THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
 SERIES 
 
EDITORS OF THE SERIES: 
 
 REV. W. H. WITH ROW, M.A., D.D., F.R.S.C. 
 CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS, M.A., F.R.C.I. 
 J. CASTELL HOPKINS, F.R.S.L. 
 REV. T. S. LINSCOTT, F.R.C.I. 
 
PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
 
 IN THE CENTURY 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE McCALL THEAL, D. Lit., LL.D. 
 
 Historiographer to the Cape Government. A uthor of "History of South. Africa" 
 
 6 Vols.; "A SJiort* History of South Africa." Story of the Nations 
 
 Series; " South African Records," 15 Vols., in English, Dutch> 
 
 and Portuguese; '''Genealogical Registers of South 
 
 African Families; " "Kaffir Folklore" Etc. 
 
 THE LINSCOTT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 TORONTO AND PHILADELPHIA 
 
 W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 1902 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year One Thousand Nine 
 Hundred and One, by The Bradley-Garretson Co., Limited, in the Office 
 of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year One 
 Thousand Nine Hundred and One, by the Bradley-Garretson Co., Limited, 
 in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 EVERY reader naturally wishes to know with what 
 authority the book in his or her hands, if it professes 
 to be a history, has been written. What, it is asked, 
 were the author's sources of information? What 
 reason is there to believe that his material has been 
 used in a judicious manner? 
 
 My sources of information are archives, in which I 
 have been making researches for a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, many hundreds of printed volumes upon South 
 Africa in various languages, and an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the country and its people, Euro- 
 peans and natives. 
 
 As to the manner in which I have used this ma- 
 terial, of course so definite a statement cannot be 
 made. But I can say that I belong to no political 
 party, that I am on the most friendly terms with a 
 large circle of individuals of English, Dutch, and 
 Bantu nationality, and that I have no prejudice 
 against, or desire to favour, any one of these more 
 than another. During fourteen of the most active 
 years of my life it was my duty to supply the head of 
 the Native Affairs Department of the Cape Colony, 
 in which I served as first and chief clerk, with 
 abstracts of the contents of collections of documents 
 on every variety of subject relating to the Bantu 
 tribes. Such abstracts necessarily contained nothing 
 but facts, as they were to be acted upon by the heads 
 
 274841 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 of the department, and favour, prejudice, or imag- 
 ination could find no place in them. Training in 
 such a school has the advantage of making one very 
 careful as to accuracy, but it has the disadvantage 
 of preventing or at least of not encouraging a 
 graceful style of writing. The first object is to state 
 nothing but facts that can be proved, and the second 
 to state them in plain language that cannot be mis- 
 interpreted. Ornamentation of sentences or para- 
 graphs comes in nowhere. 
 
 In this rolume I have made some few remarks 
 that would have been out of place in such an abstract 
 as I have described above, but in general the book has 
 been prepared exactly as it would be written for the 
 head of the government to act upon, no matter what 
 his political views might be. It contains the indis- 
 putable truths of South African history, and each in- 
 dividual is left to colour those truths to suit his own 
 inclinations, whether in favour of English, Dutch, 
 or Bantu. As far as human power goes, it is abso- 
 lutely free of partisan spirit As a Canadian of 
 Loyalist descent, I naturally wish to see the exten- 
 sion and solidification of the Empire where that can 
 take place withoiit wrong or injustice to others, but 
 I have not allowed that feeling to bias my work. 
 
 Omitting numerous magazine articles, pamphlets, 
 and school histories in the English and Dutch lan- 
 guages, the following list of books prepared by me 
 will show the result of my labour in the past : 
 
 South 'Africa as it is. King-Williamstown, 1870. 
 !N"ow obsolete and out of print. 
 
 Compendium of South African History and Geog- 
 raphy. Two volumes. Lovedale Missionary In- 
 stitution, third edition in 1877. ISTow obsolete and 
 out of print 
 
PREFACE. yii 
 
 Abstract of the Debates and Resolutions of the 
 Council of Policy at the Cape from 1651 to 1687. 
 Capetown, 1881. Issued by the Cape government 
 
 Kaffir Folklore: a Selection from the Traditional 
 Tales current among the People living on the East- 
 ern Border of the Cape Colony, with copious Ex- 
 planatory Notes. London, second edition in 1886. 
 
 Geslacht Register der Oude Kaapsche Familien, 
 'A complete genealogical register down to 1800 of 
 every European family that settled in the Cape 
 Colony before that date. The materials for this 
 work were collected by my late friend, Mr Chris- 
 toffel Coetzee de Villiers,but were unarranged at the 
 time of his death. They were put in order by me 
 assisted by Mr. W. J. VI ok and published in three 
 large crown quarto volumes at Capetown for the 
 Cape government in 1892 and 1893. 
 
 Chronicles of Cape Commanders. Capetown, 
 1882. The second edition was issued in London a 
 few years later, under the title of History of South 
 "Africa from I486 to 1691. The third edition, re- 
 vised and enlarged, forms part of my History of 
 South Africa under the Administration of the Dutch 
 East India Company (1652 to 1795), two large 
 volumes, London, 1897. 
 
 History of South Africa from 1691 to 1795. The 
 second edition, revised and enlarged, now forms part 
 of History of South Africa under the Administra- 
 tion of the Dutch East India Company. 
 
 History of South Africa from 1795 to 1884. 
 London, 1891. 
 
 History of the Boers in South Africa. The second 
 edition of this volume is now included in History of 
 South Africa from 1834 to 1854. London, 1893. 
 
 History of the Republics and Native Territories 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 in South Africa from 1854 to 1872. London, 
 1889. 
 
 The Portuguese in South Africa, with a Descrip- 
 tion of the Native Races between the River Zam- 
 besi and the Cape of Good Hope during the Six- 
 teenth Century. London, 1896. The second edition 
 is now being prepared. 
 
 The six large octavo volumes last mentioned con- 
 tain a series of maps and a complete bibliography 
 of works upon the country issued before 1872. They 
 form the only detailed history of South Africa in 
 existence. 
 
 South Africa. In the Story of the Nations Series. 
 Fifth edition, London, 1899. An illustrated 
 volume, covering a wider field than the book in the 
 reader's hands, and entering more fully into early 
 events, though not so deeply into the progress of the 
 nineteenth century, as the object of the two series is 
 different. 
 
 Geschiedenis van Zuid Afrika. A large illus- 
 trated volume in the Dutch language, issued for the 
 Cape government. The Hague, 1897. 
 
 The following volumes of records have been com- 
 piled by me for the Cape government: 
 
 Basutoland Records. Three large royal octavo 
 volumes, published in Capetown, and containing 
 maps and summaries, in addition to original docu- 
 ments of many kinds. 
 
 Records of the Cape Colony, copied from the 
 Manuscript Documents in the Public Record Office, 
 London. Six large octavo volumes, covering the 
 period from 1793 to 1809, have been published, and 
 the work is still in progress. 
 
 Records of South-Eastern ^Africa, collected in 
 various Libraries and Archive Departments in 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 Europe. Nearly all of these are in the Portuguese 
 language, and are printed exactly as they were writ- 
 ten, with English translations added. Six large 
 octavo volumes have been published in London, and 
 the work is still in progress. 
 
 Several smaller volumes and a large number of 
 ordinary bluebooks might be mentioned, but it is 
 unnecessary to lengthen this list. 
 
 GEO. M. THEAL. 
 LONDON, April, 1900. 
 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY SERIES. 
 
 Price 5s. net. 
 
 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS OF THE CENTURY. 
 By W. H. WITHROW, M.A., D.D., F.K.S.C. 
 
 CONTENTS Contrasts and Phases of the Eighteenth and 
 Nineteenth Centuries Missions Progress of the Churches 
 during the Nineteenth Century Progress of Religious 
 Thought Special Religious Activities and Philanthropies 
 of the Century. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STATE OP THE COUNTRY IN 1800. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Lack of Geographical Knowledge in 1800. Limited 
 Commerce. Places of Christian Worship. Schools. 
 Courts of Justice. Roads and Bridges. Postal Com- 
 munication. Lack of Newspapers. Condition of the 
 Coast. Conformation of the Country. Lack of Means 
 for conserving Water. General Lawlessness. Arbi- 
 trary Government. Fauna and Flora of the Country. 
 Scanty Knowledge of its Mineral Resources. Number 
 of Inhabitants 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The Bushmen. War and Disease as Factors in Progress. 
 Weapons. Only Domestic Animal the Dog. Food. 
 Personal Appearance. Unfitness for Labour. Mental 
 Power. Artistic Tastes. Absence of Government. 
 Monogamous Rules. Religion. State of Warfare with 
 other Races. Area of Occupation. 
 
 The Hottentots. Area of Occupation. Personal 
 Appearance. Structure of Language. Polygamous 
 Customs. Domestic Animals. Knowledge of Metals. 
 Nomadic Habits. Weapons. Domestic Implements. 
 Powers of Thought Religion. Condition in 1800. The 
 Moravian Mission, . 9 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BANTU OB KAFFIRS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Meaning of the Word Bantu. Importance of this Race. 
 Progress Southward. Mixture of Blood. Arab Settle- 
 ments on the Eastern Coast. Ruins in Rhodesia. An- 
 cient Occupation of Rhodesia by Asiatics. Form of 
 Government among the Bantu. Standard of Virtue. 
 Religion. Results of Belief in Witchcraft. Lack of 
 Imaginative Power. Polygamous Customs. Laws of 
 Inheritance. Prolificness. Agricultural, Pastoral, and 
 Metallurgic Industries. Weapons of War. Results of 
 Contact with the Hottentots. Tyrannical Habits. 
 Area of Occupation in 1800. 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Exploration of the Western Coast. Discovery of the Cape 
 of Good Hope by Bartholomeu Dias. Voyage of Vasco 
 da Gama to India. Naming of Natal. Formation of a 
 Portuguese Trading Station at Sofala. Condition of the 
 Arabs on the Eastern Coast. War between the Portu- 
 guese and the Arabs. Trade of the Portuguese. Foun- 
 dation of Sena and Tete. Jesuit and Dominican Mis- 
 sions. Military Expedition under Francisco Barreto. 
 Methods of conducting Trade. Decline of the Portu- 
 guese Power. Fruitless Efforts to obtain Possession of 
 the Zambesi Basin. Individual Portuguese as Rulers of 
 Extensive Districts. Disappearance of the Missions. 
 Condition of the Portuguese in South Africa in 1800. . . 30 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 1652 TO 1700. 
 
 Rise of the Dutch Power in the Indian Seas. Fruitless 
 Efforts to eject the Portuguese from South-Eastern 
 Africa. Appalling Loss of Life from Scurvy on Long 
 Voyages. Formation of a Refreshment Station on the 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Shore of Table Bay by the Dutch East India Company. 
 Development of the Station into a Settlement of Farm- 
 ers. War with Hottentots. Purchase of Territory 
 from Chiefs. Second War with Hottentots. Intro- 
 duction of European Cattle Breeders. Immigration of 
 French Huguenots, of Dutch Agriculturists, and of Or- 
 phan Girls. Condition of the Colony in 1700 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA (continwd). 
 
 1700 TO 1795. 
 
 Cessation of Immigration from Europe. Expansion of the 
 Settlement. Methods of giving out Land. Formation 
 of a Distinct Type of Character. Exterminating War- 
 fare with the Bushmen. Destruction of Hottentots by 
 Small-pox. Abundance of Ravenous Animals. Forma- 
 tion of a Race of Hunters. Introduction of Negro 
 Slaves. Effects of Negro Slavery upon the Europeans. 
 Introduction of Natives of the Indian Islands. Lack 
 of Education. Language in Use. Form of Govern- 
 ment. Corruption of Civil Servants. Resistance to 
 Tyranny. Invasion by Bantu. Revolt of Colonists. ... 53 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF THE CAPE COLONY. 
 
 1795 TO 1803. 
 
 Definition of the Word ' Progress.' Insolvency of the 
 Dutch East India Company. Affairs in the Nether- 
 lands. British Expedition against the Cape. Fruit- 
 less Negotiations with the Cape Government. Seizure 
 of Muizenburg. Advance upon Capetown. Capitula- 
 tion of the Colony. New Form of Government. Paper 
 Money. Seizure of a Dutch Fleet of War in Saldanha 
 Bay. The Government of Lord Macartney. Unsuc- 
 cessful Insurrection in Graaff-Reinet. Dealings with 
 Hottentots. Unsuccessful War with Bantu Invaders. 
 The Government of Sir George Yonge. Renewal of 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PA a a 
 
 Disturbances in Graaff-Reinet. The Treaty of Amiens. 
 Restoration of the Colony to the Batavian Republic. . 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE RULE OF THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 1803 TO 1806. 
 
 Improved Form of Government. Independent High 
 Court of Justice. New Marriage Laws. The Govern- 
 ment of General Jaiissens. Dealings with the Hotten- 
 tots and the Kaffirs. Increase of Magistrates. Efforts 
 for the Improvement of Agriculture. Unsuccessful 
 Scheme to Introduce Dutch Settlers. Census Returns. 
 Renewal of War in Europe. Weakness of the Capo 
 Garrison. Damage caused by French Privateers sail- 
 ing from Table Bay. Value of the Cape to England. 
 Strong British Expedition against the Cape. Landing 
 of Troops near Capetown. Want of Provisions in Cape- 
 town. Battle of Blueberg. Capitulation of Capetown. 
 Retirement of General Janssens to Hottentots-Hol- 
 land. Capitulation of General Janssens 85 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 
 
 Results of the Battle of Trafalgar. Condition of the 
 Netherlands. Change in the Form of Government and 
 in the High Court of Justice. Suppression of the Slave 
 Trade by British Subjects. Introduction of Negro Ap- 
 prentices. Petty Insurrection of Slaves. Important 
 Measure of the Earl of Caledon with regard to the 
 Hottentots. Hottentot Soldiers. The Government of 
 Sir John Cradock. Expulsion of the Kaffir Intruders 
 from the Colony. The Black Circuit. Increase of 
 Magistrates. New Churches and Mission Stations. 
 Establishment of more Primary Schools in Capetown. 
 Alteration in the System of Land Tenure. Exploration 
 of the Interior. Conquest of Mauritius. Events in the 
 Netherlands. Cession of the Cape Colony to Great 
 Britain by the King of the Netherlands. . . . , , 90 
 
CONTENTS. xv 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SLAGTER'S NEK INSURRECTION. 
 1815. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Spirit of the Government. Character of the Colonists. 
 Different Condition of Things in South Africa from 
 that in other British Possessions. The Government of 
 Lord Charles Somerset. Discontent in the Eastern 
 Districts. The Hottentot Corps. The Case of Frederik 
 Bezuidenhout. Insurrection of a Party of Farmers. 
 Arrangements of the Authorities. Assistance of a 
 Burgher Force. Suppression of the Revolt. Trial of 
 the Principal Insurgents. Severe Sentences. Execu- 
 tion of Five of the Leaders. Effects of this Severity 
 upon the Frontier Farmers 110 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAR. 
 1818 TO 1819. 
 
 Thefts of Cattle by Kaffirs. Arrangement between Lord 
 Charles Somerset and the Chief Gaika. Military Force 
 on the Frontier. War between Gaika and Ndlambe. 
 Great Influence of a Seer named Makana. The Battle of 
 Amalinde. Assistance given to Gaika by Lord Charles 
 Somerset. Rush of Ndlam be's Warriors into the Colony. 
 Unsuccessful Attack of Grahamstown. Invasion of 
 Kaffirland by a Strong Military and Burgher Force. 
 Destruction of Ndlambe's Power. Surrender and Death 
 of Makana. New Arrangement with Gaika. Fort 
 Wiltshire. Commercial Intercourse with the Kaffirs. 
 Mission Work in Kaffirland 121 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 
 
 1817 TO 1823. 
 
 First Regular Packets between England and the Cape. 
 Moodie's Immigrants of 1817. Discharge of Soldiers 
 and Sailors in Capetown. Important State-aided Col- 
 B 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Colony. Great Destruction of Property. Murder of 
 Thirty-two Europeans. Preparations to repel the 
 Enemy. Operations in Kaffirland. Protection given 
 to the Fingos. Location of these People in the District 
 of Peddie. Conduct of the Chief Hintsa. Death of 
 Hintsa. Creation of the Province of Queen Adelaide. 
 Arrangement of Peace. System of Government of 
 the New Province. Opposition to the Plans of the Gov- 
 ernor. Abandonment of the Province and Restoration 
 of the Fish River as the Boundary of British Territory. 
 Treaties with the Kaffir Chiefs 194 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OP THE GREAT EMIGRATION. 
 
 Condition of the Colony in 1836. Treatment of Sir Ben- 
 jamin D 'Urban by the Secretary of State. The Govern- 
 ment of Sir George Napier. Conduct of the British 
 Settlers. Conduct of the Kaffirs on the Eastern Border. 
 Cause of the Great Emigration. Political Status of 
 the Emigrants according to their own Opinion and ac- 
 cording to the Opinion of the British Authorities. A 
 Characteristic of the Dutch Colonists. Waggon Trav- 
 elling. Mode of Migration. The Pioneer Party. Ar- 
 rival at the Zoutpansberg. Fate of the Division of the 
 Party under Jan van Rensburg. Fate of the Division 
 under Louis Triechard. The Tsetse Fly 208 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSB. 
 
 Departure of Commandant Potgieter from the Colony. 
 First Appearance of Paul Kruger in South African His- 
 tory. Carel Cilliers, the Pious Emigrant. Purchase of 
 Land from the Bataung Chief Makwana. Exploration 
 of the Country to the Northward. Massacre of Emi- 
 grants by a Matabele Band. Successful Defence of the 
 Lager at Vechtkop. The Wesleyan Mission at Thaba 
 Ntshu. Arrival at Thaba Ntshu of a Party under Com- 
 mandant Maritz. Defeat of the Matabele at Mosega. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The American Mission at Mosega. Founding of 
 Winburg. Arrival at Thaba Ntshu of a Party under 
 Commandant Pieter Retief. The First Constitution 
 adopted by the Emigrants. Arrival at Thaba Ntshu of 
 a Party under Commandant Uys. Defeat of Mosele- 
 katse at the Marikwa. Flight of the Matabele to the 
 North. Proclamation by Commandant Potgieter 219 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 
 
 Various Definitions of the Term Natal. Settlement of a 
 Few Englishmen at the Bay of Natal. Foundation of 
 Durban. Missionaries in Natal. Visit of Pieter Retief 
 to Dingan. Arrangement between Pieter Retief and 
 Dingan. Arrival of a Large Party of Emigrant Farm- 
 ers in Natal. Second Visit of Pieter Retief to Dingan. 
 Massacre of Retief and his Whole Party. Massacre of 
 Emigrants at Weenen. March of Commandants Pot- 
 gieter and Uys against Dingan. Defeat of the Com- 
 mando. Death of Pieter Uys and his Son. Destruction 
 of a Force under English Leaders. Destruction of the 
 English Settlement at Durban. Abandonment of Natal 
 by the Missionaries. Founding of Potchefstroom. 
 Arrival of Commandant Pretorius in Natal. March of 
 a Large Commando against Dingan. Defeat of the 
 Zulus at the Blood River. Revolt of Panda against 
 Dingan. Assistance given by the Emigrants to Panda. 
 Destruction of Dingan's Power and Death of that 
 Chief. Arrangements between the Emigrants and 
 Panda 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE REPUBLIC OP NATAL. 
 
 Occupation of Durban by British Troops. Withdrawal of 
 the Troops. Founding of Pietermaritzburg. Founding 
 of Weenen. Ideal Happy Life. Form of Government 
 of Natal. Anarchy in the Country. Absence of Tact 
 in the Emigrants. Dealings with the Chief Ncapayi. 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Resolution with regard to Bantu Refugees. Corre- 
 spondence with Sir George Napier. Reoccupation of 
 Port Natal by a British Force. Attack upon the Emi- 
 grants under Commandant Pretorius. Defeat of the 
 British Force. Siege of the British Camp. Arrival of 
 a Strong Relieving Force. Retreat of the Emigrants. 
 Dissensions among the Emigrants. Proceedings of 
 Commissioner Cloete. Great Influx of Bantu Refugees. 
 Submission of the Volksraad to the Queen's Sov- 
 ereignty. Abandonment of Natal by most of the Emi- 
 grants. Establishment of British Authority. Exports 
 in 1845 245 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 
 
 Founding of Lydenburg. Formation of the Baramapu- 
 lana and Bapedi Tribes. Treatment of the Bantu by 
 the Emigrants. The Labour Tax. Results of Anarchy. 
 Dr. Philip's Plan of settling the Difficulty with the 
 Emigrants. Treaty with Andries Waterboer. Good 
 Service performed by Waterboer. Treaty with Adam 
 Kok. Treaty with Moshesh. Effect of these Treaties. 
 Government of Sir Peregrine Maitland. Skirmish at 
 Zwartkopjes. Sir Peregrine Maitland's Arrangements 
 with Adam Kok. Founding of Bloemfontein. Conduct 
 of Moshesh. Treaty with the Pondo Chief, Faku. 
 General Condition of the Bantu in South Africa in 
 1845 253 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY FROM 1836 TO 1850. 
 
 Municipal Government. Divisional Road Boards. Public 
 Schools. Immigrants: Retired Indian Officers, Dis- 
 charged Soldiers, Waifs of English Towns, Agricul- 
 turists and Artisans. Exportation of Guano. Public 
 Revenue. Exports and Imports. Customs Duties. 
 Increase of Magistracies. Erection of Lighthouses. 
 Issue of Newspapers and Magazines. Sir Peregrine 
 Maitland's Arrangements with the Kaffirs 269 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 EXPANSION OP THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 The Seventh Kaffir War. Sir Peregrine Maitland's Plan 
 of Settlement. Sir Henry Pottinger's Government. 
 Commencement of the High Commissionership. Enrol- 
 ment of Kaffir Police. Founding of East London. 
 Arrival of Sir Harry Smith as Governor and High Com- 
 missioner. Enlargement of the Cape Colony. Creation 
 of the Province of British Kaffraria. Arrangements 
 for the Government of the New Province. Destruction 
 of the Native Treaty States. Visit of Sir Harry Smith 
 to Natal. Creation of the Orange River Sovereignty. 
 Arrangements for the Government of the Sovereignty. 
 Resistance of most of the Emigrant Farmers. Defeat 
 of the Farmers at Boomplaats. Approval by the Im- 
 perial Authorities of these Great Additions to the British 
 Domain 278 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 
 
 Different Proposals to make the Cape Colony a Penal Set- 
 tlement. Earl Grey's Project of forming Military Vil- 
 lages on the Eastern Frontier. Discontent in the Colony 
 with Earl Grey's Measures. Announcement of the 
 sailing of a Convict Ship for the Cape. Action of the 
 Colonists. Formation of the Anti-Convict Association. 
 Wording of the Pledge. Resignation of Officials. 
 Arrival of the Convict Ship. Closing of the Stores and 
 Shops in Capetown. Riots in Capetown. Departure of 
 the Convict Ship. General Rejoicing. Testimony of 
 Thanks to Mr. C. B. Adderley 289 
 
 I CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 WARS AND TROUBLES THAT LED TO THE SAND RIVES 
 CONVENTION. 
 
 Reduction of the Military Force in South Africa. Estab- 
 lishment of Military Villages in the Tyumie Valley. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQ3 
 
 Condition of British Kaffraria in 1848 and 1849. Marks 
 of Approaching Trouble in 1850. Doings of Urnlanjeni. 
 Deposition of Sandile by Sir Harry Smith. Attempt 
 to arrest Sandile. Engagement in the Boomah Pass. 
 Massacre of the Military Settlers and Destruction of 
 their Villages. Revolt of the Kaffir Police. Rebellion 
 of the Hottentots of Theopolis and the Kat River. 
 Desertion of Great Part of the Cape Corps. Protracted 
 War. Wreck of the Birkenhead. Conduct of Mo- 
 shesh. Engagement at Viervoet. Confusion in the 
 Orange River Sovereignty. Conduct of Commandant 
 Pretorius. Arrival of British Commissioners in the 
 Sovereignty. Reasons for acknowledging the In- 
 dependence of the Transvaal Farmers. Signing of the 
 Sand River Convention 299 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE ABANDONMENT OF THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 
 
 Hecall of Sir Harry Smith. Arrival of Governor Sir 
 George Cathcart. Arrangements in British Kaffraria. 
 Settlement of the Tembus in Glen Grey. European 
 Occupation of the District of Queenstown. Enrolment 
 of Frontier Armed and Mounted Police. Views of 
 Dutch Colonists with respect to the Police. Proceed- 
 ings of Messrs. Hogg and Owen in the Orange River 
 Sovereignty. Conduct of Moshesh. Desire of the 
 People of the Sovereignty to remain British Subjects. 
 March of a British Force under Sir George Cathcart 
 to Platberg on the Caledon. Ultimatum sent by the 
 Governor to Moshesh. Position of the Chief. Dis- 
 astrous Battle of Berea. Wise Action of Moshesh. 
 Retirement of the British Force. Resolution of the 
 Imperial Authorities to abandon the Sovereignty. 
 Appointment of Sir George Clerk as Special Commis- 
 sioner for this Purpose. Sovereignty Statistics. Re- 
 fusal of an Elected Assembly to take over the Govern- 
 ment. Proceedings of the Special Commissioner. The 
 Convention of Bloemfontein. Unsuccessful Mission of 
 Messrs. Frascr and Murray to England 311 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 GRANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT TO THE CAPE 
 
 COLONY. 
 
 PAQK 
 
 Petitions for Representative Government. Cost of the 
 Seventh Kaffir War. Issue of Royal Letters Patent 
 providing for a Parliament. Appointments to the 
 Legislative Council. Discussion by the Legislative 
 Council of the Details of the Proposed Constitution. 
 Differences of Opinion between the Governor and some 
 of the Unofficial Members. Resignation of these Mem- 
 bers. Views of the Members who resigned. Unsuc- 
 cessful Effort to obtain a Constitution according to 
 their Wishes. Completion of a Constitution Ordinance 
 by the Legislative Council. Confirmation of the Ordi- 
 nance by the Queen in Council. Details of the Con- 
 stitution. Conditions of the Franchise. Meeting of the 
 First Parliament. Population of the Colony in 1854. 
 Details of the Public Revenue. Value of Imports. 
 Details of Exports of Produce 323 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY FROM 1854 TO 1869. 
 
 Increase in the Production of Sheep's Wool. Introduc- 
 tion of the Angora Goat. Opening of Copper Mines. 
 Arrival of Governor Sir George Grey. Measures regard- 
 ing the Xosas. Self-destruction of the Xosa Tribe. 
 Settlement of European Farmers in British Kaffraria. 
 Settlement of the British German Legion in Kaffraria. 
 Re-enlistment of the Greater Part of the Legion for 
 Service in India. Arrival of German Agricultural Im- 
 migrants. Growth of King-Williamstown. Occupa- 
 tion of the Territory between the Kei and the Bashee 
 by Bantu. Increase of the Population of the Cape 
 Colony. Commencement of the Construction of Rail- 
 ways, Telegraphs, and Harbour Works. Incorporation 
 of British Kaffraria with the Cape Colony. Enlarge- 
 ment of the Cape Parliament. Government of Sir 
 Philip Wodehouse 333 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 EVENTS IN THE ORANGE FREE STATE FROM 1854 TO 1869. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Description of the Free State. Description of the Lesuto. 
 Conquests of Moshesh. Form of Constitution adopt- 
 ed by the Free State. Presidency of Mr. Hoffman. 
 Presidency of Mr. Boshof. Conduct of the Basuto. 
 Friendly Act of Sir George Grey. War with the Basuto. 
 Defeat of the Free State. Irruption of Koranas and 
 Batlapin. Terrible Retaliation. Mediation of Sir 
 George Grey. Conclusion of Peace. Purchase of Sev- 
 eral Native Reserves. Presidency of Mr. Pretorius. 
 Efforts to bring about Federation with the Cape 
 Colony. Purchase of Adam Kok's Reserve. Removal 
 of Kok's Clan to Griqualand East. Presidency of 
 Advocate Brand. Mediation of Sir Philip Wodehouse 
 between the Free State and the Basuto. Outbreak of 
 War. The Peace of 1866. Renewal of the War. 
 Success of the Free State. Reception of the Basuto as 
 British Subjects. Protest of the Free State. Arrange- 
 ment between Sir Philip Wodehouse and the Free 
 State. Condition of the Country after the War. 
 Birth of National Sentiment 345 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL FROM 1852 TO 1860. 
 
 Description of the People. Form of Government. The 
 Native Question. Differences with the Reverend Dr. 
 Livingstone. Expedition against the Bakwena. Pil- 
 lage of Dr. Livingstone's House. System of apprentic- 
 ing Native Children. Expedition against the Bapedi. 
 Arrival of the First Resident Clergyman. Agreement 
 of Amity with the Matabele. Horrible Events at Mak- 
 apan's Poort. Ecclesiastical Dissensions. Adoption of 
 a New Constitution by one Party. Flag of the South 
 African Republic. Secession of Zoutpansberg and 
 Lydenburg. Union of Lydenburg and Utrecht. Un- 
 successful Raid into the Orange Free State. -Union of 
 
CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Zoutpansberg with the South African Republic. 
 Establishment of the Separatist Reformed Church. 
 Union of the Republic of Lydenburg with the South 
 African Republic 361 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC FROM 1860 TO 1869. 
 
 Party Strife in the Republic. Resignation of President 
 Pretorius. Commencement of Civil War. Action of 
 Commandant PaulKruger. Siege of Potchefstroom. 
 Defeat of Stephanus Schoeman. Election of Paul 
 Kruger as Commandant-General. Action of Command- 
 ant Jan Viljoen. Defeat of Viljoen's Force by 
 Kruger. Election of Mr. M. W. Pretorius as Presi- 
 dent. End of the Civil War. Effect of these Dissen- 
 sions upon the Bantu Tribes. Independence of the 
 Betshuana Tribes. Events on the Eastern Border. 
 Disorder in Zoutpansberg. Abandonment of Schoe- 
 mansdal. Loss of a Great Part of the District of Zout- 
 pansberg. Mineral Wealth of the Country. Discovery 
 of Gold at the Tati. Mining Operations there. Procla- 
 mation of Boundaries by President Pretorius. Protest 
 of Sir Philip Wodehouse. Treaty between the Republic 
 and Portugal. Condition of the Country in 1869 374 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 Discovery of the First Diamond by a Little Child. Pur- 
 chase of the Star of South Africa from a Native. Rush 
 of Diggers to the Banks of the Vaal. Discovery of 
 Diamond Mines in the Orange Free State. Disputes 
 concerning the Ownership of the Diamond Fields North 
 of the Vaal. Appointment of a Special Magistrate 
 North of the Vaal by the High Commissioner. Refer- 
 ence of the Disputes concerning the Ground North of 
 the Vaal to a Court of Arbitration. Claim of Nicholas 
 Waterboer to the Part of the Orange Free State in 
 which the Diamond Mines were situated. Refusal of 
 the Free State Government to submit this Claim to 
 
xxvi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Arbitration. Proceedings at the Bloemhof Arbitra- 
 tion Court. The Keate Award. Annexation of Griqua- 
 land West to the British Empire. Subsequent Pros- 
 perity of the Orange Free State. Decision by a British 
 Judge concerning Waterboer's Rights. Solatium 
 granted to the Orange Free State. Incorporation of 
 Griqualand West with the Cape Colony. Introduction 
 of Responsible Government in the Cape Colony. 
 Changes in the Cape Parliament. Amalgamation of 
 the Diamond Mining Companies. Value of Diamonds 
 found before 1900 383 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE ANNEXATION OP THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 Effect of the Keate Award upon the South African Re- 
 public. Resignation of the Leading Officials. Over- 
 tures to President Brand. Election of Mr. Thomas 
 Frangois Burgers as President. Financial Arrange- 
 ments. Visit of the President to Holland. Results of 
 the Visit. Rebellion of the Bapedi Tribe. Cause of the 
 Disastrous Retreat of the Great Commando. Current 
 Opinion in England. Action in England regarding the 
 Confederation of the Different Colonies and States. 
 Mission of Sir Theophilus Shepstone. Deplorable Condi- 
 tion of the South African Republic. Views regarding 
 a Zulu Invasion. Last Effort of President Burgers. 
 Action of the Volksraad. Annexation of the South 
 African Republic to the British Empire. Assumption 
 of the Government by Sir Theophilua Shepstone 396 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 FAILURE OP LORD CARNARVON'S CONFEDERATION PLANS 
 AND ABSORPTION OF NATIVE TERRITORIES. 
 
 The Governorship of Sir Bartle Frere. Views regarding 
 Confederation. Working of Parliamentary Institutions 
 in the Cape Colony. Placing of the Dutch Language on 
 an Equality with the English in the Cape Colony. 
 Condition of Natal. The Coolie Question. Progress of 
 
CONTENTS. xxvii 
 
 PAQB 
 
 the Cape Colony. Ostrich Farming. Effect of the 
 Annexation of the South African Republic upon the 
 Confederation Movement. The Ninth War with the 
 Xosas. Dismissal of the Molteno Ministry by Sir Bartle 
 Frere. Annexation of the Territory between the Kei 
 and Natal to the Cape Colony. Present Condition of 
 this Territory. The Zulu War. Disaster at Isandlwa- 
 na. Defence of Rorke's Drift. Other Events of the 
 War. Events in Zululand after the War. Present 
 Condition of Zululand. Rejection of Confederation by 
 the Cape Parliament. Recall of Sir Bartle Frere. 
 Arrival of Sir Hercules Robinson as Governor of the Cape 
 Colony and High Commissioner 407 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 EVENTS THAT LED TO THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 
 
 Effects of the Annexation of the Transvaal Territory 
 upon the Condition of the Country. Results of the 
 First and Second Missions to England. Supersession of 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone by Sir Owen Lanyon. Visit 
 of Sir Bartle Frere to the Transvaal. Results of the 
 Meeting at Luipards Vlei. Conquest of the Bapedi by 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley. Resistance to Collection of 
 Taxes. Results of the Meeting at Paardekraal. The 
 First Conflict at Potchefstroom. Disaster to British 
 Troops at Bronkhorst's Spruit. Defeat of General 
 Colley at Lang's Nek. The Disaster at Schuins 
 Hoogte. The Disaster at Majuba. Conclusion of an 
 Armistice. The Convention of Pretoria. Election of 
 a Volksraad. Ratification of the Convention of Pre- 
 toria. Election of Mr. Paul Kruger as President of the 
 Vassal State 423 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVH. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC UNTIL THE DEVELOPMENT 
 OF GOLD MINING. 
 
 Conflicting Opinions regarding the Convention of Preto- 
 ria. Condition of the Territory beyond the Western 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Border. Deputation to England. The Convention of 
 London. Restoration of almost perfect Independence. 
 Strife beyond the Western Border. The Expedition 
 under Sir Charles Warren. Creation of the Crown 
 Colony of British Bechuanaland. Advent of the Ger- 
 man Factor in South Africa. Appropriation of Damar- 
 aland by the Germans. Discovery of the Gold Fields 
 at De Kaap. Founding of Barberton. Discovery of 
 the Witwatersrand Gold Fields. Magical Rise of 
 Johannesburg. Output of Gold from 1888 to 1894. 
 Railway Construction. Advancement of Lourengo 
 Marques. Further Gold Discoveries. Re-election of 
 Mr. Kruger as President of the South African Repub- 
 lic. Death of President Brand. Election of Mr. Fred- 
 erick William Reitz as President of the Orange Free 
 State.. . 435 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Condition of the Territory between the Limpopo and the 
 Zambesi in 1888. Acquirement of Concessions from 
 Lobengula. Formation of the British South Africa 
 Chartered Company. Occupation of Mashonaland. 
 Settlement of the Portuguese Boundary. Difficulty 
 with a Party of Dutch Farmers. War with the Matabele 
 Tribe. Submission of the Matabele. Rise of the Town 
 of Buluwayo. Construction of Railways. Events that 
 retarded the Development of Mining Industry. Insur- 
 rection of the Natives. Output of Gold. Present Form 
 of Government of the Country. Territory beyond the 
 Zambesi. British Protectorate over the Territory occu- 
 pied by the Betshuana Tribes. Form of Government in 
 the Protectorate. Inclusion of the Tati Mine in this 
 Territory. Annexation by Great Britain of the Slip of 
 Land between the Portuguese Possessions and Zulu- 
 land. Incorporation of this District and of Zululand 
 with Natal. . 449 
 
CONTENTS, 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 EVENTS IN THE CAPE COLONY DURING THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. 
 
 PAQB 
 
 War with the Basuto Tribe. Present Condition of the 
 Lesuto. War withTembu and Pondomisi Clans. War 
 with Batlapin and other Clans. Ravages of Rinder- 
 pest. Destruction of Vineyards by Phylloxera. Con- 
 struction of Railways. Improvement of Harbours. 
 Extension of Telegraphs. Postal Facilities. Irrigation 
 Works. Fruit Culture. Development of Fisheries. 
 Progress of Education. Establishment of a University. 
 Education of the Bantu. Tendencies of Educated 
 Natives. Public Libraries. Improvement of the 
 Towns. Rise of Party Spirit. Views of the Afrikander 
 Bond. Rise of the South African League. Enlarge- 
 ment of the Parliament. Alteration of the Franchise. 
 Annexation of British Bechuanaland to the Cape 
 Colony. Redistribution of Seats in the House of 
 Assembly 461 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 Clash of Ideas between the Miners and the Farmers. 
 Fears of the Farmers. Policy of the Republican Gov- 
 ernment. Passionate National Feeling on both Sides. 
 Successive Alterations of the Franchise. Number of 
 Voters at Presidential Election. Views of the English 
 Residents at Johannesburg. Events in Connection with 
 the War with Malaboch. Grievances of the Mining 
 Population. Revenue of the Republic. Wages at the 
 Gold Fields. Official Side of the Questions in Dispute. 
 Attempt of President Kruger to divert Trade from the 
 Cape Colony to Delagoa Bay. Action of the Imperial 
 Government on the closing of the Fords of the Vaal. 
 Beginning of the Insurrection at Johannesburg. Plan 
 of the Leaders of the National Union. Dispute about- 
 the Flag. Events connected with Dr. Jameson's Raid 
 into the Republic. Defeat and Surrender of Dr. Jame- 
 son at Doornkop 474 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC (continued). 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Action of the Reform Committee at Johannesburg. Rush 
 of People to the Colonial Ports. Visit of the High Com- 
 missioner to Pretoria. Sternness of the Republican 
 Government. Surrender of Johannesburg. Transfer 
 of Dr. Jameson and his Party to the Imperial Authori- 
 ties. Arrest of the Members of the Reform Committee. 
 Trial of the Prisoners. Mitigation of their Sentences. 
 Effects of the Unsuccessful Insurrection upon South 
 Africa. Election of Mr. Steyn as President of the 
 Orange Free State. Dynamite Explosion at Johannes- 
 burg. Arming of the South African Republic. Contin- 
 uation of Strife between the Government and the Eng- 
 lish Residents. Report of a Commission of Inquiry. 
 Differences concerning Suzerainty. Re-election of Mr. 
 Kruger as President. Shooting of a Man named Edgar 
 by a Policeman. Petition of English Residents to the 
 Queen for Protection. Conference between Sir Alfred 
 Milner and President Kruger. Unsuccessful Negotia- 
 tions between the British Government and President 
 Kruger. Commencement of Hostilities 487 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AT THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 
 Political Divisions and Areas. Exports from the Cape 
 Colony in 1898 and 1899. Exports from Natal in 
 1898 and 1899. Trade of Natal with other Parts of 
 South Africa. Imports of the Cape Colony in 1898 and 
 1899. Imports of Natal in 1898 and 1899. Territories 
 in the Customs Union. General Progress of the 
 Country. Public Debts of the Cape Colony and Natal. 
 Progress of Arboriculture. Disappearance of Wild 
 Animals. Systems of Government. Constitution of 
 Natal. Estimate of Population of the several Terri- 
 tories. Standing Military Forces of the several Terri- 
 tories. Unequal Distribution of Wealth. Increase of 
 Poor Whites. Recent Growth of Towns. List of the 
 Chief Towns in South Africa. . 501 
 
PEOGEESS OF SOUTH AFEICA IN THE 
 CENTUEY. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN" 1800. 
 
 ONE hundred years ago the greater part of Africa 
 south of the Zambesi was an unknown land to Euro- 
 peans. The Dutch had a thinly-populated settlement 
 between the Atlantic Ocean and the Fish River, the 
 Indian Ocean and the watershed from which the 
 feeders of the Orange flow northward; the Portu- 
 guese had a few military posts on the eastern coast 
 and along the Zambesi; all the remainder was in 
 undisputed possession of barbarians and savages, 
 who had no communication whatever with the out- 
 side world. On maps, indeed, names of places were 
 to be found, but they were all fictitious, and dis- 
 appeared with later exploration. 
 
 If the value of its commerce be taken as a test of 
 the condition of a country, South Africa then occu- 
 pied a very low place. Not reckoning the provisions 
 supplied to vessels that called, one hundred thousand 
 dollars would have been more than sufficient to pur- 
 chase all the articles yearly exported through Table 
 Bay, one hundred thousand more would have paid 
 for all the gold, ivory, and ambergris collected at 
 
 c 
 
XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC (continued). 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Action of the Reform Committee at Johannesburg. Rush 
 of People to the Colonial Ports. Visit of the High Com- 
 missioner to Pretoria. Sternness of the Republican 
 Government. Surrender of Johannesburg. Transfer 
 of Dr. Jameson and his Party to the Imperial Authori- 
 ties. Arrest of the Members of the Reform Committee. 
 Trial of the Prisoners. Mitigation of their Sentences. 
 Effects of the Unsuccessful Insurrection upon South 
 Africa. Election of Mr. Steyn as President of the 
 Orange Free State. Dynamite Explosion at Johannes- 
 burg. Arming of the South African Republic. Contin- 
 uation of Strife between the Government and the Eng- 
 lish Residents. Report of a Commission of Inquiry. 
 Differences concerning Suzerainty. Re-election of Mr. 
 Kruger as President. Shooting of a Man named Edgar 
 by a Policeman. Petition of English Residents to the 
 Queen for Protection. Conference between Sir Alfred 
 Milner and President Kruger. Unsuccessful Negotia- 
 tions between the British Government and President 
 Kruger. Commencement of Hostilities 487 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA AT THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 
 Political Divisions and Areas. Exports from the Cape 
 Colony in 1898 and 1899. Exports from Natal in 
 1898 and 1899. Trade of Natal with other Parts of 
 South Africa. Imports of the Cape Colony in 1898 and 
 1899. Imports of Natal in 1898 and 1899. Territories 
 in the Customs Union. General Progress of the 
 Country. Public Debts of the Cape Colony and Natal. 
 Progress of Arboriculture. Disappearance of Wild 
 Animals. Systems of Government. Constitution of 
 Natal. Estimate of Population of the several Terri- 
 tories. Standing Military Forces of the several Terri- 
 tories. Unequal Distribution of Wealth. Increase of 
 Poor Whites. Recent Growth of Towns. List of the 
 Chief Towns in South Africa 501 
 
PEOGBESS OP SOUTH AFEICA IN THE 
 CENTUEY. 
 
 CHAPTEK L 
 
 STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN 1800. 
 
 ONE hundred years ago the greater part of Africa 
 south of the Zambesi was an unknown land to Euro- 
 peans. The Dutch had a thinly-populated settlement 
 between the Atlantic Ocean and the Fish River, the 
 Indian Ocean and the watershed from which the 
 feeders of the Orange flow northward; the Portu- 
 guese had a few military posts on the eastern coast 
 and along the Zambesi ; all the remainder was in 
 undisputed possession of barbarians and savages, 
 who had no communication whatever with the out- 
 side world. On maps, indeed, names of places were 
 to be found, but they were all fictitious, and dis- 
 appeared with later exploration. 
 
 If the value of its commerce be taken as a test of 
 the condition of a country, South Africa then occu- 
 pied a very low place. !NTot reckoning the provisions 
 supplied to vessels that called, one hundred thousand 
 dollars would have been more than sufficient to pur- 
 chase all the articles yearly exported through Table 
 Bay, one hundred thousand more would have paid 
 for all the gold, ivory, and ambergris collected at 
 
 c 
 
2 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Tete, Sena, Sofala, Inhambane, and Lourengo Mar- 
 ques. Add another hundred thousand for slaves 
 shipped from the eastern ports, and the total is 
 reached, three hundred thousand dollars or sixty-two 
 thousand five hundred pounds British sterling 
 money. Whales and seals were taken in great 
 numbers on the coasts, but this industry was almost 
 entirely in the hands of strangers, and would have 
 been carried on in the same way and to the same 
 extent if the country had been without inhabitants. 
 The value of the oil and skins is therefore not in- 
 cluded in the estimates here given. 
 
 Of places of Christian worship there were then 
 less than a dozen. They were seven Dutch Re- 
 formed, in Capetown, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Malmes- 
 bury, Tulbagh, Swellendam, and Graaff-Reinet, one 
 Lutheran, in Capetown, one Moravian, at Gena- 
 dendal, and two Roman Catholic, at Sena and Tete. 
 The Moravian Mission had only been established 
 seven years, and had but one station. The London 
 Missionary Society was just beginning to send its 
 agents to South Africa, and they had not yet fixed 
 upon a locality for a permanent settlement. There 
 was not a single individual attempting to instruct 
 any section of the Bantu. 
 
 As for schools, there was one in which Latin and 
 French were taught in Capetown, there were three 
 more elementary under the care of the parish clerks 
 of Capetown, Stellenbosch, and Paarl, and one at 
 the Moravian station Genadendal. Elsewhere the 
 Dutch inhabitants depended upon itinerant teachers, 
 usually of a very low grade, and no other children 
 received any education from books. 
 
 In the entire extent of the Cape Colony there 
 were only four inferior courts of justice, with a high 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN 1800. 3 
 
 court in Capetown. It was thus possible in many 
 parts to commit offences with impunity, but fortu- 
 nately the disposition of the white people was averse 
 to crime. The Portuguese stations were under 
 military rule, and each was provided with a captain, 
 besides other officials to administer justice. As 
 there were very few residents at each of them, and 
 those few within an area that could easily be over- 
 looked, crime could be suppressed without diffi- 
 culty. But nowhere else was the law of civilised 
 countries in force. 
 
 JN'ot one of the rivers was bridged, and only at the 
 principal fords of two the Berg and the Breede 
 were there pontoons to convey travellers from side to 
 side. Very often when on a journey in the Cape 
 Colony people would be detained for days together 
 on the bank of a stream, waiting for the torrent 
 caused by a heavy fall of rain at its sources to sub- 
 side. The roads were the natural surface of the 
 country, and when the ruts in them were worn deep 
 by the action of water, fresh tracks were used. No 
 mountain pass had been opened for traffic, and no 
 vehicle of less strength than a waggon drawn by a 
 team of from ten to sixteen oxen could traverse the 
 country. Fifty or sixty English miles a day could 
 be crossed by a man on horseback in favourable 
 weather, but the highest rate of speed attained by 
 the ox-waggon, on which alone goods or farm prod* 
 uce could be conveyed, was fifteen to eighteen. 
 
 There was no inland mail, for though a post-office 
 had just been established in Capetown, it was in- 
 tended solely for oversea communication. It fre- 
 quently happened that no letters or papers arrived 
 from abroad for two or three months, for it was not 
 every captain of a ship who took the trouble to arrange 
 
4 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 with the postal authorities in Europe to bring out a 
 mail. Government despatches of importance were 
 forwarded to and fro by men-of-war or packets 
 specially engaged for the purpose. To send a letter 
 inland it was necessary to employ a mounted mes- 
 senger, or to wait for a favourable opportunity by a 
 friendly traveller. Under these circumstances, as 
 may be imagined, correspondence was extremely 
 limited. 
 
 In all South Africa in the year 1800 only one 
 tiny sheet termed a newspaper was printed. It was 
 the Government Gazette of the Cape Colony, com- 
 menced in that year, and published weekly in Cape- 
 town. Besides proclamations, advertisements, and 
 notices, in the Dutch and English languages, it con- 
 tained a column or two of reading matter extracted 
 chiefly from European publications, but under a 
 strict censorship by a government official. There 
 was no other printing press in the country than the 
 one on which this sheet was produced. 
 
