments, placed on Cetywayo's head a tailor- made " crown " amidst the salute of artillery and the shouts of his people. Mr. Shepstone also took occasion to admonish the king on the duties of his position, and to obtain from him a promise not to signalise his acces- sion in the cruel fashion of his race, by the spilling of innocent blood. Other " laws " of humane tendency 118 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA were also agreed upon and promulgated, and the king's violation of them formed counts in the indictment against him six years later. Having pleased and pacified Cetywayo and for the time being dispelled any menace in that quarter, the Natal Government proceeded, after Mr. Shepstone's return, to deal with Langalibalcle. He had failed to comply with repeated summonses to appear before the magistrate, whose messengers he suffered to be stripped and jeered at. His champions later on declared that he was afraid of treachery. Steps were taken to enforce his submission. A mixed force of regulars and volun- teers was sent towards his location. There being reason to believe, and rightly so, that the chief contemplated retirement into Basutoland, a small party of mounted volunteers belonging to the Natal Carbineers was despatched to intercept him at the top of the Draken- berg. It was commanded by Major Durnford, who afterwards fell at Isandhlwana. Two days and nigh Is' forced march took this little band up the trackless heights of the beetling mountain range whose vertical crags wall in the western frontier of Natal. They ascended by the sources of the Umkomas, whose birth- streams tumble down the precipices they spring from in exquisite cascades. The horses had to be led or dragged up the mountain flanks, which never before had been trodden by civilised man. It was a tremen- dous clamber, up and along almost perpendicular cliffs, one ridge being .surmounted only to find yet steeper and THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 119 higher ridges beyond. In that clear air distances are lessened and surfaces flattened, and estimates of ground to be traversed are altogether misleading. Light food for little more than a day had been taken, and three days were spent in the expedition. At one point Major Durnford fell and rolled fifty yards over stones. Though bruised and dislocated he refused to be left behind, and after being tenderly cared for he continued his march with the rest. The force started on Sunday evening fully expect- ing to be at its goal on Monday morning ; but all that day it was scrambling and toiling on, amidst those verdureless and awful solitudes, where, at an altitude of over 9000 feet, only nature in her sternest forms was manifest. At last when day broke on Tuesday morning the eastern edge of the crest was gained. Fatigued and famished as they were in the keen frosty air, the spirits of the thirty-three stalwart troopers rose. They were near the accomplishment of their mission. Daylight had not long made visible the curling mists below, the sun had only just lit up the ruddy peak of Giant's Castle towering over them on the right, when word came that the rebels were close at hand. As it hap- pened, the chief, with some of his head-men, followers, and cattle, had four days earlier fled over the mountains by the path that had now been reached. Climbing up Bushman's Pass — a mere groove in the face of the vast mountain cliff — they had escaped out of the Colony, and were now being followed by another large body of the tribe, armed and hostile. L20 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Many accounts have been given of what then oc- curred, but the actual facts seem obvious and simple. It was the desire of the Colonial Government to secure, if possible, the bloodless submission of the tribe, and with that end in view the order had been given not to fire unless first fired upon. Major Durnford, despite his hurts and exhaustion, adhered inflexibly to his instructions. His little force was halted in fours while he advanced to parley with the natives who streamed up from below. The position could have been easily held by our men, far outnum- bered as they were, had they been free to act and to treat the rebels as a foe, but they had to obey orders. The kopjes on either hand wore, however, occupied by the natives, who, more and more menacing, closed round them. The colonists, who knew native methods better than did their dauntless leader, urged that they be allowed to fire, but the Major did not flinch in the implicit execution of his orders. Attended by three young volunteers and his faithful Kafir inter- preter, a Christian native named Elijah Kambula, lie rode towards the foremost rebels and told them they must all return with him to the Colony and submit, The only answer was jeer and mockery. The volun- teers behind meanwhile grew more and more restless, and demanded either to fight or retire. Again the Major warned the natives to lay down their arms, only to see them press on and round with brandished spear and furious shout, Fain would ho even then have THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 121 striven to hold the pass, but his men, recognising the hopelessness of the undertaking, insisted on retiring. In the end the rebels closed in upon Durnford and his immediate companions, three of whom were shot, while the third, being unhorsed, was slain. The Major only saved his life by shooting with his revolver two natives at his horse's head, and then with his men he moved oft'. Falling back at a trot, an attempt was made to rally, but a deadly volley was poured into them at a distance of from ten to fifty yards. Some one called out that they were all being murdered, and the pace quickened. Several instances of individual gallantry were recorded and handsomely recognised by Major Durnford, who wrote subsequently of the solicitude for his safety shown by many of the force during the retreat, adding that, suffering as he was from a slight wound and a bad fall, he would never have returned had it not been for their assistance. They in their turn bore testimony to the soldierlike fearlessness and unselfish demeanour of their leader. Of the Carbineers slain, one was a son of the Colonial Secretary. A monument was afterwards erected to the memory of the four brave men who thus perished in the defence of British autho- rity on the bleak crest of the Drakenberg, and not the least honoured of the names inscribed thereon is that of the faithful and dauntless Kambula. After a terrible journey down the mountain the rest of the party arrived nearly a day later, utterly spent and exhausted, at the main camp. 122 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA The news of this disaster reached Maritzburg all too quickly, and spread consternation through the little city. A brooding leaden sky with a still, stifling atmos- phere, intensified the gloom. Only a few days before the young slain volunteers had started on their errand full of eagerness and gallantry. Fears of a wide-spread native rising Avere freely expressed, and instant action was urged upon the Government. Promptitude in movement at such a time is ever held to be imperative, and no time was lost in preparation. Governor Pine was already in the field with a force that had been despatched to the neighbourhood of the disaffected location, and operations on a larger scale were planned. It is a wild, rugged country. Had the rebels chosen to make a stand there it would have been no easy matter to subdue them, especially as the people of another and adjoining tribe, Putili's, made common cause with them, or were understood to do so. The fighting men of both tribes, however, with the bulk of their cattle, van- ished over and into the mountains, and the occupation of their locations was effected after some bloodshed. They had, however, to be pursued and punished. Had they been allowed to find an unmolested refuge in Basutoland there would have been an end to British prestige in South Africa. Two pursuing columns were at once organised, each being under the leadership of an experienced Natal magistrate. These little forces were entirely colonial, either enrolled volunteers or colonists who enlisted for the occasion. They mini- THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 123 bered seventy volunteers and 1600 natives. Captain Allison and Captain Hawkins had no easy task before them. They had to take their men up the almost inaccessible mountain sides into a region of rugged and trackless desolation that had never before been pene- trated by white men — a region whose only known inhabitants in the past had been the tiny untameable Bushman, the ravening hyena, or the fabled unicorn ; for there tradition had located the one-horned antelope. Somewhere in front of them, probably lying in wait amidst Nature's fastnesses, for a sudden spring, was the fugitive tribe. It was, moreover, the season of storms, raging up there with indescribable fury, without a scrap of shelter available. Whatever the difficulties and dangers might be they were gladly faced, especially by the men who smarted under the aspersions cast upon them from certain quarters as a consequence of their late reverse. The two columns carried their provisions with them packed in raw hides, on the backs of oxen which were killed and eaten as the march proceeded, and as their burdens were consumed. The story of this expedition was never properly told either in official despatches or private letters. No " special " correspondents accompanied it, no postmen or runners bore back news of it. The largest of the parties ascended the Drakenberg by the more western passes; the other advanced by the more southerly route at the sources of the Umzimkulu. Both had a merry meeting in the clouds, and then disappeared 124 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA from sight and hearing-, after sending to Maritzburg an assurance that the objects of the mission should be accomplished "handsomely and well" — a promise that was fulfilled to the letter. And practically nothing more was heard of the expedition until it had done its work. It groped its way amongst the precipices and defiles, skirting the edges of brawling torrents, camping at times under the eaves of overhanging crags, scaling nameless mountain heights or scrambling into the depths of rock-strewn valleys — all void, silent, and life- less — ever on the alert for a hidden foe, and never beset by any dread or doubt. The marvellously buoyant though often icily cold air of South African mountain- land uplifted and stimulated them. After each day's hard march they slept the sleep that follows as of right dutiful fatigue, and they rose at dawn, refreshed and confident, to resume the chase. They were not long in finding traces of the fugitives, and thus guided they passed farther and farther into the depths of the mystical "Double Mountains," the twofold mountain range that divides Natal from Basutoland. And at last their Aveary quest was rewarded. One morning a native visitor apprised them that the rebels were not far ahead. They had made for Northern Basutoland, where a friendly refuge might most con- fidently be anticipated. With cheerful hearts therefore the pursuers pressed on in that direction, until they reached once again the abodes of men — even though uncivilised men. The Basutos were astounded at the THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 125 apparition of an armed force of white men from a quarter where Nature's barriers had hitherto been deemed impassable. The effect produced by such an exploit was in itself enough to secure a respectful reception for the heroes of it. The Cape Government, moreover, with a sympathetic alacrity which Natal still remembers with gratitude, had sent a body of 120 Mounted Police to the southern flank of Basutoland to prevent any retreat of the rebels in that direction. Any hope that Langalibalele may have cherished of succour from the Basutos was soon dissipated. They also loyally co-operated, and after a brief encounter the fugitives were surrounded and disarmed. Though the rebels had eluded their pursuers it was only to be captured in the end. At the first Basuto village reached by the Natal expedition a hearty welcome awaited them, and huts were set apart for their accommodation. Happier hours have seldom been passed than were those spent that night under the thatched roofs of the native loyalists. One of the leaders had carried with him in his saddle- bag, for use in case of emergency, a bottle of Hennessey's brandy. It had not been wanted either as a restorative or a stimulant. His health and the health of all under him had been perfect. So, pretending to discover the flask amidst the straw of the hut, he brought it forth and shared it with his comrades, in grateful com- memoration of their safety and success. For, to end the story, the rebels, after some discussion as to booty, were all handed over with most of their L26 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA cattle and belongings to the Natal representatives, who thus achieved their purpose without tiring a shot, and returned to Natal, with prisoners and stock, a proud and elated hand. The tribe was broken up, its lands confiscated, and its leaders, tried before a special tribunal, were sentenced to banishment or imprison- ment. Langalibalele himself was removed to the neighbourhood of Capetown, where a farm was set apart for him, and where he had wives, tobacco, and other comforts, to lighten his lot in exile. Some years later he was allowed to return to Natal, and he ended his days in peace, near Maritzburg. It fell to my lot, as a member of the Legislature, to move a vote of thanks to all concerned in the repression of the rebellion — to Governor, officials, troops, Cape allies, and loyal natives — and never was parliamentary duty discharged with truer zest or pleasure. It was felt by the colonists that the prestige of the Government had been vindicated, that its authority had been secured for years to come. And these ends had been established and that peace had been accomplished, let me add, without a farthing's cost to the Imperial treasury, under colonial auspices and by colonial resources only. It is true that the cost to the Colony was not, by any means confined to the lives lost or the money spent. Both the Governor and the colonists earned obloquy and discredit. Sixteen months later the former was recalled under circumstances I have already described, while the latter continued for many a day to be vilified as monsters of THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 127 cruelty and wrongdoing. Time, however, the great rectifier, has silenced these calumnies, and though Sir Benjamin Pine has passed beyond the reach of mis- representation, his aims and his policy have been recognised as those of a far-seeing and high-minded statesman. It was largely due to the steps he sanctioned in connection with these events that the native population of Natal remained, as they did, absolutely loyal to the Government during the Zulu war. Had Langalibalele been left, comparatively un- punished, in possession of his chieftainship and location, there cannot be a doubt that he would have continued to be a fermenting centre of disaffection and unrest — a connecting link in Natal between the hostile Zulus on one side and the nervous Basutos and Pondos on the other. The task which the Imperial Government had to carry out would have been enormously weighted, and the perils of the colonists terribly enhanced, during the struggle which six years later ensued. A volume might easily be filled with recollections and anecdotes of the Zulu war. It was Natal's first experience of war on a large scale. Although the colonists had for years been apprehensive concerning the significance of Cetywayo's preparations and preten- sions, they were absolutely without any means of re- sisting or meeting invasion. During the three days spent by Sir Bartle Frere in Durban after his arrival in 1877, he was beset from every quarter by representations of the urgent necessity for protective and precautionary L28 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA measures. Missionaries, laymen, merchants, farmers — all met him with the same story and the same appeal. The world knows what steps he took to face the crisis, but only residents can understand how dire were the effects of that crisis Avhen it actually came. Though the possibility of a Zulu invasion had been perceived and pointed out for years, though Sir Garnet Wolseley four years before had dilated on the blackness of the war-cloud in the north, though Sir Bartle himself most keenly realised the imminence of the danger, no adequate provision had been made by the Imperial Government to guard against the impending peril. Both the Em- pire and the Colony were taken unawares, but bad as our experiences were, they would have been far worse had Sir Bartle Frere not arrived when, and acted as he did. It is quite true that both the troops and the colonists entered upon the war with a relatively light heart. Though they correctly estimated the numbers and the hostility of the enemy, they overrated their own ability to vanquish him. They believed that the far out- numbering legions of the Zulu king would be no match for the well-served guns and rifles of trained British battalions. I was present at the Lower Tugela on the 12th of January 1879, when the coast column crossed into Zululand. The river was high, and men and horses had to be carried over by punt. It was a busy and inspiriting scene. On the Natal side, amongst the mimosa bushes, tents, waggons, and contingents were all crowded together. The little roadside inn was THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 129 thronged by hungry volunteers and visitors, who soon stripped it bare of both food and drink. Beyond the yellow and swift-flowing stream spread the bare slopes of Zululand, dotted over by the few hundreds of our forces, preparing for the night's encampment. Against the sky-line a squadron of mounted volunteers were circling and patrolling. While watching them from the little sod-built fort overlooking the river, a messenger rode up and re- ported to the colonel in command that an impi of several thousand Zulus could be seen some miles off behind a distant hill. The news caused no excite- ment, and the crossing proceeded. A body of native levies marched in, patient, though curious and scared, bewildered by the incomprehensible orders of the British officers placed in charge of them, and plain- tively anxious to be led by men they knew, and who could talk their language. Two or three ladies rode up with their escorts to watch proceedings, and if possible to get across the river. That night we all camped out in the open, and a merry time we had before rolling ourselves in our blankets, talking, chaffing, singing, and otherwise beguiling the eve of a totally unanticipated tragedy. Those of us whose duties did not take us over the border returned townward on the morrow, confident that all would go well with the advancing column. And so it did as far as that force was con- cerned. Colonel Pearson's progress was practically un- opposed for the next ten days, until he reached the 130 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Inyezane, and was met there by 5000 Zulus, who gallantly but vainly strove to surround and overcome him. After a few hours' sharp but resolute fighting the Zulus were put to flight, and on the same evening the column marched on victoriously to Eshowe, where for ten long weeks they were to be cooped up from touch or intercourse with their compatriots elsewhere. We in Durban heard, however, of their success, and for a few hours were confirmed in our conviction that a short and easy campaign was in store. Then came the thunderclap. No Natalian of these days will ever forget the shock of that fateful revela- tion. People generally were free from extreme anxiety as to the course of operations. Whenever our troops had engaged the enemy they had been successful. At Inyezane they had scored a victory. Farther west- ward, beyond the Buffalo, they had forced back such bodies of Zulus as had opposed their march. To the north the "flying column," led by Evelyn Wood and Buller, was not only holding its own, but making head- way in the concerted advance upon Cetywayo's head- quarters at Ulundi. All seemed going well. No telegraphs connected the forces in the field with the centres of the Colony, and days were taken in getting news down from the front. Then on Sunday after- noon came a vague and horrible rumour. There had been a great disaster. Lord Chelmsford's column had been overwhelmed. The Zulus were invading the Colony. At first the story was received with incrcdu- THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 131 lity. I heard it from a military doctor in the street, but I refused to credit it. An instinctive aversion to the " babble of the market," combined with a con- stitutional tendency to look at the brighter side, closed my ears to the terrible and tragical story. A period of intense suspense followed. The actual realities of the situation were for the first time estimated. The smallness of the advancing forces ; the magnitude of the Zulu impis ; their fierceness and lifelong training ; the difficulties of the enemy's country, rugged, roadless and bush-encumbered ; the immaturity and inexperi- ence of many of our own regular troops — all were vividly revealed by the lightning-flash of panic. For panic speedily set in. The first definite tidings were brought in by two fugitive volunteers who had ridden down, confused and agitated, from the death-strewn field of Isandhlwana. They reported a surprise, an unflinching- stand, a ruthless butchery. Conflicting stories of Lord Chelmsford's separation from a portion of his force, of a successful resistance at Rorke's Drift, of a retirement towards Natal, bewildered the public mind and shook confidence in the whole story. Days and days passed before the bald facts filtered through, and the ghastly details were realised. But the horror of the tale only deepened with time, and panic, quiet and breathless, but not the less oppressive, seized upon the Colony. I have no desire to repeat the oft-told story of the Zulu war. Its incidents are on record in many a volume and public document. My present purpose is 132 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA to speak only of the effects produced on the community by a military misadventure (it was nothing more), which changed the course of history in South Africa. Deplorable and disastrous though panic ever is, it had ample excuse and justification in the circum- stances of the time. All the available forces in the Colony were across the border. Both the towns and all the villages were practically defenceless. Every farm was at the mercy of any marauding party. Only a river that rose or fell with the rainfall protected the Colony from a Zulu inroad. The attitude of our own natives — mostly of Zulu origin — should the country be invaded, was open to doubt. Many colonists were at the front. The local volunteer corps had suffered lamentably at Isandhlwana. The Natal Car- bineers serving there — mostly young Maritzburg men — had been cut down, " dying where they stood," under their dauntless leader, Colonel Durnford. There was no British garrison elsewhere in South Africa to draw help from. No ocean cable existed to bear the tidings of a menaced Colony's extremity. No wonder, then, that men's hearts failed them, and that women, in dread of unspeakable horrors, grew pale and anxious, though never abjectly terror-stricken. When once the main facts of the reverse were placed beyond the reach of doubt, the leading men of both towns bestirred themselves to face the situation. In Durban a meeting was held, and a Defence Committee appointed. We met daily and discussed the exigencies THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 133 of the moment from every point of view. Opinions greatly differed as to how the town could best be defended. Some thought that an advanced line of defence was desirable, and a body of some fifty mounted men were enrolled — under Mr. Escornbe's captaincy — to patrol the Tongaat. a stream which flowed seaward about thirty miles from Durban. They were clad in a costume of dark brown corduroy — the only material available — of so pungent an odour that it supplied an expressive if somewhat inelegant name to the little contingent. The balance of opinion, however, was strongly in favour of local fortification, and the whole town was given up to defence works. At an early stage of the proceedings the gravity of them was accentuated by the advent of Lord Chelmsford himself. After with- drawing all that remained of his force within the borders of Natal, he hurried down to Maritzburg and Durban, to make such provision as might be possible for the defence of both places. It must be admitted that his presence did not tend to allay alarm, as both he and his officers frankly recognised the seriousness of the situation and the necessity for action. Said one of the latter to me at a meeting of the Town Committee, " I never saw such a foe ; I never heard of such a foe ; I don't think you could meet a worse foe." After it was over we rode down the streets with his lordship, point- ing out such buildings as might be defensible, and generally, in no smothered tones, discussing the possi- bilities of resistance. Women and children, scared and 134 A LIFK TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA nervous, gathered by the roadside, wondering what new and alarming danger beset the town. Before nightfall an idea prevailed that the Zulus had crossed the border and were advancing on the town, and hardly any one slept soundly before dawn appeared. What else could the arrival of the Commander of the Forces, and his words of warning while inspecting the town, portend than some sudden and appalling crisis ? Thenceforward and for weeks all was preparation and suspense. Every large building, no matter what its occupancy, was set apart as a place of refuge should the anticipated onslaught be made. They were loopholed for riflemen, and sheltered from musketry fire or rushing spearmen by sand-bags. For once the natural curse of Durban — its sand= — was found to be a blessing. Every available sugar-bag and corn-sack was pressed into service. To this day many of these loopholes remain, objects of curiosity to the visitor, and grim reminders of the past to the resident. The tongue of land known as the Point, where the work of the shipping is done, was barricaded by a wall of timber from shore to shore. Here, should the town itself be overwhelmed and the worst come to the worst, people were to find a final refuge, with such shipping as might be in port, to flee to in the last extremity. All the townsfolk were told off to their assigned places of resort on a given signal, livery townsman was enrolled in a Town Guard, and directed to equip himself with a rifle, for which he had to pay, or hold himself responsible for paying, £2, 10s. THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 135 Meanwhile many ingenious townsmen devised their own independent measures of defence. One placed an iron tank in a tree near his newly-built house, from which he proposed to fire at any Zulus who might be audacious enough to attack his dwelling. " At any rate," he said, "before seeing my place destroyed, I shall have the satisfaction of shooting a few of the brutes." What might follow was not apparent. The agent of a local shipping company had a small tug in readiness to carry his household out to sea. Subsequent history was anticipated by a proposal to run an armoured train to and fro past the town, and no doubt had the occasion arisen, and the attempt been made, it would have proved an efficacious method of foiling the wily Zulu. In Maritzburg almost exactly the same measures were taken. Some anxiety was caused in both places by the discovery that corrugated iron sheets — the only procurable material for shield purposes — was penetrable by ordinary musket bullets, but timber was fortunately abundant, and a backing of four-inch deals made the barriers practically impregnable. A daily service of runners was provided to the Lower Tugela — only sixty miles distant — in order that regular and early news might be received regarding the movements of the enemy and the depth of the river. As long as "no enemy in sight " was reported, and the river was said to be " rising," comparative comfort prevailed, but some- times the Tugela was announced to be " very low," and rumours of " Zulus in sight " were transmitted, to the L36 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA perturbation of everybody. On such occasions the nightly watch was specially vigilant. For weeks many householders went to bed with their portmanteaus or bags packed in readiness for an instant flight, and any noise that might disturb the darkness — a Kafir song, a rifle shot, a distant thunderclap — caused many a beating- heart and wakeful eye. One Saturday morning, when passing down the street, a high official, with pallid face and fluttering scrap of pink paper held in shaking hands, exclaimed to me, " They've crossed ! they've crossed ! " I examined the telegram, having already had a later one of my own of quite a different tenor, and was able to point out to my friend that the persons "crossing" were not bloodthirsty Zulus, but peaceful messengers with cheering news from Eshowe. This state of tension lasted fully two months. During that period the Colony was believed to lie at the mercy of the Zulus, and, as a matter of fact, it might have been overrun by them had they chosen to face the hazard. Several factors happily prevailed to restrain them from the venture. After Isandhlwana they were gorged with blood, and like vultures, torpid under repletion. They returned to their kraals with trophies from the battle-field, to be "doctored," to feast, and to rest. They would have left behind them in their own country, had they moved southward, the garrisons of Evelyn Wood in the north-west, and of Pearson at Eshowe near the coast. They had had a taste of British powers of resistance behind walls or barriers at the little THE SETTLERS AS SOLDIERS 137 farmhouse near Rorke's Drift. They knew that the Tugela was frequently in flood, and might bar their retirement were they defeated. More than all, they, and especially the older men, were superstitiously nervous regarding the myterious powers and resources of the Great White Queen, whose power they were challenging and whose people they would have to slay. We did not then perceive these deterrent influences as plainly as we do now. The bare fact of exposure to invasion and massacre was the dominating sensation. The enemy at that time consisted of relentless and brutal savages, from whom neither sex nor age might look for mercy or quarter. The sense of isolation and helpless- ness intensified the depression of the community. From no point could immediate succour be expected. The home-going mail steamer was ordered to make all speed northward, and to call at St. Vincent, the nearest cable station for the transmission of telegrams. A man-of- war was despatched to Mauritius, the least distant garrison. But not till H.M.S. Shah arrived unexpectedly at the outer anchorage, and landed a naval detachment of some two hundred blue-jackets, was suspense relieved, or did nervous folks feel quieted. Never were British seamen hailed with truer rejoicing than were those sturdy sailors as they marched with resolute pride up the sandy roadway, gazed at and cheered as tokens of safety and salvation by their anxious and imperilled countrymen. And through it all the maligned and misjudged High 138 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Commissioner remained quietly in Maritzburg, calm and watchful, and never despairing, until the arrival of reinforcements justified his departure to the Transvaal from the Colony that will never forget how sympathe- tically he shared its trials and sacrificed his interests in striving for its security and defence. CHAPTER VI THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS If the foundation of the British Empire is to be traced in the character of its people, Self- Rule may be regarded as its corner-stone, Justice and Law, Liberty and Right, being its buttresses. I use the phrase Self-Rule in its largest sense, as implying self-restraint, not less than self-government. If it confers freedom it imposes re- sponsibility. If it secures Power, it also enjoins Duty. The term Responsible Government was a truthful de- finition of the system that has worked such wonders in the expansion of Greater Britain. It happily indicates the secret of whatever success has attended the working of free institutions throughout British colonies. It is not bare freedom that has made those colonies what they are, but freedom invested with attendant obligations — freedom weighted with the burden of cares, liabilities, and servitudes that have steadied and controlled the colonists in the exercise of power. Mr. Froude was pleased to say of Natal and its people, after a hurried visit to the Colony in 1874 : — " The grain of the old oak is in New England. The English in South Africa are pulpy endogens. They 139 140 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA may make a nation some day, but they have a long way to travel first. . . . "The fact remains that a country which seems to have been made by nature to be covered with thriving homesteads and a happy and prosperous people is given over to barrenness and desolation. Before there can be a change some authority must be introduced there which will control both blacks and whites, and bring the relations between them into a more natural condition. The sole remedy thought of here is more freedom and what they call a 'sponsible Ministry. They look to America and they fancy the colonies have only to be free, to grow as the United States have grown. America was colonised before the aloe had blossomed." Like so many other of the great historian's deduc- tions, this judgment is alike fallacious and unjust. His metaphor is misplaced and misleading, because his postulate is untrue. Self-government Juix been a plant of slow growth in Natal, as institutions grow in these days of rapid change and movement. It would be absurd to compare the constitutional development of the colonies with that of the mother country. Colonists when they leave England have already arrived at their high estate as British citizens ; they need no long £>ro- cess of tutelage and preparation to lit them for the understanding and discharge of civic duty. They begin life in the new land fully equipped with the knowledge and experience of political privileges won for them by their fathers. They carry with them the roots of the THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 141 hardy British oak, and plant them in the virgin soil of these distant lands, with patient confidence in the sturdy and steadfast upgrowth. As a matter of fact, political freedom in Natal has been neither a forced nor rapid offshoot, as I shall now proceed to show. For thirteen years legislation in Natal was practi- cally in the hands of the Governor, and he was solely responsible to the Crown. At first Natal was merely a dependency of the Cape Colony, and its laws were mostly " Ordinances " taken over bodily from the Cape Statute-book. A so-called "Legislative Council" was in existence, but it consisted only of the Governor him- self, assisted by a few of the chief administrative officers, together with the Commander of the Forces. The pro- ceedings of this body were never reported, but the dominancy of the Governor was manifest and ad- mitted, though it was well understood that differences of opinion at times arose, and that occasionally Downing Street might be appealed to. Of any popular voice or influence, however, there was none, apart from that right of petition (to the Governor) which is inherent in all Anglo-Saxon communities. For some years this autocratic system of rule was accepted as inevitable — as part of the accepted conditions of the immigrant's lot — and in truth the struggle for bare existence left them no time for political contemplations. Governor Pine, moreover, being an accessible and liberal-minded man, prone to progressive ideals, and not afraid of responsibility, did much to appease the instinctive 142 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA craving for reform. He made no secret of his own preference for "liberal institutions," and himself pro- posed that a popularised legislative body should be established. As newspapers multiplied agitation grew, and the demand for a more representative constitution steadily strengthened. In 1855 Sir George Grey, of all Cape Governors the ablest and most far-seeing, visited Natal, and conferred with its leading citizens. In Durban they took advantage of his presence to present a long and able memorial, setting forth in quiet terms the disabilities under which the colonists suffered. Sir George's subsequent reference to his intercourse with the men of Natal is significant both of his estimate of them, and of the methods which won for him in so unexampled a degree the confidence and respect of South African colonists. After a warm recognition of the intelligence and culture they gene- rally displayed, he laid stress upon the marked mode- ration with which they framed and pressed their proposals, as affording an assurance that they might confidently be entrusted with a reasonable, yet a liberal, measure of control over their own affairs. This handsome recognition of Natal's fitness for a larger share of political power soon bore fruit. When Governor Scott arrived in October LS56, he brought with him a " Royal Charter," under which a represen- tative Legislature was created. This instrument was welcomed by all the colonists with even greater ardour than the common people of England showed after the THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 143 promulgation of their own Great Charter by King John, and it has ever since been cherished as the basis and the bulwark of all their liberties. It was but a very modest and carefully restricted dispensation of freedom, but it embodied and affirmed the precious principle, which, according to usage and tradition, when once conferred, can never be withdrawn save by the hand that won it. Henceforward the right to make laws and to vote supplies was vested in a Chamber consist- ing of twelve elected and four nominated members. The former were to be chosen by registered electors, holding either freehold property worth £50, or paying a yearly rental of £10 — a qualification sufficiently wide at that time to embrace most trustworthy residents. A reserved civil list provided for the salaries of the Governor and the heads of the Executive, and set apart an annual grant of £5000 for the welfare of the natives. This last provision was the cause of an immediate con- flict between the Governor and the elective members in the Council. They insisted upon the right of that body to control the whole expenditure of the Government. He vigorously resisted this claim, and refused to submit the disbursement of the sum reserved to the super- vision or interference of the Council. The colonists strenuously upheld their representatives in their con- tention, while the Crown supported the Governor in his attitude. The colonists considered that the sacred principle of control over taxation was at stake, while the Governor held that the right of the Crown to safe- 1 44 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA guard the interests of the unrepresented natives was not to be impugned. The Council was as persistent in contending for the power of the purse as the Governor was in maintaining the right of the Crown to co-ordi- nate control. Underlying the whole dispute, however, was the native question, the never-ending difficulty of South African statesmanship. Governor Scott was specially charged, as his predecessor had been, to look after the interests of the native population. He ap- peared to be imbued with the belief that had so long prevailed in Downing Street, that the settlers were anta- gonistic to the natives, were disposed to oppress and despoil them. His official associates rather encouraged than dispelled that persuasion. It may be that occa- sional colonial utterances seemed to justify it. The elective representatives in the Council bitterly resented the imputation, and protested against the establishment of a dual system of government in the Colony. They claimed to represent the natives as well as the colonists, and they refused to leave native administration in the unfettered hands of a permanent Crown - appointed Executive. The contest continued for years. Supplies were withheld, and deadlocks ensued. The Governor wrote voluminous despatches, and the Council re- sponded with elaborate addresses and minutes. A dissolution only resulted in the return of a yet more intractable majority. The reflections cast upon the colonists grow more and more offensive, and they were answered with increasing vigour; but in the end the THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 145 struggle wore itself out, and a compromise was arrived at. The Governor agreed to submit, year by year, to the Council a schedule of the sum spent out of the reserve, and that body consented to accept the conces- sion as a vindication of the principle it had fought for. Another conflict almost immediately ensued on similar ground. Shortly after the Colony was established, loca- tions in different districts were set apart for the use and occupation of the natives. They were added to from time to time, and in I860 they represented an area of two million acres. As a guarantee against encroach- ment or alienation, it was proposed by Governor Scott to issue titles to these lands to the several tribes, in trust, on the scale of twenty-five acres to each hut or family. These lands were to be paid for at the rate of two shillings per acre, payable in instalments extending over six years. This measure was no sooner announced than it evoked vehement opposition, both in the legislature and the press. The Legislative Council protested against the preparation and submission of such a scheme without any reference whatever to itself. It was regarded as a high-handed attempt to consolidate and perpetuate the existing sj'stem of native management, to confirm the native chiefs in their position and their powers, and to retard the spread of civilisation and the unifying of the law. Colonial opinion had long viewed with distrust what was known as the " Shepstonian policy " in the treatment of native affairs — a policy of " drift " K 14G A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and laissez (aire, avoiding change and shirking respon- sibility. The new-fledged leaders of legislative activity desired to improve and regenerate the native, and saw no wisdom in a philosophy which would let well alone and leave the future to take care of itself. They were not opposed to the issue of land titles, but they wished it to be to individuals and not to tribes. They especially objected to a policy which would be calculated "to give a control and preponderating political influence to the clergy and missionaries." Again the battle between the Governor and the colonists raged long and loud. Again were the resources of agitation brought into play. Again did the Legislative Council strain its powers in order to gain its point. After an exchange of very able reports and despatches, references to Downing Street, public meetings, appeals to the electors, and threats of deadlock, a compromise was once more agreed upon. A Native Trust, consisting practically of the Executive Council of the Colony, was created and the native location lands were by law vested in its hands, and there they have remained ever since. I mention these incidents as they serve to show in what spirit the early colonists received the boon of legislative freedom, and with what sturdy disdain of consequences they exercised their much -prized privileges. Although the immediate outcome was a line of social cleavage which was long in disappearing, the general effect was wholesome and bracing. The official and non-official castes might look askance at THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 147 each other; the services might look down upon the tradesfolk; Government House might be out of touch with the common life of the Colony ; . but a healthy political interest stirred the community, and a keen, perhaps too vigilant, criticism curbed any excesses of authority. From the very start parliamentary institu- tions were taken up with a pious regard for old-world traditions. The burden of citizenship was assumed with a glad, but not gay, heart. Its duties were dis- charged with as much seriousness as though the affairs at stake were those of the Empire instead of a little colony. Though the range of his powers was con- fined to the enactment of laws, and in no sense affected their administration (except as regarded the voting of salaries), the elector felt his responsibility just as keenly as though his vote might have helped to save or to destroy a Ministry. The election of members was conducted with an almost grotesque adherence to the ancient forms and customs; as much so, that is, as the terms of the charter permitted. There are certain differences in procedure. Then (as now) candidates were not pub- licly nominated, but first asked, in writing, to stand for particular constituencies. This requisition, if signed by a sufficient number of electors, is nomina- tion enough, but it must be lodged with the local magistrate fourteen clear days prior to the day of election. Attempts were sometimes made by opponents to delay the delivery of a hostile requisition until the 148 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA prescribed limit was passed. It was usual for candidates to make known their political creeds in advertised addresses, while the chance of being able to heckle them at public meetings was as keenly valued as in other countries. Canvassing a constituency, say of a hundred and fifty voters, scattered over a district as large as Yorkshire, was no light, though it might be a simple matter. Many electors lived out of the reach of inns, and the would-be member had often to claim the hospitality of those whose votes he was soliciting. Colonial senators, therefore, were generally known in person to most of their constituents. This closeness of acquaintanceship has its drawbacks. Where " every- body knows everybody" private and personal matters are apt to influence public relations, and the fact certainly used to embitter election contests. They were conducted very much on home lines. There were committees, and colours, and rosettes. In country places it was customary to provide refreshment — both solid and liquid — for the tired and hungry voters, many of whom had ridden hours and hours in order to reach the polling offices. These hospitalities were dispensed without regard to sides. There were seldom public houses of call at hand, and it would have been deemed a shabby return to voters for their time and trouble to send them back hungry and thirsty. This lavish dispensation of "free drinks" distinctly tended to enliven the proceedings of polling -day, while the feeling that lie was thus freely enter- THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 149 taming hostile voters nourished a sense of magnanimity in the candidate's mind. Now all such kindly inter- changes of good-fellowship are done away with. Bribery and treating in every form are banished. The Ballot Act has put an end to open voting. In early days the course of an election was followed vote by vote, and many a friendly tussle took place over a hapless Avaverer. Men of uncertain mind would keep their preferences dark up to the latest moment, and after being entertained and petted by one side would some- times end by voting for the other. When candidates were well matched the polling often ran very close, and in small constituencies every vote was of moment. As the closing hour drew near excitement grew intense. Horses were despatched ten and twenty miles to fetch laggards. Special messengers came tearing in from other polling-places, as in country districts men could vote in their own wards or districts. I recollect one case in which the numbers remained evenly balanced during the three days' duration of the poll. At the close of the contest, one candidate was left at the central station, after counting up the latest returns from the other places,in possession of a clear majo- rity. Only one more return was due, and that was not thought likely to affect the result. Congratulations were showered upon the successful man ; he was cheered and complimented ; speeches were demanded of him : he glowed with self-complacency. At last, as darkness was setting in, the clatter of hoofs was heard alon^r the 150 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA road. All eyes were bent upon the eager messenger. When he rode up, hot and panting, he shouted out the numbers he had to disclose. This final return left the expectant victor just one below his rival ! It will thus be seen that there was no indifference to public life or patriotic duty on the part of the early colonists. They not only valued their privileges but they were prepared to make energetic use of them. At that time the test of independence was to be " agin' the Government." A candidate known to have leanings towards the powers that were had but a poor chance. He was openly stigmatised as a " toady." He was suspected of social snobbery. He was considered to have an eye to the loaves and fishes. A stalwart mechanic once demanded of me before he gave his vote, " Will you accept a Government appointment ? " The question seemed ludicrously superfluous, but it evoked a negative so strenuous that I have blushed for it ever since. Did memory avail me better I might recall many amusing incidents of legislative life in early days. One of the first Speakers — a courtly old gentleman famed for urbanity of manner — once lapsed into slumber during a rather dull debate. A loquacious official member just below him desired to rouse his attention, and woke him by a resounding thump on the table. " Mr. Speaker, your ruling is requested on the point of order that has just been raised," mischievously inquired the Hibernian orator. " I beg the hon. member's THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 151 pardon," blandly responded the unperturbed president, " but the question raised did not reach the ear of the Chair." On a later occasion, when another Speaker had to be elected, rival nominees were proposed by the official and the opposition sides respectively. There was a tie, and neither side would give way. A deadlock seemed imminent, as business could not possibly pro- ceed without a chairman. At last some one proposed that the leader of the opposition — the ablest speaker in the House — be appointed, and before members had time to realise the situation the proposal was unani- mously carried. The bewildered politician found him- self installed in an office which extinguished his active personality, but he held it for nearly twenty years. During the first session of the little Parliament a certain up-country member, who had dined somewhat freely, presented a petition from his constituents with these words : " Mr. Speaker — Mr. Speaker — Mr. Speaker, I beg — I beg to present a petition from , and to say — to say that — they are a set of d — d scoundrels." That was the first and only time when such a slip of the tongue profaned the atmosphere of a remarkably sedate assembly. A less unparliamentary but even more diverting ebullition was that of a popular member of Irish ex- traction, who, thirty-three years later, was stung by repeated interruptions into this stirring apostrophe : " Be silent, you cantankerous, snarling, pugnacious old ram-cat ! " Though colonial representatives are not, as 152 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA a rule, so mindful of sartorial observance as their Euro- pean contemporaries, they are always decently, though often unfashionably clad. During the second session, however, a Dutch member who suffered from facial neuralgia used to take his seat with his head swathed in a thick woollen shawl. A clerical member, of High Church tendencies, was wont to punctuate the impor- tance of a debate by appearing in his cassock. Another, and most genial, member was painfully deaf, and came equipped with a long ear-trumpet, through which alone, when helped by a neighbour, he could follow the course of a debate. As I happened to fill that position, its duties were often embarrassing, and I have known the course of debate suspended while I strove to perform them. These pages are reminiscent,, and I am writing of experiences nearly forty years ago, when stately halls and spreading railways were all dreams of the future. When the time for opening the annual " session " arrived members left their flocks, their herds, their stores, their offices, possibly their workshops, and hied to the little sleepy capital. Some of them travelled thither on horseback. The season was usually our mid-year winter, when we have bright skies and cool breezes day by day. Delightful those rides were, starting at sunrise in the sparkling frosty morning, with the brown or grass-burnt hills spreading round, and the kindling air uplifting you out of cark or care as your nag cantered or trotted onward. How welcome was THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 153 the breakfast of eggs and ham at the quiet roadside hosteliy, and how pleasant the easier amble under the mid-day sun, with the more solid meal in store ! Or possibly, if the moon were full, the ride would be partly made by night, when the distances seem so illusive, and the landscape so unreal. Were the legislator a family man, he would often make the journey by ox- waggon, and a glorious picnic it was, travelling at the rate of fifteen miles a day, reading, shooting, or bota- nising by the way. Then at night would be the busy camp work — the jovial gathering round the blazing- fire, the friendly gleam of the stars through the tent- door, or from behind the waggon-flap. On reaching Maritzburg the actual business of legis- lation soon began. Our local St. Stephen's, whose planks and rafters — the equivalents of pillars and panels — were familiar to me through long years of contemplation, was a square, thatched, whitewashed building of one storey, with three great staring windows on either side of a big double door. Built before British occupation, by a Boer community of Puritan principles, it looked the Roundhead to the life, with its close-cropt roof, devoid of eaves, and innocent of porch or parapet. In front of this uninviting; barn — for it was nothing more — one or two companies of her Majesty's troops would be drawn up; their coats and belts as spotless, their weapons as burnished, as though they were under review at Whitehall. A motley crowd surveyed them with mingled feelings : sturdy English colonists from 154 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the country came in to see " the Council opened," and to note, too, how their new member might comport himself; big, listless Dutchmen, thinking no doubt of their own Volksraad in the brief Republican days; brisk and dapper townsmen to whom the sight was no novelty; laughing and chattering natives, with a sprinkling of Hindoos and a swarm of small boys. Within was a little "lobby," on either side of which opened a small room, not eighteen feet square, whereof one was the " clerk's room," while the other was com- mittee-room, library, refreshment-room, and waiting- room all in one. The only other apartment in the building was the Council Chamber, now thronged with gaily dressed ladies, who filled the benches provided for the accommodation of the public, and pressed round the seats of the members themselves. The room was long, cool, and bare, with whitewashed walls and no ceil- ing, the roof being open to the thatch. Round a horse- shoe table were ranged fifteen cane chairs, overlooked at one end by a low platform, occupied by the Speaker's chair, covered with a kaross for the occasion, and over- hung by a rude shield emblazoned with the royal arms. The Governor's approach was preluded by the salute of cannon, on hearing which the members filed in and took their places. The Speaker was clad in his ordinary clothes, as were the clerk and messenger, but a lawyer's gown and an academic robe were con- spicuous amongst the members. The military band struck up the National Anthem as his Excellency dis- THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 155 mounted, and, followed by a military and official staff all uniformed like himself, entered the Chamber. The whole assembly rose, and stood until bidden to be seated. Having received a ponderous manuscript from his private secretary, the Governor at once read from it his opening speech. By no means brief or flavourless, it resembled more the " Message " of an American Pre- sident than a royal speech. It usually took at least half-an-hour in delivery, and dealt fully, and often ably, with the state of the country and the questions of the day. Governor Scott was wont to improve the onfy occasion he ever had for doing so by lecturing members on their shortcomings in policy and action. Primitive though the surroundings of the infant Parliament were, members never forgot the dignity of their position. They were as tenacious in upholding the rights and privileges of their new-born legislature as though it had had centuries of prescription to sustain them. Their constant effort was to walk in the footsteps of their British forefathers. The House of Commons was literally to them the " Mother of Parliaments," their model and their guide. May's " Parliamentary Practice " was their Bible ; Burke's " Precedents " was their catechism. Both books at all times flanked the Speaker. From their joint tribunal there was no appeal. Personal altercations were by no means rare, but the authority of the Chair was always respected and scrupulously upheld. Sometimes diffi- culties would arise for which the proceedings of the 156 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Homo Parliament supplied no remedy. In 1808 the Speaker went on a trading expedition into what was then the far interior — in other words, the western dis- tricts of the Transvaal. His travels took him farther than he had contemplated — to a region where, when early winter came, his cattle were left without grass ; and it was impossible for him to return, for he had no horses with him. Thus it came to pass that when the session was opened there was no Speaker, and a deputy had to be appointed. The matter was not much con- sidered, however, as the absence of the chairman was expected to be but brief. But weeks passed on, and the missing man came not, nor were any tidings of him received. At last, before the session closed, he suddenly reappeared, havmg made all speed from the far frontier as soon as horses were obtainable. He resumed his seat, however, and made his explanation ; but one or two members, who thought he should have taken more pains to inform the Council of his movements, raised a question as to the legality of their past proceedings. Precedents were sought. " May " was conned, " Han- sard " was explored, but the long records of the English Parliament failed to supply an analogous case, or to lay down any rule of action for the particular emergency. Such a contingency as a Speaker being lost in the wilds had never been reckoned with by parliamentar}^ writers, so, to set at rest all doubts, an Act was passed legalism;/ the doings of the Council during the absence of its head. THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 157 During thirty-seven years' experience of colonial par- liamentary life, I cannot call to mind one occasion upon which a member deliberately set at defiance the authority of the Chair or outraged the proprieties of procedure. Members have ever been on their good behaviour, and such "scenes" as now and then have occurred, though they are most infrequent, have been usually terminated by an adjournment. Once, a peppery though easily appeased Colonial Secretary was formally censured for a sarcastic reference to the domestic rela- tions of another member, but on re-entering the As- sembly to be admonished, he cheerfully submitted to the rebuke, and tendered his regrets with a twinkle of the eye. In those days official members were rather prone to assume " superior airs," or then elective col- leagues fancied that they did, and sparks of temper sometimes flew about ; but as time went on the per- sonal relations of the two sides improved, and a more genial understanding prevailed. Government House opened its portals more widely, and the permanent officials took their cue from their chief. In small communities small motives are apt to operate, and where the Avhole outer world was cut off by a gulf of distance only bridged once a month by a sea-borne mail, people had time enough and to spare to brood over and resent social slights and differences. I could fill pages with amusing incidents illustrative of colonial life in this regard as it existed thirty and forty years ago, but they are best forgotten. 158 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Of the composition of the Council in these days some- thing may be said. It was, on the whole, fairly repre- sentative of the community. Large property-holders as a rule declined to come forward as candidates, and other classes — lawyers, doctors, farmers, merchants, and journalists — were generally selected and chosen. A colonial "farmer," it must be understood, often signi- fies the owner of many thousand acres, and a person of considerable culture. From the very first there has been at least one Dutch representative amongst the elected members. A curious end befell one of this class. He was killed in bed by lightning, which struck a gun placed near his pillow. The names of Landsberg, Scheepers, BoshofT, Pretorius, Nel, Labuschagne, Van Breda, all show that some of the oldest and best- reputed Boer families were ready to take part in the parliamentary privileges secured to them under the British flag. They were always free to address the House in Dutch, if they liked, and now and then they did so, though very few of their colleagues could follow them ; but as a rule they preferred to use, as best they could, the alien tongue. In either case they were always listened to with unvaried attention and respect. Mr. J. N. Boshoff had taken part in the proceedings connected with the transfer of the unfledged republic to Great Britain. His account of the circumstances which led to the Great Trek is a particularly clear and dispassionate document, and he was one of the first THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS L59 Presidents of the Orange Free State. A calm, fluent, and sarcastic speaker, he had much weight in the deliberations of the House. Essentially cautious and conservative in his ideas, he viewed with sincere dis- trust every progressive measure or innovation, especially proposals for railway extension ; but though we were frequently opposed to each other, I always recognised his ability and patriotism, even though I might be, as often happened, the subject of his trenchant irony. One of his sons has for many years been Treasurer- General of the Transvaal. A nephew is now one of the Judges of the Native Higdi Court in Natal. The last-named was son of the delightful " Oom Stoffel," as he was familiarly and affectionately called — the elect of Umvoti County for many years. In his time this worthy old member was one of the favourite figures in the House. His English was confused and rather difficult to follow, but it flowed freely from his lips, with really dramatic effects of tone and gesture. Though everybody laughed and smiled at his homely and humorous eloquence, we all awaited some thrust or flash that was pretty certain to enlighten as well as to enliven discussion. In odd contrast to his brother, he was a consistent supporter of railways and progress, while his success in winning votes for bridges, roads, or other concessions to the needs of his constituents was proverbial. The copious notes he made during debate were marvels of originality and spelling, but it may truthfully be said that no man ever sat in the 160 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Council who enjoyed more fully than did he the good- will and affection of his colleagues. Mr. Martinus Pretorius, who sat in the old Council as an elective member, as well as in the Upper Chamber of the new Parliament as a nominee, is the son of the old Com- mandant-General of the Voertrekkers and first Presi- dent of the Transvaal. Though he seldom spoke, being diffident as regards his imperfect command of English, he was always listened to with manifest interest. That he should sympathise with his fellow-countrymen in their present struggle was in a sense inevitable — one could hardly have wished it otherwise — but all the same he strenuously repudiates any disloyalty to the Queen, though he was arrested after Joubert's raid through Natal, and after a short incarceration was sent on parole to Durban, where he lived for some weeks in a cottage by the sea. General Joubert, it is said, spent two days under his roof during his raiding march southward. I am glad to say that official inquiry failed to elicit any condemnatory evidence against this veteran Africander, who is now domiciled again in his farm in Weenen County. It will thus be seen not only that the Dutch settlers of Natal have at all times enjoyed complete equality of citizenship and political privilege with their fellow- colonists of British birth, but that they have made free and full use of their rights. Through all the successive stages of parliamentary development there has never been a legislative body without a Dutch representative THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 161 in it. Those stages have been gradual but numerous. The tree of freedom has had slow but solid growth. Tt has grown from within, not from without. With one or two incidental and not vital exceptions, changes in its structure have been made by itself. In 1873 three new elective seats were created, and balanced by the addi- tion of another official nominee. I have already written of Sir Garnet Wolseley's memorable mission in 1875, when he persuaded the Legislative Council to perform an act of political self-sacrifice by adding eight " inde- pendent " nominees to its ranks. This measure, which was intended to strengthen the power of the Crown in the legislative assembly, failed in its purpose because the new members were " independent " in a sense hardly contemplated by the authors of the proposal. On many occasions they voted against the Government just as readily as they voted for it. One of the most con- spicuous in this respect was a Dutch colonist who, in earlier years, had been a leading Voertrekker, and a proscribed "rebel." He could never, however, have been a loyalist at heart, as after the retrocession of the Transvaal he left his beautiful farm near the Illovo and went with his family to Pretoria, where a year or two later he died, happy, as he said, in the thought that he did so under the republican flag. This octave of nominees was admirably selected by Sir Henry Bulwer. They were all men of intelligence, or property, position, and experience. They thoroughly fulfilled the qualifications expected of them, but they 162 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA were in the wrong place. They ought to have formed a Second Chamber. As members of a popular assembly their freedom from party ties or obligations made them an incalculable quantity in divisions and an obstructive factor in deliberations. Though a failure in practical effect, the five years' working of " Sir Garnet's Nominee Chamber " was an interesting and useful experiment in constitutional procedure. Our experience of it led some of us, later on, to insist upon the necessity of a nomi- nated Upper Chamber as an indispensable condition of responsible government. After exploring the history of the past, and studying the examples of other colonies, in our efforts to frame a constitution that should be alike free and stable, we could find nothing better than the creation of a nominated Second or Upper Chamber, with powers analogous to those of the House of Lords, as a convenient check upon hasty or heedless legisla- tion. That such a check there must be in the case of a colony, with a vast native population not directly repre- sented in the popular Chamber, is generally admitted. Indeed apart from that population the existence of some brake power, to prevent the hurried adoption of vital, revolutionary, or ill-considered measures, is as necessary in a colony as in the old country. Whether some less cumbrous means of securing it may hereafter be found feasible remains to be seen. The lapse of the Wolseley Constitution by effluxion of time left numbers and proportions as they had been five years earlier, but the reversion to old conditions THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 163 was at once attended by a strenuous agitation for responsible government. It is not my desire to follow the devious course of that agitation during the thirteen years which passed before the change was finally effected in 1893. Like most such struggles it was marked by periods of stress and calm. So far back as 1869, a small concession had been made to the principle of popular participation in government by the addition of two of the elected members of the Legislature to the Executive Council. That this small modicum of control did not work injuriously is evidenced by the fact that it con- tinued unchanged up to the establishment of self- government in 1893. It may also be noted that in later years one of the two members so distinguished was a Dutch farmer. It might be supposed that in any colony the desire for full popular control would be universal amongst the white colonists, but in South Africa it has never been so. A Parliament of two Chambers was established in the Cape Colony in 1852, but twenty years elapsed before, after many a battle, responsible government was adopted. For thirty-seven years Natal colonists were content with their stunted, hybrid constitution. Mr. Froude, in 1874, seemed to think that they were eager for full-fledged freedom, but it was only in 1893 that they agreed to accept the boon, and then it was by the votes of a bare majority. It took years and years of education to prepare the people for emancipation. The opponents of the change dreaded its effects upon the security and the credit of 164 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the Colony. They conjured up all manner of evil con- sequences. Long endurance of political deprivation and tutelage had weakened their fibre, and made them nervous and apprehensive. Though academically admitting the proposition that self-government was a proper aspiration and patriotic goal, they shrunk from its immediate realisation. " Progress with pru- dence " was their motto, just as " Freedom with Guarantees " was that of the reformers. Even the latter held that there should be some assurance of continued Imperial assistance to "shelter" the Colony, for a time at any rate. In 1882, however, the champions of responsible government were heavily beaten at the polls on an appeal directly made to the electors, under Lord Kimberley's instructions. For a few years a truce was called, and other affairs engaged the attention of colonial politicians. It may be taken for granted that Lord Kimberley's sudden offer of full freedom took the colonists by surprise. They were still smarting from the effects of two Imperial wars, the Zulu war of 1879, and the Boer war of 1881. They were disgusted with the terms on which Zululand had been " settled," and with the atti- tude assumed by home politicians and home parties towards South African affairs and interests. They shrunk from making themselves responsible for the possible consequences of Imperial blunders and vacilla- tions. Imperial prestige had suffered lamentably in South Africa by the failure of the Empire to follow up its conquest of Zululand and to establish definite THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS L65 authority there, and by the surrender of the Transvaal under the indignity of defeat. A strong- party at home clamoured for the restoration of Cetywayo, a step which would probably have been taken earlier than it actually was, in 1884, had the Legislative Council of Natal not protested against it session after session. It was only when the interests of Natal were being ruth- lessly sacrificed in 1886 by the cession of a large part of Northern Zululand to the " New Republic " that the party of progress, reinforced by some of its most stalwart opponents, again took heart and courage, and resumed the campaign in favour of self-government. Sir Henry Holland, in the letters addressed to myself, while acting as Colonial Delegate at the first Imperial Conference, in 1887 practically and effectively reopened the con- troversy. Natal desired to raise a new loan, for the prosecution of railways and other public works. The Secretary of State pointed out that if such borrowing powers were to be exercised in the future it must be on the individual responsibility of the Colony as a self- governing community. Though the Legislative Council made no immediately effective response to this intima- tion, the seed was planted and it soon fructified. In 1888 a Select Committee was appointed to consider and report on the question, and the campaign was resumed. Session after session the controversy was con- tinued. The opponents of change were stubborn and unyielding, and resisted every step, however gradual, which might seem to lead towards the goal. At first 166 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the object of the progressives was to ascertain froiri the Home Government whether they would agree to the retention of an Imperial garrison for a certain time after responsible government might be established. Only with the greatest difficulty could the majority be per- suaded to submit this question. When the answer came, it was a gentle intimation that the Colony had better make up its mind on the main issue before details were dealt with. The contest then proceeded in earnest on both sides. The " Forwards " and the "Antis" ranged in hostile camps. Evenly divided as the parties were, neither gained much advantage. In the session of 1890, however, there was a general rallying for a decisive effort. The life of the existing Council was about to run out, and it was decided to make the " cause " a battle-cry at the next elections. An academical proposition, therefore, was submitted to this effect : " That while this Council is unable to accept the suggestions offered in Lord Knutsford's despatch for the protection of native interests in the event of a change in the constitution of Natal, it nevertheless claims for the Colony full control of its own affairs and of all sections of the population, in accordance with the constitutional powers exercised in all colonies where responsible government has been established." May 1 be pardoned for adding that the occasion was made memorable to myself as being identified with the longest speech it has ever been my misfortune to deliver. It lasted two hours and three-quarters, and THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 167 was immediately denounced by one of our most bitter and vehement opponents as " one of the finest specimens of flatulent verbosity, misrepresentation, humbug, and high-falutin' that had ever been listened to in this world." I daresay he was right, but for nearly ten years any free discussion of the question in the Council had been barred, and the pent-up torrent could not be stemmed. A long and lively debate lasting many days followed, but it ended in the adoption of my motion by 12 votes to 10. Having thus secured parliamentary recognition of the principle, we went to the country with a definite cause and platform. Henceforward the contest was open and straightforward. All the resources of election energy and strategy were called into play. We " stumped " the Colony from end to end, told off candi- dates for every seat, and flooded the electors with literature. So did our opponents. Such struggles are much the same in their features throughout the Anglo- Saxon world. Whether amidst the crowded cities and quiet hamlets of England, or in the void spaces and wild habitudes of Africa, the same methods are em- ployed, the same passions aroused. While it lasts the conflict is keen and all-absorbing ; men think and speak of little else. But when all is over animosities are forgotten, and social composure is restored. We submitted to the electors the simple issue "yea" or "nay," for or against responsible government, and we won fifteen seats against eleven. Thousrh not an over- 108 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA whelming it was a solid and impregnable majority, strong enough to enable us at once to proceed to the preparation and enactment of a Bill. Of the difficulties that attended that process it is not for me to speak here. Though we were a united party, as regards the main issue, we were by no means at one on points of detail, such as the creation of a Second Chamber, the distribution of seats, the representation of the natives, and the reservation of power to the Crown. This last was, indeed, the most contentious difficulty we had to dispose of. The Home Government insisted upon the reservation for the royal assent of all bills dealing with native interests. Our opponents at once declared that it was intended to withhold from the proposed administration the control of native affairs. The objection was somewhat inconsistent with the position they took up as opponents of self-government, but it sufficed to perturb the colonists and to foster distrust in our own party. Day after day this and other debatable questions were discussed and re- discussed in Committee-Room No. VI., where the fifteen "Forwards" met to hammer out the provisions of the new Constitution. They were all very much in earnest, and their differences were not easily arranged. Again and again we seemed in peril of fatal rupture, but loyalty to the cause in the end prevailed, and we succeeded in carrying through the House, inch by inch, such a measure as seemed likely m satisfy both the Colonial Office and the colonists. THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 100 The former very properly insisted upon the adequate recognition of the constitutional prerogatives of the Crown. The latter, not versed in the working of constitutional procedure, with its silences, and implica- tions, and dependence for construction upon age-long usage, desired to have in black and white effective safeguards against usurpation and encroachment. The cable was freely employed as a medium of corre- spondence and reconciliation, but it was at last decided to send a delegation to Downing Street with a view to the personal discussion of the questions involved. Two of us were deputed to undertake the duty, and in April 1892 I left with my colleague, Mr. Sutton, on a congenial, but by no means easy mission. Fortunately for us and, let me add, for the Colony, the duties of that mission were lightened by the sympathetic recep- tion, open mind, and cordial assistance accorded by Lord Knutsford and his official assistants. They listened with full appreciation to all we had to say concerning feeling in the Colony, and the doubts, auxieties, and apprehensions of people there, and they were not less frank in pointing out the necessary re- quirements of the Crown, the demands of home parties where native interests are concerned, and the absence of any real ground for the dread of undue Imperial interference in colonial concerns. The result of our negotiations was the final preparation of a revised Bill, which was to be submitted to the electors, after its adoption by the local legislature, as an unalterable 170 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA whole. This last condition undoubtedly saved the situation. Had it been open to meddle with the details of the Bill, it is fairly certain that it would never have gone through in a form acceptable to the Home Government. There would have been a change here, and a change there, and the measure would have been wrecked piecemeal. As it was we were able to carry " the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," through the House, thanks to our still undivided majority, and it was then submitted to the country. Of the electoral contest which followed I could give many amusing reminiscences, did space permit. It was the most exciting and exhausting in my experience. In 1882, when Mr. Escombe opposed me on the same platform, and accomplished my defeat, the struggle was in my own case confined to the borough itself, but ten years later, when we both fought together, we had to spread our energies over the whole Colony. Durban had now become the stronghold of the Forward Party, and could be left to take care of itself, but the outlying con- stituencies had to be braced up and wooed. Meetings had to be addressed, one week at Newcastle in the far north, and the next week at Harding in the far south. To reach the latter place a post-cart journey of a hundred miles had to be faced, along roads the perilous nature of which, in the dark, must be experienced in order to be understood. A furnace-like hot wind blew during the first two stages of this journey, and the horses of my trap knocked up in the depths of the magnificently THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 1 71 precipitous Urnkomas Valley, and I had to walk all the way to Ixopo, twenty miles off, in the face of a fiery blast. Two nights later the open two-wheeled post-cart started with us hours before dawn, scrambling and crawling along a misty mountain-track, whose dangers were mercifully hidden from sight by the darkness and the sleet. At the meeting held the same day, in the billiard-room of the country hostelry, about twenty Griqua half-castes formed part of the auditory. Having votes, they had a right to be present. They listened quietly enough, and afterwards assured me of their sympathy : and indeed I had specially for their benefit descanted upon the benefits that would accrue to the coloured population from being governed by men who knew and lived amongst them. They were privately interviewed, however, later on, by an agent of the other side, and, so I was told, voted to a man against us. And that would be the common experience had natives votes. An even more interesting meeting, in the light of recent events, was one held at Springfield, on the Tugela, where our forces were fighting the other day. I travelled thither overnight by rail as far as Frere. While passing through Maritzburg I was told that the meeting I was to attend — it had been called by our party — had at- tracted the attention of the other side, and that our opponents would muster there in special strength were it known that I was to be present. I was asked, there- fore, to keep unseen in my carriage, The door, though locked, was often tried durhiQ- the niyht, and from time 172 \ LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA to time, at stations wo passed, I could hear whispered inquiries as to whether I had joined the train or not. The guard professed ignorance. We reached Estcourt after midnight, and there the question of my where- abouts was eagerly discussed just outside my window. On we went to Frere, where, about three in the morning, I emerged in the darkness. There, too, got out the two hostile emissaries. It was some time before they made me out at the other end of the train, which left us help- less in the veld. As it turned out, our opponents were my best friends, as they knew the locality better than I did, and. with the personal kindness I at all times ex- perienced at their hands, they took charge of my move- ments and my bag. The rough shanty which there served as store and inn was some distance from the station, and would certainly never have been reached without this friendly aid. After much knocking we roused the inmates, slumbering heavily after a revel, and were glad to stretch our limbs on the bare floor for the few hours preceding daylight. One of the first sights I witnessed on going out into the crystalline morning air was the figure of one of my fellow-travellers, standing out on the skyline, towards Chicveley, rehears- ing the stock speech with which he was a few hours later to pulverise the reckless advocates of self-rule. A neighbour had arranged to drive me to the place of meeting at Springfield, on the Little Tugela, several miles distant. On our way we called at the farm of Mr. Pretorius, to whom I have already referred. His long, THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 173 thatched dwelling-house looked homely and comfort- able, with its adjacent orchard, its corn-fields, and its large " dam " or pond, lively with wild water-fowl, near at hand. It was a " clearing up " day, and the plain but solid furniture of the sitting-room was being aired in the sun. Around the walls of that apartment were framed lithographed portraits of the chief Boer leaders in the war of 1881, some of them kinsmen, all of them compatriots, of our host. They had been printed in Holland, which is the real nursery of Africander am- bitions and designs. After a substantial breakfast, pre- pared specially for us, and a little chat with our hostess, we took Mr. Pretorius on with us to Springfield, and I did my best to dispel certain doubts he harboured as to the proposed constitutional change. It may seem strange, but it was the case, that the Dutch colonists of Natal were by no means eager to join the party of pro- gress. They were bewildered by the conflict of opinion amongst the English electors ; they were suspicious of the intentions of the Imperial Government; and they were greatly influenced by the story, so sedulously pro- pagated, that all control over the natives was to be retained by Downing Street. I am also inclined to think that they saw no attractions in a measure which might popularise British rule and diminish any cause of discontent therewith. Springfield at that time consisted of but three or four scattered houses, near a lately erected bridge, on broad open ground, skirted by the towering cliffs and toothed 1 74 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA crests of the Drakenbcrg. The meeting was held in a building which served as courthouse on the occasion of magisterial visitations. Thirty or forty people crowded it, and others clustered round the doorways and the windows. An unusually large attendance of Dutch farmers lent special interest to the gathering, and the speakers on both sides were duly mindful of the fact. Amongst the auditors was the oldest Dutchman in Natal, one Oosthuysen. He had been with the Voer- trekkers through the massacres of Blaauwkrantz, and had fought against Dingaan in Zululand — a white- haired, gentle-mannered octogenarian — fully conscious of the benefits he enjoyed as a British subject, though very possibly a republican at heart. There were no evidences at that meeting, however, of disaffection or recalcitrancy. The one or two Boers who spoke dealt with local grievances, common to both races ; but, as no suspicion of coming events was in the air, any sinister significance in their utterances was unsought and unsuspected. And that was our general experience throughout the campaign. At Ladismith we had in the chair a leading Dutchman, recently under arrest as a rebel. At Newcastle I attended, by request, a meeting of the local Vereeniging, or Union — a body essentially Africander or Boer in its composition and aims. Its proceedings were all carried on in the Dutch language;, and resembled those of a religious body rather than of a political association. Hymns were sung, and prayers THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 175 of inordinate length indulged in. Some of the speeches left a ring of hostility in the ears and a flavour of alien- ship in the mouth, and I left the meeting with a feeling that I had been a foreigner and an interloper. Was it fancy or forecast ? Be that as it may, the final issue of the contest was decided by the Dutch vote, though not all at once. As far as could be ascertained under the ballot, the Dutch electors voted for the "Forward" candidates, and thus turned the scale. The numbers actually, though in two cases erroneously, returned by the magistrates were fourteen for and ten against self- government. A special session was immediately summoned to enable the new assembly to record its verdict on the measure. I think that, perhaps, the gloomiest moment of my political life was that when, after all our efforts and hopes, we found ourselves confronted by an im- pregnable majority of four. The tables had been reversed. In the last Council we had been a solid phalanx of fifteen, now we had shrunk to ten. Our opponents lost no time in pressing their advantage home. We contended for delay until the disputed elec- tion returns should have been disposed of, but in vain. On points of procedure the majority were supported by the Government members, who had, under instructions from Downing Street, abstained from voting on the main question. The " Antis " had the power in their hands, and did not hesitate to use it. They introduced into the reply to the opening speech words which prac- 17C A LIFE TIME IN SOFTH AFRICA tically extinguished discussion. There was nothing for it hut to submit, and await the result of the election trials. So the session ended with apparent failure to our cause. The work of nearly twenty years seemed to have gone for nought. The Forwards by no means lost heart, however. They were resolved to wrest success out of temporary defeat. They provided the most strenuous professional advocacy at the election trials, which were held before an able and impartial judge, Sir Walter Wragg. Fortune smiled on them. In both cases the disputed returns were upset. So far as votes were concerned, there had been a substantial majority in each case recorded for the Forwards ; but papers had been spoilt or rejected by the polling or returning officers. The judge overruled this action, and in the end the defeated candidates were placed in their right- ful positions at the head of the poll. Hencefonvard all was plain sailing. Again the Council was called together, and the Bill, which we had brought from Downing Street, was passed in its integrity without amendment. Immediate sanction was given to it, and on the 4th of July 1893 Natal took her place as a self- governed colony. This rapid retrospect of parliamentary development in Natal leads up to three conclusions: (1) That self- government has been no mushroom upgrowth, begotten by sudden impulse or popular passion, but the slowly matured result of arduous effort and deep conviction; (2) That the people of the Colony have alw;i\ s tempered THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 177 their love of liberty with a prudent regard for whole- some checks and safeguards ; and (3) That, as between English and Dutch, the principle of racial equality and common citizenship has ever been carefully observed. Mr. Froude's forebodings have proved as baseless as his sneers were unjustified. There is much more of the oak than the aloe in the constitutional framework of either the Cape Colony or Natal. Nor will a study of Natal legislation during the last forty years indicate any failure in these respects. The fruit on the whole has been worthy of the plant. Many of the laws passed may, in their construction, betray signs of inexperienced or faulty draughtsmanship. That was an inevitable condition of colonial circumstances. The principles embodied in these local statutes are, nevertheless, in accordance with modern British juris- prudence, while the whole superstructure rests upon the solid, time-tested basis of Roman-Dutch law. The com- bination of ancient maxim with British practice and colonial instance, in so far as it is stable, elastic, and comprehensive, may confidently challenge criticism. As a rule the measures sent home have seldom called for correction by the law officers of the Crown, and I was surprised to find how little amendment was required in the last Constitution Act, notwithstanding the manifest difficulties attending its preparation. On one occasion Natal gave the lead to the Empire on a question of the utmost delicacy. The Immigration Act of 1897, which was designed to deal with the Asiatic invasion from M 178 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA British India, has been accepted as a model throughout the Colonial Empire. So much has been said about the bribery of legislators in the late South African Republic, that it is pleasant to be able to make a contrary record in the case of a neighbouring British Colony. Looking back for forty years, I can unreservedly say that at no time in the history of parliamentary institutions in Natal can I recall an}^ instance of legislative delinquency in this respect. I am not aware of any attempt having been made to corrupt the virtue of our representatives, nor, indeed, of any lapse of that sort having been suggested. "Concessions" have seldom been favoured in Natal, and when on public grounds they have been agreed to, their acceptance has usually been regretted. If any irregularities of this kind have occurred they have not offended the public eye or ear. The arts of lobbying have been conspicuous by their absence. Venality in public life is, most assuredly, not a colonial charac- teristic. The offer of a "present," if only as a " souvenir," would be no passport to parliamentary or official favour. Natalians have come to regard purity in politics as a quality to be prized and cherished, and ever may it be so. It is no easy matter for a legislature to cater for the needs of three alien races living within an area so small as that of Natal. The European, the Asiatic, and the African are all domesticated on the soil of a country not much larger than Scotland. These three great types of THE SETTLERS AS LAWMAKERS 179 the human race all jostle and intermingle with each other. Even the European is divided into two classes, the English and the Dutch. Side by side with the statute and the common law of the Colony stands native law, of which I shall say more by and by. It is a codi- fied structure, based upon habits of life and ideas of morality wholly at variance with those of the white man. Yet it has to be administered and enforced, and is from time to time modified, to meet changing cir- cumstances or special requirements. The task of the Colonial Legislature is therefore far more complex and embarrassing than that which falls to the lot of most Anglo-Saxon lawmakers elsewhere. It calls for sym- pathy and indulgent criticism, and when mistakes are made, as they must be at times, they should be judged with due regard to the conditions under which they were committed. CHAPTER VII THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS Half a century ago, in 1850, when I first knew Natal, the import trade of the Colony was valued at £111,015, the value of goods exported was £17,106. The imports were brought to Durban in small sailing-vessels, most of which came from the United Kingdom, while the rest were coasters. Towards the end of 1850 the first merchant steamship seen in these waters, the Phoenix, brought up from Capetown a party of merchants and other visitors from Capetown, anxious to spy out the land, and to assess its capabilities as a seat of trade. Two years later the General Steam Shipping Company placed a small steamer, the Sir Robert Peel, on the coasting service. She ran in conjunction with that company's regular monthly service between England and Capetown. Several years after that the decline of trade was so serious that steamers ceased to run regularly on the coast, and we had to depend upon small schooners for the delivery of our mails. Home dwellers can but faintly imagine the interest which attached to the arrival of the mail from home. It was the one event of the month. A Hag hoisted on the tall flagstaff of Lloyd's Agent betokened the approach of THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 181 the mail, and the people of the town at once rode or walked to the landing-place, content to wait there for hours on the chance of being the first to hear the news. Up to 1854 war prevailed intermittently in the Cape Colony, and then the Crimean War broke out, so that we had stirring events to anticipate and to read of. Now the daily paper serves up to us at our breakfast tables news of the night before from the whole world. Commerce in those days was conducted on the simplest and most primitive lines. Little distinction existed between the wholesale importer and the retailer. Most dealers were " storekeepers," a generic title that covered all classes of commodities and transactions. Even then, however, that inland trade which has been the mainstay of progress and prosperity in Natal was germinating. Its headquarters were in Pietermaritz- burg. Its agents were locally known as "smouses." A smouse is, or rather was, for he is known no more in those latitudes, a glorified pedlar. He was a merchant on wheels. His warehouse, or pack, was an ordinary ox- waggon with its team of fourteen oxen. In this was stowed away a carefully chosen assortment of such goods as might catch the fancy or suit the needs of the Dutch farmers in the interior — coarse brown or black sugar from Mauritius, bean coffee from Rio, rough salt, brown bar soap, moleskin for the dopper's garments, printed calicoes of flaring hues for his womenfolk : cheap earthenware "cometjes," or little basins — the equivalent of coffee cups; baftas and punjums, the 182 A LIFE TIME TN SOUTH AFRICA unbleached materials for underclothing ; bar lead for bullets, and buckshot in small bags, for the chase — the mere rudiments and raw materials of the crudest civilised requirements. With these would be packed away beads, brass wire, and clasp knives for the artless natives of the wilderness. Thus equipped, the smouse or trader would go forth on his mission of barter. Produce, of sorts, not coin, was the object of his quest. He would disappear for months, wandering about the inland deserts at his own sweet will, trekking, regardless of time, from farm to farm, where he would be the only visitor from the outer world the whole year round. In exchange for the wares he had to dispose of, he would receive the hides of cattle or goats, the skins of ante- lopes and wild beasts, rough tubs of stale butter, in later years parcels of unwashed sheep's wool, or goat's hair, possibly a little roughly dried and pressed tobacco, all that the Boer settler had to offer as an equivalent for the things he needed. There was fascination about the life, with its utter freedom from all constraint, its healthy, hardy experi- ences, its abundant chances of adventure and sport. At that time the vast inland plains were thickly thronged by countless hordes of antelope — eland, hartebeest, wilde- beest, quagga, springbuck, rheebuck, and all the rest- bounding joyously from sunrise to sunset across the untenanted and uninvaded veld. Hyenas and jackals prowled around the trader's outspan after nightfall. Lions would often provide a more perilous diversion. THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 183 Giraffes and ostriches would invite to the chase, and birds innumerable offered sport for the gun and food for the evening meal. Men of gentle birth and culture were wont to try the life as a relief from the burdens and shackles of civilisation, and sometimes it weaned them altogether from the chafing associations of the past. One who tasted of these delights, celebrated them in spirited verse. For many years an honoured civil servant of the Colony, he still lives an octogenarian in Maritzburg, and often has he in times past enlivened festive gatherings of his fellow-colonists with words which aptly illustrated the care-defying life of the itinerant trading adventurer. The smouse was the forerunner of the country trader. He was a necessity in years when villages and townships were conspicuous by their absence. Bloemfontein, Smithfield, Winburg, and Potchefstrom were fifty years ago the only centres of population worth considering in the two republics. They were soon supplemented, however, by other places. A trader would sometimes settle down and become a resident " winkelaar " or storekeeper, or merchants in Durban and Maritzburg would establish branch trading-stations in suitable localities, and these in turn would gradually attract other residents and competitors, and blossom into urban settlements. The country store would usually be a place of accommodation for travellers and way- farers, and the popular resort for the neighbouring farmers. Religious services would be occasionally held 184 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA there by itinerant predikants, a post-office would be opened, and a Government office attached. Then would follow the laying out of a township, the appointment of a landdrost, and the erection of a church. Thus it came to pass that towns which are now historical : Harrismith, Bethlehem, Cronstadt, Vrede, Zuringkrantz, Pretoria, Heidelberg, Rustenburg, Lydcnburg, Stander- ton, and other republican centres, came into being and grew into importance ; and thus ■ it was " the Natal trader" or storekeeper and merchant planted and nourished the commerce for the retention of but a share of which he has had to fight so strenuously with rival communities in later years. Just as the British settler in Natal strove, as we have seen, with all his might to develop new industries and enrich the soil with new products, so did the British trader act as the pioneer of commercial activity in the states of the interior, and cater for the requirements of consumers there, scanty and simple though at first those needs might be. For many years by far the bulk of the trade done with the northern districts of the Free State, and the whole of the Transvaal, was in the hands of the men who had established it, the importers of Natal. That trade was often accompanied by contingent risks of heavy loss. Credit was a large factor in opera- tions, and buyers were often unable to pay their debts. Disease or starvation would destroy their cattle, scab would ravage their fleeces, crops would fail, drought and locusts would devastate. Storekeepers had of THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIYILISERS 185 necessity to provide a margin for the misfortunes of their customers, and those customers would seek to protect themselves by a corresponding increase in prices demanded for their produce. Hence arose the practice of " verneukering "■ — by which buyer and seller each sought to get the better of the other. The process has given a malodorous notoriety to South African trading customs, but it was mainly a natural product of the time, and is disappearing with the spread of railways and the growth of competition. I fear that it had its root in the congenital depravity of human nature. The Boer was pleased to get a higher price for his produce, even though he might have reason to suspect that the difference would be made up in the accounts. The storekeeper was content to offer a higher price for produce or to accept a lower price for his wares, knowing that he could compensate himself in other ways. That such a method of doing- business was improper, and indeed dishonest, need not be argued, but the impulse to overreach in commercial transactions is not, I believe, confined to infant com- munities, or to semi-civilised conditions. The itinerant trader's operations were by no means restricted to dealings with Boer settlers. They em- braced the whole native population. After the mis- sionary the trader may take rank as civilisation's earliest pioneer. Wherever a native tribe exists he finds his way. To many men the allurements of Kafir trading- surpass those of any other calling. Its absolute free- 186 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA dom from constraint or convention is seductive and enthralling. In too many cases it also proves to be deteriorating, if not debasing. It is impossible to mix only with savages for weeks and months, and years, without sinking in the social scale. The natives are wont to live in broken though beautiful country, where roads are not, and where wheeled traffic is impossible. In such regions the trader's stock has to be carried in bundles on the heads of his bearers. Thus accompanied the vendor travels on foot from kraal to kraal, by narrow footpaths that scale the hills or skirt the precipices, or thread the bush-clad gorges and valleys. At night, if so disposed, he accepts the friendly shelter of a hut, and for food he is content with the provender supplied by his packs or his gun or the kraals he visits. In many cases he encamps with his waggon or cart at some convenient spot near a running stream, and sends his boys out with their packs to do the huckstering. For weeks or months at a time he may never see a white man. His companions are natives, and natives only. Except the dumb dependents around him, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, or the many voices of exuberant nature — " The sun, the moon and the stars, the seas, the hills, and the plains" — are the only associates of his daily life. Well for him is it if higher innate influences avail to counteract the grosser seductions of the savage life around him, THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CTVTLISERS 187 to keep his life clean and his heart sound. If in too many cases lapse has been the outcome of such an existence, it has also at times been identified with the deliberate acceptance of the native code of morality, with its definite restraints upon indulgence and excess. I speak, of course, of times that are vanishing, and of experiences that are past. In most of the native terri- tories — Zululand, Pondoland, Swaziland, and Tongoland — settled stores will now be found scattered throughout the country. They are places where anything can be bought, from a box of matches to a bottle of gin or a tin of salmon. They have largely superseded the travelling trader. In many instances they are kept by the ubiquitous Asiatic, who is gradually if stealthily overrunning South Africa. Perhaps it is as well for the moral status of the European in a land of black men that his race is fast ceasing to be represented in the lower walks of trade, and that responsibility for " ways that are dark " shall be transferred to the less sensitive shoulders of yellow competitors. As years went on the inland trade of Natal developed a new form of enterprise. In the early fifties the trans- port work of the Colony was all done by a few regular carriers and by casual waggon-owners. The ordinary vehicles employed were tented waggons drawn by spans of twelve or fourteen oxen and holding about two tons. The common charge was £3 for a load from Durban to Maritzburg and 30s. for a load back. Kates for other journeys were a matter of arrangement. As trade 188 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA increased and roads improved, better organised facilities were provided. Open waggons with projecting " bucks " or frames were constructed, and the weight of loads in- creased by degrees to three, four, five, and even six tons. The production of sheep's wool necessitated more com- modious means of conveyance for the bulky but light- weighted bales of that staple. After lung-sickness had swept off by thousands the trek oxen of the Colony, the rates of transport rose to abnormal figures, and as much as 16s. per cwt. was paid for carriage between the seaport and the capital, a distance of fifty-four miles. Then it was that transport-riding became a systematic pursuit. Only at times were owners seen driving their own waggons. They mostly employed white and coloured drivers, and many waxed rich and prosperous. Farmers found carrying more lucrative than stock-raising or cultivation, and the agrarian interests of the Colony suffered by the consequent diversion of energy. In the winter, however, the business was almost suspended. Drought, frost, and grass fires destroyed the pasturage, and it was impossible to work the cattle — starved, flesh - less, and feeble — along the dusty roads. Such spans or teams as might now and then be seen straining forward at that season — otherwise so glorious — were miserable spectacles. " Cruelty to animals " seemed imprinted on their bony, lash-scarred, quivering bodies. To see such a team towards the end of a half-day's trek, writhing under the detonating whipcracks of a callous driver, with heaving chests and gasping breath and doubled-up THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILTSERS 189 backs, striving to drag a load up some steep bit of road, was to feel that trade was purchased at too horrible a cost. And thus it was that year after year, prior to the advent of railways, trade with the interior was practi- cally at a standstill. Merchants regulated their indents accordingly, and the middle months of the year, from April to October, were periods of stagnation and de- pression. Imports and revenue alike fell off. Stocks up-country got depleted, and prices of all edible com- modities advanced in proportion as distance from the port increased and as the dry season lengthened. As the demands of consumers in the inland states developed, so did the need of capital to lay in stocks large enough to provide for them grow, and thus it was that the element of credit became a controlling factor in South African commercial enterprise. Up to the year 1853 all business transactions in Natal were matters of barter or money. Payment was made in kind or in coin. Treasury drafts issued by the Army Commissariat Department upon the military chest were the chief medium of remittance to English creditors. A local Fire Assurance Company at first afforded a little relief in the way of exchange, but the absence of ordinary monetary facilities soon became so serious a drawback that local enterprise rose to the occasion, and two banks were established. One of them, the Natal Bank, still liourishes, having triumphantly survived the many critical experiences of our com- mercial history. The establishment of banking opera- 190 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA tions at once lifted up the conduct of trade to a higher level. The loose and primitive methods of earlier times were succeeded by conformity to the principles and practices of a more advanced life. Progress in usage was also attended by abuse of opportunity. Facilities of accommodation led to perilous indulgence. Promis- sory notes became popular instruments of purchase. Though for many years the bank rate of discount was never less than 12 per cent,, it was gladly submitted to by an impecunious community. The renewal of bills was a common resort, and the endorsement of them by friendly hands was an act of reciprocal assistance. Much of the commercial difficulty which at times beset the Colony was due to the lavish, not to say indiscriminate, negotiation of " paper " by local institu- tions. The custom had its effect on social life, and the earlier debates of the local legislature were often enlivened by vehement denunciation of " bank parlour tyranny " as exercised in the interest of a favoured few to the detriment of the unblest many. As time went on and banks multiplied, all these processes and effects gradually disappeared, and to-day are only remembered as legends of the past. Bank directors are no longer the powers and personalities of yore. With the advent of great Imperial institutions business has drifted into ordinary, legitimate, impersonal channels, and is con- ducted between the bank manager and the customer as it is in other large communities. Natal colonists, nevertheless, feel proud that their one local institution THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 191 has been able to bold its own — almost alone amongst other colonial banks — with such tenacity and success in the face of outside rivalry, and at one time in the teeth of a political attack from without which the resolute interposition of the local Government alone availed to frustrate. The survival and prosperity of the Natal Bank afford another example of that patriotic purpose and energy which it is my desire in these pages to commemorate and emphasise. The railway system of Natal has been developed on lines much more scientific than have been adopted elsewhere in South Africa. The principle of con- necting local centres and following established trade routes has not been sacrificed to the fetish of in- land trade — important though that is, and advanta- geous as it has proved. The several lines more or less follow existing traffic routes. The main central line bisects the country from east and west, connects Durban with Maritzburg, Estcourt, Ladismith, the Coal-fields, and Newcastle, and only branches out at Ladismith so as to tap the two republics, each by a direct line. When the first responsible Govern- ment took office, the principle so far adopted was amplified and extended. Trade requirements having been provided for as far as the border, the first step taken was to complete the connection to Johannesburg, and thereby to connect the Natal system with that of South Africa at large. This having been accomplished, by steps indicated in my next chapter, the internal L92 A LIFE TIME IN' SOUTH AJTtlCA development of the Colony itself was accepted as a rule of policy. Parliamentary sanction was obtained for the construction of lines extending coastwise from Durban to the Tugela and from Durban to the Umzinto, as the first section of a line to the Lower Umzomkulu, which is now under construction. The needs of the upper districts were met by a line from Maritzburg to Grey- town northward, and to Richmond southward, while the Natal section of an extension from Dundee to Vrijheid in Northern Zululand was also authorised. These pro- posals were cheerfully assented to, and are all now in progress, the Coast and the Richmond lines having been completed and opened for traffic, while the Grey- town line has just been completed. A yet more important project was also initiated by the same administration, and legislative authority has subsequently been obtained for its execution ; namely, a line to connect the Natal system with that of the Cape Colony, advancing through Griqualand East from the border railway system of that country. The importance of this undertaking from a political, not less than an industrial point of view, cannot be overrated. It will link the two seaboard colonies directly by the most potent of all unifying agencies, and will give Natal the shortest and most direct route to the southern seaports and centres. It will also traverse the fairest and most attractive region of South Africa, and strike, through the native territories which now so largely absorb that region, a civilising and pacifying agency which will soon THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 193 revolutionise their conditions. At present, if a Natal colonist desires to travel overland by rail to Port Elizabeth or Capetown, he has to pass through both the late republics and to journey round two sides of a triangle. Whatever may be the fate of those inland states, the necessity of a coast line between the two colonies is instantly made apparent by a glance at the map. The precise route to be taken by that line has yet to be determined. It may be connected with the coast line, or it may take an inland direction, but that it will be soon carried out is beyond doubt. Nor is much time likely to elapse before the north-coast route is continued into Zululand, where large coal and mineral deposits await exploitation. A home company has undertaken both these operations. All these lines are now practically in the hands of the State, and with one exception have been carried out by the Government. Experience in the case of the north-coast line did not encourage any further departure from the rule of State construction and State control. Neither as regards economy nor convenience is private inter- vention found preferable. Whatever may be the case elsewhere, in Natal the State ownership of railways has been justified by results. It is true that the Colony has been fortunate in having the services of an ex- ceptionally able and energetic manager, but the Cape Colony can also point with satisfaction to corresponding results. I have no desire to burden my readers with figures, but it may suffice to say that at the end of last N 194 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA year (1899) 545 miles of railway had been built at a cost of £7,267,000, and earned, over and above all work- ing charges, a profit representing 4 per cent, interest on capital outlay. And this was in spite of the paralysing effects of three months' actual war, and the seizure of 150 miles of line by the enemy. In 1898, when the Colony was at peace, the profit earned was a little less. Having been a most persistent advocate of railway extension, in season and out of season, from the earliest date of action, I may be excused, perhaps, for some exultation over the remarkable economic effects of the policy that has been pursued. Never are the taxes of a people better laid out in a new country than in the provision of cheap and easy facilities of transport. Ity no other means is civilisation more effectually advanced. Under no other influence does the wilderness so soon blossom like the rose. By no other policy is the main- tenance of law and order more successfully secured and assisted. Apart from the stimulating effects of railway exten- sion upon trade, revenue, and industry, the influence thereby exercised upon social development is, in a new community, especially remarkable. People living out- side the towns are no longer confined, for the greater part of the year, to the seclusion of their more or less remote and isolated farms. They arc able to move about and mix amongst their fellow-men. They are able to see a little of the outer world, and to rub off the rust of rusticity. Their outlooks are widened, and their THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 195 orbits enlarged. Their political interests are expanded, and their prejudices abated or corrected. In the case of the native population, these influences are still more manifest. The natives of Africa take to railway travel- ling as readily as do the natives of India. The carriages provided for their accommodation — covered, airy, and commodious — are usually crowded with a chattering, merry, snuft-taking and munching crowd, many of whom are in the primitive garb of barbarism — a motley of beads, tatters, and cast-off clothes, while all bear their bundles, bags, and mats, and sometimes their pots and pans. Thanks to the railway, they are now able to travel to Johannesburg in a day, a journey which, twenty years ago, would have taken two or three weeks, and to earn there wages so high that they are able, after a few months' work, to return to their kraals with bags full of coin to invest in cattle and in wives. But of that I shall write hereafter. Railways are of only limited value if they have not a port to start from. Long before railways were seri- ously thought of, the necessity of an improved harbour was recognised in Natal. Less than thirty years ago I have heard intelligent and influential colonists express their disbelief that a line of railway would ever be con- structed between Durban and Maritzburg. As to an extension to and over the Drakenberg, such an idea was scouted as fantastic and chimerical. I never heard such scepticism expressed concerning the feasibility of improving the harbour of Durban. The little, almost 19G A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA land-locked sheet of water, some twelve miles in cir- cumference, bare at low water, but at high tide a rippling or burnished lake, lias been recognised as a possible haven from the earliest times. Though Vasco da Gama discovered the coast of Natal on Christmas Day, in 1497, and named it in honour of the Nativity, he does not appear to have landed or entered the inner bay ; but succeeding navigators referred to it as the "River of Natal," with " a mouth wide and deep enough for small craft, but at which is a sandbank, with at hig-hest flood not more than ten or twelve feet of water This river is the principal one on the coast of Natal, and has been frequently visited by merchant vessels. The East India Company would have taken possession years past but for seeing at the mouth of the port a reef or a sandbank that no galliot without touching could get over without danger, so that a small vessel could not safely go in there." This was in 1087, and what Batavian enterprise shrunk from attempting then, British push and energy have triumphantly accomplished since. As a matter of fact there is no river worth the name running into the bay, though two small streams, having their rise in the adjacent hills, enter it at the upper end. There can be little doubt that at one time the sea flowed between the Bluff promon- tory and the Berea, and that the southern end of the channel, which separated these islands from the mainland, gradually silted up, leaving at the northern THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 1 7 and more exposed front a slake into which the tide ebbed and flowed with a current strong enough to keep the entrance more or less clear, though not to sweep away, unaided, the sand deposited there. Nature had thus provided the " makings " of a harbour, if not a harbour in the proper sense itself. Fortune willed that in 1850 a shrewd Scottish engineer who had served under Rennie, one John Milne, should arrive in the Colony concurrently with another shrewd Scotchman, Governor Pine. The keen eye of the one detected the possibilities of the place, and the large mind of the other grasped them. Small though the revenue of Natal was at that time (£20,338), Mr. Pine did not hesitate to authorise a small appropriation for the commencement of re- medial operations. They were urgently called for. The " bar " was on its worst behaviour, and even small coasting schooners could only, with much difficulty and after long delays, cross that barrier and get inside. Mr. Milne's plan was simple enough. He sought to strengthen and regulate the tidal current by construct- ing a little breakwater on the north side of the entrance running parallel to the rock-tipt Bluff, and to prevent the drift of sand into the inner channels by running out little groins of wattlework and broken stone into the bay. With the few pounds at his disposal, the resolute old engineer succeeded in attaining results which were full of promise ; but worse times came. The local exchequer emptied as the demands upon it multiplied. 