 The coast of South Africa is bold and unbroken, 
 with no deep inlets in the land except Saldanha Bay, 
 False Bay, and Delagoa Bay. The first of these is 
 unsuitable for a shipping port, owing to the barren- 
 ness of the soil around it and the want of fresh 
 water. The second has in one of its recesses named 
 Simon's Bay a fairly good harbour, but access to it 
 by land was so difficult in the olden times that it 
 could not be made a port of entry. The third is an 
 unhealthy locality, and is so situated that at the be- 
 ginning of the century little use could be made of it 
 except by whalers. There are no navigable rivers 
 emptying on the western or southern coasts, and 
 consequently there is not a single good natural har- 
 bour that can be used by shipping. In Table Bay, 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN 1800. 5 
 
 the only port south of the Zambesi that was fre- 
 quented to any large extent a hundred years ago, 
 shipwrecks attended by terrible loss of life and prop- 
 erty were frequent. All the commerce between 
 Europe and India passed by these dangerous shores, 
 with their hidden reefs projecting far into the sea, 
 yet there was not one lighthouse, nor even a single 
 beacon on any part of the coast 
 
 The country is a large flat-topped mountain stand- 
 ing out of the ocean, and, with the exception of its 
 south-western extremity, lying within the zone of the 
 south-east winds. Owing to its formation the 
 streams are torrents when rain falls, but in dry 
 weather most of them are mere successions of pools. 
 The belt along the eastern and southern coasts usually 
 has an ample supply of moisture, as the prevailing 
 winds are from the sea, and as they meet the moun- 
 tain sides and rise along them necessarily discharge 
 what they have absorbed by evaporation in the 
 warmer and lower part of their course. The western 
 coast belt, in the north many hundreds of miles in 
 width, is dry and parched, as there the winds, coming 
 over the land, have no moisture to lose. The greater 
 part of the interior plain depends chiefly upon thun- 
 derstorms, which are frequently very violent. No- 
 where is conservation of water more needed than 
 here, for wherever it is abundant the ground is like 
 that of the garden of Eden, and wherever it is want- 
 ing the land is a barren and sunburnt waste. In 1800 
 there was not an artificial reservoir in any locality 
 south of the Zambesi, except on a very few farms in 
 the Cape Colony. Everywhere else the water, upon 
 which so much depended;was allowed to run to waste. 
 
 The northern frontier of the Cape Colony was ex- 
 posed to the depredations of a band of robbers, con- 
 
6 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 sisting chiefly of Hottentots and mixed breeds, who 
 had their fastness on some islands in the Orange 
 River, and who for years defied every attempt of the 
 Europeans to root them out. The eastern part of 
 the colony was a wide field of desolation, pillaged 
 and laid waste by the irruption of a Bantu horde. 
 Fully one-fourth of the area nominally owned by 
 white men, and that the richest portion of the colony 
 for stockbreeding, was then in the actual possession 
 of invading barbarians. 
 
 There was no such thing as representative govern- 
 ment in any part of the country, nor had the people 
 anywhere the faintest voice in making the laws by 
 which they were bound or regulating the taxes which 
 they were required to pay. Despotic rule was 
 universal. 
 
 Turning to another subject in which there is a 
 strong contrast between the condition of things at 
 the beginning and the close of the century, it may be 
 remarked that the fauna of South Africa at the 
 former period was the richest in variety and quan- 
 tity on the face of the globe. The largest terrestrial 
 mammal of the world, the African variety of the 
 elephant, and the smallest, the tiny field-mouse, were 
 here found side by side. Three kinds of rhinoceros 
 roamed over different pastures. The giraffe only 
 came south to the Orange River, but the hippopot- 
 amus frequented every stream. The number of 
 antelopes, varying in size from the eland, larger than 
 an ox, to the little bluebuck, no bigger than a lamb 
 a fortnight old, was amazing. Gnus, zebras, quaggas, 
 buffaloes, and wild hogs were abundant. Among the 
 carnivora were lions, leopards, hyenas, jackals, wild 
 dogs, and many species of the smaller cats. 
 
 Of birds the variety was no less. The ostrich was 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN 1800. 7 
 
 among the number, corresponding to the elephant 
 among the mammalia, but the smallest of the winged 
 creatures was not so diminutive as the humming- 
 bird of America, though some species were hardly 
 less beautiful. 
 
 Of reptiles the same remark can be made, taking 
 the huge crocodiles of the northern rivers as the 
 largest of this class. There were many kinds of 
 snakes, poisonous and harmless, none, however, equal 
 to the boa in size. Guanas, chameleons, and lizards 
 were plentiful, and tortoises swarmed in many places. 
 
 Insects were less numerous than in the valley of 
 the Amazon, but they included the locust, that some- 
 times appeared in such numbers as to destroy every- 
 thing green in vast districts. The white ant was 
 also a destructive creature. As if to compensate 
 for the damage done by these, the bee was plentiful, 
 and in the season of flowers great quantities of honey 
 and wax were easily obtained. 
 
 Of the flora, the huge forest trees, unfortunately 
 confined to limited areas, and the infinite variety 
 and beauty of the wild flowers, it is unnecessary to 
 epeak largely, because, unlike the fauna, it remains 
 now almost as it was a century ago. Still, some 
 change in a progressive direction, though but slight 
 as yet, will require notice at the close of this volume. 
 
 That the country possessed mineral wealth was not 
 entirely unknown, though no one suspected that the 
 richest gold and diamond mines in the world were 
 hidden in its bosom. Gold indeed was exported 
 from the Portuguese possessions, but in very small 
 quantities, being collected only by a few Bantu with 
 the crudest appliances in the territory near the 
 Zambesi. The copper mines of ISTamaqualand had 
 been visited by white men, and the richness of the 
 
8 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ore had been tested, though no use was made of it, 
 for means were wanting to convey it over the rugged 
 and arid belt of land between the mines and the sea. 
 Iron was in common use by the Bantu, but no Euro- 
 pean regarded it as adding any value to the coun- 
 try. Of the other minerals now known to be plenti- 
 ful, none except salt, which was to be found in 
 numerous pans or depressions in the surface of the 
 soil, had then been brought to light. 
 
 There are no means of ascertaining the number 
 of human beings who occupied the country between 
 the Zambesi and the southern coast a hundred years 
 ago, but there is good ground for believing that it did 
 not exceed three millions. Their manner of living, 
 their advance in mechanical arts, and the range of 
 their thought can, however, be told with accuracy. 
 Let a brief glance now be thrown upon the various 
 sections of these people. 
 
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 9 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 IN South Africa there were three distinct races of 
 men before the European made his appearance in the 
 land, and they were still here in 1800. The lowest 
 in order of these was the race termed by us Bush- 
 men. It is not certain, but it is probable, that the 
 Bushmen were true autochthones, descendants of the 
 people who inhabited the country in very remote 
 ages, when the beds of the rivers were many feet 
 higher than their present channels, and the contour of 
 at least some of the hills was not what it is to-day. 
 One can hardly conceive of living beings entitled to 
 be termed men in a lower condition than the Bush- 
 men. The only advance in handicraft that they ap- 
 pear to have made beyond that of the people of the 
 most remote age was in shaping stone implements 
 somewhat better, and in drilling weights for digging 
 sticks. 
 
 The two most powerful factors in the elevation of 
 man anywhere in a warm climate must have been 
 war and disease. Both forced him to think: war to 
 improve weapons for use against his enemies, disease 
 to find remedies. When once the stage of poisoning 
 arrows and making game pits was reached, the effort 
 to procure food needed no further stimulus. That 
 stage had probably been reached untold centuries 
 earlier, and the Bushmen never made much advance 
 beyond it. For clothing they depended on the skins 
 
10 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of animals, and for shelter upon caves, or in the open 
 country upon any hollow place that could be covered 
 with a mat. War and disease still operated as elevat- 
 ing agents, but neither caused more than an exceed- 
 ingly slow advance. The scope for improvement of 
 weapons was small when there was no knowledge of 
 smelting metals, and disease was very much rarer 
 with those savages than it is with Europeans. Sick- 
 ness, too, being usually attributed to magic, the 
 thought that it produced was more frequently turned 
 in the wrong direction than in the right. 
 
 The Bushmen were thus in the condition of pale- 
 olithic cave-dwellers when they were first seen by 
 Europeans. They used bone as well as stone in 
 making their weapons, but were without any metal 
 except an occasional assagai or arrow-head which they 
 obtained from their enemies in war. They did not 
 practise agriculture, nor had they any domestic ani- 
 mal except the dog. They were hunters, and nothing 
 else. !N"o animal food, whether of mammal, bird, or 
 reptile, whether fresh or putrid, was rejected by them; 
 and insects contributed largely to their maintenance, 
 in locusts, some species of caterpillar, honey, and 
 especially in the eggs of the ant. Wild plants, fruit, 
 and roots completed their fare. They were capable 
 of fasting for days together, when they assuaged 
 the pangs of hunger by tying a thong tightly around 
 them, and could then gorge six or seven pounds' 
 weight of flesh at once, without any ill effect. 
 
 They were hideously ugly, pigmies in stature, by 
 nature of a yellowish brown colour, usually covered 
 with grease and dirt, and though fleet of limb and 
 capable of following game great distances, were 
 physically unfit for any other kind of labour. As 
 experience has since shown, they were positively in- 
 
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. H 
 
 capable of permanently adopting the habits of 
 civilised men. Yet they were not without a con- 
 siderable amount of intelligence of a certain kind. 
 In power of mimicry they were unsurpassed by any 
 people, and the pictures of animals which they 
 painted on rocks prove them to have had some small 
 degree of artistic taste and skill. 
 
 They were without any form of government, and 
 consequently without tribunals of justice even of the 
 crudest kind. What is strange is that they were 
 strict monogamists, that is, no man claimed two 
 wives at the same time, though it did not follow that 
 union was for life ; and yet they were amazingly 
 prolific. Very few died natural deaths, most of them 
 being killed in brawls or by the hands of enemies of 
 other races. 
 
 If fear of something invisible outside of them- 
 selves can be called religion, the Bushmen were a 
 religious people. They knew nothing of a God, and 
 had no idols, nor did they observe any sacred days or 
 revere any sacred locality. But all around them, 
 night and day, they believed there was something 
 which they could not describe, some influence which 
 we would term that of spirits. That something 
 needed to be propitiated, or it would cause evil. 
 Thus an offering a piece of meat, a bulb, an arrow- 
 head, or anything useful had to be made to it, when 
 hunting that it might not keep game beyond .reach of 
 the bow, when crossing a stream that it might not 
 cause drowning, and so on in every action of life. 
 One thing maybe an arrow, a pretty pebble, or only 
 a bit of wood was lucky, another thing was the 
 reverse, and thus value was attached to what we term 
 charms. Some of them believed that the moon and 
 stars possessed a mysterious power, and begged fa- 
 
12 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 vours from them, though it would be incorrect to 
 say that the race had advanced so far as to sidereal 
 worship. This religion, or superstition, or whatever 
 we may term it, bound the Bushman as in fetters of 
 iron. It offered no hope for the hereafter, it gave 
 no solace in distress, it did not tend to make him 
 wiser or better in any way whatever. It was a cruel 
 nightmare, that never left him from the time when 
 first he began to search for food till the hour when 
 he breathed his last. 
 
 The hand of these savages was against every man, 
 and every man's hand was against them. The 
 Bantu did not believe that they were human beings 
 in the same sense that white men or black men were, 
 but regarded them merely as a malignant species of 
 ape, notwithstanding their power of speech, of 
 making fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together, 
 and of shooting game. The most enlightened black 
 chief in South Africa at the present day, though a 
 Christian and a man of extremely benevolent dis- 
 position, was with difficulty persuaded by his mis- 
 sionary to allow an effort to be made to instruct the 
 Masarwa the best specimens of the Bushmen in 
 his country. He argued that one might as well at- 
 tempt to instruct the jackals. At last, however, he 
 consented, the attempt was made by one of the most 
 zealous and patient teachers in the mission field, but 
 like all preceding efforts of the kind it was unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 At one time the Bushmen were spread over the 
 whole country, but before the beginning of the cen- 
 tury they were confined in the territory occupied by 
 the Bantu to the most rugged mountains and to the 
 deserts, where it was exceedingly difficult to find them. 
 Elsewhere in the eastern portion of South Africa they 
 
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 13 
 
 had been utterly exterminated. In the western por- 
 tion a hundred years earlier they were the sole occu- 
 pants of nearly the whole of the basin of the Orange 
 River, and were also scattered over the remainder of 
 the territory between the Upper Zambesi and the 
 Cape of Good Hope. But before 1800 they had 
 been driven out of the Cape Colony, and at that time 
 carried on nearly ceaseless war with the white 
 people and their old hereditary enemies the Hotten- 
 tots along its northern border from the Stormberg to 
 the Atlantic. It was impossible for Europeans and 
 savages of so low a type, who made no distinction 
 between domestic cattle and game, to live peacefully 
 side by side. Sometimes the white men were obliged 
 to abandon their advanced posts and to retreat for 
 a season, but the poisoned arrow was too feeble a 
 weapon to hold its own against the firelock, and 
 presently a commando, that is a party of farmers 
 under a commandant, would assemble and the lost 
 ground would be speedily recovered. 
 
 Another race that occupied a portion of South 
 [African soil when Europeans discovered the coun- 
 try, and that was still here in 1800, consisted of the 
 people termed by themselves Khoikhoi, by us Hotten- 
 tots. There is a mystery about the presence of this 
 race that has not yet been solved. It occupied only 
 a narrow line along the western and southern coasts 
 and along the banks of the Orange River. Where 
 it came from, or when it made its first appearance, 
 no one is able to say. In colour of skin and in some 
 other respects the Hottentots, though larger in frame, 
 resembled the Bushmen, but in skull measurements 
 the difference is great, and there are so many other 
 points of variance that the theory is untenable either 
 that the Hottentots are an improved branch of Bush- 
 
14 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 man stock or that the Bushmen are a degraded brancK 
 of remote Hottentot origin. 
 
 To go no further, the languages are constructed 
 differently. Languages, when there is no written 
 literature, change rapidly. ISTew words are intro- 
 duced, and old ones take other meanings. Thus 
 there were several Hottentot dialects, differing con- 
 siderably from each other, though the whole race did 
 not outnumber the dwellers in a third-class European 
 city. The tribe on the RTamaqua coast had no inter- 
 course with the tribe on the Keiskama, a thousand 
 miles away, and thus in course of time it came about 
 that had they met they could not have understood 
 each other. In the same way there was an infinite 
 number of Bushman dialects. But in each case the 
 structure of the language remained unchanged, just 
 as the structure of English would remain if a great 
 number of new words were introduced. We should, 
 for instance, still form the plurals of nouns by a 
 change at the end of the word, not at the beginning, 
 no matter what words we used. 
 
 The highest authority on these languages, the late 
 Dr. W. Bleek, whose comparative grammar was the 
 result of long and careful investigation, states that 
 the nearest forms of speech akin to the Hottentot are 
 to be found in Northern Africa, hence it has been 
 supposed that the ancestors of these people in some 
 remote time came from that part of the world. But 
 there is nothing else to lead to this conclusion, and 
 the theory has to encounter many obstacles. What- 
 ever their origin may have been, in all probability 
 there was in their veins a strong mixture of Bush- 
 man blood, derived from girls taken captive in war. 
 The Bushman spared no enemy, male or female, 
 young or old, but the Hottentot was more merciful, 
 
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 15 
 
 and as he had no scruple against polygamy, would 
 not object to adding the daughters of his foes to his 
 household. Many of the Korana clans of the present 
 day have in this manner a large proportion of Bush- 
 man blood, and most of the so-called Bushmen in 
 the northern districts of the Cape Colony and 
 Betshuanaland are in reality halfbreeds who prefer 
 a wandering to a settled life. The same cause must 
 have operated in the same manner in olden times. 
 
 The Hottentots were very much higher on the 
 ladder of progress than the wild and utterly savage 
 hunters. They did not till the ground, but they 
 were in possession of horned cattle and sheep, milk 
 being the principal article of their food. They knew 
 how to smelt iron and copper, though they did not 
 make much use of that knowledge, owing to their 
 excessive indolence and to a feeling of perfect con- 
 tentment if they had just sufficient to get through 
 life with. It would not be incorrect to term them 
 nomads, though often for months together their huts 
 of wattles and mats were pitched on the same 
 ground. The condition of the pasture in fact deter- 
 mined their movements : as long as it was good they 
 did not trouble themselves to take down their dwell- 
 ings, though these could be broken up, placed upon 
 pack oxen, conveyed to a distance, and re-erected 
 almost as easily as tents ; but when the grass dried up 
 or was eaten off they sought sustenance for their 
 kine elsewhere. 
 
 In addition to the bow and poisoned arrow these 
 people used the assagai or javelin and a knobbed 
 stick in war and the chase. Their clothing was 
 made of the skins of animals, domestic and wild. A 
 few rough earthenware pots, with ostrich egg-shells 
 to carry water in, comprised almost the only articles 
 
16 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 needed in their homes. All the natives of South 
 Africa were fond of rubbing their bodies with grease 
 and painting themselves with clay or soot, to which 
 the Hottentots added the dried powder of a highly- 
 scented herb, which made their presence particularly 
 offensive to the nostrils of Europeans. 
 
 Their power of thought was comparatively high. 
 They speculated upon the operations of nature, the 
 composition of the sky and the heavenly bodies, and 
 such like subjects; and though their conclusions 
 might be considered childish or absurd, there was 
 an indication at least that their minds were busy. 
 They were fond of telling stories in which animals 
 were represented as conversing and acting, and some 
 of these tales really were ingenious in a high degree. 
 
 They believed in charms and witchcraft, but they 
 had as an object of reverence a mythical hero called 
 Heitsi-Eibib, whose worship consisted in throwing a 
 green bough or a stone upon a cairn. This Heitsi- 
 Eibib was believed to have died and returned to life 
 again several times, and may have originated in the 
 contorted tradition of a prominent individual of a 
 distant time when the whole race occupied a small 
 area, or, as Dr. T. Hahn who lived long among 
 the ifamaquas and is conversant with their language 
 - suggests in his book upon the subject, may be a 
 myth of the dawn dispelling the darkness. The 
 moon was regarded by them with affection, though 
 it was not considered to be a divinity. Their greatest 
 pleasure was the dance in the cool moonlit evenings, 
 and so when the thin crescent was seen in the west 
 after a few nights of darkness there was much noisy 
 mirth. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century the 
 Hottentots in the Cape Colony, much the larger sec- 
 
ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF SOUTH AFRICA. If 
 
 tion of the race, had undergone a great change from 
 their earlier condition. They had not been able 
 to resist the temptation to exchange their cattle for 
 trifling ornaments, above all for spirituous liquor 
 and tobacco, and in consequence they had sunk into 
 great poverty. Smallpox on three different oc- 
 casions had attacked the tribes with terrible effect, 
 nearly exterminating many of them, and reducing 
 even the strongest to a few helpless families. Owing 
 to these causes the old tribal organisation had dis- 
 appeared, and though there were still individuals 
 among them termed chiefs, they had really no power 
 over their followers. The colonial authorities did 
 not interfere with them except when the interests of 
 Europeans were affected, for they were regarded in 
 law as a free and independent people, hence, as far 
 as their relationship to each other was concerned, 
 those not living with the new occupants of the coun- 
 try were in a condition of complete anarchy. 
 
 This state of things had led to the great ma- 
 jority of the Hottentots becoming dependents of the 
 colonists. They lived upon farms, and did all kinds 
 of light labour, such as herding cattle, assisting in 
 the chase, and collecting fuel, in return for which 
 they received protection and maintenance. They 
 were thus in a servile condition, though they could 
 not be sold as slaves, and for persistent ill-treatment 
 they had always the remedy of removal. The Euro- 
 pean was in fact a chief, and they were his re- 
 tainers. Their associates were his negro slaves, 
 with whose blood theirs was becoming mingled, for 
 their women commonly preferred a negro as their 
 mate to a man of their own race. 
 
 The Moravian Brethren had recently commenced 
 a mission among these people upon a tract of land 
 
 D 
 
18 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 granted to them by the government for the purpose, 
 and there several hundred families were collected 
 and were being instructed in the truths of Christian- 
 ity as well as how to live by the labour of their 
 hands. They were destined to prove that the Hot- 
 tentot, though not capable of attaining the highest 
 European standard of thought, energy, and applica- 
 tion, had in him a very considerable power of prog- 
 ress. 
 
THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS. 19 
 
 CEAPTEK IIL 
 
 THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 A VASTLY more important element of the popula- 
 tion of the country than either of the two races al- 
 ready mentioned consisted of the dark-skinned tribes 
 now commonly termed Bantu. The word Bantu 
 means simply people, being the plural form of 
 umniu, a person, but as they had no name for them- 
 selves collectively, the eminent philologist Dr. Bleek 
 proposed that it should be adopted to signify the 
 whole race, and so it came into general use with 
 Europeans for that purpose. They were of more 
 importance than the others because, first, they were 
 numerically at least as fifteen to one, and secondly, 
 because they were a robust and aggressive people, 
 not destined to dwindle away before the white man 
 like the Bushmen and the Hottentots. 
 
 Their original home was somewhere in the north, 
 where their kindred at the present day possess the 
 continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, 
 but they must have crossed the Zambesi long before 
 the commencement of the Christian era. Their set- 
 tlement south of the Limpopo, however, cannot date 
 back more than a few hundred years. When, in the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, the crews of some 
 Portuguese ships wrecked on the coast travelled 
 north-eastward to Delagoa Bay, they found that the 
 vanguard of this race had reached the Umzimvubu, 
 and a hundred years later it had got as far as the 
 
20 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Kei. That river was crossed in the time of the chief 
 Palo, whose descendants in the fifth generation are 
 now living. Thus ever since white people became 
 acquainted with them, the eastern Bantu tribes have 
 been steadily and surely pressing southward, and 
 they are doing so still. 
 
 There are no means of ascertaining how far south 
 they had reached in the interior of the continent be- 
 fore the close of the sixteenth century, for chronology 
 is unknown in their traditions, but the not very dis- 
 tant ancestors of living chiefs are described by their 
 antiquaries as residing far away in the north. On 
 the western seaboard they had not then reached the 
 neighbourhood of Walfish Bay. 
 
 Those of the eastern part of the continent are of 
 mixed blood, one branch of their ancestors being of 
 'Asiatic origin. For a very long time before the 
 appearance of white men there were Arab settle- 
 ments along the shore between Cape Guardafui and 
 the Bazaruto Islands, consisting almost exclusively 
 of males who took to themselves harems of native 
 women. But this is insufficient to account for the 
 large proportion of Asiatic blood that, it is evi- 
 dent, flows in the veins of the eastern Bantu of the 
 present day, and which probaBly owes its existence 
 to intercourse much more remote. 
 
 Scattered over nearly the whole of the territory 
 now known as Rhodesia are ruins of stone buildings, 
 some of great size, that were never planned by 
 Africans. They were not constructed by highly- 
 civilised men, but by people who were indifferent as 
 to whether a wall was quite perpendicular and of 
 even thickness throughout its whole length, and 
 whether a curve was perfectly regular, but who were 
 still capable of cutting stone and erecting massive 
 
THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS. 21 
 
 structures without mortar. They were gold miners, 
 and sank pits along the quartz reefs with which the 
 country abounds to get out the metal-bearing stone, 
 but as soon as water was reached they were obliged 
 to desist, for they knew of no means of keeping their 
 workings dry. The numerous stone phalli that have 
 been found in the ruins indicate the nature of their 
 religion and the antiquity of their residence on the 
 highlands between the Zambesi and the Limpopo. 
 
 There was only one way in which the extraction 
 of gold from quartz with such implements as they 
 possessed could be made to pay, and that was by 
 means of slave labour. With a large number of 
 male slaves engaged in mining and of female slaves 
 in cultivating the ground and raising food, there 
 would be a profit, otherwise not. The slaves were 
 undoubtedly Africans, their taskmasters Asiatic in- 
 truders, and the great buildings were forts occu- 
 pied by the ruling race. As in all cases of this kind, 
 the strangers, being unaccompanied by females of 
 their own land, would take to themselves harems of 
 native women, and thus a class of mixed breeds 
 would arise. 
 
 For a long series of years, most likely for many 
 centuries, this immigration of Asiatics continued, 
 and though some of them may have returned with 
 gold to the land of their birth, their offspring re- 
 mained in Africa. The extent of territory in which 
 the remains of their buildings are found and the 
 enormous amount of quartz removed and broken up 
 indicate that the number of the intruders must have 
 been very large. It is therefore not unreasonable to 
 look to this source for the blood that has given to the 
 eastern Bantu in general a lighter colour and higher 
 intelligence than their western kinsmen, and which 
 
22 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 not unfrequently produces individuals with pure 
 Asiatie features. 
 
 These people were divided into tribes, each of 
 which was composed of a number of small sections 
 that may be termed clans. Each clan was independ- 
 ent of all the others, as far as its internal govern- 
 ment was concerned, but the whole were subject for 
 purposes of war to the great or paramount chief of 
 the tribe, to whom also there was an appeal in cases 
 of law. The government was thus in some respects 
 similar to that of the United States, but it was the 
 very reverse of republican. In all the more 
 powerful tribes the chiefs were despotic, and in those 
 where a body of councillors existed the office of ad- 
 viser was hereditary. The families and even distant 
 relatives of the chiefs were privileged persons in the 
 eye of the law, and could do many things with im- 
 punity for which commoners would be severely 
 punished. 
 
 There are many different standards of virtue in the 
 world. With the Bantu virtue meant implicit, un- 
 hesitating, unqualified obedience to the orders of the 
 chief. A man might lie to every one else, without 
 disgrace, but to his chief he must tell the truth in 
 language not to be misunderstood. He might see 
 his children half-starved, and no one would cry 
 shame upon him, but he must not have food and know 
 'his chief to be hungry. He might steal from 
 strangers, and if he was a clever thief his friends 
 would applaud him, but the least valuable of his 
 chiefs possessions must be to him a sacred thing. 
 This was his standard a standard based upon his 
 religion; and religion was to him a very real thing. 
 
 His deities were the spirits of his ancestors, and 
 above them all were the spirits of the ancestors of his 
 
THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS. 23 
 
 great chief. These could inflict endless woe if they 
 were not respected as they ought to be, and it would 
 plainly be a mark of disrespect to them to treat their 
 descendant, the living chief, with anything like un- 
 faithfulness. In this was the secret of the immense 
 power wielded over their followers by men, often of 
 a very low stamp, who were the heads of ruling 
 families. It was believed that the spirits sometimes 
 came to visit their old haunts, and then they assumed 
 an animal form. By the southern tribes the form 
 was held to be that of a certain kind of snake, which 
 was therefore never molested. One northern tribe 
 held the lion to be the garb of the spirits of its chiefs, 
 and another the crocodile. Every tribe an the 
 central highlands reveres some animal, which they 
 will on no account harm, and though they do not now 
 believe that the spirits of their chiefs assume that 
 form, their ancestors undoubtedly did. These tribes 
 take their titles from the animals thus respected, as 
 the Batlapin, that is, the Fish ; the Bakwena, that is, 
 the Crocodiles, and so on. 
 
 On all occasions of trouble sacrifices are offered to 
 the spirits that are supposed to have caused it. If the 
 trouble happens to a family, its head sacrifices a goat 
 or an ox; if it happens to a tribe, the sacrifice is 
 performed with much ceremony by an individual of 
 great influence, who may correctly be termed the 
 tribal priest, as this is his principal duty, though he 
 also administers medicine to the warriors before 
 going to battle to make them invulnerable if they do 
 their duty. Further, he watches carefully over the 
 person of the chief, to ward off invisible danger. 
 
 This was the religion of all the Bantu, but with 
 some sections it was slightly modified by local cir- 
 cumstances, or by conquest when the ruling family 
 
24 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 was destroyed. Frequently broken clans were 
 obliged to seek admission into a strange tribe, and in 
 such a case generations might pass before their new 
 rulers could stand in the same position to them as 
 their old ones had done. 
 
 Every one had firm faith in the existence of hob- 
 goblins and malevolent beings of various kinds, that 
 inhabited not only the dry land, but the running 
 streams, and especially deep pools of water. Of 
 such imaginary spirits they stood in constant dread, 
 but as no worship was offered to them, this 
 superstition cannot be said to partake of the nature 
 of religion. 
 
 The belief in witchcraft was general, and caused 
 an enormous amount of suffering. If a human 
 being or an ox died, if sickness occurred, if an acci- 
 dent of any kind happened, if a crop of millet was 
 blighted, it was at once attributed to the malevolence 
 of some wizard or witch, unless there was reason to 
 believe that an angry spirit was the cause. A witch- 
 finder by profession was then called in, who, after 
 certain incantations, would point out some person 
 as guilty. Confiscation of property, torture, death, 
 in extreme cases the indiscriminate slaughter of all 
 relatives, young and old, followed as punishment. 
 In many tribes the number of people who perished 
 through charges of dealing in witchcraft was greater 
 than of those who died natural deaths. In some, 
 especially in those of the north, there was an appeal 
 from the decision of the witchfinder to a trial by 
 ordeal. The accused person was then required to 
 drink a deadly poison, or to lift a piece of red-hot 
 iron, on the assumption that if he was innocent no 
 harm would happen to him. Failure meant destruc- 
 tion to his whole household, yet many individuals 
 
THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS. 25 
 
 accepted the test with apparent alacrity, confiding in 
 their freedom from guilt. 
 
 It shows how very differently people can regard 
 the same thing that when on one occasion not long 
 since the European authorities believed they were 
 conferring a great benefit upon a particular tribe by 
 suppressing the witchfinders and preventing punish- 
 ment on charges of dealing in sorcery, the people 
 affected, instead of being grateful as it was supposed 
 they ought to have been, were sullen and hostile, 
 saying to themselves that the white men were giving 
 them over to the wizards without protection or re- 
 dress. 
 
 From their religion it might be supposed that 
 these people were endowed with high imaginative 
 power, but in reality the reverse was the case. In 
 this respect they were far below the Hottentots, as, 
 generally speaking, they did not trouble themselves 
 to think, except about matters concerning their 
 bodily wants. Any one who supposes that purity or 
 elevation of mind is to be found among barbarians 
 would speedily change his opinion if he were to listen 
 to the ordinary conversation of a group of men of 
 the Bantu race who have not been under the in- 
 fluence of Europeans. He would discover that as a 
 rule their thoughts are of a low and sensual order, 
 their dispositions cruel, and their language frequent- 
 ly disgusting. There are exceptions, however, to 
 this statement, and some very notable ones will ap- 
 pear in the course of this narrative. 
 
 The Bantu were polygamists. Marriage was 
 purely a civil institution, no religious ceremonies 
 \being observed in their unions. It was necessary 
 to transfer to the family of the girl a number of 
 cattle, previously arranged with her nearest male 
 
26 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 relatives, when she became a member of her hus- 
 band's family, and her relatives lost their claim 
 to her, unless in cases of gross ill-treatment. If 
 maimed or disfigured, for instance, she had the 
 privilege of returning to her former home, though 
 even then she was obliged to leave her children be- 
 hind her if her husband had transferred the full 
 number of cattle. But in practice the full num- 
 ber were seldom transferred until many years after 
 the union, and thus in case of death or separation 
 in other ways complicated law cases arose as to 
 what family the woman and children really belonged 
 to. If she had daughters, some of the cattle given 
 for them were often paid to her relatives to com- 
 plete the transaction, but there was invariably a great 
 deal of controversy about the matter. Far the 
 greater proportion of lawsuits among these people 
 arose from marriage questions, which sometimes 
 went back for three or four generations, as such 
 claims according to their ideas did not die. 
 
 In some of the tribes a man was not at liberty 
 to marry a woman whose blood relationship to him- 
 self could be traced, no matter how remotely; in 
 others he could marry relations on the mother's side, 
 but not on the father's; in others again there was 
 no restriction except between a male and a female 
 of the same parents. In all cases there was one 
 termed the great wife, whose eldest son was the prin- 
 cipal heir. Another was termed the wife of the 
 right hand, and her eldest son was entitled to that 
 portion allotted to his branch of the family during 
 his father's lifetime. The remainder of the sons 
 could claim assistance from these to make a begin- 
 ning on their own account, but had no definite share 
 of their father's property assigned to them by law. 
 
THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS. 27 
 
 These people were probably the most prolific on 
 the face of the earth. Every woman was married at 
 an early age, and as they were vigorous and healthy, 
 few were childless. Even widows had by custom 
 male companions assigned to them, in order that they, 
 should bear children, who by law were regarded as 
 those of their deceased husbands. Thus the number 
 of the population was kept up, notwithstanding the 
 terrible waste of life by the constant wars in which 
 the tribes were engaged with each other and the 
 massacres on charges of dealing in witchcraft. , 
 
 There were many dialects in use among them, 
 differing as widely from each other as German from 
 English, but all following the same grammatical 
 rules. The Jilonipa custom, which prevented a 
 woman from using any word in which the principal 
 syllable of the name of her husband or any of hig 
 male relatives in the ascending line occurred, had 
 some influence in producing dialects, but not very 
 much. There was a steady, if slow, change taking 
 place in every group irrespective of that. 
 
 The Bantu were agriculturists as well as cattle- 
 breeders and workers in metals. The labour of tilling 
 the ground fell upon the women, who broke up the soil 
 with a heavy iron hoe, planted the seed, and gathered 
 the crops. Millet was the chief product of their 
 gardens, but they had also sweet cane, gourds, and 
 a kind of bean; The women made earthenware 
 pots and rush mats, gathered fuel, and cooked the 
 food. The heaviest part of the work in pre- 
 paring the materials and building the dome- 
 shaped huts in which they slept was likewise 
 their portion. The men herded the cattle, milked 
 the cows, prepared and sewed skins for clothing, and 
 were the workers in wood and metals. They were 
 
28 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 fairly skilful in carving wood, though they could 
 not join two pieces together, and their smiths could 
 turn out small articles in iron or copper that would 
 have been creditable to a European workman. 
 
 The chief occupation, however, for which the men 
 considered themselves adapted was war. From 
 early youth they underwent a training in the use 
 of weapons, and the condition in which they lived 
 kept them in pretty constant practice till death. 
 The southern tribes used only the assagai and 
 knobbed stick in attack, but in the north the bow and 
 arrow and the battle-axe were added. All used the 
 oxhide shield for defensive purposes. 
 
 It is impossible to say where the Bantu of the 
 eastern coast first came into contact with Hottentots 
 in their migration southward. It may have been 
 a long way north of the Umzimvubu, but at any rate 
 when they crossed that stream they were in Hotten- 
 tot country. As they advanced, the weaker race 
 was partly destroyed and partly absorbed by the 
 appropriation of young females. The Xosa tribe, 
 that formed the vanguard, thus came to have a con- 
 siderable mixture of Hottentot blood, and the next 
 behind, the Tembu, was similarly affected, though 
 not to the same extent. 
 
 In the centre of the continent the collision took 
 place in the neighbourhood of the Orange River, the 
 only part of the interior ever occupied by Hotten- 
 tots. There the Batlapin were in advance, and they 
 have mixed their blood freely with that of the 
 Koranas. 
 
 On the western coast the two races must have met 
 a long way north of Walfish Bay, but the exact point 
 cannot be ascertained. Here the Hottentots appear 
 to have been at first the conquerors, for there are 
 
THE BANTU OR KAFFIRS. 29 
 
 communities of black people in Damaraland at the 
 present day who speak a dialect of the Hottentot 
 language and have many Hottentot customs. They 
 are in a very degraded condition, and are to a cer- 
 tainty Bantu whose ancestors were reduced to serv- 
 itude. Before the commencement of the century, 
 however, the Ovaherero or Damaras had obtained 
 possession of the country down to the Swakop River. 
 
 With the Bantu everywhere might was right. 
 The strong took without pity, and the weak were 
 crushed and despised. There were no more tyran- 
 nous slaveholders in the world than the Betshuana, 
 their bondsmen being people of their own race, the 
 descendants of tribes vanquished in war. The 
 wretched Bakalihari could own nothing, not even the 
 skin of a wild animal, their lives could be taken at 
 the caprice of their owners, and they were valued in 
 exchange at only a goat apiece. 
 
 In the year 1800 this race occupied the whole 
 country north of a line running from Walfish Bay 
 eastward to about the centre of the Kalihari, thence 
 south to the Orange River, up along the Orange to the 
 Vaal, and up the Vaal to about the twenty- eighth 
 degree of longitude east of Greenwich. It possessed 
 the eastern part of the Orange Free State and 
 nearly the whole of the present Basutoland. On the 
 eastern coast the Fish River was its limit by arrange- 
 ment between several chiefs and the government 
 of the Cape Colony, but a powerful horde had re- 
 cently crossed that stream and occupied the land as 
 far as the Bushman's River. 
 
SO PEOGEESS OF SOUTH AFEICA. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICAN 
 
 To the Portuguese the honour of the discovery of 
 South Africa is due. For a long time they had been 
 pushing their way down the coast, each expedition 
 going a little farther than its predecessor. Their 
 object was not geographical discovery alone, but 
 chiefly to divert from Venice the rich trade in Indian 
 productions which that republic carried on. Spices, 
 calico, and other articles were brought by Arabs 
 and other Asiatics from Hindostan to the Persian 
 Gulf and theRed Sea, and were then carried overland 
 to Mediterranean ports, where the Venetians ob- 
 tained them for distribution over Europe. It was 
 evident that if an entire ocean route could be dis- 
 covered, these articles could be sold at an enormous 
 profit, and still far cheaper than the rates at which 
 the Venetians could afford to supply them. Venice 
 would be ruined, but Lisbon would thrive and pros- 
 per, and what nation takes thought of the distress 
 she brings upon others by rivalry of this kind ? 
 
 In 1486 an adventurous Portuguese seaman, 
 named Bartholomeu Dias, left Lisbon with three 
 tiny vessels, such as one would not care to-day to use 
 for crossing the English Channel, and crept along the 
 'African shore until he reached a point somewhere 
 near the mouth of the Orange River. Here he was 
 overtaken by a storm and blown out to sea, but his 
 puny craft, wretchedly uncomfortable as they mustj 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 31 
 
 have been, proved good sea-boats, for they weathered 
 the gale and the violence of the waves, that in no 
 part of the ocean are more formidable than where 
 they then were. 
 
 And now a notable thing occurred. Dias steered 
 eastward to reach the coast once more, and sailed on- 
 ward day after day without finding it. What could 
 be the cause? he thought, and he was not long in 
 guessing it. Turning to the north, he soon got sight 
 of the continent again, and knew that the secret of its 
 extent was solved, for he had passed its southern 
 point. He went as far as the mouth of the Fish 
 River, and then reluctantly turned homeward, for his 
 sailors refused to go farther. We can hardly blame 
 them, if we reflect upon the scanty supply of food the 
 cockleshells they were in were capable of carrying, 
 and how comfortless and dreary their lives on board 
 must have been. 
 
 On the 8th of July, 1497, ten years after the re- 
 turn of Dias, Vasco da Gama, a young man who had 
 given proof of great perseverance and ability, sailed 
 from the Tagus with four vessels, well equipped 
 for those days. From the island of Santiago, where 
 he took in water and fresh provisions, he stood bold- 
 ly in a direct course for the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 made the land next at the curve of the coast which he 
 named St. Helena Bay. Thence he counted the pil- 
 lars, as the Portuguese sailors expressed it, that is, 
 he kept generally in sight of the shore until he 
 reached Mossel Bay, where he anchored. After 
 a short stay there, he proceeded on his voyage, and 
 giving to the beautiful land which he passed by on 
 Christmas the name which it still bears Natal 
 he touched next at the mouth of the Limpopo River. 
 From the Limpopo he proceeded to the Kilimane or 
 
32 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 northernmost mouth of the Zambesi. Thus the full 
 extent of the South African seaboard became known, 
 though of course it could not be accurately laid down 
 on a chart, for no method whatever had yet been in- 
 vented for determining longitudes, and the instru- 
 ment used for ascertaining latitudes was so cumbrous 
 and clumsy that errors of one or two degrees were by 
 no means uncommon. 
 
 Vasco da Gama touched at various places farther 
 north, and having obtained a pilot at Melinde who 
 was well acquainted with the route, he went on to 
 India, which he was the first European to reach by 
 sea ; but there is no necessity to accompany him far- 
 ther in these pages. 
 
 For a century and more after this event the Por- 
 tuguese had South Africa all to themselves, as far 
 as other Christian nations were concerned. Let us 
 now see what they did with it, and trace though 
 very lightly their transactions down to the com- 
 mencement of the century, when it will be requisite 
 to note their exact position. 
 
 Lured by reports of a commerce in gold carried 
 on by Arabs, that they heard first at Mozambique 
 and afterwards wherever they put in to the north, 
 in 1505 the Portuguese under a leader named Pedro 
 d'Anhaya founded a fort and factory at Sofala, 
 the first European establishment in South Africa. 
 There was what was called a Moorish or Arab set- 
 tlement at this place, for many centuries earlier 
 Arabs had moved down from the borders of the Red 
 Sea, and had gradually occupied all the islands and 
 many points on the coast of the mainland as far south' 
 as Bazaruto. They were keen traders. Their ves- 
 sels plied between India, the shore of the Persian 
 Gulf, and the coast of Africa, which they had ex-, 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 33 
 
 plored as far south as Cape Correntes. They will not 
 be mentioned as inhabitants of South Africa at the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, however, be- 
 cause the Portuguese had driven nearly all of them 
 out long before that time. 
 
 The Arabs had mingled their blood with that of the 
 Bantu inhabitants to such an extent that most of 
 those who went by that name on the African sea- 
 board were little better than negroes, and were quite 
 unfit to meet the Portuguese on equal terms. At 
 this time also they were divided into several inde- 
 pendent communities, hostile to each other. As soon 
 as those of Sofala ascertained that the strangers were 
 building a fort instead of a simple trading station, 
 they made war, but were quickly beaten, and there- 
 after gave little trouble. With their fall the gold 
 trade received a great check, for white men could 
 not traverse the country like pedlars, as they had 
 done, and the Bantu would only collect the precious 
 metal if beads and loincloths were carried to them in 
 the interior. 
 
 Still a little was procured, and from it and ivory 
 and ambergris which was then found in consider- 
 able quantities on sandy parts of the beach suffi- 
 cient profit was made to meet the current expenses 
 and keep up hope for the future. Some years later 
 trading stations were established at Sena and Tete 
 on the southern bank of the Zambesi, the first about 
 a hundred and forty and the second over three hun- 
 dred miles from the sea, and at these places as at 
 Sofala a few Portuguese males were thereafter to be 
 found, contending with fever and living amid the 
 most wretched surroundings. 
 
 In 1560 two missionaries of the Society of Jesus 
 entered the country, but one was murdered and the 
 
 E 
 
34: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 other was obliged by the attitude of the people to 
 withdraw. They were followed a few years later 
 by Dominicans, who fared better, and in course of 
 time a good many stations were established. If one 
 were to judge by the number of baptisms the Chris- 
 tian teachers met with amazing success, but as later 
 events proved their efforts were absolutely fruitless 
 in permanent effects. It is impossible to say how 
 far the missionaries penetrated the country. The 
 waves of war that have since rolled over the land 
 have obliterated most of the native names that are 
 found in their records, and only in a few instances, 
 where they state distances in leagues or days' jour- 
 neys in a certain direction from Tete or Sena, can the 
 positions they mention be approximately fixed. It 
 is probable, however, that at one time or other they 
 visited nearly every part of the territory now known 
 as Mashonaland. During the seventeenth century the 
 Jesuits renewed their attempt to occupy this field, 
 and they also founded several stations. 
 
 Greatly disappointed in the volume of the trade, 
 the Portuguese government imagined that if the 
 country were conquered and ruled by them better 
 results -a^ould be obtained. So a military expedi- 
 tion was fitted out on a grand scale, according to the 
 ideas of the time, and reached the Zambesi in 1572. 
 'At its head was a man of note named Francisco Bar- 
 reto, who had once been governor-general of Portu- 
 guese India. [Almost immediately after reaching. 
 Sena fever appeared among the soldiers, and the 
 horses began to die, probably from the bite of the 
 tsetse. Suspicion of causing these disasters by 
 poison fell upon some unfortunate Moors who were 
 living in the neighbourhood, and the_y were seized and 
 put to death by every variety of torture that could be 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 35 
 
 devised. Then the army marched inland, and was 
 victorious in several battles over great bands of na- 
 tives, till fever and the impossibility of caring fop 
 the wounded forced a retreat. Aid in men and ma- 
 terials of war came from Europe and India, but in 
 vain. Barreto died, and his son, and his officers, 
 and nearly all of his soldiers, and only a few human 
 wrecks escaped to tell the story of one of the greatest 
 disasters the little kingdom had ever sustained in 
 foreign war. The country remained unconquered, 
 but the fortified stations of Sofala, Sena, and Tete 
 were still occupied by the Portuguese. 
 
 Hitherto the trade had been carried on by fac- 
 tors on account of the royal treasury. There was 
 no such thing known as a private merchant import- 
 ing goods or exporting gold or ivory, everything was 
 brought and sent away in a vessel fitted out in the 
 name of the king. But now a different system was 
 introduced. The commerce of all the country south 
 of the Zambesi was farmed out to the governors of 
 Mozambique for periods of three years, the governors 
 contracting to defray the expenses of the different 
 stations and to pay into the royal treasury a sum 
 of about twenty-two thousand dollars annually. The 
 number of officers and men to be kept at each station, 
 the salaries to be paid to each one, and all other de- 
 tails that could be thought of were fixed in the agree- 
 ments. At the end of each term the governor under- 
 went an examination by a judge, and if it could be 
 shown that he had failed to maintain the stipulated 
 garrisons, or had allowed the forts to get out of re- 
 pair, he was liable to be punished. 
 
 Though it is evident that a system like this must 
 have been attended with many abuses, as far as the 
 royal treasury was concerned it worked better than 
 
36 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the other. The governors imported from India all 
 the goods that could be disposed of, they farmed out 
 to subordinate agents certain districts or certain arti- 
 cles, and these agents in their turn employed natives 
 whom they trained to travel over the country and buy 
 and sell in small quantities. Trading stations, or 
 fairs as they were called, were established in various 
 places, and were secured from plunder by periodical 
 presents to the chiefs in whose territories they were 
 situated. Usually a Dominican missionary went to 
 reside at such a fair, and the traders, when they were 
 men of any ability, rapidly acquired influence with 
 the natives in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Generally once a year, though sometimes less fre- 
 quently, a vessel was sent from Mozambique to 
 Inhambane and Delagoa Bay, to collect ivory and 
 ambergris. The master and mate were Portuguese, 
 but the sailors were Moors who received no wages, 
 as they had the privilege of trading in honey, wax t 
 and millet on their own account instead. Booths 
 were set up on shore, and for four or five months 
 the strangers were engaged in barter. Farther south 
 than Delagoa Bay they never went. 
 
 So matters remained till the Dutch wrested the 
 richest parts of India from the Portuguese, and tried 
 to get possession of the coast of Eastern Africa also, 
 though in this they failed. It was little more than a 
 century from the time of her great discoveries and 
 conquests, when Portugal presented to the world 
 the aspect of a feeble and nerveless country. Many 
 causes contributed to this, far the most important 
 of which was the introduction of negro slaves into 
 her southern provinces. In a few generations a 
 fusion of blood with the peasantry of those provinces 
 took place, and an indolent, unenterprising, frivo- 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 37 
 
 lous people, incapable of commanding respect or of 
 ruling others, was the result. The northern Portu- 
 guese and the better class of the southern remained, 
 as they are to-day, men fit to conquer and to hold for- 
 eign possessions, but what could they do with the 
 dead weight of the mixed breeds of the larger part 
 of their country hanging upon them ? 
 
 The wealth of the East was lost for ever, and now 
 what little power of effort was left in Portugal was 
 devoted to South-E astern Africa. Never before 
 were so many instructions issued by the king and his 
 cabinet as to what was to be done to secure the gold 
 and reputed silver mines in that territory. One 
 scheme after another was projected, and was worked 
 out on paper as if Portugal still occupied her old 
 position. A Jesuit father dreamed and wrote of a 
 great Portuguese empire extending from the Cape 
 of Good Hope to Abyssinia, and including the is- 
 land of Madagascar, at a time when it was not pos- 
 sible to supply even an adequate garrison for the 
 fortress of Mozambique. On reading these docu- 
 ments one would imagine that 'armies could still be 
 raised and treasure expended, but the officials in 
 India and Africa knew better, and their reports con- 
 tained constant complaints of want of men and 
 money. 
 
 For twenty or thirty years an effort was made to 
 conquer the Zambesi basin, but the puny forces digni- 
 fied with the name of armies, the wooden stockades 
 pompously termed forts, effected nothing at all. On 
 more than one occasion the white men were nearly 
 exterminated. The strongest army that could be 
 raised at this period, consisting of four hundred sol- 
 diers, was cut off to a man. The tribes and the 
 country remained unconquered. 
 
38 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 But now another scene comes into view. Indi- 
 vidual Portuguese, men of courage and ability, 
 though in most cases sadly lacking in morality, ac- 
 quired influence with the native rulers, gathered 
 followers about them, and became chiefs of dis- 
 tricts. Taking advantage of tribal feuds and wars, 
 they espoused the side from which most was to be 
 gained, and shortly they are found as independent 
 lords. They were more skilful than the native 
 rulers and could give their dependents more, thus it 
 came about that they were revered and obeyed by all 
 those whose hereditary chiefs had perished and who 
 applied to them for protection. In our own time 
 an instance of the same kind has been seen in 
 the career of an English adventurer named John 
 Dunn in Zululand. These men still called them- 
 selves Portuguese subjects, and were ambitious of 
 receiving titles of honour from Lisbon, but they 
 cannot be regarded as colonists or as promoters of 
 civilisation in any sense of the word. By them 
 Portuguese rule was nominally extended very much 
 farther in the continent than either before or since 
 their time. 
 
 They lived in a style of barbarous luxury, though 
 few Europeans would envy their mode of existence. 
 Their tables were spread with all the viands of 
 Africa and India, and the richest wines from the 
 Douro flowed at their repasts. When they stirred 
 even the shortest distance from the shelter of their 
 verandas, it was in hammocks or palanquins borne 
 by their slaves, for they disdained to walk. Their 
 harems contained as many inmates as they fancied. 
 Many of them possessed considerable wealth, de- 
 rived chiefly from the sale of slaves and ivory. They 
 exercised absolute authority over their people, made 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 39 
 
 war on their own account, and were in everything 
 but name sovereign lords. 
 