198 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Another Governor came who was less favourable than his predecessor to Milne's plans, and they were prac- tically suspended, while controversy raged over the respective merits or demerits of different proposals. I have no intention of reviewing these interminable discussions even in outline. It is enough to know that the primary principles laid down by John Milne in 1S50 have been more or less adhered to. They have assur- edly been vindicated by results. For though the effects of tidal scour have been immensely aided by the employ- ment of modern dredging appliances, it cannot be denied that the extension of two parallel piers has been at- tended by results such as the most sanguine advocate of harbour improvement never dared to contemplate. In 1896 Sir Charles Hartley, as the highest authority on such questions, visited Natal, and subsequently, in con- junction with Sir Wolfe Barry, a not less commanding authority on dredging operations, submitted a report which generally approved of the principles that had been followed, though certain modifications in detail were recommended. For some years past opinion in the Colony has been divided between those who depend on tidal scour and those who depend on dredging, for the extermination of the " bar." As a matter of fact, both processes have been concurrently pursued, and both were approved by the eminent experts I have named, and it is by continual reliance upon both that the harbour of Durban will be made hereafter accessible to vessels of the largest tonnage. THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 199 From 1880 to 1893 the presiding genius of the harbour was the late Mr. Escombe, whose sudden removal on the 27th of last December was justly mourned as a public calamity and a grievous personal loss. Throughout that period he gave up his time and his energy to what became the dream of his life, the creation of a first-class harbour. As chairman of a reconstituted Harbour Board, through all these years he contended against opposition and discouragement, and when on the establishment of responsible govern- ment that board, with other boards, was swept away, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his unselfish and disinterested labours had borne imperishable fruit. Since then the course of improvement has proceeded without interruption. The gain of depth has been continuous ; 27 feet at high tide is a common record. Within the bay channels have been deepened, wharves built, steam cranes, shears, sheds, and all other appliances and facilities provided. A flotilla of steam dredgers and tugs is kept constantly at work. During this war, transports of the largest tonnage have been brought inside without delay or difficulty, and have discharged their freights, whether of troops, ammunition, or stores, from the water-side into railway trucks that have carried them straight to the front, so that men landed at Durban one morning have sometimes been fighting the next day near Ladismith. During the Zulu war all the transports had to be discharged into lighters at the outer anchorage and travel over a 200 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA turbulent bar at much cost of time, money, and difficulty. There seems no reason to doubt that, by patient persistence in the present policy, the harbour entrance will ere long be so deepened that vessels of the largest tonnage will be able at all times to steam over the bar and be berthed at the wharves. Un- fortunately for the Empire, not less than for the Colony, the seizure of our coal-mines by the Boers at the outset of the war, nullified the enormous advantage which their possession would otherwise have conferred on both. The coal-mines of Natal have come to be regarded as the natural complement of the seaport in any estimate of the future which awaits the latter. They have been a product of slow and difficult development. For many years local geologists declared that coal of commercial value would never be found in South Africa. Strati- graphic evidence was all against it. They said just the same about diamonds. Scientific authority was not wanting for other deductions. In 1867 Sir Roderick Murchison wrote me a note in which he referred confidently to the probable existence of large coal deposits in the country. For more than half a century an outcrop of anthracitic coal has been known to exist on the sea-coast, forty miles from Durban. Much money has been spent in exploration at this point and elsewhere near the shore, but without satisfactory results. The other carboniferous indications occurred 200 miles inland, the intervening country having been THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 201 denuded by glacial and fluvial action. In their case the cost of transport presented insuperable obstacles to development, and until railway communication was estab- lished all mining enterprise was futile. Since the line was completed to Newcastle, both capital and energy have been freely expended in the opening up of coal- mines, and the supply now equals the actual demand. Coal is delivered into the ship's bunkers at Durban at an average cost of 20s. to 25s. per ton. It is good steam coal, and all the regular liners use it constantly. Durban is thus a coaling base for the commerce of the world, and for the navy of the Empire. One of the first results of the war was to destroy this advan- tage and paralyse this industry : and the fact that it was possible for two hostile republics in the rear thus to cripple the resources of the Colony and the Empire, is in itself a sufficient reason why such a pos- sibility should be prevented in the future. England cannot afford any more than can South Africa to hold an endowment of such priceless value at the mercy of a reckless and antagonistic power. There is every reason to hope that coal will do for South Africa what it has done for every country where it has been mined in adequate quantity. At Johannesburg it has been found and worked within arm's length of the gold mines, to whose economical development it has enormously contributed. Its existence has been proved at many other points. Found as it is in conjunction with or proximity to both precious and baser metals, it cannot 202 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA fail in the near future to make the southern continent an area of manufacturing activity, which will supply its agriculturists and pastoralists with the markets they need. But it is especially as a means of fuel supply for the sustenance of sea-borne trade and of naval power that the coal-fields of Natal are of Imperial interest and value. Associated with a fine harbour and a wide-spreading railway system, they form a possession which the world may envy, and a heritage which the Empire may well guard and cherish. Trade, banks, railways, harbour, and mines, these are the solid and appraisablc tokens and elements of national prosperity. They represent the labours, energies, and struggles of the British settlers of Natal during half a century. They may not be the things which the old Boer Voertrekkers had in view when they vainly strove to set up a bucolic republic in a region so richly endowed by nature with the resources of a busy and progressive civilisation, but they are the fruits of Anglo-Saxon activity in a virgin field, and they represent the claim which the Empire and its children have to the possession and control of the soil. They are not all, however. The settlers have estab- lished other claims to the ownership of the land they live in. The evidences of civilisation are not confined only to the constituents of material wealth and advance- ment. There arc higher gains than commercial progress and industrial expansion. Some of them have, 1 hope, been already indicated in these pages. Others I can THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND C1VILISERS 203 but glance at. Education lias not been neglected. Schools have multiplied. Government from the very first has done something for the mental culture of the colonists, though it has never made school attendance compulsory. In 1850 a free school was established in Maritzburg and in Durban, so that no one in those centres could even then plead inability to get a child taught the rudiments of knowledge. Little by little these primi- tive institutions have expanded and out-stretched, until for many years past a public school fabric has embraced the whole Colony. Dr. Mann was the first to give form and scope and character to the system. An enthusiast and a student, he left his mark in the sixties upon the colonial mind. I accompanied him once or twice, as a young but admiring friend, upon his tours of inspection, and very interesting expeditions they were. Ambling along the bridle-paths that connected outlying centres in secluded districts, the good doctor's companionship was not less enter- taining than profitable, for to him nature Avas an open book, and his work a delight. Like all true colonists, he lived in the future not less than in the present. "All the wonder that should be" was ever present to his mind. The tiny barnlike structure, in which the few humbly clad children gathered under their homely teacher to learn such rudiments of knowledge as he or she could teach them, became in the doctor's presence the birthplace of a future seminary, and the 204 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA wondering but eager-faced little pupils, struggling with their alphabets and primers, their slates and copy- books, amidst the sylvan surroundings of a South African wilderness, were the coming citizens of a new state, the heralds of a new order. Sometimes arrange- ments would be made for the instruction of the elder folk in the form of a popular lecture on some scientific or literary subject, which would be handled by the doctor with wonderful ease and graphic charm. After his departure a lull took place in educational activity, but it fell to Sir Henry Bulwer's lot to lay the foun- dations of the system which still prevails in the Colony with ever-increasing acceptance and success. The High Schools, the Model Schools, the Primary Schools, the farm schools, and the assisted schools of the Colony, bring within reach of nearly every child teaching of varying degrees of fulness and excellence, at a cost that shuts out no one. And that instruc- tion is open to all, irrespective of nationality or creed. Dutch is taught wherever it is wanted, though English is, and ever has been, the language of the Colony ; but though the Dutch residents often clamour for the use of their own tongue, when instruction is provided in it the advantage taken of the facilities afforded is miserably small. Natal is also the scene of many private schools, chiefly of a higher class, which are carried on with much success, and of these the Hugue- not seminary at Greytown, an establishment of Dutch parentage, affords evidence of a growing desire on the THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 205 part of the Dutch population to secure educational advantages for their daughters on a more distinctively national and religious basis than is possible under the strictly unsectarian public schools. Though there are public libraries and museums in Durban and Maritzburg, it cannot be said that in either respect public activity in Natal has been quite up to the level of some other colonial communities. Perhaps with the growth of wealth the example set by private munificence elsewhere may bear fruit in edi- fices and collections of monumental masTiitude. Ao-ri- cultural associations, on the other hand, are amongst the earliest offshoots of co-operative activity. For long- years past every district has had its agricultural society or planters' association. Their annual shows, dinners, and balls form the chief events of the social year, and the management of them by committees gives scope for participation in public life. Race meetings are not less universal and popular. Rifle associations and shooting-matches are means of bringing together the scattered residents of country districts in friendly rivalry. All these gatherings are made occasions for picnic excursions, the jollity and pleasantness of which must be experienced to be appreciated. They promote amenity of social intercourse, and in their primitive freedom and gladness of life recall the days when " Merrie England " was something more than a memory. That the Dutch settlers of Natal may more and more take part in these meetings, forgetting in them the 206 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA rancour of past events, must be the hope of all who desire that race hatred shall pass away. Much might be written about the outgrowth of municipal institutions in Natal and South Africa. Their germs were developed at a very early date both in Durban and Maritzburg, where English and Dutch pioneers lost little time in associating them- selves for purposes of common action. The old Town Committee and Heemraden were the precursors of the full-blown incorporations of municipal boroughs, under the responsible control of Mayors and Town Councils, which have done so much to extend the visible traces of civilised life in South Africa. The history of these bodies is indeed the history of the Colony. They have been a most excellent training-school for public life and representative energy, and have relieved the central government from burdens and duties which would have greatly enhanced the cares of administration. They have given to the country well-ordered, well- controlled, healthy, attractive, and beautified centres of population, where all classes, from the half-naked native to the gaily clad dame of fashion, commingle without discord in the relationship of daily life. It would be possible to fill many pages with stories connected with the public festivities, or rather, let. me say, the public " feeds," of the Colony in its earlier years. In nothing is the Englishman more loyal to his traditions than in his observance of gastronomic ordi- nances. No matter where he may have been trans- THE SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 207 planted — in southern continents just as ardently as in northern islands — he "celebrates the occasion," what- ever it may be, by the consumption of food and drink. In sober and religious circles the function takes, or took, the form of a "tea-meeting," where good folks of all ages disposed of vast quantities of tea and cake as a preliminary to graver exercises in the shape of speech, hymn, or prayer. More secular celebrations, and especially those of political significance, were re- presented by " luncheon " or " dinner." The former was often dignified by the name of " collation " or " dejeuner," just as the vaguer but more grandiose term " banquet " came into vogue as civilisation advanced. " Public dinners," however, grew for some years into disfavour on account of the rowdyism that sometimes marked them. One or two of those gatherings degenerated into noisy orgies, thanks to the presence at them of a few roysterers who made uproar of the proceedings, and for some time they were abandoned. When Governor MusOTave arrived a strenuous effort was made in Durban to give him a seemly welcome, and a civic banquet was organised, though with fear and trembling. Respectable citizens, anxious to impress her Majesty's new representative with a sense of their intelligence and self-control, were nervously anxious to guard against any excess of festal hilarity. Tables and tickets were all planned and numbered with careful regard to the maintenance of order and the restraint of revellers. The event fully vindicated the preparations. Though 208 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the toast list was of portentous length, it was gone t linmgh without a hitch or a halt. Order was supreme. The illustrious visitor admitted himself to be most agreeably affected by the admirable behaviour of his entertainers, while they were so delighted by the success of their endeavours that after the guest of the evening had taken his departure they signalised their satisfac- tion by a march round the room singing the popular chorus of the moment. So keen was the enthusiasm that one of the sedatest of the townsmen found himself at the end minus the coat tails that had yielded to the ardour of his neighbour in the procession ! Having thus re-established the reign of order, colonists again resumed the practice of banqueting, and never again lapsed into impropriety. The tendency, indeed, has been rather the other way. A very able and popular governor complained to me on one occasion of the lack of warmth and enthusiasm. It is not easy on these occasions to reconcile local or sectional differences. When the first bridge over the Umgeni River, which divides the counties of Durban and Victoria, was opened, the people of the town and the people of the country both wanted to celebrate the occasion in their own fashion. Neither would give way, and as the bridge itself was not available as a neutral banqueting ground, two luncheons were held, one on either side of the river. The dual function entailed obvious strain upon the principal actors — and speakers — on the occasion, but it averted a deadlock. SETTLERS AS TRADERS AND CIVILISERS 209 Perhaps the most imposing banquet ever held in the Durban Town Hall was that given to President Kruger, when he visited the seaport in connection with the opening of the Natal Railway as far as Charlestown on the Transvaal border. We were all eager to obtain or to receive from the sphinx-like potentate some assurance or indication of his readiness or intention to extend the line as far as Johannesburg:. When he rose to speak every ear was bent amidst breathless expectancy for the hoped-for word. The reporters gathered near the great man so as not to lose or misinterpret the fateful utterance. The oracle spoke, through his interpreter, and spoke at some length, but he said nothing that left us a bit wiser as to his wishes, purposes, or thoughts. Unfortunately for us, perhaps, Oom Paul drinks milk only on such occasions, and he was not betrayed into any verbal indiscretion. Only three days before I had seen him at a ball at Newcastle, where the Governor undertook to chaperon him round the room. The ladies present — most of them — were clad in the, perhaps, not too redundant garb of modern fashion. Certainly not exceptionally so, but the vision of those undraped shoulders was a palpable shock to presidential innocence. Before he was half round the room he developed acute indisposition, and hurriedly retired from a scene that outraged his primitive sensi- bilities. His pregnant comment on the spectacle I prefer not to repeat. CHAPTER VIII THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS Natal is but a small red patch on the map of the South-east African seaboard. It is so small as to seem almost lost amidst the vast parti-coloured spaces of the great continent. Any one ignorant of its whereabouts would have difficulty in locating the garden colony. Elbowed in between the mountains and the shore, it has a breadth ranging from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles, and for fifty-four years its coast-line stretched for the same length, bisected by the 30th parallel of south latitude. In 1897 the province of Zululand was incorporated with the little colony, and its sea frontage was thereby doubled. Its northern frontier now abuts directly upon the southernmost boundary of Portuguese possessions. Arrangements for this acquisition of territory were amongst the last official duties I had to discharge before relinquishing office in 1897. I recall this fact with satisfaction, inasmuch as it helped to rectify that inadequacy of area which has always irritated the Natalian mind. Lord Ptosmead once said that Natal had a heart too large for its body. The remark was not un- kindly meant, but it rankled, and, for reasons which 210 THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 211 will be shortly specified, it bore a somewhat sinister significance. Though Natal may be diminutive in size, it will, I think, be admitted by my readers that it is not lacking in productive energy or political activity. In its case nature has compressed within a narrow compass the physical conditions and capabilities of many lands. Mere breadths of the earth's surface do not in them- selves constitute greatness. Small countries are often the most wealthy and influential. Great Britain by the side of Russia is a pigm}^ but as a power and a pro- ducer she is coequal. Victoria represents but a little slice of the Australian continent, but she contends with New South Wales for primacy. Acre for acre, Natal could sustain a population many times larger than that of the Cape Colony. Though her area does not much exceed that of one or two of the Cape magisterial divisions, her trade bears a proportion of one-third of that done by the whole sister and senior colony. But it is in respect of interterritorial position and relations that Natal's strength as a factor in South African politics has to be recognised. Contracted though her borders may be, they touch those of every other South African State save one. On the south lies the Cape Colony, as represented by Pondoland and Griqualand East. Then comes Basutoland, behind its barrier of well-nigh impassable mountains. The Free State follows, where the mighty Drakenberg subsides into a more broken and less forbidding range. Then 212 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA advances the Transvaal, starting where Majuba sentinels the junction of the two republics, and doubling round to the south and the east, along a frontier so angular and disjointed that the one aim of its delineators seems to have been to take everything from Natal, and give all to the Republic. That section of the border-line affords melancholy evidence of the recklessness with which British and colonial interests have been sacri- ficed to expediency, timidity, and nescience by Imperial representatives in the past. Then, when this zigzag frontier — so typical of zigzagging policy and purpose — terminates in North-west Zululand, the boundary of Portuguese dominion is reached, and followed until it ceases with the sea. It will thus be seen that Natal comes into direct contact with the greater and older sister colony, with the independent British territory of Basutoland, with the two late republics, and with the Portuguese possessions. With Rhodesia there is no propinquity, while Germany's new colony in South- west Africa is separated by half the continent from the eastern seaboard. To Natal, therefore, a policy of isolation has never been possible. She has always had her neighbours to consider and reckon with. The earliest British settlers at the seaport, adventurous as they were, entered into compacts and treaties with their Zulu neighbours. In 1828 King Chaka appended his mark to a document whereby he charged an Englishman named King and a chief, Sotobi, to proceed to "King George's dominions " THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 313 on a friendly mission, and after offering his Majesty " assurances of friendship and esteem," to negotiate with him " a treaty of friendly alliance between the two nations." The same document granted to King, in return for services rendered, " the free and full posses- sion " of the country at and near the sea-coast and port of Natal, " together with the free and exclusive trade " of all his (Chaka's) dominions. A like grant was made subsequently to Lieutenant King's successors at Port Natal, both by Chaka and by Dingaan. We know of the later treaties entered into between Dingaan and M'Pande, successively, to the emigrant Boers, and also of the later engagements entered into between M'Pande and the Government of Natal. All these documents serve to show the solidarity of interests that has always existed between Natal and her savage neighbours to the north in Zululand. They were gradual precursors of the final covenants entered into after the country had been conquered by Sir Garnet Wolseley, and of the ultimate act of consummation, embodied and ratified in the law, by which Zululand became part of Natal. Already the countries known as Amatongoland and Zambaansland had been annexed to Zululand, much to the chagrin of President Kruger and his colleagues. For years they had coveted those territories, not so much on account of any particular endowments of soil or resource, but because their acquirement would give the Republic a foothold on the seaboard. Access to the sea has ever been the cherished desire and purpose of Mr. 214 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Kruger. It was as a means to that end — as a long step towards the ocean — that he so persistently and strenu- ously strove for the absorption of Swaziland. An inde- pendent harbour — " my own port " — has been the dream of the old President's life. To gain that he planned, intrigued, and temporised, alternately yielded and in- sisted, covertly operated and openly contended. That he was wise and shrewd in doing so no one can deny. With a port of his own he would have been master of the situation. He could have snapt his lingers at all proposals of customs union, and pursued without a halt his policy of republican absorption and aggrandise- ment. As a maritime state he could have claimed an international status which it would have been difficult to dispute, and might, by enlisting naval co-operation on the sea, have changed the fortunes of the war. Fortunately for South Africa and the Empire, Impe- rial vigilance has succeeded in thwarting this ambition and in blocking the republican march to the sea. I say " fortunately," not because of any ungenerous desire to crib and cabin the development of an inland state, or to blast the success of a just and laudable aspiration, but because events have shown in what a spirit of exclusive and hostile dominancy the craved advantage would have been employed. Had Tongoland fallen into the hands of the Transvaal, or any point along the coast-line been acquired without attendant checks or conditions, the Republic with its vast command of money — wrung out of the gold industry — would have THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 215 been able, by constructing a port, to set South Africa at defiance. Though the sea-coast between Durban and Delagoa Bay at present offers neither open harbour nor safe anchorage, there are certain points where skill and money would avail to create the one or to secure the other. Protruding capes or reefs, resembling on a smaller scale the Bluff at Durban, offer shelter from southern seas and gales, and are flanked by lagoons or river-mouths which are capable of being dredged and deepened. Only in its hold upon the south-eastern seaboard has the Government of the Empire shown true foresight in its treatment of territorial questions, and in that respect it has to thank the vigilance of local representatives rather than the observance of any settled policy for the salvation of its interests. In 1884 Sir Henry Bulwer, Governor of Natal, autho- rised the planting of the flag at St. Lucia Bay at a moment when another power seemed on the point of get- ting a foothold there. On the 7th of May in the follow- ing year Count Minister, German Minister at St. James's, formally notified to Lord Granville, who was then Colonial Secretary, the readiness of Germany " to with- draw her protest against the hoisting of the flag at Santa Lucia Bay, and to refrain from making acquisi- tions of territory or establishing Protectorates on the coast between the Colony of Natal and Delagoa Bay." Though this understanding safeguarded British interests on the eastern shore, it was attended by a definite sacri- fice of British claims on the western side of the conti- 2 1 6 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA nent, where Germany was granted an enormous sphere of influence, extending from the south Portuguese frontier to the northern frontier of the Cape Colony on the Orange River. The complaisance with which the Colonial Government of that time acquiesced in so vast a circumscription of its territorial limits has yet to be satisfactorily explained. Had Natal possessed the control of its own affairs at an earlier period, it may be confidently assumed that the northern frontier- line of that Colony would have been defined on intelli- gible and patriotic, if not exactly " scientific " principles. Its interests, and those of the Empire, were simply given away by those who were responsible for the work of delimitation. Though the line of the Tugela and its affluent, the Buffalo, has at all times been scrupulously recognised as the boundary between Natal and Zululand, no care has at any time been taken to prevent the gradual curtail- ment westward of the latter territory. Little by little the Boers of the Transvaal were suffered to creep east- ward. The districts of Wakkerstroom, Utrecht, and Piot Retief were absorbed by the Transvaal. Had the natural line of the Drakenberg been accepted from the first as the western limit of British dominions as far as the frontier of the Portuguese possessions, these encroach- ments would never have occurred ; but Imperial aspira- tions stopped short at the Buffalo, and the Republic was allowed to wander eastward at its own sweet will. Years before the Zulu war, Cctywayo repeatedly urged the Colo- THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 217 nial Government to take possession of the disputed terri- tory intervening between Zululand and the Republic, but the Imperial Government persistently declined to sanction any such measure. After the Zulu war, any froDtier whatever might have been insisted upon ; but under the Wolseley settlement the only aim of British statesmanship seemed to be the reduction of Imperial responsibilities and possession to the narrowest limits. That this policy was viewed with great disfavour by the colonists need not be said. The local legislature again and again lifted its voice in protest against arrangements in regard to which it had neither part nor lot, nor vote. It was asked for a contribution towards the cost of administering the country, but it declined to commit itself in any way which might be held to imply approval of measures which it deemed inimical to the future peace and order of South-east Africa. Meanwhile the Boers, presuming on British apathy, found their way into the fine pasture-lands of Upper Zululand, and remained there. They are as apt in stealing a march diplomatically as they are in doing so in the field. It would be too long a story to tell here of the events which led to the establishment of the " New Republic " and the recognition of that ridicu- lously contorted frontier-line which now disfigures the map. The Boer piously acts upon the principle that possession is nine points of the law — where he sets his foot, there he means to remain. He has scored many diplomatic successes in South Africa, but none has 218 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA been more disastrous to British interests than was the cession of the New Republic in the teeth of strenuous opposition on the part of the Natal Legislative Council. How completely that surrender was disapproved by the colonists and their representatives — impotent though they were — will best be indicated by the resolutions adopted by the Legislative Council in 1880. Early in the session members were made aware, by the presence of three leading representatives of the " New Republic " in Maritzburg, that important negotiations, about which they were being kept in the dark, were afoot, and they thus expressed themselves : — • " 1. That this Council, as representing the Colony of Natal, claims a voice in any settlement of a question so vital to its interests as is the future disposal of Zululand, including the reserve and the control of the trade route to Swaziland and the north. " 2. That this Council protests against its persistent exclu- sion from any definite information concerning the negotia- tions that are going on between the Special Commissioner, the Boer settlers, and the Zulu chief. " 3. That while this Council does not ignore such just claims as the Boer settlers may have to land in Zululand, it respectfully asks that the provisions of the arrangement that has been submitted to the consideration of her Majesty's Covernment be communicated to the House prior to any decision being come to thereon." Later on, when it became known that negotiations had actually been concluded, a yet more emphatic protest was recorded : — THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 219 " 1. That this Council is of opinion that the interests of Natal have not been duly considered and conserved by his Excellency the Governor, as Special Commissioner for Zulu- land, in the negotiations which preceded the Agreement entered into on the 22nd of October, in disregard of the resolution passed by the House on the previous day ; and this Council feels keenly that it was not frankly treated by the Government in regard to this question during the early part of this session. " 2. That this Council reiterates the readiness of this Colony to undertake the government of the Reserve and Eastern Zululand, as the only means whereby stable peace and order can be established in those territories ; it is convinced that the strong desire of the Zulu people is to come under the government of this Colony, and it asks his Excellency, should he have any doubt on that point, to take such steps as may satisfy him as to the temper of the Zulu people in regard to their union with this Colony. "3. That this Council accepts the offer of her Majesty's Government to act in concert with it so far as regards the future of Eastern Zululand and the Zulu Reserve. " 4. That this Council is of opinion that the terms accorded by her Majesty's Governments to the Dutch settlers in Zululand make it doubly necessary — not only in the interest of the Zulus on either side of the Tugela, but in the interests of the Colonists of Natal, and of British influence in South Africa — that her Majesty's rule should be immediately extended over the remaining portions of Zululand, including the Reserve. " 5. That this Council is prepared to pass a Bill for the extension to Eastern Zululand and the Reserve of the Laws in force in Natal, such Bill to have effect whenever her Majesty's Proclamation may incorporate Eastern Zululand and the Reserve with Natal. 220 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA " G. That this Council strongly urges the extreme import- ance of providing, in any convention that may be entered into between her Majesty's Government and the Dutch settlers in Zululand, for the unrestricted passage of goods through their territory, free of duty or transit dues in any form." Though Lower Zululand was thus saved to the Empire that had spent so much blood and money in its conquest, it was only by the skin of its teeth. The attitude and action adopted by the colonists through- out all these events have been abundantly vindicated by events. Until Great Britain openly and definitely annexed such part of the country as remained un- appropriated there was continuous trouble, disorder, and insecurity. The independent kinglets set up by Sir Garnet Wolseley were perpetually quarrelling or fighting with each other. So long as Dinizulu's claims to sovereignty were allowed to operate, intrigue, con- flict, and occasional bloodshed prevailed. His trial and removal to St. Helena were followed by a period of comparative quietude, but there was no proper or stable settlement of affairs before annexation was effected. The history of this period cannot be more clearly or succinctly summed up than in the words of the " Colo- nial Red-Book," which bears the hallmark of official and Imperial authenticity : — "The territory between the Umhlatusi and the Natal frontier was constituted a native Keserve under the super- vision of a British Commissioner, and it was arranged that locations should be provided in this Reserve for any of the THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 221 Zulus who might be unwilling to again submit to the restored King Cetywayo, who had at his own request been allowed to visit England, where the decision of the Government was communicated to him, and by him formally accepted, and who was re-installed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone on the 29th January 1883, in the presence of 5000 Zulus. " His enemies, headed by Usibepu, proved more formidable than he or others had anticipated, and after a struggle of some months he was overthrown and his kraal destroyed. He took refuge in the Reserve, where he lived practically under the care of the Eesident, until the 8th of February 1884, when he died. Soon after his death, his followers, the Usutus, finding themselves no match for Usibepu, called in some Boer adventurers, with whose assistance they inflicted a crushing defeat on Usibepu, who took refuge in the Reserve. As a reward for this service the Boers received a grant of land, in which they established the ' New Republic' " Finding that the Zulu people were unable to form any orderly administration of the remaining territory, her Majesty's Government decided, with the general assent of the Zulus, to declare their country to be British territory, which was done in May 1887. Some disturbances occurred soon after in connection with an attempt to set up Dinizulu, a son of Cetywayo, as king ; but it was soon checked, and Dinizulu and some of his indinas were removed to St. Helena, while others were imprisoned or fined." The change which at once ensued in the conditions of Zululand, after annexation was proclaimed, bore splendid testimony to the character of British rule over subject native tribes. Quiet replaced unrest. The chiefs ceased to worry and harry each other. Imperial 222 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA sovereignty was implicitly accepted. War's pursuits were abandoned, and the people betook themselves, under the sheltering wing of the Great Mother, to the ways and the works of peace. The Resident Com- missioner (Sir Marshall Clarke), with his magistrates, became the recognised centre and embodiment of supreme authority. Justice was faithfully administered, and the land greatly prospered. The efficacy of a firm and fixed policy was once again demonstrated. When one thinks how simple and easy a thing it is to carry out such a policy — when one realises how beneficent and abounding are its results — the marvel more than ever strikes one that it should have been left to colonial representatives to urge its necessity and its wisdom upon the cultured minds of Imperial statesmen. Although Natal was originally an offshoot of the Cape Colony, the relations of the two communities have not been marked by much filial regard or parental solicitude. Each has stood upon its own dignity and interest. The Cape has never forgotten that it was the senior and the larger colony. Natal has always been ready to resist and resent interference, encroachment, or assumption, on the part of the sister state. Natal was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1844, and declared a separate colony in 1856, but it was not until 187G that the boundaries of the two colonies actually touched each other. Before that date they were separated by the territories known collectively as Katirland, occupied by the Galeka, Fingo, THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 223 Tembu, Pondo, and other tribes. This is perhaps the fairest region of South Africa. Generally resembling Natal, its climate is a little less tropical, and its features somewhat more expansive. The broad sweep of its uplands gives place near the coast to broken and bush- clad valleys, through which brooks and rivers rush turbulently to the sea. It is a land of rich pastures, primeval forests, and picturesque aspects full of sylvan charm. Early visitors wrote of its beauties with de- light, but, strangely enough, of all parts of South Africa it has been the least invaded or molested by the white man. Thickly occupied by more or less warlike, and often hostile native tribes, it has been left to them as a happy hunting-ground, and only within the last ten years has it all been brought definitely under British rule. During the last two decades of the first half of the expiring century Great Britain had the good fortune to be represented in South Africa by three Governors of singularly high-minded aim and purpose. Sir Benjamin Durban, Sir George Napier, and Sir Peregrine Maitland, were all inspired by a noble conception of Imperial duty. Of the first two I have spoken elsewhere. The last made his name memorable by a series of treaties with the chiefs of Kafirland — with the heads, that is, of the Galeka, the T'Slambie, and the Gaika tribes, and with Faku, the paramount chief of the Amaponda nation, and throughout his life the faithful and unswerving ally of the British Government. The scope and character of 224 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA these historical documents imparted a monumental sig- nificance to them, as examples of high-minded, humane, and generous statesmanship. It is greatly to the honour of Imperial rule that the undertaking thus solemnly entered into was loyally observed both in spirit and in letter, as long as faithful observance on the part of the native signatories rendered it possible and easy to do so. Only when the chiefs and their tribes had, by acts of open hostility and aggression, practically torn the treaties into bits, was it necessary to depart from the policy that had been laid down, and to deprive the natives of the independence which, by their own infatuation and folly, they had sacrificed. And even then scrupulous care was at all times taken to leave the misguided people in the undisturbed occupancy of tracts of country far more than sufficient for all their requirements. In its dealings with the native tribes within and beyond its own frontiers, neither the Imperial nor the Colonial Government has any cause for self- reproach on the score of humanity or justice. So far as the Pondos are concerned, the policy of indulgence and non-interference has indeed been carried to the point of weakness and peril. So long as Faku lived and ruled, no occasion arose for any change of attitude. He was always able to control his people, and ready to comply with reasonable remonstrance or representation. But his successors, Umqikela and Sigcau, men of in- ferior character and resolution, needed firmer treat- ment and a less tolerant hand, Had they been left THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 225 less severely alone, much trouble would have been averted. As in the case of the northern frontier of Natal, so on the southern border, the local c/overnment — owing largely no doubt to its lack of genuine responsibility — showed fatal apathy in safeguarding the interests of the Colony. Just beyond that border — the line of the Umzimkulu River — stretched a zone of sparsely occupied and unclaimed territory, known as No Man's Land. Faku would have been glad to have seen it occupied by the British Government, but various reasons — mere political inertia being perhaps the fore- most — barred the way. In 1858 Adam Kok, chief of the bastard tribe of Griquas, was invited by Sir George Grey to take up his abode in the western part of this territory. This proposal was intended partly to com- pensate the Griquas for their loss of territory on the south-western border of the Free State, and partly to stop the incursions of the Bushmen, who made the fast- nesses of the Drakenberg in that direction a base for their predatory raids upon the farmers and natives of Natal. The Government of Natal acquiesced in this arrangement, and the country which has ever since been known as Griqualand East passed into other hands. The Griquas settled there, and established the township of Kokstad, named after their founder, and it nourishes to-day as the seat of a chief magistracy. Like most half-caste races, however, they were difficult to deal with, and after Adam Kok's death in 1875 the p 226 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA territory became a centre of unrest and disaffection. Its people were in direct and frequent communication with Basutoland, b) means of the mountain passes which connect the two districts. Faku had passed away, and elements of distrust existed amongst all the surrounding- tribes. Fear prevailed that as Natal had been deprived of a natural and proper chance of expansion to the west- ward, she might lose any possibility of a modest exten- sion eastward on the seaboard. The administration of government happened to fall into the hands of a saga- cious and active-minded ruler of colonial origin — Colonel Bissett — and he readily operated in the desired direction. In 1865, therefore, with the sanction of the Colonial Office, he travelled down to the district immediately south of the Lower Umzimkulu, accompanied by a field- piece and a small military force, and he there proclaimed the adjacent territory annexed to the Colony of Natal, and named it Alfred County, after the royal prince on whose escort he had ridden to the Colony five years before. This act of annexation only added about a million acres to the area of Natal, but it extended the coast-line by about twenty-five miles, and more than that, it shut out any other power from obtruding itself there. To a people thankful for small mercies it was a distinct contribution to their self-importance, and until Zululand was annexed it was the only territorial ac- quisition which Natal at any time could boast. Gradually, though, the two colonies were creeping towards each other. Nine more years passed before THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 227 they were actually conterminous. In 1876 letters- patent were issued, annexing " No Man's Land," or Griqualand East, to the Cape Colony, and henceforward British rule extended without a break from Table Mountain to the Tugela River. It would be too long a story to tell were I to describe the devious steps which led to the unscientific and unsatisfactory arrangement of frontier between Natal and its great neighbour. Geo- graphical fitness and political convenience would have placed that frontier along the line of the Umzimvubu — or better still of the Umtata. Both rivers run consider- ably south of the present boundary, and the latter, or southernmost, would have been preferable, because it would have embraced the whole of Pondoland and its people, and being unnavigable, would have been free from possibilities of friction in connection with fiscal or harbour regulations. No such prescient or states- manlike considerations governed, however, in these days the course of events. Natal was the smaller and weaker colony ; her Government had not the strength or initiative which responsibilty and representative character imparts. The Cape has at all times pursued its own interests with relentless inflexibility; at any rate when the interests of Natal have seemed in conflict with its own enrichment or aggrandisement, or with its own lines of settled policy. This is a grave allegation, but it points to a fact that has materially influenced South African history during the last thirty years. The Cape would probably attempt 228 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA to rebut it by a reference to its efforts in behalf of Customs Union. That shall be dealt with shortly. We are now considering the distribution of territory and the definition of boundary, and in doing so a glance at the historical relations of the two colonies seems desirable. Natal, as we have seen, was originally an offshoot or dependency of the Cape Colony. Its very earliest settlers, whether of British or of Dutch origin, came from Capetown or Port Elizabeth. Its places of business were in the first instance established by Cape merchants. Its first officials were taken from the Cape service. It was natural, therefore, that Cape colonists should take a parental, if not a proprietorial, interest in the infant community, and should, as years went on, regard with some jealousy or distrust its efforts to escape from tutelage, and to compete with themselves. That was but the fulfilment of a law of nature ; an exemplification of the mother instinct which is aroused when the fledgling takes to flight, or the whelp seeks to forage for itself. Where our Cape friends have erred has been in not adequately realising the inexorability of this law. Like some parents, they were slow to perceive that the child must grow, and that the mature offspring would inevitably assert its powers and protect its interests. The Prime Minister of the Cape Colony once said to me on a certain occasion, in the presence of other representatives of South Africa ; " Yes, but you must remember that you are the little Bear, and that THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 229 we are the great Bear." My response was : " True, but please also remember that the little Bear will otow when you have ceased to do so." Whether justly or not, an impression prevails in Natal that the desire of our colonial neighbours has been to prevent the growth of Natal, and thereby to restrict its capacity for effective independent action. They have certainly done their best to prevent our expansion southward, at the cost of grievous hardship and injustice to their people in Griqualand East, and of injury all round. The contour of the frontier between the colonies is nothing less than a scandal. In order to reach Alfred County from Maritzburg the traveller has to pass through twenty miles of Cape territory, a tongue of country having been allowed to cut off one portion of Natal from the rest of the Colony. But it is in the treatment of Pondoland that the differences between the two colonies have been most acutely accentuated. The natives of that country, with- out being exactly warlike or courageous, are fond of war in a predatory sense, and ever since the death of Faku have been split up into tribal factions. That old chief was a firm believer in the value of an alliance with his Natal neighbours, of whom he knew much more than he did of the Cape people. While he lived there was little trouble, but after he died difficulties began. The paramountcy of the recognised successor was disputed, and intertribal conflicts became frequent. The moral condition of the tribe — never satisfactory — deteriorated. 