 It is evident that a state of things like this could 
 not continue long. Upon the death of a white man 
 in such a position there was seldom a direct successor, 
 and if the representative of the king at Mozambique 
 or -elsewhere nominated one, it was speedily found 
 that real authority over the people could not be trans- 
 ferred in this manner. In connection with these 
 great estates, of which at one time there were as 
 many as eighty-five, the government at Lisbon de- 
 vised a scheme that was intended to foster coloni- 
 sation of a kind. Young women, who as orphans 
 were wards of the state, were sent out, and received 
 them as dowries, on condition of their marrying Por- 
 tuguese born in Europe. The title descended to the 
 eldest daughter on the same condition, but lapsed 
 after three lives. Surely no stranger or less prac- 
 tical plan of occupying a country was ever devised. 
 An attack by a warlike neighbour was sufficient to 
 change the ownership, and so one district after an- 
 other was lost, until at the close of the eighteenth 
 century only a very few along the lower course of 
 the Zambesi remained nominally subject to the Por- 
 tuguese crown. 
 
 In the system of conducting trade change after 
 change had been made. The worst experiment of 
 all was opening it, near the close of the seventeenth 
 century, to all Portuguese subjects without excep- 
 tion, and exacting customs duties at the places of en- 
 try. Under this system Indian traders appeared in 
 such numbers that soon there was hardly a Euro- 
 pean dealer in merchandise left in the country, and 
 Tete and Sena were threatened with extinction, for 
 the white men could not compete with Asiatics 
 
4:0 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 whose cost of living was only trifling in comparison. 
 The whole of the commerce except in slaves a 
 branch of business opened with Brazil about thirty 
 years previously would have been lost to the Portu- 
 guese if a company had not been established before 
 it was too late, with a monopoly of buying and sell- 
 ing in South-Eastern Africa as its privilege. It is 
 not necessary to describe here the other experiments 
 that followed, for the company soon ceased to exist. 
 ~No commerce of any real importance, except that 
 in slaves and ivory, was ever carried on under any 
 system. 
 
 The missions too had disappeared. There were 
 certainly many able and zealous men among the 
 Dominicans and Jesuits who first attempted to con- 
 vert the Bantu of South-E astern Africa to Chris- 
 tianity. They did not scruple to expose themselves 
 to hardships of the severest kind, even to death, so 
 devoted were they to their work. But after a time 
 Indians, mixed breeds, and Bantu were admitted to 
 the Dominican order, and were sent to labour in the 
 mission fields. Then came the fall. A native min- 
 istry under strict European guidance may be capa- 
 ble of giving immense assistance, but men who have 
 just emerged from barbarism cannot with prudence 
 be left entirely or even partly to themselves among 
 people like the Bantu. Indolence and rapacity are 
 said to have been the vices into which those in South 
 Africa fell, but perhaps it would not be incorrect to 
 suspect them of other failings. 
 
 On the 1st of September, 1759, a decree was is- 
 sued by King Joseph I, at the instance of his cele- 
 brated minister, the Marquis of Pombal, for the 
 expulsion of the Jesuits from all the possessions of 
 Portugal, and in 1773 the order was suppressed by 
 
THE PORTUGUESE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 41 
 
 Pope Clement XIV. In 1775 the Dominicans in 
 South Africa were ordered to retire to Goa, and only 
 a few secular priests were stationed at places where 
 there were Portuguese residents. The mission sta- 
 tions were entirely abandoned, and even their sites 
 were soon forgotten. The Bantu converts, left with- 
 out guidance or control, within a couple of genera- 
 tions relapsed to the religion of their ancestors. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century there 
 were only twelve hundred and seventy-seven profess- 
 ing Christians in the whole territory owned by Por- 
 tugal in South-E astern Africa. This number includ- 
 ed men, women, and children, civilians and soldiers, 
 Europeans and mixed breeds. 
 
 The occupied places at that time were on the 
 Zambesi, Tete, and Sena, with the districts before men- 
 tioned ; and, on the seacoast, Sofala, Inhambane (first 
 permanently taken possession of in 1729), and Lou- 
 rengo Marques, whejre a small fort had been erected 1 
 and garrisoned in 1787. In the interior the in- 
 fluence of the Portuguese had completely disap- 
 peared, their existence was forgotten, and no trace 
 of any kind was left to show that they ever had in!- 
 tercourse with the native inhabitants. 
 
42 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DUTCH IN" SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 WHILE the Northern Netherland Provinces wero 
 engaged with the Spanish monarchy in their gallant 
 struggle for freedom, the attention of some of their 
 merchants was turned to direct communication with 
 the rich lands of the East, from which boundless 
 wealth was to be drawn. They had previously been 
 the distributors over Northern Europe of spices pur- 
 chased at Lisbon, but now they were shut out of that 
 market. The great line of monarchs of .the house 
 of Avis had become extinct, and Philip the Second 
 of Spain, as the nearest heir, had claimed the king- 
 dom of Portugal, and upon obtaining it had forbid- 
 den all intercourse with the daring Sea Beggars of 
 Holland and Zeeland, whom he termed his rebellious 
 subjects. It was this union of the two Iberian mon- 
 archies that made the Portuguese possessions in In- 
 dia legitimate spoil for the Netherlander, who were 
 not the men to desist from any kind of enterprise 
 because it happened to be dangerous. 
 
 The Dutch first made several efforts to find a 
 route to the Pacific by the north of Europe and Asia, 
 and when with the death of heroic Willem Barends 
 these were given up, they followed the way round 
 Africa. They found the Portuguese stations in In- 
 dia almost defenceless, so weak and so poor had the 
 descendants of the old conquerors become. Still 
 they were not very strong themselves, for their 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 43 
 
 country at the time could not spare many men for 
 distant warfare, and so the few that went to the 
 eastern seas had a good deal of hard fighting to do 
 before they obtained possession of the Spice Islands 
 and fixed their headquarters at Batavia in rich and 
 fertile Java. They soon found that individual mer- 
 chants and small associations could not hold their 
 conquests long in face of the Portuguese and the na- 
 tives, and so a powerful company was formed, that 
 could send out strong armed fleets and maintain 
 large bodies of soldiers. To the East India Com- 
 pany, thus called into being, the States General gave 
 the exclusive right of trading with all countries east 
 of the Cape of Good Hope and almost sovereign 
 power of government wherever it might acquire ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 The greater portion of the Indian commerce soon 
 passed into the hands of the Dutch, who cast longing 
 eyes also upon the eastern coast of Africa. They 
 too, like the Portuguese a century earlier, heard of 
 the gold that was collected in the interior and 
 brought down to the seaports, which rumour mag- 
 nified in quantity a hundredfold, and they showed 
 a strong desire to obtain it. Three times they at- 
 tacked and laid siege to the fortress of Mozambique, 
 and as many times they were discomfited, to their 
 own great advantage, though that they did not realise. 
 If they had obtained possession of it they could have 
 made nothing more out of it than the Portuguese had 
 done, and they would have wasted their strength on 
 the fever-stricken shore from the mouth of the Zam- 
 besi to that of the Tugela. 
 
 The loss of life on board ships in those days was 
 appalling. ~No method of preserving fresh food was 
 known, consequently scurvy caused most terrible rav- 
 
44 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ages. A large Indiaman, which sailed from Hol- 
 land with four hundred men to work her huge sails 
 with the clumsy tackle then in use and to fight any 
 enemy she might meet on the passage, often arrived 
 at Batavia with less than a fourth of that number 
 alive, and these so feeble from disease that they 
 could barely bring her to anchor. The soldiers on 
 board were nearly all Germans or Swiss who had 
 migrated from their countries in search of employ- 
 ment, and among the sailors were many Danes, Nor- 
 wegians, and Swedes; still, apart from all human- 
 itarian reasons, the Netherlands Republic could not 
 afford such a drain upon the lifeblood of its people. 
 The Portuguese had used Mozambique as a place of 
 refreshment on their passages to and fro ; the Dutch, 
 having farther to sail, needed a similar half-way 
 house still more. So very soon after their first ap- 
 pearance in the Indian seas they began to call regu- 
 larly at Table Bay, where they could always obtain 
 fresh water and fish and give their men a run 
 ashore, and sometimes were able to barter horned 
 cattle and sheep from the Hottentots. During the 
 rainy season also sorrel and other wild plants, which 
 they called in general scurvy grass, were to be had 
 for the gathering, and were much sought after. 
 
 All this was of great advantage, but more was 
 needed. The East India Company therefore re- 
 solved to form a proper refreshment station on the 
 shore of Table Bay, and in April, 1652, a party of 
 men under an officer named Jan van Riebeek arrived 
 for that purpose. It must be understood that there 
 was then not the most remote intention to found a 
 Dutch colony in South Africa. The object was 
 merely to build a small fort for protection against 
 the natives, to cultivate a large garden by means 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 45 
 
 of servants of the Company, to breed hogs and 
 poultry, to purchase cattle from the Hottentots to 
 be kept till the arrival of the fleets, and to construct 
 a hospital where sick men could be left to recover 
 and join the next ships that called. It was sup- 
 posed that the crews of the Indiamen would there- 
 after be able to obtain in abundance fresh beef, mut- 
 ton, pork, fish, and water, with whatever quantity 
 of vegetables of different kinds they cared to con- 
 sume, while the officers would have in addition 
 poultry, eggs, and fruit. 
 
 The expedition found only a few utterly destitute 
 Hottentots in Table Valley, who were pleased to see 
 the strangers and obtain food from them. On several 
 occasions before white people had resided there for 
 months together collecting seal and whale oil, and 
 only three years previously a large ship had been 
 wrecked in the bay and her crew had made a garden 
 while they were waiting for a fleet to take them home 
 again. The Hottentots therefore thought that it 
 would be the same with Mr. Van RiebeeFs party, 
 although the erection of a fort with earthen walls 
 ought to have caused them to come to a different con- 
 clusion. After a few weeks some clans arrived with 1 
 their cattle, seeking a change of pasture, and a fair- 
 ly brisk trade was done with them, oxen and sheep 
 being exchanged freely for pieces of copper and to- 
 bacco, with some brandy thrown in by way of en- 
 tertainment. The garden was laid out, cabbages and 
 other vegetables throve in it, and though, as in all 
 new settlements, there were difficulties to contend 
 with at first, the project shortly passed the experi- 
 mental stage and success was assured. 
 
 Five years later another step was taken, on this 
 occasion really with the object of founding a colony, 
 
46 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 though a very small one. The directors of the East 
 India Company thought that by establishing a few 
 men as gardeners on plots of ground near the fort, 
 they could obtain vegetables and fruit cheaper than by 
 means of paying labourers who were idle half the 
 year, and that such persons would be of as much use 
 as soldiers in defending the settlement in time of 
 war. So to any of their servants who chose to ven- 
 ture upon a trial they offered little farms without 
 payment and assistance on credit to make a begin- 
 ning. The company thus already claimed the pro- 
 prietorship of the soil. 
 
 Some persons thought they could improve theii 
 positions in this way, and therefore a number of 
 plots of ground were laid out along the Liesbeek 
 River, none more than five miles distant from the 
 fort, and were taken up by discharged soldiers and 
 sailors. These men, as has already been* stated, 
 were of various nationalities, but in the Company's 
 service they had all learned to speak Dutch. Only 
 a very few of them, however, succeeded in making a 
 living on their own account, much the greater num- 
 ber soon becoming weary of digging and planting, 
 when they returned to their previous occupations 
 to work off the debts they had accumulated. Their 
 places on the little farms were then taken by others, 
 so that a continual change went on, in which only 
 those adapted for field labour remained, and these 
 were nearly always men from Holland or the Ger- 
 man states on the border. If they were married 
 in the Netherlands their wives and children were 
 sent out to them free of charge. In this man- 
 ner a little community of agriculturists was formed, 
 and then a few individuals were permitted to settle 
 as tradesmen close to the fort, to meet the demand 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 47 
 
 for such productions as only the smith, the carpen- 
 ter, the tailor, the shoemaker, or the wheelwright 
 could supply. Such was the commencement of the 
 present city of Capetown. 
 
 This expansion opened the eyes of the Hottentots 
 to the fact that the white people had come to stay, 
 and they were not pleased with the prospect. It 
 was not only the cultivated ground that was lost to 
 them, for the Company needed a considerable extent 
 of pasture for the cattle purchased and kept in readi- 
 ness for the fleets, and the farmers or burghers 
 as they were termed enjoyed the right of grazing 
 the cows and ewes they had been supplied with on 
 credit anywhere beyond the marked out property. 
 Questions of proprietorship thus arose, and the Hot- 
 tentots were not satisfied when they were told that 
 as the whole country beyond the little Cape penin- 
 sula was before them they must not trespass on the 
 white people's pasture. They showed signs of hos- 
 tility, plundered the burghers whenever they could, 
 and at length murdered a man who was herding 
 some kine. 
 
 This brought on what was afterwards termed the 
 first Hottentot war, but it hardly deserved to be 
 called a war at all, for on no occasion was there a 
 pitched battle. It threw back farming operations a 
 good deal, however, as the houses and gardens along 
 the Liesbeek for the sake of safety were abandoned 
 for a time, and a few Hottentots who were acci- 
 dentally encountered by little bands of Europeans 
 seeking them were shot. The trouble ended by the 
 natives asking for peace. They had become fond of 
 tobacco and arrack, which they could not obtain 
 while they were at enmity with the white people, 
 and so they admitted the East India Company to be 
 
48 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the owner of the ground in dispute and promised to 
 conduct themselves in a friendly manner thencefor- 
 ward. 
 
 After this event matters went on for several years 
 in a quiet manner. Plots of ground were laid out 
 and occupied as far as Wynberg, eight miles from the 
 fort, which was at this time being replaced by the 
 stone castle that is still in existence, and that in the 
 middle of the seventeenth century was regarded as 
 ample security against any European enemy who 
 might wish to get possession of the settlement. 
 
 In 1672 a gentleman named Arnout van Over- 
 beek, who was high in authority in the Company's 
 service, called at the Cape, and assumed control of 
 the administration during his stay. He thought 
 that a valid title to a strip of territory could be ob- 
 tained by bargaining with the Hottentot chiefs, and 
 the two most powerful in the neighbourhood were 
 easily induced to affix their marks to deeds of sale 
 of the land from Saldanha Bay to False Bay in re- 
 turn for trifles to the value of fifty or sixty dollars. 
 
 In the following year the second Hottentot war 
 commenced, a war that was destined to have most 
 important effects upon the settlement. There was 
 a tribe called the Cochoqua living just beyond the 
 territory recently purchased, one large division of 
 which was under a chief named Gonnema. This 
 chief was incensed against the Europeans on ac- 
 count of their having formed an alliance with a tribe 
 that was hostile to him, and further on account 
 of their hunting game near his kraals and punish- 
 ing some of his people who were caught in the act of 
 sheepstealing. He fell upon a party of hunters and 
 murdered them all, after which he plundered an out- 
 post and killed some of its occupants. 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 49 
 
 [An expedition was at once sent against him, and 
 some of his cattle were seized, but he and his fol- 
 lowers escaped to the mountains. The Dutch were 
 assisted by the two tribes living nearest them, from 
 whom they had purchased so much ground at so 
 cheap a rate, but Gonnema held them all at bay for 
 four years, during which time he nearly ruined his 
 native enemies. He kept the settlement also in a 
 state of such strict blockade that no cattle could 
 be obtained, and one of the principal objects of the 
 East India Company was thus defeated. At last, 
 when weary of living in the mountains like a Bush- 
 man, he sued for peace, which was gladly accorded, 
 and he became nominally a vassal of the Dutch 
 government. 
 
 The Company now resolved to depend no longer 
 upon the Hottentots for a supply of meat, which 
 might be cut off at any time by a hostile tribe, but 
 to introduce European cattle-breeders, upon whom 
 more reliance could be placed. Thus the door was 
 opened to that expansion of the settlement which has 
 continued to the present day. During the next 
 twelve years efforts were made in Holland to ob- 
 tain families of a suitable class to emigrate to 
 South Africa, and very liberal inducements were 
 offered. They would be sent out free of charge. 
 They would have ground given to them without other 
 payment or tax than the tithes of corn after a certain 
 number of years. They would be supplied with 1 
 farming implements and provisions for a time at 
 cost price on credit. 
 
 But even these liberal terms were insufficient at 
 first to tempt agricultural labourers in any number 
 to become South African colonists. There was then 
 no lack of employment at home, and people did not 
 
 F 
 
60 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 care to risk a sea voyage of four or five months, witK 
 its attendant peril of scurvy, and to separate them- 
 selves from their friends and the associations of 
 their youth, to obtain land in a country of which 
 little more was known than that it was the abode of 
 savages. Thus only a very few emigrants were ob- 
 tained before 1685. 
 
 The revocation of tho Edict of ISTantes by Louis 
 XIV. greatly altered this situation. Such numbers 
 of destitute French Protestants poured into the 
 Netherlands that there was more labour than was 
 needed, and the East India Company was therefore 
 able to obtain families representing about two hun- 
 dred individuals of Dutch blood and an equal num- 
 ber of French to take up ground in the new colony. 
 These were sent out in successive fleets, most of 
 the French in 1688, and they were well provided 
 for on the passage. At the same time some young 
 women of unblemished character, who were without 
 means and therefore without brilliant prospects in 
 their native land, were induced to leave the orphan 
 homes of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and go out to 
 become the wives of men discharged from tho Com- 
 pany's service. Every care was taken of them, as 
 they were made special wards of the government 
 until they were married, which was almost invariably 
 very shortly after they arrived at their destination. 
 
 These colonists cost the East India Company a 
 good deal of money before they were settled, more 
 perhaps than the directors would have been justified 
 in spending if their object had been merely to secure 
 a supply of fresh meat for the use of their fleets. 
 "I5ii(, by tliis time, tlicir vic.ws wcro grently enlarged, 
 .UK I Ilicy now looked forward to the production of 
 \vhoat, wine, and olivo oil as articles of commerce 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFEI 51 
 
 i which they could make a profit that would 
 more than cover their outlay. 
 
 The newcomers had farms assigned to them on 
 the low belt of land adjoining the sea, within a 
 distance of a day's ride on horseback from the fort 
 in Table Valley. Here during the westerly mon- 
 soon, from April to October, the rainfall is usually 
 ample for agricultural purposes without artificial 
 irrigation, the grape arrives at its highest degree of 
 perfection, and the orange, apple, plum, peach, and all 
 other fruits of the warmer part of the temperate zone 
 thrive as well as in any part of the world. The 
 climate is exceedingly healthy. From November to 
 March there are often unpleasantly warm days, but 
 the nights are nearly always cool. This is the 
 season of the south-east monsoon, when the wind 
 sometimes blows furiously for two or three days to- 
 gether, causing much discomfort while it lasts, but 
 acting as a perfect scavenger. During the remainder 
 of the year the temperature is most agreeable to 
 Europeans. In June, July, and August snow may 
 be seen capping the mountain chains inland, but it 
 never lies on the lower plain, though occasionally 
 hoar frost is found there in the early morning. The 
 sky is generally clear, and dark, damp, foggy 
 weather is almost unknown. 
 
 In this fertile and charming locality the immi- 
 grants speedily made for themselves comfortable 
 homes. With abundance of plain food and com- 
 parative freedom from care, they were in that condi- 
 tion in which the human race multiplies most rapid- 
 ly. At the close of the seventeenth century there were 
 about twelve hundred white people of both sexes 
 and all ages in the colony, and from them a very 
 large proportion of the present rural population of 
 
52 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 South Africa has sprung. Rather over two-thirds 
 of their blood was Dutch, about one-sixth was French, 
 and the remainder was mainly German. 
 
 They had three places of worship, at Capetown, 
 Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein, established respective 
 ly in 1665, 1687, and 1691. At each of these places 
 there was also an elementary school, connected with 
 the church. Capetown was still only a small vil- 
 lage, but it contained a botanic garden belonging 
 to the East India Company, which was celebrated 
 throughout Europe and India. Nowhere else in 
 the world could such a variety of plants, European, 
 Asiatic, and African, be found growing side by side 
 in the open air, each as if it was in its native soil. 
 The pine, and more especially the oak, were the 
 favourite trees of the country people, and could be 
 seen growing wherever there were houses. The 
 olive had not succeeded, but considerable quantities 
 of wine were produced, and in good seasons a little 
 wheat could be exported. 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 53 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA (continued). 
 
 DURING the eighteenth century hardly a family 
 arrived from Europe, and the increase of the popu- 
 lation was due entirely to the excess of births over 
 deaths and to the discharge of servants of the Com- 
 pany. In 1700 the first range of mountains was 
 crossed, and graziers began to settle on the second 
 of the terraces by which the continent rises, as by 
 steps, from the sea to the vast interior plain. This 
 terrace receives less moisture than the one below, 
 but it is not without much ground capable of culti- 
 vation, and it has excellent pasture for cattle. The 
 distance from Capetown and the difficulty of getting 
 over the mountains with waggons forced the settlers, 
 even if they had been otherwise inclined, to rely 
 almost entirely upon their herds for their main- 
 tenance. 
 
 The government encouraged this mode of living 
 by its method of giving out land. On the terrace 
 adjoining the sea farms from a hundred and twenty 
 to a hundred and fifty acres in extent were surveyed, 
 properly marked with beacons, and allotted in free- 
 hold, and there the proprietors depended more upon 
 their wheatfields and their vineyards than upon stock- 
 rearing. Beyond the first mountain range one 
 small valley of exceptional fertility excluded 
 tracts of territory nominally six thousand acres in 
 extent were leased at a yearly rental of twenty-four 
 
54: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 dollars. They were not surveyed, so that in prac- 
 tice a man took as much as he chose until some one 
 else contested his claim. This gave rise to a desire 
 to live at great distances apart, in order to avoid 
 boundary disputes. Then each grazier had a tacit 
 though not a declared right to take his cattle up into 
 the Karoo, the next higher terrace, every year in the 
 rainy season for a change of pasture. When he 
 went he was accompanied by his whole family, who 
 lived for two or three months in a great tent waggon, 
 so that migratory habits were soon formed. 
 
 The result of this was a distaste for town or 
 village life, with its restraints, and a passionate at- 
 tachment to the freedom of semi-solitude. There 
 was no necessity for a grazier to cultivate the ground, 
 what grain he needed he could purchase more easily. 
 His gun provided his household with game in the 
 greatest variety, for hunting was his chief pleasure, 
 and the country swarmed with wild animals. Dried 
 meat, indeed, was the principal article of diet in 
 many households. Every year now saw an expan- 
 sion of the European settlement by men and women 
 with habits formed under these conditions, until 
 three decades before the close of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury the Fish River was reached on the east and the 
 highest ridge of the interior on the north. 
 
 This advance was not made, however, without en- 
 countering obstacles on the way. The Hottentots 
 after the war with Gonnema gave little or no trouble, 
 but the Bushmen proved themselves very active and 
 determined enemies. They seized every opportunity 
 of stealing and killing the graziers' cattle, and not 
 only attacked and murdered single individuals, but 
 even ventured to lay siege to the lonely dwellings 
 of the European intruders. Fortunately they were 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 55 
 
 not numerous within fifty miles from the coast, be- 
 cause the Hottentots, with whom they were per- 
 petually at war, had either driven out or destroyed 
 most of them there, but when the Karoo and par- 
 ticularly the country still farther inland was reached, 
 where no Hottentot had ever lived, too many were 
 found to make occupation easy. 
 
 It was necessary then for parties of from twenty 
 to a hundred colonists to unite and form what was 
 termed a commando, for the purpose of expelling 
 the savages. It excites pity to consider what this 
 meant, but there was really no other way of dealing 
 with a race so utterly irreclaimable as these South 
 African Bushmen. Efforts made by missionary 
 societies and benevolent individuals in later years to 
 induce them to adopt a settled mode of life have 
 always proved fruitless, so that the question was not 
 simply how they were to be treated, but whether 
 their right to the country was of such a nature that 
 civilised men ought not to enter it at all. The 
 colonists answered the question in the same way that 
 any other Europeans would have done, and as the 
 wild people could only advance the argument of the 
 poisoned arrow to that of the firelock, the conclusion 
 was not in their favour. During the whole of the 
 eighteenth century, however, they maintained the 
 struggle, and its close found them still defiant along 
 a great part of the mountain range from which on 
 one side the water courses to the Orange River and 
 on the other to the Indian Ocean. There they were 
 making their last stand, and at times it seemed a3 
 if they were not making it in vain. 
 
 The Hottentots offered no resistance to the Euro- 
 pean advance, because a calamity almost as fatal as 
 the war of extermination with the Bushmen had 
 
56 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 overtaken them. In IT 13 the smallpox made its 
 first appearance in South Africa. Its ravages 
 among the Europeans in Capetown were very great, 
 but among the Hottentot tribes within two hundred 
 miles of the capital they were appalling. A new 
 and unknown deadly disease attacking any people 
 without preparation for it is always terrible in its 
 destructiveness, and in the case of the Hottentots, 
 who lived in a state of filth without the simplest 
 sanitary precautions, there was every cause for it to 
 be particularly fatal. Whole kraals were swept 
 away, without a single individual remaining. The 
 very names of the tribes disappeared in the fatal 
 visitation. In the colonial records one reads no 
 more of feuds among them, or of powerful chiefs, or 
 wealthy clans, but of an abject and broken-spirited 
 remnant of a race, without tribal organisation, and 
 looking up to the white men as their natural masters. 
 Still by the government they were regarded as a free 
 and independent people, and in the courts of justice 
 no cognisance was taken of offences committed among 
 themselves. It was only when the interests of 
 Europeans were affected that they were made amen- 
 able to the Dutch laws. 
 
 The eastern tribes escaped the scourge, as it hap- 
 pened that they had no intercourse with the others 
 at the time, and were thus sufficiently isolated until 
 the summer heat destroyed the germs. But before 
 the advancing wave of colonists reached them, in 
 1755 the same disease was introduced again, and on 
 this occasion it spread to them and to the vanguard 
 of the Bantu as well, causing widespread and terrible 
 destruction of life. Every tribal title along the 
 southern coast now disappeared, and the land to the 
 Fish River was almost denuded of inhabitants and 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 57 
 
 lay open for occupation. In 1800 the Hottentots 
 who were left east of the Gamtoos River still spoke 
 their own language, but west of that stream the great 
 majority used Dutch, which shows how complete 
 the revolution in their condition had been. 
 
 In addition to the Bushmen, an obstacle to their 
 security that the colonists had to overcome was the 
 abundance of ravenous animals. The havoc wrought 
 by lions among their horses and horned cattle, and 
 by leopards, hyenas, and wild dogs so called among 
 their goats and sheep, was very considerable, and they 
 were not free from danger themselves. Owing to 
 this circumstance, as soon as a boy was able to carry 
 a gun he was taught how to use it, and no one 
 thought of moving about unarmed. The descendants 
 of Dutch gardeners and French vinedressers had be- 
 come the most expert horsemen and most accurate 
 marksmen in the world. They were so far from the 
 source of supply that they could not afford to throw 
 a single charge of powder away without hitting the 
 object aimed at; this was one of the precepts im- 
 pressed upon the lads. 
 
 Another circumstance that affected the character 
 of the colonists, and caused them to differ from their 
 kindred in Europe, was that they were slaveholders. 
 Only a few years after the arrival of Mr. Van Hie- 
 beek's party negro slaves were introduced from the 
 west coast of Africa, and from that time onward 
 they continued to be imported from Guinea, Mozam- 
 bique, and especially from Madagascar. It was a 
 grievous mistake that was thus made in admitting 
 negroes into a country adapted for Europeans, but in 
 doing so the Dutch only followed a custom then 
 universal. 
 
 Where there are slaves in any part of the world, 
 
58 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 their owners will do perhaps it would be more cor- 
 rect to say can do no manual labour. If they 
 were to attempt to do so they would be despised by 
 their inferiors, and all self-respect would speedily 
 disappear. In the presence of negro slavery the 
 South African colonists, like the planters in the 
 southern states of the American Union, ceased to 
 work with their hands, and became directors of the 
 labour of others. The same effect too was produced 
 in their households as in southern homes by the 
 presence of African female servants: the love of 
 tidiness and scrupulous cleanliness characteristic of 
 the housewife in the Netherlands in many cases dis- 
 appeared under the incessant strain of endeavour- 
 ing to get coloured domestics to view such matters as 
 if they had European eyes and noses. 
 
 But the presence of slaves had other effects than 
 these. It deepened the pride of blood in the colo- 
 nists, and helped to strengthen the feelings of self- 
 reliance which other causes were doing so much to 
 produce. It is not an exaggeration to say that it 
 created an aristocratic feeling in an unlettered class 
 of people, and gave them a code of honour they 
 would otherwise have been without. There were in- 
 deed among them many men of what would be 
 termed in Europe good birth, men who had been 
 officers in the Company's service and who had been 
 induced by the freedom and wild charm of life in 
 the interior, or perhaps by the charms of some coun- 
 try maiden, to become South African colonists. 
 Among the Huguenots also were several families con- 
 nected with the richest blood of France. But when 
 they once became farmers and burghers these dis- 
 tinctions disappeared, and it was only the existence 
 of slavery that preserved for their children, and 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 59 
 
 created for all the others, a feeling of pride that pre- 
 vented them from doing anything disgraceful in the 
 eyes of their dependents. They were the masters, 
 and on every occasion tried to make good their right 
 to he respected as superiors. 
 
 The slaves upon the whole were fairly and kindly 
 treated. There were exceptional cases certainly, in 
 which power was scandalously abused, but no slave 
 code in the world was milder than the Dutch. In 
 early times it even provided for the enfranchisement 
 of the negroes under extremely easy conditions, until 
 experience proved that it was thereby bringing into 
 being a class of worthless creatures. The free negro 
 would only work to provide himself with the barest 
 necessaries of life, he put nothing by, and in sick- 
 ness and old age depended wholly upon charity. 
 When this was ascertained by experience, the law was 
 modified so that no one could emancipate a slave who 
 was infirm without making provision for his main- 
 tenance, or any other without furnishing ample 
 security that he would not become a burden upon the 
 poor fund. Mulattos, however, retained their right 
 to freedom on coming of age, in virtue of their blood 
 on the father's side. Excessive punishment by 
 masters was not permitted, and when inflicted in dis- 
 regard of the law, the slave could claim to be sold to 
 some one else. 
 
 The slaves outnumbered the white population. A 1 
 great many were held in Capetown, where it was a 
 general custom for the best of them to pay their 
 masters a stipulated sum daily and keep for them- 
 selves whatever they could earn beyond that 
 amount. The labour on the wheat and wine farms 
 was entirely performed by slaves, but the graziers 
 owned very few, many of them indeed none at all. 
 
60 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Still another class of people had been introduced 
 by the East India Company, who sent from Batavia 
 a few hundred Javanese and natives of the farther 
 Indian islands, condemned by the courts of justice 
 for some crime either to perpetual slavery or to 
 servitude for a fixed number of years. As the Cape 
 was a place of banishment for Indian political pris- 
 oners, who were often accompanied by a troop of at- 
 tendants, male and female, the Javanese slaves, when 
 they acquired their liberty, were at once absorbed 
 by a community distinct from all the others in the 
 country. In religion these Indians were Mohame- 
 dans, as their descendants, the so-called Cape 
 Malays, are at the present day. They were high 
 above the negroes in intellect, and were employed 
 chiefly as mechanics in Capetown and as fishermen. 
 
 The colonists who became graziers and moved out 
 into the wilds took their bibles and psalmbooks with 
 them, but, of necessity at first and afterwards by 
 choice, they were without other literature. There 
 were no schools beyond the first range of mountains, 
 and the only education children received was from 
 discharged soldiers, who itinerated among the fam- 
 ilies that employed them, and taught their pupils 
 to repeat the Catechism, to read the Bible, and to 
 write a letter in a way. Of history, geography, 
 arithmetic, or indeed any other subject in which in- 
 struction is usually given in primary schools, they 
 were quite ignorant. The wheat and wine farmers 
 were better off in this respect, for as they lived close 
 to each other they could unite and engage better 
 teachers, besides which some of them could make 
 use of the church schools, after the middle of the 
 eighteenth century four in number, at Stellenbosch, 
 Paarl, Zwartland, and Eoodezand. In Capetown a 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 61 
 
 school was established before the close of the cen- 
 tury in which the Latin and French languages were 
 taught, and it was customary with those who could 
 afford it to send their sons to Europe to be educated 
 at Leiden or Utrecht. 
 
 The different nationalities of the European popu- 
 lation had become thoroughly fused. A man with 
 a French name might really have less French blood 
 in his veins than his neighbour with a Dutch name, 
 so well had intermarriage done its work. The char- 
 acteristics of the Netherlands predominated, par- 
 ticularly in ithe great influence of women in all 
 matters, public or domestic. The language they used 
 was Dutch, modified by the necessity of speaking in 
 the simplest way to the coloured people. A few 
 foreign words, Portuguese, Indian, and Hottentot, 
 had been introduced, but a much greater change had 
 been effected by shortening words through striking 
 off final syllables and dispensing with grammatical 
 rules. The article and the adjective had lost their 
 inflections both for number and gender, and the verb 
 was greatly simplified. The tone of voice, also, 
 owing probably to the difference of climate, had lost 
 the harshness observable in Europe. The Dutch 
 Bible, however, remained understood, and its lan- 
 guage was the language of the pulpit and the courts 
 of law. 
 
 In the supreme government of the country the 
 colonists had no part whatever. There was a gov- 
 ernor appointed by the East India Company, who 
 was assisted by a council composed of the eight 
 officials of highest rank in the service. All the 
 minor boards, of which there were several for differ- 
 ent purposes, were dependent upon the governor 
 and council. These boards, such as the orphan 
 
62 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 chamber, the petty court of justice in Capetown, 
 the council of militia, the heemraden, and the con- 
 sistories, were self -perpetuating corporations in 
 which the members who retired yearly were replaced 
 from a double list of names sent to the supreme au- 
 thorities for selection. There was a high court of 
 justice, consisting of six servants of the Company 
 and six burghers, the last named being appointed in 
 the manner above described. 
 
 The whole of the vast territory occupied by Euro- 
 peans was divided into four districts, the Cape, 
 Stellenbosch, Swellendam, and Graaff-Reinet. In 
 each of the three last named there was a magistrate 
 termed a landdrost, who was assisted in important 
 matters by a board of assessors selected from the 
 burghers, and termed heemraden. Taxation was not 
 very heavy, if there had been an adequate return for 
 it, but the burghers complained that nothing what- 
 ever was done for the improvement of the country, 
 and that their money was spent by the Company 
 for its benefit, not theirs. 
 
 The civil servants were paid chiefly by fees and 
 perquisites, and in consequence corruption was gen- 
 eral. The Company was the sole wholesale mer- 
 chant during the greater part of the century, and 
 fixed its own prices not only upon what it disposed 
 of but upon what it bought. The right of retail- 
 ing many articles was sold as a monopoly to the high- 
 est bidder. Thus the colonists had substantial 
 grievances, and they were not the men to submit 
 quietly to what they regarded as oppression or wrong. 
 
 In the early years of the century they had ap- 
 pealed to the authorities in Holland against the 
 tyranny of a governor who was abusing his office, 
 and they had succeeded in obtaining the redress 
 
THE DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 63 
 
 they prayed for. At that time the East India 
 Company had powerful opposition in the states gene- 
 ral to contend with, and the directors were therefore 
 very careful to do nothing that would give their ad- 
 versaries a weapon to use against them. Oppression 
 of its subjects of European blood would have been 
 such a weapon, so they wisely dismissed the govern- 
 or and his associates, and adjusted the complaints 
 brought before them. The watchful eye upon the 
 Company's doings kept by the states general was 
 thus a security to the colonists against misgovern- 
 ment. 
 
 But after the war between England and Holland 
 at the time of the American Revolution this security 
 ceased to exist. In that war the Dutch East India 
 Company lost very heavily, many of its best ships 
 with cargoes of great value were seized, four of them 
 in a South African port, where another was burnt to 
 prevent her capture; and this, added to the corrup- 
 tion of officials abroad, brought the once wealthy and 
 powerful association to the verge of insolvency. The 
 efforts of the states general were now directed to 
 the prevention of its fall, which would be a serious 
 disaster to the country, and when shortly afterwards 
 delegates from the Cape arrived with a series of 
 charges against the government they failed in obtain- 
 ing anything that could be considered satisfactory. 
 
 Matters then went from bad to worse. Fresh 
 taxes were levied, and above all inconvertible paper 
 money, without any security whatever except the 
 good faith of the Company to redeem it as soon as 
 possible, was forced into circulation to the extent of 
 over one million two hundred and sixty thousand 
 dollars, of which about half was created as capital 
 for a bank, to be lent to burghers on mortgage of 
 
C4 ruocjuFss OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 property, HO that its interest would swell tho revenue. 
 The introduction of this paper, which \vas declared 
 to bo a legal tender, drove silver and gold out of cir- 
 culation, and reduced tho commerce of the country 
 to the condition of barter. Tho troops in Capetown 
 wero paid with it, and were in consequence half 
 mutinous. The, fanners who wero obliged to soil 
 their cattle, their grain, and their wine, and to tako 
 it in return, were not less disaffected. 
 
 The eastern graziers had another, and to them 
 still more serious grievance. In 1779 tho colony 
 was invaded by several I {antu clans, who crossed 
 the Fish River without warning and spread them- 
 selves over u considerable extent of territory. They 
 were not very powerful, however, and two years later 
 tho burghers, who were led by a man of ability in 
 sneh warfare, named Adriaan van .laarsveld, suc- 
 ceeded in driving them nil back again. 
 
 In March, l7Si), u much mom formidable body 
 crossed the boundary the second time, though their 
 chiefs had promised to respect it, and took forcible 
 possession of the country as far as the Bushman's 
 River, which the colonists were compelled to aban- 
 don. Tho government, afraid of incur ring expense by 
 being forced to assist its subjects, sent a commis- 
 sion to induce tho invaders to retire by making them 
 presents, and when this failed, consented to their re- 
 maining whore they wore for a time. They then 
 sent parties out to steal cattle, and this continued 
 until May, 171K'{, when a band of exasperated bur- 
 ghers attacked one of their kraals in reprisal. A 
 IV w days later the whole- I {until invading force was 
 in motion, and swept over the country to Algoa Hay, 
 burning the homesteads, driving oil' the cattle, and 
 murdering all who could not escape. 
 
TIIK DUTCH IN SOUTH AFRICA. 65 
 
 A largo commando now assembled, which the gov- 
 ernment placed under the direction of a man whose 
 sympathies wero with the enemy, and in whom tho 
 colonists had no confidence whatever. The school of 
 thought, of which Rousseau was tho chief teacher, 
 which made simplicity, truthfulness, and purity attri- 
 butes of barbarian life, had naturally very few adher- 
 ents in South Africa, where people formed their opin- 
 ions from experience; but by some perversity of mind 
 Mr. Honoratus Maynier, who) otherwise was a clever 
 man, had adopted these views, and on every possible 
 occasion acted in accordance with them. Tho 
 graziers affirmed that their cattle had been driven 
 over tho Fish River and given into tho care of a pow- 
 erful chief while tho marauders continued to plunder. 
 The evidence they produced was overwhelming, 
 l)i it Ndlambo, the chief in question, affirmed that 
 he was a friend of tho white man, and denied having 
 the cattle. Mr. Maynier, who believed a Kaffir to 
 be incapable of falsehood and deception, was satis- 
 fied with this assurance, and thus tho campaign from 
 the first was doomed to failure. 
 
 There was some marching backward and forward, 
 which under tho circumstances was perfectly useless, 
 and then Mr. Maynier, with tho assistance of several 
 persons sent by tho government for tho purpose, con- 
 cluded an arrangement with the chiefs of the intrud- 
 ing clans by which they were permitted to occupy tho 
 territory along the coast between the Fish and Bush- 
 in a u's rivers until it should bo convenient for them 
 to return to their own country. They were to re- 
 store all tho plundered cattle then in their posses- 
 sion, but as they had taken care to place these in 
 NdlambeAs keeping beyond the boundary, very few 
 were ever recovered. This was in November, 1793, 
 
 u 
 
66 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and it destroyed the last thread that attached the 
 graziers to the East India Company. 
 
 In February, 1795, a number of the inhabitants 
 of Graaff-Reinet assembled at the seat of magistracy, 
 and expelled Mr. Maynier, who was landdrost. The 
 government at Capetown attempted to negotiate with 
 them, but to no effect, and they set about forming 
 an independent administration of their own. Be- 
 ing without protection, they declared, they would no 
 longer yield obedience or pay taxes to the East In- 
 dia Company. They elected Adriaan van Jaars- 
 veld to be their military leader. 
 
 The people of the district of Swellendam followed 
 the example of those of Graaff-E-einet. They too 
 ejected their landdrost, and established an independ- 
 ent government with a body of elected representa- 
 tives dignified with the title of the National Con- 
 vention. A burgher named Jacobus Delport was 
 elected military leader. When it is remembered 
 that the whole European population of the colony 
 at this time did not exceed twenty thousand, and 
 that less than half of these were resident in the two 
 revolted districts, such proceedings seem almost ludic- 
 rous. But so weak was the government that it was 
 unable to recover its authority, more especially as 
 at that time it had to meet the attack of a foreign 
 enemy. 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. (57 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF THE CAPE COLONY. 
 
 THE preceding chapters have been written for 
 the purpose of defining the exact position of the 
 various inhabitants of South Africa at the com- 
 mencement of the nineteenth century, and in this 
 manner to fix with certainty a point from which the 
 progress of the country in later years can be meas- 
 ured. The word ' progress ' is capable of different 
 interpretations, so it will be well to explain the pre- 
 cise signification it will have in these pages. Mainly 
 then it will mean 
 
 The increase in number of the civilised inhab- 
 itants, 
 Their advancement in character, morality, and 
 
 education, 
 The increase of wealth and of commerce with 
 
 other people beyond the sea, 
 
 The improvement of internal and external com- 
 munication, 
 
 The amelioration of the form of government, 
 The extension of civilised authority over the 
 
 native tribes, and 
 
 The raising of those people to a sphere of useful- 
 ness. 
 
 With the exception of what is implied in the first 
 of these definitions, there was a very poor prospect 
 before South Africa at the time to which events have 
 
68 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 now been brought. The Dutch East India Company 
 was insolvent, and was with the greatest diffi- 
 culty bolstered up by the State until some way could 
 be devised of winding up its affairs without ruinous 
 consequences. Its promissory notes for the paper 
 money was nothing else constituted the only circu- 
 lating medium in the Cape Colony. A considerable 
 portion of the territory claimed and once occupied 
 by white people was in possession of barbarian in- 
 vaders. Nearly half of the burghers were in open 
 rebellion, and the remainder were almost equally 
 disaffected. A military force of a few hundred 
 men was all that could be supplied for the protec- 
 tion of Capetown, and most of these were foreign 
 mercenaries whose fidelity could not be depended 
 upon. 
 
 In Europe, Great Britain and the new French re- 
 public were at war. In the Netherlands there were 
 two factions bitterly opposed to each other: one ad- 
 hering to the stadholder and in favour of alliance 
 with England, the other in favour of a democratic 
 government and alliance with France. The entrance 
 of a strong French army into the Dutch provinces 
 during the severe winter of 17" 9 4-5, when the rivers 
 were all hard frozen and the whole territory was like 
 a highway, settled the dispute. The democratic, or 
 patriot party as it was called, welcomed the invad- 
 ers and established a government to its liking; the 
 stadholder and a few of his friends fled to England, 
 and the Orange party was utterly overthrown. 
 
 A British expedition was at once prepared to seize 
 the Cape and prevent it from being occupied by the 
 French or their allies the patriot Dutch. Its posi- 
 tion in a strategical point of view was so important, 
 commanding as it did the ocean road to the East, 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 9 
 
 that both the great combatants recognised in it the 
 key of India. British naval supremacy, it must be 
 remembered, was not then assured, thus it was a ques- 
 tion of the utmost importance who should first appear 
 in Table Bay. 
 
 So urgent was this matter deemed that a strong 
 squadron of ships of war under Admiral Sir George 
 Keith Elphinstone was hurried away with only a 
 single regiment of soldiers on board, while the neces- 
 sary preparations were being made to despatch a 
 more competent land force under Major-General 
 Alured Clarke. In June, 1795, the British fleet ar- 
 rived in Simon's Bay. Admiral Elphinstone and 
 Major-General Craig at once invited the Cape gov- 
 ernment to receive them as friends whose only desire 
 was to assist in the defence of the colony against the 
 French, and they produced a mandate from the fugi- 
 tive stadholder to that effect. 
 
 Mr. Sluysken, who was at the head of the governr 
 ment, hardly knew what to do. He and all the mem- 
 bers of the council were warm adherents of the 
 Orange party, but they felt that they could not con- 
 sistently with their duty obey the commands of a 
 prince who was in exile, and who issued his instruc- 
 tions in a foreign country. They did not know the 
 condition of affairs in the Netherlands, and the Brit- 
 ish officers merely informed them that the French 
 had conquered the country and were oppressing it 
 grievously. So they tried to temporise until a 
 Dutch ship should arrive with accurate intelligence. 
 They professed to be friendly, and ordered provi- 
 sions to be supplied, but declined to receive the 
 troops. 
 
 The British officers then appealed to the burghers. 
 They stated that the colony would only be occupied 
 
70 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 until the ancient government of the stadholder was 
 restored in Holland, that immense preparations were 
 being made in Europe to expel the French and re- 
 establish the legitimate authority, that there was 
 every prospect of those efforts being successful, that 
 in the meantime England could not run the risk of 
 seeing her enemy and the stadholder's in possession 
 of the Cape, and that it would be much better for the 
 colonists to receive them as friends than to await 
 General Clarke's arrival and an occupation by force 
 of arms. They drew a picture also of what would 
 happen if the French were to obtain possession, when 
 their slaves would be set free, and the same dreadful 
 scenes would be witnessed that had followed the 
 emancipation in St. Domingo and Guadeloupe. Fur- 
 ther, many commercial and other advantages were 
 promised if they would unite with the English 
 cause. 
 
 But the burghers, though disaffected towards their 
 own government, were averse to submitting them- 
 selves and their country to foreign control. They 
 repaired to Capetown in considerable numbers with 
 arms in their hands, prepared to aid in preventing 
 the British forces from obtaining possession of the 
 capital. Even the republic of Swellendam, while 
 asserting its claim to freedom from the misrule of 
 the East India Company, sent a contingent under 
 Commandant Jacobus Delport to Mr. Sluysken's 
 assistance. The sister republic of Graaff-Reinet, 
 however, held aloof. There the suffering from the 
 Kaffir invasion had been so great that reconcilia- 
 tion was not thought of, and the burghers vainly 
 imagined that they could maintain their independ- 
 ence no matter what happened elsewhere. 
 
 The appeal by the Britkh officers to the burghers 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. fl 
 
 caused the government to alter its tone and talk 
 bravely of resistance, though neither the commander 
 of the troops nor the principal members of the coun- 
 cil had any real intention of opposing the declared 
 friends of the Prince of Orange. Simonstown was 
 evacuated by the Dutch troops and most of the in- 
 habitants, and was immediately occupied by the 
 British. A camp was formed by the Dutch at Muiz- 
 enburg, a very strong position on the road to 
 Capetown, and then for several weeks nothing more 
 was done on either side. 
 
 On the 7th of August General Craig with the sol- 
 diers, the marines of the fleet, and a large party 
 of seamen marched to Muizenburg. Lieutenant 
 Colonel De Lille, who was in command of the post, 
 would not resist, but retired with the greater number 
 of the regular troops, and the burghers with the few 
 artillerymen who were left were swept away by the 
 English charge. General Craig then took possession 
 of the Dutch camp and stores, and two days later 
 was reinforced by a few hundred soldiers from St. 
 Helena. At this place he remained until the arrival 
 of General Clarke on the 4th of September with three 
 thousand troops. 
 
 As soon as these were landed the whole force 
 moved on Capetown, meeting with very little re- 
 sistance on the way except from the burghers, who 
 were unable anywhere to make a firm stand. A few 
 miles from their destination a flag of truce was met, 
 with an offer of capitulation, arid liberal terms being 
 conceded, on the 16th of September, 1795, the colony 
 was surrendered, and the dominion of the Dutch 
 East India Company was a thing of the past 
 
 Conquest such as this, however, did not give the 
 victors a right to disturb existing institutions. Bo- 
 
Y2 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 sides the terms of the capitulation, which guaranteed 
 to the burghers all their former rights and privileges, 
 international custom required that as few changes as 
 possible should be made until the position of the 
 country was settled on the conclusion of peace. 
 Progress therefore on any extensive scale must not 
 be looked for at this period. 
 
 The only alteration that the form of government 
 underwent was that a single individual holding 
 the king's commission as governor took the place of 
 the governor and council of former times. His 
 proclamations had the force of laws, and his authority 
 was only restrained by the necessity of reporting 
 everything that he did to the secretary of state. 
 Nearly all the high offices were now filled by English- 
 men with large salaries, but places were found for 
 those members of the old council who professed 
 strong attachment to the British cause. Colonel Do 
 Lille also was rewarded with an office, and most of 
 the soldiers whom he had commanded willingly put 
 on British uniforms. So strong was party feeling 
 between the Orange and patriot factions, that the 
 gentlemen referred to felt no loss of honour in thus 
 serving a government which was at war with their 
 fatherland. From the soldiers, who were chiefly 
 German mercenaries paid in irredeemable paper, 
 nothing else could reasonably have been expected. 
 
 The paper money had been a cause of great anxiety 
 to the colonists, as of course it would cease to have 
 any value as soon as the East India Company fell, 
 if no arrangement could be made regarding it. The 
 British officers had therefore admitted an article in 
 the terms of capitulation, by which all the lands and 
 buildings belonging to the Company were pledged 
 as security for its redemption. This would not have 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 73 
 
 availed much, however, as forts and public buildings 
 could not be sold, but as the new authorities received 
 the paper at its face value for taxes and all other 
 payments, it continued current, and the apprehen- 
 sions regarding it passed away. Major-General 
 Craig, indeed, who was in command until Lord Mac- 
 artney, the first English governor, arrived, find- 
 ing himself in want of money, issued similar paper 
 to the amount of a quarter of a million dollars, with- 
 out any one objecting to it. 
 
 What changes were made in the method of admin- 
 istration at the beginning of this period were un- 
 questionably improvements. The most obnoxious of 
 the monopolies were done away with, a very provok- 
 ing stamp tax on auction sale accounts was removed, 
 and a popular board, termed the burgher senate, was 
 created to perform municipal duties in Capetown 
 which had previously been entrusted to a mixed body 
 of burghers and civil servants. Shortly afterwards 
 Lord Macartney purified the civil service greatly by 
 attaching fair salaries to the various offices, and re- 
 quiring all fees and perquisites excepting in speci- 
 fied cases to be paid into the public treasury. The 
 large military and naval force employed at the Cape 
 furnished an excellent market, so that the people 
 would have had cause for satisfaction with the 
 change that had taken place, had it not been for other 
 circumstan ces. 
 
 When the government in Capetown capitulated, 
 the district of Stellenbosch submitted at once to the 
 British authorities, and shortly afterwards 'the re- 
 public of Swellendam made its peace also. The 
 national convention retired of its own accord, and 
 was replaced by the old district board of landdrost 
 and heemraden. This was brought about by prom- 
 
?4 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ises on the part of the British authorities to redress 
 all grievances, and to establish such freedom of trade 
 combined with personal liberty that general prosper- 
 ity would be the result. The republic of Graaff- 
 Reinet alone declined to submit. When General 
 Craig sent Captain Bresler, who had been an officer 
 in De Lille's regiment, there as landdrost, the 
 people refused to receive him, and announced that 
 they were determined to maintain their independ- 
 ence. 
 
 Circumstances changed, however, when an expedi- 
 tion sent from Holland to act against vthe English 
 in the East fell into the hands of its opponents. It 
 was commanded by Rear-Admiral Lucas, a man of 
 no ability at all, who was appointed solely on -the 
 ground of his being an enthusiastic patriot. He 
 put to sea with eight ships-of-war and an armed 
 victualler carrying German troops who had been 
 prisoners to the French. It was understood that he 
 would be joined by a Erench squadron before reach- 
 ing the Cape, but no place or date of meeting was 
 agreed upon, everything being left to chance. The 
 Erench arrived first, and without waiting for their 
 allies kept on their course to Mauritius. 
 
 On the 6th of August, 1Y96, Admiral Lucas put 
 into Saldanha Bay, with the expectation that the 
 colonists would rise and join him. There was no 
 possibility of their doing so, and finding himself dis- 
 appointed, he made ready to sail on the 16th for 
 Mauritius. On that day, however, he found himself 
 between a much more powerful fleet under Admiral 
 Elphinstone and a strong army under General Craig 
 drawn up on the shore of the bay. He was informed 
 that he must surrender unconditionally, and as there 
 was no way of escape he did so. The ships were 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 75 
 
 added to the British fleet, the soldiers on board en- 
 listed for duty in India, and most of the sailors en- 
 tered the British service. The English officers could 
 refer to the matter afterwards with truth as the 
 arrival of Admiral Lucas with a reinforcement of 
 ships and a fine body of recruits, who were much 
 needed. 
 
 When this event was made known to the burghers 
 in Graaff-Reinet, and that troops were about to 
 march against them, they thought it would be the 
 wisest course to submit, consequently when the land- 
 drost Bresler was sent there the second time they 
 received him with a fair amount of cordiality, and 
 the administration of the independent republic was 
 dissolved. Many of the graziers, however, par- 
 ticularly those who had suffered most from the Kaffir 
 invasion, were only waiting a favourable opportu- 
 nity to free themselves from outside interference 
 again, and were confidently looking for aid from 
 Java, whither one of their party a man named 
 Woyer had gone. Woyer did not succeed in ob- 
 taining French assistance, as he had hoped, but a 
 small vessel laden with military and other stores was 
 sent from Batavia, upon his representations. It was 
 intended that her cargo should be landed at Algoa 
 Bay, then an almost unfrequented place, within 
 easy reach of the graziers. The vessel met with 
 heavy weather at sea, was obliged to put into Dela- 
 goa Bay to refit, and was seized there by the crew of 
 an English ship aided by a few Portuguese. Thus 
 all chance of a successful rising at that time came to 
 an end. 
 
 Lord Macartney, the first English governor, was a 
 man of great force of character, and as he was sup- 
 ported by a strong army and navy, his administra- 
 
76 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 tion, which was free from the slightest taint of cor- 
 ruption, commanded general respect. But he had 
 almost a horror of republican principles, and his 
 hand was heavy upon all who were suspected of hold- 
 ing them. He required every man in the country to 
 take an oath of allegiance to the ting of England, 
 Under penalty of immediate banishment, and did not 
 hesitate to quarter dragoons upon those who were in 
 any way incautious in speech or conduct. A few in- 
 dividuals tried to evade taking the required oath, 
 among them the former republican commandant of 
 SweUendam, Jacobus Delport, who managed to keep 
 in hiding for some months, but who was eventually 
 apprehended and sent into exile. Being in ill- 
 health, the governor sailed for England in November, 
 1798, leaving Major-General Dundas to act as head 
 of the administration until a successor could be sent 
 out. 
 
 At this period events in India required the army 
 and navy !to be strengthened rapidly, and the Cape 
 was nearly denuded of soldiers and ships to meet the 
 demand. A great fire in Capetown, which destroyed 
 the commissariat magazines and stores, further weak- 
 ened the hand of the government. The graziers who 
 formed the extreme republican party in Graaff- 
 Reinet, about one-third of the whole number, re- 
 garded the opportunity as favourable for rising. 
 Communications were opened by their friends in 
 Capetown with the French at Mauritius, and prepara- 
 tions for revolt were being made, when an accident 
 precipitated their measures. The old commandant 
 Adriaan van Jaarsveld was arrested on a summons 
 from the high court of justice in Capetown to answer 
 to a charge of having committed forgery, and was 
 Bent away from the seat of magistracy in a waggon 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 77 
 
 escorted by a few dragoons. A general amnesty for 
 all past political offences had been granted by the 
 government, but the graziers believed that the real 
 cause of Van Jaarsveld's arrest was the part he had 
 taken in former years, and that he would be banished 
 as the other republican commandant Jacobus Delport 
 had been. A number of them assembled hastily, 
 followed the waggon, and rescued the prisoner, after 
 which they set about preparing to oppose any force 
 that might be sent against them. 
 
 Upon tidings of the revolt reaching Capetown, 
 General Dundas at once despatched as many sol- 
 diers as he could spare to suppress it. With them, 
 most unfortunately, he sent the greater part of a 
 Hottentot corps that had been raised by General 
 Craig and was maintained in the British service. 
 Hottentots had been enlisted and drilled by the Dutch 
 East India Company twenty years earlier, and they 
 had formed part of the garrison in 1795. Whether 
 it was justifiable to use them as auxiliaries, with 
 a much larger body of European troops, to Qppose 
 invaders, need not be discussed here; that it was at 
 least imprudent in the highest degree to employ them 
 as the principal part of an expeditionary force 
 against a couple of hundred rebellious colonists is 
 not open to doubt. There was hardly a white man 
 in the country that was not shocked and exasperated 
 by it. 
 
 The pandours, as these soldiers were commonly 
 called, no sooner made their appearance in the dis- 
 trict of Graaff-Reinet, than their countrymen, be- 
 lieving the war to be one between Hottentots and 
 white people, rose in a body and commenced plunder- 
 ing the graziers on all sides. The first effect of this 
 was that the rebel Europeans were paralysed. They 
 
78 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 could not keep the field while their families were in 
 such danger, so, with the exception of a few lawless 
 characters among them who fled into the Kaffir coun- 
 try, they laid down their arms and surrendered. 
 Eighteen were selected and sent to Capetown to be 
 tried for high treason, and the others were fined on 
 the spot and then released. Meantime one French 
 frigate bringing volunteers from Mauritius to assist 
 them was captured at sea, and another that reached 
 [Algoa Bay soon afterwards was beaten off by Eng- 
 lish ships that happened to be at anchor there. Of 
 the prisoners sent to Capetown two were sentenced 
 to death, and most of the others to very severe pun- 
 ishments, but these sentences were not carried out. 
 They were confined in prison, where they remained 
 four years, when a change of government took place, 
 and they were restored to liberty. 
 
 What was now to be done with regard to the Hot- 
 tentots ? They had come to the British camp dressed 
 in plundered clothes, carrying plundered guns and 
 ammunition, and bringing with them spoil of all 
 kinds, in the belief that they would be regarded as 
 having acted meritoriously. The officer in command 
 resolved to disarm them and let them go wherever 
 they chose, but as soon as they became aware of this 
 they fled and commenced war against the English as 
 well as the Dutch. 
 
 To make matters worse, a great additional horde 
 of Bantu at this eventful moment came streaming 
 over the Eish River into the colony. The chief 
 !N"dlambe and his nephew Gaika were at war, the 
 former had been beaten, and was fleeing with his 
 adherents beyond reach of his enemy's assagais. A 
 general coalition took place between the new in- 
 vaders, the Bantu previously in the colony, and the 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. 79 
 
 Hottentots, when strong plundering bands were sent 
 out and the country was laid waste far beyond Algoa 
 Bay. Some of the white women and children who 
 could not escape in time were spared, but others with 
 every grown up male that was overtaken were mur- 
 dered. When endeavouring to reach Algoa Bay the 
 little British force was fiercely attacked, but man- 
 aged to cut its way through with the loss of sixteen 
 men. 
 
 The farmers of the other districts were now called 
 upon to take the field, and General Dundas himself 
 hurried to the front with all the troops he could 
 muster. He took Mr. Honoratus Maynier with 
 him also, in case there should be an opportunity to 
 negotiate with the enemy, for if it was possible by 
 any means to put an end to the disturbances without 
 further fighting he was determined to do it. English 
 money and English troops were, in his opinion, too 
 much needed elsewhere to be thrown away in a war 
 with barbarians for the sake of a colony that might 
 not be retained beyond the conclusion of peace in 
 Europe. When he reached the scene of action the 
 burghers were there ready to drive the whole horde 
 over the boundary, but needing supplies and a forti- 
 fied base to work from. The Kaffirs and Hottentots 
 were quarrelling over the division of the spoil, and 
 there was nothing more left within their reach to 
 plunder. 
 
 Surely the wrong course was adopted when, in- 
 stead of giving the word to advance, General 
 Dundas sent Mr. Maynier to the chiefs to propose 
 terms of settlement. It needed some nerve to 
 undertake a mission like that, but Maynier was no 
 coward, and he felt that his reputation as regarded 
 the views which he held was at stake. He went 
 
80 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 therefore on his mission, and as he offered the chiefs 
 all the fruits of victory, they agreed to his proposals. 
 They, Kaffirs and Hottentots, were to remain where 
 they were, and neither party was thereafter to 
 molest the other. Some presents were then deliv- 
 ered, and the envoy returned in triumph to the 
 British camp, announcing the conclusion of peace. 
 
 The colonists were indignant, but were powerless 
 in the matter. A few white soldiers and some pan- 
 dours were sent to the village of Graaff-Reinet to pro- 
 tect the landdrost, and a fort was built on the shore 
 of Algoa Bay and garrisoned; the remainder of the 
 troops returned to Capetown. General Dundas him- 
 self subsequently described the proceeding as not so 
 much a conclusion of peace as a withdrawal from war. 
 Mr. Maynier was left behind as commissioner, with 
 very extensive authority over the districts of Graaff- 
 Reinet and Swellendam. Is it a matter for wonder 
 that the frontier colonists, many of whom were now 
 so impoverished that they were dependent upon 
 game alone for food for their children, and who were 
 mourning for their murdered relatives, should have 
 felt a deadly hatred towards the commissioner and 
 the government that employed him? 
 
 In December, 1799, Sir George Yonge arrived 
 from England as governor. He was not possessed 
 of either sound judgment or moderate ability, and no 
 one has ever been able to ascertain how he came to 
 be entrusted with an office of such importance. 
 He allowed himself to be guided entirely by a 
 couple of unscrupulous favourites, who exacted a 
 price for every kind of patronage he had to bestow. 
 With nearly the whole of the heads of departments 
 he was not on speaking terms outside of office, and 
 his administration was regarded by honest men, 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. gl 
 
 English and Dutch, with aversion mingled with con- 
 tempt. At length so many complaints, supported 
 by incontestable proofs, reached England that he was 
 dismissed, andin April, 1801, General Dundas again 
 became acting governor. A commission was ap- 
 pointed to enquire into Sir George Yonge's conduct, 
 when corruption of a scandalous kind, unparalleled 
 at any previous period of the colony's history, was 
 brought to light. It was proved to the hilt that the 
 two favourites had thoroughly shaken the pagoda 
 tree, but whether they kept the whole fruit for them- 
 selves or shared it with their patron could not be 
 ascertained. 
 
 From this date until the end of the first British 
 occupation nothing of importance occurred except 
 in the unhappy district of Graaff-Reinet. There the 
 colonists, subject to incessant depredations and out- 
 rages from the Kaffirs and Hottentots and finding 
 the commissioner Maynier invariably taking the part 
 of the barbarians) were at length goaded into utter 
 desperation, and again rose in revolt. There was 
 a very strong force in Capetown when this occurred, 
 so General Dundas had no difficulty in sending three 
 hundred soldiers under Major Sherlock to the front, 
 and as many of the best men in the country were im- 
 ploring that Mr. Maynier should be recalled, he 
 acceded to their entreaties. 
 
 Major Sherlock arrived at the seat of magistracy 
 in November, 1801, and found it closely invested 
 by the burghers, but by this time he had ascertained 
 the cause of the commotion. He therefore offered 
 full pardon to all who would return to their alle- 
 giance, with a promise of redress of grievances, and 
 an announcement that Mr. Maynier was no longer 
 
 H 
 
82 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 in authority. The insurgents upon this dispersed 
 at once, and the insurrection was over. 
 
 The government now made an attempt to reduce 
 the marauding Hottentots to order. A tract of land 
 near Algoa Bay was selected, and an offer was made 
 to them that if they would go to reside there under 
 the guidance of the Reverend Dr. Vanderkemp, the 
 pioneer missionary of the London Society, they would 
 be provided with food for several months and seed 
 and implements for cultivating the ground. At the 
 same time some burghers of Swellendam were 
 called out to assist in punishing those who would not 
 consent to this arrangement. The way the Hottenr 
 tots complied was by sending a few hundred of their 
 women and children to the location, and remaining 
 at large themselves. 
 
 The assembled burghers therefore attacked one of 
 their strongholds, but met with no success. A 
 much larger number were then called to arms, and 
 as the Kaffirs were at that moment particularly 
 active in their depredations, it was necessary to at- 
 tack them also. During several weeks the colonists 
 were victors in every skirmish, and recovered over 
 thirteen thousand head of their cattle, but on the 
 8th of August, 1802, their leader, a brave and able 
 man named Tjaart van der Walt, was killed in an en- 
 gagement. This loss disheartened them, and they 
 dispersed immediately afterwards. The Kaffirs 
 and Hottentots then had everything their own way. 
 They swept over the country westward as far as the 
 present village of George, pillaging, burning, and 
 murdering all who could not make good their 
 escape. 
 
 General Dundas could give the colonists no as- 
 sistance. On the 27th of March, 1802, the treaty of 
 
FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION. $3 
 
 Amiens, which gave a short truce to the belligerents 
 in Europe, was signed, and one of its conditions was 
 that the Cape Colony was to be restored to the 
 Batavian Republic, as Holland was then termed. 
 In consequence of this the acting governor was col- 
 lecting his troops at Capetown preparatory to their 
 embarkation, and the village of Graaff-Reinet and 
 Fort Frederick at Algoa Bay had to be abandoned. 
 The fighting force of the whole of the country dis- 
 tricts was, however, again called out and sent to the 
 front. By this time the marauders had retired to 
 the left bank of the Sunday River, and having 
 secured all the spoil that was obtainable, professed 
 a desire for peace. The Kaffirs offered to return to 
 their own country as soon as they could, and the Hot- 
 tentots offered to abstain from vagrancy, on condi- 
 tion of not being molested. The burghers, being 
 almost without military supplies, and hoping for as- 
 sistance from the new government, agreed to these 
 terms on the 20th of February, 1803, the very day 
 on which the transfer of the colony was effected, 
 and the commando at once dispersed. 
 
 In December, 1802, the Batavian officials with 
 some troops arrived at Capetown, and it was arranged 
 that the colony should be formally restored in the 
 evening of the 31st. Every preparation was accord- 
 ingly made, most of the English soldiers were sent 
 away, and the accounts were nearly all closed, when 
 at noon on that day a sloop-of-war arrived with in- 
 structions to General Dundas to delay the transfer. 
 Had her passage been ten hours longer she would 
 have been too late. As it happened, the British force 
 was still stronger than the Batavian, so no other re- 
 sistance than a protest could be made to the orders 
 from England being carried out. Matters remained 
 
84 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 in suspense until the 19th of February, 1803, when 
 further instructions were received to complete the 
 transfer. This was accordingly done on the follow- 
 ing morning, and the Dutch flag was again the sym- 
 bol of authority in the Cape Colony. 
 
THE RULE OF THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. 85 
 
 CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 THE RULE OF THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 THE government of the Batavian Republic was as 
 different from that of the Dutch East India Com- 
 pany as light is from darkness. One had in view 
 the benefit of a distant commercial association, the 
 other the development of the country for its own 
 advantage as well as for that of the fatherland. The 
 colony was now a national possession, was to be 
 fostered as such, and was to be treated with the 
 greatest liberality. Two men of the highest char- 
 acter and ability were sent out: one, Mr. Jacob 
 Abraham de Mist, an advocate, with the title of com- 
 missioner-general, to receive the country from the 
 British officials and to make provisional arrange- 
 ments for its administration, which were afterwards 
 to form the basis of a charter; the other, Lieuten- 
 ant-General Jan Willem Janssens, to be governor 
 and commander-in-chief of the garrison. 
 
 The governor was assisted by a council of four 
 members, of whom it was provided that at least one 
 should always be a native of the colony. This was 
 certainly not much, but it was something, especially 
 as the councillors were not to be civil servants. The 
 high court of justice was made independent of the 
 legislative and executive branches of the administra- 
 tion, a position it had never occupied before. It 
 consisted of a president and six members, all of 
 them versed in law and unconnected with parties in 
 
86 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the colony. An attorney-general was appointed to 
 prosecute in criminal cases. 
 
 All who have investigated the records of the high 
 court during the administration of the East India 
 Company are agreed that its decisions were in ac- 
 cordance with justice; but a court composed of men 
 with little or no knowledge of law, dependent upon 
 the government, and occupied chiefly with other 
 duties, could not command the same respect as this 
 tribunal established by the Batavian Republic. An 
 English barrister, however, might not have found 
 himself at home in it. He would have heard the 
 code of Justinian quoted as fundamental authority, 
 and if a question arose as to the right of appeal to 
 Holland, it would have been decided by a decree of 
 Philip the Second of Spain, issued in 1570 when 
 he was sovereign of the Netherlands. The familiar 
 spectacle of a jury would have been wanting, for 
 that institution was as yet foreign to South Africa. 
 
 Perhaps the personal character of Mr. De Mist 
 and General Janssens had as much to do with the 
 popularity of the Batavian administration as the 
 change for the better in the form of government. 
 Both were at first far in advance of their time in 
 the colony, as was natural in men who had passed 
 through the recent stirring scenes in Europe. Mr. 
 De Mist proved this by requiring marriages to take 
 place before a civil court, and by attempting to 
 establish unsectarian schools, both of which meas- 
 ures were distasteful to the great body of the people. 
 He was past middle life, and found it difficult to 
 adapt himself to the environment in which he was 
 placed; but his affability, purity of conduct, and 
 benevolent intentions made him respected by every 
 one. 
 
THE RULE OF THE BATAYIAN REPUBLIC. 87 
 
 General Janssens was a younger and more flexible 
 man. He had a singular power of commanding the 
 confidence and regard of all with whom he came in 
 contact, whether white people, Bantu, or Hottentots. 
 The deep interest which he took in the prosperity of 
 the colonists a'dded to this confidence. He was not 
 only attached to them, but he understood them, and 
 acted on the principle that the sons of the Sea 
 Beggars were men to be led, not to be driven. He 
 never had a strong military force at his disposal, and 
 soon after the renewal of the war in Europe he was 
 obliged to send his best regiment to Java, but there 
 were no disturbances of any kind while he was gov- 
 ernor. From one end of the colony to the other 
 the people were ready to aid him to the utmost of 
 their ability to defend the country in case of need. 
 
 As soon as the necessary arrangements could be 
 made in Capetown General Janssens visited the east- 
 ern frontier, where he met the chiefs of the Bantu 
 intruders and the leaders of the marauding Hotten- 
 tots. With the latter an agreement was made that 
 the past was to be forgotten, that they were to be 
 provided with locations of ample size to live upon, 
 and that any of them who chose to take service with 
 Europeans were to be protected from ill-treatment 
 or fraud of any kind. Eor this purpose a per- 
 emptory order was issued that no Hottentot should 
 be engaged by a European, except under written 
 contract entered into in presence of a landdrost. 
 The arrangement regarding locations or reserves was 
 immediately afterwards carried out, and the Hot- 
 tentots gave no further trouble. With the fickleness 
 of their race, indeed, very few of them remained 
 long on the locations, but they spent their time there- 
 after in service for short terms, alternating witli 
 
88 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 periods of residence at one or other of the mission 
 stations established in different parts of the country, 
 and which were practically Hottentot reserves. 
 Nearly half a century passed away before they again 
 took up arms against the white people. 
 
 The Hottentot regiment was transferred from the 
 English to the Batavian service when the colony was 
 restored to the Dutch. General Janssens regarded 
 it as a serviceable corps and as an excellent school 
 for training the most restless of the young men in 
 orderly habits : he therefore raised it to a strength 
 of five or six hundred rank and file. But he took 
 care to keep it always quartered in the Cape penin- 
 sula, where it was in presence of his European 
 troops, and not a pandour of them all was ever sent 
 on service into the country. 
 
 With the Kaffir chiefs the governor spent three 
 days in discussion. They were impressed with the 
 fact that such harmony and unanimity existed be- 
 tween the colonists and the high authorities as had 
 never been known before, and they were therefore 
 earnest in their expressions of desire for peace and 
 friendship. They acknowledged the Fish River as 
 the boundary, and agreed to all the proposals made 
 to them except that they should return at once to 
 their own country. That they could not do, they 
 declared, on account of the enmity of Gaika. The 
 governor wished them to make peace with Gaika, but 
 !N"dlambe declined in emphatic terms. He and the 
 other Chiefs stated that they were about to attack 
 their enemy, and if they were victorious they would 
 move beyond the boundary at once, otherwise they 
 must await a favourable opportunity to do so. 
 
 All negotiations on this point failed both with 
 them and with Gaika, whom the governor also went 
 
THE EULE OF THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. 89 
 
 to see. and the only arrangement that could be made 
 was that the intruders should not trespass beyond 
 the Bushman's River and should leave the colony 
 as soon as they could do so with safety. The governor 
 unfortunately had not sufficient means to justify him 
 in attempting to expel the invaders by force, and by 
 no other means could the colony be freed from their 
 presence. Thus the belt of country along the coast 
 between the Fish and Bushman's Rivers could not 
 be reoccupied, but elsewhere the graziers tried to 
 resume their ordinary course of life, though it was 
 difficult and dangerous to do so within reach of the 
 Kaffir kraals. The war between Gaika and 
 Ndlambe was carried on continuously, without de- 
 cisive success on either side. 
 
 For the better administration of justice the colony 
 was now divided into six districts, instead of four as 
 previously. One of these, which was named Uiten- 
 hage, embraced the territory which the Kaffirs were 
 occupying and its fringe on the north and west. A 
 courthouse and other necessary buildings were 
 erected in an excellent position for a village, and a 
 military officer, who had also command of the garri- 
 son of Fort Frederick at Algoa Bay, was stationed 
 there as landdrost. This gave the graziers along the 
 coast much greater protection than they had when 
 the nearest seat of magistracy was at Graaff-Reinet. 
 The other new district was called Tulbagh, and em- 
 braced a very large area in the north-western part 
 of the colony. In each of the country districts there 
 was a landdrost, assisted by six heemraden, and the 
 territory was cut up into wards under officers termed 
 fieldcornets, whose duties were to settle petty dis- 
 putes, to preserve order, and to lead the burghers in 
 time of war. 
 
90 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Efforts to improve the system of agriculture, to 
 introduce better breeds of cattle, and especially to 
 replace the heavy-tailed sheep of the Cape with wool- 
 bearing animals, were made by a commission of 
 farmers under the auspices of the government; but 
 there was not sufficient time before the ownership of 
 the country was again changed to make much prog- 
 ress in that direction. 
 
 A scheme to plant a new settlement within the 
 colony was set on foot in Holland by Mr. Gysbert 
 !Karel van Hogendorp, whose name was in later years 
 intimately connected with the history of his country. 
 He purposed to carry on farming operations and the 
 preparation of timber on a large scale in the beauti- 
 ful tract of land bordering on Plettenberg's Bay and 
 the Knysna, and to send out artisans and labourers to 
 carry on the work, who after a fixed period of service 
 should have ground assigned to th^m and be assisted 
 on credit to establish themselves as independent 
 farmers. There were to be no slaves in the new set- 
 tlement. The government favoured the scheme, 
 but misfortune attended every step made towards 
 carrying it out. The first party of thirty labourers 
 arrived safely, with an obstinate individual full of 
 self-conceit at their head, who wrecked their pros- 
 pects completely. A second party was sent by way 
 of America on account of the war, and abandoned 
 the enterprise there instead of going on. Next two 
 vessels laden with goods and implements for the set- 
 tlement were lost, and lastly the colony was con- 
 quered by the English, which brought the matter to 
 an end. Mr. Van Hogendorp was many thousand 
 dollars out of pocket, and South Africa had reaped 
 no advantage beyond the introduction of a few 
 settlers. 
 
THE RULE OF THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. 91 
 
 The commerce of the country was not at this time 
 as great as during the first British occupation, be- 
 cause, first, the garrison and fleet of war were much 
 smaller and fewer passing ships called, consequently 
 the demand for provisions was less; and secondly, 
 the slave trade, which during the former period 
 flourished greatly, now ceased. The Batavian Re- 
 public was opposed to the institution, and if the gov- 
 ernment had not changed hands again gradual 
 emancipation would very shortly have been com- 
 menced. The colonists had full liberty to carry on 
 commerce with any part of the Dutch dominions, 
 upon payment for revenue purposes of three per cent, 
 of the value of goods imported; but there was not 
 time to open up any considerable trade over sea. 
 
 And now on the eve of the permanent occupation 
 of the colony by Great Britain we turn to the census 
 then taken, and learn that the European inhabitants, 
 exclusive of soldiers, were twenty-six thousand in 
 number. They owned twenty-nine thousand five 
 hundred slaves, and had in their service under vol- 
 untary agreements twenty thousand Hottentots and 
 mixed breeds. How many Hottentots there were not 
 in service it is impossible to say, for no notice was 
 taken of them by the census framers. 
 
 Capetown had risen to be a place of importance. 
 It contained, besides public buildings of various 
 kinds, over twelve hundred houses and stores, and 
 had a population of six thousand three hundred 
 Europeans, nine 'thousand one hundred slaves, and 
 sixteen hundred Asiatics and free blacks. 
 
 On the 12th of May, 1803, the short cessation of 
 hostilities that followed the treaty of Amiens came 
 to an end, and Great Britain was again at war with 
 France and her satellite the Batavian Republic, 
 
92 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 From the moment that this intelligence reached 
 General Janssens he devoted himself to putting the 
 colony in a condition for defence, as no one doubted 
 that sooner or later it would be attacked. His means 
 were very limited. He was obliged to send his 
 choicest troops to Java, and the whole military force 
 that remained at the end of 1805 was only between 
 fifteen and sixteen hundred men, of whom eighty 
 were stationed at Algoa Bay. With these and the 
 Hottentot corps he could barely garrison the different 
 forts in the Cape peninsula, so that he had no troops 
 to take the field. His main dependence was upon 
 the burghers. There were only two Dutch vessels 
 of war on the station, one a mere tender, the other 
 a ship of the line, which was laid up in Simon's Bay 
 for want of stores to keep her in service. 
 
 Two years elapsed from the renewal of the war 
 before England found herself in a position to fit 
 out an expedition against the Cape. Besides the 
 motive which induced her to take possession of the 
 country in 1795, which was being strongly brought; 
 to mind just now by the havoc caused by French 
 privateers using Table Bay as their base, there was 
 another. The value of South Africa as a season- 
 ing station for troops destined for India had been 
 proved, and such a station was wanted at that time 
 more than ever before. The British authorities 
 therefore determined to seize the colony and to keep 
 it. Even before it was in their possession, while the 
 expedition was on its way out, the British rep- 
 resentative at the court of Prussia was officially in- 
 formed that to secure peace England might consent 
 to abandon other conquests, but the question of the 
 restitution of the Cape of Good Hope and the island 
 of Malta must not so much as be discussed. 
 
THE RULE OF THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC. 93 
 
 The force prepared to effect the conquest was so 
 powerful that no doubt of its success could be enter- 
 tained. It consisted of seven regiments of the line, 
 a regiment of dragoons, nearly five hundred artillery- 
 men and engineers, and several hundred recruits 
 destined for India. These were embarked in a fleet 
 of over sixty sail, of which nine were men-of-war 
 acting as protectors. Lieutenant-General Sir David 
 Baird, who had once served in South Africa for 
 nearly a year, was in command of the troops, and 
 with him were many officers well acquainted with the 
 country in the neighbourhood of Capetown. 
 
 In the evening of the 4th of January, 1806, this 
 great armament arrived at the entrance of Table 
 Bay, and came to anchor between Robben Island 
 and the mainland. An attempt to land was im- 
 mediately made, in order to take the garrison by sur- 
 prise before the burghers could arrive from the coun- 
 try districts, but the surf was beating heavily on 
 the coast, and the next day nothing could be done. 
 During the night of the 5th a regiment of the line 
 and the dragoons were sent to Saldanha Bay, and 
 the remainder of the transports would have followed 
 on the 6th had not the surf subsided so much as to 
 make landing practicable. Six regiments were then 
 set ashore in a little cove sixteen miles from Cape- 
 town, and being joined by the artillerymen and a 
 contingent of seamen drawing the guns, moved to- 
 wards the capital. 
 
 While this was taking place alarm signals were 
 made from station to station throughout the country, 
 and the burghers were assembling as rapidly as pos- 
 sible, but it was the hottest time of the year, and 
 they could only ride at night. They were further at 
 a great disadvantage from want of provisions. The 
 
94 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 crops of the preceding season had failed .through 
 drought, and the government had been unable to 
 lay up a supply of grain. At that moment there was 
 not more than a week's consumption of breadstuffs 
 in Capetown. The crops of that season were good, 
 though as the wheat was then only being threshed, 
 the scarcity was not over. 
 
 Apart from other reasons, it was thus impossible 
 for General Janssens to hold out in Capetown. He 
 was threatened by the main English army, under Sir 
 David Baird, marching down the coast, the detach- 
 ment under Brigadier-General Beresford marching 
 from Saldanha Bay, and the fleet under Commodore 
 Sir Home Popham, which might at any time attack 
 the town. Under these circumstances he drew be- 
 tween twelve and thirteen hundred trained soldiers 
 from the different forts, replacing them with bur- 
 ghers, and after adding to this field force about eight 
 hundred auxiliaries, burgher and other, he proceeded 
 to meet Sir David Baird. 
 
 On the 8th of January, 1806, the two armies con- 
 fronted each other on the plain at the foot of Blue- 
 berg. The Waldeck battalion of German mercen- 
 aries, that formed the centre of the Dutch line, de- 
 clined to fight with such odds against them, and 
 fled at the commencement of the action. Most of 
 the remainder of General Janssens' force stood % their 
 ground for a time, inflicting and sustaining heavy 
 loss, but were soon overpowered and driven back. 
 The fugitives rallied at Rietvlei, where they had 
 passed the preceding night. The general then sent 
 the Waldeckers to Capetown, and retired with the 
 remainder of his army to the mountains of Hotten 
 tots-Holland. On the 10th the town capitulated 
 and was taken in possession by the British forces, 
 
THE RULE OF THE BAT AVIAN REPUBLIC. 95 
 
 the vanguard of the column from Saldanha Bay, 
 that had met with no opposition, arriving at the same 
 time. 
 
 And now what could the Dutch general do? 
 He had with him about seven hundred European 
 troops, part of the Hottentot corps, faithful to the 
 last, and a few hundred burghers. He could not 
 hold out long where he was, being almost without 
 stores, so there were only two courses left, to surren- 
 der or to retire into the interior of the country till 
 France or Holland could send him relief. The lat- 
 ter course, however, would cause such destruction of 
 property and misery to the colonists that he rejected 
 it, though he had a difficulty in inducing those of 
 them who were with him to return to their homes 
 and leave him to his fate. His position was of 
 use in obtaining liberal terms. He was obliged to 
 give up his arms and public property of every kind, 
 but was sent back to Holland with his officers and sol- 
 diers at the expense of the British government, with- 
 out their being considered or treated as prisoners of 
 war. 
 
96 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 
 
 THE colony was now permanently a British posses- 
 sion, for while the expedition under Sir David 
 Baird was on its way out the battle of Trafalgar 
 was fought, which secured the title deeds. If that 
 battle had given France, instead of England, com- 
 mand of the seas, the favourable result of the skir- 
 mish at Blueberg could only have had a temporary 
 effect, as the position of the Cape was such that it 
 could not long be held against the nation that con- 
 trolled the road to it International custom indeed 
 required that until the conclusion of peace no im- 
 portant change should be made in connection with 
 its internal government, or any measure be intro- 
 duced that would subvert the existing condition of 
 the people, but that was in general overlooked. 
 
 It is a grand thing to form part of a great em- 
 pire. Every vigorous individual in the British 
 dominions nas a wider range of thought, a larger 
 field to work in, and a deeper sense of security 'than 
 the resident in a small and weak state. The posi- 
 tion of the Netherlands at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century with regard to other European 
 countries was very different from what it had been 
 when the Cape Colony was young. In 1672 the 
 republic was able to contend successfully on the sea 
 with France and England combined; in 1806 she 
 was of little importance as a naval power compared 
 
EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 97 
 
 with either, so that South Africa must always have 
 been insecure if it had remained in her possession. 
 This every Englishman believes, but Dutchmen, 
 though so near in blood and character, were of a 
 different turn of mind. 
 
 The history of the fatherland was the history of 
 a number of little almost independent provinces, 
 loosely united, jealous of each other, and often only 
 kept together by outside pressure. The thoughts of 
 the people did not run in the direction of a great 
 dominion, and though they had. acquired extensive 
 dependencies beyond the seas, there never was any 
 imperial spirit among them, using the word imperial 
 in its present signification. The South African colo- 
 nists held the same ideas as all others of their race. 
 They attached no value to the new connection, and 
 regretted intensely their subjection again by a for- 
 eign power. But they recognised clearly that re- 
 sistance was useless, and would be productive of 
 nothing but misery, so with as little show of ill-feel- 
 ing as possible they submitted to the conqueror. 
 
 Sir David Baird remained at the head of the gov- 
 ernment until January, 1SOY. He made the great 
 mistake of sending an expedition under Brigadier- 
 General Beresford and Commodore Sir Home Pop- 
 ham against Buenos Ayres without the approval of 
 the authorities in England, and as soon as this be- 
 came known Lieutenant-General Henry George Grey 
 was directed to proceed to the Cape to supersede him. 
 The Earl of Caledon, who was then appointed gov- 
 ernor, arrived in May, 1807. 
 
 In several respects it seemed as if retrogression, 
 not progress, was now the order of the day. There was 
 no longer a council to advise and restrain the gov- 
 ernor, who was left to act as he pleased, subject only 
 
 I 
 
98 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to the instructions of the secretary of state. The 
 high court of justice was deprived of its independ- 
 ence, and with the exception of the president was 
 made to consist of civil servants or other persons 
 subject to removal at the pleasure of the governor. 
 The marriage ordinance of Commissioner De Mist 
 was repealed, and the performance of the ceremony 
 by a minister of religion was made obligatory in all 
 cases. Upon the whole, however, the administra- 
 tion was benevolent, and there was a real desire to 
 benefit the colonists if they would only agree with 
 English ideas as to what were advantages. 
 
 With the conquest of the colony the slave trade 
 was reopened, but only five hundred negroes were 
 brought in before the parliament of Great Britain 
 in March, 1807, passed an act prohibiting British 
 ships and British subjects from engaging in the 
 abominable traffic. This, however, did not by any 
 means put an end to the introduction of black peo- 
 ple into the Cape Colony. Thereafter all ships with 
 slaves on board belonging either to British subjects or 
 to subjects of any country at war with Great Britain 
 captured in the southern seas by British cruisers 
 were brought into Table Bay for condemnation by 
 the court of admiralty, when the negroes were ap- 
 prenticed to white people for a few years, after which 
 they were set at liberty to get a living as best they 
 could. The wheat and wine farmers were glad to 
 obtain them as labourers, without reflecting upon the 
 consequences for all time to the country of thus in- 
 creasing a class of people incapable of high civili- 
 sation, or of the danger of mixture of blood. From 
 these prize negroes, so-called, a great many of the 
 present coloured inhabitants of the colony, black, 
 mulatto, and quadroon, are descended. 
 
EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 99 
 
 In 1808 there was an insurrection of a few hun- 
 dred slaves in the wheat-growing district near 
 Capetown, instigated by a white man and a quad- 
 roon. It was easily and speedily suppressed, how- 
 ever, when five of the leaders were hanged in chains 
 and seventeen others were severely punished. There 
 had been many instances before of slaves deserting 
 from service and forming themselves into robber 
 bands, and there were instances earlier and later of 
 slaves murdering their masters, but this was the only 
 occasion on which any considerable number ever 
 rose in revolt. It is noticeable that they shed no 
 blood, though they pillaged several houses, and that 
 at many places where they appeared the people of 
 their own class refused to join or aid them in any 
 way. 
 
 In 1809 the Earl of Caledon brought the whole of 
 the Hottentots in the colony into legal subjection 
 to the government. Previous to this date they had 
 been regarded as an independent people, entitled 
 to govern themselves, and free to wander at will 
 over any part of the country that was not occupied by 
 Europeans. In places where the white inhabitants 
 were numerous reserves had been set apart for their 
 use, in which they were supposed to be under the 
 authority of their own leaders. This was the legal 
 aspect of their condition, but it was very far from be- 
 ing their actual state, which was one of anarchy. 
 There was hardly a Hottentot who did not respect 
 the lowest white man as being superior to his own 
 nominal chief or captain, and far the greater num- 
 ber of them acknowledged no head at all except the 
 farmers in whose service they might be for the time. 
 
 The proclamation of the Earl of Caledon made 
 them subject to the courts of justice exactly as other 
 
JOO PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 residents in the country, required them to have a 
 fixed registered place of residence, and ignored any 
 other authority over them than that of the colonial 
 government. It placed restrictions upon their va- 
 grant habits, and regulated the mode of their enter- 
 ing service, but extended to them the most complete 
 protection possible. An impartial observer would 
 surely say that this measure was one of the greatest 
 advantage to the Hottentots. A few small parties 
 of them indeed moved out of the colony into Great 
 Namaqualand rather than submit to the loss of their 
 independence, but they could hardly be expected to 
 realise what was in truth best for themselves. 
 
 Yet from missionaries of the London Society 
 opposition to the measure arose. It interfered with 
 what they regarded as native rights, and it ignored 
 the absolute equality of men of all races, which they 
 were constantly proclaiming, for it imposed restric- 
 tions upon Hottentots from which Europeans were 
 free. A protest was raised by them against it in 
 England, where a wave of intense and praiseworthy 
 though to some extent misguided and indiscreet 
 interest in the coloured races of the world was be- 
 ginning to roll over the land. Fortunately for the 
 Hottentots the protest was not successful until nine- 
 teen years later, and during the interval these peo- 
 ple acquired a little experience in settled habits, 
 which prevented them from falling into complete 
 destruction when Lord Caledon's proclamation was 
 replaced by a less judicious enactment 
 
 The Hottentot regiment in the service of the Ba- 
 tavian Republic was disbanded when General Jans- 
 sens capitulated, but Sir David Baird immediately 
 raised another, composed chiefly of the same indi- 
 viduals. The men were allowed to have their wives 
 
EVENTS PROM ISOG TO isu. lol 
 
 and children with them, and these were provided 
 with rations at the public expense, otherwise it was 
 said the corps could not be kept up. It would have 
 been better for the morality of these people if the 
 corps had not been kept up, for, judging from the 
 reports of the officers of the regiment as well as the 
 statements of outsiders, their mode of living was in- 
 describably vile. In service with farmers they 
 would have been obliged at least to conduct them- 
 selves more decently. Had the regiment been kept 
 in the Cape peninsula better order might have been 
 preserved, but after a short time it was sent into the 
 country, to its own detriment and to the great irri- 
 tation of the colonists. 
 
 In September, 1811, Lieutenant-General Sir John 
 Francis Cradock became governor, the first of a long 
 series of military veterans who filled that office. 
 Upon his arrival he found awaiting him a report 
 from the landdrost of Uitenhage, in which he was in- 
 formed that there was then only one farm occupied 
 east of the seat of magistracy, and that if the Bantu 
 intruders were not expelled the district must be aban- 
 doned by the government. Gaika and Ndlambe 
 were still at war, but that did not prevent the Kaf- 
 firs in the colony from stealing the white man's cat- 
 tle wherever they could be reached, though by do- 
 ing so they knew they were laying themselves open 
 to attack on another side. 
 
 Lord Caledon, who objected to incur the expense 
 of war, which must have been borne by Great Brit- 
 ain, as the revenue of the colony was inadequate to 
 meet the charge, had done all that was possible 
 to conciliate them, but in vain. They could not be 
 induced to remain east of the Sunday River, but sent 
 foraging parties out almost as far as Plettenberg's 
 
102 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Bay, and even commenced to build kraals west of 
 the Gamtoos. It was evident that if they were not 
 driven back by force no part of the colony would be 
 eecure against their intrusion. A military officer who 
 Was sent to inspect the country on both sides of the 
 boundary reported that between the Fish River and 
 the Kei the only inhabitants were Gaika's adherents, 
 who occupied a mere slip of ground along the base of 
 the Amatola mountains, so that there was plenty of 
 room for ten times the number of Kaffirs then in 
 the colony. To drive them back also would not be 
 forcing them upon Gaika's assagais, for that chief 
 was no stronger than they were, and as far as he was 
 concerned their condition would not be altered. 
 
 The new governor therefore determined to eject 
 the intruders, and in October, 1811, a strong bur- 
 gher force was summoned to arms. Some Euro- 
 pean troops were sent to form a line of posts along 
 the Sunday River as a base of operations, from which 
 the burghers and the Hottentot regiment could ad- 
 vance and drive the Kaffirs before them. Lieutenant 
 Colonel John Graham, who commanded the Hotten- 
 tot regiment, had control of the operations, but be- 
 fore applying force he was instructed to endeavour 
 to induce the intruders to return to their own 
 country without bloodshed. An attempt to hold a 
 conference with the leading chiefs was therefore 
 made. Major Cuyler, landdrost of Uitenhage, with 
 a few farmers, rode to a kraal by previous arrange- 
 ment to hold a parley, and was informed by Ndlambe 
 that t'he country was his, as he had won it in war, and 
 that he intended to keep it. On a signal from the 
 chief two or three hundred warriors rushed towards 
 the landdrost and his party, who owed their escape 
 solely to the fleetness of their horses. 
 
EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 1Q3 
 
 At another place Mr. Andries Stockenstrom, land- 
 drost of Graaff-Reinet, made a similar trial. The 
 Kaffirs whom he met spoke so civilly that he was 
 thrown off his guard, and against the advice of the 
 farmers with him he dismounted, sat down on the 
 ground, and carried on a conversation for half an 
 hour, during which time the party was stealthily 
 surrounded. When this was effected a rush was 
 made, and the landdrost, eight farmers, and the half- 
 breed interpreter were stabbed to death. Four 
 others were wounded, but managed to escape. 
 
 Military operations were then commenced, and 
 the burghers, finding the government in earnest, set 
 themselves to their task with alacrity. The country, 
 being full of thickets, was difficult to operate in, but 
 one after another the strongholds were cleared, and 
 before the end of February, 1812, the whole of the 
 Kaffirs, about twenty thousand in number, were 
 driven over the Fish River. To prevent their re- 
 turn a line of military posts was established from the 
 sea to the second range of mountains, through the 
 territory they had occupied, and was garrisoned part- 
 ly by European troops, partly by burghers who were 
 relieved at short intervals, and partly by pandours. 
 The headquarters of the troops were at a place to 
 which the name of Grahamstown was given, in 
 honour of the commanding officer. 
 
 This important event was unfortunately followed 
 by an occurrence that destroyed its good effect, as 
 far as attachment of the people to the British au- 
 thorities was concerned, and that created an irrita- 
 tion which was not forgotten or allayed till the gen- 
 eration then existing had passed away. This oc- 
 currence was " the black circuit," as it was ever 
 afterwards termed in South Africa. Lord Caledon 
 
104 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 had established a system of sending periodically two 
 or more members of the high court of justice on 
 circuit through the colony, for the purpose of trying 
 important cases, ascertaining whether the landdrosts 
 performed their duties correctly and impartially, in- 
 specting the district chests and buildings, and re- 
 porting upon the condition of the people and all 
 matters affecting public interests. 
 
 In 1811 this system came into operation. The 
 first circuit was made by three judges, who tried 
 twenty-one criminal cases, in which the proceedings 
 were conducted with open doors, and no distinction 
 was made between persons of different races or 
 colour either as accusers, accused, or witnesses. 
 There was nothing but satisfaction expressed with the 
 establishment of a court such as this, and every- 
 where the judges were received with the utmost 
 respect. 
 
 But before the termination of the first circuit Sir 
 John Cradock received a despatch from the secretary 
 of state, in which was enclosed a copy of a letter 
 from the Reverend Mr. Read, of Bethelsdorp, to 
 the directors of the London Missionary Society, and 
 published by them in England. In this letter the 
 missionary complained that the Hottentots were sub- 
 ject to inhuman treatment from white people, and 
 that the Earl of Caledon and Landdrost Cuyler were 
 alike deaf to their cry for justice. He asserted that 
 upwards of a hundred murders had been brought 
 to the knowledge of Dr. Yanderkemp and himself 
 in the district of Uitenhage alone. The secretary 
 of state instructed the governor to have these terrible 
 charges thoroughly investigated, and to see that 
 stringent punishment was inflicted upon perpetrators 
 of outrages. 
 
EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 1Q5 
 
 Accordingly every possible effort was made to put 
 facilities in the way of Hottentots bringing forward 
 their grievances. LanddrostCuyler,who was an Am- 
 erican loyalist and prided himself on his integrity 
 and justice, considered his honour at stake, and was 
 most anxious that even petty assaults should be looked 
 into, in order that the assertions of the missionary 
 might be thoroughly tested. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Read was aided by other mem- 
 bers of his Society to get as many cases as possible 
 ready for the next circuit court. He, too, was on his 
 mettle, as it was necessary for him to show that he 
 had grounds for what he had written. All the 
 stories of the years of discord and war between the 
 colonists and the Hottentots were therefore brought 
 forward, and the court was furnished with a fearful 
 roll of charges. 
 
 In September, 1812, two judges left Capetown to 
 hold the sessions in the three eastern districts. At that 
 time it was part of the duty of the landdrosts to act 
 as public prosecutors when charges of crime com- 
 mitted within their districts came before a superior 
 court. But in this circuit an advocate was directed 
 to accompany the judges, and prosecute in the cases 
 brought forward by the missionaries. This depar- 
 ture from the usual course of proceedings was made 
 at the urgent request of Landdrost Cuyler, and in 
 order that everything possible should be done Ibo 
 secure a thorough investigation. 
 
 More than one-third of the male inhabitants of the 
 frontier districts who were capable of bearing arms 
 were in garrison in the stockaded posts that had been 
 constructed to prevent the Kaffirs from invading the 
 colony again. Fifty-eight members of their families 
 male and female were required to stand a trial 
 
106 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 before the circuit court, and over a thousand wit- 
 nesses European, black, and Hottentot were sum- 
 moned to give evidence. The whole country was in 
 a state of commotion. 
 