230 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Witchcraft, with its attendant abominations, got rife, and vice nourished more flagrantly than ever. Stock thefts multiplied, and traders lived in terror of spolia- tion. Bloodshed was frequent, and a state of chronic internecine warfare developed on our immediate border. From time to time appeals for intervention came from our own settlers. The Government of Natal, however, was powerless to act. In 1885 Sir Henry Bulwer had brought the whole question before the notice of both the Secretary of State and High Commissioner in a most able and exhaustive despatch, but without avail in so far as any recognition of Natal interests was con- cerned. Whatever action was taken was in behalf of Cape interests and aims. In 188G an agreement was entered into between the chief Umqikela and the Cape Government, by which the latter acquired practical con- trol over St. John's River and port. This was in 1888 followed up by a secret undertaking which left the Cape Government in full command of the situation, and barred Natal from any power of interference, either in behalf of its own interests or in behalf of peace and order. Yet the former persistently abstained from any exercise of its powers in the prevention of outrage and disorder. This was the position of affairs when the first Respon- sible Ministry took office in Natal, in October 1893. Embarrassing though it was to be at once confronted by such a task before it had settled down to its new duties, the administration at once took such steps THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 231 as were possible in order to protect the Colony. The situation brooked no delay. The combatant forces of the contending tribes were fighting not only on our border, but had actually crossed the small stream which divides Natal from Pondoland. Our settlers and our natives were being panic-stricken, and the most serious results might be expected to follow any further inaction. Colonel Dartnell, the head of the local defence forces, was despatched to the southern border with a small body of the Mounted Police and a Maxim gun, and in- structions to use his own discretion in guarding the border. That able officer did his work as capably and well as he has at all times performed duties entrusted to him. His appearance on the frontier, and the display of armed force he at once made, kept the combatants on their own side of the river, though on one or two occasions parties of them crossed under his eyes. A Pondo impi, estimated to number 14,000 men, was over- awed by the handful of police and the solitary Maxim, and confined their operations to Pondo territory. So far as the safety of the Colony was concerned, there was soon an end to apprehension ; but public opinion throughout Natal clamoured for more repressive measures, and urged further action upon the Govern- ment. The latter was taunted with subserviency to the Cape authorities ; and the immediate occupation of Pondoland by an adequate colonial force was, in certain quarters, vehemently demanded. To have complied with that demand would in effect have been to go to 232 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA war with the Cape Co-lorry and the Imperial Govern- ment ; but a good many excited people failed to realise this fact as clearly as their Ministers did, and the con- troversy was continued on paper or on the wires. The Natal Government was determined that the Cape Colony should be compelled to do its duty, by effectively exer- cising the responsibilities it had voluntarily assumed. The following extracts from the Minutes, with which Natal Ministers at the time sought to protect the in- terests of their colony, serve to illustrate the situation as between the two colonies. It must be remembered that it was only after correspondence had been going on between the two Governments for three months that the Natal Ministers had been informed of the arrangements entered into several years before between the Imperial and the Cape Governments. " Ministers are glad to learn from these documents that steps are at last to be taken by the High Commissioner and the Cape Government to put a stop to the scandalous condition of things that has for years past prevailed, and that has been repeatedly represented by the Government of Natal as being a disgrace to civilisation and a reproach to British rule in South Africa, " Ministers observe that the measures which it is pi*oposed to adopt correspond with those that Natal would have been prepared to carry out had effect been given to the policy indicated in Minutes recently addressed by them to his Excellency and the Imperial Government. It will be seen from those Minutes that the original proposal of Ministers was in favour of conjoint action by the two Colonial Govern- ments in the pacification and settlement of Pondoland; fail- THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 233 ing that, it was proposed that Natal itself should undertake the duty, acting on its own responsibility and at its own cost. " It was only when the Secretary of State informed his Excellency by telegraph on the 10th February that her Majesty's Government fully recognised the right of the Cape Colony to 'claim to administer the whole of Pondoland, if it should see fit to claim the whole,' that Ministers became formally aware of the true facts of the situation. In then pressing upon the High Commissioner and the Cape Govern- ment the necessity of an immediate exercise of these long- dormant responsibilities, they did so without any prejudice to the just claim of Natal for a voice in the final settlement of Pondoland, a country with which this Colony is and has been identified by ties of the closest proximity, interest, and asso- ciation. They repeat what has been frequently said before by the Government of Natal, that the relative interest of Natal in Pondoland and its affairs is greater than the interest of any other community or Government, and they submit that the Government of this Colony had full right to be consulted before the claim'or right of any other Government to exclusive consideration should have been conceded." "The Imperial Government has informed his Excellency that the claim of the Cape Colony to the whole of Pondoland was admitted years ago. The High Commissioner had in- formed this Government that he only is responsible for control in Pondoland. Cape Ministers, in their Minute of the 20th February last, have stated that 'in truth, respon- sibility for the ultimate settlement of Pondoland has been imposed upon successive Cape Governments.' The evils and outrages to which his Excellency the High Commissioner refers in the despatch now under consideration are evils and outrages that have prevailed for j'ears past, that have been repeatedly recognised by the High Commissioner, and that 234 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA have been again and again advanced by the Government of Natal, as reason for active intervention. Had Natal been free to do so, her Government would have been prepared, some time ago, to take steps to terminate these scandals and to establish order in Pondoland. It is owing to the failure of the Cape Government to undertake the effective exercise of the responsibilities imposed upon it, that Natal has been called upon to bear this extraordinary expenditure and suffer all the other losses and inconveniences that have in conse- quence arisen. " In conclusion, Ministers desire to repeat : — "1. That on grounds of equity, political convenience, past associations, and geographical position, Natal has a right to be consulted and considered in any future partitionment of Pondoland. " 2. That the neglect of the Cape Government to give effect to the claim to Pondoland recognised years ago by her Majesty's Government has entailed upon Natal heavy ex- penses and losses which might otherwise have been prevented. " 3. That this neglect strengthens Natal's original claim to be considered in the settlement of Pondoland. " 4. That any settlement which may be entered upon without the concurrence and in disregard of Natal must necessarily be unstable in its chai^acter, inasmuch as a powerful section of the Pondo nation has expressed a strong desire to be brought under the rule of this Colony ; and, further, " 5. That such a settlement could only tend to estrange the two colonies, and to retard the establishment of that concord which is essential to the future welfare of all South Africa." The end of this correspondence was reached when the Cape Government decided t<> fulfil its obligations, by restoring order and imposing authority. Under the circumstances it had only one other course before it, THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 235 namely, to retire from the field and leave Natal to undertake the task — and to hold the country. That Colony was quite prepared for both contingencies, what- ever immediate strain might have been imposed upon its resources. Its success in governing the large native tribes within its own borders justified confidence in its capacity to rule the Pondos as well. That people, though numerous and turbulent, are soon cowed by an exhibition of organised force, while their internal dissensions weaken their strength as a fighting unit. Natal, moreover, would have been powerfully assisted in any operations that might have been undertaken by its own native levies and by other tribes. No occasion arose, however, for such a demonstration, as the Cape Government aroused itself to action, and established its authority over the disturbed territories. Its Government was not prepared to let Pondoland go. Mr. Rhodes in the earlier stages of the controversy was Prime Minister, and that territory was too valuable a counter in the game of statecraft to be handed over to the rival Colony. At that time he cared no more for territories in Kafirland than he did for "niggers." His projects of expansion lay in other directions. But Natal was believed to covet Pondoland, and Natal had yet to be brought within the Customs Union. So important a diplomatic factor must not, therefore, be thrown away. The eager and persistent desire of the Cape Govern- ment — through successive administrations — to bring 23 G A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Natal within the scope of a Customs Union is best explained by the trend of interior trade. In earlier years the volume of that trade was relatively insigni- ficant. We have seen how it began, and how it grew, and how large a share Natal had in its development. After the opening up of the diamond-fields in the early seventies, Kimberley suddenly became a centre of business and activity as Avell as the fountain of un- calculated wealth. And so it remained for many years. But Kimberley was only a little farther from Cape ports than it was from Durban, and politically it belonged to the Cape Colony. At first Natal merchants did their best to compete for the trade of so opulent a mart, but they soon, except in one or two instances, retired from the contest. When railway communication was established between Capetown and Diamondopolis, any chance of successful competition was at an end. But in 1887 a far greater mine of wealth was revealed at Witwatersrand in the Transvaal, only 430 miles from Durban. Natal men were largely concerned in the earlier gold discoveries at that point, as they had been in- deed in the first developments of the diamond-fields. As mining pioneers they have ever been in the van. They were the most active explorers of the "River diggings" in the Vaal, long before Colesberg Kopje disclosed its treasures. They organised and carried out the gold-hunting expeditions to the Tati and Shashi gold-fields beyond the Limpopo in 1SG8. They were THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 237 the first to work at the Pilgrim's Rest and Macmac gold-fields near Lydenburg in the seventies. They toiled at the still infant srold-fields of Marabastad, near Zont- pansberg, in the Northern Transvaal. They were the foremost in opening up the gold-fields of Swaziland. It was from Durban that Carl Mauch and Thomas Baines set forth, as far back as 18G7, to investigate the gold formations of Matabeleland and Mashonaland, before Mr. Rhodes, a youth, had left Natal for the A^aal River; and it was the said Thomas Baines, whose remains now rest in the cemetery at Durban, who obtained from Lobengula the cession, under his own seal, of the gold-fields which now form the centre and backbone of Rhodesia. The experiences of these adventurers from Natal, who during the two decades which ended in 1887 pursued in all these regions the quest of the golden fleece, would form the subject of an epic quite as thrilling in its way as any story of classic fame. Like the gold-seekers of California, twenty years earlier, they were the modern Argonauts. They went forth from the Colony to find the wealth they had failed to win there, lured on by that hunger for swiftly gotten riches that has been so powerful a factor in the industrial expansion of mankind. To most of them the goal proved a mere will-o'-the-wisp. Many lost whatever they had sunk in the venture. Some returned ruined but wiser men. Most were disappointed. A few were lucky ; one or two made fortunes, though more by 238 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA speculation than actual "finds." Very little alluvial gold was found anywhere. Quartz reel's too often "petered out," or proved unpayable. Much money was wasted in fruitless operations. In 1867 Mauch returned from Matabeleland and reported that when he saw there the quartz reefs, known by him to be gold-bearing, stretching out in all directions and glittering in the sun, he was dazzled by the vision of incalculable wealth thus revealed to his eyes. It was a perfectly truthful description of his own emotions, and results elsewhere at Johannesburg have vastly tran- scended his glowing words; but it was not borne out by immediate developments, and the revulsion which ensued for a short time paralysed confidence in the gold resources of the continent, but the quest was soon resumed and continued. Though the first colonial gold- seekers gained little themselves by their devious and dogged explorations, they laid the foundations of the industry which has latterly reached dimensions so colossal, and has so enormously influenced the history of South Africa and the Empire. What diamonds and Kimberley did for trade in the seventies, gold and Johannesburg did on a much larger scale in the later eighties. Witwatersrand became the commercial centre of South Africa : the chief seat of its financial and industrial activity. The first pioneers there, as elsewhere, were mostly Natal men, as the names of some of the oldest and most lucrative mines still indicate. Both in trade and in gold development THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 239 the little Colony could claim to have been in the van of enterprise, and. it was bound to be so, both by reason of old associations, and by virtue of close proximity. The Rand was only 130 miles distant from the Natal border, but it was separated by the whole area of the Free State from the Cape Colony. From the very first, therefore, Natal contended for its proper and legitimate share of the trade which its people had heretofore commanded. All the policy and efforts of its Govern- ment, its legislature, and its merchants, were devoted to the retention of that share. To that end the Colony loaded itself with debt for the extension of its railways and the improvement of its harbour. As long as the iron road from the seaports of both colonies kept out- side republican borders, Natalians had nothing to fear. As long as trade to Johannesburg was dependent only on the ox-waggon for any section of road traffic from the several ports, Natal could compete confidently with her neighbours. As long as neither colony enjoyed any advantage of customs tariff over the other, both were on equal terms in the race. The Cape Colony, however, wanted something, and a good deal more than an equal share. It wanted a lion's share, and some of its leading politicians did not hesitate to say so. Had their claims and assumption been more equitable and moderate, friction between the two colonies would have been much less severe. It is only fair, and it is right, to record that Natal never sought or contended for more than her proper share of the interior trade, a share 240 A YIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA which experience, often tested, has computed at a third of the whole. To have been content with less would Lave been a reckless sacrifice of whatever advantages geographical position and past activity had secured to the Colony. Although the questions of railway extension and customs charges were closely correlated and inter- dependent, the fiscal condition of the two colonies was by no means identical. The revenual requirements of the Cape Colony and its political exigencies made a much higher tariff necessary in its case than was called for in Natal. The latter colony had always, so far as circumstances permitted, supported a policy of low duties and free trade. Though it did not recognise the claim of the inland states to any definite share of customs revenue, it kept tariff rates as low as revenual necessities would possibly allow. It bore the whole cost of road and railway construction through a very difficult country, and of harbour improvement in the case of a bar-bound port. The disadvantage which this policy entailed upon the Cape was keenly recognised by the senior colony, and after several abortive attempts in the same direction, the Cape Government succeeded in convening a conference of representatives in January 1888, for the purpose of considering the practicability of establishing a South African Customs Union. At this conference, the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Free State were each represented by three delegates. The Transvaal declined the invitation, and thereby frustrated THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 241 any chance of complete success which might have attended the movement. President Kruger and his associates had another game to play. Their aims took a different direction. The completion of their own line of railway to Delagoa Bay, and the acquisition, were it possible, of controlling or preferential rights there, were the cherished objects of their ambition. They had already secured from Portugal treaty rights which guaranteed to the Republic the entry of all goods through Lourenco Marques on a transit charge of three per cent. That rate had, therefore, become a governing factor in the tariff charges of both the colonies, and the Transvaal had no intention to restrict its advantages, or to fetter its hands, by any new engagements with its Anglo-Colonial neighbours. Yet without its par- ticipation any Customs Union claiming to be South African in its scope must surely fail. It was like closing all the front entrances to a house, while the back door, free from barrier, remained open. Cape statesmen did not see this as clearly as their Natal neighbours did, but the knowledge came in time. The Cape Conference met, however, as a tripartite gathering, and for three weeks did its best, under Sir Gordon Sprigg's presidency, to hammer out a tariff' that should be acceptable to three parties, each of wmich had a separate axe to grind. The Cape Colony, as we have seen, was handicapped by geographical disadvantages and the necessity of a relatively high tariff'. Natal was determined not to 242 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA forego the advantages it possessed of a shorter trade route and much lower customs duties. The Free State was bent upon getting the best terms it could out of both the maritime colonies, and was especially insistent on its claim, as a right, to its full share of customs dues paid upon sea-borne goods passing into its own territory. These three positions were clearly not easily reconcil- able, but it was a happy augury for future developments that the representatives of interests so divergent were able to enter upon the discussion of them with a strenuous and honest desire to work out a solution of the problem on the basis of a common end — that end being unity. The Conference sat with closed doors, and the public knew nothing definitely of its proceedings until the official minutes were published after its termination. It then appeared that the principle of a uniform tariff had been agreed upon as essential to the successful working of any union. Any other system would have meant the establishment of border custom-houses, which would have stultified the object of the Conference. The next point to be decided was the proportion of revenue to be paid to the inland, consuming state, or to put it the other way, to be kept by the maritime states, as the equivalent of the cost of collection and of port charges. This was finally fixed at three-fourths in the one case and at one-fourth in the other. It will thus be seen that the Free State stood to gain enormously under any circumstances, even although its representatives affected THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 243 to exercise a lofty magnanimity in waiving any claim for the repayment of amounts paid in the past. They chose to ignore the vast expenditure incurred by both colonies on account of harbour improvement and rail- way extension. These two questions having been dealt with, it only remained to settle the details of the tariff. This, as may be imagined, was no easy business. It was, all through, a struggle for high rates on the part of the Cape and for low rates on the part of Natal. As the Free State only wanted as much revenue as it could get, and was not averse to have its consumers taxed through the custom-house, its influence naturally went with the older colony. The household needs of Boer farmers are so small that the incidence of customs taxation falls as lightly as can be on them. The interests of South African wheat-growers were to be protected by a substantial duty upon imported grain and flour, while a sop was thrown to Natal in the form of a rebate on imported sugar. Although the principle of free trade in South African products was established, the Cape could not bring itself to the sacrifice of re- venue which would have been entailed by the complete inclusion of Natal-grown sugar within that category. In that case the duty on local produce was only reduced, not abolished. This incident is worthy of note as show- ing how carefully the whole scheme had been arranged and was manipulated for the more particular advantage of the Cape Colony and the Free State, and to the consequent detriment of Natal. The delegates of the 244 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA latter Colony, however, in their anxiety to promote the cause of union, after doing their utmost to reduce the duties, item by item, made a last tight over the ad valorem rate on ijoods not enumerated, beinQ- the bulk of the whole. This was set down in the draft bill at sixteen per cent. Successive efforts were made by Natal to fix it at nine, ten, and eleven per cent., the existing Natal rate being seven per cent. The Cape would not recede a fraction below twelve per cent., and that rate was ultimately adopted. Reluctant as they were to accede to a tariff so hostile to Natal interests, and so certain to be opposed in, if not rejected by that Colony, its representatives up to the last refrained from accepting the onus of wreckage. They warned their associates that the proposals were almost certain to be refused, but, as a demonstration of their anxiety to bring unity about, they agreed to sign the Convention, as being the best result that could be obtained, after a keen and continuous struggle between the advocates of a low and of a high tariff. They distinctly declined, however, to pledge themselves to recommend their adoption or otherwise. It is only necessary to add that the forebodings of the delegates were instantly and amply justified by results. Even before they had time to return to the Colony the murmur of protest became audible. Though every effort had been made to keep the work of the Conference secret, until the time prearranged for its disclosure, information leaked out, and no sooner were THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 245 the proceedings published than an outcry arose from all quarters — from the press, from the local Chambers of Commerce, from representative bodies everywhere — in- dignantly denouncing the Convention as utterly inimical to Natal interests, as a reversal of its policy in the past, as destructive of its trade with the interior, and as fastening upon the consumers of the Colony oppressive fiscal burdens from which they had hitherto been free. So unmistakable and overpowering was the outburst of popular feeling that the Convention dropt, stillborn, so far as Natal was concerned. When the local legislature met, a few weeks later, it was not so much as discussed. Silent contumely was the only reception it had from that body. Public meetings had already, by unani- mous votes, pronounced unqualified condemnation of the measure. In my whole political career I never felt so completely isolated as I did in Durban when called upon as a local representative, and one of the Conference delegates, to address a crowded meeting of the electors called to discuss the Convention. Every man in the hall, whether past ally and supporter or old opponent, I knew to be vehemently opposed to the obnoxious in- strument in whose preparation I had been called upon to take part. It was an anxious and difficult, and to me a critical moment, but the consciousness of having striven only, with my colleagues, to promote the cause of South African unity, to uphold Imperial interests, and at the same time to safeguard colonial interests as far as circumstances would allow, bore me up on the 246 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA occasion. Personally I felt no cause for self-reproach or regret. I had signed the Convention simply as being an embodiment of the best terms that could be obtained under the circumstances. It was for the Colony to accept or to reject it. In view of the state of public opinion, there could be no question as to the result. The Convention was impossible, and I said so ; and the electors seemed satisfied. All the same, I thought then, and I still think, that the Colony made a mistake in so summarily turning its back upon the proposals. Had it condemned the tariff as it stood, but expressed a readiness to reconsider the question on a revised basis, it is quite possible that the other two parties would have paused before giving effect to its provisions, and have agreed to another conference, with a fuller understanding of the popular feeling and pre- vailing policy in Natal. But it is idle to discount unfulfilled possibilities. Events took their course. The Convention came into operation. The war of tariffs began. Both the Cape and the Free State Governments established custom- houses on the Natal border, to collect the duties on goods sent from, or through, what became practically a foreign country. Natal at once responded by making such rebates of duty on its side as might be necessary in order to retain trade. It could not, however, afford to do this in heroic fashion. It could not dispense with customs duties altogether. A community of 00,000 Europeans was unequal to bear on its own shoulders, in THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 247 direct imposts, the whole burden of maintaining the local administration and of providing for costly railway extensions and harbour works. It was impracticable, therefore, to make Durban a free port. The tariff had to be regulated from time to time so as to tax local consumers and to relieve foreign customers. Each Colony watched the fiscal action of the other with feline vigilance, in eager desire to retain and to extend its business with the Republics. So far as the Free State was concerned, however, Natal had to witness the diversion of nearly the whole of its existing trade. Its merchants were unable to compete with their Cape rivals. Some of them sought to meet the situation by establishing branches at Port Elizabeth, but the revenue and carrying trade of the Colony suffered all the same. Meanwhile the trade of Johannesburg grew in volume and value, and became month by month the aim and centre of all colonial enterprise. As long as there was any zone of intervening country between the Rand and the nearest railway terminus, Natal was able to hold its own in the race for trade with its competi- tors in the Cape Colony and Delagoa Bay. Even when the Cape and Free State railway system had reached the Vaal River, a distance of thirty-seven miles from Johannesburg, Natal could still operate successfully from its terminus at Charlestown, 130 miles distant. The Cape Government succeeded, however, at last in arranging with the Government at Pretoria for the 248 A LIKE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA completion of its line, though not before President Kruger's own line from Delagoa Bay had been opened for traffic. By what means this stroke of policy on the part of the sister Colony was effected has never been quite clearly explained, but that it was accomplished to Natal's great detriment, and possible ruin, experience soon demonstrated. Competition under such circum- stances became hopeless. A ton of goods landed at Capetown, or Algoa Bay, and conveyed straight by railway to Johannesburg itself, had an enormous and obvious advantage over a ton of goods landed at Durban, carried by rail as far as the Transvaal border, and then unloaded into an ox-waggon, and carried for- ward by that slow and costly method of transport to its final destination. Still greater was the disparity of advantage between the short railway route from Delagoa Bay and the broken route from Durban. It thus seemed, in 1893, that at last the sister Colony had compassed the ruin of Natal trade, and that Natal, being at the mercy of its neighbours, would be forced, in sheer desperation, to join in the Customs Union against which it had fought so hard. Its import trade dropped in three years from £4,417,085 to £2,236,738. In estimating the significance of these figures, it must be remembered that Natal had spent nearly seven mil- lions on railway extension, and had saddled itself with a vearly interest charge of more than a quarter of a million. This great burden had been incurred solely in order to retain a share of the Transvaal trade. THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 249 Without that trade the railway would not earn enough to cover its working expenses. That outcome would spell ruin to the Colony, and crushing taxation of its people. Dark though this prospect might seem to be, and dire though the case of the Colony undoubtedly was as regards actual and imminent results, one factor had still to be reckoned with — the spirit and determination of the people. Though baffled for the moment, they were not beaten. They were bent as stul >bornly as ever upon getting back their hard-won heritage. The trade which had been decoyed from them by intrigue and stratagem was to be recovered by other methods. The Government of the Transvaal was once and again ap- proached. Twice in 1S92 delegates from the Natal Government visited Pretoria for the purpose, if pos- sible, of arranging for the extension of the Natal line. Though Cape diplomacy had succeeded in getting priority of construction for the Cape and Free State line, Natal claims were not regarded with unkindly eyes by Transvaal politicians, and certainly not by commer- cial classes in Johannesburg. Natal had at all times cultivated friendly relations with its northern neigh- bours, and shown continuous readiness to co-operate in all matters of mutual concern. The splendid reception accorded to President Kruger in 1890, on the occasion of the opening of the railway to Charlestown, had left a pleasant flavour in the mouth. But there was one stumbling-block — one barrier to united action. Natal 250 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA was still under Crown rule. Its emancipation from Downing Street leading-strings had not been complete. The republican rulers shrank from allying themselves too closely with a community whose responsible admini- strators were appointed by England. Though a large number of Natal electors to the last failed to see it, the fact that its form of government was the chief bar to railway extension weighed more and more with the colonists and their representatives, and contributed largely to the acceptance of Responsible Government in 1893. The champions of that cause had insisted that the change was necessary to the attainment of the great and common colonial desire. Events soon justified their contention. The first business devolving upon the new administration was to save the Colony from the threatened ruin. Ministers at once sent one of their number to Pretoria, supported by the official head of the railway department, and they never rested until the object was accomplished. It took five months of patient negotiation to secure success, but it was achieved. A Convention was signed by all parties in March 1894, and the earliest duty of the new Parlia- ment, when it met in ordinary session in April, was to ratify the agreements. They were no hastily prepared or unworthily conceived covenants. They bore on their face no evidence of selfish purpose or grasping aim. They were based on the principles of fair play and fair dealing. The idea which permeated them was the re- THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 251 cognition of what may be called a policy of " thirds " — a just division of traffic between the three great routes. Delagoa Bay, Natal, and the Cape Colony were each to get a third of the traffic ; and though it was manifest that Natal's share would be the heavier and least pro- fitable portion of the carrying trade, the Colony was content. So long as its own share of the volume was secured, it had no desire to deprive its rivals of any incidental advantage which might fall to their lot. On October 15, 1895, the line from Charlestown to Johannesburg and the central South African railway system was completed, amidst mutual rejoicing — as I shall describe hereafter — on the part of both Govern- ments and communities. It at once justified its con- struction by bringing back the diverted trade, by restoring the balance of revenue, and by putting Natal on an equality with its neighbours. Equality of posi- tion was all that it had fought for, and equality being won, brought with it revived prosperity and financial relief. The railway problem being thus solved, it was perhaps natural that the customs question should be taken up again. How far the growing prosperity of Natal may have influenced the minds of Cape politicians I do not pretend to say, but it probably availed to inculcate a desire for closer union and friendlier relations with a community so well able to defend and advance its own interests. In October 1897 the first Natal Parliament expired by effluxion of time, and the result of the 252 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA elections was to place in power what is known as the " country party " — the party, that is, which favours the direct protection of local industry, as distinguished from a strictly free-trade policy. It followed, perhaps, as a natural sequence that another Customs Conference was held in Capetown early in 1898. Again the two colonies and the Orange Free State were represented, and again the Transvaal Republic was conspicuous by its absence. On this occasion the Natal representatives fell at once into line with their colleagues, and the result was the accession of Natal to a Customs Union based upon a revised tariff. The altered circumstances of the case enabled the Natal delegates— including the Prime Minister — to exercise much greater influence than their predecessors had been able to use, ten years before, upon the modification of rates and details. Substantial reductions were effected in certain items — the ad valorem rate being reduced from 12 to 7h per cent., but duties were still retained upon flour, meat, and some other food-stuff's, though free trade in South African produce was made general on all products and manufactures. Some of the duties on drinkables and luxuries were increased, and the free list was materially expanded. The whole tariff, however, may be said to have been framed on protectionist principles, and as such it has been regarded with great disfavour by all free traders in Natal, as well us by the consumers of the towns. Their representatives in Parliament numbered only 12 against 22, when the final vote for ratification THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 253 was recorded, and the Convention came into force with little organised opposition. How far its existence will be affected by recent events is a matter of specula- tion, but as confederation in some form is a political necessity of the immediate future, a common customs tariff appears certain to follow. But it will embrace the whole of South Africa, and will thus be a union tariff in the proper sense. Rapid though this survey may be, it suffices to show how little real community of action there has been between the two British colonies. Rivalry rather than brotherhood has marked their relations. Children of the same mother, they have not been by any means members of a happy family. They have both been suitors for the favours of their republican cousins in the interior. Though each has had the same end in view, it has not been a common interest. The Cape, as the older and larger colony, would fain have made its younger and smaller neighbour subordinate to its policy and subservient to its interests. Natal, with its essentially British inspirations and strong individuality of existence, has refused to be coerced or "squared." For a long time many leading Cape politicians saw a cure for existing evils in incorporation. They favoured the idea of complete absorption. Natal in their eyes was, as regards size, no larger than one of their great western divisions. The easiest way to overcome its rivalry or opposition would be to take it over. Thus had British Kafraria been disposed of — why not Natal ? 254 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Sir Hercules Robinson in the earlier years of his governorship strongly supported this view. He natu- rally desired, after the retrocession of the Transvaal, to consolidate British interests in South Africa, and he thought that the accession of Natal would materi- ally strength English influence and voting power in the Cape Parliament. One prominent member of the late Cape Ministry also took that view. Other states- men — with truer precision — would fain have sought the same results by other methods. Sir George Grey, Sir Bartle Frere, Mr. Paterson, and later on Sir Gordon Sprigg, would have pursued unity by means of confederation. That also was Natal's policy. At no time would her representatives have agreed to in- corporation. In their opinion that would mean efface- ment, if not extinction- — submission to hostile tariffs, and subordination to an unsympathetic and jealous majority. Neither English nor Dutch settlers desired that the country should lapse into the position of so many Cape divisions or magistracies. So strong and instinctive was this feeling that no Governor or individual at any time had the temerity to submit the proposition in a concrete form. It would have been hopeless to do so. The outcry which greeted and scouted the Customs Convention of 1888 was an ex- pression of the passionate regard which Natalians cherish for their independence as a colony, and their individuality as a people. That regard has been stig- matised us selfish and narrow. Natal politicians have THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 255 been freely denounced by their colonial neighbours as parochial in their aspirations, as " wayward " in their demeanour, as wanting in breadth of view and grasp of duty. They have been taunted with allegiance to the parish pump instead of to the loftier ideal of a united South Africa. These aspersions have not troubled them much, as they have known best what their hopes and purposes are. They can confidently appeal to records in vindication of their honest and earnest desire for union. More than that, they can show by their dealings with the Republics how ready they have been to take the initiative in promoting a large and comprehensive policy of confederation, and it now becomes necessary to consider the relations of Natal with its republican neighbours in the interior. CHAPTER IX THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS {continued) Preceding chapters will, I trust, have made it clear how closely the interests of Natal have been inter- twined with those of the inland States. From the time of the Great Trek onward the Boers and the British settlers— the Africander burgher and the Anglo-Saxon settler — have been more or less in intercourse. They have from the very first done business together, and up to the day of Majuba they may be said to have shared common political rights in both the Colony and the Republics. In earlier days, however, the British resident in either State cared little for the acquisition of burgher rights, and " the franchise " was a cry seldom, if ever, heard. The political condition of both territories, not- withstanding, became an object of interest to Natal politicians at an early date. In both countries the with- drawal of British sovereignty had been followed by a gradual but steady outgrowth of confusion and disorder. In the Free State the Boers were continually at war with the Basutos. That people possessed the finest wheat- lands in South Africa, and a country that has been well described as the South African Switzerland. After more than ten years of desultory, intermittent warfare, 256 THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 257 the Boers, taught by experience and emboldened by partial successes, stormed some of the mountain strong- holds which Sir George Cathcart had failed to capture in 1854, and the Basutos retired into yet remoter fast- nesses, leaving the more open arable country in the hands of their enemies. This " conquered territory " was annexed to the Free State and sold to the farmers, while the French missionaries, who had long laboured amongst the natives, were ejected from their stations and de- spoiled of their property. This wanton and wholly unjustifiable proceeding was vainly protested against at the time. The peace thus won was only tran- sitory. The Boer forces were withdrawn from the scene of their conquests, and the Basutos again re- occupied their country and recultivated their fields. Then followed more robberies, more reprisals, and war again, with further attacks upon and capturing of mountain strongholds. The Boers seemed not unlikely to extinguish their stubborn foes, when Moshesh — of all South African chieftains the most astute and far- sighted — represented his case to the High Commis- sioner. Negotiations ensued, which finally ended in the cessation of hostilities and the acceptance of Moshesh and his people as British subjects. This proceeding, as might be imagined, was bitterly resented by the ruling party in the Free State. They refused to negotiate with Sir Philip Wodehouse, threatened to seek the interference of the French or the Russian 258 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Emperor, and finally despatched two Commissioners to England to protest against the action of the British representative just when they seemed on the point of reducing the Basutos to absolute and unconditional submission. The deputation met with no encourage- ment from Downing Street, but was told that her Majesty's Government approved of all that Sir Philip Wodehouse had done, and had empowered him to take such further steps as he, with his local knowledge, might deem necessary. It was at this stage that the Natal Legislature was moved to intervene in behalf of peace and order. Although the Home Government had been wise enough to sustain its representative in his acceptance of Im- perial responsibility, no provision was made whereby that policy might be effectually upheld. I may quote here the following passage from an article I contributed at the time to a leading English Review : " It will be at once apparent that the acceptance of the Basutos as British subjects entails the likelihood of complications with the Free State. Unless Moshesh succeeds in curbing the thieving propensities of his people better than he has done so far, there will be more robberies and more reprisals. What will be the position of the British Government then ? Is it prepared to maintain in Basutoland a police force large enough to keep the Basutos in order, or does it intend to see the Boers again marching into the territory of its new-made subjects, laying it waste and appropriating it to their THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 259 own purposes ? Unless some definite and extended policy be adopted, one or other of these alternatives seems inevitable. In the Cape Colony and Natal public opinion is very unanimous regarding the policy to be pursued. Neither of these colonies cares to have Basu toland if one or other of them is to be responsible for the good conduct of the natives." Natal, as we have seen, had already suffered directly at the hands of these people, when in 1865 a large body of Basuto marauders crossed the border in pursuit of cattle said to have been driven there by citizens of the Free State. Though this raid cost the Colony £9000, no compensation was ever made for that outlay. The colonists, moreover, had suffered in other ways. Dur- ing the later years of the Basuto war all the courts of the Free State had been closed, and no debts were recover- able. Nearly half a million sterling was thus due by Free State consumers to merchants in the Cape Colony and Natal. To meet this emergency paper " bluebacks " had been indiscriminately issued, and as these notes were made legal tender, a ruinous depreciation had been the result. As in the Transvaal, so in the Free State there was no effective security for social order or legal redress, while the relations of the white and the black races were becoming more and more embittered by the spectacle and the experience of constant strife. The absence of good and effective government in the two republics, resulting as it did in paralysis, disorder, and warfare, became at last so great a scandal and so 260 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA injurious a condition, that the Legislative Council in 1868 was moved to action. A direct proposal in favour of the annexation of the Free State led to the final adoption of the following modified resolutions. They are worthy of note as embodying the views of all British colonists, as well as of the more intelligent and moderate -minded Natal Boers at that time, and as being the first formal utterance in favour of the policy of Confederation on the part of any South African Legislature. " That the interests of the two South African British colonies, viz. the Cape Colony and Natal, are in many respects so closely united with the republics situated on their respective borders, that a union of these under British rule could scarcely fail to conduce to the material welfare of the whole, both as a means of promoting an interchange of friendly relations amongst them, as well as of providing, by judicious combination, for their adequate security and con- fidence in time of danger, and establishing and regulating commercial intercourse on a permanent and satisfactory basis to all parties. " That the comparative dependence of these republics on the Cape Colony and Natal, together with the similarity of the religion, laws, and customs of the white inhabitants to those of the same classes inhabiting the two latter colonies, favour the belief that sooner or later they will be desirous of coming under the dominion of the British Government. "That the Council is therefore of opinion that, with a view to furthering the objects set forth, it would lie highly desirable for her Majesty's Government favourably to con- sider any proposal which the authorities of these republics, being empowered thereto by the inhabitants, may put forward, THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS -<'»1 affecting their annexation to either the Cape Colony or Natal, or embracing suggestions with respect to any other form of allied or separate administration deemed suitable by the majority of the white inhabitants of such States." These were amongst the resolutions of whose existence, some months later, her Majesty's Secretary of State expressed to me his entire ignorance, as I have stated elsewhere. 1 No attention appears to have been paid to them, nor did anything come of them, as a few weeks afterwards a general election led to a change of Ministry, and Mr. Gladstone came into power. In any case it is doubtful whether they would have availed, at that time, to influence the course of Imperial policy. They were weighted, it is true, with South African knowledge and experience, but they carried with them only the insignificant authority of an obscure colony. I wrote thus of them at the time in the pages of the Westminster Review : — " It must not be supposed that the policy foreshadowed in the foregoing resolutions would entail a fraction of Imperial expenditure upon the mother country. These States would be just as able to pay the cost of their own government as they are now, far better able, in fact. Give peace and security, law and order to them, and they would soon yield a revenue ample for all requirements. With a governor over each of them, specially selected for the post, having under him officers and advisers chosen with equal discrimination, a police system could be organised and maintained at the cost of the inhabitants sufficient for all purposes. The people 1 Chap. VI. 262 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA ask for neither Imperial troops nor Imperial money; they only ask for that ' moral ' power in the conduct of affairs which British rule confers. "Nor must it be supposed that any practical accession of responsibility would be thus assumed by the Home Govern- ment. In point of fact, England is already responsible for the disorders of those regions, and directly suffers for them. If no change be made these disorders will get worse and worse, until the time arrives when interference will become not a matter of choice, but of necessity, and cost not the mere exercise of a little statesmanship, but possibly a large Imperial outlay. 'A stitch in time saves nine.' It will assuredly do so in this case. For unless England is prepared to cast off her other colonies at the Cape, as she cast off the Free State, she cannot divest herself of Imperial obligations on their account." Though a brighter dispensation was at hand, the doctrines of Manchester were still in the air, and" South Africa was left to drift on aimlessly towards un- shaped destinies. The little spurt of Imperial activity for which Sir Philip Wodehouse had been responsible in Basutoland, put an end for the time being to the ravages of war there, and enabled that wisest of all the republican rulers, President Brand, to devote his energies to internal administration. That the opinions of Sir Philip as High Commissioner entirely accorded with colonial sentiment, his words when proroguing the Cape Parliament in September 18G8 abundantly demon- strate: "Speaking entirely on my own responsibility, giving expression only to my own opinions, I may say that I regard the measures which severed from their THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 263 allegiance the European communities in those regions to have been founded in error, and that it will be a bless- ing for all if, with their general and hearty concurrence, they can be restored in a general sense to their former position." In both cases, it should be remarked, the suggestion of reannexation is made contingent upon the assent of the inhabitants themselves. No policy of violence or aggression was indicated. That the attitude of Natal and its legislators was correctly appreciated in the Republic was shown a few years later. After his return to the Colony in 1873, Governor Pine, at the in- stance of the Legislative Council, addressed to President Brand a letter in which he gave expression to warm assurances of amity and goodwill in connection with, and in acknowledgment of the friendly co-operation of the Free State authorities in facilitating the capture of Langalibalele. President Brand and his Volksraad re- sponded to this friendly advance in the same spirit . " Having heard the correspondence referred to, the Rand rejoices that the relations between the Colony of Natal and the Orange Free State are on such a satis- factory footing, and hereby gives expression to the hope that the ties of friendship between the two countries may bo drawn more closely, and that both may continue to increase in prosperity and happiness." What might have happened as a consequence of these cordial interchanges, had history pursued its normal course, can only now be inferred. How far the acuter forces of republican feeling would have 2G4 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA succeeded in thwarting the conciliatory influences that were at work amongst moderate men in the direction of closer union under the British flag 1 , had South Africa been left severely alone to work out its own destiny in its own way, must remain a matter of conjecture. A new political cycle was at hand. An era of Imperialism was about to dawn. The events which supervened on the crushing of Langali- balele's rebellion swiftly followed each other. Bishop Colenso's crusade against the colonists and their Government was followed by Mr. Froude's ill-starred visit, and his despairing commentaries on British colonisation and British rule. Then came Governor Pine's recall, Sir Garnet Wolseley's five months' mis- sion, and the great historian's reappearance in South Africa and his triumphal progress through the Boer districts as the apostle of Dutch Africanderism. This was speedily succeeded by Lord Carnarvon's invitation to a London Conference, at which the Con- federation of South Africa was to be discussed. Had that proposal been submitted by more tactful methods it might have borne the desired fruit, but it was foredoomed to failure by the conditions of its birth. The Cape Parliament, following the lead of its first Prime Minister, Mr. Molteno, who was quite content with his sphere of influence in the Cape Colony, refused to entertain any scheme of confederation, and practically declined to take part in the conference. President Brand, less uncompromising, accepted the THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 265 invitation, but was forbidden by his Volksraad to discuss or to consider the question of confederation. The only two really free agents, therefore, would have neither part nor lot in any discussion of the great question of union. Natal, on the contrary, was ready unreservedly to take part, and sent its three delegates to London. Though Mr. Molteno accompanied them in the same ship, he was resolute in his refusal to put in any appearance at the Conference table. When, therefore, the meeting was held, under Lord Carnarvon's presidency, there were present Sir Garnet Wolseley, Mr. Froude, the three Natal delegates, and President Brand, who, however, invariably retired whenever discussion drifted towards the forbidden topic. I may be allowed to say, however, that nothing in its way could be better than the good temper and dignity which marked the President's demeanour and attitude throughout the proceedings. It was evident that under such circumstances the Conference must prove abortive in so far as the de- finite adoption of any concrete scheme of union might be concerned, whatever the results might be as regards the interchange of opinions and experience. After a few meetings the Conference lapsed, and left no public or Parliamentary records to tell of its work or exist- ence. It was followed, nevertheless, by three notable and pregnant incidents. Sir Theophilus Shepstone returned at once to South Africa, bearing the compre- hensive Commission under which a few months later 266 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA he annexed the Transvaal Republic to the Crown Six months later Sir Bartle Frere was despatched as Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commis- sioner, with larger powers than any of his predeces- sors had possessed, and with a general instruction to bring about confederation, and during the ensuing session of the Imperial Parliament the South African Confederation Act was passed. Of these three most important measures, the last alone was fruitless. The Act remains to this day a dead letter. Of the effects which flowed from the two appointments we have not yet seen the end. During the five turbulent years which followed the London Conference neighbourly negotiations were im- possible. History surged along, carrying with it the wreckage of policy and purpose. Sir Bartle Frere from the moment of his advent kept steadfastly in view his ideal of confederation, but he found in Capetown an uncongenial soil and an unsympa- thetic Ministry. Events in the Transvaal reacted in the Cape Colony, and his dismissal of that Ministry, necessitated by its usurpation of Imperial preroga- tives, created a cleavaere which was fatal to schemes of unity. He never ceased, however, to propound the policy he had been commissioned to pro- mote. Wherever he went, he consulted the leaders of opinion in regard to its development. On arriving in Natal in September 1878, the High Commissioner at once invited discussion of the measure he had so THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 267 closely at heart, and the lines he sketched out for the framework of a union were guided by the strictest regard for the circumstances ol each community. Even when the Zulu war-cloud had burst in storm and disaster, the unflinching proconsul remained true to his mission. Having swept away the standing menace to peace and native loyalty in Zululand, he sought by personal intervention to conciliate and har- monise the hostile elements in the Transvaal, and to harness the intractable Boer to the ark of Anglo- African unity. How lamentably he was sacrificed as a scapegoat by rabid partisanship and political folly need not be repeated here. Of all the chapters of Imperial statesmanship in the nineteenth century, that is the darkest and least creditable. It was my privilege and pleasure from first to last, in whatever humble way might be open to me, to uphold Sir Bartle Frere's policy and work in South Africa, and no prouder duty ever fell to my lot than that of bearing to Capetown in September 1880 the fare- well address of sympathy and appreciation, signed by over 6000 of the men and women of Natal, on the eve of his departure for England. That address and his reply were published on- the occasion in the Times, but they have been long forgotten, and may well be reproduced at this time. 1 Sir Bartle Frere's valedic- tion may be said to have embodied the policy which he had striven to carry out during the troublous period 1 See Appendix. 