 It was nearly four months before the session came 
 to an end. The greater number of the charges were 
 proved to be without foundation, and in nearly all 
 the others there were either mitigating circumstances 
 or the offences really committed had been of a trivial 
 nature. The character of the governor, the land- 
 drost, and the colonists was completely cleared. 
 
 But it was of no use telling the people that the 
 trials had shown the missionaries to have been the 
 dupes of idle storytellers. The extraordinary efforts 
 made to search for cases and to conduct the prosecu- 
 tions appeared in their eyes as a fixed determination 
 on the part of the English authorities to punish them 
 if by any means a pretext could be found. If it 
 were not so, they asked, why were not charges made 
 by them against Hottentots followed up in the same 
 manner? As for the missionaries of the London 
 Society, they were thereafter regarded by the great 
 bulk of the colonists as pernicious fomenters of dis- 
 turbances, whose dealings with the coloured people 
 could only be productive of evil, and it seemed almost 
 like blasphemy to speak of them as Christian 
 teachers. 
 
 During this period the number of magistrates was 
 considerably increased. The boundaries of the 
 colony were not extended, but in 1811 the territory 
 was divided into seven districts, instead of six as 
 previously. The new district received the name of 
 George, from the reigning king, and was provided 
 with a landdrost and board of heemraden like the 
 others. Deputy landdrosts were stationed at Clan- 
 
EVENTS FROM 1806 TO 1814. 
 
 william in 1808, at Caledon in 1811, and at 
 Grahamstown and Cradock in 1812. In 1809 Si- 
 monstown was provided with a magistrate termed a 
 deputy fiscal. 
 
 New churches of the Dutch reformed communion 
 were established, at Caledon in 1811 and at George 
 in 1812, and clergymen of the English Church were 
 stationed at Capetown and Simonstown. The Mo- 
 ravian Society, whose admirable work in improving 
 the coloured people was acknowledged alike by the 
 government, passing strangers, and the colonists, 
 opened a now station at Mamre in 1808, on a tract 
 of land given by Lord Caledon for the purpose, 
 which bordered on an old Hottentot reserve. Mis- 
 sionaries of other denominations objected to their 
 system on the ground that they kept their pupils 
 under tutelage to such an extent as to interfere with 
 freedom of action, but that was just what was most 
 approved by thoughtful observers who admitted that 
 people emerging from barbarism require constant 
 guidance and control. The London Society had sev- 
 eral stations beyond the northern border and within 
 the colony Bethelsdorp near AlgoaBay, Zuurbrak and 
 Pacaltsdorp at two Hottentot reserves, and Theo- 
 polis on a tract of land in the territory from which 
 the Kaffirs had been expelled, granted by Sir John 
 Cradock for the purpose of relieving Bethelsdorp, 
 which was overcrowded. 
 
 The country for a considerable distance beyond the 
 boundary of the colony was explored, and accurate 
 intelligence was obtained of all the native tribes a* 
 far north as the Molopo River. An expedition under 
 Dr. Cowan and Lieutenant Donovan, who had with 
 them a colonist named Kruger, a halfbreed, and 
 twenty Hottentot soldiers, passed that stream in an 
 
--A -v.vss ^v sow 
 
 attempt to w*eh MoonbityKs bat perished son* 
 whera in the interior, ami nothing w*ain ngaiding 
 
 berattiif :;v MUM rf tdwttlon, 
 
 Wd tteir kndb, 
 ft of grail dv&%^^ to Hie 
 t the tnM it woed mueb dissatisfe* 
 on *KvMmt odF its 
 it umhd extra 
 
 forms 
 
 Wingr an iu 
 tra ehaigtt 
 fidfid that 
 
 cost of the occupants* that 
 to exceed six thousand actes in extent* that 
 quifrent according to the value was to be 
 
 te jsropiietois 
 
 a ItMur i^slem tkan that of holding gramid 
 on Tvarfr lease finm t^e fOTHnmeiit as it 
 aged the inqproranemt of estates and 
 
 In December. ISliX the French island of 
 tins was conquered by a joint expedition from India 
 and the Gape, and any apprehension of danger from 
 that quarter which was not gioat -was dispelled. 
 
 WQL * ^ 3 B\. * * J -**- J . 
 
 The isisna nas ever SUMS remainea a oiepenoencT vM 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The disasters sustained by the Emperor Napoleon 
 during and immediatetT subsequent to hi? in 
 Tson of Russia were fclkwed by a revolution in the 
 jvetnenanQs wnen the vwange pert^r agani came to 
 tihe front In November, 1S13> a piovisional 
 
EVENTS FROM 1906 TO 1914 
 
 eminent was formed, and on the lit of December 
 
 the e/iJed Ktadholder, after a renidenee in Kn^land 
 of nineteen years, landed at Scheyeningen and wa 
 
 ree/;ive/l by the J^uteh people an their Hoyerej>n. The 
 heltfjc and Jiatavian province v/ere then united, and 
 
 the Prince of Orange became king of the entire 
 Netherlands. 
 
 The new monarch found the country temporarily 
 exhausted, while the need for money was urgent. 
 The people were in a state of lethargy, and, provided 
 
 lliay could recover their former po^:~ionH in the 
 
 Indian seas, seemed to care little about the fate of 
 
 the other oolonie.H that had one/; been under their 
 flag. England too was determined not to restore the 
 Cape of Good Hope or th/ ; bet.t/ ; r part of Guiana, 
 but was willing to pay a considerable sum for their 
 formal cession, so that the choice lay between the 
 money or nothing, the colonies in either case being 
 lost. Under these circumstances in August, 1814, 
 the King of the Netherlands ceded to Great Britain 
 the settlements of the Cape in South Africa and of 
 Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice in South Am- 
 erica, and received in return the sum of twenty- 
 eight million eight hundred thousand dollars or six 
 million pounds sterling. 
 
 It was stipulated, however, that Butch colonists in 
 the ceded countries should be at liberty to carry on 
 trade with the Netherlands, and that Dutch ships 
 should have the right of resorting freely to the Cape 
 of Good Hope for refreshment and repairs, on the 
 same conditions as English vessels* In this manner 
 Great Britain acquired full dominion over the Cape 
 Colony, and her right to it has never since been chal- 
 lenged by any power* 
 
HO PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE SLAGTEK'S NEK INSURRECTION. 
 
 THE formal cession altered the position of Great 
 Britain towards the colony in this respect only, that 
 the terms of the capitulations of Capetown and of the 
 troops under General Janssens had no longer the 
 same legal force as before, and whatever alterations 
 the ruling power desired could now be made with- 
 out any breach of international custom. There was 
 no wish, however, on the part of the English gov- 
 ernment to act harshly as the ministry interpreted 
 that word towards the colonists, though they were 
 not consulted in any way in the arrangements that 
 were made, and the object of the policy pursued was 
 to anglicise them as rapidly as possible. They were 
 only a little over thirty thousand in number, and it 
 seemed absurd that such a small body of people 
 should be permitted to perpetuate ideas and customs 
 that were not English in a country that had become 
 part of the British empire. Already Sir John 
 Cradock had issued a notice that no one who did not 
 understand the English language would thereafter be 
 appointed to any post in the civil service. 
 
 But these thirty thousand individuals possessed a 
 tenacity of purpose not exceeded by any people on 
 the face of the earth, and they had the power in a 
 very high degree of assimilating and incorporating 
 strangers of other nationalities, so that they were 
 rapidly increasing in number. They could be led to 
 
THE SLAGTER'S NEK INSURRECTION. 
 
 any good, as General Janssens observed in the last 
 document he wrote in South Africa, but, though they 
 might be crushed by superior force, they could not be 
 driven by anything short of that in a direction that 
 they did not choose to take. 
 
 Great Britain had therefore a task in governing 
 the Cape Colony different from that in any of her 
 other foreign possessions. She had many slave- 
 holding settlements, but no other in which there 
 was at the same time a very difficult native problem 
 to be solved. She had other settlements founded by 
 foreign nations, but none in a condition like the 
 Cape. In Canada the French were almost confined 
 to the province of Quebec, so that purely or almost 
 purely English communities could be planted in 
 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario. To the 
 French could be left their language, their laws, their 
 customs, all that they prized, yet they could enter 
 into union with the other provinces just as the Ger- 
 man, French, and Italian cantons of Switzerland 
 are united in one republic. In the Cape Colony, on 
 the contrary, if the tract of country from which the 
 Kaffirs had been expelled be excluded, there was no 
 spot to which English emigrants could be sent where 
 they would not have to mix with the earlier occupants. 
 
 In this condition of things, as each nationality 
 would naturally strive to follow its own instincts and 
 traditions, there would be perpetual rivalry if it were 
 not for one fortunate circumstance. The Afrik- 
 anders were so close to the people of Great Britain in 
 blood that intermarriages began to take place as soon 
 as the two people were brought together. Sir John 
 Barrow himself, the Englishman who after a short 
 residence wrote in harsher terms of the Dutch colo- 
 nists than any one has ever since done, five years later 
 
112 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 when he returned to his own country took with him 
 an Afrikander wife. The Scotch in particular found 
 no difficulty in allying themselves with Dutch fam- 
 ilies, the form of religion as well as many customs 
 being identical. This mixture of blood was the true 
 and only solution of the difficulty that arose when 
 Greait Britain became mistress of the Cape Colony, 
 but it would need a long time to effect a complete 
 fusion, and while it was taking place friction would 
 be unavoidable, though that might have been greatly 
 reduced if the government had acted more on the 
 leading and less on the driving principle. 
 
 A few months before the cession Sir John Cradock 
 was succeeded as governor by Lieutenant-General 
 Lord Charles Henry Somerset, a son of the Duke of 
 Beaufort and an elder brother of Lord Raglan, who 
 commanded the British forces in the Crimean war. 
 He was not only an extreme Tory in principle, but 
 despotic by disposition, and intolerant of .opposition 
 of any kind. At the same time he was possessed of 
 considerable ability. He took a very warm interest 
 in the improvement of agriculture and the introduc- 
 tion of better breeds of cattle, and by establishing 
 a model farm on the site of the present village of 
 Somerset East and extending the work done by the 
 old commission of agriculture he effected much good. 
 The commission, however, he dissolved, and took 
 upon himself the direction of its affairs. As the 
 colonial funds were low, at his own expense he im- 
 ported horses of a suitable kind, from which re- 
 mounts were bred for the English army in India, 
 and thus a new source of profit was opened to the 
 farmers. 
 
 Lord Charles Somerset found the graziers of tho 
 eastern districts in a discontented condition. Be- 
 
THE SLAGTER'S NEK INSURRECTION. H3 
 
 sides the ill-feeling caused by the black circuit and 
 the increased taxation arising from the new land 
 tenure, there was a fresh and well-founded grievance 
 in the increase of the Hottentot regiment to eight hun- 
 dred rank and file, and the stationing of this corps 
 in the frontier posts, from which most of the Euro- 
 pean troops had been withdrawn. It was not only 
 that the additional Hottentots had been raised by 
 requisition, that is, had been compelled to join the 
 corps, and had thus been withdrawn with their wives 
 and children from the service of the farmers, but 
 the opinion was general on the frontier that the pan- 
 dour s were kept there more with the object of over- 
 awing the white people than of preventing another 
 Kaffir invasion. 
 
 The governor expressed his intense disgust with! 
 the condition of the corps, particularly with the idle- 
 ness, filth, and debauchery in which the women con- 
 nected with it were living, and desired the secretary 
 of state to relieve the Cape government of useless 
 expense by disbanding it and substituting a more 
 effective regiment. The authorities in England con- 
 sented, but as it was not convenient just then to send 
 out other troops the pandours were retained in serv- 
 ice until 1817, when the Royal African regiment 
 arrived and a mixed cavalry and infantry battalion 
 of two hundred and fifty halfbreeds and Hottentots 
 was enlisted in the same manner as European sol- 
 diers, and the old corps was disbanded. 
 
 In April, 1815, Lord Charles Somerset sent some 
 European troops from Capetown to the eastern bor- 
 der to relieve the burghers who had for more than 
 three years been obliged to assist in garrisoning the 
 posts maintained to prevent the return of the Kaf- 
 firs. The Hottentot regiment remained on the. 
 
 J 
 
PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 frontier, with its headquarters at Grahamstown. 
 Everything seemed thus to have conspired to bring 
 about the deplorable event known as the Slagter's 
 ISTek rebellion. If the Hottentot regiment had been 
 disbanded, or if the burghers had remained in gar- 
 rison, or if the troops had been stationed differently, 
 it would not have taken place. 
 
 There was a man named Frederik Bezuidenhout 
 residing in the valley now known as Glen Lynden, 
 on a farm adjoining the one occupied a few years 
 later by the poet Pringle. This man was sum- 
 moned to appear before the deputy landdrost of Crad- 
 ock on a charge of ill-treatment of a coloured serv- 
 ant, and as he did not do so, a complaint was made 
 to the judges of the circuit court. To their sum- 
 mons also he declined to attend, and therefore Lieu- 
 tenant Andries Stockenstrom, who filled his de- 
 ceased father's post as landdrost of Graaff-Reinet ? 
 was instructed to have him arrested. The landdrost 
 thereupon sent the messenger of his court with let- 
 ters to the fieldcornet of the ward and to Lieutenant 
 Rousseau, commandant of the nearest military post, 
 requesting them to assist him. The fieldcornet 
 declined, but the military officer furnished a party 
 of Hottentot soldiers, with whom the messenger pro- 
 ceeded to Bezuidenhout's farm. On their arrival, 
 Bezuidenhout not only declined to surrender, but 
 attempted to resist being captured, and in doing so 
 was shot dead by a pandour. 
 
 Next day the relations and friends of the dead 
 man assembled for the funeral, when Jan Bezuiden- 
 hout, a brother of the deceased, at the graveside made 
 a most inflammatory speech, ending with a declara- 
 tion that he would never rest until the Hottentot 
 corps was driven from the frontier and those who 
 
THE SLAGTER'S NEK INSURRECTION. H5 
 
 had brought the calamity upon his family were pun- 
 ished. All who were present expressed the warmest 
 sympathy with him, and before they dispersed 
 agreed to attempt to bring about a general rising. 
 With this view another and larger meeting was held 
 shortly afterwards, at which it was resolved that a 
 deputation should be sent to Gaika to solicit aid, their 
 argument being that as the English government em- 
 ployed Hottentots against them they were justified 
 in using Kaffirs on their side. 
 
 Several of them immediately set out for Gaika's 
 kraal on this mission. That chief, however, though 
 not a man of the ability of ISTdlambe, was much too 
 cautious to accept the proposals made to him, which 
 involved, among other arrangements, an exchange of 
 territory that would give to the graziers the valley 
 of the Kat River. The conference with him ended 
 therefore with his declaration that he must see how 
 the wind blew before he placed himself by the fire, 
 which meant that it would be time enough for him 
 to take part in the coming contest when he knew 
 which side was the stronger. 
 
 Meantime a letter written by the chief conspirators 
 to a farmer of influence in the district, containing an 
 account of their plans and inviting him to join them, 
 fell into the hands of a fieldcornet, who sent it to 
 the deputy landdrost of Cradock. Intelligence of 
 the plot was at once communicated to the deputy 
 landdrost of Grahamstown, the landdrost of Graaff- 
 Reinet, and Captain Andrews, the commandant of a 
 military post close to Slagter's Nek, on the Fish 
 River. Prompt measures were thereupon taken. 
 An armed party was sent out, who surprised and 
 seized one of the most active of the insurgents, a 
 man named Hendrik Prinsloo, before he was aware 
 
116 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 that the authorities were acquainted with the design. 
 He was conveyed to Captain Andrews' post, and de- 
 tained as a prisoner. 
 
 This event caused the insurgents to attempt to 
 carry out their purpose without further delay, 
 though they were quite unprepared, and a moment's 
 reflection should have convinced them that they were 
 entering on a career of madness. The greater num- 
 ber of the farmers in the district, under Commandant 
 Willem Nel, instead of aiding them, rallied to the 
 support of the government, though they certainly 
 did not approve of pandours being employed to 
 arrest a European. That they too felt as a griev- 
 ance, but they were of opinion that an armed insur- 
 rection was not the proper manner in which to get 
 it removed. 
 
 It was therefore with no more than fifty or sixty 
 men, all that he could muster, and some of these very 
 reluctant, that Jan Bezuidenhout on the 14th of No- 
 vember, 1815, appeared at Captain Andrews' post 
 and demanded the release of Hendrik Prinsloo. He 
 found Commandant Nel there with a burgher force 
 on the side of the government, but it was doubtful 
 which party was the stronger. A conference was 
 arranged, at which Bezuidenhout vainly endeavoured 
 to induce the commandant to change sides, and was 
 as vainly urged by Nel to desist from his insane pro- 
 ceeding. The prisoner was of course not surren- 
 dered. The insurgents were then drawn up by 
 Bezuidenhout in a circle, and took an oath of fidelity 
 to each other and to the cause they had in hand, after 
 which some of them proceeded to different parts of 
 the frontier to solicit assistance. It was agreed that 
 they should meet again at Slagter's Nek three days 
 later, with whatever reinforcements they could obtain. 
 
THE SLAGTER'S NEK INSURRECTION. H7 
 
 The landdrost of Uitenhage, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Cuyler, was at this time also commandant of the 
 troops on the frontier. During the night of the 
 16th of November he reached Captain Andrews' post 
 with a squadron of dragoons, and on the following 
 morning opened communication with the infatu- 
 ated men, with the object of inducing them to sur- 
 render. Commandant ISTel again went to them for 
 this purpose, and took with him a brother of one of 
 their leaders, but expostulation and entreaty were 
 alike in vain. They could not be persuaded to lay 
 down their arms. 
 
 On the 18th Colonel Cuyler marched to Slagter's 
 "Nek with thirty burghers under Commandant Nel 
 and forty dragoons under Major Eraser. When 
 within rifle-shot of the insurgent band the force 
 halted, and communications were again opened 
 with a view of preventing bloodshed, but with the 
 same result as before. Preparations for an advance 
 upon the position were then made, but just at that 
 moment several men were seen riding up from the 
 opposite side and joining Bezuidenhout's party. 
 They were the last of those who had gone to seek 
 help, and they brought tidings of absolute failure. 
 Five of the original band had withdrawn from the 
 cause and gone to their homes, and the others now 
 for the first time realised the utter hopelessness of 
 resistance. Eighteen of them rushed towards Nel's 
 commando, laid down their arms, and surrendered. 
 
 The remaining insurgents tried to escape. There 
 was, however, little chance of this, so fifteen more 
 surrendered shortly afterwards. The most desperate 
 fled into Kaffirland, but a few days later, when the 
 direction they had taken was ascertained, they were 
 followed by Commandant Nel with twenty-two bur- 
 
118 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ghers and Major Eraser with a hundred pandours. 
 They were soon overtaken by the pandours, when 
 three were arrested, and one who resisted was cap- 
 tured after being wounded. Only Jan Bezuidenhout 
 was now at liberty. He was in a waggon a little in 
 advance, and with him were his wife and his son, 
 a boy fourteen years of age. 
 
 The pandours approached the waggon, and called 
 to him to surrender. He was an illiterate frontier 
 grazier, whose usual residence was a wattle-and-daub 
 structure hardly deserving the name of a house, 
 and who knew nothing of refinement after the Eng- 
 lish town pattern. His code of honour, too, was in 
 some respects different from that of modern Eng- 
 lishmen, but it contained at least one principle 
 common to the noblest minds in all sections of the 
 race to which he belonged: to die rather than do 
 that which is degrading. And for him it would have 
 been unutterably degrading to have surrendered to 
 the pandours. Instead of doing so he fired at them. 
 His wife, a true South African countrywoman, in 
 this extremity showed that the Batavian blood had 
 not degenerated by change of clime. She stepped 
 to the side of her husband, and as he discharged 
 one gun loaded another for his use. His son, too, 
 took an active part in resistance. A Hottentot was 
 killed before Bezuidenhout received two severe 
 wounds, from which he died in a few hours, and then 
 his wife, who was also wounded, and his son were dis- 
 abled and seized. 
 
 The prisoners, thirty-nine in number, were sent 
 to Uitenhage for trial. When brought before the 
 judges they admitted the facts as here related, and 
 the evidence taken was conclusive. On the 22nd of 
 January, 1816, their sentences were pronounced. 
 
THE SLAGTER'S NEK INSURRECTION. H9 
 
 All except the widow of Jan Bezuidenhout were to be 
 conveyed to Captain Andrews' post, where they had 
 taken the oath to be true to each other and their 
 cause, and there the six most guilty were to suffer 
 death by hanging. The remaining thirty-two, after 
 witnessing the execution, were to undergo various 
 punishments, ranging from banishment for life to 
 imprisonment for a month or a fine of fifty dollars. 
 It was generally supposed that the governor 
 would use his power of mitigation to prevent the 
 penalty of death being inflicted, as no blood had 
 actually been shed by any of the prisoners. Ban- 
 ishment would have been equally effective as a warn- 
 ing to others, and it seemed to most people then as 
 now that something was due to the burghers who 
 aided the government, and who were afterwards hor- 
 rified at the thought that they had helped to pursue 
 their deluded countrymen to death. But Lord 
 Charles Somerset would show very little mercy. On 
 the intercession of Landdrost Cuyler one of those 
 condemned to die was spared, on account of distin- 
 guished services in the preceding Kaffir war and 
 uniform good conduct previously, but on the 9th of 
 March, 1816, the sentences of the other five were car- 
 ried out. Of the remaining prisoners one was ban- 
 ished from the colony for life, seven among whom 
 the widow of Jan Bezuidenhout was included were 
 banished for life from the three eastern districts, 
 ten had the choice of short terms of imprisonment 
 or payment of fines, and sixteen were released with- 
 out further punishment. 
 
 In history occurrences must be regarded accord- 
 ing to the effects which they produce. The event 
 which is here recorded would not have been worthy 
 of so much space in this volume if the execution of 
 
120 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the five burghers had not caused the most intense 
 animosity towards the British government. We can 
 never forget that Slagter's Nek was an expression fre- 
 quently heard during the next thirty years, not only 
 from the relations of those who suffered, but from 
 those who took part on the government side without 
 imagining that such a result would follow. And 
 even yet it is not forgotten. It is brought forward 
 in public discussions to-day as a proof of the merci- 
 less nature of English authority, and people in se- 
 cluded districts whose ideas change slowly can with 
 difficulty be convinced that the spirit of the time in 
 which we live is much more humane. The ques- 
 tion whether such punishment was deserved or not 
 needs no remark: its infliction, as seen through 
 the light of later occurrences, was certainly a grave 
 political error. 
 
THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAP,. 
 
 CHAPTEK XT. 
 
 THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAE. 
 
 EVENTS in South Africa have always been so in- 
 terlaced that it is impossible to give an accurate ac- 
 count of the progress of the country during the nine- 
 teenth century without referring to occurrences 
 that at first glance seem to have no relation to it. 
 Such is the fifth Kaffir war, but that war opened the 
 way to the settlement of several thousand British 
 immigrants in the present districts of Albany and 
 Bathurst, so that it cannot be passed over. 
 
 The line of military posts along the eastern border 
 prevented a general invasion by the Kaffirs, but was 
 of little use in keeping out stock thieves. Parties 
 of young men, almost as agile as monkeys, managed 
 to pass between them at night both coming and go- 
 ing, and drove off the cattle of any one who at- 
 tempted to settle within fifty miles of the frontier. 
 The nature of the country was all in their favour. 
 The Fish Hiver, which was the boundary stream, 
 flows through a wide valley, and its low flat banks are 
 covered for miles back with a dense scrub, through 
 which the only roads in those days were the paths 
 made by elephants. When once in this jungle the 
 robber was safe from pursuit. In the rolling grass 
 lands to the westward were innumerable dells and 
 ravines clothed with trees, bushes, and lofty shrubs, 
 which furnished hiding-places by day for cattle be- 
 ing driven off. 
 
122 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 On this account various efforts made by Sir John 
 Cradock and Lord Charles Somerset to induce 
 graziers to settle on the land between the lower Fish 
 and Bushman's rivers were unsuccessful. Many 
 persons, tempted by the liberal terms offered, tried 
 to do so, but were compelled to abandon the attempt 
 in despair. Sir John Cradock sent a military ex- 
 pedition into the Kaffir country to punish the clans 
 that were known to be most implicated in the rob- 
 beries, but owing to the illness of the commanding 
 officer little or nothing was done. 
 
 Early in 1817 Lord Charles Somerset visited the 
 frontier. He sent an invitation to all the leading 
 Kaffir chiefs to meet him at Gaika's kraal on the 
 Kat River, and with a strong escort he entered 
 their country to hold a conference. Gaika protest- 
 ed that his adherents were innocent of stealing, and 
 said that he had no control over the followers of the 
 other chiefs. The governor replied that he would not 
 acknowledge or treat with any one else, as he re- 
 garded him Gaika as their legitimate ruler. 
 An agreement was then made that the ordinary Kaf- 
 iir law of communal responsibility should be in force 
 in cases of theft from colonists, that is, any kraal 
 to which cattle could be traced should be obliged to 
 make good the loss, and the clan should be answer- 
 able for each of its kraals. 
 
 Shortly after this arrangement the garrison of 
 the colony was reduced, and the dragoons were with- 
 drawn from the frontier. In their place was sub- 
 stituted the new halfbreed and Hottentot regiment 
 of mixed cavalry and infantry, already mentioned, 
 which was called the Cape corps, and was only two 
 hundred and fifty strong. The thieving was now 
 carried on to a greater extent than before, and parts 
 
THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAR. 123 
 
 of the colony that had previously been comparatively 
 secure, such as Tarka and the territory to the west- 
 ward, were subjected to the inroads of the maraud- 
 ers. Gaika's followers were just as active in this 
 pursuit as the followers of the other chiefs. Mili- 
 tary parties frequently entered the Kaffir country 
 and made reprisals, so that the condition of things, 
 though called peace, was really not very different 
 from a state of war. 
 
 The feud between Gaika and !N~dlambe did not 
 cease when the latter was expelled from the colony. 
 The two chiefs were about equal in number of direct 
 followers, so that it depended upon the attitude of the 
 minor clans which of them at any time was superior 
 in strength. One year a combination would be 
 formed that gave to Gaika a decided advantage, the 
 next year the same thing would take place in 
 E~dlambe's favour. Through this feud the people 
 were reduced to a state of poverty, for cattle cap- 
 tured on either side after skirmishes were usually 
 slaughtered to furnish a feast for the conquerors. 
 In 1818 there were not more than ninety or a hundred 
 thousand head in possession of all the residents be- 
 tween the Fish River and the Kei, which of itself 
 tended to promote stocklifting from the Europeans 
 over the border. 
 
 Gaika occupied one of the most beautiful tracts 
 of land in South Africa, perhaps it would not be too 
 much to say in the world. To the north was the 
 mountain range of the Amatola, the highest dome 
 of which still bears his name. The lower slopes 
 were covered with dark evergreen forest trees, above 
 which rose bare grey and brown rock in every form 
 of crag and precipice. In July and August the sum- 
 mits were snow-capped, and when the snow melted, 
 
PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 or when thunderstorms raged along them, cascades 
 looking like silver bands leaped hundreds of feet from 
 ledge to ledge. Spurs of less elevation like buttresses 
 projected many miles towards the south, forming 
 valleys of great fertility, down which flowed streams 
 of clear sweet water. The grass, except in seasons 
 of drought, was luxuriant, so that nothing was 
 wanting to make an ideal abode for an agricultural 
 and pastoral people. 
 
 The whole country between the Buffalo Eiver 
 and the Kei was in RTdlambe's possession, though 
 he could occupy only a small portion of so extensive 
 an area. Between the Buffalo and the Fish River 
 the land within twenty-five or thirty miles of the sea 
 was held by the little clans that were to be found 
 now on one side, then on the other, in the contest be- 
 tween Ndlambe and his nephew. All this territory 
 was carpeted with long rich grass, and was thickly 
 dotted over w r ith mimosa trees, that gave it the ap- 
 pearance of an enormous park. Its surface was di- 
 versified with hills, plains, valleys, and ravines down 
 which numerous rivulets coursed to the sea. 
 
 In 1818, through the influence of a man of note 
 named Makana, nearly the whole of the petty clans 
 were in close alliance with Ndlambe. This Makana 
 was not a chief by birth, but one of those individu- 
 als of high intellectual power that are occasionally 
 found among the Bantu. He had learned some- 
 thing from Christian missionaries, and though he 
 had not adopted their creed, he had applied several 
 of their tenets to his own ideas, and had then begun 
 to instruct his countrymen, by many of whom he was 
 regarded as one gifted with supernatural wisdom. 
 Makana's intelligence was so much higher than 
 that of the community in which ho lived that he 
 
THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAR. 125 
 
 was able to see the advantage of a single strong gov- 
 ernment over all the Kaffirs west of the Kei, and hia 
 desire was to raise ]STdlambe to the position of 
 paramount chief. Gaika he despised as an effemi- 
 nate and licentious inebriate. 
 
 Having got together a force superior to any that 
 had jet been engaged in the struggle, Makana man- 
 aged by stratagem to draw nearly the whole of 
 Gaika's warriors into an ambush on the Debe flats. 
 The battle that then took place was the most desper- 
 ate engagement known to any of the southern Bantu 
 tribes, and before darkness closed in a third of 
 Gaika's retainers had fallen and the remainder were 
 fugitives. The night that followed was bitterly cold, 
 for it was midwinter, when hoar frost is often seen 
 on the ground until the sun is well above the hori- 
 zon ; but the victors made great fires, by the light of 
 which they sought their wounded enemies and 
 stabbed them to death with brutal ferocity. The 
 Kaffirs term this engagement the battle of Amalinde, 
 and from it old people until recently dated the events 
 of their youth. Within a few days the conquerors 
 took possession of the defeated chief's corn pits and 
 destroyed his kraals, but were unable to secure the 
 whole of his cattle. 
 
 Gaika fled westward to the Winterberg, and sent a 
 messenger t'o the nearest British military post, ear- 
 nestly begging for aid. At first the officer in com- 
 mand of the post did not give much heed to the state- 
 ments of the messenger, who said there were many 
 families in which not a single adult male remained 
 alive, and that no such wailing as that of the women 
 was ever heard before, but soon other information 
 reached him which proved this to be reality, not 
 fiction, and he then sent a report of what had oc- 
 
126 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 curred to the governor. Lord Charles Somerset re- 
 solved to restore the fallen chief. He accordingly 
 called out a number of mounted burghers, and di- 
 rected Lieutenant-Colonel Brereton, of the Royal 
 African corps, to march with them and some sol- 
 diers to Gaika's aid. In December, 1818, Colonel 
 Brereton crossed the Fish River, and being joined 
 by the fugitives, who were in the mountains near the 
 border, he moved eastward against Ndlambe, who 
 was believed to be at the head of eighteen thousand 
 men. That chief and his followers, however, would 
 not meet the Europeans in the open field, but re- 
 tired into thickets, where it was not easy to reach 
 them. 
 
 The kraals in the open country were destroyed, 
 and wherever a herd of cattle could be got at it was 
 seized, but only a few hundred people were killed. 
 Colonel Brereton was so shocked by the conduct of 
 his savage allies, who were mad with joy at being 
 able to wreak vengeance and would spare no opponent 
 whatever, that he withdrew from the field without 
 first obtaining a decided advantage, taking with 
 him twenty-three thousand head of cattle. Of these, 
 nine thousand were given to Gaika, some were dis- 
 tributed among the graziers who had suffered most 
 from depredations, and the remainder were sold to 
 defray the expenses of the expedition. On reach- 
 ing Grahamstown the burghers were disbanded and 
 permitted to return to their homes. 
 
 This gave ISTdlambe and Makana an opportunity of 
 which they were not slow to avail themselves. The 
 latter seemed to be everywhere, so rapid were his 
 movements, calling upon all true men to join his 
 cause and denouncing the wrath of the spirit world 
 against those who held back. A great force was col- 
 
THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAR. 127 
 
 lected, with which Gaika was attacked, utterly de- 
 spoiled, and with all his adherents driven into the 
 mountain fastnesses at the junction of the Ba- 
 viaan's and Fish rivers. A rush was then made into 
 the colony. Eight or nine thousand men in little 
 bands spread themselves over the country far to the 
 westward, and pillaged it completely. Fortunately 
 most of the inhabitants had time to form lagers, 
 within which their lives were safe; but thirty in* 
 dividuals were overtaken and murdered. 
 
 Another body of about nine thousand men, under 
 Makana in person, boldly attacked Grahamstown. 
 Soon after sunrise on the morning of the 22nd of April, 
 1819, they made their appearance, and in full view of 
 the garrison ranged themselves in three columns, 
 respectively under a son of ISTdlambe, the next chief 
 of importance in their party, and Makana himself. 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Willshire, of the 38th regiment, 
 was in command of the post. The garrison consisted 
 of two hundred and twelve European soldiers and 
 one hundred and twenty-one men of the Cape corps. 
 
 The Kaffirs in their usual manner made a rush 
 upon the position, but it was the rush of an undis- 
 ciplined mob, which might have borne down a 
 smaller party by its weight in the open field, but 
 could effect nothing against stone walls crowned with 
 artillery. They were met by a volley of cannon 
 and musket balls, which drove two of the columns 
 back, though they soon rallied and returned to the 
 charge. The column under Makana stood firm. He 
 gave orders to his men to break their assagai shafts, 
 so that they could be used as stabbing weapons, and 
 at their head he pressed on until the barrack 
 square was gained. Still the galling fire was con- 
 tinued by men who could not be reached, and though 
 
128 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the other two columns were now charging again, so 
 many were falling that he was obliged to retire. 
 Where he could not remain, neither Dushane nor 
 Kobe, the other leaders, cared to stay, and thus the 
 whole force retreated precipitately, carrying their 
 wounded with them. 
 
 In the attack three men were killed and five 
 wounded on the English side. About five hundred 
 Kaffir bodies were counted on the ground where they 
 fell, but it was supposed that a larger number died 
 of their wounds before the Fish River was reached, 
 and that their total loss was not far short of thirteen 
 hundred men. Among them were three minor sons 
 of the chief Ndlambe. 
 
 Before this event orders had been issued for a 
 strong burgher force to take the field again, but as 
 the country was suffering from drought and the horse 
 sickness was just then unusually severe, it was some 
 time before the farmers could get together. In July, 
 however, all was ready for an invasion of Kaffirland. 
 Eighteen hundred and fifty mounted burghers, four 
 hundred and thirty-two European soldiers, seventy 
 men of the Cape corps, and a hundred and fifty 
 Hottentot levies were then formed into three divi- 
 sions, commanded respectively by Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Willshire, Major Eraser, and Landdrost Stocken- 
 strom, who crossed the boundary at places some dis- 
 tance apart, and began to drive Ndlambe's adher- 
 ents eastward before them. 
 
 In almost every thicket there was a skirmish, 
 which invariably ended in success for the Europeans, 
 as the assagai could not compete with the rifle, but it 
 is to be regretted that it was not possible to put more 
 restraint upon the followers of Gaika, who revelled 
 to their full content in bloodshed. In a very short 
 
THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAR. 129 
 
 time Ndlambe's power was completely broken, his 
 cattle, about thirty thousand in number, were seized, 
 his kraals were burnt, his corn wasted, and he him- 
 self and those of his followers who were still alive 
 were destitute fugitives in the valley of the Kei. 
 The task assigned to the invaders was thoroughly 
 completed, but the commandos were instructed not 
 to withdraw until the governor could visit the scene 
 of hostilities and make what arrangements he might 
 consider necessary. 
 
 On the 15th of August Makana surrendered volunr 
 tarily to Landdrost Stockenstrom, giving as his rea- 
 son that as he was the prime mover of the war he 
 hoped the British authorities would be satisfied with 
 his detention and grant peace to his people, who were 
 starving. He was sent as a political prisoner to 
 Robben Island in Table Bay, where he remained 
 nearly a year. Then with some others he endeav- 
 oured to escape in a boat, but was drowned in the 
 surf. 
 
 The governor proceeded to the frontier, and on the 
 15th of October had a conference at the Gwanga 
 with Gaika and as many of the other chiefs as could 
 be induced to meet him. There was but one opinion 
 among military men, that the Fish River, owing to 
 its tortuous course and the wide belt of scrubby bush 
 along its banks, was a boundary that could not be 
 properly defended, and therefore a better one should 
 be substituted. The governor saw this at a glance, 
 and selected the Keiskama, which runs through open 
 country. The intervening territory was then with- 
 out inhabitants. Its lower portion, adjoining the 
 sea, had been occupied by a clan that took part with 
 Ndlambe, and that had been driven out. The centre 
 for twenty or thirty miles had been waste for many 
 
 K 
 
130 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 years, owing to the long tribal feud, which com- 
 pelled the clans to live far apart. But the upper sec- 
 tion contained the charming valleys of the Kat and 
 Tyumie rivers and other land along the Amatola 
 range that Gaika and his people regarded as pecul- 
 iarly their own, and with which they would be most 
 unwilling to part. 
 
 The chief, however, was in a position so entirely 
 dependent upon the governor that when his consent 
 was asked to make the Keiskama the boundary he 
 dared not absolutely refuse. Dispersed as his ene- 
 mies were, starving and homeless, they still refused 
 to come under his authority. The white men might 
 kill them, they said, but could not compel them to 
 submit to him, for his subjects they would never be. 
 Fortune was fickle, in Kaffirland particularly so, 
 and who could say what assistance these fugitives 
 might not obtain from powerful rulers beyond the 
 Kei? So Gaika would not displease the governor, 
 upon whose friendship his safety and his dignity 
 rested, but he would try if by soft words he could 
 not keep some part of what was asked. 
 
 He was born in the Tyumie valley, he said, and it 
 was his desire to live in it ; might he not retain that ? 
 How can you say you were born in the Tyumie val- 
 ley, replied the governor, when at the time of your 
 birth there were no Kaffirs west of the Keiskama, 
 and only Bushmen lived along the mountains? 
 That was true, he answered, but he had gone to reside 
 there when he was a boy, and if the governor would 
 let him keep that valley he would agree to abandon 
 all the rest. Lord Charles consented, and an ar- 
 rangement was concluded that the western boundary 
 of the Kaffir country should thereafter be the water- 
 shed separating the Kat and Tyumie rivers down to 
 
THE FIFTH KAFFIR WAR. 131 
 
 a certain point, thence the Tyumie to the Keiskama 
 and the Keiskama to the sea. The territory between 
 this line and the old border was to remain without 
 other inhabitants than soldiers, who were to patrol 
 it constantly and prevent either white people or 
 Kaffirs from settling in it. This was Lord Charles 
 Somerset's plan of solving the native question. 
 
 Temporary military camps were then formed at 
 convenient places, the Cape corps was enlarged by 
 enlistment and stationed in them, and the burghers 
 were permitted to return to their homes. A site for 
 a permanent fort was selected on the bank of the 
 Keiskama, about midway between the mountains and 
 the sea, and nearly the whole of the engineers in the 
 colony, together with a detachment of soldiers of the 
 line, were sent there to construct the works. It was 
 named Fort Willshire, and for many years was re- 
 garded as a post of great importance. 
 
 In 1820 Lord Charles Somerset paid a short visit 
 to England, and during his absence the acting gov- 
 ernor attempted to alter this plan. He obtained 
 Gaika's consent to the occupation of the vacant terri- 
 tory by Europeans and its full cession to the colony, 
 after which he allotted ground there to a number 
 of retired military officers and others; but upon the 
 governor's return the grantees were obliged to with- 
 draw, and the system of keeping an unoccupied belt 
 of land between the two races was restored. 
 
 Commercial intercourse with the Kaffirs was, how- 
 ever, encouraged, as much with a view to their ad- 
 vantage as to the profits derived from the trade. 
 With this object periodical fairs were established at 
 Fort Willshire, to which licensed dealers took their 
 goods and the Kaffirs brought ivory, hides, millet, 
 and mimosa gum. The traffic was carried on under 
 
132 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the supervision of the officer commanding at the 
 fort, who was careful to prevent munitions of war 
 or spirituous liquors from being sold. Personal or- 
 naments, such as beads, copper wire, and brass but- 
 tons, were what the Kaffirs particularly wished for, 
 and it was a long time before they acquired a taste 
 for more useful articles. The chiefs usually took 
 half of whatever the commoners obtained, as a right 
 which was their due. 
 
 No white men except Christian missionaries were 
 permitted by law under any pretence to enter the 
 Kaffir country, but it was impossible to prevent 
 worthless characters, military deserters and others, 
 from doing so occasionally. The London Missionary 
 Society was now commencing its work among Gaika's 
 adherents, and a little later was followed by the Wes- 
 leyan Society, which took !N"dlambe's people as its 
 first field of labour, but rapidly formed a chain of 
 stations eastward to the Bashee, 
 
ARRIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 133 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 AURIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 
 
 BEFORE the year 1817 almost the only residents 
 of British birth in South Africa were the heads of the 
 civil departments of the government, the troops, and a 
 few merchants and professional men in Capetown 
 and Simonstown. The passage from England was 
 too long and too expensive for ordinary emigrants to 
 undertake. There was no regular postal communi- 
 cation until the end of 1815, when packets com- 
 menced to leave the Thames monthly with mails, 
 passengers, and light cargo for the Cape, Mauritius, 
 and India. The first of these packets arrived in 
 Table Bay in April, 1816, after a passage of one 
 hundred and fourteen days. The postage on letters 
 brought by her was eighty-four cents the quarter 
 ounce, and on newspapers six cents an ounce, cer- 
 tainly not a rate to encourage correspondence. 
 
 British immigration into South Africa other than 
 that named above commenced as a commercial specu- 
 lation. In 1817 a gentleman named Moodie, learn- 
 ing that mechanics were in great demand in Cape- 
 town, agreed with some two hundred Scotch artisans 
 who were out of employment to apprentice them- 
 selves to him for three years, and sent them out in 
 detachments. Upon their arrival no difficulty was 
 experienced in selling the indentures at from $240 
 to $290 each, chiefly to the mechanics themselves on 
 easy terms of payment. By combining together, 
 
 i 
 
134 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 living frugally, and taking work by contract, most 
 of these men were soon in prosperous circumstances, 
 though a few who mixed with the coloured people 
 were failures. The steady among them by getting 
 out their families and writing to their friends helped 
 to bring the colony to the notice of the labouring 
 classes in Scotland, but this had little effect, as un- 
 aided emigration at that time was hardly practicable. 
 
 A little later in the same year some seven or eight 
 hundred time-expired soldiers and sailors were dis- 
 charged in Capetown, and readily found employ- 
 ment. These men, however, cannot be said to have 
 increased the strength of the colony, or to have been 
 instrumental to its progress in any way. A writer 
 of the time states that there being no suitable 
 women for them to marry, they formed connections 
 with coloured females, and thus added to the bulk 
 of that class of the population which is least useful 
 and most dangerous in a moral point of view. 
 
 In 1819 about twenty-five individuals were sent 
 out under a scheme similar to that of Mr. Moodie, 
 but the gentleman who engaged in it was unable to 
 carry it further, as just then the announcement was 
 made of a resolution by the government to convey 
 a large number of families to South Africa free of 
 cost. 
 
 For some years after the termination of the long 
 war with France there was much distress among the 
 labouring people of Great Britain, as the country 
 could not furnish employment at once for the large 
 numbers who directly or indirectly had been occupied 
 in carrying on the contest. The only remedy seemed 
 to be emigration to other parts of the empire where 
 the condition of things was different, where there 
 was land without people, or work to be done and no 
 
ARUIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 135 
 
 one to do it. This was the state of the Cape Colony, 
 with its genial climate, its sparsely inhabited terri- 
 tory, and its undeveloped resources. 
 
 Lord Charles Somerset suggested to the secretary 
 of state that large tracts of land should be given to 
 wealthy men who were willing to take out from 
 thirty to fifty families, either as labourers or as 
 tenants. He wished thus to introduce the English 
 system of great estates, with aristocratic holders and 
 labourers of lower rank. In truth this was already 
 the ordinary South African system in the agricul- 
 tural districts, where the farmer was like an aris- 
 tocratic proprietor, and the slaves and Hottentots 
 were labourers and tenants. And yet when it was 
 tried it was found impossible in a single instance 
 to carry out Lord Charles Somerset's scheme. It an- 
 swered admirably where the labourers and tenants 
 were of an inferior race, but failed where they were 
 of the same blood as the proprietor. 
 
 The authorities in England decided to send out a 
 mixed body of emigrants, and placed a sum of two 
 hundred and forty thousand dollars upon the 
 estimates for the purpose, which parliament granted 
 without demur. Applications were then called for 
 in different parts of the kingdom on the following 
 terms : free transport to the colony ; a hundred acres 
 of ground without charge to each head of a family, 
 with an additional hundred for every servant a 
 wealthy man should take out; freedom from land 
 taxes for ten years, and from district rates for five ; 
 no charge for survey, but title deeds to be issued 
 only after three years' occupation; $48 to be de- 
 posited with the emigration commissioners by each 
 head of a family or for each adult male servant, 
 to be returned after arrival in the colony either in 
 
136 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 money, provisions, or agricultural implements at 
 cost price. 
 
 Applications representing nearly ninety thousand 
 individuals were sent in, from which one thousand 
 and thirty-four English families, four hundred and 
 twelve Scotch, one hundred and seventy-four Irish, 
 and forty-two Welsh were selected, but most of the 
 Scotch and some of the Irish afterwards withdrew. 
 Every hundred families that chose to group together 
 had the right of selecting a clergyman of any de- 
 nomination to accompany them, whose salary would 
 be paid by government, but the majority did not 
 avail themselves of this privilege, and only two 
 clergymen of the English church and one Wesleyan 
 accompanied the emigrants. Many of the heads of 
 families preferred to leave their wives and children 
 at home until they could prepare for their recep- 
 tion in the colony, and some of these did not reach 
 South Africa until several years later. 
 
 Lord Charles Somerset resolved that the immi- 
 grants should be located in the tract of land between 
 the Fish and Bushman's rivers, part of the territory 
 from which the Kaffirs had been expelled in 1812. 
 It was then entirely unoccupied, except by the gar- 
 rison of Grahamstown and the Hottentots at the Lon- 
 don Society's mission station Theopolis. The gov- 
 ernor believed that it was secure from Kaffir in- 
 roads, and it had in front of it the vacant ground 
 between the Eish and the Keiskama, which was 
 patrolled by soldiers. It was a well-watered land, 
 and fair to look upon, so that there seemed to be a 
 reasonable prospect of a settlement thriving upon it. 
 
 In March, 1820, the first transports arrived in 
 Table Bay, and the others quickly followed. A 
 few mechanics, tempted by the high wages offered, 
 
ARRIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 137 
 
 chose not to go farther, and two small groups of fami- 
 lies were landed there to be located at Caledon and 
 Clanwilliam, but far the greater number, after ob- 
 taining refreshments, proceeded onward to Algoa Bay. 
 There they disembarked, and were sheltered in tents 
 until vehicles could be obtained to convey them and 
 their effects to the ground upon which they were to 
 live. They had not long to wait, for the govern- 
 ment requisitioned waggons from the graziers to the 
 westward, and when these arrived they went on with- 
 out delay. 
 
 Their troubles were now to begin. Each family 
 was left upon its own ground with a tent and infor- 
 mation where and when rations would be distributed 
 for a time to the elected head of the group of which 
 it was a member. It would have been all very well 
 if they had been agricultural labourers, but very few 
 of them knew anything whatever about tilling the 
 soil. Among them were several retired military offi- 
 cers, physicians, surgeons, and other gentlemen with 
 slender means, besides a number of clerks and per- 
 sons previously engaged in different kinds of com- 
 merce, who emigrated under the belief that with a 
 hundred acres of ground of their own they could em- 
 ploy labour and live in comfort. They were rudely 
 awakened to the fact that the only labour they could 
 depend upon was that of their own hands. Of those 
 who were accustomed to toil, the majority were me- 
 chanics and people who had been employed in fac- 
 tories. 
 
 It seemed for a time as if the settlement was 
 doomed to failure, and that as soon as the supply of 
 rations issued by the government ceased the people 
 must starve. Among them were a few men of means, 
 who had brought out a number of servants, and were 
 
138 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 consequently in a better position than the others. 
 These built houses and began to cultivate the ground, 
 but being without experience they sowed wheat in 
 the virgin soil, and their crops were entirely de- 
 stroyed by rust. Then their servants became un- 
 ruly or deserted, and they were compelled to abandon 
 the idea of creating estates like those in England. 
 
 At the close of 1820 things looked very gloomy 
 in the district of Albany, as the territory between 
 the Fish and Bushman's rivers was now called. But 
 something was there which was destined to make the 
 settlement one of the most successful instances of co- 
 lonisation ever known, and that something was un- 
 daunted perseverance. These men and women were 
 after all the right material, for if their hands were 
 unskilled their hearts were strong, and one indi- 
 vidual who conquers tremendous difficulties is surely 
 worth whole scores of those who can surmount 
 no obstacles in life. They had come to make homes 
 for themselves and their children, and homes they 
 were resolved to have. 
 
 The mechanics, realising that without some 
 capital or special knowledge ground is useless, 
 moved away to places where they could get work at 
 high wages. By doing so they abandoned their rights 
 to the hundred-acre plots, but many of them ac- 
 quired ground and became farmers in later life when 
 they had obtained full knowledge of the conditions 
 of the country and were in possession of sufficient 
 means to purchase stock and proper implements. 
 Others, who under no circumstances would have made 
 successful farmers, went to the villages and took em- 
 ployment of some kind until they could better them- 
 selves. 
 
 Meantime more were arriving at Algoa Bay and 
 
ARRIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 139 
 
 were being forwarded to Albany. Some of tbese 
 were people who paid for their passages under an 
 arrangement with the secretary of state that they 
 should receive free grants of land, others were sent 
 out by the government in place of the Scotch and 
 Irish families that had withdrawn. Altogether, be- 
 tween March, 1820, and May, 1821, nearly five thou- 
 sand individuals of British birth were thus landed 
 in the colony, and set down on open ground that had 
 never been cultivated before except in little patches 
 by the Kaffir pick. As the larger number of these 
 were without means to purchase food, rations of 
 meat, flour, and rice were supplied to them at the 
 joint expense of the imperial and colonial govern- 
 ments until October, 1821, and half rations to the 
 most needy after that date. But they had not mi- 
 grated to South Africa to become paupers, and as 
 rapidly as they possibly could they relieved the gov- 
 ernments of this burden. 
 
 In June, 1821, the acting governor visited the set- 
 tlement, and was able to give his testimony to the 
 courage with which the people were meeting their 
 difficulties. He found them in fairly good spirits, 
 and making much greater progress in cultivating 
 the ground than could have been expected from the 
 previous occupations of most of them. Some had 
 purchased a few working and breeding cattle, and 
 had large gardens, with plenty of vegetables, pigs, 
 and poultry. The health of all was remarkably 
 good : there was hardly one who was not more robust 
 than in England. The deaths had not exceeded a 
 dozen, and the births had been over a hundred. Lit- 
 tle cottages of unburnt brick or wattled walls and 
 thatched roofs had been "built, and provided tolerable 
 shelter from sun and storm. 
 
140 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The settlers, however, had not yet sufficient ex- 
 perience in South African farming, and this sea- 
 son again they laid their lands almost entirely under 
 wheat, instead of maize or oats. The result was the 
 entire destruction of the crops by rust, as in 1820. 
 This caused another dispersion among the colonial 
 villages, which tended greatly to the advantage of 
 Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth. The first of 
 these places, having a military garrison and being 
 in an excellent situation, attracted many persons. 
 Albany had been created a district in 1820, with a 
 landdrost and heemraden of its own, who had been 
 stationed at a place named Bathurst, on the Kowie 
 River, but at the close of 1821 the court was moved 
 to Grahamstown as a much better centre. Here 
 also were the stores from which the Kaffir traders 
 obtained their supplies, so that it was a place of year- 
 ly increasing importance. Port Elizabeth, as the 
 village on the western shore of Algoa Bay was now 
 called, was the natural seaport for the eastern dis- 
 tricts of the colony, and with the arrival of the Brit- 
 ish settlers trade began to flow through it. There 
 was in consequence an opportunity to make a living 
 there, which many who could not succeed as farmers 
 availed themselves of. 
 
 Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth were thus pure- 
 ly British centres from the first, and they remain so 
 to this day, for hardly any Dutch colonists have ever 
 settled at either place. The district of Albany too 
 has always remained entirely English as far as its 
 European population is concerned. But the dis- 
 persion of the British immigrants extended into 
 districts that had been purely Dutch before, and 
 especially at the villages of Graaff-Reinet, Cradock, 
 and Uitenhage there was from this time forward 
 
ARRIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 
 
 a considerable English element in the population, 
 having the commerce as well as the mechanical in- 
 dustry of these places almost entirely in its hands. 
 
 A few individuals, attracted hy the large profit 
 to be made in Kaffirland, where an ox was often to 
 be had for a couple of pounds of beads or a few ban- 
 gles, ignored the government regulations, and made 
 their way far to the eastward. When detected they 
 were severely punished, but the gains were so enor- 
 mous that the number engaged in illicit dealing in- 
 creased constantly, until in 1830 the government 
 abandoned the restrictive system, the fairs at Fort 
 Willshire were brought to an end, and licences were 
 granted to traders to enter the Kaffir country freely. 
 Elephant hunting was another occupation to which 
 several of the more adventurous turned, and as ivory 
 was always saleable and the animals that produced 
 it were then plentiful, it furnished them with ample 
 means for living, though it unfitted them for steadier 
 pursuits in later times. 
 
 In 1822 the attempt to raise wheat, still persisted 
 in, was again a failure, but as other crops were also 
 tried, and succeeded admirably, the farmers regarded 
 the turning point of their fortunes as passed. In 
 May, 1823, there were still four hundred and thirty- 
 eight heads of families on the ground that had been 
 assigned to them, and these looked forward with 
 confidence to the ultimate success which they so 
 thoroughly deserved. Their chief complaint was 
 want of labourers. Though so many of those drawn 
 from English towns and factories had been obliged 
 to abandon the settlement, those that remained could 
 not obtain a ploughman or a farm hand at any wage. 
 What had been accomplished was due to their own 
 unaided toil. 
 
14:2 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 But while they were thus hopeful, a great and 
 unanticipated calamity was still before them, as if 
 Providence designed to try them by the severest of 
 tests, and by so doing fit them to take their full share 
 in building up a great colony. The Dutch South 
 Africans had passed through wave after wave of ad- 
 versity, and had emerged a strong, self-reliant, un- 
 daunted people, capable of forcing their way through 
 suffering to success. The British settlers in Al- 
 bany were to go through the same ordeal. 
 
 Early in October, 1823, there were such floods 
 in the eastern part of the colony as had never been 
 known before. Eor days together rain fell as in 
 ordinary thunderstorms, every rill became a foam- 
 ing torrent, and the rivers, overflowing their banks, 
 rolled down to the sea in great volumes of discoloured 
 water. The immigrants, being without experience 
 of anything of this kind, had built their cottages 
 and made their gardens and cornfields on the low- 
 lying ground along the streamlets which course 
 through the district. When the flood came, cottages, 
 gardens, orchards, and cornfields were all swept 
 away. Many escaped with nothing but their lives 
 and the clothes they had on. In some places even 
 the earth loosened by the plough or the spade dis- 
 appeared, leaving the barren subsoil bare. 
 
 By this misfortune a great many were reduced 
 to the last stage of distress. They could not have 
 recovered their position indeed if a sum of about 
 $50,000 had not been raised in other parts of the 
 colony, in India, and in England, to help them to 
 commence afresh. This did not go very far, but it 
 enabled them to meet the most pressing needs, and 
 with a force of will that must command the highest 
 admiration they set to work again. 
 
ARRIVAL OF BRITISH COLONISTS. 143 
 
 Early in 1825 the governor visited Albany, and 
 enlarged the farms of those who had so bravely per- 
 severed, by dividing among them the ground aban- 
 doned by the others. They had by this time acquired 
 sufficient experience to know what crops could be 
 most successfully cultivated, and they had begun to 
 realise that cattle-breeding was the most profitable 
 branch of their industry. A number of starving 
 Betshuana, who had escaped from wars then carried 
 on beyond the Orange River, had found their way 
 into the colony, and the governor apprenticed these 
 refugees to the settlers for seven years. They could 
 only perform the roughest kind of labour, but as cat- 
 tle herds they were useful, and their maintenance 
 cost but little. 
 
 From this time onward until 1834 the immigrants 
 would have enjoyed almost uninterrupted prosperity 
 if it had not been for Kaffir thieves who made their 
 way into the colony and drove off all cattle not care- 
 fully guarded in Albany as well as in the districts 
 north and west occupied by Dutch farmers. They 
 had adjusted themselves, each one into the position 
 for which he was best adapted, and they had obtained 
 what they came to seek, comfortable and happy 
 homes. In 1821 the scheme of their introduction 
 was regarded by observers as a lamentable failure; 
 in 1831 it was questioned whether any previous set- 
 tlement by Europeans in a large body in any wild ter- 
 ritory in the world had been so successful. 
 
 While the eastern districts were thus being peo- 
 pled either entirely or partly by subjects of English 
 speech, the western districts received very few such 
 immigrants. Nearly all those who were at first 
 located at Caledon and Clanwilliam after a short 
 stay went on to Albany, and there was but one 
 
144 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 small influx from Europe to compensate for their 
 removal. 
 
 The want of labourers in Capetown and its vicinity 
 tempted a gentleman named Ingram in 1823 to in- 
 troduce some from Ireland. He made an arrange- 
 ment* with Lord Bathurst, then secretary of state 
 in charge of the colonial department, under which the 
 imperial government paid a portion of the passage 
 money. Mr. Ingram then obtained three hundred 
 and fifty individuals of both sexes as apprentices for 
 three years, and brought them to Capetown, where 
 he sold the indentures. This was the last state-aided 
 immigration into South Africa for many years, but 
 individuals, chiefly men engaged in commerce, fre- 
 quently arrived and settled in Capetown or Port 
 Elizabeth. Civil servants also sent out from Eng- 
 land seldom returned, and clergymen and lay mis- 
 sionaries of many societies helped to increase the 
 European population. 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 145 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS OF VARIOUS KINDS. 
 
 IT was now considered advisable by the authori- 
 ties in England to suppress the use of Dutch as 
 the official language of South Africa, and in July, 
 1822, a proclamation was issued, by direction of 
 Earl Bathurst, for this purpose. It provided that 
 after the 1st of January, 1823, all documents issued 
 from the office of the secretary to government and 
 after the 1st of January, 1825, all other public 
 documents were to be in English, and that after 
 the 1st of January, 1828, proceedings in courts of 
 justice were to be conducted in that language only. 
 This measure not unnaturally created great irritation 
 among the old colonists, but their efforts to have it 
 modified so that English should be exclusively used 
 in Albany, Port Elizabeth, and Simonstown, and the 
 two languages concurrently elsewhere, were with- 
 out success. 
 
 As a means of altering the tongue of the great boxly 
 of Europeans in the country, the measure was an 
 utter failure. In truth it acted in the contrary 
 direction, for hundreds of parents who otherwise 
 would have had their children taught English now re- 
 fused to do so. It was a legitimate grievance, that 
 caused not only unnecessary expense, but deeply 
 wounded the sentiments of the people. If a man 
 had a case in court an interpreter had to be em- 
 ployed to translate every word that was said into a 
 
 L 
 
146 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 language unknown by all who were present except 
 the magistrate and the clerk, and even they were 
 usually more conversant with Dutch than with Eng- 
 lish. If he had business of any kind to transact 
 with the government, it was necessary to employ 
 some one, over whom he had no check, to conduct 
 the correspondence. Any one who will contrast 
 with this the treatment which the French in Canada 
 received will arrive at one of the causes of that wide- 
 spread disaffection towards British rule which soon 
 afterwards prevailed in South Africa. 
 
 To provide the means of acquiring a knowledge 
 of the English language the vacant pulpits of the 
 Dutch Reformed Church were filled by young 
 clergymen brought out from Scotland, and free 
 schools of a high class with able Scotch teachers were 
 established in the principal villages. In these 
 schools instruction was given in the English and 
 Latin languages alone. This added to the prevailing 
 irritation, and many parents would not allow their 
 children to attend, so that in one or two instances 
 it was necessary to withdraw the teachers for want 
 of pupils. At some places, however, especially 
 where there were a few English residents, the attend- 
 ance was large, and it is hardly possible to estimate 
 too highly the advantages which the colony derived 
 in an intellectual point of view from the establish- 
 ment of these schools. 
 
 The Scotch clergymen rapidly acquired a knowl- 
 edge of Dutch, and as many of them married into 
 colonial families the prejudice against them which 
 existed at first quickly passed away. They had been 
 carefully selected when theological students, and 
 without exception proved to be men of high ability 
 and great zeal. The influence which they enjoyed 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 147 
 
 in later years was used indeed to make their people 
 good Christians and good subjects, not to destroy 
 their hereditary speech, and it cannot be said that 
 they did anything directly to promote the use of the 
 English tongue. Their ministrations were in the 
 language of their people, though they were accus- 
 tomed to hold additional services in English wher- 
 ever there were residents of British blood. Several 
 of the present colonial districts Murraysburg, 
 Fraserburg, Sutherland, and Eobertson were named 
 in honour of the Scotch clergymen who ministered to 
 congregations there before the middle of the century. 
 
 In 1823 two commissioners were sent from Eng- 
 land to enquire into the condition of the- colonies of 
 the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon, and 
 to suggest administrative and financial improvements. 
 At the Cape their researches into questions relating 
 to the public revenue and to trade were exhaustive, 
 and their report's upon these subjects were compiled 
 with great care; but their examination into other 
 matters was extremely superficial. Some of their 
 statements, upon which be it remembered the form 
 of the future administration of the colony was to be 
 decided, create nothing short of amazement in those 
 who are acquainted with the archives of the colony, 
 documents which they, however, had neither time nor 
 the necessary knowledge to examine. Upon their 
 recommendations several important changes were 
 made. 
 
 The first was the creation, in 1825, of a council 
 to advise and assist the governor. It consisted of six 
 members, three of whom the chief justice, the secre- 
 tary to government, and the military officer next in 
 rank to the governor were to have seats by virtue of 
 .their offices, and the other three were appointed by 
 
14:8 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the secretary of state on the recommendation of the 
 governor. To this council all ordinances, public 
 orders, and proclamations were submitted before be- 
 ing issued, but the governor was not bound to follow 
 the advice given, and no question could be discussed 
 unless proposed by him. The creation of this ad- 
 visory body therefore did not mark much advance 
 upon the system of despotic government that pre- 
 ceded it. 
 
 Another change was the redemption of the paper 
 money, or rather the substitution of metallic coins 
 for the paper tokens that were in circulation. Of 
 late years this paper had been greatly increased, 
 first to enlarge the capital of the government bank 
 and enable that institution to meet the demands of 
 the growing commerce of the colony, and secondly 
 to construct public buildings, as the general revenue 
 was absorbed by the very high salaries paid to the 
 governor and the heads of departments. The gov- 
 ernor, for instance, received yearly $48,000 as salary, 
 and was provided with an official residence, a country 
 seat, a snooting lodge, and a marine villa, all main- 
 tained at the cost of the colony; the colonial secre- 
 tary received $16,800 a year; and all other officials 
 sent from England in proportion. These salaries 
 were paid in sterling money, so that the rate of ex- 
 change of the paper tokens against coin made no dif- 
 ference to the heads of departments. It made a very 
 great difference, however, to the subordinate officers 
 appointed in the colony, who received the same 
 quantity of paper every month, no matter what the 
 rate of exchange might be. 
 
 In 1825 the paper in circulation represented 
 rather over three and a half million rixdollars, of 
 which a little more than a third formed the capital 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 of the bank. The rixdollar, that is, the dollar of 
 the kingdom of Spain, was originally in South 
 Africa exactly equal to the United States or Cana- 
 dian dollar of the present day, but when the first 
 paper money was issued there was no silver coin of 
 that name in the country, and it was declared to be 
 equal to forty-eight Dutch stivers or ninety-six cents. 
 At that rate all subsequent issues were nominally 
 made, and in proclamations and other public docu- 
 ments it was repeatedly represented as of the same 
 value as four English shillings. 
 
 In trade it was constantly fluctuating, and there 
 were times when in Capetown one shilling and five 
 pence or thirty-four cents in silver or copper would 
 purchase as much as an inconvertible paper rix- 
 dollar, though in the country districts it never sank 
 so low as that. It was evident to every one that 
 the paper was a great barrier to the extension 
 of commerce, and that financial computations of 
 every kind must remain in confusion as long as it 
 was in existence. But it was equally evident that 
 there was no possible way of destroying it with- 
 out inflicting heavy loss upon individuals in the com* 
 munity. 
 
 In 1825 the imperial authorities came to a decision 
 upon the subject. An amount of coin was lent to 
 the Cape government to redeem a portion of the 
 paper tokens, and notes convertible into treasury 
 bills at the commissariat offices were issued to meet 
 the remainder. The exchange was fixed at thirty- 
 six cents for the rixdollar. Thus all debtors were 
 released of five-eighths of what they owed, and all 
 taxes like quitrents on land were reduced in the 
 same proportion. But those to whom money was 
 due, wards of the orphan chamber, holders of mort- 
 
150 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 gages, and investors of all kinds suffered severely. 
 There were of course many complaints, some of 
 which were of a piteous nature ; but upon the whole 
 the gain to the colony by getting rid of the paper 
 tokens was very great, and probably less distress 
 was caused by the rate of exchange that was adopted 
 than by any other that could have been fixed. 
 
 From this time forward pounds, shillings, and 
 pence sterling took the place in public accounts and 
 in commercial transactions of the rixdollars, schel- 
 lings, and stivers of former times, and English money 
 alone has remained in use to the present day. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1828, the old courts of 
 justice in the colony were abolished, and others re- 
 sembling those in England took their place. The 
 high court of justice had previously consisted of 
 judges appointed by the governor, and, with the ex- 
 ception of the president, removable at his pleasure. 
 They held other situations in the civil service, and 
 had the position of judges assigned to them as a mark 
 of favour or to increase their salaries. The court of 
 appeal consisted of the governor himself, assisted in 
 criminal cases by one or two assessors. Occasion- 
 ally decisions were reviewed in England, and though 
 they were recognised by the highest legal authorities 
 there to be in accordance with justice, the constitu- 
 tion of the courts subjected their proceedings to ad- 
 verse criticism by those against whom judgment 
 was given. Such tribunals could not command the 
 respect of every one. 
 
 In August, 1827, a charter of justice was issued, 
 which provided for the establishment of a supreme 
 court, to be independent of the executive and legis- 
 lative branches of the government, and to consist of a 
 chief justice and three puisne judges, all of whom 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 151 
 
 were to be barristers or advocates of at least three 
 years' standing. They were to be appointed by the 
 crown, and were not to hold any other office. In 
 civil cases there was to be a right of appeal to the 
 privy council if the matter in dispute was over 
 $4 ? 800 in value. Criminal cases were to be tried 
 by a judge and a jury of nine men, whose verdict was 
 to be unanimous in order to convict. The forms of 
 procedure were to be those of English courts, though 
 the civil or Roman-Dutch law was to remain in 
 force undisturbed. Circuit courts were to be held 
 twice a year in the chief villages throughout the 
 colony. 
 
 Instead of the district courts of landdrost and 
 heemraden stipendiary magistrates were appointed 
 to perform the judicial duties, and civil commis- 
 sioners to receive the revenues. In most cases the two 
 offices were held by the same individual. The col- 
 ony was divided into two province's, termed the west- 
 ern and the eastern. In the eastern province a com- 
 missioner-general was stationed, to supervise the mag- 
 istrates and watch over affairs on the border. The 
 colony was at this time divided into eleven districts, 
 of which six were included in the eastern province. 
 
 With the courts of landdrost and heemraden, which 
 tad previously administered the district revenues, 
 the burgher senate, that had performed similar muni- 
 cipal duties in Capetown, was also abolished. The 
 government required all the local rates and taxes 
 to be paid into the public treasury, and undertook 
 the duties of the local boards throughout the colony. 
 To compensate in some measure for this, the chief 
 justice and two of the official nominees were deprived 
 of their seats in the council of advice, and two colo- 
 nists, nominated by the governor and approved by 
 
152 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the secretary of state, were appointed in their 
 stead. 
 
 The creation of an independent supreme court 
 was admitted by every one to be an advantage, but 
 whether trial of criminal cases by jury tended to pro- 
 mote justice was a question upon which two opinions 
 could be held. In the eye of the law the life of a 
 Kaffir or a Bushman was as sacred as that of the 
 chief justice himself, but could it be expected that 
 nine men would always agree to subject a European 
 to sentence of death for shooting a Kaffir or a Bush- 
 man thief, no matter how clear the evidence might be, 
 or how the judge might sum it up. They might 
 bring in a verdict of guilty if the value of the lives 
 of different classes of men was appraised as in early 
 days in England, but that was impossible in the nine- 
 teenth century. To the present day this question 
 is not answered alike by every one, nor can it ever be 
 in a country inhabited by men of the highest and of 
 the lowest races, all absolutely equal before the law. 
 
 Another question open to doubt was whether the 
 English principle of not questioning a prisoner on 
 tria-l, and even warning him not to criminate him- 
 self, served the purposes of justice as well as the sys- 
 tem that it superseded. Upon this also a difference 
 of opinion still exists in South Africa, as elsewhere. 
 
 The abolition of the courts of landdrost and heem- 
 raden, and the substitution of a single individual in 
 their stead, met with general disapproval, except in 
 Albany, where the people were indifferent in the mat- 
 ter. Everywhere else the old colonists were dismayed 
 on seeing their ancient institutions broken down. 
 And a little later, when a judge on circuit removed 
 the cases from one of the country districts to Cape- 
 town for trial, on the ground that a sufficient number 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 153 
 
 of persons acquainted with the English language 
 could not be found there to form a jury, people began 
 to discuss among themselves whether it would not 
 be possible to escape from treatment of this kind by 
 moving away into the far interior. There was no 
 one desirous of being on a jury, but every one felt 
 it as an insult being disqualified through want of 
 knowledge of a language that was not his own. 
 
 At the beginning of 1834 the Cape government 
 was subjected to retrenchment on a very extensive 
 scale. Additional taxes had been laid upon the colo- 
 nists, and the imperial treasury had taken upon 
 itself the cost of maintaining the Cape corps, still 
 the outlay exceeded the income, as it had done ever 
 since 1806, and there was now a public debt of about 
 one million two hundred and seventy-one thousand 
 dollars. This was a condition of things that could 
 not last, so retrenchment was unavoidable. The 
 salary of the governor was cut down to one-half of 
 what it had been, and he was allowed only an official 
 residence. The heads of departments also were ob- 
 liged to content themselves with greatly reduced 
 incomes, and wherever it was possible to lop off 
 charges the pruning-knife was used. An admin- 
 istration quite as efficient as the previous one, and 
 much better suited to the circumstances of the 
 country, was thus established. 
 
 At the same time a great advance was made in the 
 form of government by the creation of distinct leg- 
 islative and executive councils to supersede the coun- 
 cil of advice. The colonists were very desirous of 
 obtaining a representative assembly, and had sent 
 several petitions to the house of commons and to the 
 king in council to that effect, but had met with no 
 success. The ministry of Earl Grey, however, at 
 
154 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 length resolved to do something in the matter, though 
 not in the way requested, as the elective principle 
 was quite ignored. 
 
 The legislative council consisted of ten members, 
 and could be increased to twelve if the governor 
 found it advisable. The military officer next in 
 rank to the governor, the secretary to government, 
 the treasurer-general, the auditor-general, and the 
 attorney-general had seats in it by virtue of their 
 offices, the other members were selected by the gov- 
 ernor from the most respectable inhabitants. The 
 governor presided in it, and had a vote on every oc- 
 casion, as well as a casting vote when the division 
 was equal. After this date draft ordinances were 
 published in the Gazette three weeks before they 
 were brought before the council for discussion, and 
 they could then be passed, amended, or rejected 
 by a majority of votes. 
 
 The executive council consisted of the military offi- 
 cer next in rank to the governor, the secretary to 
 government, the treasurer-general, and the attorney- 
 general. It was purely an advisory body, and the 
 governor was not bound to follow its decisions if 
 he thought fit to act contrary to them. 
 
 Lord Charles Somerset had left the colony in 1826. 
 So many complaints of his tyranny had reached Eng- 
 land that he was under the necessity of returning 
 to try to defend himself in a parliamentary enquiry, 
 and when there the ministry of the Earl of Liverpool, 
 in which his family had great influence, was obliged 
 to retire from office, upon which he immediately 
 resigned his appointment. Major-General Richard 
 Bourke then acted as governor until the arrival of 
 Sir Lowry Cole in 1828. Sir Lowry retired in 1833, 
 and was succeeded in January, 1834, by Sir Ben- 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 155 
 
 jamin D' Urban, when the retrenchment was ef- 
 fected. 
 
 The import trade of the colony was all this time 
 protected by differential duties in favour of Great 
 Britain. For some years after the conquest British 
 goods imported in British ships were admitted duty 
 free, foreign goods imported in British ships or 
 British goods imported in foreign ships were sub- 
 ject to a duty of five per cent. in 1809 raised to ten 
 per cent. of their value, and on foreign goods im- 
 ported in foreign ships a duty of fifteen per cent. 
 of the value was levied. In April, 1812, trade by 
 foreign ships to or from the colony was prohibited, 
 and in the following year a duty of three per cent, 
 of the value began to be levied for revenue purposes 
 on British goods. In 1820 foreign ships were again 
 permitted to bring goods not manufactured of cot- 
 ton, wool, or iron to the Cape on payment of ten per 
 cent. duty. In 1832 an order in council was issued 
 which fixed the duty on British goods from British 
 possessions anywhere except the East Indies at three 
 per cent, of the value. East Indian produce and 
 goods from foreign countries were to pay a duty 
 of ten per cent, of their value, and in the case of the 
 latter British and foreign ships were placed on an 
 equality. 
 
 The imports, nearly the whole of which were 
 brought in British ships from Great Britain or her 
 Indian possessions, averaged yearly from 1826 to 
 1836 one million six hundred and sixteen thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 The exports of colonial produce were steadily ris- 
 ing, and were free of duty. Among them wine held 
 the first place, owing to great encouragement for 
 its production by the British customs regulations. 
 
156 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Hides and skins, a large proportion of which were 
 obtained beyond the border, came next. Then fol- 
 lowed wheat, horses, horns, ivory, wool, aloes, raisins, 
 ostrich feathers, and a few other articles. The total 
 yearly value of the exports was one million one hun- 
 dred and seventy thousand dollars, leaving a balance 
 of trade against the colony of four hundred and 
 forty-six thousand dollars a year. Four-fifths of 
 the exports were through Capetown, the remainder 
 through Port Elizabeth. 
 
 The British government had no desire to enlarge its 
 possessions in South Africa, on the contrary, if it had 
 been possible to reduce the area of the Cape Colony 
 at this time it would have been done. But with open 
 territory to the north and east, and with a border oc- 
 cupied by graziers, expansion was inevitable. So 
 in a quiet way, without any formal proclamations, 
 but mainly by instructions to officials after portions 
 of territory were occupied, the colony had of late 
 years been considerably extended. In 1824 the 
 north-eastern boundary was defined as the Zwart Kei 
 and Klaas Smit's rivers and the Stormberg Spruit, 
 and the northern as the Orange River down to about 
 longitude 24 20', thence a straight line to the Pram- 
 berg, and thence an irregular curve through the junc- 
 tion of the Zak and Riet rivers to the mouth of the 
 Buffalo on the shore of the Atlantic. In the follow- 
 ing year the land on the east as far as the Koonap 
 River was occupied and became part of a colonial 
 district. 
 
 As further marks of progress during this period 
 may be noted the establishment of the existing public 
 library in Capetown in 1822, in which were included 
 some five thousand volumes bequeathed to the coun- 
 try by a gentleman named Von Dessin sixty-two 
 
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 157 
 
 years before; the opening of the first lighthouse on 
 the coast in 1824; the construction of a good road 
 through the Frenchhoek pass in the first range of 
 mountains in 1824; the publication of the first 
 periodical magazine and the first newspapers other 
 than the Government Gazette in 1824; the establish- 
 ment of savings banks in 1831; the establishment 
 of the South African college in Capetown in 1829 ; 
 the completion of a road over Sir Lowry's pass be- 
 tween Stellenbosch and Caledon in 1830; and the 
 gradual expansion of the postal system, until in 1834 
 there was a weekly mail conveyed in light spring 
 carts travelling night and day to all the villages in 
 the colony. 
 
158 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MISSION" "WORK AND CONDITION OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 
 
 THIS period is remarkable on account of the great 
 extension of mission work among the coloured people 
 in the Cape Colony and beyond its borders. The 
 Protestant churches of Europe had done little or 
 nothing for the conversion of the heathen before the 
 close of the eighteenth century, but they had now 
 awakened to their duty in that respect, and were 
 burning with new-born zeal to convey the blessings 
 of Christianity to the dark-skinned races of the earth. 
 Africa, the mysterious unexplored continent, whose 
 children had previously been regarded as mere com- 
 modities of value in commerce, presented itself as a 
 field of labour having special claims upon evangelical 
 churches. In the new light now shining so brightly 
 it seemed that the great wrong of the slave trade 
 ought to be redressed as far as earthly means would 
 permit by a strenuous effort to bring the negro into 
 a condition of brotherhood with those who were 
 already in the fold of Christ. 
 
 The object was praiseworthy in the highest degree, 
 and if the means adopted to attain it cannot in all 
 instances be approved of, it must be remembered that 
 at the close of the nineteenth century experience had 
 been gained that the pioneers in the mission field 
 had no knowledge of, and that they like all men were 
 liable to err. Erom the very first there was a differ- 
 ence of opinion as to the method to be f ollowed, aris- 
 
MISSION WORK. 159 
 
 ing from a different interpretation of texts of scrip- 
 ture. For instance, in the writings of the apostle 
 Paul does the brotherhood of Christians so constant- 
 ly spoken of mean social and mental as well as relig- 
 ious equality, or does it not? To take the two ex- 
 tremes, a Moravian would answer no, a missionary 
 of the London Society yes. And so with other ques- 
 tions that need not be introduced here, as this was for 
 many years the one most hotly contested. 
 
 The Moravian Society, or United Brethren, often 
 called the Herrnhuters, entered the South African 
 field first, and at this time was working among both 
 Hottentots and Kaffirs. It was a small and very 
 poor church, but its members, mostly German arti- 
 sans, were among the most devoted and self-sacrific- 
 ing of men. Abstaining entirely from politics, 
 living in an extremely frugal manner, and main- 
 taining themselves almost entirely by their own 
 labour, they taught those they gathered round them 
 by example as well as by precept to lead honest, 
 industrious, God-fearing lives. Cleanliness and 
 sobriety were inculcated as among the most necessary 
 Christian virtues. They kept, and keep to this day, 
 their converts under strict guardianship, a system 
 that time and experience have shown to be highly 
 beneficial. It is true that the coloured people under 
 this training have not been raised so high in stability 
 as to be able to hold their own. in the face of tempta- 
 tions such as all of their class are exposed to, but 
 it is equally true that under no other system has 
 this object been attained. That they are in general 
 more industrious, sober, orderly, and cleanly than the 
 mass of their fellows is a matter of common observa- 
 tion, and none of them have ever taken part in any 
 seditious or rebellious movement. 
 
160 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The Moravian mission has always been regarded 
 with favour by the government and, except in a very 
 few instances, by the colonists. With its limited 
 means in men and money it has certainly effected 
 a vast amount of good in elevating thousands of 
 coloured people far above their original condition. 
 
 The next in point of time was the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, of some of whose agents in the 
 colony much must presently be said. 
 
 The South African Missionary Society was estab- 
 lished in the first year of the century, and was con- 
 nected with the Dutch Reformed Church. Unlike 
 either of the others that have been mentioned, it 
 did not begin by collecting a number of families of 
 coloured people on a tract of land termed a station, 
 but worked among slaves and free negroes in service 
 in Capetown and the country villages. In 1817, 
 however, it enlarged its operations by founding the 
 station since known as Zoar. 
 
 In 1816 the Wesley an Society commenced its 
 mission work in South Africa by stationing a 
 clergyman at Kamiesberg, a Hottentot reserve in the 
 north-western part of the colony. A few years later 
 a mission with Ncllambe's Kaffirs was founded, which 
 was the beginning of very extensive operations 
 anlong the Southern Bantu. 
 
 In 182.1 the first missionaries of the Glasgow So- 
 ciety arrived in South Africa. They turned their 
 attention to the Kaffirs on the eastern frontier, and 
 shortly had a complete chain of stations along the 
 Amatola mountains. In later years this mission 
 was divided between the United Presbyterian and 
 Free Churches of Scotland, now united in one 
 Church. 
 
 In 1829 the Paris Evangelical and the Rhenish 
 
MISSION WORK. 161 
 
 Missionary Societies sent their first agents to South 
 Africa, and in 1834 agents of the Berlin Mission- 
 ary Society followed. 
 
 In the colony, where the old Hottentot reserves 
 were not conveniently situated for mission work, 
 there was very little difficulty in obtaining from the 
 government suitable grants of ground for the pur- 
 pose. Beyond the border the chiefs were always 
 ready to receive white men and give them land to 
 live upon, as they believed their dignity was in- 
 creased by having such guests. 
 
 With so many Societies engaged, each employing 
 numerous individuals, there was no part of the Cape 
 Colony unoccupied, and no person in any position 
 whatever who had not an opportunity of learning the 
 doctrines of Christianity. The agents of most of 
 these Societies devoted themselves entirely to the con- 
 version of the coloured people, and as they abstained 
 from interference in political questions and gave no 
 unnecessary annoyance to the colonists, they were 
 regarded with general esteem. Their reports are 
 almost duplicates of those of the Jesuit and Domini- 
 can missionaries written two centuries and a half 
 before. There is the same stress laid upon the readi- 
 ness of the heathen to embrace Christianity, and 
 upon pious expressions made by converts, without 
 noticing the absence of any corresponding course of 
 action. But it would be expecting that which is not 
 reasonable, if one were to look for more. The habits 
 of barbarians do not undergo a complete change in 
 a single generation, and the mistake that the mis- 
 sionaries made was in not recognising this at first, 
 they do so now, but in considering a recent con- 
 vert to Christianity as having the same stamina as a 
 European, 
 
162 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The London Missionary Society occupied in South 
 Africa a position different from all the others. It 
 had not only a greater number of agents, but its 
 openly avowed principles brought it into conflict with 
 the government and the colonists, and created an 
 antagonism towards it that has not even yet wholly 
 died out. Its superintendents put themselves in the 
 position of advocates for the coloured people, and 
 brought innumerable complaints before the directors 
 of the Society in England instead of before the gov- 
 ernment in Capetown, thus drawing upon themselves 
 the hostility of the local authorities. In their view 
 it was oppression to make a distinction in any way 
 between coloured people and Europeans, and through 
 their publications they caused the colonists to be 
 regarded abroad as unjust and cruel because Hot- 
 tentot and negro servants were not treated as equals 
 socially. Several of the most prominent among 
 them, notably Dr. Vanderkemp, their first superin- 
 tendent, put their principles into practice by marry- 
 ing coloured women, and their processions were 
 usually led by a white and a negro child carrying a 
 banner with the motto Ex uno sanguine. Dr. 
 Philip, the second superintendent, maintained that 
 he knew an educated Bushman whom, however, no 
 one else had ever seen intellectually equal to a 
 European. 
 
 It was thus not a question of religion, but a ques- 
 tion whether a barbarian could at one bound attain 
 the top rung of the ladder to which Europeans have 
 climbed slowly and painfully through countless gen- 
 erations, that divided the colonists from the London 
 Missionary Society. With this exception, the 
 doctrine they taught hardly differed from that of 
 the Dutch Church, most of them being Congregar 
 
MISSION WORK. 163 
 
 tionalists or Independents. And it is only right to 
 observe that there were among the agents of this 
 Society in South Africa several men, such as the 
 Reverend Messrs. Anderson, Charles Pacalt, John 
 Brownlee, Mr. Kicherer, Mr. Taylor, and Dr. Thorn, 
 who either did not hold, or at least did not obtrude, 
 the opinions referred to above, and that they enjoyed 
 the esteem of the colonists. The three last named, 
 indeed, in later years entered the Dutch Church, and 
 became pastors of European congregations. 
 
 One of the largest branches of this mission during 
 the first half of the nineteenth century was north 
 of the Orange River, beyond the boundary of the 
 colony. There several earnest and pious evangelists, 
 after years of wandering about with little clans, suc- 
 ceeded in collecting together a number of mixed 
 breeds, colonial Hottentots, Namaquas, Koranas, 
 and free blacks, and made an attempt to form a per- 
 manent settlement. To the motley assemblage the 
 Reverend John Campbell gave the name Griquas, 
 which they formally adopted, and to the principal 
 kraal, which was at the fountain Klaarwater, the 
 name Griquatown. The great majority of these 
 people spoke the Dutch language, and were accus- 
 tomed to wear European clothing. 
 
 A constitution was framed by Mr. Campbell, in 
 which the powers of government were pretty equally 
 divided between the missionaries and the leading 
 men, who were termed captains, each of whom had 
 his own retainers. It all looked very nice on paper, 
 and many good men really believed that a new Chris- 
 tian nation had been born in Africa. The Griquas 
 had some cattle, but their chief dependence for a 
 living was upon the chase. Leaving their families 
 at the mission villages, they went out in all direc- 
 
164 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 tions in search of game, and brought back waggon- 
 loads of sun-dried meat. The ivory and skins that 
 they collected were exchanged in the colony for wag- 
 gons, ammunition, clothing, coffee, and sugar, and 
 so all went well while the game lasted. 
 
 But when the vast herds of antelopes, the lions, 
 giraffes, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami were nearly 
 all destroyed within a couple of hundred miles, the 
 Griquas rapidly declined. Some of them turned 
 marauders, and became a dreadful scourge to the 
 Bantu clans within their reach. The best of them 
 divided the territory into farms, many of which they 
 sold or leased for long periods to colonial graziers 
 who needed change of pasture for their cattle. Thus 
 white men began to cross the Orange periodically, 
 and as they, of course, did not consider themselves 
 subject to the Griqua captains, difficulties in process 
 of time became unavoidable. 
 
 This Griqua settlement put an end to the long 
 strife between the Europeans and the Bushmen on the 
 northern border of the Cape Colony. The wild people 
 preyed upon their cattle and killed some of their 
 hunters, and in return were pursued and shot down 
 until they were all but exterminated. Some of the 
 particulars, as told afterwards by evening fires, 
 are harrowing to a European mind, but it is unneces- 
 sary to relate them here. There has been no trouble 
 with Bushmen in South Africa since, for the num- 
 ber of that race left is so small that except in the 
 Kalahari an individual is seldom met with. 
 
 The laws that made a distinction between Hotten- 
 tots and Europeans in the colony were a subject of 
 constant complaint by several missionaries of the 
 London Society, and furnished the Reverend Dr. 
 Philip with a theme that he was not slow in turning 
 
MISSION WORK. 165 
 
 to account. This gentleman both before and after 
 his arrival in South Africa lived in an atmosphere 
 of strife, and controversy seemed to be necessary to 
 his existence. Like the Reverend Dr. Livingstone, 
 the great explorer of later years, he had been a 
 weaver in his younger days, and owed the fluency 
 with which he spoke to practice in a debating club 
 in Kirkcaldy. He was a man of great bodily vigour 
 and natural ability, utterly fearless, and never known 
 to turn back when once he entered on a course of 
 action; but he had neither studied any subject 
 deeply, nor was he particularly scrupulous as to the 
 means by which he gained his ends. Successive gov- 
 ernors regarded him as a dangerous factor in society, 
 and other clergymen shared and openly expressed the 
 same opinion. Such was the second superintendent 
 of the London Missionary Society in South Africa, 
 whom his admirers were fond of terming the Las 
 Casas of the Hottentots. 
 
 At this time the great philanthropic societies of 
 England were at the height of their power, and Dr. 
 Philip was in the closest touch with them. In 1826 
 he returned to his native country on a visit, and 
 while there published in 1828 a work in two volumes 
 entitled Researches in South Africa, which was re- 
 ceived with great favour, and though its most im- 
 portant statements were proved to be incorrect by 
 the searching examination instituted by the govern- 
 ment, it continued to be regarded as a text-book by 
 Sir George Murray, Mr. Powell Buxton, and many 
 other influential men in office or in parliament. 
 Meanwhile by direction of the secretary of state an 
 ordinance had been passed by the governor and coun- 
 cil in Capetown, removing from the coloured people 
 all the restrictions imposed upon them by the 
 
166 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 proclamations of the Earl of Caledon and Sir John 
 Cradock, and through Dr. Philip's influence a clause 
 was added to it before it was ratified, that it could 
 not be altered in any way without the previous con- 
 sent of the king in council. 
 
 The effect was something like giving a child of 
 ten years of age the rights of a full-grown man. 
 Most of the Hottentots at once ceased to work, and 
 commenced to wander about the country begging and 
 stealing, so that the farmers were exposed to severe 
 losses, yet when an attempt was made soon after- 
 wards to pass a vagrant act, it had to be abandoned 
 on account of the opposition of Dr. Philip, who had 
 returned to the colony, and who threatened to appeal 
 to the people of England if it was approved by the 
 council. It was believed in South Africa that the 
 power of the governor was less than his, owing to the 
 support he received from the great Societies. 
 
 There are few persons now who will deny that 
 much harm was done to the coloured people by this 
 measure, but later events have thrown a light upon 
 it that Dr. Philip had not to see by. He acted upon 
 the theory that there is absolute equality between all 
 races, that protection in person and property is not 
 sufficient for a people just emerging from barbarism, 
 as any restriction of the liberty granted to a Euro- 
 pean is injustice when applied to a Hottentot. 
 
 Sir Lowry Cole determined to try if vagrancy 
 could not be checked by giving the Hottentots an 
 extensive tract of land to live upon. This was the 
 old location or reserve system, which had repeatedly 
 failed in past times, but it was thought to make an 
 improvement in it by allotting the ground under in- 
 dividual tenure. The locality selected was the 
 fertile and beautiful tract of land along the streams 
 
MISSION WORK. 167 
 
 that unite to form the Kat River, in the territory 
 taken from Gaika by Lord Charles Somerset to form 
 an unoccupied belt between the colonists and the 
 Kaffirs. There each family was to receive from four 
 to six acres of garden ground, to which free title 
 deeds were to be issued after five years 7 occupation, 
 and all that was unfit for the plough or spade was 
 to remain as common pasture. The government 
 was to provide seed for the first year free of charge. 
 
 Over two thousand individuals, many of whom 
 had previously been living at the stations Bethels- 
 dorp and Theopolis, were located on these terms at 
 the Kat River. The governor, who wished to pre- 
 vent interference by the London Society's mission- 
 aries, induced the Reverend Mr. Thomson, a clergy- 
 man of the Glasgow Society, to take up his residence 
 in the location; but Dr. Philip sent one of his col- 
 leagues there also. The result was that the mixed 
 breeds and more stable part of the people connected 
 themselves with Mr. Thomson, and soon afterwards 
 went over with him in a body to the Dutch Re- 
 formed Church, while the others adhered to the mis- 
 sion of the London Society. The two churches are 
 in existence to the present day, but the congrega- 
 tions have moved on widely diverging paths, as will 
 be seen in a later chapter. Even now the difference 
 was beginning to be seen, for while Mr. Thomson's 
 people sent a memorial to the government in favour 
 of a vagrant act, the others were so strongly opposed 
 to it 'that by Dr. Philip's direction they kept a day 
 of special prayer that God would be pleased to avert 
 such a calamity from them. 
 
 The Kat River Settlement was regarded with 
 much suspicion by the frontier colonists, especially 
 when the government issued arms and ammunition 
 
168 
 
 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to the people there to enable them to defend them- 
 selves against thieves, and when seven or eight hun- 
 dred Kaffirs were allowed by the Hottentots to live 
 among them. It was feared that the scenes wit- 
 nessed at the beginning of the century might be re- 
 peated, but no disturbance took place for several 
 years. Farther down the Kat River a military post 
 named Fort Beaufort had been established some time 
 before, and this acted as a check upon insurrection. 
 
THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 169 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 
 
 IN all history, ancient or modern, there is no name 
 with which more ruthless bloodshed is associated 
 than with that of Tshaka, chief of the Zulus. It 
 has been estimated that a million of human beings 
 must have perished in Cassar's wars in Gaul: that 
 number was greatly exceeded in the butcheries caused 
 directly or indirectly by Tshaka in South Africa. 
 In neither case, however, is there material to form 
 an exact computation, but if it be considered that the 
 immense territory between the Umzimvubu River 
 on the south and the Lake Nyassa on the north, the 
 Indian Ocean on the east and the Kalahari Desert 
 on the west, was subject to such ravages as God in 
 His mercy seldom permits, that vast areas in this 
 territory were either wholly or nearly depopulated, 
 and that numerous tribes disappeared so completely 
 as to leave nothing but the remembrance of their 
 names behind them, an estimate of two millions of 
 lives lost must be nearer the truth than that of one. 
 
 A destructive epidemic of smallpox among the 
 Indians prepared the way for the colonisation of the 
 New England States by white men, the same fell dis- 
 ease opened the southern coast belt of the Cape 
 Colony to Europeans, the wars of Tshaka had a like 
 effect for the country from the Umzimvubu to the 
 Zambesi. If the terrible exterminator had never 
 existed there would doubtless have been progress in 
 
PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 South Africa, but it would not have been the kind 
 of progress that has taken place, there could have 
 been no Orange Free State, or Transvaal Republic, 
 or Rhodesian Colony. 
 
 Tshaka was the son of a chief of a petty tribe that 
 lived on the banks of the Umvolosi River, and that 
 bore the high-sounding title of Amazulu, the people 
 of the skies. How or when this little federation of 
 clans received such a lofty name cannot be ascer- 
 tained, it was, however, of no very ancient origin. 
 The families of the chiefs in that part of South 
 Africa are usually the handsomest and most intelli- 
 gent of the people, possibly owing to a larger ad- 
 mixture of Asiatic blood than that which courses in 
 the veins of commoners, and among them all Tshaka 
 as a boy was the cleverest and the best formed. He 
 could hurl an assagai farther and with surer aim 
 than any other youth of his age, there was no one in 
 the tribe who could compete with him in trials of 
 strength, in walking, or in parrying blows with the 
 knobkerie. Had he been the great son and heir to 
 the chieftainship, it would have been a mere act of 
 courtesy for all others to have conceded to him the 
 first place in athletic exercises, but he did not occupy 
 that rank, and there is no reason to doubt that he 
 was what tradition represents him to have been, the 
 most daring and active individual in the community. 
 
 Most African chiefs are exceedingly jealous of 
 those who are to succeed them, and on this account 
 it usually happens that the great son, if he possesses 
 ability, lives at a distance from his father and takes 
 care not to make too much display of his talents. 
 Towards sons of inferior rank, such as Tshaka, 
 jealousy is not felt, because no danger is appre- 
 hended from them, but in this instance the young 
 
THE ZULtr WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 
 
 man's abilities were so conspicuous and his praise 
 was so loudly extolled that the chief thought it ad- 
 visable to get rid of him. Tshaka, either learning 
 or suspecting what was intended, fled in time to a 
 neighbouring tribe which was then engaged in a 
 career of conquest. 
 
 He was received with hospitality by the chief, 
 whose name was Dingiswayo, and entered the army 
 of his protector, in which he distinguished himself 
 in such a way as to be raised to a position of com- 
 mand. After a time his father died, when Dingis- 
 wayo, to whom the succession was referred, passing 
 by the legitimate heir, declared him chief of the 
 Amazulu. As such he was accepted by the tribe, but 
 remained with the army of the Abatetwa, and by 
 his valour and skill rose step by step until he found 
 himself its most distinguished general. Soon after 
 he had attained this position Dingiswayo was vanr 
 quished in an engagement in which he commanded in 
 person, was made prisoner, and was put to death by 
 his enemy, leaving the succession in dispute, as his 
 great wife had no male child. The army hereupon 
 settled the matter by proclaiming Tshaka its chief, 
 and the Abatetwa were incorporated with the 
 Amazulu. 
 
 He was now the undisputed ruler of the most 
 powerful tribe in South-E astern Africa, but with each 
 successful advance his ambition rose higher, until 
 nothing short of sole sovereignty over the people as 
 far as the country was known would satisfy him. 
 His terrible career of conquest and extermination 
 was about to begin. 
 
 It had always been a habit of the Bantu when 
 in close combat to break their assagai shafts short so 
 that they could be used to stab with. Tshaka had 
 
172 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 learned by experience that the weapon in this state 
 was much more effective, and he improved upon it 
 by making the blade longer and heavier, so that it 
 became equivalent to a short two-edged sword fit for 
 cutting or piercing. This was made the warrior's 
 chief instrument of offence, without which he could 
 not return from battle under pain of death, but he 
 carried also several ordinary assagais for throwing 
 at a distance. The shield was enlarged, so as to 
 cover its bearer's body more completely. The or- 
 ganisation into regiments was perfected, and an order 
 of battle was devised in the form of a crescent, with 
 a reserve in the shape of a parallelogram behind, 
 ready to strengthen any hardly pressed point. 
 
 The warriors were well fed and constantly drilled 
 until the army became as efficient as it was possible 
 to make it. The women also were organised as 
 gardeners, and upon them devolved the task of sup- 
 plying the military camps with boiled corn and millet 
 beer. Beef, however, was at all times largely con- 
 sumed, and was the only diet when an army was on 
 the march. The young men were not permitted to 
 take wives without the consent of the chief, which 
 was never given to a regiment until it had dis- 
 tinguished itself, in other words until it was steeped 
 in human gore. ISTo provocation was needed to 
 cover an attack upon a tribe, the mere fact of its 
 existence was regarded as sufficient motive to fall 
 upon it. 
 