268 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of his administration. That his pathetic words in con- clusion will prove to have been prophetic I do not and cannot doubt : " I hope that hereafter, when Natal is a branch of a great South African dominion, some one diving into the records of the past may light on the name of one who did not in his day escape bitter censure for doing what you and he believed to be his simple duty, but who, the historian may think, did some good service for the permanent peace and security of his fellow-subjects in this part of the great South African continent." Twenty years have passed since these last words fell in accents of deepest feeling from the lips of the grave and dignified man, as he stood in the throne-room of Government House to receive from all parts of South Africa and all classes of its people touching testi- monials of affection and regret. There were many tearful eyes amongst the throng of representative colo- nists who pressed around, but none of us then present dared imagine how completely the policy and the pre- science of that great servant of his Queen and Empire would be vindicated, by events as tremendous as they are terrible, ere the century had quite run out. The friendly attitude of Natal towards its republican neighbours was clearly indicated by a resolution of the Legislative Council unanimously passed on the eve of the struggle which terminated at Amajuba. It ran as follows : " In view of threatened hostilities between the Imperial Government and certain of its Transvaal sub- THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 269 jects, and in anticipation of Natal again becoming the base of military operations, this House feels called upon to place on record its opinion that the Colony ought not in any way to be held responsible for the cost, or any portion of the cost, of such offensive or defensive measures as may be deemed necessary by her Majesty's officers." In a spirit very different from that manifested by the British colony when Sir George Colley advanced to the relief of the Imperial garrisons in the Transvaal, did the republicans of that country act nineteen years later, when they wantonly invaded, overran, and devastated Natal. Could the colonists have foreseen what has happened now, or had they realised the true intent and scope of Boer ambitions, it may safely be said that that resolution would never have been recorded. It suffices, however, to show that the attitude of Natal towards its republican neighbours has not been antagonistic or distrustful. Even after the retrocession, which was re- garded in the Colony as an unspeakable humiliation, its representatives were ready to extend the olive branch. In 1883 the Legislative Council expressed its readiness to confer Avith the Free State on matters of mutual con- cern, and in 188-4 a conference of delegates from both Governments was held at Harrismith, when certain pro- posals were agreed to. It should be understood that the Cape Government had declined to attend this meet- ing, without the express sanction of its Legislature, " then, and since then, out of session." The Transvaal 270 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Government also pleaded inability to be present. No definite conclusions were arrived at on the occasion, though resolutions generally in favour of joint action in regard to railway extension, defence, postal facilities, telegraphic communication, and tolls were adopted. It was also determined to submit to the Governments of the Free State and Natal, academic questions as to the right of a maritime state to charge a friendly neighbour- ing power with an arbitrary customs tariff, and whether an inland state could claim transit for its produce and goods through a maritime state without contributing a fair share towards the government of that state. These somewhat vague resolutions did not lead to much prac- tical result. It was felt that they foreshadowed a policy of union between the republics and Natal, to the ex- clusion of the Cape Colony, and doubt was cherished in certain quarters as to the wisdom of such a coalition. It would have virtually amounted to the division of South Africa into two political groups — into South- western and South-eastern Africa. It would also, and this was esteemed its gravest aspect, have split up the British interest into two rival sections, each being domi- nated by a numerical Dutch majority. One well-known Cape Minister was not slow to point this out, but the scheme, though amicably conceived, Avas never heartily supported, and it came to nothing. No further definite step was taken in the direction of closer union until the Cape Conference in 1888, to which I have already referred. THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 271 Though the door was closed to any chance of early participation in the existing Customs Union by the action of Natal itself, efforts were made to get into closer touch with the republics by other methods, and especi- ally b}^ means of railway extension. Natal's independent initiative in carrying on its railway from Ladismith to Newcastle, and then from Newcastle to Charlestown, was regarded by the Free State as inimical to its own interests and aspirations, in so far as such an extension would command the chief trade route to the interior. Before the outgrowth of Johannesburg, it had seemed probable that the ideal railway system of South Africa would be represented by a great trunk line passing from the Cape Colony through the Free State to Pretoria, and joined somewhere near Bloemfontein by a main line from Natal. This policy was upset by the suddenly announced intention of the Natal Government, while the Cape Conference was still in session, to extend its line from Ladismith to Newcastle, thereby opening up the coal- fields of Dundee, and securing a direct route to the Transvaal. Whatever may have been the genesis of that proceeding, it had the twofold effect of quicken- ing the construction of the Cape line to Bloemfontein, and of delaying any extension of the Natal line into the Free State. It was not until 1889 that a step forward was made in the latter direction. In that year a Con- ference was held between representatives of the two countries, and an agreement was arrived at under 272 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA which Natal undertook to extend its line from Ladi- smith to Harrismith, and to Avork the Free State section of it in connection with its own. As usual in most negotiations between the colonies and the re- publics, the balance of advantage was largely on the side of the latter ; but Natal was so anxious to make a beginning of railway communication with its neighbour that it was content to bear some sacrifice in order to attain that end. No guarantee was afforded of any early continuation of the line so as to connect it with the great central system at Bloemfontein or elsewhere, and to this day it still stops short at Harrismith. Com- plexities of republican politics, and differences as to the choice of route, have prevented its completion, and in so far have frustrated the hopes and aims of Natal politicians. The turning of the first sod, however, on the 7th November 1889, was made the occasion of much festive demonstration. The Governor of Natal, Sir Charles Mitchell, performed the function. Messrs. Fraser and Fischer represented the Republic, and there was much effusion of fraternal sentiment. I was asked in behalf of the local Legislature to invite the Governor to turn the sod, and in doing so expressed a hope that the line would bind together by a link of steel, in per- petual amity, the two communities. The Governor said that the occasion would, he believed, prove the prelude of the day, so ardently desired by all true lovers of their country, when South Africa would be one; when all the THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 273 states would be one politically, as they were in race, country, and religion. In that love of freedom which distinguished both they would join hands and say that they were brothers in all that was necessary to advance the country and make it take its place amongst the nations of the world. Mr. Fraser, in behalf of the Free State, reciprocated all these sentiments, and said that they all hoped to see South Africa take its place amongst the nations of the earth, and to that end he hoped, in future, all their efforts would tend. Differences were natural and inevitable, but he sincerely cherished the hope that all these differences would disappear, and they would all strive to help each other in bringing about the much-desired union of South Africa. Similar ebullitions of friendly enthusiasm attended the extension of the northern line to the Transvaal. On April 7, 1891, a demonstration of unparalleled pro- portions signalised the opening of the line to Charles- town. Natal had then pushed on its line to the extreme border. It had done so in spite of much opposition on President Kruger's part in earlier stages of the enterprise. He was steadfastly adverse to the junction of any colonial railway with the Transvaal until his " own line " from Delagoa Bay had become a practically accomplished fact. It was only when that consummation was guaranteed that he relaxed his hostility towards competing projects. Mr. Rhodes's advances to the northward, and other developments of Cape policy, had not improved the relations of 274 a lifp: time in south africa the South African Republic with the Cape Govern- ment. It seemed expedient to keep on good terms with the nearer Colony. The President, therefore, accepted the invitation of the Natal Government, and was received with almost sovereign honours as a guest of state at Charlestown. His journey to Durban was a triumphal progress. Not only at the border terminus, under the very shadow of Majuba — where cannon had not been heard since Colley's terrible reverse — but at Newcastle, at Maritzburg, and at Durban, the rugged but not undignified old President was feted and nattered as though he had been the Colony's best benefactor. Marshalled school-children sang the Volks- lied, addresses were presented and speeches delivered, all aflame with friendly ardour : cheers rent the air, and everywhere was shown the most anxious solicitude to soothe the visitor's republican sensibilities. He accepted — or rather submitted to — it all with a grim and grumpy sententiousness that left nothing to be inferred. His few and oracular utterances Avere followed with eager expectation in the hope that some hint might be dropped of early railway extension in the future. But in vain was the net spread. Not an indication of policy did the President vouchsafe. When he returned to Pretoria, gorged with assurances of goodwill, he left the colonists as much in the dark as ever as to the realisation of their desires. It is probable, however, that the manifestation had some THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 275 effect in persuading President Krager of the cordial temper of Natal, and in paving the way for the Con- vention which a few years later secured the final connection of the Natal railway system with that of the rest of South Africa. It fell to my lot on that occasion to represent the Government of Natal. President Kruger was either unable or disinclined to take part himself in the celebration of the event, and the Governor therefore did not visit the Republic. The former deputed the State Secretary, Dr. Leyds, to represent him, and once again I was brought into direct association with one who has played so potential a part in the affairs of the Transvaal. A year before he had visited Natal as the guest of the Governor, and been warmly received there. The 10th of October was the day fixed for the linking together of the two sections of the line, that from Johannesburg and Pretoria constructed by the Netherlands Railway, and the much larger section from Charlestown, the execution of which had been undertaken by the Natal Railway department, acting as contractor for the Republic. Johannesburg at that time was the centre of political agitation and unrest. The intrigues and controversies, which culminated within less than three months in the Jameson Raid, were in full activity, and the great gold centre was very scantily represented at the Heidelberg function. The people, or at any rate the Government of Natal knew little if anything of what was going on at the Rand, 276 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and I can truthfully say were not less astounded and shocked than the world was by Dr. Jameson's adventure. There was no presage of coming' disorder in the air when the special train conveying our party arrived at Heidelberg. A lovely crystalline morning had ended in a fury of wind — such wind as the high veld of the interior only knows — bringing with it such an onswoop of dust as words fail to describe. It was no easy matter to stand up against the tempest, when we emerged from our saloon and found Dr. Leyds and his colleagues waiting for us in the yet disconnected line. Tall hats and umbrellas were distinctly incompatible with the weather, while it was difficult to speak or to listen amidst the uproar and buffeting of the gale. But we managed to get through with the ceremony. Dr. Leyds screwed in his bolt, and I screwed in mine, and we both declared, he in Dutch and I in English, that we thereby bound together the interests of our several countries by a link of iron and a tie of common interest. Other friendly things were said, and champagne was drunk, and cheers were given for the Queen and the President, and we then got into the carriage and passed over the line. A little later a collation was given, under the presidency of Dr. Leyds, and speeches full of friendly feeling were delivered all round, and in both languages, the most important being interpreted for the benefit of the other race. In the evening a ball was held, and in the general hilarity no murmurings THE SETTLERS AS NEIGHBOURS 277 of the coming storm were audible. I noticed at the time how few Boers, properly so called, took part. They were as conspicuous by their absence as were the Johannesburgers. It was essentially an official celebration, but as such it was an assurance that at that time neither distrust nor dissension marked the relations of the Republic and the Colony. On the day following Dr. Leyds accompanied me on my return to Natal. We were alone together throughout the whole journey until he joined his family at Howick, and we talked of many things and of many books. Cultivated in mind, gentle in manner, and attractive in appearance, Dr. Leyds is a most agreeable companion, and it is hard even now to realise that that suave and genial personality covered the most strenuous enmity to British dominancy in South Africa, and an inflexible resolve to establish Boer-Hollander ascendency in its place. Had the late State Secretary been a man of more repellent aspect and demeanour, he would no doubt have been much less dangerous than he has proved to be. CHAPTER X THE NATIVES Though the coast of Natal was first discovered by Vasco da Gania on Christmas Day 1497, he did not land there, and the records of his expedition contain no descriptive references either to the country or its people. Another Portuguese navigator, Perestrello, sent by King Sebastian in 1575 to explore coasts and countries in South Africa, was more inquisitive. Travelling southward from Mozambique, he went ashore at various points, and he speaks of Natal as being "populous and well stocked with animals." In 1683 an English ship, the Johanna, was lost somewhere about Delagoa Bay. Its crew journeyed overland to the Cape of Good Hope, being guided thereto by the natives of the intervening territories, of whom we are told that they showed the shipwrecked men " more civility and humanity than some nations who pretend much religion and politeness, for they accommodated their guests with whatever they wanted of the pro- duct of the country at very easy rates, and assisted what they could to save part of their damaged cargo, receiving very moderate rewards for their labour and pains. Their language was by signs, and for a low 278 THE NATIVES 279 glass beads, knives, scissors, needles, thread, and small looking-glasses " — such are the chief staples of " Kafir truck" to-day — "they hired themselves to carry many things to a neighbouring country, and procured others, who also served them for guides towards the Cape of Good Hope, and provided eatables for their masters all the way while they were under their conduct." And this 'kindly service was continued all along the route, through an unknown country, the white strangers being passed on from tribe to tribe, " the sick being carried in hammocks, till they either recovered or died." The writers who tell this pleasant story say that the natural fertility of those countries made the natives lazy, indolent, docile, and simple. A like description of them was given a few years later by the officers of the ship Stavenisse, which was wrecked, apparently on the present site of Durban, in 1687. These people were a year and a day at Natal, where they built a rude craft, and thus escaped to the southern settlements. They were long enough ashore to learn much about both the land and its people, and their report on both was not less favourable than that of their predecessors. " They found the country very fruitful and prosperous, and the natives friendly, compassionate, obliging, strong, ingenious, armed with only one assegai, obedient or submissive to their king or chief; living in communities, in huts made of branches, wrought through with rushes and long grass and roofed like haystacks in Holland. In manners 280 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA dress, and behaviour, they are much more orderly than the Cape Hottentots. The women attend to cultivation ; the men herd and milk the cows ; they do not eat poultry because these feed on filth ; still less do they eat eggs, and it makes them sick to see Europeans eat them. For a copper arm-ring or a common neck-ring of the thickness of a tobacco pipe they sell a fat cow or ox of 600 lbs. weight more or less ; for a similar ring they give as much corn as will fill an ordinary meat-tub, from which corn they make very well-tasted and nourishing bread and brew beer, both small and strong, which is not unpleasant to the taste, and which they keep in earthen vessels ; they eat beside, a certain bean, in size and taste not unlike the European horse-bean, also some roots, weker (sic), and worse flavoured than sweet potatoes. They have tobacco and smoke it ; by good manage- ment its quality might be improved; of fruit they have only an unknown kind of prune." It would be difficult to improve upon this artless but truthful description of a primitive people. Other writers of the same period add further details which serve to complete the picture. " The natives of this country," says Captain Rogers, " are but of middle sta- ture, yet have very good limbs. The colour of their skin is black, their hair crisped. They are oval visaged, their noses neither flat nor high, but well proportioned. 1 Their teeth are white, and their aspect altogether 1 This is more than can be said nowadays. THE NATIVES 281 graceful ; they are amiable people, but very lazy, which probably is for want of commerce. Their chief em- ployment is husbandry. They have a great many bulls and cows, which they carefully look after, for every man knows his own ; though they run all pro- miscuously together in their savannahs, yet they have pens near their own houses where they make them gentle and bring them to the pail. . . . Here are no arts or trade, but every one makes for himself such necessaries as need or ornament requires, the men keeping to their employment and the women to theirs. They wear but a few clothes, and these extraordinary mean. The men go in a manner naked, their common garb being only a piece of cloth of silk grass as an apron. . . . They have caps made with beef-tallow nine or ten inches. They are a great while making these caps, for the tallow must be very pure. It would be ridiculous for a man to be seen without a cap, 1 but boys are not allowed to wear any. The women have only short petticoats which reach to the knee. When the men meet to make merry, they make themselves extraordinary fine, with feathers stuck in their caps very thick. Besides this they wear a piece of cow- hide, which hangs behind like a tail, and reaching to the ground. Every man may have as many wives as he pleases, and without buying none are to be had ; neither is there any other commodity to be bought or sold but women. Young virgins are dis- 1 As a matter of fact they are fixtures. 282 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA posed of by fathers and brothers, the price according to beauty. They have no money in the country, but give cows for wives, and therefore the richest man is he that hath most daughters or sisters. They make merry when they take their wives, but the bride cries all her wedding day. They live together in small villages, and the oldest man governs the rest, for all that live together are of kin, and therefore they sub- mit to his government. They are very civil and just to strangers. This was experienced by two seamen who were among them five years. Their ship was cast away on the coast, and the rest of their consorts marched to the river De la Goa, but they stayed here until Captain Rogers accidentally came and took them away. They had gained the language of the country, and the natives freely gave them wives and cows too. They were beloved by all the people, and so much reverenced that their words were taken as laws, and when they came away many of the boys cried because they could not take them with them." I repeat that it would be difficult to compress within fewer words a more luminous or picturesque account of the native races that inhabited Natal then, and two centuries ago, and — let me add— that are to bo found there to-day. It is more particularly of the natives of Natal that this may be said. The same writers speak of the natives who were found two or three hundred miles to the south and north in far less favourable terms. They were too often treacher- THE NATIVES 283 ous, deceitful, hostile, and bloodthirsty. It will be admitted, I think, that the impression left by the description is, with due regard to the condition of barbarism, agreeable and somewhat Arcadian. It suggests the existence of a peaceable, friendly, homely people, heathen and uncivilised it may be, but marked by many admirable social and domestic qualities — a people who, according to European lights, were no doubt in certain ways callous in sensibility and in- different to brute suffering — whose customs were those of uncouth and uncultured men — children of nature, upon whom the mollifying influences of a fair and fertile land, of a bland and healthful climate, had wrought with gracious and domesticating effect. Very different were they from the Bushmen and Hottentots of the desolate regions of the West, where the physi- cal difficulties of existence had begotten fiercer and more repellent characteristics. The Natal native was a home-bird, by virtue of his surroundings, and not a nomad by the stern necessities of life. This is a root condition of his being, which may be said to have largely shaped his history, and should ever be remembered in connection with his government and treatment. It places him on a plane distinctly higher than that of the ordinary savage, and helps, perhaps, to account for his loyalty and amenability as a subject. For with the exception of such changes as have been incidental to continued contact with civilisation, the native of Natal is very much to-day what he was three 284 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA centuries ago, and what, for aught we know, he may have been for centuries before that. The ruins at Zimbabwe, so admirably explored and described by Mr. Bent, are evidences that man, considerably ad- vanced beyond the barbarian, lived and worked in South - eastern Africa in comparatively remote ages, and there is no ground for supposing that that part of the continent was not more or less populous at a date far beyond any of which we have written trace. Such were the native inhabitants of Natal up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. There is no exact evidence as to their numbers, but they are always de- scribed by writers in those days as being very numerous, and the remains of stone kraals, or circular cattlefolds, in the upper districts prove that they were so. These interesting vestiges of the past are thickly scattered about the country between Mooi River and Ladismith. They are rings of piled-up boulders, innocent of chisel or cement, but sufficiently substantial to have withstood the wear and tear of weather for centuries. No such structures have been erected by the natives of these times within the memories of white men. They show that whenever they were built the natives possessed cattle, and were fixtures on the soil. It has been reckoned that there must have been at least two hun- dred tribes or kingdoms within the present limits of Natal. It was upon the descendants of these people, peaceful, contented, and wealthy according to their own ideas, that the organised warriors of the newly com- THE NATIVES 285 pactcd Zulu nation fell during the earlier years of the now expiring century. First Senzangakona, then Chaka, and after him Dingaan, aflame with ambition and lust of conquest, sated their passion for bloodshed and dominion in the lives of these helpless and harmless neighbours. It was the first of these chiefs who began to weld together the Amazulu nation, originally but a small and insignificant tribe. His successor was Chaka or Tyaka, who has been justly styled the Attila or Napoleon of South Africa. At the age of thirty he began that career of conquest which made him the terror and the tyrant of all the country between Inham- bana, north of Delagoa Bay, and the Umzimvubu. He was a good deal more than a butcher, however. His policy, at any rate at first, was that of Rome, not so much to destroy, as to subjugate and incorporate the tribes around him. Having subdued and captured them, he so distributed them amongst his own people, that while contributing to the strength and magnitude of his empire, he kept them in complete subordination. Thus he went on, ever swelling the numbers of his subjects and tributaries, and making his rule and influence felt half-way to the Atlantic. " Many were slain by his forces, many were taken captive, and many others fled for a time from the land of their fathers and took refuge in surrounding districts, while others still hid themselves in seasons of danger amonsf the mountains, rocks, and ravines of their own land, and there remained until the enemy had passed and re- 286 A LIFE TIMK IN SOUTH AI'IMCA passed, and left them to rest for at least another year." Large numbers of these fugitives fled before the Zulu hosts far beyond the borders of Natal to the frontier tribes of the Cape Colony, by whom they were enslaved, or classified as Amafengu, — an inferior race — now known as Kingoes the always loyal, and perhaps most civilised of all the native tribes. It has been estimated that at one time Chaka had at his command no less than one hundred thousand fighting men. One of his chief kraals is described as having been three miles in cireumferenee, and as con- taining thirteen hundred huts. Fifteen thousand war- riors were always ready for any emergency or expedition. The slaughter of men, and the ride of celibacy, led to a decrease in population, but at the same time they fostered the practice of polygamy on the part of the older and emancipated men. Though he devastated and depopulated Natal, his own more immediate terri- tory swarmed with people who \'rd his vanity and chanted Ins praises as the tiger, the lion, the elephant, the huge mountain, the mighty black prince, the Supreme Ruler, the King of Kings, the undying Only One. One of the chief psalms sung in his honour has been rendered in these words : — Thou hast finished, finished the nations! Where will yiui go out to battle now? Hoy '( where will you go out to battle now '{ Thou hast conquered kings ! Where are you going out to battle now? THE NATIVES 287 Thou hast finished, finished the nations ! Where you going to hattle now ? Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Where are you going to hattle now '!■ " Dingaan, who succeeded his brother, was far inferior in character and capacity, though even more cruel and bloodthirsty. Under him the depopulation of Natal was completed, and only such remnants of tribes as clustered round the few British settlers at Durban remained in the country. Most touching is the child- like confidence with which these survivors of the aboriginal tribes came forth from their lurking-places and attached themselves to the friendly white man, whenever he appeared upon the scene. I have in former times talked to grey-headed old men who had saved themselves from destruction by hiding in the bush that skirts the shore and living on fresh roots and herbs. One of them is reported to have said : " I remember the time well. I was then a young man. The Amatuli all collected upon a plain near the Umko- manzi. The Zulus came up in the afternoon. We gave them battle and drove them back to the Umzim- basi," a few miles northward, " leaving the dead in heaps on the way. With this right hand I slaughtered many." So they often made a stubborn fight for existence, if only to be overwhelmed in the end. When Mr. H. F. Fynn, an old friend of mine, for many years a leading magistrate, and the oldest living resident of Durban, travelled as a young trader in 1824 288 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and subsequent years between the Tongaat and Umzim- vubu River — a distance of 250 miles — he did not find a single tribe, with the exception of about thirty natives residing near the Bluff, at Durban. They belonged to the tribe of Umnini, which, by reason of its unbroken aboriginal tenancy, was specially rewarded a location of its own on valuable coastland. This tract of country, some 12,000 acres in extent, was vested in a special trust, and can only be exchanged — as it may be, for a larger area of ground elsewhere — with the direct consent of the people. As soon as the English settled at Port Natal — " Durban " had not been laid out in those days — fragments of the scattered tribes gradually congregated under their protection, and in a few years three or four thousand were settled there. This process of accretion continued as time went on, and though peace was always menaced as long as Chaka or Dingaan reigned and was often broken, the desire of both those chiefs to conciliate the English power, availed to draw back to their ancient home stragglers from the dispersed people. In 1827 or 1828 refugees from the Zulu country began frequently to arrive, and on being reported to Chaka were permitted by him to reside at Natal. The inflow slowly increased until, when the British Government finally took possession in 1843, there may have been about seven or eight thousand ; no precise record exists of the number, but as there were only three or four thousand when the Dutch THE NATIVES 289 arrived in 1838, and as their policy was not to en- courage any large settlement of native refugees, that estimate is probably correct. These people were mostly gathered round Durban, though some lived not far from Maritzburg. They formed the nucleus of the present native population of Natal, whose fidelity to the British Government during more than half a century bears such signal and happy testimony to the claim and capacity of Anglo-Saxon men to rule wisely and well subject aboriginal races. The principles which have governed the administra- tion of native affairs in Natal were practically embodied in or foreshadowed by the noble Proclamation issued by Sir George Napier when extending the Queen's sovereignty over the infant Colony in 1843. A loftier or more enkindling declaration of Imperial purpose never proceeded from the pen of a British repre- sentative : " That her Majesty's said Commissioner is instructed distinctly to declare that the three next mentioned conditions — all of them so manifestly righteous and expedient as to receive, it is to be hoped, their cheerful recognition by the inhabitants of Natal — are to be considered as absolutely indispensable to the permission which it is proposed to give the emigrants to occupy the territory in question and to enjoy therein a settled government under British possession. " 1st, That there shall not be in the eye of the law any distinction or disqualification whatever, founded on mere distinction of colour, origin, language, or creed, T 290 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA but that the protection of the law, in letter and in substance, shall be extended impartially to all alike. " 2nd, That no aggression shall be sanctioned upon the natives residing beyond the limits of the Colony under any plea whatever, by any private person or any body of men, unless acting under the immediate authority and orders of the Government. " 3rd, That slavery in any shape or under any modi- fication is absolutely unlawful, as in every other portion of her Majesty's dominions. . . ." Thus was made known "the gracious desire of her Majesty to knit the hearts of all her subjects to her person and Government, as evinced by her willing- ness to concede to her people at Port Natal every just personal right and every reasonable political privilege ; and that the natural resources of the country may be gradually developed under her Majesty's firm but fostering rule, stimulating the industry which can never prosper but beneath settled institutions, and securing the advantages which are enjoyed by every Colony of Great Britain." Though actual experience may have necessitated some modification of policy in regard to the first of the three conditions thus laid down, the history of Natal is a full vindication of the purposes which inspired its founders. It is not surprising that a government established on such principles, and guided by such rules of action, should attach to its authority a steadily swelling stream THE NATIVES 291 of population. Six years after the Colony was definitely recognised as a part of the Empire, the natives in Natal were officially computed and classified as follows : There were 41,452 belonging to aboriginal chiefs and tribes, who on the advent of peaceful and settled rule had flocked back to the home of their forefathers ; there were 24,044 representing a mixed class of aborigines and refugees, who had abandoned the country for the time being, and established themselves elsewhere under the rule of neighbouring chiefs; and there were 35,G08 who were refugees, in the strict sense of the term, from outside territories. Less than two years after Mr. West took office as the first Lieutenant-Governor of Natal in 1845, a Commission was appointed to consider the best mode of providing for the internal management and defence of the native locations, and for the improvement and welfare of the natives generally. It consisted of the Surveyor-General, the Diplomatic Agent (Mr. Theophilus Shepstone), two American missionaries, and an officer of the Royal Engineers. The report submitted by this body, in March 1847, is a State document of the highest interest and importance. It embodied a scheme of native policy which, had it been carried out, would have revolutionised the condi- tions of the native population. The chief points in this policy were : (1) the vesting of the location lands in the hands of trustees, the Government reserving to itself the right to convert these or any portion of them 292 A LIFE TTME IN SOUTH AFRICA into freehold grants to natives who had so improved their land by industrial diligence as to have earned a claim to special reward or recognition ; (2) the energetic control of each location by a European super- intendent and assistants, supported by a native police force, under a European officer — these functionaries were to be men of high moral standing, sound judg- ment, and decision of character, whose education and conduct would, apart from their office, command the respect and confidence alike of native and European ; (3) in the administration of justice the native chiefs or councillors were to assist as a sort of jury, and deliver their opinions according to the merits of each case — in all cases where white men were concerned trial was to be under the established law of the district, and all serious criminal cases were to be tried before the Supreme Criminal Court of the district ; (4) regis- tration of natives, of cattle, of removals, and of contracts was to be enforced; passes were to be issued and the superintendents to be empowered to execute contracts of service between master and servant; (5) marriage and divorce laws were to be remodelled, and efforts made to improve the status of women ; (6) agriculture, and especially the cultivation of perennials, was to be encouraged so as to wean the people from dependence upon stock-raising and to fix them upon the soil ; (7) firearms were to be registered, and trespassing upon farms prevented ; (8) weekly reports were to be sub- mitted by each superintendent, and the head of the THE NATIVES 293 native department was to periodically visit the location and act as a court of appeal; (9) missions and schools were to be encouraged and assisted, and model mechani- cal schools established; (10) roads through and to the locations were to be constructed, and each location properly surveyed and defined. Such were the outlines of the policy which was thus, in the extreme infancy of Natal, proposed by a re- sponsible and representative body of Commissioners, prepared and submitted for the effective control and guidance of the then sparse native population. These outlines have been at all times recognised by colonists as wise, far-seeing, and practical, but the suggestions fell on stony ground. The Home Government, while generally approving of them in spirit, declined to find the means of carrying them out. The creed of Man- chester was then dominant, and no money was forth- coming for purposes outside Great Britain. At that time a sum of about £5000 would have sufficed to give the scheme a start, but no Minister was bold enough to support even that modest contribution towards the cult of Imperialistic heresy. The main- tenance of a small garrison of 400 troops was all, by way of permanent responsibility, which the Empire could, or would, afford in behalf of the new dependency. So nothing was done and matters drifted, until after Governor Pine's arrival in 1850. He, as might be expected, took a large and true grasp of the situa- tion, and was supported in so doing by one of the 294 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA ablest Ministers who has ever presided over the des- tinies of the Colonial Empire. Lord Grey's despatches on Native policy, written in 1850-51 are monuments of wisdom and foresight. He clearly perceived the necessity of firm and enlightened administration. He strongly opposed any building-up or perpetuation of the powers of chieftainship. He as strongly advocated the discouragement and undermining of all savage customs and institutions, and he favoured every measure and means by which the native might be raised in the scale of civilisation and citizenship. But he too stopt short at the expenditure of Imperial money in the pursuit of these high aims and ends. As early as December 4, 1846, Earl Grey wrote : " It is mainly for the benefit of the native inhabitants of Africa that this Colony is to be maintained, and therefore it is only just to require that no part of the cost of supporting it for which they can be made to provide, should be thrown upon this country. Nor do I think it impossible that the Colony of Natal may be so managed as to prevent it from bringing any considerable or permanent charge upon the British revenue." That was the keynote of Imperial policy then and ever afterwards, and though it is true that Natal never has imposed any such charge upon the home taxpayer — apart from military expenditure — the result was at the time the failure of every effort to govern the natives on the lines of a large progressive policy. In 1850-51 a forward step was taken in the THE NATIVES 295 appointment of certain resident magistrates — three of whom were sent from England — but there action ended. Meanwhile both the Europeans and the natives in the Colony increased in numbers, and mainly in each case from without. Refugees from Zululand flocked in, until in 1851 about 100,000 were estimated to be settled in the country. Byrne's immigration scheme between the years 1849 and 1852 planted from 4000 to 5000 British settlers on the soil. The Cape frontier war was raging through most of that period, and the white new-comers were naturally disposed to look with suspicion and some antagonism on the alien native people amongst whom their lot was cast. Their Dutch neighbours, moreover, encouraged them to regard the " Kafir " as the natural enemy of the white man ; as a being who could only be kept in subjection and order by drastic and penal processes. In the Boer view the only way to govern the native was to keep him down, in the place which God had assigned to him. On this point some of the Dutch witnesses before the Native Commission held in 1852-3 spoke very clearly. At least five of the Commissioners were Boer farmers — or Voertrekkers — and they were among the first to give their testimony. Said Mr. F. C. Scheepers : " One of the reasons which led to the emigration from the Cape Colony was that black and white were subject to the same laws. ... I do not think that the same law will restrain a savage man 29 G A LIFE TIME IX SOUTH AFRICA which will restrain a white man. I think it would be just and good that if a Kafir refuses to work, the law should be that he is to leave the country. ... I am of opinion that white and black cannot live together in peace in the same country unless the black man is in a state of subjection to the white. ... In my opinion, if a line were drawn defining the country inhabited by whites, I would have all the blacks removed beyond that line except those who would remain as servants to the whites." Field Commandant Maritz said : " I think it would tend more to their advantage if the females were apprenticed as well as males. From my experience of Kafirs there is no mode of dealing with them except that of compulsion or severity." Mr. Caspar Labuschagne " entirely con- curred with the evidence and opinions of his fellow- commissioner." So also did Mr. Spies, who also con- sidered that "everybody should be at liberty to have as many Kafirs as he was inclined to." Mr. Pretorius was convinced that if the British Government "was to give up the country to the Boers, they would enjoy much more security than they did at present from the natives. He would make a law for the Kafirs that every man having a Kafir should be allowed to flog him when he misbehaved, of course in a moderate way. If this was known by the Kafirs it would be almost unnecessary to inflict the punishment. In the time of the Volksraad this was the law, and then the Kafirs were in good order." This statement he sub- THE NATIVES 297 sequently qualified by explaining that it was rather a rule than a law, and was merely the exercise of parental authority like that of a father over his children. He also disclaimed any present recommendation that such a law should be passed, but the original suggestion no doubt indicated the actual trend of his mind. He added : " The Kafirs are much more insolent now than when first we came. This has considerably in- creased since the English took possession of the country. Thefts have become more common. The cause is the unbounded humanity of the English Government towards them." Mr. Lotter very succinctly expressed his opinion that " the apprenticing of young Kafirs of both sexes, until they are of age, will be of great use both to civilisation and to their own interest," and also " that a separate law should be made for the Kafir — distinct from the white man and very severe, as I know from experience in the old Colony that mild laws are unsuited to them and to the prejudice of both." In considering these frank avowals of opinion, made with obvious sincerity and in perfect good faith, it is but fair to remember that the witnesses in their early lives had been brought into contact with a distinctly lower type of native in the Cape Colony, and had, as we know, suffered acutely from treachery at the hands of Dinofaan on their first arrival in Natal. Their memories also went back to days Avhen slave-holding was a lawful and general practice, sanctioned by Scrip- 298 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA ture and familiarised by usage. It would have been strange had the British settlers not been to some extent influenced by the precepts and opinions of their more experienced fellow-colonists, and had their expressed sentiments not at times been tinged by prejudices which fuller experience has failed to justify. The mind of Mr. Shepstone, as head of the Native depart- ment, was so much impressed by the apparent out- growth of unfriendly relations between the two races that in December 1851 he formally submitted a scheme for the removal of the native population to the un- occupied country south of the Umkomas, where they might be governed somewhat on the lines laid down by the Commission of 1847, but as a separate com- munity. At that time— in 1852 — the natives of the Colony were mostly distributed in six or seven locations, situated in different parts of the Colony. These tracts of country had in the first instance been occupied by the natives as they flocked in, because their broken and precipitous outlines repelled white settlers. Both Boer and British farmers preferred more open and accessible districts, while the natives were glad to isolate them- selves in localities far removed from white neighbours, where they could live their lives of barbarism with small risk of oversight or interference. Natal offers many such districts — regions of picturesque beauty and grandeur, whose depths of craggy bushland and rock- bound mountain and shadowy valley seem made to bo the happy abiding-places of untutored savages. At THE NATIVES 299 least two million acres of such lands were at that time appropriated by and to the native inhabitants of Natal. Mr. Shepstone's proposal practically amounted to the substitution of one large location, for several smaller locations, in the southern portion of the Colony, which had not so far been occupied by white men. Lord Grey strongly combated the scheme for reasons which Mr. Shepstone admitted to be correct and statesman- like, though hardly sustained by the change of circum- stances. In consequence of the Secretary of State's hostility, as well as of the opinions expressed at a meeting of magistrates held in 1852, Mr. Shepstone offered to remove with the native population entirely beyond the boundary of the Colony, into the country afterwards known as No Man's Land, "and there to under- take its control without interference from the British Government, except in so far as to guarantee the country to these people so long as they behaved in good faith towards it and its subjects, and to acknow- ledge his (Mr. Shepstone's) position over them." This last proposal to settle the native difficulty by a wholesale policy of migration met with no more ap- proval than had its predecessor. Though Lord Grey was no longer at the helm in Downing Street, Sir George Grey had been appointed Governor and High Commissioner at Capetown, and he criticised and condemned the project in terms of almost scathing severity. It would, he contended, amount to the set- ting up of a native sovereignty in the southern districts, 300 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA which would be all the more difficult to deal with because it was under the kingship of a white ruler. His essential objection, however, was the evil of segre- gation. Our policy, he said, should be rather to mix the natives up amongst the white population — to bring them into daily contact with civilisation and industry — than to isolate them from these improving influences. The scheme would, he urged, perpetuate and consolidate the evils of chieftainship and tribalism, and interpose between the two British colonies a compact barrier of protected barbarism. Thus opposed by the highest Imperial authorities in England and South Africa, the project collapsed, and was never again revived. Hence- forward native administration in Natal took its normal course, amidst constant criticism and controversy, but without any violent attempts at revolutionary change. The Commission to which I have referred took a great deal of valuable evidence and adopted a very exhaustive and luminous Report, but little in the way of substantial result came of it. In 1856 the Royal Charter, estab- lishing a representative Legislature, was promulgated. Mr. Shcpstone's office became that of Secretary for Native Affairs, and the controversies to which I have referred in a previous chapter 1 engaged public atten- tion between the years 1857 and 1862. From time to time laws were passed to secure better control of the natives, or to modify such native customs as might be repugnant to or in conflict with the usages 1 Chap. VI. THE NATIVES 301 and interests of civilisation. But on the whole what was known as the " Shepstonian policy " prevailed, in despite of the abuse and denunciations heaped upon it. Mr. Shepstone was a silent, stubborn man, whose power of resistance was passive rather than aggressive. He was found fault with less for what he did than for what he failed to do. The charge commonly levelled against him and his methods was that of laissez faire. He was accused of doing nothing — of standing still — instead of moving on. Ardent regenerators yearned to attack the main citadels of barbarism — polygamy, wife-barter, witchcraft, and idleness. They would fain have passed measures to abolish polygamy, to forbid the exchange of cattle for wives, to punish witch-doctors and penalise their practices ; to compel the natives to work for wages, and with that end in view to increase the taxation imposed upon them ; to apprentice the children, above a certain age, and to register the whole native popula- tion throughout the Colony. As a rule the missionaries contended for these changes, or for most of them, with the one notable exception of Bishop Colenso, who for years protested against any forcible interference with the existing marriage institutions of the natives. I do not pretend to reflect the heated controversies which in those years centred around these questions. Volumes might easily be filled with a review of them. Cut off from frequent communication with the outer world — with only a monthly mail-service, and no ocean cable — .colonists had more time for academical discussion 302 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA than they have now, and confined within the narrower arena of their own topics and interests, they debated vexed questions with a vehemency and persistency which seldom mark their controversies in these busier and fuller times. Supported as he usually was in his attitude of passive resistance to sudden change by the Governors and Secretaries of State of the day, Mr. Shepstone went on his way doing as little as possible in the direction of innovation or reform, and only yield- ing when he could hold out no longer. Thus it has come to pass that after fifty years of British rule the native population of Natal has swollen in numbers from 100,000 to 500,000, and yet in its general conditions and aspects it remains very much the same people that were found in the Colony half a century ago. Yet by no means altogether so, as I shall shortly show. For Mr. Shepstone's inertia was qualified by legislative activity, and though he was slow to move, in the end he did advance, in the direc- tion of a more vigorous and enlightened policy. The conjunction of these two influences in the }^ears between I860 and 1880, while it prevented actual retrogression or absolute inaction, was eminently con- servative and salutary in its effects. Whatever changes might be introduced were carried out with care and caution — were deliberate and tentative, not violent or radical. Though I was usually on the side of a progressive policy, looking back to those days in the light of subsequent experience, it seems to me now THE NATIVES 303 that the peace and order that have so conspicuously marked the history of Natal have been greatly due to this admixture of official conservatism with colonial progressiveness. While barbarism has been curbed, and while civilisation has made some headway, native animosities have not been aroused, nor native dis- content fostered. Let me here state categorically some of the changes which have been peacefully effected by legislation since the Royal Charter first gave the colonists a share and a voice in their own govern- ment : — 1. The yearly hut-tax has been increased from 7s. to 14s. a hut, and has at all times been paid without a murmur. 2. Marriages are conducted under strict legal super- vision, and the fee or dowry payable by a bridegroom is limited to eight cows on each wife ; whose voluntary acquiescence is also required. 3. The location lands are all vested in a Board of Native Trust, consisting of the Governor and Executive Council of the Colony. 4. Chiefs have had their powers defined and limited ; they receive small annual stipends, and their succes- sion is most carefully regulated and dealt with by the Secretary for Native Affairs, according to recog- nised rules and usages, and subject, more or less, to the concurrence of the tribe. 5. An elaborate codification of native law has been 304 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA effected by experts. It is based upon established native customs and canons, and though it embodies usages that are distinctly at variance with many Anglo- Saxon ideas, it has been purged from more revolting associations. 0. A native High Court of three specially qualified judges (one of them is a Dutch Africander) has been created for the trial of more serious offences between native and native. 7. A permanent Under Secretary for Native Affairs is provided for under the Constitution Act of 1893, to secure fixity of official representation in the eyes of the natives. 8. An appropriation of £10,000 per annum is set apart by the same Act for the improvement and welfare of the natives. 9. All qualified mission schools — they number 188 — receive yearly grants in aid from the public ex- chequer. 10. Though witch-doctors are not absolutely done away with, the practice of witchcraft is sternly dis- couraged and forbidden, and cases of violence due thereto are severely punished Avhenever detected. Though none of these measures can fairly be called revolutionary, they make a distinct advance upon aboriginal conditions, and they have been readily sub- mitted to, or acquiesced in, by the natives themselves. I can call to mind only one occasion upon which the THE NATIVES 305 enforcement of law has been openly resisted, and that was the refusal of Langalibalele in 1873 to register the guns purchased by his people at the diamond- fields. I have already described this incident. 1 It recalls another cardinal point in our native adminis- tration. Though there has been a general disposition to leave the native in uncurbed enjoyment of his customary freedom and immunities, colonial policy has debarred him from three privileges, namely — The right to acquire firearms. The right to buy or acquire liquor. The right to vote. All classes of the community have agreed that these disqualifications are necessitated in the interests of peace and order, and by a regard for the natives themselves. The native not unnaturally attaches an undue value to the possession of guns, as weapons both of offence and defence. Thus armed, he is apt to deem himself a match for the white man. He be- comes truculent and warlike. This was clearly shown in the case of Langalibalele. Other instances could be cited outside Natal. Precisely the same influence operated upon the Boer mind in connection with the present war. The Dutch Africanders thought that, armed with Mauser rifles and Creusot cannon, they could drive the rooineh into the sea. The natives of Natal have no use whatever for guns, except to de- stroy monkeys, or other depredators of their crops, and 1 Chap. v. U 30G A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA in cases of that sort special permits are sometimes granted to deserving and trustworthy applicants. The right to hold a gun, or fowling-piece, under such con- ditions is regarded as a special privilege, and is occa- sionally conceded as a reward for fidelity and good service. Experience has clearly shown that the habit of carrying lethal weapons is inimical to general security, and this is especially the case in a community of African natives divided by tribal feuds, jealousies, and rivalries. As it is, the sticks and knobkerries which are commonly borne by the native as he moves about the country are far too often employed as weapons of offence, in the frequent faction fights that occur between tribe and tribe. The law deals strictly with the offenders in these frays, in which heads are often broken, and now and then life is lost. Fines are imposed all round, and ringleaders are sometimes imprisoned. The belligerents do not resent these punishments. They have had their fun and they are prepared to pay for it. The frequency of such inci- dents, however, serves to show how little unity exists among the native population, and how devoid the natives are of a cementing common cause. It also proves how wise and necessary is the restriction which keeps modern implements of destruction out of the hands of a savage race. Can we doubt that this policy has largely to be thanked for the complete security of person and life which has prevailed in Natal ever since it became a British settlement? If the native THE NATIVES 307 has been denied the use of firearms, the white man has been under no compulsion to carry them. You may travel, and men constantly do travel, from end to end of Natal along the public roads, or by lonely by-ways through remote locations, without any means of defence other than a riding-switch. Not less efficacious in preventing disorder has been the prohibition of the sale of liquor. The native dearly loves intoxicants. A glass of grog tempts him as nothing else will. He sips it with a pious unction that is almost comical in its ecstasy. Had he free access to the seductive cup, his degeneracy would soon be sealed. This is shown at Johannesburg, where for several years the liquor trade was virtually uncurbed, and where even now prohibitory regulations are systematically evaded. It is a matter of common complaint that the natives who flock to the gold mines, in quest of the high wages ruling there, come back corrupted and spoiled. For many years much trouble was caused by the manufacture, in the coast districts, of " Shimyaan," a concoction of treacle and water allowed to ferment in the sun. This beverage was maddening in its effects, and the parent of much crime. The natives, fortunately both for themselves and the community, have realised how pernicious the mixture is, and we hear much less of its production than of yore. Con- sidering that large quantities of rum are made at the sugar plantations, it is surprising that drunkenness is not more rife amongst the natives, though in the 308 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA season of beer-drinkings, when the natives gather at their kraals to drink the fermented produce of the newly harvested millet, there is much boozing and excitement. Though the liquor laws are often evaded at the back doors of roadside hostelries and country stores, where rum is illicitly sold as "paraffin," their value and efficacy are vindicated not less by what they prevent than by their failures. Cynical observers have suggested that the easiest way to settle the "native question" would be to abolish all restrictions on the sale of liquor, and thus to leave the native free to destroy himself as fast as he likes ; but such a rule of action (I will not call it a " principle ") will never, I venture to believe, defile the policy of Natal in its treatment of the native races. The exclusion of the natives from the franchise is so obvious a necessity of circumstances that it hardly calls for comment. The electoral franchise is a privilege which the natives would fail to understand, and would only exercise, did they possess it, under the guidance, if not the dictation, of some superior influence or authority. Were it certain that that guidance would be shaped by strictly patriotic motives, and directed to wise and benevolent ends, this might not in itself be an unmixed evil. But there is no sort of guarantee that the natives would be so led. On the contrary, there is every reason to fear that they would be the prey of party or interested agitators, and that their votes would be cast on the side of perilous or mis- THE NATIVES 309 chievous legislation. The natives, moreover, would be the great majority. Their representatives might make or unmake Ministries. Race cleavage would be the dominant factor in deciding elections. Race bitterness and discord would rend and curse the country. Public opinion amongst the European electors of Natal is so united and so earnest on this question that in 1896 the, first Responsible Ministry of Natal, with the cog- nisance of the Home Government, introduced a measure which excluded from the franchise persons " who (not being of European origin) are natives or descendants in the male line of natives of countries which have not hitherto possessed elective representative institutions founded on the Parliamentary franchise, unless they shall first obtain an order from the Governor in Council exempting them from the operation of this Act." This measure had first been submitted in a more restrictive and specific form, and at no stage met with opposition in the Colonial Parliament, but, in deference to repre- sentations from Mr Chamberlain, who shrunk from placing an apparent stigma upon any class of her Majesty's subjects, the law was finally modified, as will be seen, so as to exclude any direct application to race or colour, and power was given to the Governor in Council to admit to the franchise any specially qualified and approved applicants. I may add that the proposal had its origin primarily in the apparent probability that the electoral roll might be swamped at no distant date by illiterate and inexperienced Asiatic voters. 