 Tshaka's first aggressive movement was against 
 the people on his northern border. They tried to 
 resist, and in anger he ordered them to be destroyed. 
 "No one was to be spared except the young girls, who 
 were to be brought to him, and stout boys, who could 
 serve as burden-bearers for the army. All the 
 
THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 
 
 others, men, women, and infants, were to be put to 
 death. Their cattle were to be brought to him, and 
 all other property was to be burnt. This system, 
 once commenced, was carried out ever afterwards. 
 Some tribes saved themselves by begging to be re- 
 ceived as Zulus and conforming in all respects to the 
 new customs, others tried to escape by cutting their 
 way through those in advance, but most of them per- 
 ished utterly. 
 
 Of those that fled, the first was under the chief 
 Manikusa, otherwise called Sotshangana, who made 
 his way to the Sabi River, creating awful havoc 
 among the people along his line of march. He 
 was followed by the tribe now known as the Angoni, 
 who took a different route, but also arrived at the 
 Sabi. There the fugitives quarrelled with each 
 other and fought until the Angoni, obliged to move 
 farther, directed their course across the Zambesi to 
 the western shore of Lake Nyassa, where they re- 
 mained to prey upon the earlier inhabitants. So- 
 tshangana moved up and down from Delagoa Bay to 
 the Zambesi, saturating the present Portuguese terri- 
 tory and Eastern Rhodesia with blood. 
 
 For a good many years he did not molest Euro- 
 peans, but in October, 1833, the fort of Loureno 
 Marques was captured by his followers, and the 
 whole of the garrison and inhabitants of the place 
 were murdered. In November, 1834, Inhambane 
 was plundered, and only ten individuals managed to 
 escape the general slaughter. Two years later Sof ala 
 was taken and utterly destroyed with the whole of 
 its inhabitants. Sena too was captured, and the 
 greater part of the garrison lost their lives, but some 
 of the residents and a few soldiers took refuge on an 
 island in the Zambesi where Sotshangana's people 
 
174 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 could not reach them, and they obtained terms of 
 peace on condition of paying yearly tribute. For 
 a time the Portuguese flag disappeared entirely from 
 the mainland south of Sena, but the stations were all 
 reoccupied some years later when the power of the 
 invading horde had dwindled away. 
 
 Next to flee was the great tribe of the Amangwa- 
 ne, the little tigers, who thoroughly justified their 
 name by the conduct which they pursued. Leaving 
 their old home on the Umzinyati, they fell first upon 
 the Hlubis, whom they dispersed, and then crossed 
 the Drakensberg and attacked the people who 
 occupied the northern portion of what is now 
 Basutoland and the eastern portion of the Orange 
 Free State. These, unable to stand the shock of 
 Matiwane's horde, who had partly adopted the Zulu 
 weapons, fled in their turn, and under the leadership 
 of a woman named Ma iTtatisi crossed the Vaal 
 River and turned to the north-west. The country 
 before them was densely inhabited, but the people 
 were not sufficiently intelligent to unite in a time of 
 common danger. A section was therefore destroyed, 
 its cattle and grain were devoured, and then the mur- 
 derous horde moved on to the next. The titles of 
 twenty-eight distinct tribes that went utterly out 
 of existence were afterwards enumerated by some 
 of the boys who were incorporated by the conquerors. 
 A few miles from the present Bangwaketsi kraal 
 of Kanye the first reverse was met, which turned the 
 horde to the southward. A little later, in June, 
 1823, it was dispersed by a band of Griquas, who, 
 being mounted, could attack it without much danger. 
 One section, under !Ma Ntatisi, then returned to the 
 Upper Caledon; another, under the celebrated chief 
 Sebetuane, taking the title of Makololo, moved north- 
 
THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 175 
 
 ward to the Zambesi valley, and some smaller divi- 
 sions roamed about until nearly all perished. 
 
 Southward through the present colony of Natal 
 Tshaka's army fought its way, every tribe upon 
 which it fell either being exterminated or in its flight 
 attacking some other, until in the whole territory 
 from the Tugela to the Umzimvubu there were not 
 ten thousand individuals left, and these were 
 wretched fugitives concealing themselves in the 
 thickets and in some instances subsisting by can- 
 nibalism. In this territory alone nearly half a mil- 
 lion human beings must have perished. One large 
 horde, under the chief Madikane, in trying to escape 
 fled southward as far as the Umgwali River, where 
 in December, 1824, it was attacked and defeated 
 by the Kaffirs living just beyond the border of the 
 Cape Colony. The vanquished people were of 
 various tribes, but were all termed Amamfengu, 
 that is vagrants, by their conquerors, from which 
 Europeans have come to know them as Fingos. They 
 were reduced to a condition of servitude by the 
 Kaffirs, who treated them with harshness mingled 
 with contempt. From time to time other small 
 parties of fugitives reached the country between 
 the Umzimvubu and the Kei, where they also were 
 termed and treated as Fingos. These people have 
 since played an important part in South African 
 history, so it is well to know how and when they 
 came so close to the colonial frontier. 
 
 In 1828 the Amangwane under Matiwane, hav- 
 ing consumed everything along the Caledon and be- 
 ing compelled by a division of the Zulu army to 
 abandon that territory, crossed the Drakensberg 
 with the intention of ravaging the country between 
 the Umzimvubu and the Kei. The government in 
 
176 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Capetown had at this time very little correct infor- 
 mation of what was taking place in the interior, and 
 all that was known of this invasion was that a large 
 band of desperately savage warriors had come from 
 somewhere, and that the Kaffir tribes adjoining the 
 colony were threatened with destruction. Already 
 one clan of considerable size had crossed into the 
 division of Somerset, and it was probable that many 
 more would follow. The government therefore sent 
 a mixed military and burgher force to assist the 
 Xosas and Tembus, by which Matiwane was attacked 
 and his power was completely broken. 
 
 The only part of South Africa beyond the TJmzim- 
 vubu occupied by Bantu that now remained unde- 
 vastated was the centre of the continent from the 
 Magalisberg to the Zambesi, between the lines of 
 march of Sebetuane and Sotshangana. Into that 
 territory went Umsilikazi, or Moselekatse as the 
 name is usually written by Englishmen, at the head 
 of a veteran Zulu army corps. All the others that 
 have been mentioned were independent chiefs en- 
 deavouring to escape with undisciplined or only im- 
 perfectly trained bands; Moselekatse, too, was en- 
 deavouring to escape, but his position was that of a 
 rebel and his followers had been among the best of 
 Tshaka's troops. 
 
 His father had been an independent chief who to 
 save himself had voluntarily sought admission into 
 the Zulu tribe, and he had grown up in the army, a 
 favourite of Tshaka,by whom he was made command- 
 er of an important division. On one occasion, after 
 exterminating a tribe that he had been directed to de- 
 stroy, he neglected to send the whole of the cap- 
 tured cattle to his master, when Tshaka, hearing of 
 his disloyalty, immediately gave order for his 
 
THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 177 
 
 slaughter and that of all his band. Moselekatse re- 
 ceived sufficient warning, and was able to effect his 
 escape. With a force of from ten to fifteen thou- 
 sand warriors, unencumbered with children or bag- 
 gage, having only a few women with him and cattle 
 for sustenance, there was nothing in the interior 
 that could stop his progress wherever he chose to go. 
 
 His deliberate object was now to destroy every 
 human being in his way, in order to create an ab- 
 solutely uninhabited country over which no pur- 
 suers could march for want of food. Plunging into 
 the tribes north of the Magalisberg, he marched on, 
 leaving behind him a desert covered with bleach- 
 ing bones and the ashes of the kraals he had burned. 
 Like his old lord, he secured the comeliest girls, to, 
 be given as rewards to the regiments that he favoured, 
 and strong lads, to be used as burden-bearers. In 
 course of time these boys would plead to be admit- 
 ted as soldiers into the army, and to gain favour 
 would conduct themselves as ferociously as their mas- 
 ters, who were now known as the Matabele. Thus 
 as years went on a change took place in the blood of 
 this merciless band. The girls and boys incorporated 
 in it were of the Betshuana branch of the Bantu, in- 
 ferior in courage and in many other respects to the 
 people along the coast from whom Tshaka obtained 
 his recruits. The Matabele deteriorated, while the 
 Zulus retained their pristine vigour. 
 
 When Moselekatse thought he was sufficiently 
 far from Tshaka: to be safe he settled down for a 
 time, but in 1832 a Zulu army managed to reach him. 
 It was beaten off after desperate fighting, and then 
 the Matabele, not wishing to incur such a risk again, 
 moved farther on and settled at Mosega, close to 
 the western boundary of the South African Re- 
 
 N 
 
178 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 public. The tribes in that direction could not be 
 dealt with like those to the eastward, because their 
 country favoured flight, but they were dispersed, 
 impoverished, and driven into the Kalahari, where a 
 large proportion of the people died of hunger and 
 thirst. Among these tribes were the Bamangwato, 
 Bakwena, Bangwaketsi, Bahurutsi, and Barolong of 
 the present day. 
 
 Tshaka ruled his people with a severity almost 
 beyond the imagination of a European. He could 
 only be approached in the most abject attitude, and 
 the least offence towards himself was punished with 
 death. He never raised a woman to the rank of wife, 
 through fear of the possible rivalry of an heir, but 
 his concubines, consisting of the comeliest of the 
 captive girls, numbered over a thousand. They were 
 carefully guarded, though he was in the habit of 
 presenting one of them occasionally to a favourite. 
 The cattle taken in the murdering expeditions that 
 he sent out were all claimed by him, and his gene- 
 rosity was highly praised when he allotted some of 
 them to different regiments to be slaughtered for 
 food. His bare word was the law of the land, and a 
 sign from him could send any man, woman, or child 
 in the country to death, yet his subjects revered him 
 and were filled with pride of the position his great 
 ability had placed them in. 
 
 At length, however, a great disaster overtook a 
 large army that he sent against Sotshangana, 
 and when intelligence was received that it was re- 
 treating in the utmost' distress, two of his half- 
 brothers and his favourite attendant conspired 
 against him. He was sitting in one of his cattle 
 kraals unsuspicious of danger when they approached, 
 and his servant, suddenly drawing a concealed 
 
THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 179 
 
 weapon, stabbed him in the back. He begged for 
 mercy, but Dingan, his half-brother, repeated the 
 blow, and Tshaka the terrible lay a corpse on the 
 ground. This was in September, 1828, and the place 
 where the deed was committed was south of the Tu- 
 gela, in the present colony of Natal. 
 
 Dingan then became the head of the Zulu tribe. His 
 character was even worse than that of Tshaka, for he 
 was as merciless as a tiger and as treacherous as he 
 was cruel, and if he was not an exterminator on a 
 large scale it was only because there were no tribes 
 left within his reach to destroy. He fixed his resi- 
 dence at Umkungunhlovu, in the Umvolosi valley, 
 and ruled his people with fearful severity. The vul- 
 tures in his neighbourhood were fat, it was said, for 
 he fed them on human flesh. 
 
 The events here recorded occupied a period of 
 nearly twenty-five years, or from about 1811 to 1835. 
 At it's close Sebetuane was residing at Linyanti, 
 where Dr. Livingstone afterwards found him, So- 
 tshangana was on the lower Sabi, Moselekatse at Mo- 
 sega, and Dingan at Umkungunhlovu. Their war- 
 riors were constantly raiding in all directions, so 
 that the only other Bantu between the Zambesi and 
 the Umzimvubu, except in part of the territory now 
 known as Matabeleland, were in an abject condition, 
 hiding in rugged mountains, or thickets, or desert 
 places, and the open country was a vast untenanted 
 waste. The powerful tribes that the Portuguese had 
 found along the eastern coast and that their mission- 
 aries and traders had reached inland, with those 
 that once inhabited the South African Republic 
 and the Orange Free State, had vanished from 
 sight, and only a few wretched remnants under new 
 designations remained. Those that the assagai had 
 
180 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 not reached famine had claimed, for there was no 
 planting or gathering of grain in that dark time of 
 murderous war. 
 
 In one locality, however, the praises of a chief 
 not yet named had been sung for nearly a dozen 
 years, and no Bantu ruler ever deserved this tribute 
 to greatness more than he. Moshesh, the chief re- 
 ferred to, was not of high birth, though a member 
 of a branch of the ruling family of a petty clan, but 
 he possessed abilities that enabled him to become 
 a leader in a time of turmoil. He was in the 
 prime of life when in 1824 he fixed his residence 
 on Thaba Bosigo, a natural mountain fortress so 
 strong that, though often besieged, it has never yet 
 been taken either by European or Bantu foe. Here 
 he invited refugees of any name or from any place 
 to join him, and by treating them with all possible 
 consideration succeeded in gaining their firm attach- 
 ment His father was still living, as were other 
 members of his family of higher rank than he, but all 
 acknowledged his superior intellect and willingly 
 submitted to his authority. Opposition from mem- 
 bers of other ruling houses whose subjects took ref- 
 uge with him was silenced with the assagai, the only 
 charge of cruelty that has ever been brought against 
 him, but that was perhaps unavoidable under the cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Crafty as only one of his race can be, ambitious, 
 and fond of authority, he was yet one of the most 
 cautious and prudent of men. Whoever was power- 
 ful in or near his mountains, of him Moshesh pro- 
 fessed to be the most attached dependent. To 
 Tshaka and to Dingan he forwarded all the furs he 
 could collect, with assurances of his devotion. When 
 Moselekatse sent an army to besiege Thaba Bosigo 
 
THE ZULU WARS OF EXTERMINATION. 181 
 
 and food ran short, he supplied it', and so averted the 
 storm. Never before was such tact heard of by the 
 Southern Bantu. The Griqua marauders gave him 
 much trouble, but even them he managed to appease 
 at last. Cannibals who had killed and eaten his own 
 grandfather were furnished by him with grain and 
 invited to become his subject's. They were the 
 graves of men, he said, and as such he would regard 
 and respect them. 
 
 And so this wise chief of the mountain, as he was 
 called in allusion to his stronghold of Thaba Bosigo, 
 was gathering refugees about him, and beginning 
 to form the great Basuto tribe of our day. At this 
 time he was still poor, and his followers were only a 
 few hundred in number. Though the Drakensberg 
 separated him from Dingan and a wide tract of coun- 
 try from Moselekatse, there was no possibility of his 
 becoming a really powerful chief while they re- 
 mained where they were, and he was fully aware that 
 no matter how he might try to conciliate, only ob- 
 scurity could save him from destruction. He will 
 be met with often again in the course of this nar- 
 rative. 
 
182 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVI. 
 
 THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 
 
 THERE is no word more hateful to an English- 
 man of the present day than Slavery. It brings to 
 his mind degradation indescribable, cruelty un- 
 checked, injustice unbearable. But it was not al- 
 ways so. At the beginning of the century the Brit- 
 ish officers in South Africa were loud in their de- 
 nunciations of the French for having ruined fair pos- 
 sessions over the sea by freeing the negro bondsmen, 
 and could find no more appropriate subject on which 
 to appeal to the colonists for loyalty and grati- 
 tude to England than for saving them from the fate 
 of the planters of Guadeloupe. Never had so many 
 negroes been imported yearly for sale as during the 
 period from 1795 to 1803, when the British flag 
 waved over the castle of Good Hope. In 1806 the 
 conquest by Sir David Baird actually prevented the 
 emancipation that the Batavian Republic had re- 
 solved gradually to carry out. But the pendulum 
 of public opinion had now swung to the opposite 
 side in England, and the freedom of the negro 
 was dear to the nation's heart. 
 
 Slavery is in truth an institution to be detested. 
 But it should not be judged solely by what civilised 
 men and women would suffer if reduced to that con- 
 dition, for even in its worst form it was in all Euro- 
 pean colonies an improvement upon the ordinary ex- 
 istence of millions of the children of Africa. Com- 
 
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 183 
 
 pare with it the condition of the natives along the 
 Zambesi at the close of the sixteenth century, after the 
 irruption of the Amazimba, as described in the Por- 
 tuguese records of the time, the condition of the 
 wretched survivors of Tshaka's butcheries, of the 
 Bakalahari when white men first appeared in Bet- 
 shuanaland, even of the Mashona fifteen years ago, 
 when the original fierceness of their Matabele con- 
 querors had largely died out, and it will seem a sys- 
 tem of benevolence and mercy. The African, whose 
 ancestors through all time had been accustomed to 
 see the strong despise and trample upon the weak, 
 felt no degradation in serving the white man, wham 
 he instinctively recognised as his superior. 
 
 Still that does not justify the European in making 
 a slave of the negro. The greater harm done was to 
 the white man himself. If progress is a law of God, 
 and who can doubt that it is ? what a crime was 
 committed when the African was transported to 
 lands where the Caucasian could live and thrive! 
 It was a crime that nature punishes with the most 
 terrible severity. Look at the idle, clamorous, un- 
 thrifty, unstable lazzaroni of Southern Italy or 
 Southern Portugal to-day: how very different those 
 fair countries would be if no negro had ever mixed 
 his blood with the once energetic and lordly races 
 that held the land. 
 
 In South Africa slavery, owing to the industries 
 being almost entirely confined to the cultivation of 
 wheat and the vine and the herding of cattle, was of 
 the very mildest type. The Dutch are neither more 
 humane nor more cruel than English people, but 
 tjie conditions in which they lived favoured the ne- 
 groes. It would have been possible to have found 
 in the Cape Colony a model for the celebrated statue 
 
184 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of the scourged slave in the museum at Brussels, 
 just as a model for a similar statue of a horribly ill- 
 treated white man might occasionally be found in 
 London, or Paris, or Montreal ; but it would no more 
 have represented an ordinary occurrence in one case 
 than in the other. There are many chapters in 
 Uncle Toms Cabin that could have been written 
 in South Africa by selecting incidents of different 
 periods and localities, and representing them as 
 events in the life of one individual; but some chap- 
 ters during the eighteenth century would there have 
 been recognised by every one as creations of imagina- 
 tive power alone, as the Dutch laws gave freedom 
 to the mulatto and to any woman who bore a child 
 of which her master was the father. The same laws 
 prescribed heavy penalties for excessive cruelty, 
 but a slave was not always able to bring a charge 
 against his owner, so that in practice his treatment 
 rested mainly upon humanity, interest, and the facil- 
 ity with which he could escape in a thinly populated 
 country. 
 
 The early English governors reported that the 
 slaves in the colony were in as comfortable circum- 
 stances as agricultural labourers in Great Britain, 
 and all other trustworthy testimony is to the same 
 effect. But the spirit of the nineteenth century 
 was opposed to the continuation of the system, and 
 practically every one recognised after 1828 that 
 sooner or later it must come to an end. How to bring 
 about emancipation without ruining the Europeans 
 became the most important question of the day. 
 
 In June, 1828, a Society was formed in Cape- 
 town for the purpose of aiding slaves to procure their 
 freedom. It hoped to obtain assistance from the 
 British treasury and from benevolent persons in 
 
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 185 
 
 England, but failed in these expectations. Still, by 
 means almost entirely of local subscriptions it man- 
 aged thereafter to purchase the liberty of about twen- 
 ty-five young girls yearly. This was evidently too 
 small a number to produce an appreciable reduction 
 in the great mass of slaves, so the Society, though 
 deserving the title of benevolent, cannot be regarded 
 as an effective emancipating agency. 
 
 In 1816 legislation reducing the authority of the 
 masters began, with the promulgation of very strin- 
 gent regulations regarding the registration of births, 
 deaths, manumissions, and sales. It was followed 
 in 1823 by a law prohibiting the separation by sale 
 of married slaves or of parents and children under 
 ten years of age, requiring children from three to 
 ten years of age to be sent to school at least three 
 days in the week, restricting the hours of labour, al- 
 lowing slaves to acquire property, and limiting the 
 power of punishment. To this the colonists made 
 no objection until the slaves, finding they could 
 claim as a right what previously they had received 
 as a privilege, began to be insubordinate, and 
 serious disturbances took place, which created a fear 
 of a general negro insurrection. 
 
 In 1826 further legislation directed from Eng- 
 land required slaves to be paid for all work per- 
 formed on the Sabbath, and gave them the right to 
 compel their masters to liberate them or any of 
 their relatives at a price to be fixed by valuators. 
 It also created protectors to look after their interests 
 and to see that the laws in their favour were strictly 
 carried out. The colonists now protested that the 
 relationship between them and their bondsmen was 
 so strained that it would not bear further tension. 
 
 In October of this year the Graaff-Keinet resolu- 
 
186 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 tions, as they were afterwards generally termed, 
 were adopted at a mass meeting in that district. The 
 first was that the English government 1 should be re- 
 qiiested to desist from issuing further vexatious en- 
 actments, on condition that every female child born 
 after a date to be fixed by that government should 
 be free at birth, in order that slavery might gradu- 
 ally cease. This was carried unanimously. The 
 second was that all male children born after the same 
 date should also be free. This was carried by a ma- 
 jority, the minority objecting unless compensation 
 was given. A deputation was sent to Capetown to 
 lay these resolutions before the governor, and to 
 consult with deputies from the other districts. 
 
 The Graaff-Reinet resolutions were generally 
 adopted throughout the colony, and constituted the 
 South African plan of emancipation. But the 
 British authorities would have nothing to do with it, 
 as they would neither bind themselves in any way 
 nor consider a scheme which would work so 
 gradually. 
 
 In 1830 an order in council was issued, which 
 applied to Trinidad, Berbice, Demerara, St. Lucia, 
 the Cape of Good Hope, and Mauritius. It defined 
 the hours of labour for slaves, what food they were 
 to be provided with, how they were to be clothed, and 
 much more of a similar nature. It required exactly 
 the same provision for a South African cattle-herd 
 as for a labourer on a West Indian sugar plantation, 
 and contained clauses which it was not possible to 
 carry into effect had the masters been ever so willing 
 to do so. The irritation in the colony now became 
 intense, and was increased when in 1831 another 
 order in council was issued limiting the working 
 hours to nine daily, and giving the protectors power 
 
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 187 
 
 to enter the dwelling-houses of slaves on estates 
 whenever they chose. 
 
 In September, 1832, a meeting of about two thou- 
 sand slaveholders from all parts of the country was 
 held in Capetown, when resolutions were carried 
 unanimously asking for an elective legislative as- 
 sembly to make laws adapted to the condition of the 
 country, and pledging themselves if that were granted 
 not only to improve the condition of the slaves as far 
 as possible, but to provide for the extinction of 
 slavery itself. They still clung to the Graaff-Reinet 
 resolutions as furnishing a feasible plan for that 
 purpose. 
 
 The excitement was so great that it was regarded 
 as a relief when intelligence was received that in 
 August, 1833, an emancipation act had been passed 
 by the imperial parliament. It was supposed that 
 as a matter of course a vagrant act would be pro- 
 mulgated before the day of liberation, and that the 
 compensation granted would be not far short of the 
 real value of the slaves. In that case things would 
 be better than they had been for a long time past. 
 
 The imperial act provided that after the 1st of 
 December, 1834, every slave was to be free, that all 
 over six years of age were to be apprenticed to their 
 former masters for four years under certain condi- 
 tions, and that compensation to the amount of ninety- 
 six million dollars should be given to the proprietors 
 in the nineteen slaveholding colonies of Great Brit- 
 ain, the share of each colony to be determined by a 
 careful estimate of the value of its slaves. 
 
 Appraisers were thereupon appointed by the gov- 
 ernor, and though in many cases the valuations were 
 objected to by the proprietors as being far too low, 
 they acted according to certain defined rules of classi- 
 
188 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 fication as honestly and fairly as they possibly could 
 under the circumstances. It was ascertained that on 
 the 30th of IsTovember, 1834, there were in the colony 
 thirty-nine thousand and twenty-one slaves. Of 
 these, three thousand two hundred and seventy-six 
 were aged, infirm, or otherwise unfit for labour, and 
 were regarded as having no pecuniary value. The 
 remaining thirty-five thousand seven hundred and 
 forty-five were appraised at $14,598,193. 
 
 On the 1st of December, 1834, slavery ceased in 
 the Cape Colony. The negroes themselves were not 
 very jubilant over the change to apprenticeship, as 
 their idea of freedom was a condition of idleness, 
 and for that they would still have to wait four years. 
 The colony was now divided into fourteen districts, 
 in each of which an official was stationed for the sole 
 purpose of watching over the interests of the ap- 
 prentices and carrying out the emancipation act. 
 
 For a few weeks everything went on smoothly and 
 quietly, as the former masters were to a large ex- 
 tent reconciled to the position. The first alarm was 
 caused by intelligence that the authorities in Eng- 
 land were opposed to a vagrant act being put in force, 
 so that there would be no restriction upon vagabond- 
 ism. !N"ext, late in 1835 came information that the 
 appraisement of the slaves in all the colonies was 
 completed, and the sum voted by parliament having 
 been apportioned according to the valuation, the 
 share that the Cape would receive was found to be 
 $5,987,524. 
 
 The receipt of this intelligence caused such a 
 panic as had never been known in South Africa be- 
 fore. At once the various institutions for lending 
 money upon security of mortgages, foreseeing gen- 
 eral bankruptcy, began to press for payment of their 
 
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 189 
 
 bonds, and property of all kinds was sold for what- 
 ever it would bring. A few speculators who had 
 funds to invest were enriched, but the country people 
 especially were sorely pressed. 
 
 The worst was not even yet known. Every mail 
 from England brought word of some new trouble, 
 until finally it was ascertained that all the expense 
 of carrying out the emancipation act would be de- 
 ducted from the ninety-six million dollars before any 
 claims were paid, so that no one could receive any 
 money for a long time, that the claims would have 
 to be proved before commissioners in London, where 
 the amounts would be settled in three and a half per 
 cent, stock, and that the certificate relating to each 
 slave must be written on a stamp of seven dollars 
 and twenty cents. Can it be wondered that the colo- 
 nists after this used the word Confiscation as a more 
 appropriate term than Emancipation when speaking 
 of the Act ? 
 
 The late slaveholders could not go to England to 
 make good their claims, and their distressed condi- 
 tion was taken advantage of by speculators, who 
 bought their certificates usually for about half their 
 value. In this way, instead of receiving a third of 
 the appraised amount, very few received more than 
 a fifth or sixth. Several indignantly refused to put 
 in their claims at all, preferring nothing to a mere 
 trifle under the name of compensation. 
 
 The distress brought upon the late slaveholders by 
 the sudden emancipation without a reasonable equiv- 
 alent was so great that it would be difficult to ex-- 
 aggerate it. Many individuals were reduced from 
 affluence to extreme poverty, and were never again 
 able to recover their position. The class of planters 
 near the Cape peninsula that one reads of in old 
 
190 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 books of travel, who lived in a luxurious style and 
 whose hospitality was unbounded, at whose houses 
 the governors, high officials, and strangers of note 
 were sumptuously entertained, simply went out of 
 existence. It was not only the absolute loss of some 
 ten millions of dollars by a small community, but 
 the stagnation of agricultural industry of every kind 
 that followed through want of labourers, which 
 caused such widespread misery that many persons 
 sank altogether beneath it. Some kinds of agricul- 
 ture have not even yet recovered from the check they 
 then sustained. 
 
 Still harder to bear than the poverty brought upon 
 the unfortunate people was the exuberant rejoicing 
 of the philanthropists and the tone of the abolition- 
 ist press. There was not one word, one thought of 
 sympathy for them. Instead of that they were 
 taunted as if they had been oppressors, and the de- 
 liberate falsehood was spread abroad a falsehood 
 to this day often echoed by the prejudiced and the 
 ignorant that they were opposed to emancipation 
 of the negroes. The act, as it was carried out, was 
 extolled as among the noblest and most glorious ever 
 performed by a nation, and the truth was suppressed 
 that they too were ready and willing to extinguish 
 slavery, and that without the cost of a cent to the 
 British treasury, provided it was done in such a way 
 as not to bring ruin upon themselves and their chil- 
 dren. 
 
 There is no one who would desire the old condition 
 of things to be restored, though of the effect of eman- 
 cipation upon the negroes and their descendants 
 it is possible for reflecting, honest, Christian men to 
 differ in opinion. When the apprenticeship was 
 ended ; nearly the whole of the freed people moved 
 
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 191 
 
 into Capetown or the villages, in the expectation of 
 being able to live without labour. The philanthro- 
 pists favoured this course of action, as it was be- 
 lieved that Christian influence could be more readily 
 brought to bear upon them when massed together 
 than if they were scattered about on farms. There 
 they were welcomed by the agents of missionary so- 
 cieties and benevolent institutions of many kinds, 
 who competed for the privilege of working among 
 them until the negroes came to regard it as bestow- 
 ing their patronage upon an association when they 
 accepted its favours. The children were sent out to 
 work for the benefit of their parents, who drew their 
 wages, but did little themselves. 
 
 And what is the result as seen to-day? The ma- 
 jority of their descendants are neither better fed, 
 clothed, or housed than they were as slaves, they are 
 neither so cleanly in their apparel nor so becoming 
 in their conduct. Every old resident in the colony 
 deplores the deterioration that has been gradually go- 
 ing on among them in these respects. They are care- 
 less, thoughtless, improvident to the last degree. 
 Given a sufficiency for the wants of to-day, they have 
 no concern for the needs of to-morrow, so that in old 
 age and in sickness they are mainly dependent upon 
 charity. They are fond of noisy amusements, and 
 are in general addicted to drunkenness. As labour- 
 ers they cannot be relied upon, for they are able to 
 exist without working six days in the week as white 
 men have to do. 
 
 But every human being the negro as well as the 
 European should have full and unrestricted liberty 
 to improve his position if he wishes to do so, and the 
 slave was cut off from that natural right. Against 
 the description given above can be set that of a con- 
 
192 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 siderable number of the descendants of the emanci- 
 pated people especially of those with a mixture of 
 Javanese, Indian, or European blood in their veins 
 who lead orderly, respectable, industrious lives, 
 many of whom have acquired property in land and 
 cottages, and who differ in appearance from Euro- 
 pean peasants only in colour. Seen particularly on 
 Sabbaths at their places of worship, they are evidence 
 sufficient that slavery in their case was a violation of 
 right. It is said that they are not morally on a 
 level with Europeans, how can it be expected in 
 reason that they should be? They are at least as 
 high morally as those Europeans who lead their young 
 females astray, and who are not usually of the 
 proletariat class themselves. In these sentences one 
 of the greatest dangers to the South Africa of the 
 future is pointed out. 
 
 The emancipation of the slaves, though it almost 
 destroyed agriculture, had an important influence in 
 advancing the pastoral industry of the country. 
 Efforts had been made ever since the foundation of 
 the colony to introduce wool-bearing sheep. Many 
 of the governors, Dutch as well as English, had 
 interested themselves in this matter, but always with- 
 out success. Several of the British immigrants of 
 1820 and some enterprising Dutch colonists in 
 Swellendam, however, had of late years been farm- 
 ing with merino sheep, and the industry was fairly 
 established in 1834, though it was then conducted on 
 such a small scale that the value of the wool pro- 
 duced was less than forty-five thousand dollars a year. 
 
 The reason of this slow progress was that breed- 
 ing sheep had always been regarded as subsidiary to 
 rearing horned cattle, and the native large-tailed 
 hair-covered breed was much hardier than the merino 
 
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES. 193 
 
 and produced a larger carcase for the butcher. But 
 now breeding sheep for their wool was resorted to as 
 an occupation that required very little labour, and 
 herds could be had when ploughmen were not obtain- 
 able. It was soon found that sheep would thrive dur- 
 ing the whole year on the great arid Karoo plains, 
 where there is not a blade of grass to be seen in the 
 summer season, but where nature supplies a succulent 
 shrub whose roots run down to such a depth that it 
 does not perish in the severest drought. Two or three 
 acres of ground are needed here to sustain a sheep, 
 but the area of the Karoo being something like fifty 
 thousand square miles, a great number could be pas- 
 tured on it. The grass-covered country on each side 
 was also found to be in most places adapted for sheep 
 runs, so this branch of industry rapidly grew, and by 
 the middle of the century the wool exported yearly 
 was valued at over a million dollars. 
 
194: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 THE SIXTH WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 
 
 LORD CHARLES SOMERSET'S plan of preventing 
 difficulties with the Xosas by having a tract of un- 
 occupied land between them and the colonists was a 
 complete failure. It might have succeeded if there 
 had been a sufficient number of soldiers to patrol 
 the whole border from the mountains to the sea in 
 such strength as to prevent any one passing through, 
 but that was out of the question. The troops at Forts 
 Willshire and Beaufort could not even check the il- 
 licit trade carried on by Europeans, much less keep 
 Kaffir cattle-thieves from crossing over at their will. 
 A successful cattle-lifter among the Xosas was re- 
 garded as a champion cricket-player is in England, 
 he was a man of whose skill and ability his com- 
 panions were proud. There was thus both honour 
 and profit to be gained by thinning the herds of the 
 Europeans in the colony, and there was just suffi- 
 cient risk of being shot in the enterprise to give it 
 that excitement which Kaffirs, like white men, are 
 fond of. There was no disgrace of any kind attached 
 to it, except that a young fellow who went out for a 
 couple of cows and returned without them would be 
 subjected to a good deal of banter. 
 
 Naturally the British settlers in Albany and the 
 Dutch colonists in Somerset looked at this matter 
 from another standpoint. They were continually 
 crying out for protection, and as it occasionally hap- 
 pened that a white man was murdered in trying to 
 
THE SIXTH WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 195 
 
 defend or recover his property, the government was 
 compelled to listen. Then some new plan would be 
 devised, only in its turn to fail as a remedy. The 
 first of these plans was to allow Makoma and Tyali, 
 sons of Gaika, to occupy a portion of the vacant 
 territory. It was believed that the robbers were ad- 
 herents of Ndlambe, and that if Gaika's sons, who 
 were regarded as friends of the government, were 
 stationed in front of them, they would be unable 
 to pass through. But in reality, as far as cattle- 
 lifting was concerned, there was no difference be- 
 tween the clans, for to them all, being without moral 
 scruples in the matter, the temptation to appropriate 
 fat kine was too great to be resisted. 
 
 Then a change was made which reversed the whole 
 system of British policy towards the Xosas. The 
 Reverend William Shaw, a Wesleyan missionary 
 living with Ndlambe's people at the station Mount 
 Coke, interested himself in improving the condition 
 of that section of the tribe, and exerted his influence 
 in effecting a friendly arrangement between them 
 and the government. In January, 1824, the alliance 
 with Gaika was formally abandoned, and Ndlambe 
 and his partisans were acknowledged to be independ- 
 ent of that chief and were promised that if they 
 would behave themselves as friends they would not 
 be molested anywhere east of the Keiskama. Shortly 
 afterwards Pato, son of Cungwa, was permitted to 
 occupy ground west of the Keiskama near the sea. 
 All this was done with the very best intention, and, 
 as was believed at the time, in the cause of peace. 
 But from that moment Makoma and Tyali became the 
 enemies of the colonial government, who, according 
 to their view, had obtained a grant of ground from 
 their father and then abandoned him. 
 
196 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Their conduct became so provoking, and the thefts 
 by their people were so considerable, that it was nec- 
 essary on several occasions to make reprisals from 
 them, and at length, in May, 1829, Makoma was 
 driven over the Tyumie by a military expedition. 
 In February, 1828, the old chief Ndlambe died, 
 and as his legitimate heir was of feeble intellect, 
 he was practically succeeded by a minor son who 
 leaned upon the Gaikas for support. Gaika himself, 
 worn out with drunkenness and debauchery, died in 
 November, 1829. His great wife was mother of a 
 boy named Sandile, who was then too young to rule, 
 so that Makoma was chosen as regent, and became 
 the most powerful chief near the border. Formal 
 war with the colony was now delayed only till the 
 first favourable opportunity, and the Kaffir knows 
 well how to bide his time, but the condition of 
 things was certainly not what can be termed a state 
 of peace. Constant thefts were carried on, and the 
 small military force on the border was worn out by 
 frequent expeditions of reprisal, which the Xosas 
 hardly regarded, as the restrictions imposed by civi- 
 lisation prevented anything like what they would con- 
 sider real punishment. 
 
 In December, 1834, the troops on the frontier 
 consisted of a weak battalion of infantry, the Cape 
 corps, and a few artillerymen. Altogether they 
 numbered only eight hundred and thirty-five officers 
 and men, and they had six posts to guard in addition 
 to their patrol duty. At this time some horses be- 
 longing to the officers at Fort Beaufort were stolen, 
 and as they were traced to one of Tyali's kraals, a 
 lieutenant with a sergeant and twelve men were 
 sent to recover them. The lieutenant seized some 
 oxen, which he stated would be detained until the 
 
THE SIXTH WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 197 
 
 horses were surrendered, and then set out on his re- 
 turn. The Kaffirs followed, and until the fort was 
 reached a running skirmish was carried on, in which 
 the cattle were lost and a soldier was wounded. On 
 the Xosa side two men were killed and two others 
 slightly wounded, one of the latter being a brother 
 of Tyali. 
 
 This served as a pretence for Makoma and Tyali 
 to make a general call to arms. The blood of a son 
 of Gaika had been shed, they announced, and nothing 
 but the blood of white people could wash out the in- 
 dignity. The warriors of nearly all the clans west of 
 the Kei assembled at the call, Gaikas and Ndlambes 
 united, and on the evening of the 21st of December, 
 1834, from twelve to fifteen thousand men in large 
 parties crossed the border along its whole length 
 from the Winterberg to the sea. Spreading over the 
 districts of Albany and Somerset, they burned and 
 destroyed everything in their way, murdered all the 
 white men who could not escape, and then retired 
 with the spoil. 
 
 The British settlers who had been in comfortable 
 circumstances on their farms, as well as their Dutch 
 neighbours, were utterly impoverished by this sud- 
 den raid. Fortunately, nearly the whole of the peo- 
 ple in the open country had warning in time to es- 
 cape to Grahamstown or some of the villages, or to 
 construct lagers by drawing waggons together, none 
 of which were attacked. The residents of Bathurst, 
 fearing they would be unable to defend themselves, 
 abandoned that village, however, and fled to Grahams- 
 town. In the open country twenty-two white men 
 were murdered and four hundred and fifty-six houses 
 were burned. In round numbers 5,700 horses, 
 115,000 head of horned cattle, and 162,000 sheep 
 
198 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and goats were driven off. Altogether, the property 
 destroyed and swept away was worth nearly a mil- 
 lion and a half of dollars according to a careful 
 official estimate subsequently made. 
 
 In the Kaffir country itself the trading stations 
 were all pillaged, and ten of their owners were mur- 
 dered, but the others with the missionaries and their 
 families were allowed to retire to places of safety. 
 The small military force could do nothing more than 
 defend the posts nearest the border: the three far- 
 thest in advance, including Fort Willshire, had to be 
 abandoned. 
 
 As soon as intelligence of the invasion reached 
 Capetown burgher commandos were called out and 
 preparations were made to send every soldier who 
 could be spared from guarding the forts to the 
 eastern frontier. Colonel afterwards Sir Harry 
 Smith set out on horseback to organise a force with 
 which to meet the enemy, and reached Grahamstown 
 on the 6th of January, 1835. He was an old cam- 
 paigner, but only once before, he declared, when 
 the Portuguese were fleeing before a French army 
 had he seen such devastation as met his eye on the 
 journey and such misery as he witnessed on his ar- 
 rival. The churches were turned into shelters for 
 fugitive women and children, all business had ceased, 
 the streets were barricaded, the whole male popula- 
 tion was under arms, and there was a difficulty in 
 obtaining food for so many who were destitute. But 
 in a few days the energetic colonel organised and 
 equipped a considerable force, with which various 
 small parties at a distance were rescued, and Fort 
 Willshire was reoccupied. 
 
 Sir Benjamin D'Urban reached Grahamstown on 
 the 20th of January, and shortly afterwards the 
 
THE SIXTH WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 199 
 
 troops and burgher commandos began to arrive. 
 Provisions were hurried up, and the destitute people 
 were permitted to draw rations from the commis- 
 sariat stores. The Kaffirs who were still in the colony 
 gleaning any remains of spoil were pursued and 
 driven out, and by the llth of February such a strong 
 force was assembled that they could be attacked in 
 the fastnesses of the Fish River, which they were oc- 
 cupying. From these they were expelled after three 
 days' fighting, but not without considerable loss on 
 the European side. Most of them then retreated 
 to the forests along the Amatola mountains. The 
 cattle captured in the colony had meantime been 
 driven over the Kei and placed in charge of Hintsa, 
 who was nominally paramount chief of the whole 
 Xosa tribe, though practically the Gaikas and 
 !N"dlambes were nearly independent. 
 
 Some weeks were now devoted to establishing a 
 base of operations, bringing provisions forward, and 
 driving out little parties of Kaffirs who had managed 
 to slip round and get into the rear of Sir Benjamin 
 D'Urban's army. Then, early in April, the enemy 
 was attacked along the Amatola and driven from 
 every position which they tried to defend. 
 
 On the 15th of April Sir Benjamin D'Urban with 
 a strong division of his force crossed the Kei to com- 
 pel Hintsa to restore the captured cattle. The Kaffirs 
 on the eastern side were not treated as enemies, nor 
 was their property disturbed in any way, until the 
 Wesleyan mission station Butterworth, which was 
 found in ruins, was reached. Here several Fingo 
 captains met the governor and requested to be taken 
 under his protection. Their application caused him 
 to resolve upon a plan for the settlement of the Kaf- 
 fir difficulty, which was to locate these remnants of 
 
PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 broken tribes in front of the Xosas, so that they 
 might form a kind of buffer along the border, and to 
 place the territory between the Fish River and the 
 Kei under British rule. 
 
 The time allowed to Hintsa to comply with the 
 governor's demands expired without his taking any 
 notice of them, so military operations were com- 
 menced and several thousand head of cattle were 
 captured. The chief then offered to visit the Brit- 
 ish camp and arrange terms of peace provided his 
 personal safety was guaranteed, and on this condi- 
 tion on the 29th of April with fifty followers he came 
 to the governor's headquarters. On the following 
 day he agreed to the terms proposed, which included 
 the immediate delivery of twenty-five thousand head 
 of horned cattle and five hundred horses. The chief 
 voluntarily offered to remain as a hostage in the 
 British camp until the conditions were fulfilled, so 
 part of the army at once set out on its return march 
 to the colony. 
 
 The Fingo captains were now directed to collect 
 their people in order to remove to the territory in 
 which the governor resolved to locate them. They 
 were already fighting with the Xosas, and on being 
 assured of British protection were indifferent as to 
 how they aggravated their former oppressors. On 
 learning that some of them had been killed, the gov- 
 ernor informed Hintsa that if they were not permit- 
 ted to leave without molestation, he and his attend- 
 ants would all be hanged, as the pledge of personal 
 safety could not be binding if he allowed his people 
 to murder British subjects. Thereupon the Fingos 
 were permitted to go, and they took with them over 
 twenty-two thousand head of cattle belonging to the 
 Xosas, which they seized with impunity, as Hintsa's 
 
THE SIXTH WA WITH THE KAFFIRS. 201 
 
 followers feared for the life of their chief. No one 
 has ever attempted to justify this action, and the 
 only excuse that it is possible to make is that Sir Ben- 
 jamin D'Urban really believed the cattle to be the 
 property of the Fingos themselves. These people, 
 numbering about seventeen thousand souls, were lo- 
 cated along the eastern bank of the Fish River up- 
 wards from the sea, and thus the Bantu race was 
 assisted in its general march westward. 
 
 It was ascertained that the cattle swept off from 
 the colony had been driven into the valley of the 
 Bashee, and as Hintsa asserted that his followers 
 would not obey his orders to deliver the number men- 
 tioned in the agreement of peace, a body of mounted 
 troops under command of Colonel Smith was sent to 
 seize them. The chief offered to accompany the 
 expedition as a guide, and was provided with a horse 
 for the purpose. But he and his people at heart re- 
 garded the protection given to the Fingos in their 
 robbery as a cancellation of the terms of peace, and 
 had no intention of restoring the colonists' cattle. 
 On the way the chief made a bold dash for liberty, 
 and succeeded in getting into a wooded glen, where 
 he turned upon his pursuers, but fell dead from a 
 gunshot. 
 
 As soon as this intelligence reached the governor, 
 Kreli, Hintsa's great son, was recognised as chief, 
 and an agreement of peace was made with him, in 
 which the Kei was recognised as his western bor- 
 der and he promised to restore the colonists' cattle. 
 Immediately after this the troops withdrew from his 
 territory. 
 
 On the 16th of May Sir Benjamin D'Urban is- 
 sued a proclamation declaring the country between 
 the Keiskama and the Tyumie on one side and the 
 
202 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Kei from its source in the Stormberg to the sea on 
 the other a British possession, under the name of the 
 Province of Queen Adelaide. He intended to sta- 
 tion a body of troops in it, and to bring the Kaffirs 
 there under civilised government and influence. A 
 site for a military post was selected on the left bank 
 of the Buffalo River, and as the plan included the set- 
 tlement of Europeans in the vicinity, it received 
 the name King-Williamstown. 
 
 While the principal part of the British force was 
 beyond the Kei, the Kaffirs on the western side ral- 
 lied, and took advantage of the opportunity to send 
 raiding parties into the colony again. Nine more 
 Europeans were murdered, but very little booty was 
 obtained, as there was hardly anything left that could 
 be seized. The governor found that the Gaikas and 
 Ndlambes were as strong as ever, and that the work 
 of conquering them was still to be done. For this he 
 had no force at the time. The burghers, who served 
 without pay, were under the necessity of returning to 
 their homes, as the planting season was well ad- 
 vanced, and if they did not get in seed there would 
 certainly be a famine in the land. There was even 
 then the greatest difficulty in obtaining food. 
 
 Sir Benjamin D'Urban therefore constructed a 
 number of simple defensible posts in different parts 
 of the Province of Queen Adelaide and in the ter- 
 ritory between the Keiskama and Eish Rivers, which 
 he garrisoned with soldiers, colonial volunteers, and 
 such trustworthy coloured men as could be engaged 
 at soldiers' pay. The farmers were then given leave 
 of absence for time sufficient to plough and sow their 
 ground. 
 
 In September they returned to the scene of hos- 
 tilities, and just at this time a regiment of soldiers 
 
THE SIXTH WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 203 
 
 arrived to relieve another in the colony, which was, 
 however, detained by the governor. A strong force 
 was therefore ready to take the field, which caused 
 the Kaffirs in the Amatola fastnesses to express an 
 inclination for peace. Sir Benjamin D'Urban on 
 his part was exceedingly anxious to bring the war 
 to a close. He had come to South Africa in the most 
 complete sympathy with the great philanthropic so- 
 cieties, and although his views had undergone a 
 change since he had learned to know the Hottentots 
 and the Kaffirs as they really were, he had not lost 
 a particle of true benevolence or a fraction of his 
 old desire to benefit the coloured races. If peace 
 could be made on fair conditions, he was of opin- 
 ion that it would be a crime to shed another drop 
 of blood. 
 
 He had considered it necessary to prohibit one 
 of the missionaries of the London Society from hav- 
 ing intercourse with the Hottentots of the Kat River 
 Settlement while the war lasted, and the Reverend 
 Dr. Philip was now his most bitter opponent, but the 
 Scotch and Wesleyan missionaries with one sole 
 exception supported him and were ready to work 
 with him for the good of whites and blacks alike. 
 Through the medium of some of the Wesleyan mis- 
 sionaries communications were opened with the 
 Gaika and Ndlambe chiefs, and an arrangement was 
 made by which they agreed to become British sub- 
 jects and to submit to certain civilised laws. In 
 return they were to be protected in every way, and to 
 be at liberty to govern their people according to an- 
 cient custom, though under the general supervision 
 of British officials. Each chief had a tract of land 
 assigned to him so extensive that when all were pro- 
 vided for nothing was left for European occupation 
 
204 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 but the narrow belt between the Buffalo and 2Tahoon 
 rivers from King-Williamstown to the sea. 
 
 To the British, agricultural settlers in Albany 
 and their Dutch neighbours in Somerset this war was 
 the cause of as much misery as the sudden emanci- 
 pation of the slaves to the farmers of the western 
 divisions of the colony. They had been in comfort- 
 able circumstances, and they were now reduced to 
 extreme poverty: what need is there to say more? 
 It is true that about sixty thousand head of cattle 
 had been recovered, but many of these were slaught- 
 ered to feed the forces in the field, and more than 
 half of the whole number perished from being driven 
 about hurriedly and herded together without suffi- 
 cient grass. The waste of animal life in such war- 
 fare is always enormous, and the Kaffirs themselves, 
 though their booty was so large, were much poorer at 
 the close of 1835 than they had been in 1834. The 
 Pingos were the only gainers by the contest. They 
 had now a country of their own, where they were 
 under British protection, and they had a sufficiency 
 to make a fair start according to their ideas of com- 
 fort and prosperity. 
 
 In the Province of Queen Adelaide a system 
 of government was established which received the 
 approbation of every European in South Africa ex- 
 cept the few who held the opinions of the superin- 
 tendent of the London Missionary Society. These, 
 true to their principles, maintained that a great 
 wrong was inflicted on the Gaikas and Ndlambes in 
 depriving them of their independence, and they pro- 
 fessed to regard Sir Benjamin D'Urban with horror 
 for acting as he had done. Colonel Smith was sta- 
 tioned in King-Williamstown with civil and military 
 control over the territory. Gentlemen of ability and 
 
THE SIXTH WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 205 
 
 merit were selected to reside with the different 
 chiefs as advisers and in serious criminal cases to 
 send the persons accused to King-Williamstown for 
 trial, for which purpose they were provided with a 
 few policemen. To the chiefs was left the power 
 of trying petty criminal cases and all civil cases 
 whatever. Commerce in useful articles was thrown 
 open to respectable traders, but the sale of muni- 
 tions of war and intoxicating liquors was strictly 
 prohibited. The missionaries were encouraged to 
 return and resume their labours. 
 