310 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA As regards the natives, no objection was raised from any quarter to a measure which only gave legislative expression and effect to a practice that had been in vogue ever since the Charter was first promulgated, Native electors have at all times been conspicuous by their absence from the voters' rolls of the Colony. In 1865 a law was passed under which the Governor was empowered, under certain very definite conditions, to admit to the franchise any native who had been exempted from the operation of native law, but as a matter of fact scarcely any appreciable use has been made of this privilege, possibly because of the restric- tions attending it. The natives have neither missed nor craved for a privilege which only a very few amongst them, who have been civilised and educated, appreciate or understand. That the question of native representation will bulk more and more largely in the future is as certain as that the natives — or some of them — will advance in civilisation and in culture, in wealth and property, as time goes on. So far this question has remained quiescent, and it is to be hoped that it will remain so ; at any rate until the federation of South Africa, and the establishment of a Federal Parliament, has pro- vided the means whereby such questions can be dealt with from the standpoint of national interest and responsibility. At present it cannot be said that the native races have any direct or responsible represen- tation in any South African legislature. Individual THE NATIVES 311 members who may happen to have been brought into close personal contact with the natives contribute out of their knowledge and experience to the information of their colleagues when native topics are under debate, but of any actual voicing of native views or aspirations there is none. In New Zealand this has been effected by the introduction of Maori members into Parliament itself. In South Africa there would be much repug- nance to such an innovation on the part of the white electors, and yet it is obviously desirable to get at the native mind in matters that affect native life and interests. How the problem presented by these con- flicting requirements and prejudices is to be solved remains to be seen. Meanwhile it is encouraging to know that in the Parliaments of both the British colonies, so far, there has been no violation of those principles of justice, humanity, and good faith that have been the glory of Anglo-Saxon policy in the treatment of subject races. The ebullitions of race feeling which occasionally drop from the lips of Africander members when native questions are under discussion must be interpreted in the light of history. They may at any rate claim to be sincere. Year has followed year, decade has succeeded to decade, half a century has passed, and still the native population of Natal thrives and grows, and spreads and multiplies, without any material change in its domestic conditions. The locations set apart for its occupation have been added to from time to time, 312 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA but long ago all the spare land available for the pur- pose was appropriated, and such of the people as desire to do so have to find homes as tenants of private lands, or possibly, if rich enough to purchase, as landowners themselves. No law is in force which prohibits the ownership of land by either native or Asiatic. The proscription of " colour " as a disquali- fication for the possession of immovable property was a distinction confined to the late Dutch republics. A good many " farms " have been bought by native chiefs or native communities, and interesting ques- tions are likely to arise as time goes on in connec- tion with the tribal or communal administration of these estates. A large area of private land is occupied by native tenants, mostly on a yearly tenure, and at a rental ranging from £2 to £5 per hut. It is an easy mode of raising an income from land held by absent proprietors, but on economic grounds there is much to be said against it. Colonial feeling would much rather that these lands were occupied by Euro- pean residents, whose improvement of the soil would contribute materially and manifestly to the advance- ment and betterment of the Colony. For though the native is a loyal, peaceful, and law- abiding subject, though he seems contented with his condition and happy in his surroundings, he lives very much as his predecessors lived centuries ago. His hut may be bigger, so as to reduce the burden of rental and taxation, but his kraal is less shipshape THE NATIVES SI 6 and symmetrical as a village or hamlet than it was when the first delineators of the country limned and described it. In those days it was a circle of from six to a dozen huts, more or less, with an inner en- closure for cattle and an outer fence. Now it consists ordinarily of two or three huts planted promiscuously on the hill-side or hill-top, with the cattle-fold, less carefully constructed than of yore, in close proximity. These huts are just the same perishable grass-built, bee- hive-like structures, innocent of door or window, that they have ever been, and the people who live in them — when at home — are no more clad than they used to be. Clothes are worn freely enough when in service, but in the seclusion of their own kraals the natives are still content to clothe their nakedness in the slender girdles or loin-cloths that satisfied their an- cestors. Nor is their food much changed from what it was when the old navigators visited the country. The taste for salt or treacle has developed, and the native gladly eats bread when he can get it ; but his culinary methods continue as crude and primitive as ever. The general conduct of his daily life — his work, his hunts, his feastings, his celebrations, his marriage ceremonies, his indabas — differ little from the vogue and usage of the past. Yet it must not be supposed by any means that no progress has been made. Imperceptibly in many ways the native has levelled-up towards the higher life of his white neighbours. He works for wages far more 314 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA generally than he did. Though a few months' service in most cases suffices to satisfy his needs, and leads him to bend his footsteps homeward, he is glad to seek employment either in the Colony or at Johannes- burg in all sorts of capacities — in households, in stores, on farms, in transport work, on public works, as " togt " Kafirs, by the day or the job, or as ricksha-pullers. Cheerful, apt, and ready, though often careless and evasive, he plays a prominent and active part in the industrial life of the community. Though the colo- nists often deplore his unreliability and cupidity, they would sorely miss his services were his existence to be blotted out. Native girls, moreover, are more and more disposed to enter domestic service. One of the oddest contrasts of habit is the fondness of these girls for dress and finery when in town or in service, and their readiness on returning to their kraals to cast off all the trappings of civilisation, and to revert to the simple garb of Eden. This remark does not, of course, apply to the denizens of mission stations, who keep decently clad, both at home and abroad, all through the year. Then too, as an advance in civilisation, must be credited to the natives their use of ploughs, their use of picks instead of rude hoes, and their acquisition of waggons for employment in road transport. Just as the hoe used to be the implement of the woman, so is the plough the instrument of the man. The change signifies a much larger area of cultivation THE NATIVES 315 and an improved status for women. On the latter point, indeed, the difference worked by time, law, and civilised intercourse is a marked gain to civilisation. Women have ceased to be mere dumb chattels and slaves, to be beaten, cowed, and misused. They have had their status and their rights secured to them, and they act accordingly. The girl cannot be disposed of against her will, or without power of protest, while the woman has become a factor to be recognised and re- spected, with a voice which she knows well enough how to use when occasion arises. In the draping of her person the woman of the kraal has advanced even less than the man. She comes into town to visit her male relatives with just as little costume on her as suffices to meet the elementary requirements of the law — that she be covered from neck to knee. In respect of native education the policy of the Colony has been neither vigorous nor comprehensive. The reserved appropriation of £5000 per annum for "Native Purposes" in the Royal Charter had the effect of stifling any interest which the non-official members of the Legislature might otherwise have taken in the subject. The Crown having reserved to itself the right of making provision for the higher needs of the natives, elected members felt themselves absolved from any responsibility in the matter. The representatives of the Crown failed for some years to include native education within the scope of their energies. In earlier years money was spent to little 316 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA purpose in the support of a central sugar-mill and in the encouragement of cotton-planting, but without appreciable result. Much has been said about indus- trial schools, but the only effort made in that direc- tion under Government auspices was so stunted in its shape that it soon collapsed. For many years past the action of the Government has been confined to the subsidising of all the mission schools of the Colony, irrespective of nationality or creed. At the end of last year 188 different schools received such aid. Twenty- six of them were boarding-schools attended by 2087 children. They represented Protestant and Catholic churches, conducted by mission bodies of all denomi- nations, and they had a total school-roll of 10,725. Whatever may have been the merits or demerits of native administration in Natal, whether it has erred in excess of toleration and indulgence, or failed in dis- ciplinary grasp and progressive tendency, it has, at any rate, produced a contented, loyal, and light-hearted population. Visitors have not been twenty-four hours in Durban before they notice the airy, cheerful, uncon- strained demeanour of the natives around them. They remark it at the water-side, on the very threshold of the Colony, where the crowds of natives working on the wharves, engaged in loading and unloading the vessels that lie alongside, haul and carry, and lift and pass their burdens, regardless of heat or rain, with a merry abandonment and an apparent zest in labour that bespeak perfect contentment with life and its burdens. THE NATIVES 317 They note it in the streets and roads, where the ricksha- pullers bound and shout, and coax for fares, as though their task were the most delightful pastime under the sun. They see it everywhere ; in the driving of laden trollies and waggons, in the bearing of messengers and errand-boys, of " kitchen-boys " and " store Kafirs," and in the carriage-loads of crowding, chattering, happy people (of both sexes) that enliven the railway trains. If they go into the country, they have the same ex- perience amongst the field hands of sugar plantations, or the herd-boys that tend the cattle or the sheep in outlying stock-farms. And if they wander yet farther afield and observe the native at home in his kraal and in his location lands, they find a race leading a life of almost idyllic freedom and repose, with as much absence of real cause for care, as much enjoyment of the primal elements of existence, as any people unen- cumbered by the obligations of civilisation could desire. If crops fail or stock dies, food can always be purchased with the wages that are the equivalent of work, and work can always be secured at the cost of their white neighbours. If it be scarce in their own neighbour- hood, it can be found at distant centres to which the railway now carries them at a trivial cost. Taxation imposes little burden. The paternal Government which provides them with security and justice, asks in return a payment so small that the produce of a few fowls, or the wages of a small boy, will suffice to meet it. In former years a particular fowl, dubbed " Shepstone's 318 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA hen," would be set apart for the satisfaction, by the sale of its eggs or chickens, of the yearly tax-gatherer. Natives who choose to live outside the locations on private lands have, of course, heavier rent-charges to pay, but where prices of produce rule so high, and where the demand for labour is ever so pressing, they have really little difficulty in satisfying their landlords. The continued loyalty of the natives of Natal con- clusively confutes the predictions of the old Dutch pio- neers, who fifty years ago denounced English systems of native control and management as certain to result in discord and bloodshed. To this day the same men, or their descendants, plead colonial methods of native treat- ment as a barrier to British rule or intercolonial union. Yet the facts I have endeavoured to set forth, how- ever briefly, in these pages are incontrovertible. The loyalty of our natives has again and again withstood the severest strain. Ties of racial sympathy have not been strong enough to snap it. Shocks of calamity have not availed to shake it. Langalibalele's rebellion drew within its radius of disaffection but one neighbouring tribe. Through the tremendous crisis of the Zulu war our natives remained absolutely stanch and loyal. Though they saw British troops overwhelmed and massacred, though they knew that the Colony was for weeks at the mercy of Cetywayo's hordes, they did not waver in their allegiance, nor lift a hostile hand against their white fellow-subjects. On the contrary they fought gallantly by the side of our forces, only asking to be led THE NATIVES 319 by men who knew their language and their ways, a splendid tribute to the confidence which the colonists had inspired. The bravery and fidelity shown in the field by the organised mission natives of Edendale were unreservedly recognised at the time by Sir Garnet Wolseley and Sir Evelyn Wood. But not on such occasions only has native loyalty been tested. In 1893 and 1894 smallpox broke out in the Colony amongst the native kraals, and vigorous measures of suppression were resorted to. Although the restrictions and obligations imposed were repugnant to native prejudices and ideas they were willingly submitted to, and the pestilence was subdued; simply because the natives had faith in the humanity and wise intentions of their rulers. The plague of locusts then ravaged the country, destroying impartially the crops of white and black alike. Again the natives acquiesced without a murmur in the measures devised to combat the pest, and co-operated to the very utmost of their ability in whatever duties were required of them for the extirpation of the common plague. But a yet sorer strain upon their patience and submission was imposed by rinderpest. To the Zulu his cattle are his most cherished possession. They share with his wives and women the most ardent cravings of his nature. Every one of them is the fond object of his daily thoughts and observation. They represent to him riches, property, and preoccupation. As the dread murrain swept slowly but relentlessly southward its possible effects upon 320 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the native mind added greatly to the disquietude of local administrators. How the natives would act under the wholesale destruction of their stock was a most alarming factor in the prospect. In efforts to keep out the invader the most stringent measures had to be resorted to. Cattle in infected districts had to be destroyed without pity or exception. All the steps taken were futile. The plague pursued the ruthless tenor of its way. Natal and Zululand, like the neigh- bouring territories, were devastated. The herds of both white and black were mown down like grass under the scythe. Yet through it all the natives of both Natal and Zululand maintained an attitude of uncomplain- ing calm. They submitted to their losses with stoical equanimity. No protest against their white rulers passed their lips. They knew how strenuously those rulers had striven, first to repel, and then to battle with the plague ; they knew that they suffered in common with every white stockholder, and they prepared, as their neighbours did, to repair their losses and to cope with misfortune. And now the fiery ordeal of war has once again tried the temper and proved the genuineness of native loyalty. The splendid behaviour and self-restraint of the vast native population of South Africa during the present struggle must have been a revelation to the world of what British rule has been in and to South Africa to the coloured races within its influence. How anxiously the representatives of the Empire have awaited possibilities THE NATIVES 321 only they can say. Not that they can have had any doubt as to the side upon which native sympathies would be cast. No student of South African affairs can have been in doubt on that point. The natives know by too long and too bitter experience what they might expect were the Boer to become the dominant power, and were the restraining hand and example of Great Britain to be withdrawn from the scene. Anxiety con- cerning the natives during this crisis has been twofold : (1) as regards the possible effect of complete or con- tinual Boer successes upon the native mind, and (2) as regards the ability of the British authorities to hold back the natives from joining in the fray. That the natives everywhere have longed to take part in the war against their ancient enemy — to pay off old scores, and to assist in his humiliation — has never been doubted. At all points they have been straining in the leash. In Natal they have yearned to be led into the field ; to do something to help in the war. In the upper districts they have seen the Colony invaded by the enemy, its northern towns abandoned or besieged, and colonial authority superseded by that of the republics. Boer forces have roamed through some of their locations, and their crops, their herds, and their flocks have — to an extent that is yet unknown — been at the mercy of the invader. They have witnessed the victorious march of a great Boer commando through country occupied by British settlers, and the looting of the property of those settlers by the raiders. They have seen a large British force 322 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA shut up for four months in Ladismith, and yet larger British forces vainly striving to fight their way to its relief through Boer intrenchments on the Tugela. They themselves before the war broke out were coaxed to join the Boers in their struggle for supremacy. Yet in spite of all they have never wavered in their allegiance nor have doubted the certainty of British victory in the end. Whenever an opportunity has occurred they have voluntarily given expression to their sympathy with the power that rules them. On two occasions chiefs have sent contributions of coin to the relief funds, saying that though they are debarred from fighting for the Queen as they fain would fight, they want to show in some other way their sympathy for her brave soldiers. What has happened in Natal and Zululand — where for many years the natives have been governed by colonial ministers — has happened in Pondoland, in Kafirland, in Basutoland, and partially in Swaziland. British influence has been strong enough to curb the passionate longings of the natives to help in the conflict with the Boer, and to confine that conflict to a struggle between white men only. Whatever the vicissitudes of the war may have been, British men will be able to look back upon them with perfect clearness of conscience in so far as the action of their Government and countrymen on this point is concerned. Had the latter chosen to let loose the native-born dogs of war upon their foes the horrors of the campaign would have shocked mankind, but no such outrage upon humanity has at any moment THE NATIVES 323 been possible. And the Boers have to thank the opera- tion of the much-despised policy of the Anglo-Saxon for their salvation from such a calamity. I cannot more fitly close this chapter than by citing the impartial testimony voluntarily borne by the oldest missionary body in the country to the character of colonial rule over the native population. The American Zulu Mission of Natal had its representatives there before the British Government had actually taken pos- session. For sixty years it has worked quietly but zealously, and at all times its relations with the Govern- ment and the colonists have been amicable and har- monious. In February last, its missionaries felt impelled to express their " sympathy with the suffering Colony," and they did so in generous and touching words : " We have been identified with the Colony since its founda- tion, and have shared, together with the colonists, its vicissitudes. But there has been no time like the pre- sent. A hostile army is firmly intrenched within its borders ; fathers and sons are giving their lives in its de- fence ; a multitude of homes are filled with anxiety, and some with anguish ; a fair town is closely beleaguered ; thousands of refugees are homeless among us ; sad re- verses have deferred hope, though they have stimulated determination. . . . Our missionaries from first to last have experienced great kindness from Government and people. . . . We are not a political body, and are bound to avoid political entanglements, but it is only just that as a Missionary Society, which has had the interests 324 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of the native races at heart for so many years, we should bear testimony to the truth we believe at such a judgment-forming crisis. We believe that, as fur as the great work in our hands is concerned — the enlighten- ment and development of the native races — the British are incomparably more humane and enlightened in their native policy than any other political PoAver in South Africa. The task is a vast and difficult one for any Government. For to elect and perfect a policy which shall be far-seeing, firm, and just for an over- whelming mass of people but one remove from savagery, is sufficient to tax the statesmanship of the world. We desire to declare here and over the sea, without pre- judice to the neutrality of the American nation to which we belong, without flattery or political bias, our appreciation of the administration of law and order on behalf of the black races under the tegis of freedom- loving Britain." Such is the tribute paid by the ministers and citizens of the great Republic, to the work done by Great Britain and her colonists amongst the native races of South Africa — after the Government of the Colony, and the administration of native affairs, had been for more than six years in the hands of the settlers. The system of Government has changed, but the principles laid down by the statesmen who founded the Colony are as faith- fully observed under the rule of the colonists as they were under the rule of the Crown. CHAPTER XI THE WAR— ITS GENESIS AND ITS REVELATIONS Speaking at the South African Dinner in London on the 18th of May last year, I used these words : " The three cardinal conditions upon which our hopes of peaceful development in South Africa appear to rest are those embodied in the time-honoured trinity — 'Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.' Freedom as self-governing communities under the British flag; equal rights of citizenship to all civilised men ; brotherhood of feeling and action between States and races. Given these, and I see no reason why peace and progress should not go hand in hand in South Africa throughout a long and happy future." That was, I believe, the general convic- tion of all fair-minded colonists at the time. The as- pirations thus expressed were in strict conformity with Sir Alfred Milner's demands and the Uitlanders' re- quirements. It seemed to me then, speaking after an absence from South Africa of more than two years, that they were capable of realisation. When asked in England last year as to the probabilities of war, I replied that, as far as I could see in the light of such information as I had, there was no warrant for a belief that war was inevitable, that there was nothing in the 325 326 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA situation to justify despair of a peaceful issue. If the legitimate demands of the Imperial Government for the redress of Uitlander grievances were firmly but temper- ately pressed — as they were — I believed that President Kruger and his advisers would in the end comply with them. I thought then, however, that the real question at issue was much less the concession of this or that privilege to the Uitlander than the supremacy of Great Britain as the paramount power in South Africa. The suzerainty rather than the franchise was the actual bone of contention. The course of diplomacy had clothed the grievances of British subjects in the Trans- vaal with an importance which properly pertained to a matter of far graver moment. When a few weeks later I arrived in South Africa, it became evident that the controversy had narrowed and simplified. The Bloemfontein Conference had ended without result so far as its ostensible objects were con- cerned, but with a very definite result in another direc- tion — namely, the disclosure of President Kruger's fixed resolve to be satisfied with nothing short of full inde- pendence " as an international sovereign state." Out of the mist of discussion, with its evasions, equivocations, and quibblings, that resolve stood revealed, and to that extent the Conference was by no means abortive. Everything that happened subsequently, all that I heard and read, made more and more manifest the fact that British supremacy was the one thing hanging in THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 327 the balance. Conversations with leading men on both sides deepened the conviction that the struggle was a contest for existence between Boerdom and the Empire, between British paramountcy or Republican domina- tion. Even then, however, a doubt prevailed whether, in the last resort, when England's readiness to hold her own at any cost was clearly demonstrated and seen, President Kruger might not yield — at any rate to such a point as to make it difficult for the Empire to demand further guarantees. I had not been back in Natal a week before it became indubitable that nothing short of disarmament would suffice to secure the peace of South Africa, and to assert the supremacy of Great Britain. Mere paper promises or engagements would be worth- less as safeguards or conditions as long as every Boer, old and young, was armed with a Mauser rifle and equipped with unlimited ammunition ; as long as splen- didly built forts, bristling with modern guns, frowned over Pretoria and Johannesburg ; as long as trained bands of foreign and home-bred artillerymen stood ready to uphold Boer pretensions and exercise Boer domination. Even then, none of us had any adequate conception of what the Boer preparations and arma- ments consisted. How misled Imperial authorities were on that point imminent events were soon to reveal. Englishmen are naturally optimistic where their own resources and capabilities are involved. Great Britain has been so long the dominant power in South Africa that it was hard to realise any serious menace to her 328 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA position. Up to the issue of the Boer ultimatum no apprehension of immediate danger was indicated any- where. Whatever anxieties may have been felt by either the Colonial or the Imperial Government were not suffered to appear. That as early as May the Natal Government had had reason to be " nervous " the Blue- Book has told us ; but their contentment with the slender promise against attack made by the Imperial authorities shows clearly enough how completely they, like the rest of South Africa, failed to grasp the magni- tude of the peril that threatened both the colonies and the Empire. At that time an addition of 2000 men to the Imperial garrison in Natal was deemed sufficient by the local authorities ; while the despatch of an army corps, of say 35,000 men, was regarded in London as ample to meet any emergency that might arise, or as an effective demonstration of British supremacy. These facts may surely be accepted as conclusive evi- dence that war was not regarded as a probable or an im- minent contingency either in the mother country or the colonies. Nor would war have broken out had President Kruerer and his Government chosen to recosrnise the suzerainty of the Queen, and to deal honestly and fairly with the Uitlanders. But they had other ends in view. They did not at heart desire a peaceful solution of pend- ing difficulties. They might have been content Avith peace for a time, had England submitted to their pre- tensions and abated or abandoned her demands. But THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 329 it would have been only for a time. They were ready for war, they had prepared for war, and they were only awaiting their opportunity to try conclusions with the power they hoped to oust. It would take volumes to describe at length the causes which led to a state of things so feebly realised on the spot by those most competent to grasp the situation. Other writers have ably undertaken this task, and there is no occasion to traverse the ground they have so usefully occupied. My purpose here is simply to set forth as succinctly as I can the incidents and the influences that seem to me to have brought about the present conflict. The experience of fifty years as a colonist, thirty-seven of which have been spent in public life, emboldens me to add these im- pressions to the common testimony. The war, I submit, has its roots in the following causes : — 1. Boer dislike to and distrust of the Englishman. 2. Hollander influence. 3. The workings of the Africander Bond. 4. Boer delusions after Majuba. 5. The fruits of gold discovery. 6. The Jameson Raid. Boer relations towards the English are not easily defined. They are mixed and not uniform. Collec- tively they are distrustful if not hostile. Individually 330 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA they are very much the product of immediate circum- stances. The Boers never forget that the Cape Colony, from which they all spring, was a conquered country. Their fathers were its first settlers. The British fol- lowed. They forget that the conquest of the Cape of Good Hope was subsequently acquiesced in by the Government of Holland, and that England paid hand- somely for whatever rights she acquired there. In the earlier years of British rule, administrative methods were not as amiable as they became later on. The hand of Government was felt. British legislation was not in harmony with the settlers' interests or with Batavian methods. The Dutch regarded all coloured races as inferior people, as hewers of wood and drawers of water. Slavery was an established institution. When it was abolished they were wholly dissatisfied with the compensation awarded to them. They were still more offended by the treatment of native affairs. The vacillations of Imperial policy puzzled and provoked them. Their own processes of dealing with the natives were sharp, summary, and decisive. British processes were variable, indulgent, and to them incomprehensible. The ways of philanthropy in their eyes were ways of folly and madness, tending to disaster and destruction. The black man was the natural enemy of the white man, and must be ruled with a stern hand. He was the marauder of cattle and the despoiler of homes, and life with him was only possible so long as he was kept in a subject and servile condition. The Bible told THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 331 them that God had given His people the heathen for their inheritance and the outermost parts of the earth for their possession. Then, as now, the Old Testament was the citadel of the Boer's faith in his own destiny and in his own exclusive rights. The attacks made by missionaries and emissaries of Exeter Hall upon the colonial treatment of the natives, embellished as they were by many calumnious exaggerations, and unjust as they were in their undiscriminating censures, embit- tered the minds of the settlers and intensified their discontent with existing conditions. The famous and deplorable incident of " Slagter's Nek," revived by President Steyn and Mr. Reitz in their inflammatory manifestoes, arose out of the insolent refusal of a Dutch colonist to allow of any interference on the part of Justice between him and his Hottentot servants. " He told the Field-Cornet that he set at de- fiance both himself and the magistrate, and falling upon Booy," the Hottentot, " gave him a severe beating, and bade him go and tell the authorities that he would treat them, including the Governor, in the same manner if they should dare to come upon his ground to claim the property of a Hottentot." I refer to this story — which has been industriously served up, after the lapse of eighty-four years, in a wholly misleading and distorted form, in order to excite Africander passions — as an in- dication of the feeling which more and more estranged the Boer colonist from his British rulers and neigh- bours. Where the natives were concerned their two 332 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA points of view were irreconcilable. The Boer could not brook the thought of any equality of law for the two races. Estrangement and separation were the natural outgrowth of so complete a variance of thought and practice. The impulses and cravings which led the Boers to migrate beyond the Orange River have never ceased to operate as a cause of cleavage. Though Great Britain cannot be said at any time to have foregone her claim to political supremacy in South Africa, she did dis- tinctly, by solemn covenant, hand over to the settlers of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal the right to manage their own affairs. She thereby encouraged them to aspire to a measure of independence which, had her statesmen cared to think about it, was certain sooner or later to be in conflict with her own claims to sovereignty. Though the Convention of 1854, which declared the inhabitants of the Free State to be " to all intents and purposes a free and independent people, and their Government to be treated and considered thenceforth a free and independent Government," was never formally confirmed and ratified by the special instrument provided for, and though, therefore, they have never been legally freed " from their allegiance to the British Crown," the general spirit of the Convention has been observed in so far as the internal administra- tion of the country is concerned. And as events have proved, the Boers themselves have construed all the Conventions entered into with them in a spirit of com- THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 333 prehensiveness far in excess of the scope contemplated by Imperial statesmen. In other words, the existence of the two republics and the attitude of the British Government towards those communities have fostered the idea of republican independence in the Boer mind throughout South Africa, and have kept constantly under the eye of the Boer the embodiment of a political ideal in which Dutch influence, Dutch language, and Dutch modes of thought are dominating factors. The necessary result has been the establishment of two opposing interests in South Africa — the British and colonial on one side, and the Dutch Africander and republican on the other. That the sympathies of the Dutch-speaking settlers everywhere should gravitate to the latter was inevitable, and as the two are in a sense antagonistic, the natural effect has been the nourish- ment and spread of an anti-British spirit on the part of the Dutch population. The republics became identi- fied with land en volk, with country and race; Great Britain and her colonies were regarded as alien and usurpatory. Dutch Africanders forgot that the repub- lics owed every jot of their freedom to the generosity of Great Britain, and that in the colonies they enjoyed perfect equality of right and privilege with their fellow- citizens of British descent. They only remembered that in the republics the Dutch were the dominant and ruling race, and that in the colonies the Queen of England was the sovereign power. This feeling of prejudice or antipathy has been 334 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA fostered by home influences. The Boer is essentially a domestic being. Living on isolated farms, he sees little of other men, least of all of men of other races. His women are more bitter in their race prejudices, as a rule, than he is himself. His mother teaches him in childhood to distrust and dislike the rooinek. His mind is stored in infancy with the grim legends of the past. He has little chance of knowing better or of learning the truth. Much might be said, moreover, concerning the hostile influence exercised by the Predikants, or ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, in this respect. The Dutch parson is even a more powerful personality in Boer households than are the Roman priest or the Scottish minister in their own spheres. There are no doubt exceptions, but as a rule it is to be feared that the Predikant has been the most active propagandist of anti-English prejudice or feeling throughout recent years. It may frankly be conceded that events have co-oper- ated to strengthen these antipathies. The absence of fixity of purpose — of clearly defined and firmly pursued principle — that has so notoriously marked Imperial policy in the past has conduced to, if it has not abso- lutely created and justified, distrust and suspicion. Had England from the first held on unflinchingly to her great cause and mission there would have been no wax to-day. Had she been as resolute in holding the states of the interior as she was, most fortunately, in clinging to Natal, South Africa would years ago have been a THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 335 great dominion. She has had splendid representatives in South Africa, who have clearly perceived the outlines of Imperial duty, and who (each in his time) have not shrunk from indicating and urging them, but their voices have passed unheeded. Sir Benjamin Durban, Sir George Napier, Sir George Grey, and Sir Bartle Frere all saw the truth and boldly proclaimed it, but their appeals fell on deaf ears, their warnings were ignored, and their policy discredited. Had the Orange River sovereignty not been abandoned ; had the Boers in the Transvaal, like the Boers in Natal, been kept under the firm restraints of British sovereignty; had South Africa been treated as India has been, with reference to the large interests of the future rather than in deference to the changing caprices of party expedi- ency for the moment, history at the end of the cen- tury would have presented a very different retrospect. England, in the eyes of her Boer subjects, would then indeed have seemed the " Grave Mother of majestic works," not the fickle power blown about by the winds of transient impulse — of party warfare — snatching one year what she surrenders another, and drifting, under the direction of no settled policy, towards unseen and unshaped consequences. It must not be supposed, however, that Dutch and English are incapable of harmonious admixture in the ordinary affairs of life. Under normal circumstances they get on well enough together. Rooted as they are deep down in very much the same soil of origin and 336 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA race, there is no congenital antagonism between them. Both have more or less the same standards of thought as regards domestic life, religion, love of freedom, and attachment to home. They often intermarry, and they intermingle amicably enough in many relationships. The younger Dutch Africanders — and especially those who have been at school — speak English, and associate with their contemporaries of British birth on the friendliest footing. They compete with each other in class, in sports, and in business or duty. The differences which divide them are more artificial and political than physical or racial. Could the past be wiped away, and all start afresh in an atmosphere of perfect equality, with a common rallying centre of national regard, there is no apparent reason why the amity that prevails amongst the people of Great Britain, or Switzerland, or the United States, or Canada, should not also prevail amongst the white population of South Africa. One of the chief instruments of social cleavage, in the Transvaal more especially, has been the question of language. Every effort has been made by the domi- nant clique at Pretoria to proscribe the use of English, and to prevent or to attenuate the teaching of it in the public schools. I believe that in the Free State a more enlightened policy has been pursued, owing perhaps to the fact that the head of the Education De- partment for many years was a gentleman of Scottish origin. The strenuous efforts made in the sister repub- lic to stamp out English as a medium of instruction, THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 337 however futile in the end, have necessarily encouraged a prejudice against the language in the mind of the younger generation, and to a certain extent thwarted the expansion of English culture, thought, and ideas. That the localised patois, or taal, which passes current for Dutch throughout South Africa will speedily disap- pear is by no means probable, no matter what shape the future government may take. Its homely and not inexpressive idioms impregnate the daily speech of that large class of coloured and half-coloured people, who may be said to form the " common folk " of the Cape Colony and the republics. They suit the condi- tions and requirements of those people far better than do more cultivated but less complex English forms of speech. The older Boer, moreover, is passionately fond of his own tongue, no matter what its derivative per- plexities may be, and in his own household and sphere he will continue to use it. But that English will pre- vail in South Africa, as it has elsewhere in all parts of the Empire, as the language of culture, of trade, of journalism, and of social usage, cannot be doubted, provided that it be freed from the fetters that have hitherto hampered it in the Transvaal. The mere pressure of circumstances and of daily convenience will secure for it legitimate and unchallenged supre- macy. And in the general use of a common tongue the younger people of both races will find an effective bond of union. 338 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA II Hollander influence has of Lite years been a plant of rapid, if forced, growth, but its roots may be found deeply planted in the past. Though in 1G20 two cuii nnanders of British Indiamen took possession of Saldanha Bay in the name of Great Britain, no set- tlement was established there, and it practically fell to the lot of Holland to form the first European Colony on South African soil. In 1652 Van Riebeek, so we are told by the official record, "duly commissioned by the Chamber of Seventeen" at Amsterdam, landed at Table Bay, accompanied by 100 persons, and took possession of what is now the site of Capetown on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. Although the " burghers " of the infant Colony strove to escape from the arbitrary rule of that body by migrating into the interior, the Company followed these earlier " Voertrekkers " up, just as the British Government followed up their successors in later days, and main- tained an effective administration over the country, until it was captured for the second time by a British force in 180G, and finally ceded in perpetuity to the British Crown, by the Powers of Europe, under the Peace of Amiens in 1814. Nor should it be forgotten just now, that Great Britain not only holds South Africa by right of conquest, and by the solemnly expressed consent of Europe, but that she also paid THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 339 not less a sum than six millions to Holland for the rights acquired by her. For a century and a half therefore, roundly stated, Holland was regarded as the parent state of the Cape Colony. It is not strange that this fact has never been forgotten on both sides of the ocean. It helps to explain the attitude which Holland has always main- tained towards the Dutch-speaking Africanders, and they have preserved towards that country. Though the Napoleonic wars left the Low Countries shorn and dwarfed, the old settlers beyond the sea were hardly conscious of the fact, and continued to look towards the little kingdom by the North Sea, not only as the home of their progenitors, but as an active and potential factor in the affairs of the world. When, therefore, the Voertrekkers were endeavouring to establish an independent republic at Natal, they eagerly turned to Holland for help and encouragement in the furtherance of their designs. What happened at that time (in 1 842) is so well set forth by Judge Cloete (himself a Dutch- man) in his admirable lectures, that I make no apology for introducing the narrative here : — "There is no doubt that in this case the hostile attitude assumed by the emigrant farmers left the Governor of the Cape no alternative but either to admit or deny their independence, and the measure of sending a military force became the only one calculated to put that question at once to the test ; but perhaps the result of that movement might have been quite different had it not been for an incident in 340 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the history of this district, which exerted an overwhelming influence on the minds of the inhabitants generally and of the members of the Volksraad in particular. The very next month after their solemn protest had been transmitted to Sir George Napier, a Dutch vessel, called the Brazil ia, anchored in the Port of Natal, and the supercargo, Mr. Smellekamp, who afterwards resided in the Orange Free State (as it is now called), infox-med the emigrant farmers upon his first arrival that a number of merchants in Holland had taken a deep interest in their affairs, and had despatched this vessel for the express purpose of opening a direct trade with their country, and supplying them with ' notions ' of Dutch pro- duce and manufacture ; this arrival, and the display of the Dutch flag, aroused in all the emigrant farmers the most extx-avagant affection for the country and people to which most of them traced their descent. Mr. Smellekamp was received at this place with triumphal honours ; public dinners were given him ; the Dutch flag became the ensign of the new republic, and Mr. Smellekamp, led away by the enthusiasm with which his arrival had been greeted, gave the inhabitaixts of Natal the most exaggerated ideas of the power and influence of Holland in the council of nations ; moreover, assuring them of the sympathy and support of the King of Holland, and finally entered into a formal treaty with the Volksraad, assuring them of the ' protection ' of Holland, to which he affixed his signature iix these terms : — "'Accepted in the name of the King of the Netherlands, subject to his Majesty's formal approval ' ! " He further gave them the strongest assurances that they would soon be provided with ministers and schoolmasters for the improvment of their moral condition, and with arms and ammunition to repel any hostile attack with which they might be threatened. " I cannot give a more striking illustration of the manner THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 341 in which the Volksraad were misled on that occasion, as to the support they expected from the King of Holland, than by relating the following anecdote. Some days after my arrival here in June 1843, I had an interview with several leading members of the Volksraad, in the course of which I happened to allude to some political measures going on in Europe, and to state that such a measure was under the consideration of the five great powers ; whereupon I was at once asked by the spokesman, which were these five great powers to which I had alluded 1 I replied that those powers were England, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The querist at once exclaimed, ' And is Holland not one of them ? ' This com- pelled me to enter at some length into the modern history of Europe, and to explain to them how Holland had, since the year 1830, by the rebellion and subsequent formation of Belgium into a separate kingdom, dwindled into a third-rate power of Europe ; when the spokesman significantly and bitterly replied, ' We were never told that before, but the very reverse ! ' " The emigrant farmers were, however, so fully convinced at the time that they had now obtained the countenance of a first-rate European power in support of their independence, that Mr. Smellekamp had all his travelling expenses paid to enable him to return to Holland direct (as the Brasilia was destined for a lengthened cruise to the eastward); and he was, moreover, made the bearer of a number of official and other letters to the Ministers of State of his Majesty the King of Holland, and to many influential persons in that country, claiming the interposition of those persons in support of the independence of Natal ; this was the state of feeling which prevailed among all classes and both sexes of the community here, when arrangements were at length completed to enable Captain Smith to break up from the Umgazi camp, and to pursue his course overland to Natal." 342 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA The astute and subtle Mr. Smellekamp was the natural antetype and forerunner of other countrymen of his who, thirty years later, began to find in the republics a favourable field for political exploitation. I may say at once that I find no fault with these gentlemen, either for the conception of their schemes or for their activity in prosecuting them. They were under no allegiance or obligations to Great Britain. They found in the republics two States whose rulers and people — at that time — were mostly the descendants of old Dutch-speaking colonists whose " independence " had been voluntarily conceded by the British Crown. They saw in these facts an opportunity for the exten- sion of Dutch influence and for the building up, on the basis of Dutch dominancy, of a new power in whose development vanished dreams of Batavian greatness might have glorious realisation. Though her East Indian possessions in Java and Sumatra had brought Holland wealth and trade, they had not proved the birthplace of a great and populous Dutch community in whose territorial magnitude and importance the Dutch race might find compensation for, and security against, all the political mischances of European poli- tics. Though the Netherlands might disappear as a sovereign power from the map of Europe, a great Dutch- speaking Republic of South Africa might perpetuate the name and race and tongue of the fatherland in the southern world. I do not say that these ambitions did actually stir THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 343 and sway the emissaries or emigrants from Holland who began about thirty years ago to play an active part in the affairs of the republics. No printed evi- dence of the fact is before me. I only desire to point out that all the drift of events points in that direction, and to say that from a Dutch point of view such aspira- tions were neither wrong nor outrageous, so long as the two republics remained independent, and so long as the pursuit of these designs did not menace the peace of South Africa or the supremacy of Great Britain. It is highly probable that at first our friends from Holland did not contemplate any more formidable undertaking than the nourishment and consolidation of the Dutch language and of Dutch influence in the republics. Their first object was to control as far as possible the Dutch press and the schools in both States. The Express in Bloemfontein and the Volksstem in Pretoria have at no time made any attempt to veil their hostility to England and the English. So long as Pre- sident Brand held the reins in the Free State there was little to fear in the way of active interference in school control, or indeed of any serious outgrowth of anti- British action or feeling in local administration. He was no friend to the intrusion of the Hollander, nor did he at any time during his long and honourable career say anything or do anything to justify an im- pression that he was hostile to the primacy of the Crown. He was a Cape Africander of the best type. Son of the first Speaker of the Cape House of Assembly, 344 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and for a short time a member of that body, he ever regarded with a filial eye the great Colony of his birth, and though his loyalty to the new State could never be impugned, he always recognised the claims of seniority and parentage. His political Mecca, if he had one, was centred in Cape Town rather than in Amsterdam. Conciliation and unit}' — not estrangement and divi- sion — were the ends of his action. Though he was largely instrumental in bringing about the retrocession of the Transvaal after Majuba, it is very doubtful whether he would have lent his powerful influence in that direction could he have foreseen the use to which his neighbours twenty years later would have put their liberty. President Brand's successor was a man of wholly different calibre and tendency. As Chief-Justice of the Free State he had already disclosed his aspirations, but they can best be dealt with in the next section. With Mr. Reitz's advent to power the way was, relatively speaking, free to the propagation of Dutch- Africander republicanism and the cult of Holland. Leading Hollanders at Bloemfontein and Pretoria had an open field for their operations. Fomenting repugnance to English rule, English speech, English institutions, and English interests generally, they naturally fostered a corresponding preference for republican independence and for the Dutch language, Dutch ascendency, and Dutch associations. They and their co-workers in the press, in the pulpit, and in the school or class, found it THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 345 an easy matter to inflame and to deepen prejudices already implanted, and to convert into an article of household faith the conviction that England and Englishmen were implacably antagonistic to the Boer. In 1880, when recording his impressions of Dutch loyalty in the Cape Colony, Sir Bartle Frere wrote : " Dutch disaffection of a dangerous kind is confined to a small clique of Hollanders and colonial Dutch re- publicans who have little influence except through a temporary alliance with English humanitarians and Radicals now in Opposition." This was said a year before Sir George Colley's ill- fated expedition, whose results entirely changed the political outlook in South Africa. Hollander influence thenceforward became aggressive, audacious, and un- resting. It openly identified itself with the cause of republicanism. After the conclusion of the London Convention of 1884 President Krugerand his colleagues visited Holland and Germany, and sought to establish there the relations which he has never ceased to culti- vate. In Holland he was welcomed as the visible embodiment of Dutch republicanism in South Africa. Latent enthusiasms and ideas were revived by his pre- sence. It was then that he enlisted the services as State Attorney of the young law-student Dr. Leyds, of all Hollanders in South Africa England's most strenuous and mischievous foe. It may be doubted whether he forecast, when starting for South Africa, the part he was destined to play. It is probable that it grew with 346 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA opportunity, for Dr. Leyds knows well how to take occasion by the hand, and bend it to his will. I have referred elsewhere to the charm of his personality, a quality that has presumably contributed to his success. He would have been less dangerous had he been less attractive and insidious. Two men more unlike each other in manner or aspect than he and his rugged old chief could hardly be conceived, but both are probably united by certain affinities of character and tempera- ment — subtlety, reserve, silence, impassivity — as well as by their pertinacity in pursuit of a common end, and their copartnery in the tortuous policy of the past. Before Dr. Leyds's arrival at Pretoria a considerable infusion of Hollander influence had already taken place, in the form of young Africanders who had been edu- cated at Leyden or elsewhere, or of young Hollanders attracted to the land of promise. As years went on the stream rapidly increased in volume. The Bench was recruited by young Dutch advocates who blossomed into judges as soon as they had left their studies. Public offices were filled by candidates from Holland. The control of the State schools fell into the hands of a youngish Dutch graduate, who made no secret of his desire to obstruct, as far as he could with decency do so, the teaching of English in all State-aided institu- tions. A yet more effective agency for extending and estab- lishing the influence of Holland was presented by the Netherlands Railway Company, established under the THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 347 auspices of the State, and practically endowed with a monopoly of railway construction and administration. The history and vicissitudes of this great corporation would fill a volume ; indeed it does so already, in the shape of one of the handsomest tomes ever issued by the Dutch press. I only name it here, however, in order to point out how powerfully it has operated to promote the ascendency of Holland in the Republic. Its officials, numbering many hundreds, were mostly im- ported from Holland, and, wherever the railway runs, there they were, each a propagandist in his way of Dutch, as opposed to English, influence. It is only right to add, however, that in the working of the joint systems our railway authorities in Natal have always found it possible to work with the representatives of the Netherlands Company in perfect good faith and goodwill. Mr. Middleburg, the late director of that company's operations, under whom the Natal junction was carried out, and now living in retirement in Holland, is always referred to by his colonial coadjutors in terms of almost affectionate appreciation. Though I think that Hollander influence has been pernicious in so far as it has led President Kruger and his associates to pursue a policy of blind hostility to British interests and British supremacy, it has, never- theless, from the Dutch point of view, been inspired by a certain type of patriotism. Hollanders had been led by the drift of events to regard the Transvaal as a Dutch preserve, where many good things awaited the astute 348 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA exploiter, and where circumstances had secured the preference to their race. If the burghers were the chosen people as regards the land and its government, the Hollanders were their natural allies in the apportion- ment of the gifts of both. England had again and again, and yet again, allowed these territories and the opportunities pertaining to their possession to slip from her grasp. She could not fairly, therefore, find fault with the old inhabitants for making the most of their chances, or with their fellow-Dutchmen from Holland for joining in the same effort. The Hollander began his career in the republics by making himself useful ; he continued it by making himself necessary ; he crowned it all by making him- self an integral element in the social structure of the communities. He knew that, with the advent of the Uitlander to political power, his value as a factor in affairs would diminish, and his predominance would soon pass away. The downfall of monopolies and con- cessions would mean his downfall. When his influence came to be shared on equal terms by others, its poten- tiality would decline, and its effects would disappear. He played a high game, and he played it with all his might. Ill The workings of the Africander Bond have been often described and denounced, but their real scope and significance are only now being fully understood. THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 349 Though its operations have been marked by mystery, as they have been fruitful in untold mischief, it cannot be said that the Bond was either conceived, or born or developed in secret. Its objects were openly pro- claimed to the world in the columns of the Dutch press, but somehow they failed to seize hold of the ima- gination, or to arouse the active anxieties of the loyal colonists. At the time of its birth British patriotism in South Africa was still stricken by the collapse which followed Majuba. Loyalists of all classes were smart- ing under a sense of desertion. They knew not what further surprise of Imperial policy might be in store for them. The recall and humiliation of Sir Bartle Frere ; the retrocession of the Transvaal ; the apparent desire to scuttle out of Imperial responsibilities; the favour shown to Boerdom ; the obloquy heaped on the colonists after the Zulu war — all tended to depression and hopelessness. The wild and seditious shriekings of the republican press passed unheeded by people who felt that the ears of England's statesmen were deaf alike to protest and appeal. The Bond was the direct offspring of the Boer war. For some time it was regarded by the British colonists as little more than an endeavour to promote and con- solidate the interests of the Dutch farmers as distin- guished from those of colonial townsmen and British citizens. We are indebted to the Grahamstown Journal for the publication, in suitable form, of a translation of a Dutch pamphlet, issued in 1882, entitled u De Trans- 350 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA vaalse Oorlog" (The Transvaal War). This pamphlet consisted of a series of leading articles culled from Be Patriot, at that time the recognised organ of the Bond. This newspaper was, and is still issued at the Paarl, near Capetown, and has at all times been regarded as an organ of distinctively Dutch sentiment. That its seditious utterances should have passed at the time, unnoticed and untranslated, can only be explained, as I have said, by the sense of despair that had settled down upon all colonial loyalists. There is no occasion to go further than the limits of this pamphlet for a full comprehension of the real objects and operations of the Bond. The aims set forth in these pages, without any pretence at disguise or concealment, have been faithfully and steadfastly pur- sued from that day to this, and the results have been witnessed by a staggered world. One merit at any rate must be conceded to the Boer propagandists,— that of consistency and persistency. What they said in 1881 they say in 1899 and 1900. The Patriot's adjurations are almost identical with the fulminations of Presidents Kruger and Steyn, of Messrs. Reitz and Viljoen nineteen years later. The Patriot started with a pious ascription of praise to God for the deliverance and victory of their brethren. "God's hand has been visible in the history of our people as it never has been since the days of Israel." Might could not prevail against Right. England had thieved and murdered. God, not England, was almighty. THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 351 England had been repeatedly humbled and beaten. " The little respect which an Africander still had for British troops and cannon is utterly done away." The Transvaalers had now got what they wanted, the resto- ration of the South African Republic. " England must now keep her claws off from the Transvaal long enough for us Africanders to recover strength a little and pull things to rights." Africanders, and especially the young ones, had come to hate Ensrland and the English lan- guage. English sovereignty over South Africa had gone back at least half a century. Africanders had seen that they could govern themselves in war as well as peace ; they had revealed a feeling of nationality ; they had discovered able generals, " Piet and Franz Joubert, Cronje and Smit, Henning Pretorius and Grey- ling." The Patriot then proceeded to invoke a practical issue from all these disclosures and sentiments, and to ursre the establishment of a Bond. I learn from other sources that it had been deemed desirable that this movement should have its chief birthplace on republi- can soil, and to the Bloemfontein Express, therefore, belongs the distinction of having first put forward the concrete embodiment of Boer aspirations in the form of a Draft Constitution, which was substantially adopted by the leaders of the party, and has been acted upon ever since. At that time the Chief-Justice of the Free State was Mr. Reitz, afterwards its President, and now State Secretary of the Transvaal. He never made any 352 A LIFE TIME IX SOUTH AFRICA secret of his cherished objective, which was a united South Africa, governed on republican principles, under the naval protection of Great Britain. The Empire was to be absolved from all responsibility for control or sovereignty on land, but was to be graciously permitted to guard the South African seaboard from foreign in- vasion. That was the ideal of Mr. Reitz in the eighties. Since then he appears to have lifted his aspirations to the yet higher level of complete " international sover- eignty," and therefore, I presume, he proposes to dis- pense altogether with Imperial protection, even on the seaboard. The constitution of the Bond as thus defined by its Boer-Hollander authors at Bloemfontein can best be set forth in their own words : — "The Bond knows no nationality whatever other than simply that of Africanders, regarding as such all from what- ever origin who promise, under the limits of this Constitution, to work for the good and welfare of South Africa. "The object of the Africander Bond is the establishment of a South African Nationality through the cultivation of a true love of this our fatherland. "This object must be attained both by the promotion and defence of the national language ( Volh^taal), and by African- ders both politically and socially making their power to be felt as a nation. " Politically through the establishment of the Bond in all States and Colonies of South Africa, and maintaining it by an organisation which embraces them all, and Socially by the promotion of a worthy and fitting instruction in the spirit of Article I., and by watching over the Press," THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 353 The organisation thus provided for was minute and far-reaching. It consisted of Central, Provincial, Dis- trict, and Ward bodies, which were to meet yearly, half- yearly, quarterly, or monthly, as the case might be, reporting the one to the other, and all keeping closely within touch. The whole country, therefore, was to be covered by a network of Bond workers and organisers. The Ward Committees were to circulate books, en- courage the subscribing to Bond newspapers, and to promote the establishment of Bond schools. The Cen- tral Governing Body was to consist of five members — two from the Cape Colony and one each from the Transvaal, Natal, and the Free State. This Junta of Five was to have supreme control of finances and policy, and to prepare an annual report for publication " de- fining the course of action during the coming years." A few extracts from the pages which follow will best serve to illustrate the sinister purposes for which the Bond was established : — "The Bond must be our preparation for the future con- federation of all the States and Colonies of South Africa. The English Government keeps talking of a Confederation under the British Flag. That will never happen. We can assure them of that. We have often said it. There is just one hindi'ance to Confederation, and that is the English flag. Let them take that away, and within a year the Confedera- tion, under the free Africander flag, would be established. "Away with the English flag. But so long as the English flag remains here, the Africander Bond must be one Con- federation. And the British will after a while realise that z 354 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA Froude's advice is the best for them. They must just have Simon's Bay as a naval and military station on the road to India, and give over all the rest of South Africa to the Afri- canders. " Africanders must be on the top. ' Let us calculate it is we on top or they on top; they must be under or we under.'" These words are so pertinent and pithy that I might confidently stop here. They completely account for all that has happened since, for all that is happening now. The struggle for paramountcy was thus openly forecast nineteen years ago by the Boer leaders. It is instruc- tive, however, to glance at the practical methods of action by which it was proposed that the Bond should pursue its crusade. The pamphlet proceeds to classify the English — that is, the enemy — under three heads: the Soakers (or drunkards), the Robbers (or traders), and the Reds (or soldiers). The first of these forces it proposes to ignore. The Boers do not drink, and cannot therefore be harmed by " canteens, hotels, and the con- tents of broken bottles." The " Robbers," or tradesmen, are more difficult to deal with. They " let the farmers buy and buy till they are half ruined. These robbers buy our produce cheap and sell their English rubbish to us at the dearest rates." And with the proceeds they start English newspapers, establish English schools, and promote English legislation. "These, then, are the most dangerous sort. These are the chief agents towards the Transvaal annexation." THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 355 The steps by which the wiles of English storekeepers are to be circumvented are clearly stated : — " Buy nothing from any Englishman, nor from any Angli- cised Africander, nor even from any one who advertises in an English newspaper. "We must form trading associations with Europe and the United States of America. " It will be easy to establish the desired trade connections. Nor should we be surprised if many Dutch and German firms send out their first consignments at half price, so as to obtain a footing. The Amsterdam Handelsblad (Journal of Trade) remarks : ' The future of England lies in India, and the future of Holland in South Africa. When our capitalists vigorously develop this trade, and, for example, form a syndicate to buy Delagoa Bay from Portugal, then a railway from Capetown to Bloemfontein, Potschefstroom, Pretoria, Delagoa Bay will be a lucrative investment. And when in course of time the Dutch language shall universally prevail in South Africa, this most extensive territory will become a North America for Holland, and enable us to balance the Anglo-Saxon race.' " The Boer stores which were thus to be established " must be Dutch or Africander through and through, not any English. No English signboard, no English advertisements in English newspapers, no English book-keepers." The establishment of National Banks, with branches in all towns and villages, was a natural corollary of this policy. How far it has been successful the bank returns of South Africa sufficiently reveal. The next advice is more germane to the moment : — " Let every Africander in this Colony for the sake of secu- rity take care that he has a good rifle and box of cartridges, 356 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and that he knows how to use them. But the two republics must study the matter further. As independent States they must think of self-preservation, and two things are wanted — (1) to make their own ammunition, and (2) to be well supplied with cannon, and provide a regiment of artillery to work with them. . . . When once the Transvaal gets its independence back, the Government of the Republic will have learned from the recent war a lesson as to what they must do for the future." History has told us how faithfully the republics carried out this part of the Bond programme. All the complications and troubles that have occurred in con- nection with gunpowder and dynamite concessions are no doubt traceable to the solemn injunction placed on the republics in 1S82 by the founders of the Bond: make your own ammunition; establish your own gun- powder factory ; be independent for your means of defence " of the favour, friendship, or hostility of the enemy." Out of this small seed of advice sprang the policy which has converted the Transvaal into a huge arsenal, and has enabled the Boers to struggle for mastery with the greatest empire of the world. The closing passages of this luminous pamphlet read like an anti-climax. After insisting upon the absolute exclusion of the English language in every relation of life — in parliament, in law courts, in public offices, in railway stations, in telegraph departments, in schools, in churches, in household life, in private correspondence — the writers proceed to warn their readers against one class in particular, politely named by them " the THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 35? Bluffers," that is, "the English and Anglified school- masters and schoolmistresses who teach our children from early youth." The vehemence with which the innocent tutors and governesses who are — or used to be — freely engaged by Boer farmers for the tuition of their children is so ludicrous in its intensity and malig- nity that it is a revelation in itself. These inoffensive and mostly quite estimable persons are indicted because they teach — "(a) That the English language is the finest and best, whereas it is only a miscellaneous gib- berish, without proper grammar or dictionary. "(b) That English history is the most interesting and glorious, whereas it is nothing more than a concatenation of lies and misrepresentations. " (c) That they must give the chief place to English geography, whereas all England is nothing more than an island in the North Sea. "(cZ) That they are educated as soon as they can gabble English, whereas they simply make themselves ridiculous by it in the eyes of every judicious person. "(e) That English books and periodicals are the finest and best to read, though really they are the greatest mass of nonsense (with some ex- ceptions) that you can find anywhere, and finally in one word " (/) That it is an honour for every one to ape the 358 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA English in every tiling, and in fact to become English, whereas it is the greatest shame and disgrace for any people to belie their own God-given nationality." With this "declaration of war against the English language" the pamphlet closes. The Bond leaders rightly felt that in that language, with its mighty re- sources of learning, precept, and example, their crusade had its chief opponent. The fact at once explains the tenacity with which the Transvaal authorities have striven to prohibit the use of English as a medium of public, or official, or formal speech. How vain the effort has been young Transvaalers themselves are living and daily evidences. President Kruger's own grandchildren speak as freely and correctly in English as though to the language born ; at any rate that was the case with regard to two of his granddaughters with whom as a fellow-passenger I travelled to South Africa a year ago : and I believe the same may be said of the younger masculine members of his family. And therein, let me add, consists one of our strongest hopes for the future of South Africa under a better dispensation. The Africander Bond has had a powerful ally in the Church — in that branch of it which is associated so closely with the Dutch population. The pamphlet does not say much on this point, but what it does say is clear enough : " The Church has hitherto been our Laing's Nek against the English language. But see THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 359 how many Anglified preachers try now in every way to smuggle into our Church the English language. Therefore war against the English speech in our Church. It is the Dutch Reformed Church. What has English to do with it ? " Dutch Predikants appear to have taken this advice to heart, as in later years the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church have been the most active propagators of the national or Africander spirit, which is little more than avowed hostility to British rule and British ascendency. The organisation of the Bond has naturally lent itself to this influence. Planted as they have been in every township or village, in the districts where Dutchmen most do congreofate, with tentacles that touch every outlying farm or homestead, the Bond and the Church together have formed an alliance against which the elements of loyalism have had no counteracting forces to operate. An informant who has seen much of the inner working of the Bond has described to me the subtle manner in which politics and religion have combined to further the cause of Africander republicanism. Young Men's Debating Societies connected with the Church have become nurseries of agitation and anti-English sentiment. Periodical wapenschaws, or rifle-shootings, have become training-schools for military organisation — the nuclei of Boer commandoes. Even in Natal, where the Bond as such has not openly flaunted itself, the meetings of the local Boeren Vereeniging, or farmers' unions, have been practically allied branches of the same organisation. 360 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA It fell to my lot some years ago to attend one of these meetings by invitation, and I was much impressed by the strong religious character which marked the pro- ceedings. Hymns were sung; long extempore prayers delivered ; passages of Scripture were read. I might have been present at a Dutch prayer-meeting rather than at a gathering of a semi-political character. There cannot be a doubt that the Bond owes its spread (and the Boers owe much of their success) to the devout if not impassioned earnestness which devotional habit has inspired and cultivated in its adherents. In all ages religious fervour has been the most powerful in- centive to action, just as religious differences have been and are the bitterest forms of contention. Could the pastors be enlisted on the side of unity, loyalty, and order, under the British flag, the problem of the future would soon be solved. IV The years which followed the Retrocession were marked by a rapid development of Africander hos- tility and Hollander ambition on the one side, and by a fatal shrinkage of Imperial activity on the other. The Bond was born and started on its sinister course. Hollanders waxed stronger in numbers and in in- fluence. Other foreign agencies operated at Pretoria. The railway from Delagoa Bay gradually grew into a fact. On the east and on the west Boer " filibusters " sought to extend the boundaries of the Transvaal. THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 361 President Kruger's vision of an independent seaport took shape and substance. But the British Govern- ment sat with folded hands and saw its inheritance slipping from its grasp. Just in time it roused from its torpor, and Sir Charles Warren's expedition in 1884 saved Bechuanaland and the interior to the Empire. Then came the agreement under which Eng- land, Germany, France, and Portugal marked out and severally recognised their own spheres of influence in Africa and Madagascar. East of the Transvaal, how- ever, the emissaries of the Republic, and with England's acquiescence, got possession of a large part of Zululand. The wonder is that they did not get the whole. There still remained the undefined country (still called "No Man's Land" by the Republic) lying be- tween Zululand and Delagoa Bay, and it was therein that President Kruger hoped to secure a footing on the seaboard. He was nearly doing so in 1890 when the High Commissioner, with the concur- rence of the Cape Government, offered him a strip of land stretching from Kosi Bay to the Transvaal, with the right to make a harbour and build a rail- way. How inimical this proposal was to the interests of Natal need hardly be pointed out, but Natal had chosen to stand aloof from the Customs Union, and our Cape friends would not have been sorry to punish the little Colony for its waywardness. The project offered a bait to both sides; The Transvaal would get its own port, but only on one condition, namely, 362 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA that it joined the Customs Union within three years from the date of the agreement. The Cape would, in that event, secure to itself, as it hoped to do, the greater share of the trade of the Transvaal, and the political copartnery of the fast-growing Republic. President Kruger, however, had no desire nor inten- tention to part with any fraction of his country's independence. He was already bound to Portugal for a term of years by an unexpired treaty. He wished to retain a perfectly free hand to regulate his customs tariff as he liked. Above all he sought for no re- straint upon his power to import from Europe what- ever munitions of war he might seek to introduce. As a member of the Customs Union he would have been under conditions and obligations that were quite in conflict with his aspirations for independence and sovereignty. Time went on, therefore, and the Con- vention lapsed by effluxion of time. It was never submitted again. President Kruger lost his access to the sea, but he pressed on the completion of his own line from Delagoa Bay, trusting to the chances and changes of political events to open for him a way seaward. Meanwhile the Gold Discoveries at Witwatersrand completely changed the aspect of affairs. Up to 1886 the Transvaal had been regarded as Boer land only— as the land of possibility rather than of realisation — THE WAR -ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 363 where, apart from a few struggling and sequestered townships, the only evidences of the white man's presence were the humble homesteads of Boer farmers sprinkled at wide distances from each other over a vast territory, mere specks of rudimentary civilisation in the void wilderness around. At that time Pretoria stood alone, an oasis of rustic urban life in the veldt. Heidelberg, some sixty miles distant, was the nearest village. Whispers of gold deposits were in the air, and men in quest of riches poked and tapped about rocky outcrops on the plains to the southward. Traces of the precious metal were sometimes found ; owners of farms now and then fancied that Pactolus was within their reach, but disappointment supervened ; prospecting was but languidly pursued ; capital was lacking, and confi- dence was variable. The search for gold in quantity had gone on for nearly twenty years, with results that were quite incommensurate with the hopes that had been cherished and the interest displayed. Game still sported over the summer pastures, and the winds of winter swept unregarded across the silent plains. Then all at once the discovery came. Geologists were confounded and experience was at fault. Gold was found in a new formation and under conditions that had no counterpart elsewhere. In the face of doubt, disbelief, and denial, the reefs of Witwaters- rand were not only found to be gold-bearing but to be capable of enormous and highly lucrative develop- 364 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA merit. A new Golconda, surpassing all others in poten- tialities of wealth, was found to exist. The richest capitalists of the world hastened to participate in the gains which stubborn colonial energy and enterprise had opened up to view, and in a few years Johannes- burg became the most active centre of mining energy that mankind had witnessed. More than that, it be- came the busiest spot in South Africa; Capetown, Kimberley, Durban, were all cast into the shade by the hive of human industry and life that had sprung up in the heart of the inland Boer Republic. In five years the new city had become the chief objective of colonial trade and statecraft, the goal of every South African railway, the dominating interest of every class, the supreme factor in legislation and policy. Its markets were the first preoccupation of the commercial mind ; its share lists were the daily food of devouring newspaper readers. Nor was this circle of interest confined to South Africa. It extended to every mart and exchange in the world. In London, in Paris, in Berlin, in New York, in Chicago, and in Melbourne — wherever men speculated in stock, wherever money-making was a pursuit — Johannesburg was a familiar name, and the "Rand" a household word. It is not my purpose here to describe the growth and importance of Johannesburg. Many able pens have dealt exhaustively with that theme. My aim is simply to point out how great a revolution in South THR WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 365 African life and history was wrought by the develop- ment of Johannesburg as a centre of wealth and activity in the Boer Republic. In the short space of twelve years the gold-fields of Witwatersrand passed from the condition of a virgin and barren wilderness to that of a throbbing and swarming community, with a European population of 60,000, a yearly gold output of 15 millions sterling, a trade of 12 millions irrespective of gold output, and an aspect which in architectural effect would vie with that of the larger cities of older lands. Up to the end of last year the total output of gold from the Rand mines amounted to the enormous aggregate of about 80 millions sterling. This sudden outpouring of wealth revolutionised the situation. It altered the whole conditions of life not only in the Transvaal but in South Africa. For in the first place it set up a new standard of thought and effort. Wealth, rapidly acquired, became the absorbing idea and interest. To a certain, but only a limited, extent this tendency had already been generated by the diamond discoveries at Kimberley. Circumstances there, however, and especially the monopoly-creating policy pursued by Mr. Rhodes, had placed bounds upon the spread of speculation, and the feverish activities that prevailed prior to the consolidation of De Beer's, had largely subsided as the field of operation restricted itself. In the case of gold-mining, however, no such restraints or limitations existed. The opportunities of 366 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA the share market were open to the humblest operator. Men and youths, women and maidens, all could have a " flutter " : the merchant and the clerk, the employer and the working-man, all could try their luck ; and most of them did, until sad experience and burnt fingers taught them the danger of the pastime. The spirit of speculation, which is another name for the lust of gold, seized hold of the community, and made Johannesburg the Mecca to which, with but a few exceptions, eyes and hearts were daily turned. It was not a healthy nor an improving process, but it made the Transvaal what it is now, the focus of interest and anxiety to every South African. The completion of railway communication only served to concentrate the attention of the colonists and of visitors upon the Republic. Cheap railway fares enabled folks from the remotest centres to visit the place where fortunes were made and lost, and to listen with their own ears to the roar of the machines that were rifling from the rocks their stored-up treasures. Gold-mining revolutionised the public conditions of society in South Africa not less effectively than it influenced domestic and personal life. It produced an immense expansion of trade. Imports sprang up from a value of 8| millions in 1887 to 24 millions in 1897-98. Exports bounded forward in the same period from 1(H millions to 21 millions. The combined revenues of the two colonies advanced from 4§ millions to 9^ millions. I have already shown how completely the fiscal policy THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 367 of the whole country has been dominated by the requirements of the gold-fields trade. If such were the effects produced upon the two British colonies by the eruption of wealth at Witwaters- rand, the effects upon the Republic itself have been, as they were bound to be, not less startling and revolutionary. A community of impoverished and illiterate yeomen suddenly found itself placed in command of resources far in excess of anything which the wealthiest amongst them could have conceived or desired. In 1877, when Sir Theophilus Shepstone hoisted the British flag at Pretoria, the infant Republic was virtually penniless and bankrupt, without means to pay its officials or to discharge its debts, without credit and without friends. In 1887 the restored Republican Government still had difficulty in paying its way. In 1897 the revenue of the Republic had mounted to £4,480,218, and two years later it was estimated to have reached a considerably higher figure ; almost as much as that of the whole Cape Colony. How this great revenue had been contributed is far too wide a question for me to enter upon here. The inquiry may be said to cover the whole field of those grievances which were, until the war broke out, the main grounds of controversy. It is enough to point out that the revenue of the Republic has been almost entirel}' contributed by the gold industry, and by the people connected with it. Before gold was discovered the Government had little to tax, except the property 368 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of absentee holders, who at that time were more disposed to part with than to keep possessions that were productive only in burdens. The Boers them- selves, with their meagre requirements, contributed next to nothing in the shape of customs duties, while such charges as they were subject to in the shape of quit-rents or railway tax were systematically evaded. With the production of gold and the acquisition of wealth by the Uitlanders, the state of poverty was all at once exchanged for a condition of revenue-earning abundance. Inspired by the astute advisers at their elbows, President Kruger and his associates found themselves possessed of unbounded opportunities for the amassment of national and private wealth. Taxation became easy where Value had acquired such abnormal proportions. Concessions and monopolies bringing grist to the State exchequer, and perquisites to inter- mediary pockets, were the proper outcome of a patriotic policy. A pious regard for the interests of " land and people" demanded that the riches pouring into the purses and safes of foreign harpies should pay toll to both. The precious metal had obviously been placed by Providence under the soil for the benefit of its possessors not less than of the Uitlanders to whose efforts any knowledge of its existence was due, and by whose skill and energy alone it had been extracted and brought to the surface. In the eyes of the religious-minded pastoralists, whose fathers had wan- dered into the Transvaal to find ampler grazing-ground THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 369 and more abundant elbow-room, nothing seemed more righteous than that they should share in the profits of gold for which they had not delved, and of property in the way of whose development they had placed every sort of obstruction or difficulty. It was through no fault or action of the Boers that the gold-fields became a power either for good or evil. Had President Kruger had his way in the first instance, the precious metal would have remained for all time buried in the rocks which formed its matrix. There is reason to believe that he foresaw the evils that gold discovery would bring upon his country. He dreaded the inrush of foreign population which the magnet would draw across his borders. But when the consequences came — when the inevitable happened — he had no hesitation in turning to account the unsought advantages of the position. Gold discoveries supplied Boer-Hollander aspirations with just the stimulus that had been lacking. They transmuted vague and nebulous cravings into concrete and definite designs. If money is the root of all evil, it is also the source of all power. Mr. Rhodes had already found it to be so, and President Kruger was not less fortunate. Gold-mining and gold speculations meant profit to the State as well as individuals. They meant unheard-of possibilities of revenue. They meant stores of wealth far exceeding the modest dreams of Boer avarice. They meant, under ingenious manipu- lation, a national income so large that undertakings, 370 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA otherwise chimerical and impracticable, were brought within reach of realisation. They enabled the Republic to equip itself with tho costliest armaments that European skill and science could produce. They per- mitted the establishment on the spot of dynamite and other factories which would make the inland State independent if need be of the outer world for the supply of coercive commodities. Explosives are neces- sary not only for purposes of defence or attack, but for the very existence of mining operations. Gold discoveries therefore worked mightily in two directions on the destinies of the Transvaal. They brought to the Republic wealth, population, capital, credit, foreign activities, and the world's regard; but they brought also to the Government of the Republic temptations to corruption and extortion, to nepotism and abuse, and an unlimited capacity to do anything, to purchase anything, to pursue any policy or to gratify any ambition, which unscrupulous counsels or deep-laid designs might suggest. They provided the motive- power by which the press might be suborned, oppo- nents " squared," political influence extended, European opinion controlled and guided, forts erected and equipped, cannon and rifles imported, local forces organised, the resources of intrigue and diplomacy employed without regard to cost or limit. The long purse in these days means both the long arm and the strong arm, and in the case of a people ready at a day's notice to take the field on the call of their Government — an THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 371 unpaid army of natural marksmen — nothing more was needed to make war a feasible and a promising adventure. VI The Jameson Raid was an incident of which the world has heard so much that it is only necessary to name it as the last factor in the course of events that have led up to the present war. Most of my readers, if not all, are acquainted with the story of an episode which is never mentioned without regret. Though much has been said and written on the subject, much has been left untold. It is probable that the whole story never will be told, and for this reason, that no one has known, or can know, the full truth of the matter. My belief is that the chief agents in the de- plorable business hardly know, or ever knew, how events came to happen as they did. Things went wrong — the happenings were not what were intended. Whatever blame we may impute for what actually occurred— on whatever shoulders we place that blame — accident as well as design must be held culpable also. In any case, however, taking events as they are on record, two conclusions appear to me beyond dispute. From the British point of view the Raid was alike deplorable and inexcusable, while from the Boer stand- point it was a stroke of fortune. And it was the one because it was the other. Should any one be really responsible for the Raid, 372 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA he may take credit for having played into President Kruger's hands as completely as that astute personage could have desired. If the Raid was a deliberately planned scheme, devised to upset, or to assist in upsetting, by a sudden and secret movement, the Government of the Republic, then it was a gross political offence, and the more so because it was a blunder. My conviction on this point is so strong that I still find it impossible to believe that the British-born Prime Minister of a great British colony could take the leading part in such a plot, unknown to his colleagues in the Ministry, unknown to the Queen's representative in that Colony, unknown to the Queen's Government at home. If the magnitude of an offence is to be measured by its consequences, responsibility for the Raid cannot easily be defined or meted out. It gave President Kruger just the grievance and provocation he needed as an incitement to his Volksraad and his burghers, and as an excuse for wholesale measures of armament and other precautionary preparations against future incursions or attacks. It fanned the flame of republi- can hostility and defiance. Above all, it lowered the grood name of the British Crown and Government in the eyes of the Africander population, and shattered the better faith in both that was gradually arising in i lie, Boer mind. It undid the slow work of many years — work that had borne fruit in Railway Conventions, ;iiid fiscal agreements, in other arrangements for mutual THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 373 benefit between the republics and the colonies. This outgrowth of better feeling might not, perhaps, amount to more than an appearance on the part of the ruling clique, but that it did exist amongst the less hostile and self-seeking class of Boers was apparent in many ways. Amidst the passions excited by the Raid and its results all these hopes of improved relations vanished. It is because these results were so manifestly inevi- table that I cannot believe the Raid to have been a seriously planned or approved adventure on the part of any sane responsible statesman. It was a miserable business at the best, and filled with dismay all thinking and earnest colonists who had the interests of British rule in South Africa sincerely at heart. Wherever responsibility for it may lie, the episode is best for- gotten. The champions of Republicanism and Boerdom are fond of attributing the Raid, the war, and all the other sufferings of South Africa to the combined influence of " Capitalism " and " Jingoism." These are parrot-words which must be taken just for what they are worth. By capitalism nothing more can be meant than is re- presented by the amazing developments of gold-mining industry at Witwatersrand and the contingent move- ments of speculation and finance. It has been a new experience to Africanders to find their country the field and focus of speculative enterprise, and they may be excused if they exaggerate its character and effects. It is right, however, to point out that the forces of 374 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA capitalism, in so far as this war is concerned, are by no means as extensive or influential as the spokesmen of the republics would have us believe. Many, if not the bulk, of the men who have most strenuously supported the policy of the Imperial Government in regard to the war have little to do with either gold speculation or gold -mining. I may be allowed, perhaps, to state that, speaking for myself, I have not, nor ever have had, the smallest interest in any mining stock or mining property, or speculative investment whatsoever. I know that my case is that of many others who share the views which I venture to express in these pages. How far this may be the experience of those who denounce capitalism as the fountain and origin of evil in South Africa I must leave them to say. That gold developments have introduced into South African life an element of sordid interest which did not exist to that degree before, I have already admitted ; but it has been the natural outworking of cause and effect, and the same influences were probably being exercised under other aspects and through other agencies. It does not rest with the Transvaal Republic to complain of an influence which it has so effectively utilised for its own ends and in its own interests. Though the Boers of the Transvaal may not have worked mines, or raised companies, or operated in the share-market, they have sold or leased their farms, disposed of mining rights, found a lucrative sale for their produce, profitable employment for their waggons, THE WAR — ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 375 remunerative occupation for their sons ; they have in many cases participated in the spoils of the conces- sionaire, and have not hesitated to benefit as fully as opportunity might allow, or their own aptitudes suggest, from the fruits of speculation or capitalism. Their Government and leaders have squeezed the sponge of occasion with a deftness that could not be surpassed. The Treasury returns of the Republic show how large a harvest has been reaped by both from the field which the Uitlander has cultivated. If capitalism be the curse that is so eloquently de- nounced and described by the stern champions of republican virtue, it has at any rate filled to over- flowing the coffers of the State, and literally supplied the sinews of war to the militant organisers of in- vasion. Without the gold from which capitalism springs there could have been no wholesale arma- ment and fortification — no attempt to surprise and sweep away British authority from British soil. Apart from that gold the hope of European intervention, which has been a corner-stone of Boer diplomacy, would never have been cherished, as the attention of Europe would have failed to notice in any appreciable degree the obscure interests of a feeble pastoral State. It will be seen that I have made little direct allu- sion to the grievances of the Uitlanders as a factor in the South African situation. A year ago it would have been impossible to write or to speak upon that subject without regard or reference to the experiences 376 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA of Johannesburg. To-day any such obligation lias ceased to exist, except by way of illustration. The action of the republics in declaring war and in in- vading, occupying, and despoiling British territory has torn aside any necessity to vindicate the righteousness of the British cause. If a man suddenly knocks you down, you do not pause to ask him why he has done so, before you resort to self-defence. The grievances of the Uitlander are only of importance now in so far as they show how unfit the Republican Government has been to rule, and how impossible it is in the future for independent republicanism and British supremacy to exist side by side. Before the war broke out there were many loyal and reasonable men in South Africa who believed it would be possible to leave the republics intact in their internal freedom, without danger to the comity of South Africa. They knew that so far as the Free State was concerned there was no cause of friction, grievance, or hostility ; on the contrary, the relations of that State with the neighbouring colonies were marked by nothing but amity and good-will. They believed that in the Transvaal the Government would gradually, but in the end, make such concessions as would remove the just grievances of the Uitlander, and bring the Republic within the circle of a common South African policy and interest. They did not believe war to be possible, because they did not realise how inflated were the pretensions of the Boer leaders, THE WAR ITS GENESIS AND REVELATIONS 3 i i how deep-rooted and intense their hostility to British ascendency. The ultimatum of the two Presidents blew to the winds these optimistic illusions, and unmasked the true features of Africander policy. It was a timely though appalling revelation. Had it come a few weeks earlier, Natal would have been swept from the Draken- berg to Durban by the invader, and no one can say what the ultimate issue might have been. As it was, the action of the Natal Government in urging the introduction of more troops, the promptitude with which the Colonial Volunteers were sent to the front, and the speedy arrival of the Indian contingent, were instrumental in checking the invasion. Their ex- periences at Dundee and Elandslaagte shook the confi- dence of the invaders at the outset of operations, while the heroic defence of Ladismith kept the foe at bay during the critical period which ensued. As soon as the first armed Boer crossed our border the whole situation was changed. Questions of fran- chise, language, police, taxation, sunk out of sight. The struggle for supremacy or mastery between Boer and Briton began. Shall the Empire or the Republic pre- vail in the future control of South African destinies ? Shall the Anglo -African or the Dutch -Africander mould the life of the coming nationality ? Shall a century of civilising effort and labour go for nought as a title to just dominion ? Shall the mighty mission of Great Britain as the mother of free, tolerant, justly 378 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA ruled and wisely ordered confederacies throughout the world be wrecked by the folly and blind prejudices of a few misguided men ? These are the issues for which the forces and citizens of a whole empire have been fighting in South Africa. The misrule of the few ; the happiness of the many ? That is the alternative. There is not a Boer in Natal or the Cape Colony — there is not one acquainted with the truth in either of the republics — who does not know and feel that British rule as now exercised in both colonies is free, is generous, is just ; that under the British flag the Dutch colonist enjoys just as fully and as freely the rights of citizenship as he does under the Vierkleur. But he shares them with others. He does not keep them to himself. He is not governed by an oligarchy. He is not the member of a privileged caste. There lies the difference; it is vital, and because it is so the two races are at war. CHAPTER XII THE OUTLOOK Any forecast of the future in South Africa must be con- tingent upon the outcome of the war. That is the obvious and absolute condition-precedent of all calcu- lations or predictions. Unless the supremacy of the British Empire be established throughout South Africa, and the two republics be incorporated as parts of that Empire, any forecast worth consideration is impossible. A settlement that should fall short of such a result would have neither stability nor permanence. A peace which should leave the republics intact as independent States would be nothing more than a truce, lasting just as long as circumstances might delay the operations of intrigue, or the opportunity of renewed explosion. But before British supremacy can be deemed established, before republicanism has disappeared, the war has to be pressed on to a victorious conclusion. Not only has British territory to be freed from the invader's pre- sence ; not only has the British flag to be hoisted at Pretoria ; but the republics have to be absorbed, pacified, and controlled. Those are the primary and pressing obligations of the moment. Until they are fulfilled, it seems to me that serious talk about 380 A LIKE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA ten ns and settlements is presumptuous and pre- mature. My aim in the foregoing pages has been to show, per- haps too briefly and suggestively, that Great Britain's claim to supremacy in South Africa rests upon her con- quests in peace not less than upon her conquests in war and her rights of cession. I have striven to show that the British colonists who hold the seaboard and occupy all the seaports, and who, in Natal, have spread them- selves over the whole country, have even a stronger claim to be regarded as sons of the soil, as dwellers in the land, than have the Boers or Dutch- Africander settlers, by reason of their superior energy and success in utilising the resources of that soil, and in turning the gifts of nature to account. I have indicated what their early struggles and sacrifices as pioneers have been ; how they have fought against, and striven with the savage for mastery of the land; how patiently they have built up a free government and worked out a fabric of just and equal law; how they have stamped the impress of their life, their race, and their character upon the conditions of the country. I have reviewed the efforts made by the colonists to establish friendly and cordial relations with their neighbours, and to spread the bless- ings and agencies of civilisation into the far interior. And I have proved by demonstrated facts how merciful, indulgent, and acceptable has been Anglo-Colonial rule over the native races both within and beyond the Colony. My only regret is that limitations of time THE OUTLOOK 381 and strength have interfered with the fuller and more satisfactory accomplishment of this purpose. The righteousness of Great Britain's claim to control the destinies of South Africa is based, therefore, upon these grounds : — Right of conquest a century ago. Payment to Holland for rights ceded in 1814. Refusal at any time to relinquish supremacy. Successive wars waged to suppress rebellion, to repel invasion, and to maintain authority. Steadfast maintenance of just government, of un- corrupt administration, of security for person, property, law, and order. Concession, stage by stage, of free, self-governing institutions. Absolute equality of citizenship to all men of European origin. Active industrial occupation of the soil ; commercial expansion, and complete freedom of enterprise, unclogged by legal barriers and restrictions. Development of social life in all its branches. Cheerful acceptance by, and submission of, all the aboriginal inhabitants. Railway extension, harbour improvement, and road construction, at the cost, almost exclusively, of colonial tax-payers. An indebtedness to foreign creditors of thirty-three millions. 382 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA These are the title-deeds by which the Empire holds sovereignty in South Africa, and in defence of which it is now spending sixty millions of money and thousands of lives in the war that has, when I write, yet to terminate. Such a war can have but one ending, if the British Empire is to remain a concrete fact and not a humbling memory. Taking that postulate for granted, what is the outlook to be ? The answer must depend, of course, upon the wisdom of the course that may be followed, upon the character of the counsels that shall prevail. If the policy pursued be wise and temperate, if the measures adopted be far-reaching and curative, we may face the future with reasonable confidence and hope. The danger is that momentary impulses or hasty action may bear fruit in renewed collapse and ultimate disaster. To some extent, no doubt, the war may have affected the relations of the belligerent races and modified the conditions of the past ; but, generally speaking, the needs of South Africa remain very much what they were before a shot was fired, and while the grievances of the Uitlander formed the ostensible cause of contention. I see no reason to modify the view held by me after the Raid, and publicly expressed, to the effect that the future of South Africa seemed then to be governed by a threefold condition, namely, that no one man should be dominant in South Africa ; that no one State should be dominant in South Africa : and that there should be THE OUTLOOK 383 no subordination of the destinies of South Africa to speculative or sordid interests. Above all was it im- perative that South Africa should remain under the segis of the freest and greatest Empire that the world had ever seen. Should that regis be withdrawn, South Africa will become the battle-ground of revolutionaries and rivalries, and bloodshed and misery will be the lot of the inhabitants. If these conditions were indispensable then, they are not less so now. It is rather the fashion in certain quarters to speak of monocracy as a salutary system of rule. Benevolent despots, it is true, have at times figured as the saviours of society. In most cases, how- ever, they are the offspring of anarchic and revolutionary conditions. These do not really exist in South Africa. The present commotions are of external or adventitious origin. Their occurrence is due to the existence of the two republics and to the hostile foreign influences operating therein. We want no tyrannic or masterful personalities to mould our destinies, or to refashion our system of government. Both Mr. Rhodes and President Kruger have, each in his own sphere, exercised a domi- nating force; but it cannot be said that the results commend the experience. If such an influence be exercised at all, it should be in conjunction with the recognised co-operation of others as a responsible con- stitutional factor openly directed. South Africa needs a Washington rather than a Cromwell at the head of affairs ; but, more than all, she needs a central, supreme, 384 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA and representative authority, and that can best and, as I believe, can only be supplied by the creation of a Federal Government, under the shield of the Empire. Before the war broke out I expressed my conviction that there could be no guarantee of permanent peace in the future unless the Transvaal were brought under control as member of a South African Confederation, subject as regards the obligations of defence, and general principles of rule, to the obligations and restraints that would bind all the constituent States. In other Avords the Transvaal must be placed under terms to the rest of South Africa, for the preservation of peace and order, and for the abolition of all inequalities of citizenship. Any one State fortified and armed as the Transvaal has been, and governed as the Republic was by an oligarchy and a caste, must be an intolerable menace to its neighbours. Its existence would be a chronic peril to the rest of South Africa, a continuous threat to British supremacy, and a fatal bar to union. Were any other State to acquire a similar position of pre- dominancy, whether it be Cape Colony, Natal, the Free State, or Rhodesia, its existence would be equally pernicious. Union undoubtedly is the only true solvent of South African difficulties, but it must be union based upon equality — equality of citizenship, equality of representa- tion, equality of influence, interests, and law, on the part of every component community. This equality can, I believe, be only secured, in exist- THE OUTLOOK 385 ing circumstances, under the British flag. It may be, as time goes on, that that flag may come to be dis- tinguished and individualised as an Anglo- African flag, just as in the order of events the flags of Canada, and Australia, will bear some token of national exist- ence — just as the flags of Great Britain, whether Royal Standard, or Union Jack, or British Ensign, symbolise the union of the three kingdoms. It may be that when the federalisation of Greater Britain is completed, when the Commonwealth of Australia and the Confederation of South Africa take their place as actual entities by the side of the Dominion of Canada, a new Imperial standard will be devised and accepted ; one that shall not only comprehend the self-governing colonies of the Empire, but the great Indian Empire as well. This last suggestion may, I submit, be among the possibilities of the future. For myself I am quite content with the old flag as it is, but then I am British-born, and genera- tions that are already born and to be born, on distant continents, may rightly yearn to see their own lands betokened on the flag of a common Empire — an Empire in whose traditions they proudly share, and to whose greatness they would fain contribute. Union therefore appears to be the only effective and abiding safeguard against future trouble. How is it to be brought about ? Is union possible after so terrible a clash of races ? Is there any reasonable hope of racial amalgamation after so furious an outburst of lethal antagonism ? Is it possible that two races that have 2 B 386 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA been clutching each other's throats in deadly earnest through so many months of battle can forget their strivings, can control their animosities sufficiently, to work together all at once as subjects of the same government, as citizens of the same country ? The answer to these questions must depend upon the steps taken to bring about reconciliation, and the manner in which these measures are carried out. I am told by those who know him best that the Boer is by instinct and belief very much a fatalist in his philosophy and impulses. He sees the working of God in all things, and it is this disposition that has nerved him to so stubborn a resistance in the field. Past events have strengthened him in the habit. Imperial vacilla- tions and failures have contributed to the conviction that the Almighty is on his side. His own successes in the war served to fan the faith that has been so sedulously fostered by the fulminations and the assur- ances of his rulers and his advisers. When the fortunes of war go disastrously against him ; w T hen the two republics have gradually been sub- jugated and pacified ; when victory is conspicuously and signally on the other side ; when, in a word, he is beaten and his country conquered, my informants feel confident that his attitude will change — his hostility collapse, his opposition disappear. Providence having forsaken him, he will yield to the inevitable, and submit, sullenly perhaps, but silently to whatever order of things may be established. THE OUTLOOK 387 I speak, of course, of the Boer proper — the Dutch Republican Africander, the descendant of the Voer- trekkers or his kinsmen — not of the many mixed allies, the foreign adherents or recreant colonists, who have ranged themselves under the Boer flag, and fought in the Boer ranks. They will instinctively fall in, as far as they are allowed to do, with the winning side, with the dominant power, and may at no distant date be found amongst the most eager upholders of British supremacy and Anglo- African rule. Their part as factors in the future need not trouble us. The Boer himself, however, is the man we have mostly to consider in the outlook. As to the colonists, the men of British birth or extraction, they are all of one mind and purpose. Whatever may best promise to consolidate and promote British supremacy and Anglo- African unity will be supported by them. That, too, I believe will be the attitude and desire of the German, American, and Scandinavian elements in the community. They have learnt by experience in the two colonies how liberal and just is the Government of the Empire, under colonial conditions. If they are birds of passage they know that under that Empire they have the fullest security for their commercial, financial, or industrial operations. If they desire to root themselves to the soil, and aspire to become citizens of the community, they know that they can do so under the British flag as easily and as freely as though they were British-born, by the simple and almost nominal process of naturalisation. 388 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA The Africander, on the other hand, is not only a fixture on the soil and the offspring of it ; he is also, and must for many years continue to be, a conspicuous if not a controlling figure in its population. If the whole European population of South Africa be counted to- gether, his race is numerically preponderant. That proportion will diminish as time goes on, and as im- migrants flow in from other lands, under the benignant influences of a strong and stable government, but for the present the balance of heads is on the side of the Africander, except in the larger towns, in Natal, on the Hand, and in Rhodesia. Of that majority a very large number are landholders, the owners and the occupants of farms which in point of acreage would be regarded elsewhere as considerable estates. Such a community can in no sense be disregarded or ignored. It cannot be dealt with as a proscribed and disinherited race. It cannot as a whole be disqualified from civil rights by any sweeping or summary process of disfranchise- ment. Individuals, of course, may and ought to suffer special disabilities. All who have been proved to have been in open rebellion ought to be deprived, for a time at least, of their electoral privileges. Convicted leaders of rebellion, or secret fomentors of sedition and strife, will have to bear the proper penalties of their crimes. If their culpability be measured by the mischief they have wrought, it would be difficult to overestimate their blameworthiness. But most of the offenders have been duped, misled, betrayed, or intimidated. They have THE OUTLOOK 389 yielded to persuasion or pressure. They have been blinded and led astray by false shepherds. They are victims, probably, in part of inherited prejudices, but most certainly of ignorance and misrepresentation — in many cases of coercion. Nor must we ever forget the atmosphere of race feeling and traditional anti- pathy in which these people have been brought up. It would be fatal permanently to estrange and alienate them. They have to be conciliated and incorporated into the future body politic by a wise and far-sighted policy, dictated far more by the interests of the future than by the impulses and passions of the moment. If we survey history we shall find that only by such a policy have popular gashes been healed, great nationalities built up, and wars made fruitful in happier and enduring dispensations. The story of the United Kingdom is one long record of such a process. Saxons and Normans, Yorkites and Lancastrians, Royalists and Roundheads, Jacobites and Loyalists, Highlanders and Lowlanders, all show us that in the end contending factions find it possible to coalesce and join hands in the support of a common sovereignty, and the unifica- tion of a common race. The exj)eriences of Germany, of Italy, of Spain, of Switzerland all tell the same tale. Our Indian Empire is a grand example of such a policy and purpose. Most significant and instructive of all, however, is the lesson which the great American War of Secession teaches us, that a long war, a desperate war, a war costing hundreds of thousands of lives, many 390 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA millions of treasure, and untold sacrifices and sufferings on both sides, may be followed a few years later by the spectacle of a united and compacted people, free from any traces of fermenting discord or revolt. Not less suggestive and admonitory is the evidence that the more decisive and complete the success of the victor and the overthrow of the vanquished, the fuller is the assurance of future peace and concord. Wars that are inconclusive, in which " honours are divided," seldom close the game. What South Africa wants, now, is finality, and that can only be secured by the present triumph of British arms, by the undis- puted establishment of British supremacy, and by the early confederation of South Africa as a self-governing community under the British flag. Lord Roberts may be trusted to fulfil the first of these conditions ; the Imperial Government will not fail to provide for the second, and the co-operation of South African intelligence with Imperial statesmanship must avail to secure the third. I lay great stress upon the last of these requirements, inasmuch as without it any prospect of a truly abiding settlement seems dark indeed. The chief mainstay of the British Empire in South Africa must be found in the acceptance and attachment of the people. To rely on force only would be to rely on a pliant reed. Were British supremacy to be attacked again in South Africa it would not be, as now, at a time when the whole forces of a united Empire could be directed to these shores. THE OUTLOOK 391 It would be at a moment when the Empire might be menaced or assailed by foreign powers ; when the mother country would need all her land forces to protect her own coasts from invasion ; when the other colonies would be called upon to hold their own at home ; when the services of the navy would be urgently required in many far-divided seas. Anglo-Africa would have largely to trust to its own resources for the protection of its loyal inhabitants from any perils of insurrection or disturbance. It is only through the medium of a common govern- ment that those resources can be properly organised and directed. No doubt it would be possible for each territory to maintain its own defensive organisation, but the result would be fragmentary and disjointed. We have seen what splendid results can be achieved by a relatively small body of men, when acting in con- cert in support of a common cause, and as parts of a common, homogeneous system. We have to reproduce the same results on a larger scale, and under a not less inspiring impulse. What the Boers have done for republicanism, we have to do for Anglo-Africa. We have to effect a change of centres ; to give the Africander a new centre of gravity ; to enlist his sympathies, not less than his assistance, in the cause of law and order, of freedom and of Imperial unity. It is obvious that to do this we must give the Africander a government that he not only fears and obeys, but loves, trusts, cherishes, and is proud of— 392 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA a government which represents to him no sense of grievance or deprivation — a government that is large enough and free enough to satisfy his national and patriotic aspirations, and yet strong enough to make its authority felt and respected. Such a government the mother country has ; such an one, too, has Canada and Australia ; such an one had the Cape Colony and Natal before the virus of hostile republicanism poisoned the minds of some, at any rate, of the Dutch inhabitants. Even now we hear in Natal a Dutch colonist, a descendant of the Voertrekkers, declaring vehemently again and again, at a Farmers' Conference, that there is not a disloyal Dutchman in his own county, always regarded, hitherto, as a hotbed of covert Boer disaffection. Believe him or not as Ave may, his voluntary outburst means neither more nor less than his consciousness that the lot of a British colonist in Natal is preferable to any other. That is the feeling Ave have to foster and to spread. Self-interest is proverbially one of the strongest motives in controlling human action. The Boer must be made more and more to feel that he has all to lose and nothing Avorth getting to gain by hostility to British supremacy. He must be taught to consider his lot as a citizen of the Empire the surest guarantee of his personal security and political liberty. As a matter of fact both Mr. Froude and President Brand recognised this truth Avhen the one insisted upon the retention of the Cape peninsula as a necessary condition of his THE OUTLOOK 393 policy of withdrawal, and when the other made the protection of the seaboard by Great Britain a cardinal condition in any scheme of a United South Africa. Before he became intoxicated by the thirst of power. President Kruger himself professed his belief in British supremacy. For a century that supremacy has been exercised, and it is a familiar idea to every Africander, or rather a fact to which he has been accustomed from his earliest days. Its existence is a lesson which he has not to be taught anew. If the war has been waged in order to maintain that supremacy, the Boer knows that the challenge to uphold it came from his own leaders. They prepared for the war, they began it, they continued it. They invaded and appropriated British territory, and shot down British soldiers on British soil simply because they stood in their way, and fought to protect British homes and British territory from invasion, spoliation, and outrage. This action on the part of the Boers has placed them out of court as pleaders of provocation and wrong, but it has given British representatives a weapon of overwhelming power as the agents of a policy of generosity, forbearance, and moderation in the treatment of conquered foes. Whatever may be said to the contrary by Boer leaders or Boer sympathisers, it is out of their power to fasten upon either the Empire or the colonies the blame of blood-guiltiness. That might have been pos- sible had war followed upon the heels of the Raid, and 394 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA it cannot be doubted that the fact weighed mightily with all Imperial and colonial statesmen who were responsible for the conduct of affairs through that critical period. No such possibility exists now. The Home Government and its representatives carried for- bearance throughout subsequent negotiations to the point of peril, and in the end were found disastrously unprepared for the contingency of war. The two Colonial Governments have all through shown the greatest anxiety that peace should remain unbroken. The hope and effort of all have been centred in a bloodless settlement of outstanding grievances, in an amicable adjustment of the claims of the Uitlander, in the peaceful recognition of British supremacy. The republics, with their allies in the colonies, have to thank the infatuation and folly of their own leaders for the issue they invoked, with all its consequences. They rushed to the ordeal of battle, and they must abide by the results. They unmasked their arms and revealed their forces. They not only challenged the Empire to a trial of strength, but they began the struggle without a pause. Some of their forces were across the border even before the time named in the ultimatum had passed. And they knew what in that event to expect. In 1896 the Prime Minister of Natal said to a depu- tation of three leading Dutch colonists, who waited upon him in connection Avith public affairs, that what- ever views might be held by the Colonial Government THE OUTLOOK 395 concerning the Raid and its causes, nothing was more certain than that any invasion of the colonial frontier by so much as half or a quarter of a mile would be resisted by that Government with every resource at its command. What was done therefore in 1899 by another Ministry, when the volunteers of the Colony went to the front on a day's notice, was the effective fulfilment of the pledge given three years earlier. Whatever may have been the case as regards the Cape Colony, the Boers have had no reason to suppose that any actual invasion of Natal territory would not be strenuously resisted by both the Empire and the colonists. The chasm opened by the war between the two races was the work of republican intrigue and hostility. It has now to be bridged and closed by the strenuous co-operation of Imperial and South African representa- tives in striving for a common end — the fusion of the races and the unification of the country. That must be the objective of all. I fail to see what hope there can be for South Africa as a place of abode for peace-loving and order-seeking men on any other basis. It may at this moment seem a difficult if not impracticable undertaking. While the reek of war is in the air, and passions bred by deadly strife are still seething, it may seem folly to talk of racial amity and political union. But peace must come in time, and it will be peace based upon righteous victory, upon the overthrow of a spurious and militant republicanism, and the estab- 396 A LIFE TIME IN SOUTH AFRICA lisliment of constitutional freedom under the British flag. This is neither the place nor the time to discuss the methods by which such a settlement is to be secured. When the war is over and resistance is at an end, terms and conditions can be considered. The task, moreover, is not to be performed by individuals. It must be undertaken by duly qualified representatives acting in concert under Imperial guidance. It must be entered upon in a calmer atmosphere than can be looked for as long as active hostilities are proceeding. All that is proper now is to suggest such principles of action as appear to be elementary and unavoidable. I venture to name the following : — 1. British, or Imperial, supremacy throughout the whole of South Africa, apart from German and Portu- guese possessions. 2. South African autonomy on the basis of South African confederation. 3. The early establishment of a Central Government, in which each constituent province of the Confederation shall be proportionately represented. 4. Such a readjustment of provincial boundaries as shall leave the least chance of jar or friction between neighbouring communities. 5. The establishment of a common franchise open to all who have been used to exercise an elective fran- chise in the past, or who may not have been specially disqualified. THE OUTLOOK 397 G. The absolute control by the Central Government of all measures connected with defence. 7. The effective punishment or disqualification of proved and prominent leaders or abettors of rebellion, and the exercise of a judicious and generous clemency towards all who have not been found guilty of pillage and outrage. Other questions may confidently be left to the deci- sion and discretion of statesmen and representatives. The framework of a suitable constitution may already be found outlined in the Dominion Act, the Common- wealth Act, and the South Africa Act, and if further examples be needed they can be found in the constitu- tions of Switzerland, Italy, and the United States. No lack of material need hamper the efforts of constitu- tional draftsmen. When once the main lines to be followed are agreed upon, all else will follow in due course. Solidity, permanence, and acceptability are the three conditions of success. Temporary or provisional expedients will only postpone an effort which will get more difficult as time goes on. Confederation has been talked about in South Africa for more than forty years. Sir George Grey proposed it in 1859. Had it been agreed to then there would have been no war to-day. Had Sir Bartle Frere's policy been suffered to proceed unth warted twenty years later, South Africa would have been at rest years ago. In no part of the Empire are delays more dangerous than in South Africa. Again and again they have made shipwreck of possibilities 398 A LIFE TIME FN SOUTH AFRICA and hopes. The supreme opportunity for action has now arrived. The Empire has asserted itself by a majestic demonstration of its might and its resources. Lot it now establish itself immovably by a not less imposing and impressive manifestation of purpose and policy— of a visible resolve to hold South Africa as a part of the Anglo-Saxon heritage, as a member of that family of freemen whose rights are the envy of the human race. Peace, order, and unity — let these prevail, and no one can limit the possibilities of expansion in this land of struggle and misfortune. South Africa in the past may have been a region of disappointment and regret, but under those happier auspices she will have abounding sources of hope for the future. Her endowments are mighty and manifold. She has a commanding position in the southern seas, as the dividing continent between east and west. Her climate is pure, healthful, and in the main exhilarating. Her vast plains, though arid now, only need irrigation, as experience has proved, to become generously fruitful. The garden lands of the eastern seaboard are naturally fertile. Her pastoral resources are capable of enormous development. In mineral resources her wealth is incalculable and un- surpassed. Diamonds and gold, iron and coal, to say nothing of copper and other baser metals, are all parts of the splendid inheritance which nature has blessed her with. These are the roots of her material prosperity, but she has other riches as well. The patriotic spirit THE OUTLOOK 399 of her sons, no matter how misapplied on one side, has been proved by service and sacrifice in the field. Her people, whether British or Dutch in origin, whether white or black, love their country, and are ready to fight in its defence. They are industrious, domestic, religious-minded — in varying degree, perhaps, as in all communities, but sufficiently so to promise a worthy type of national character in the future. Above all they have been tried in the fire, and have learnt through affliction and adversity the futility of mad ambitions, the value of settled peace. I may be wrong in my forecast, and too confident in my hopes, but even at this moment, while the tragic drama is still in course of enactment, and the end of it yet out of view, I am fain to believe that with the dawning century we can welcome the near approach of a better time. APPENDIX THE RETURN OF SIR BARTLE FRERE (From the "Times," October 6, 1880.) Cape Town, Sept. 15. Ever since the tidings of his recall spread over South Africa, there has been a widespread and spontaneous outburst of feeling on the part of colonists against the injustice done to Sir Bartle Frere and the injury inflicted upon the country by his removal. There is not a town or district of any im- portance that has not borne testimony to his devoted and sagacious administration of affairs throughout a period of unprecedented trouble and difficulty. Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Graham's Town and East London, Graaf Reinet and King William's Town, Kimberley, Pietermaritzburg, and Durban, Natal, besides a host of minor places, have all expressed the indignation and sorrow excited by the treat- ment he has received ; and the valedictory addresses, some sixty-five in number, which have poured in upon him form such a tribute of popular sympathy as has rarely been received by any Governor. On Monday Sir Bartle Frere held an informal levee, which was attended by all the leading citizens. In the afternoon a reception was held by the Misses Frere on behalf of Lady Frere, who unfortunately was prevented from being pre- sent owing to serious indisposition. Never was Government House so crowded, between 500 and 600 persons being present. In the course of the afternoon the Hon. Mr. 40! o c 402 APPENDIX Robinson, M.L.C, from Natal, presented an address from that colony signed by 5000 of its inhabitants. In presenting it, Mr. Robinson said that he did so as the representative of the whole community moved by one impulse and bound by one purpose. He said that the reason of this unanimity was to be found in the fact that his Excellency recognised in all its fulness and intensity the dangers of the position into which Natal had drifted, not by its own action, not by its own will — for it had neither free action nor free will in the matter — but by reason of political measures and pro- cesses over which the colonists had had no control any more than Sir Rartle Frere. While in Natal they looked to union chiefly as the means of achieving an end which would be on broad grounds immensely to the advantage of South Africa at large, so they looked to participating in free, self- governing institutions as the only means by which they could allow themselves to enter upon any plan of political copartnership. Sir Bartle Frere had sustained the parent colony in its laudable aspiration to become a great self- governing State. He had stimulated Natal into claiming for itself the control of its own affairs. He had assisted in the task of bringing Griqualand West within the pale of self-government. He had urged upon the people of the Transvaal the importance of qualifying themselves for the restoration of constitutional privileges. But he had done more than that, he had taught them to look on South Africa as a whole ; he had sought to widen their political vision and to raise their political contemplations. He had shown them that, whether they lived in the shadow of Table Mountain or under the frown of the distant Drakensberg, they were linked together by ties as strong and high and continuous and enduring as is the mighty mountain chain which binds these points together. Abiding peace and abiding safety had been the watchwords of Sir Rartle Frere's policy. His Excellency had been with them through the dark days of the Zulu War, and when he left them — though APPENDIX 403 the immediate danger was past, though reinforcements were already pouring in — there was a feeling that they had lost the presence of one whose firm and calm judgment was of as much use as an element of confidence as regiments of infantry or squadrons of cavalry. Mr. Robinson concluded a powerful speech by saying that he presented the address together with a very handsome casket for its safe custody, in the name of the colonists of Natal, whose present safety his Excellency had purchased at a cost regardless of him- self ; and in the names of the loyal natives of Natal, who, when they looked towards Zululand, saw no longer there a power which once they deemed superior to our own. He said he spoke with certain knowledge when he said her Majesty's 400,000 native subjects in Natal regarded Sir Bartle Frere as their benefactor and their friend ; and he entreated his Excellency to remember that wherever his lot might be cast, or whatever position of high Imperial usefulness he might be called upon to occupy, there would ever be among the scattered homesteads and the far sepa- rated townships in the distant Colony of Natal a tender cherishing of his name, and a prayerful hope that to him and his might come in God's abounding time all that their reverend love and dutiful gratitude could seek or could crave for him. His Excellency replied as follows : — " I thank you very sincerely for the kind terms in which you have been good enough to speak in presenting this address from the inhabitants of Natal. I have already, in my reply by telegraph to the first notice of the meeting at which the address was voted, stated how deeply I felt this testimony of their good opinion. I believe it is from no mere feeling of gratified vanity that I value the opinions to which you have given expression. There were none in South Africa who could estimate as the inhabitants of Natal could the reality of the facts which were before us when I took a step likely to be of very momentous consequences. 404 APPENDIX not only to myself personally and to all parts of South Africa, but more especially to the Colony of Natal. We acted then, as I need not remind you, in the presence of what we believed to be a great and imminent danger. Our action has been challenged since then on the broad ground that no such danger existed. You, however, in Natal, with all the facts before you and the means of estimating them at their right value, believed that the danger existed, and that no other steps were possible for the security of life and property in the Colony than those which were then taken. As to what was in the mind of the King of the Zulus at that time, and as to the real motives which actu- ated me in the course we then took, it is hardly possible that more should be known with any certainty in this life ; but there were patent facts — facts which made the action we took either a great service or a great crime — of which most people in Natal who had their eyes and ears open to what went on around them, and who were acquainted with the history of the Colony, could not but be competent judges ; and I, therefore, greatly value your verdict on the occasion. I hope that what was done during those terrible days of the early part of 1879 have made life and property more secure throughout your Colony and, indeed, in regions far beyond it. I do not envy the Englishman who can visit the valley of the Tugela and the scenes of the massacres which took place in Weenen County, in the Bluekrantz and Bushman's River valleys, within living memory, and who could then turn aside and be at rest while it was possible that such scenes might be repeated. I trust they can never now recur, and that in days to come the subjects of her Majesty, of every race and colour, may enjoy the fruits of their own industry in those beautiful valleys, and may sleep in perfect peace and security, such as they certainly did not feel when I first set foot in Natal. For Zululand, also, I trust what has been done has not been without good results. It never was any part of my wish nor my duty to dictate APPENDIX 40 to the Zulus regarding their own form of government, further than was essential to the safety of our British fellow-subjects, their near neighbours in Natal and the Transvaal. It is no part of my duty now, or in this place, to pass opinions on things as they are now in Zulu- land. I can only speak of things as I found them, when the crisis which had been long preparing arrived. It seems to me a simple perversion of fact to speak of things as they then existed in Zululand as tolerable under any form of government. Whatever may be the shortcomings of the present system, it is certainly a vast improvement to have taken place in less than two years ; and, what is more, it is a state of things which admits of yet further indefinite improvement, till every man in Zululand is able to enjoy life and the property which he may acquire with the same security as in Natal itself. It is a great question whether the Zulus will be happier left to their own devices, to their own superstitions and customs, ruled as they are now, with at least the power of acquiring the knowledge which has produced such marvellous results on the people of our own country. I myself have never felt any doubt as to which form of life the Zulus themselves would in the long run prefer ; but the great struggle between barbarism and civilisation has now come in Zululand to this point, that it is at least possible for any Zulu to choose for himself with some degree of freedom, under which form of existence he would live. I hope the gentlemen who signed this address will be assured of the earnestness with which I return their good wishes for the future. For the Colony at large, I can wish you no better than that degree of self-government which has been for some years conceded to this Colony, and for which I feel assured, from what I saw of Natal and its inhabitants, your Colony is perfectly prepared and well fitted. I trust that your own brief stay among us will have given you the same impression that my longer stay here has given to me, that there can be no doubt as to the entire 40 G APPENDIX adaptation of the political institutions we have here to the country in which we are living. Imperfect those institutions may be, like all human inventions, but they have the great virtue of self-governing institutions, that they are capable of expansion and perfection to any extent desired by those who live under them, provided they seek such expansion and improvement by reasonable and legitimate means. In one respect I have found the institutions of the country as regards our native fellow-subjects in advance of any with which I am acquainted elsewhere. It is in the power of any native in the Cape Colony to rise politically and socially to any eminence for which his education and intel- lectual and moral qualities may lit him. Obstacles, formid- able obstacles, there will always be of race and colour, but they are not insuperable. Which of us here present belongs to a nation so favoured that he may not at some time of his life have found when he leaves his own home that his race or nationality, of which he is justly proud, has been to him a disadvantage among associates of other races. Even Englishmen, who are so favoured by fortune in these respects, well know that there is no special charm to secure a man either political or social eminence, irrespective of his own intrinsic merits, and when this is once recognised, when we feel that it is not by hedging a people round with exceptional privileges (always carrying as they do some exceptional dis- abilities), it is not by petting or by patronising this or that race that we can raise them to a higher level — when we practically recognise the truth that the only process is to afford to other races the same advantages which we our- selves have enjoyed for so many ages, perfect equality before the law, equal political rights, to all who will labour for and earn them a fair field and no favour ; when these truths are practically recognised and acted on, we shall have made a great step towards obliterating all invidious distinctions of race or class, so far as to enable any man of every race or colour to rise as high as his own personal merits may deserve. APPENDIX 407 I trust you will carry back with you to Natal not only my own assurance, but a conviction of your own, that one great element of progress in these colonies is to be found in a closer union of each State with its fellows. It is only thus that you can realise the full advantages of your position, and free the mother country from the responsibilities of parental manage- ment, the necessity for which you have, I believe, so far outgrown. I feel certain that among the inhabitants of Natal this conviction will not be coupled with any insensi- bility to the great honour and privilege of forming a part of one of the foremost empires of the world. It is because you and your fellow-colonists here are offshoots from the great self-governed natives of Northern Europe that you desire to be self governed here, and that you would not willingly have serfs or slaves for your fellow-subjects. It is because of this feeling identical with our name, and crystallised and enshrined in the idea of the British Crown and Empire, that the nation of which your Colony is one of the offshoots is among the foremost nations of the world. For myself personally I would ask you to return my warm and hearty thanks to those who concurred in the address for their good wishes. It is not in the nature of things that I should be spared to see very much of what is in store for your rising Colony, but my best wishes will ever be given for your prosperity, and I hope that hereafter, when Natal is a branch of a great South African dominion, some one diving into the records of the past may light on the name of one who did not in his day escape bitter censure for doing what he and you believed was his simple duty, but who, the historian may think, did some good service for the per- manent peace and security of his fellow-subjects in this part of the great South African continent." INDEX OF NAMES Aberdeen, xxvii. Africanders, their formation and working of the Bond, 348 sqq. ; development of their hostility to England after the retrocession of the Transvaal, 360 sqq. ; their conciliation to be aimed at in the settlement of affairs after the war, 389 Alfred Country, 226, 229 Aigoa Bay, 248 Allison, Captain, 123 Amatongoland, 213, 214 Amazulu nation, the, 285 America : lessons of the War of Secession, 389 Amiens, Peace of, 338 Australia, emigration to, 4 ; Com- monwealth of, 3S5 ; 392, 397 Baines, Thomas, 237 Barry, Sir Wolfe, 198 Basutoland, 25, 115, 211, 212, 226 ; hostilities with the Free State, 256, 257 ; the people become British subjects, 257, 258 ; the raid into Natal, 259 Bechuanaland, expedition of Sir Charles Warren to, 361 Bent, Mr., explorations of, 284 Berea, the, 196 Bethlehem, 184 Biggar, , shot by the Boers for treachery, 53 Biggarsberg, the, 82 Bishopstowe, 108 Blaauwkrantz River, 52, 53, 65, 174 Bloemfontein, 183, 271 ; Conference at, 326 ; anti-English Press of, 343, 351 Boers : trek into Natal, 23, 27, 46, sqq.; massacred by Dingaan, 51-56 ; expedition under Pre- terms against the Zulus, 57 sqq. ; religious enthusiasm, 57, 58, 330, 386 ; treatment of natives, 47, 62; observance of " Dingaan's Day," 62 sqq. ; burial of remains of the victims of the Weenen massacres, 63-67 ; their claim to Natal, 69 ; sale of their farms to British immigrants, 71 ; their invasion of Natal, 93-98, 377 ; system of trading, 182 sqq. ; encroachments into Zululand, 216, sqq. ; their " New Republic," 217, 218 ; contempt of natives, 295-297, 330, 331 ; distrust of Englishmen, 334 ; their mistaken ideas as to the ability of Holland to further their schemes, 339- 342 ; growth of disaffection to- wards England, 344, 345 ; how they profited by the gold-mining activity, 374, 375 ; stubbornness in the war, 386. (See also Trans- vaal.) Boshoff, J. N., 158, 159 Botha, Roelof, 54 410 inn i ■: \ Brackenbury, Major Henry, 36, 88 Brand, President, 262, 2G3 ; at- tends the London Conference, 264, 265 ; li is wise administra- tion, 343, 344, 392 Broome, Mr. Napier (Colonial Secretary under Sir Garnet Wolseley), 36, 37 Buckingham, Duke of, receives a deputation of Cape merchants, 116 Buffalo River, 52, 93, 216 Buller, General, 64, 130 Bulwer, Sir Henry, 40, 161, 204, 215, 230 Bushman's Pass, 119 Bushman's River, massacres at, 45, 52 sqq. Bushmen, 225, 283 Butler, Sir William, 36, 38 Byrne, J. C, emigration scheme of, 4, 295 Bzuidenhout, W. P., 53 California, emigration to, 4 Canada, 385, 392, 397 Cape Colony : immigrants in the eastern province, 4 ; Kafir war, 25, 181 ; mission of Sir Bartle Frere, 30 ; establishment of a Parliament of two Chambers, 163, 177; railways, 192, 193; area, 211 ; relations with Natal, 222, 226 sqq. ; annexation of Griqualand East, 227 ; the ques- tion of the administration of Pondoland, 231 sqq. ; conference for establishing a Customs Union, 240 sqq. ', completion of railway to Johannesburg, 247 ; second Customs Conference, 252 ; rivalry with Natal, 253 Cape Horn, 8 Cape of Good Hope, 8, 278 ; its conquest by Britain acquiesced in by Holland, 330 Cape Town : railway, 193 Carnarvon, Lord, xxxviii., 29, 35, 264, 265 Cathcart, Sir George, 257 Cetvwayo, 107 sqq., 115 ; his coro- nation, 116, 117, 221 ; prepares to invade Natal, 127 ; 165, 216. Chaka, King, 12, 48, 88, 108, 212, 213 ; his conquests over natives, 285, 2S6 Chamberlain, Mr., xxxviii. Charlestown, 209, 247, 249, 251, 271 ; opening of the railway to, 273 sqq. Charters, Major, 100 Chelmsford, Lord, 59 ; commands the British troops in the Zulu war (1879), 130 sqq. Chieveley, 64, 68, 172 Clarke, Sir Marshall, 222 Cloete, Judge, his account of the mistaken views of the Boers respecting the power of Holland, 339-341 Colenso, 49 Colenso, Bishop, xvi., xix., 28, 29, 111, 264 Colesberg Kopje, 236 Colley, Sir George, appointed High Commissioner for South-east Africa, 30 ; Colonial Treasurer, 36; 38, 39; his administration as Governor of South-east Africa, 39 ; at Majuba, 40, 269, 345 Crimea, the, war in, 102, 181 Cronje, General, 351 Cronstadt, 184 Daktnkll, Colonel, 231 Delagoa Bay, 11 ; its unhealthiness, INDEX 411 48; 215,241 ; completion'of rail- way from Pretoria to, 247, 360 ; 285, 355 De la Goa River, 282 Dickens, Charles, xxviii. Dingaan (Zulu king), 23 ; his grant of land in Natal to the Boers, 50, 213 ; his massacre of Boers, 51- 55 ; his power destroyed by the Boers, 61 ; 174, 213 ; his ravages among the natives of Natal, 285, 287 Dinizulu (Zulu chief), 220, 221 Drakenberg, the, 49, 52, 54, 95, 118, 123, 173, 195, 211, 216, 225 Dundee, 94, 96, 192, 271, 377 Dunn, John, 107 Durban : library, xii. ; Parliamen- tary election, xxxii. sqq. ; 8, 12 ; its extent in 1850, 13 ; early condi- tions of commercial and social life, 17 ; 23, 36 ; erection of fort, 100; volunteer movement, 102- 105 ; arrival of Sir Bartle Frere, 127 ; preparations for defence against a Zulu invasion, 133-135 ; 170 ; marine service, 180 ; trade, 183; railway, 191, 192, 195; harbour, 195 sqq. ; coal trade, 201, 203 ; 205 ; municipal insti- tutions, 206 ; banquet to Mr. Kruger, 209 ; natives at the beginning of the century, 288 Durban, Sir Benjamin, 223, 335 Durnford, Colonel, his expedition against Langalibalele, 118-121 ; his death at Isandhlwana, 132 Dushani (native chief), 106 Edendale, mission natives of, 319 Edinburgh, Duke of, his visit to Natal in 1860, 103 Elandslaagte, battle of, 377 Escombe, Mr., xxviii., xxxviii., 117, 133, 170, 199 Eshowe, 130, 136 Estcourt, 49, 94, 98, 172, 191 Fairbairn, Mr. John, xviii. Faku (chief of the Amaponda nation). 223, 224, 229 Fingoes, the, 286 Fischer, Mr., 272 France, African possessions of, 361 Fraser, Mr., 272, 273 Frere, 172 Frere, Sir Bartle, 24, 29, 30; arrives in Natal, 127, 128 ; 254 ; policy and work in South Africa, 266, 267 ; farewell address to him, 267, 268 ; 335 ; his impres- sions of Dutch loyalty, 345 ; his recall, 349 (see also Appendix, 401-407); 397 Froude, Mr., 29 ; his unjust views of the political situation in Natal, 139, 140, 163, 177 ; 264, 265, 392 Fynn, Mr. H. F., 287, 288 George IV., Zulu mission to, 212, 213 Germany : possessions in Africa, 212, 215, 216, 361 Gifford, Lord, 36 Gladstone, Mr., 261 Glasgow, xxvii. Glass, Corporal, 8 Gough Island, 8 Grahamstown, 349 Granville, Lord, 215 Grey, Earl, his despatches on native policy, 294 ; opposes Mr. Shepstone's plan for managing natives, 299 Grey, Sir George, confers with citizens of Natal, 142; 254; con- 412 INDEX dermis Mr. Shepstone's project for the management of natives, 299, 300 ; 335, 397 Greyling, General, 351 Grey town. Ill, 112, 192, 201 Griqualand East, 192, 211, 225; annexed to Cape Colony, 227 ; 229 Harding, 170 Harrismith, 184, 269 ; railway to, 272 Hartley, Sir Charles, 198 Hawkins, Captain, 123 Heidelberg, xxxvii., 184, 275, 276, 363 Hermansburg, 113 Holland, forms the first European settlement in South Africa, 338 ; sum paid by Britain, for rights in South Africa, to, 338, 339 ; its inability to further the schemes of the Boers, 340-342 Holland, Sir Henry, 165 Hottentots, characteristics of, 283 Ho wick, 277 Hudson, George, railway specula- tions of, 5 Illovo River, 161 Inaccessible Island, 8 India : migration of labourers to Natal, 75-77 Inhambana, 285 Inyezane, fight with the Zulus at, 130 Isandhlwana, 118, 131, 132 Isidoi (native chief), 106 Italy, visits to, xxvii.; constitution of, 3!t7 Ixopo, 170 Jameson, Dr., 68, 275, 371 Java, 342 Johannesburg, 94, 95, 191, 195, 201, 238, 239 ; increase of its trade, 247, 364 sqq. ; political agitation at, 275 ; its fortifica- tions, 327 ; its gold output, 365 Joubert, General, at the celebra- tion of " Dingaan's Day," 64, 65, 66 ; favourable to concessions to Uitlanders, 67 ; 82 ; invades Natal, 97, 160; 351 Kafirland : climate and geogra- phical features, 223 ; treaties with chiefs. 223, 224 Kafirs: 12; "war" of 1850-54, 22 ; atrocities, 23, 24 ; war of 1877, 30; depredations on Boer farms, 46 ; massacre of Boers at Bushman's River, 52-56 ; trade carried on with them, 185-187 Kambula, Elijah (Christian native), 120, 121 Keate, Governor, 33-35 Kimberley, 236, 238, 364, 365 Kimberley, Lord, 40, 164 King, Lieutenant (early British settler), his treaty with the Zulus, 212, 213 Klip River, 52 Knutsford, Lord, 166 ; confers with Sir J. Robinson and Mr. Sutton on the question of responsible government, 169 Koch, Professor, investigates the conditions of rinderpest, 92 Kok, Adam, 225 Kokstad, 225 Kosi Bay, 361 Krantz Kop, 114 Kruger, Mr., banquet at Durban in his honour, 209 ; his desire to secure a seaboard for the Trans- INDEX 413 vaal, -213, 214; 241, 247, 249, 273 ; his reception at Charles- town, 274 ; at the Bloemfontein Conference, 326 ; his attitude on the eve of the Boer war, 327, 32S ; visits Holland and Germany, 345 ; 350, 358 ; offered a strip of land from Kosi Bay to the Transvaal, 361 ; his treaty with Portugal, 362 ; the advantages which he gained from gold-mining, 368, 369 ; how he utilised the Jame- son Raid, 372 ; his ultimatum, 377 ; his dominating influence, 383 ; his former belief in British supremacy, 393 Labuschagne, Mr. Caspar, on the question of native management, 296 Ladismith, 94 ; investment of, 96 ; 174 ; railway, 191 ; 199, 271, 284 ; defence of, 377 Laing's Nek, battle of, 30 Lamprey, Mr., 1 Langalibalele, rebellion of, 28, 30, 116 sqq., 263, 264, 318 ; captured and exiled, 126 Leyds, Dr., 275-277, 345, 346 Liebenberg, B. J., 53. Limpopo, the, 236 Lobengula, concession obtained from, 237 London, Conference of 1876 in, 29 ; South African Dinner (May 1899), 325 Lotter, Mr., on the apprenticeship of Kafirs, 297 Lourenco Marques, 241 Lydenburg, 184, 237 MacLkan, Colonel, 33 Madagascar, 361 Maitland, Sir Peregrine, 223 Majuba, 30, 212, 256, 268, 274, 349 Mann, Dr., xxii., 203 Marabastad, gold-fields of, 237 Maritz, 56, 64 Maritz, Field Commandant, 296 Mashonaland, 237 Matabeleland, gold-fields of, 237, 238 Mauch, Carl, 237, 23S Mauritius, 137 Middleburg, Mr., 347 Milne, John, 197, 198 Milner, Sir Alfred, 325 Mitchell, Sir Charles, 272 M'Kungu (son of M'Pande), 10S, 111 Mooi River, 98, 284 Molteno, Mr., 264, 265 Moshesh (Basuto chief), 257, 258 Mozambique, 278 M'Pande (Zulu king), 24, 61, 107, 213 Miinster, Count, 215 Murchison, Sir Roderick, 200 Musgrave, Governor, 207 Napier, Sir George, his military defence of Natal, 99, 100 ; 223 ; his proclamation regarding the administration of native affairs, 289, 290 ; 335, 340 Natal : emigration scheme of J. C. Byrne, 4, 5, 295 ; length of voyage from London in 1850, 8 ; its seaboard, 11 ; experiences of early immigrants, 12 sqq., 18, 19 ; conflict of Boers with British troops for the possession of Dur- ban, 12 ; early conditions of commercial and social life, 17, 18; "Kafir War" of 1850-54, 22 ; administration of Sir Garnet Wolseley, 35 sqq., 161, 213, 217 ; 414 INDEX Boer settlement, 49 ; story of the Weenen massacres, 51 sqq. ; celebration of " Dingaan's Day," 63-67 ; claimed by the Boers, 69 ; effect of British immigra- tion, 71 ; cotton-planting 72 ; sugar-planting, 73, 75, 80 ; coolie labour, 75-77 ; arrowroot-grow- ing, 77, 78 ; production of cayenne pepper, 78 ; climatic conditions, 78 ; fruit-growing, 79 ; firing of grass, 81 ; floods and thunder- storms, 82-85 ; locust plague, 86-88 ; the cattle tick, 88 ; dis- eases of cattle and sheep, 89, 90 ; rinderpest, 90-92 ; affair at Rorke's Drift, 93 ; the Boer invasion, 93-98 ; military defence in 1838 under Sir George Napier, 99, 100; the volunteer move- ment, 101-106 ; false alarms of Zulu invasions, 110 sqq. ; pre- parations for defence against a Zulu invasion, 133 sqq. ; legisla- tion of early Governors, 141 ; creation of a representative legis- lature (1856), 142, 143; the ques- tion of the control of natives, 143-146; the first Parliament House, and incidents of Parlia- mentary procedure, 153 sqq. ; Dutch representatives in Parlia- ment, 158 ; equality of citizen- ship of the Dutch with the British, 160 ; additions to the Legislative Council(1875), 161; creation of an Upper Chamber, 162; responsible government, 163 sqq., 250 ; Im- migration Act, 177 ; absence of venality in public life, 1 78 ; native law, 179 ; imports and exports in 1850, 180 ; inland trade, 1S1 sqq., 211 ; rates of transport, 187, 188 ; banking, 189, 190 ; railway sys- tem, 191 sqq., 239, 248 ; its dis- covery by Vasco da Gama, 196 ; coal mines, 200-202 ; education, 203, 204 ; libraries and museums, 205 ; municipal institutions, 206 ; banquets, 206 sqq.; extent, 210, 211 ; Zululand incorporated, 210, 213, 221 ; the question of northern and north-eastern frontiers, 216 sqq. ; protests of the Colony against the settlement of the Zululand question, 218-220; re- lations with Cape Colony, 222, 226 sqq. ; acquisition of territory in the south, 226 ; the question of the administration of Pondo- land, 231 sqq. ; activity of the people in mining enterprise, 236- 23S ; customs charges and the effect upon trade, 240-251 ; com- pletion of railway to Johannes- burg, 251 ; the second Parliament, and re-arrangement of customs' tariff, 251, 252 ; opposition to incorporation with Cape Colony, 254 ; relations with the two republics, 256-277 ; conference at Harrismith between delegates from Natal and the Free State, 269, 270 ; railways to Harrismith and the Transvaal, 272-277 ; natives: — described by early navigators, 278-283, in remote ages, 2S1, ravaged by Zulus, 285-2S7, administration of their affairs, 2S9 sqq., report of Com- mission, 291-293, Lord Grey's despatches, 294, Boer view of ruling them, 295-297, Mr. Shep- stone's schemes for their manage- ment, 298, 299, the " Shepstonian policy," 300 sqq., legislative INDEX 415 changes for their control, 303 sqq., debarred from acquiring firearms, 305, 306, prohibited from buying liquor, 307, 308, excluded from the franchise, 308 sqq., as land- owners, 312, primitive habits, and useful occupations, 313-315, education, 315, 316, loyalty, bravery, &c, 316 sqq., their atti- tude during the Boer war, 320- 322, testimony of American mis- sionaries to the beneficial native policy of Britain, 323, 324 ; the Boer invasion, 377 New South Wales, 211 Newcastle, 94, 96, 170, 174, 191, 271 Ngoza (Zulu attendant on Mr. Shepstone), 108, 109 No Man's Land, 225, 227, 299, 361 Noble, Professor, xviii. Nottingham, Fort, 97 Oosthuysen (a Natal Dutchman), 174 Orange Free State, 115, 158, 211, 239 ; joins the conference for establishing a Customs Union, 240, 242, 243, 246 ; war with the Basutos, 256, 257 ; proposed an- nexation to Cape Colony or Natal, 260 ; relations with Natal, 262, 263 ; England's withdrawal in 1854, 335 ; administration of President Brand, 343, 344 Paardekraal, 62 Paarl, the, 350 Paterson, Mr., 254 Pearson, Colonel, 129, 136 Perestrello (Portuguese navigator), 27S Piet, General, 351 Piet Retief, district of, 216 Pietermaritzburg : library, xii. ; 17 ; fortifications, 23 ; 26, 65, 97 ; strength of British garrison in 1856, 110 ; 122 ; preparations for defence against a Zulu invasion, 133, 135 ; 171, 181, 183, 187 ; rail- way, 191, 192, 195 ; education, 203 ; 205 ; municipal institutions, 206 ; 289 Pilgrim's Rest, 236 Pine, Sir Benjamin, 19. 21, 24 ; his control of native tribes, 25 ; ad- ministration of Natal, 27 ; second administration, 28-31, 117 ; sup- presses Langalibalele's rebellion, 30, 122, sqq.; 37; his encourage- ment of the volunteer move- ment, 101, 102; preference for " liberal institutions, "141, 142 ; 197, 263, 264, 293 Pondoland, 187, 211,227 ; character of its people, 229, 230 ; the question of its administration, 231-235 Port Elizabeth, 193, 228, 247 Portugal : possessions in Africa, 210, 212, 216, 355, 361 ; treaty rights for importation of goods granted to the Transvaal, 241 Potchefstrom, 183 Pretoria, 30, 50, 161, 184 ; fortifica- tions of, 327 ; anti-English Press of, 343 ; influx of Hollanders, 346 ; its condition before the discovery of gold, 363 Pretorius, Andries, his successful expedition against the Zulus, 57 sqq. ; as a pulpit orator, 58 ; at the celebration of "Dingaan's Day," 67 ; on the management of Kafirs, 296, 297 Pretorius, General Henning, 351 416 INDEX Pretorius, Mr. M., 64, 160, 172 Putili (native chief), 122 Rand, the, 239, 247, 364 Reitz, Mr., 331, 344, 350, 351, 352 Retief, Piet, 46 ; his visits to Din- gaan, 50, 51 ; murdered by Zulus, 51, 61 ; 64 Rhodes, Mr., 235, 237, 273, 365, 369, 383 Rhodesia, rinderpest in, 90 ; 212 ; its gold-fields, 237 Richmond, 192 Riebeek, Van, 338 Roberts, Lord, 390 Robinson, Sir Hercules, 253. (See also Rosmead, Lord.) Rogers, Captain, a description of the natives by, 280-282 Rorke's Drift, 93, 115, 131, 137 Rosmead, Lord, 210, 211. (See also Robinson, Sir Hercules.) Rossouw, A. J., murdered by the Kafirs, 53 Russia, its extent compared with that of Great Britain, 211 Rustenburg, 184 St. Helena, 220, 221 St. John's River, 230 St. Lucia Bay, 62, 215 St. Vincent, 137 Saldanha Bay, 338 Scheepers, Mr. F. C. (Boer farmer), his opinion on the management of natives, 295, 296 Scott, Governor, 31-33, 142; his views on the native question, 144-146; 155 Sebastian, King, 278 Senzangaknna (Zulu chief), 285 Shaahi, 236 Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, 25, 26, 28 ; annexes the Transvaal, 30 265, 367 ; recognises Cety wayo as heir to the Zulu sovereignty, 109 ; his coronation of Cety wayo, 116, 117, 221 ; 291 ; makes pro- posals for the management of natives, 298, 299 ; becomes Sec- retary for Native Affairs, 300 ; his methods, 301, 302 Sigcau (native chief), 224 " Slagter's Nek," incident of, 331 Smellekamp, Mr., 340 sqq. Smit, General, 351 Smith, Captain, 341 Smithfield, 183 Sotobi (Zulu chief), 212 South Africa : immigration, 4 ; area of farms, 4, 5 ; coal mines, 200, 201 ; municipal i?istitution«, 206 ; three conditions for its peaceful development, 325 ; the Dutch Africander element, 333 ; its prosperity injuriously affected by the warfare of political parties in England, 335 ; the objects of the Africander Bond, 352 sqq. ; effect of gold-mining on trade, 366 ; the grounds of Great Britain's claim to control its destinies, 380 sqq. ; conditions of future peace and prosperity, 382 sqq. ; suggested principles of action in the settlement of affairs, 396, 397 ; the question of Con- federation, 397 ; its wealth, 398 Spies, Mr., 296 Sprigg, Sir Gordon, 241, 254 Springfield, 171, 172, 173 Standerton, 184 Steenekamp, Mrs. A. E., 40, 47 ; her account of the Bushman's River massacres, 54, 55 Steyn, President, 331, 350 INDEX 417 "Stoffel, Oom," 159 Sumatra, 342 Sutton, Mr. (one of the delegates appointed to confer with Lord Knutsford on responsible govern- ment), 169 Swaziland, 187, '211, 218, 237 Switzerland, constitution of, 397 Table Bay, landing of the Dutch at, 338 Table Mountain, 227 Tati, 236 Tongaat River, 133, 288 Tongoland, 1S7, 214 Tosen, John, 45, 46, 56 Transvaal, the : annexed to Great Britain, 30, 265, 367 ; its retro- cession, 30, 164 ; ravaged by rinderpest, 90 ; bribery of its legislators, 178 ; its Natal border, 212 ; its absorption of territory in Zululand, 216 sqq., 361 ; dis- covery of gold, 236, 238, 362 sqq. ; declines to join the conference for establishing a Customs Union, 240 ; railway to Delagoa Bay, 241, 248 ; absence of good govern- ment, 259 ; proposed annexation to Cape Colony or Natal, 260 ; causes of the Boer War, 329 sqq. ; convention of 1854, 332 ; the question of language one of the chief instruments of social cleav- age, 336, 357, 35S ; the influx of Hollanders, 346 ; the Dutch in- fluence of the Netherlands Rail- way Company, 346, 347 ; the workings and the object of the Africander Bond, 348 sqq. ; re- venue in 1897, 367 ; military preparations, 370, 372 ; the Jameson raid, 371 sqq., 393, 395 ; the main issue of the war \yith Britain, 377, 378 ; its responsi- bility for the war, 393 sqq. (See also Boers.) Tristan d'Acunha, island of, 8 Tugela River, 49, 50, 52, 62, 64, 96, 107, 135, 171, 192, 219, 227 Uitlanders, grievances of, 375, 376, 382, 394 Ulundi, 59, 130 Umbulazi, 107 Umgazi, 341 Umgeni River, 208 Umhlatusi, River, 220 Umkomanzi River, 287 Umkomas River, 118, 170 Umqikela (native chief), 224, 230 Umtata River, 227 Umvolosi River, 62 Umvoti, 159 Umzimbasi River, 287 Umzimkulu Kiver, 123, 192, 225, 226 Umzimvubu River, 50, 227, 285, 288 Umzinto River, 192 United States, constitution of, 397 Usibepu (Zulu chief), 221 Usutus, the, 221 Utrecht, 216 Vaal, the, 236, 237 Vasco da Gama, 196, 278 Victoria, 208 Victoria (Australia), 211 Victoria, Queen, Diamond Jubilee of, xxxviii. ; Jubilee of, xxxix. Viljoen, Mr., 350 Vooren, Van, 53 Vrede, 184 Vrijheid, 192 2 D 418 iNh i : \ Wakkekstkoom, 216 Warren, Sir Charles, expedition in 1884 of, 360 Weenen, district of, 52. 55, 63, 160 West, Mr. (first Lieutenant-Gover- nor of Natal), 291 Winburg, 183 Witwatersrand, discovery of gold at, 236, 238, 362 sqq., 373 Wodehouse, Sir Philip, 115, 257, 258, 262 Wolseley, Lord. 29 ; supersedes Sir Eartle Frere, 30 ; his administra- tion in Natal, 35 sqq., 161, 213, 217, 220, 264; 265, 319 Wood, Sir Evelyn, 130, 136, 31il Woodbridge (Suffolk), xxvii. Wragg, Sir Walter, 176 Zambaansland, 213 Zimbabwe, ruins of, 284 Zoutpansberg, 237 Zululand : mines, 193 ; incorpo- rated with Natal, 210, 213, 221 ; encroachments of Boers, 216 sqq., 361 Zulus : 22 ; slaughter of British settlers, 23 ; 26 ; massacres of Boers, 51, sqq. ; ravages among their cattle by rinderpest, 91. 92; war between Umbulazi ami Cetywayo, 107 ; attacks on tin- British at Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift, 130 sqq. ; trade with them, 187 ; treaties with early British settlers, 212, 213 ; ravages by Chaka and Dingaan among the natives of Natal, 285- 287 ; under British rule in Natal, 289 sqq. Zurinsrkrantz, 184 THE END Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &* Cc. Edinburgh &> London UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA OOO 951 636 o 1! ill 1 I ■ . . iiiiliiifjlifiifi.'ii lliiiili!.'!..