 To oppose this system the Reverend Dr. Philip 
 went to England, taking with him a Kaffir and a 
 Hottentot trained in his schools. The philanthropic 
 societies gave him a very warm greeting, and under 
 their auspices he made a tour through the country, 
 in which he and his proteges addressed immense 
 gatherings of people and were received with the 
 wildest enthusiasm. A committee of the House of 
 Commons was taking evidence upon the condition 
 of the aborigines in British settlements, and before 
 these gentlemen too they appeared and stated their 
 views. 
 
 There are times in the lives of all nations when 
 reason and justice seem to be obscured, when even 
 the clearest-minded men fall into the strangest errors 
 of thought. It is so as these lines are being written 
 with the people of France, it was so with the people 
 of our England when Dr. Philip, Jan Tshatshu, and 
 Andries Stoffels were giving their views upon South 
 African matters before the committee of which Mr. 
 Fowell Buxton was the chairman. Let any one ana- 
 lyse the evidence in that bulky blue book upon aborig- 
 ines and compare it with the decision of the commit- 
 tee, and he will find it the counterpart of the evidence 
 
206 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and judgment in the court-martial at Rennes upon 
 Alfred Dreyfus. All the evidence as to facts given 
 by competent and experienced officers was ignored, 
 and the views and opinions of Dr. Philip were acted 
 upon. ~No greater gulf between lines of thought 
 of the same people at different times can be found 
 in history than between those of our own country- 
 men in 1835 and 1899. 
 
 Lord Glenelg, who was then secretary of state 
 for the colonies, was entirely of Dr. Philip's political 
 creed. He determined to undo all that Sir Ben- 
 jamin D'Urban had done, and in a despatch, dated 
 26th of December, 1835, he threw all blame for the 
 war upon the colonists and the colonial government, 
 justifying the Kaffirs, who, he said, had been urged 
 to revenge and desperation by the systematic in- 
 justice of which they had been the victims. 
 
 It mattered little that the legislative council, the 
 colonists, English and Dutch alike, and nearly the 
 whole of the missionaries took part with the gover- 
 nor, Lord Glenelg's will outweighed them all. A 
 gentleman who could be depended upon to carry out 
 his wishes in letter and in spirit was sent out as 
 lieutenant-governor of the eastern districts, and Brit- 
 ish authority was withdrawn not only from the Prov- 
 ince of Queen Adelaide, but from the territory 
 between it and the Fish River. Even Fort Will- 
 shire was abandoned, with all the posts Sir Ben- 
 jamin D'Urban had established. 
 
 Treaties were then entered into with the chiefs 
 as sovereign and independent potentates, and officers 
 were stationed with them having the title of British 
 Agents and the functions of consuls. A greater 
 farce could not well be conceived. They neither 
 understood the nature of the documents to which 
 
THE SIXTH "WAR WITH THE KAFFIRS. 207 
 
 they affixed their marks, nor were they in a position 
 to carry out such treaties if they bad understood 
 them. And so the condition of affairs on the Kaffir 
 border was thrown back to what it had been twenty 
 years before. 
 
208 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE GEEAT EMIGRATION. 
 
 WE have now reached the gloomiest period in the 
 history of the Cape Colony, when from one end of the 
 country to the other nothing was to be seen but 
 misery and distress. The British settlers, who had 
 expected to receive at least sympathy from their 
 countrymen at home, if not practical assistance from 
 the imperial government to enable them to rebuild 
 their burnt houses and restock their plundered farms, 
 found themselves accused of acts of which they had 
 been entirely innocent, and were imploring, but in 
 vain, that impartial commissioners might be sent 
 out to examine into their conduct and free them from 
 the charge of having left their honour and their 
 humanity behind when they crossed the sea to South 
 Africa. The missionaries made a fainter outcry, 
 but they too, when looking at their ruined stations, 
 were deeply moved at the thought of being accused 
 of having taken part with oppressors. The Dutch 
 colonists, likening their condition to that of Israel 
 in Egypt, thought of nothing but relief by flight 
 from British rule. 
 
 Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the best loved and most 
 widely esteemed governor the country had known 
 since the days of General Janssens, endeavoured to 
 convince the secretary of state of the great mistake 
 that was being made, but by so doing only brought 
 
BEGINNING OF GREAT EMIGRATION. 209 
 
 upon himself the heaviest punishment that could be 
 inflicted. Dismissed from his office in the harshest 
 manner, he would not return to England, but retired 
 to private life in the colony until his countrymen 
 should reverse the judgment passed by Lord Glenelg 
 upon him. That did not take place until 1846, when 
 the injustice done to him and to the colonists was gen- 
 erally acknowledged, and he was then appointed 
 commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada. Sir 
 George Napier, another military veteran, who held 
 the most advanced so-called philanthropic opinions, 
 was sent out to succeed him, and arrived in January, 
 1838. To the great wail of agony from South Africa 
 Lord Glenelg had but one reply : that he took the re- 
 sponsibility for the policy upon himself, a respon- 
 sibility so terrible as subsequently seen that it is 
 charitable to suppose he was more thoughtless than 
 cold-blooded. 
 
 The condition of the eastern province during the 
 next ten years was such that only people of the high- 
 est degree of determination would have persevered 
 in trying to carry on farming there. Such men 
 and women were the British settlers of Albany, than 
 whom the mother country never sent forth worthier 
 children, though it was the fashion then in England 
 to stigmatise them as oppressors of the blacks. They 
 went back to their farms, and only the all-seeing 
 God and themselves knew how hardly they lived 
 and how sorely they struggled to get upon their feet 
 again. The country swarmed with vagrants, Kaffirs 
 and others, always on the watch to plunder them, and 
 they were obliged to be ready night and day to defend 
 themselves and the stock they were beginning to ac- 
 cumulate once more. Murders were frequent, in 
 one year there were no fewer than twenty-four, but 
 
 P 
 
210 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 under the Glenelg system there was practically no 
 redress for either murder or theft. The chiefs were 
 applied to, certainly, by the British agents, and there 
 the matter commonly ended. The white man and his 
 mode of government had become the laughing-stock 
 of Kaffirland. 
 
 The Fingos between the Fish and Keiskama 
 rivers were hardly better off. A small garrison 
 was maintained at Fort Peddie for their protection, 
 but the Xosas harassed them so that they were only 
 safe under shelter of the guns. One day in the very 
 presence of the British agent they were attacked, 
 ten of them were killed, eleven others wounded, and 
 fifty head of cattle were driven away. A corporal 
 who was sent out of the fort with a few soldiers to 
 aid them was killed. And for this all the satisfac- 
 tion that could be obtained was the delivery of 
 seventy-four head of the most worthless cattle in the 
 country. 
 
 This was the condition of things, a condition of 
 lawlessness caused by philanthropy gone mad, that 
 drove thousands of the Dutch colonists to seek a new 
 home somewhere, anywhere beyond the pale of Brit- 
 ish rule. It was once a belief in England that op- 
 position to emancipation of the slaves was the cause 
 of their removal, as the two events coincided closely 
 in point of time, but in truth that was not so. A 
 careful examination shows that the area from whicli 
 ninety-eight per cent, of the voortrekkers, or first 
 emigrants, went contained only sixteen per cent, of 
 the whole number of slaves in the colony. That area 
 covered the frontier districts, the scenes of Kaffir 
 raids, the localities most frequented by vagrants of 
 every kind. The Cape peninsula and the wheat and 
 wine producing districts now forming the divisions of 
 
BEGINNING OF GREAT EMIGRATION. 211 
 
 Caledon, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Malmesbury, Piquet- 
 berg, Ceres, and Worcester did not contribute a dozen 
 families altogether to the stream of emigration, and 
 these formed the principal slaveholding part of the 
 country. In one document only out of hundreds 
 written by the voortrekkers at this time, and still m 
 existence, is the emancipation referred to as a griev- 
 ance, and even in this one the manifesto of Pieter 
 Ketief the cause of the grievance is emancipation 
 without a fair equivalent. The slaveholders were 
 really the least fitted of all the colonists for such an 
 enterprise, as they had been so dependent upon the 
 regular labour of their bondsmen that they could not 
 rely on their own unaided exertions, as the cattle- 
 breeders of the inland districts could, very few of 
 whom had any but casual Hottentot or other free 
 servants. 
 
 The desire to get away from British rule was gen- 
 eral, but the ability to do so was limited to those who 
 still possessed some means, for of course those who 
 were destitute could not move. Waggons, oxen, 
 breeding cattle, horses, guns, and ammunition were 
 indispensable for the purpose. The clergy set their 
 faces decidedly against the movement, as they feared 
 the people when away in the wilds of the interior 
 would retrograde from civilisation, and their in- 
 fluence restrained many who otherwise would have 
 gone. Not a single clergyman joined the emigrants. 
 The condition of the country beyond the northern 
 colonial border was at this time very imperfectly 
 known, though missionaries of several societies as 
 well as English hunters and traders had penetrated 
 it some hundreds of miles, for their accounts were 
 not then published, and the intercourse between them 
 and the Dutch colonists was extremely limited. A' 
 
212 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 small party of fanners had, however, visited Natal, 
 and had been smitten with the charms of that beau- 
 tiful depopulated territory. 
 
 The colonists believed that when once beyond the 
 British frontiers they would be politically entirely 
 independent. Over and over again they had heard 
 it asserted by men in authority that England was 
 determined not to enlarge her possessions in South 
 Africa and thereby increase her responsibilities, and 
 they had seen her withdraw her flag from ground 
 that had long been hers, as well as from the recently 
 created Province of Queen Adelaide. They knew 
 that her politicians held her real interests in the 
 country to be confined to the Cape peninsula, and 
 they were witnesses of the fact that she had permit- 
 ted coloured people to withdraw from her rule and 
 found caricatures of independent states, without a 
 word of remonstrance. What held good in the case 
 of the Griquas, they thought, would surely hold good 
 for them, as they were not hereditary British sub- 
 jects, and only twenty-two years had elapsed since 
 without their consent being asked or given they had 
 been transferred by the King of the Netherlands 
 .to the dominion of England. This was their view of 
 the position, a view which they persistently main- 
 tained thereafter. 
 
 On the other hand the British authorities claimed 
 that they could not throw off their allegiance by any 
 act of their own, and that no matter where they went 
 they could be brought back and made amenable to 
 the colonial courts of law. This principle was recog- 
 nised in an act of the imperial parliament passed at 
 this time, commonly known as the Cape of Good 
 Hope Punishment Act, which provided for the trial 
 of British subjects committing offences anywhere 
 
BEGINNING OF GREAT EMIGRATION. 213 
 
 in Africa south of the twenty-fifth parallel of lati- 
 tude. 
 
 In one respect the Dutch colonists were very unlike 
 their kindred in Europe. In the Netherlands men 
 were strongly attached to the locality of their birth 
 and to their own little province, but in South Africa 
 beyond the first range of mountains, owing to the 
 old land tenure, the people had lost all feeling of 
 this kind. Their affection was for the country as 
 a whole, for its clear skies of deepest blue, for the 
 exhilarating air on its highlands, for the vastness 
 of its plains and hunting fields and pastures rolling 
 in hill and vale like the waves of a boundless sea. 
 It is a land to be loved, and these people, many of 
 whom were from necessity half migratory in their 
 habits, as their fathers for generations had been, were 
 as deeply attached to it as it was possible to be. But 
 whether they lived in one part or in another five hun- 
 dred miles away was a matter of little concern to 
 them: it was all ons land, our own country, where 
 the rocky ridges are tinted by the setting sun with 
 hues more beautiful than ever painter laid on cloth, 
 where the moonlit evenings are so pleasant that one 
 can fancy such must have been the clime of Paradise 
 of old, and where the stars shine so bright through 
 the clear dry air that the dome of heaven is all aglow 
 with their myriad rays. It was thus not a matter of 
 much regret in itself for these men and women to tear 
 themselves away from the part of South Africa 
 termed the Cape Colony, and make new homes in a 
 part bearing another name. 
 
 Nor was the travelling in waggons over a roadless 
 country for hundreds of miles so formidable an un- 
 dertaking for them as it would be for persons born 
 and reared in cities of Europe or America. To 
 
214 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA, 
 
 Afrikanders the tented ox-waggon is by no means 
 an uncomfortable conveyance in fine weather, when 
 meals can be taken in the open air. Provided with a 
 katel, which is almost equal to a spring bedstead, 
 one sleeps in it with ease, while its various chests 
 inside and out afford convenient receptacles for 
 everything needed on a journey. A few folding 
 chairs, a similar table, and a screen for the sun con- 
 stitute the only furniture required in the veld. 
 
 Still, when all this is said, it was no light matter 
 to leave the colony, where civilisation had provided 
 so many appliances that tended to convenience and 
 comfort, and plunge into the interior, where there 
 were no churches or stores, no markets or mechanics' 
 shops, even if that interior was in all other respects 
 the same as the districts they were abandoning. The 
 emigration of a great number of the peasantry 
 of a state or province, think what it means : no other 
 British colony in modern times has witnessed any- 
 thing like it. 
 
 And now farms were sold for whatever they would 
 bring, which in many instances was next to nothing, 
 owing to the great number to be parted with, every- 
 thing that could not be packed in the huge waggons 
 was disposed of, the last look was taken of the graves 
 where deceased relatives were lying, and the emigrants 
 moved away northward. Each party was under the 
 leadership of an elected commandant, and usually 
 consisted of a group of families closely related to 
 each other. They moved slowly, seldom farther 
 than six or eight miles a day, as they had to be care- 
 ful not to overdrive their flocks and herds. Often 
 when they came to places where the pasture was par- 
 ticularly good they remained for weeks together, 
 there being no necessity to hurry on in a journey 
 
BEGINNING OF GREAT EMIGRATION. 215 
 
 whose end was unknown. Sometimes they were de- 
 layed by swollen rivers or mountain ranges, but that 
 troubled them little, for in the one case the water 
 would sooner or later subside, and in the other a 
 pass was always to be found over which twenty or 
 thirty oxen could drag a waggon so strong and yet 
 so elastic as that in use in South Africa. 
 
 The pioneer party was under the leadership of a 
 farmer named Louis Triechard. It consisted of only 
 eight men, with seven women and thirty-four chil- 
 dren, who had resided on the border of Albany. On 
 the colonial frontier, however, it was joined by an- 
 other party, under Jan van Rensburg, which com- 
 prised ten men, nine women, and thirty children. 
 Triechard kept a diary, which has fortunately been 
 preserved, so that the particulars of his journey are 
 known. 
 
 Together the two parties had thirty waggons and 
 a considerable number of coloured servants. After 
 crossing the frontier they continued their course 
 northward, travelling just as suited their inclination 
 or convenience, until they reached the place now 
 known as Potgieter's Rust, in the Zoutpansberg, 
 where they arrived in May, 1836. In passing 
 through the vast almost uninhabited waste beyond the 
 Orange River, they had escaped the observation of 
 Moselekatse's warriors, and had seen so little human 
 life that they considered themselves quite secure. 
 The men hunted game constantly on horseback, and 
 had seen vast areas of land suited for settlement, but 
 as they wished to open communication with the outer 
 Vv'orld through Delagoa Bay, they had gone on until 
 they believed themselves to be in the latitude of that 
 port. 
 
 At the Zoutpansberg they halted while the young 
 
216 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 men explored the country around, which they consid- 
 ered admirably adapted for stock-breeding and agri- 
 culture. They were in ignorance that Moselekatse's 
 kraals were only two hundred and fifty miles to the 
 south-west, and of the ferocity of the Matabele they 
 likewise knew nothing, or they would not have been 
 so satisfied with the locality. They were almost at 
 the mouth of a lion's den, and yet were in such 
 utter carelessness that after a short time the two 
 bands separated, in order that each might have a dis- 
 trict of its own. 
 
 Rensburg's party moved eastward, and from that 
 time nothing certain is known of the events that hap- 
 pened to it. It was said by some blacks in after 
 years that it fell in with a band of Magwamba rob- 
 bers, who murdered men, women, and children alike, 
 but just when and where this occurred could never bo 
 ascertained. In August, 1867, a white man and 
 woman, who spoke no language but that of the East- 
 ern Bantu, and whose habits were those of bar- 
 barians, were sent to Commandant Coetzer, of 
 Lydenburg, by a Swazi chief who had obtained them 
 from the Magwamba. They could tell nothing of 
 their history beyond their residence among the 
 Bantu, and did not even know their European names 
 or those of their parents ; but as they had never seen 
 other whites that they could remember, it was con- 
 cluded that they were the sole survivors of Rensburg's 
 party, and that they must have been very young when 
 their relatives were murdered. They had been 
 treated by the blacks as superior beings, and had 
 never done any work, as food was always provided 
 for them. For some time they had lived as man and 
 wife, and had two children when they were rescued. 
 
 After resting a few months at the Zoutpansberg 
 
BEGINNING OF GREAT EMIGRATION. 217 
 
 Triechard's party resolved to explore the country be- 
 tween them and Delagoa Bay, and then return and 
 settle permanently in the goodly locality they had 
 found. They had no idea of the distance they would 
 have to travel or of the obstacles in their way, and 
 they considered it necessary to acquire that infor- 
 mation. They were in reality about two hundred 
 and ten miles in a straight line from Lourengo 
 Marques, which lay almost due south-east, for with- 
 out knowing it they had gone fully a hundred and 
 twenty miles farther north than its latitude. So 
 far they had enjoyed excellent health, as after pass- 
 ing the Stormberg they had been on the high plateau, 
 and travelling from south to north they had not 
 met with any serious obstacles. They were now to 
 have a very different experience. 
 
 They reached the edge of the plateau safely, and 
 commenced to descend to the terraces along the coast, 
 but here they were attacked by fever, which carried 
 off several of their number and for a time prostrated 
 all the others. The country was more densely 
 wooded than that they had left behind, and the grass 
 was so thick and high that travelling was extremely 
 difficult, besides which the edges of the terraces were 
 so precipitous that it was with the greatest difficulty 
 they could get down. Fortunately great herds of 
 buffaloes and other large game were always to be 
 seen, so that they were in no want of animal food. 
 
 On entering the forest country they observed an 
 insect a little larger than a common fly settling on 
 their cattle, but they paid hardly any attention to it 
 at first, for -they had never heard of the tsetse, whose 
 sting is death to the horse or ox. Seeing the zebras 
 and buffaloes, animals so like their own, in vast num- 
 bers roaming about unharmed, they could not sus- 
 
218 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 pect the destructive power of the fly. But soon the 
 domestic cattle began to pine away and at length 
 to die, when the unfortunate people found themselves 
 in a deplorable condition. Their only hope now was 
 in reaching Delagoa Bay, and by dint of almost 
 superhuman exertions, in April, 1838, those who still 
 remained alive arrived at Lourenc,o Marques, where 
 the Portuguese had recently rebuilt a fort. 
 
 By these people they were received with the 
 utmost kindness, and there they remained about a 
 year, all that time treated with the most unbounded 
 hospitality. Then information of what had befallen 
 them reached the emigrants who meanwhile had 
 founded the Republic of Natal, and a little vessel was 
 sent to bring them away. In her three men, three 
 women, and nineteen children proceeded to Durban, 
 where they were joined in the following year by 
 young Triechard, who had gone from Lourengo 
 Marques to Mozambique in a Portuguese vessel be- 
 fore the Mazeppa reached the bay, and on his return 
 set out overland and walked to Natal. 
 
 Thus of the ninety-eight pioneer voortrekkers, all 
 had perished except these twenty-six, who were with- 
 out property of any kind, and the two wretched cap- 
 tives with the Magwamba. 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 219 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 THE DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 
 
 THE next party that left the Cape Colony was Tin- 
 der the leadership of Commandant Andries Hendrik 
 Potgieter, and consisted of a number of families 
 from the Tarka and the neighbourhood of the village 
 of Colesberg. With it went with his parents one 
 Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, a boy ten years 
 of age, whose name was destined in after years to be 
 written large in the history of South Africa. There 
 were no fewer than eight families of the name of 
 Liebenberg in this party, and there was one Carel 
 Cilliers, a famous man among the emigrants, being 
 of the calibre of the best and bravest of our English 
 Puritans. 
 
 Commandant Potgieter directed his course past 
 Thaba ISTtshu on the border of the Caledon to the Vet 
 River, where, near the site of the present village of 
 Winburg, he found a man named Makwana, whose 
 ancestors had been chiefs of the great Bataung tribe 
 that had once occupied the territory from that point 
 northward to the Vaal. Very poor and very 
 wretched, however, was this son of the lion rulers 
 when the white men made his acquaintance, hiding 
 as he was with a few miserable followers from the 
 notice of the dreaded Matabele. To talk to such a 
 man about selling land might seem absurd, but after 
 hearing his story Potgieter made him an offer. If 
 he would transfer his claim to the greater part of 
 
220 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the district, he could keep an ample reserve for him- 
 self and his people, and the emigrants would protect 
 him from the Matabele and furnish him with a small 
 herd of cattle. The newcomers had a very vague 
 idea of the responsibility they were thus taking 
 upon themselves when this proposal, apparently now 
 so advantageous to both sides, was made. Probably, 
 too, Makwana, when he looked upon the little emi- 
 grant camp, did not consider the clause about protec- 
 tion as being of much value; but the land was use- 
 less and the cattle meant something direct and sub- 
 stantial, so he and his people eagerly accepted the 
 terms. 
 
 When the bargain was concluded the farmers scat- 
 tered about in the district they had acquired, and 
 some of them crossed the Vaal and explored its 
 northern bank down to a tributary which they named 
 the Mooi, that is, the Beautiful. They were without 
 the slightest apprehension of danger from Mosele- 
 katse, of whose power they as yet knew little or 
 nothing beyond what the Bataung could tell. Com- 
 mandant Potgieter with eleven men then set out to 
 explore the country onward to Delagoa Bay, leaving 
 the remainder of the party in fancied security. 
 Until they reached Rhenoster Poort, eighteen 
 days' journey from the Vaal, they saw no human 
 beings, so completely had that part of the country 
 been depopulated; but farther on they occasionally 
 met a few half-famished natives occupying strong 
 places in the hills where they could either defend 
 or conceal themselves upon the approach of a Mata- 
 bele band. 
 
 They were astonished at the quantity of iron im- 
 plements possessed by these natives, and concluded 
 rightly that the ore must be in great abundance in 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 221 
 
 those parts. They looked too with something like 
 awe upon the gigantic baobabs, for they had never 
 seen such trees in the south, and they gazed upon the 
 rich grass lands with the highest admiration. But 
 they could find no opening through the rugged 
 country to the eastward by which to descend to De- 
 lagoa Bay, so at the Zoutpansberg they turned back. 
 
 On the return journey they took another route, 
 and to their great satisfaction reached a Magwamba 
 kraal where they observed various kinds of European 
 and Indian goods, and found black traders from 
 Lourenc,o Marques bartering ivory. Here also were 
 two halfbreeds, sons of a renegade Dutch colonist 
 who many years before had fled from justice, and had 
 afterwards lived as a wanderer along the banks of 
 the Limpopo. These men Doris and Carel Buys 
 by name could speak Dutch as well as the native 
 language, and through their interpretation Potgieter 
 and his companions learned a great deal about the 
 path to the coast. They had now been so long away 
 from their friends that they thought it better to be 
 satisfied with this information than to visit Lourengo 
 Marques by the road the black traders pointed out, 
 so they continued their journey to the south and 
 reached the Yaal again after an absence of three 
 months and a half. 
 
 They were met with the startling intelligence 
 that a massacre of several of their relatives and 
 friends had just taken place. A small band of Mata- 
 bele warriors had been out scouring the country, and 
 had come across a little party hunting elephants, of 
 whom they murdered four white men and all the 
 coloured servants, but other four white men, who 
 were on horseback when they were surprised, man- 
 aged to escape. These rode as fast as they could to 
 
222 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 give warning to their friends, and fortunately some 
 had time to collect together and draw up their wag- 
 gons in a circle to form a lager. The Matabele fol- 
 lowed and attacked the lager, which was defended 
 by thirty-five men so successfully that the assailants 
 were beaten back with heavy loss. In other places, 
 however, they found some of the emigrants without 
 any protection, and murdered eight white men, two 
 women, and four children, besides a larger number 
 of coloured servants, and they returned to their chief 
 with three white children, a great herd of cattle, and 
 several waggons laden with articles of different kinds. 
 In this manner the farmers and the Matabele com- 
 menced their dealings with each other. 
 
 Potgieter at once collected the whole of the sur- 
 vivors of his party at a defensible position between 
 the Rhenoster and Wilge rivers, where he constructed 
 a strong lager by lashing fifty waggons together 
 in a circle and filling all the open spaces with 
 stout branches of thorn trees. In this enclosure 
 the women and children slept at night, while some 
 of the men kept guard; the horses were fastened to 
 the waggons, and the horned cattle, goats, and sheep 
 were brought close by. When these arrangements were 
 completed, they awaited with some degree of con- 
 fidence the attack that they had every reason to be- 
 lieve would soon be made upon them. 
 
 They did not have much time to think about the 
 matter. One morning, only a few days after every- 
 thing had been made ready, a few terrified Bataung 
 rushed into the camp, and announced that a great 
 Matabele army was approaching. Carel Cilliers, 
 who regularly conducted religious services for the 
 party, then offered a short and earnest prayer to God 
 for support, and at its conclusion every man sprang 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 223 
 
 into his saddle and rode towards the enemy. They 
 were forty in all, and the commandant Potgieter 
 was at their head. The Matabele army that they 
 went to encounter consisted of fully five thousand 
 of Moselekatse's best warriors, men who had never 
 known defeat, and was commanded by a famous gen- 
 eral named Kalipi. Forty against five thousand, 
 the odds seem terrible ! 
 
 But these forty farmers were well mounted, and 
 in all the world there were no better horsemen or 
 deadlier shots than they. Accustomed from boyhood 
 to the chase, it was certain that not a charge of pow- 
 der which they used would be thrown away. The 
 guns that they carried were large and heavy, were 
 loaded with loose powder from a horn slung over 
 the shoulder, upon which slugs were rammed down, 
 and were fired by means of flint locks. Clumsy 
 they would be called to-day, but they were enormously 
 superior as weapons to the assagais of the Matabele. 
 
 Eiding to within good shooting distance of Kalipi's 
 army, the farmers spread themselves out in a long 
 line, so that no two men would aim at the same ob- 
 ject, and poured in a volley. Then instantly turn- 
 ing, they galloped back, and though pursued with 1 
 fury, they could not be overtaken. As soon as the 
 guns were reloaded, another volley was fired, and the 
 unsuccessful chase was repeated. Potgieter hoped in 
 this manner to turn the Matabele back before they 
 came to the lager, but in this he was disappointed, 
 for Kalipi made no account of the men he was losing. 
 
 So at last the camp was reached, and the com- 
 mandant and his men rode through the narrow 
 opening into it, which was immediately closed up, 
 and preparations for defence were made inside. The 
 Matabele encircled it, and sat down at a distance to 
 
224- PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 rest a little and feast their eyes on their intended 
 victims. Then with a loud hiss they rushed upon the 
 lager, and tried to force the waggons apart, but with 
 no effect. There were fortunately plenty of spare 
 guns, and the women knew how to load them, so that 
 the men and even boys like little Paul Kruger could 
 keep up an almost continual discharge of slugs, until 
 at the end of about half an hour the Matabele re- 
 tired discomfited. Before doing so, however, many 
 of them hurled assagais into the lager, of which over 
 eleven hundred were afterwards picked up. With 
 these two of the defenders were killed, and twelve 
 others were wounded more or less severely. 
 
 The Matabele when they retired seized the whole 
 of the farmers' cattle, and with the booty commenced 
 to retreat. Potgieter and his men followed them on 
 horseback till sunset, and managed to shoot a good 
 many, but could not recover an ox or a sheep. 
 Matters therefore looked very gloomy that night in 
 the emigrants' camp. RText morning the corpses of 
 a hundred and fifty-five Matabele that were lying 
 close to the lager were cleared away, and then a 
 brother of the commandant set off for Thaba E~tshu 
 to ascertain whether another party from the colony 
 had not perhaps arrived in that neighbourhood. 
 
 The country just around Thaba Ktshu was then 
 occupied by the remnant of a Barolong clan, under 
 the chief Moroko, which had been found by some 
 Wesleyan missionaries wandering about near its an- 
 cestral home far away to the north-west, and had 
 been led by them to this locality as a place of com- 
 parative safety. The Reverend Mr. Archbell was 
 living with Moroko, and under his able and judicious 
 guidance the Barolong were beginning to enjoy some 
 of the comforts of a settled life, though constantly 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 225 
 
 in danger of being raided by the Matabele. When 
 Hermanns Potgieter reached the Wesleyan station 
 he learned that a large party of farmers from Graaff- 
 Reinet, under the leadership of Commandant Gerrit 
 Maritz, was close by on its way northward. Mr. 
 Archbell treated him with the utmost kindness as a 
 fellow-Christian in distress, and at once offered all 
 his own oxen to assist in bringing the women and 
 children away from Vechtkop the Hill of Battle, 
 as the place where the lager was standing was now 
 called. Further he induced the Barolong to give the 
 few oxen they had for the same purpose, and as 
 Maritz was able to supply a considerable number, 
 the whole camp was immediately moved to Thaba 
 Ntshu. 
 
 The commandants Potgieter and Maritz then re- 
 solved upon an expedition against Moselekatse, in 
 order to punish him for what had occurred and to 
 recover the property his people had seized. To- 
 gether they managed to muster a hundred and seven 
 men, and they procured the assistance of forty 
 mounted Griquas and about sixty Barolong, who 
 would be useful to look after the horses and herd 
 the cattle they hoped to recover. A Morolong named 
 Matlabe deserves to be specially mentioned. His 
 father had been a chief, but he had been made a cap- 
 tive when a youth, and had been a burden bearer and 
 afterwards a soldier in the Matabele army. Hear- 
 ing that the remnant of his tribe had settled at 
 Thaba Ntshu, he made his escape and fled thither, 
 and now he went as a guide to Potgieter and Maritz 
 on their march against his old master. 
 
 The object of the commando was to take the 
 Matabele by surprise, and so thoroughly had the 
 country been cleared of its inhabitants that after 
 
 Q 
 
226 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 passing the Vaal not a single individual was met 
 who could convey tidings of its approach to 
 Moselekatse. Just as day was breaking on the 17th 
 of January, 18 37, it arrived at Mosega, the most 
 southern military kraal of the formidable tribe, which 
 was situated in an extensive and beautiful valley. 
 In dealing with barbarians such as those they were 
 at war with, the farmers had no scruples about 
 adopting a barbarous mode of attack, and hence the 
 first notice of their presence that the Matabele re- 
 ceived was in the form of a discharge of firearms. 
 It was a fortunate circumstance for the white men 
 that not only Moselekatse himself but the induna 
 or general in command at Mosega happened at the 
 time to be at a kraal on the Marikwa, some distance 
 to the north, and there was no one present of suffi- 
 cient rank to give directions that all the warriors 
 would obey. 
 
 It was therefore as a confused body that the Ma- 
 tabele rushed in a mass towards their foes, with their 
 assagais in hand and their great shields held in front, 
 which were a hindrance to their movements without 
 being a protection from the farmers' slugs. An- 
 other well directed volley scattered them, and then 
 until the sun was high and the horses were weary 
 they were hunted like so many wild animals. About 
 four hundred were shot down, without a single white 
 man being killed or wounded. Most of the emi- 
 grants' waggons that had been seized were found at 
 Mosega and recovered, and six or seven thousand 
 head of cattle were secured. The military kraal 
 was given to the flames, and the commando then set 
 out on its return. 
 
 About seven months earlier three American mis- 
 sionaries, Dr. Wilson and the Reverend Messrs. 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 227 
 
 Lindley and Venable, with their families, at the risk 
 of their lives and with the certainty of being cut off 
 from every convenience, had taken up their resi- 
 dence at Mosega with Moselekatse's permission. It 
 would be difficult to find in the whole history of the 
 spread of Christianity from the time of the apostles 
 an instance of greater devotion to the holy cause than 
 this, tenderly nurtured men and women leaving be- 
 hind all that the world holds dear, and in the service 
 of their Redeemer seeking to benefit fellow-creatures 
 so sunk in darkness and vice as these savage Mata- 
 bele. Their words and their example had made no 
 impression, some members of their families had 
 sunk under the terrible discomfort to which they 
 were exposed, but still they persevered. !N~ow, how- 
 ever, when it was certain that if they remained where 
 they were, they, as Europeans, would fall a sacrifice 
 to the vengeance of the routed warriors, they retired 
 with the commando. 
 
 Upon his return to Thaba !N"tshu Potgieter col- 
 lected his party together and, having been joined by 
 a number of families just arrived from the colony, 
 he moved to the Vet River in the territory pur- 
 chased from Makwana and formed a camp at a place 
 to which he gave the name Winburg, after the recent 
 victory. Here some of the emigrants built cottages, 
 and thus laid the foundation of the first permanent 
 town north of the Orange River. 
 
 While this was taking place various parties were 
 arriving on the border of the Caledon, among them 
 one under a very able man named Pieter Retief. The 
 commandants in general, being plain farmers with 
 hardly any education and on a perfect social equal- 
 ity, were exceedingly jealous of each other, and 
 would not have consented to any one of their num- 
 
PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ber assuming supreme control. But Retief had re- 
 ceived a fairly good training at school, had con- 
 ducted a large business, and was admitted by all to 
 have exceptional qualifications for a leader. It was 
 time that some steps should be taken to form a gov- 
 ernment, so on the 6th of June, 1837, a mass meet- 
 ing was held at Winburg to discuss the matter. 
 
 There a kind of provisional constitution, consist- 
 ing of nine articles, was adopted. It was agreed 
 that legislative power should be vested in an elective 
 assembly to be termed a volksraad, and executive 
 power in an elected officer to be termed the governor 
 and commandant-general. There was to be a land- 
 drost with six heemraden to administer justice accord- 
 ing to the old Dutch laws of the colony until the 
 volksraad should make new ones. One of the articles 
 provided that every member of the community and 
 all who should thereafter join it must take a sol- 
 emn oath to have no connection with the London 
 Missionary Society. That body, as has been before 
 stated, was regarded by the emigrants not as a 
 religious but as a political association, disseminat- 
 ing doctrines on social questions subversive of all 
 order in society. That they had no antipathy to' 
 the congregational or independent religious creed, 
 which indeed hardly differed from their own, is 
 shown by the fact that the Reverend Mr. Lindley, 
 who had retired from Mosega, adhered to it, and yet 
 shortly afterwards became their first pastor, and was 
 regarded by them through life with the utmost affec- 
 tion and esteem. 
 
 At this meeting Pieter Retief was elected gov- 
 ernor and commandant-general, and six members 
 were chosen to form a volksraad. This body, how- 
 ever, never met for the despatch of business, owing 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 229 
 
 to the greater number of the emigrants moving to Na- 
 tal shortly afterwards. Commandant Potgieter also 
 after a few months resolved to establish a govern- 
 ment independent of the others, and thenceforward 
 acted in entire independence of Mr. Retief . 
 
 Among the parties that arrived at this time was 
 one from the district of Uitenhage under Com- 
 mandant Jacobus Uys, a man who was held in 
 particular esteem by the British settlers of Albany. 
 This party allied itself for a time with the one under 
 Potgieter, and in consequence of this acquisition 
 of strength another expedition against Moselekatse 
 was resolved upon. As Commandant Uys was too 
 old to take an active part in military operations, it 
 was arranged that his son, Pieter Lavras Uys, should 
 lead one division of the attacking force, and Com- 
 mandant Potgieter the other. Together the com- 
 mandos consisted of a hundred and thirty-five 
 mounted men, having with them spare horses, which 
 they led, carrying provisions and ammunition, with 
 a few Barolong servants to act as herds. Mr. Carel 
 Cilliers, who had a habit of always taking a place in 
 the van when any hard blows were being struck at the 
 heathen, accompanied the expedition, and acted as 
 chaplain, journalist, and most redoubtable warrior. 
 Paul Kruger, now twelve years of age, was counted 
 equal in fighting ability to a man, and went too. 
 
 Fifty miles north of Mosega, close to the present 
 town of Zeerust in the fertile valley of the Marikwa, 
 the whole Matabele army under Moselekatse in per- 
 son was found. The grass was in good condition, 
 and the farmers had taken care in the long march 
 not to weary their horses, which were as fresh now 
 as when they left Winburg. The tactics adopted 
 were the same as those at Yechtkop or as those in 
 
230 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 hunting elephants, to ride up swiftly and deliver a 
 volley, and then as swiftly ride away again. The 
 Matabele never had a chance of using their spears. 
 Yet warfare like this, if warfare it can be called, was 
 not without danger to the Europeans, for the failure 
 or loss of a horse would have meant the loss of its 
 owner's life. 
 
 For nine days this hunting of the enemy went 
 on, of course only for an hour or two at a time, as 
 it was necessary to go far to rest at night and to keep 
 scouts in all directions while the horses were loose at 
 grass. Then one morning the kraals were found 
 abandoned, and following the trail the farmers had 
 the joy of seeing the entire Matabele host in full 
 flight to the north. By this time the supplies were 
 becoming short, so Potgieter and Uys contented them- 
 selves with cutting off a large herd of cattle, with 
 which they returned to Winburg. 
 
 Moselekatse, not wishing to risk another such en- 
 counter, continued his flight till he reached the terri- 
 tory north of the Limpopo, ever since known as 
 Matabeleland, where he settled and treated the 
 earlier inhabitants as he had treated those in the 
 south. His army was still far too well disciplined 
 and too strong to be resisted by any native force in 
 South Africa except that of Dingan, though his 
 losses had been very heavy in the nine days' cam- 
 paign in the Marikwa valley. Carel Cilliers be- 
 lieved and wrote that God had given him into the 
 emigrants' hands so that they had been able to shoot 
 down three thousand of his soldiers, but probably 
 that estimate was much too large. 
 
 This event took place in November, 1837. Upon 
 Moselekatse's flight Commandant Potgieter pro- 
 claimed the whole territory that he had devastated 
 
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF MOSELEKATSE. 231 
 
 and ruled over forfeited to the emigrants as lawful 
 prize of war. It covered the entire surface of the 
 South African Republic, Southern Bechuanaland to 
 the Kalahari, and a great part of what became 
 the Orange Free State. Throughout this vast region 
 the wretched fugitives in the mountains and desert 
 places could again breathe freely and build huts and 
 make gardens in safety, for the terrible exterminator 
 had at last been vanquished and expelled. What light 
 is to darkness, what joy is to sorrow and despair, that 
 was the victory of Potgieter and Uys to them. 
 
232 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 
 
 IN October, 1837, Pieter Relief with a few com- 
 panions left the encampment on the Caledon for the 
 purpose of inspecting the territory between the 
 Drakensberg and the sea, and if it should suit them 
 to try to obtain Dingan's consent to its occupation 
 by the emigrants. This territory bore the name 
 Natal, but its limits were not the same as those of 
 the colony now so called. To the Portuguese Natal 
 meant the country along the coast from about the 
 mouth of the Bashee to the headland known in our 
 times as the Bluff. People wrecked farther south had 
 on several occasions passed by the inlet on which 
 the town of Durban stands, on their journey to 
 Delagoa Bay, but there is no instance on record of a 
 Portuguese ship having ever entered that sheet of 
 water. To the Dutch Natal meant the country ber 
 tween the Umzimvubu and the Tugela, taking each 
 river from its source to the sea, and as its harbour 
 had frequently been visited by vessels of their nation, 
 the emigrants were aware of its existence and were 
 desirous of securing it as a gateway to the outer 
 world. 
 
 Thirteen years earlier a few enterprising English- 
 men had formed a settlement there, in the convic- 
 tion that the port offered great advantages for com- 
 merce, but they were unable to obtain recognition 
 from either the imperial or the Cape government. 
 
DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 233 
 
 Tshaka, however, favoured them and allowed them 
 to remain for the sake of trade. He even permitted 
 them to collect together the natives who had been in 
 hiding, and appointed some of them chiefs over these 
 people. They lived a very wild life, hunting and 
 trading, for now and again a vessel would call and 
 supply them with goods in exchange for ivory. When 
 Tshaka was murdered they fled, but Dingan invited 
 them to return, and most of them went back again. 
 In 1835 they mustered about thirty, all told, and in 
 that year they gave the name Durban to the place 
 where they resided when at home from hunting. 
 
 In 1835 the first missionaries arrived in the coun- 
 try. The pioneer was Captain Allen Gardiner, pre- 
 viously of the royal navy, he who some years later 
 perished of starvation in Patagonia when trying to 
 perform similar work there. He was followed by 
 Dr. Adams and the Reverend Messrs. Champion and 
 Grout, of the American Society, and in 1837 by the 
 three who had retired from Mosega and by the 
 Reverend Mr. Owen, of the Established Church of 
 England. When Pieter Retief entered Natal Mr. 
 Owen was residing with Dingan at his kraal Um- 
 kungunhlovu, there were two other stations north of 
 the Tugela, and three south of that river, but all 
 exceedingly small and in a very precarious condi- 
 tion of existence. 
 
 Between the Drakensberg and Durban not a single 
 individual was met, nor was a sign of human life 
 to be seen. The visitors were charmed with the 
 country, as well they might have been, for it is in- 
 deed a fair and fertile land. At the port they were 
 very well received by the English residents, who 
 were pleased to hear of their desire to settle in the 
 country. A messenger was then sent in advance 
 
234 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to Dingan to announce their intended visit, and with 
 two of the Englishmen as guides and interpreters 
 Retief and his companions followed. 
 
 The Zulu chief received them with every outward 
 show of friendship. When Retief informed him of 
 the object of the journey he said he must take a few 
 days to consider the matter, and while doing so he 
 entertained his guests with reviews of his soldiers, 
 grand dances, and performances by trained oxen. 
 On the 8th of November Dingan gave his decision. 
 The emigrants could occupy the land south of the 
 Tugela, he said, but before doing so they must prove 
 their friendship by recovering for him some cattle 
 which Sikonyela, son of Ma Ntatisi, had stolen from 
 one of his kraals. He requested the Reverend Mr. 
 Owen to commit these terms to writing, and when 
 that was done, he handed the document to Mr. 
 Retief. 
 
 The emigrants did not hesitate to do what was re- 
 quired of them. Sikonyela, by driving the stolen 
 cattle through one of their camps on the Caledon, 
 had, according to native law, implicated them in the 
 theft, and he had also driven off some of their horses, 
 so that they had reason to regard him as an enemy. 
 Accordingly Mr. Retief compelled him to restore the 
 plunder, and when that was recovered, the whole of 
 the emigrants, except the parties under Potgieter 
 and Uys, went down the steep slopes of the Drak- 
 ensberg and spread themselves out along the 
 Bluekrans and Bushman's rivers in the present coun- 
 ty of Weenen, on the border of the highest plateau 
 of Natal. 
 
 Retief now prepared to proceed to Umkun- 
 gunhlovu with Dingan's cattle. There were many 
 who thought a life so valuable to the community as 
 
DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 235 
 
 his should not be risked in such an undertaking, and 
 numerous volunteers came forward to undertake the 
 duty, but he was desirous of proving to the chief that 
 he had confidence in the promise made and was act- 
 ing honestly and openly. He therefore set out on 
 the journey with sixty-four emigrants some of them 
 mere boys, an Englishman from Durban as inter- 
 preter, and about thirty Hottentot servants. 
 
 On the 3rd of February, 1838, the party arrived 
 at Dingan's residence, and was received as before 
 with every outward show of friendship. The chief 
 expressed himself as gratified with the restoration of 
 his cattle, but regretted that they had not brought 
 Sikonyela with them to be put to death for having 
 dared to plunder a Zulu outpost. He requested Mr. 
 Owen to draw up a document to show that he gave 
 to the emigrants all the land from the Tugela to the 
 Umzimvubu, and when it was read over to him he 
 asserted that it was correct, affixed his mark to it, 
 and handed it to Mr. Retief. The trouble that he 
 took to entertain his guests threw them completely off 
 their guard, so that after three days when they were 
 ready to leave they went without their arms into a 
 circle of warriors to bid him farewell. Then Dingan 
 showed himself in his true light. He gave an order, 
 which was instantly obeyed : the defenceless men and 
 boys were seized and dragged to a hill close by, where 
 their brains were beaten out with knobkeries. !N"ot 
 a single European or a Hottentot escaped. 
 
 At noon on the same day some ten thousand Zulu 
 warriors left Umkungunhlovu for Natal, with orders 
 to wipe the whole of the people there out of existence. 
 At early dawn on the morning of the 17th of Febru- 
 ary they fell upon the encampments near the pres- 
 ent village of Weenen, that is Weeping, and in the 
 
236 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 most barbarous manner murdered every living being 
 in them except two or three young men who managed 
 to spring on unsaddled horses and escape. The infants 
 were killed by dashing their heads against the wag- 
 gon wheels, the women by being ripped open with 
 stabbing assagais. 
 
 The young men who escaped galloped as fast as the 
 horses could carry tnem to their friends farther on, 
 who had scarcely time to form lagers with their 
 waggons when the Zulus were upon them. In the 
 defence of the lagers the utmost intrepidity was 
 shown by both men and women, and great numbers 
 of the barbarians perished without being able to 
 force an entrance into one of them. Having lost 
 several of their best leaders, and finding the lagers 
 impregnable, the Zulus then acted as the Matabele at 
 Vechtkop had done : they collected all the cattle they 
 could come across and returned to Umkungunhlovu. 
 As soon as they retired the emigrants hastened to the 
 place where the first attack was made to ascertain 
 their loss. There they found the mangled bodies 
 of forty-one white men, fifty-six white women, one 
 hundred and eighty-five white children, and two 
 hundred and fifty coloured servants. The waggons 
 and everything else had been utterly destroyed. Is 
 it a wonder that such a scene of horror should have 
 made these people regard the Bantu afterwards with 
 feelings somewhat different from those entertained 
 by philanthropists in England whose children were 
 safe in their cots and cradles ? 
 
 A discussion then took place as to what was best 
 to be done. One or two men proposed to leave !N"atal, 
 but the women put them to shame by declaring that 
 not a female would go until those who had shed so 
 much Christian blood were punished. They deter- 
 
DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 237 
 
 mined therefore to remain where they were, and put 
 their trust in God, to whom they cried from the 
 depths of their hearts to aid them in their sore dis- 
 tress. A strong lager was made, and information of 
 what had occurred was sent to the parties beyond 
 the mountains. 
 
 The commandants Potgieter and Uys at once as- 
 sembled all their men, and hastened down to Natal. 
 The Englishmen at Durban also, having lost one of 
 their number in the massacre at Umkungunhlovu 
 and another in the more recent slaughter, offered 
 all the military aid at their command. But now a 
 difficulty arose through want of a head whom all 
 would recognise. Gerrit Maritz claimed to be the 
 chief commandant in Natal, but neither Potgieter 
 nor Uys would consent to serve under him. At last 
 it was arranged that Maritz should remain in charge 
 of the lager, that Potgieter and Uys should lead 
 separate divisions, but marching together, to attack 
 Dingan on one side, while the Englishmen with 
 their Bantu followers should attack him on the other. 
 
 This plan was carried out. Three hundred and 
 forty-seven men marched with the commandants 
 Hendrik Potgieter and Pieter Uys towards the Zulu 
 capital, and for five days met with no opposition. 
 On the sixth morning, the llth of April, 1838, they 
 came in sight of a regiment, which apparently re- 
 treated before them, and following it as rapidly as 
 they could, they entered a pass between ranges of 
 hills and were drawn into a skilfully planned am- 
 buscade. On a sudden they found themselves sur- 
 rounded by an immense Zulu army, so that it was 
 impossible to practise their usual tactics. They 
 therefore made a gallant charge through the weakest 
 part of the ring, and managed by rapid firing to clear 
 
238 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 a passage out, but with the loss of ten men, their led 
 horses, baggage, stores, and all their spare ammuni- 
 tion. 
 
 Among those who fell in this engagement was the 
 commandant Pieter Lavras Uys. His son, Dirk 
 Cornells Uys, a boy only fifteen years of age, was 
 a little in advance when, looking back, he saw a 
 Zulu in the act of stabbing his father. The brave 
 youth instantly turned his horse and charged the 
 savage warrior, but met his own death at his parent's 
 side. A gallant boy surely was Dirk Cornelis Uys, 
 whose name deserves to be mentioned whenever the 
 story of the occupation of Natal is told. 
 
 The other army that marched against Dingan con- 
 sisted of about twenty Englishmen who acted as 
 officers or chiefs, the same number of Hottentots, and 
 from ten to fifteen hundred blacks. The latter were 
 nearly all Zulu refugees, and could therefore be 
 thoroughly depended upon. They succeeded in sur- 
 prising a small Zulu outpost, where they captured 
 a few thousand head of cattle and a number of women 
 and girls. This success ruined them. They began 
 to quarrel over the spoil, and much time was lost, 
 as they returned to Natal with the plunder and re- 
 arranged the force. When they set out again they 
 mustered seventeen Englishmen, twenty Hottentots, 
 and fifteen hundred blacks. On the 17th of April 
 they reached the Tugela, and on its northern bank 
 found themselves within the horns of a Zulu army 
 fully seven thousand strong. A desperate battle 
 was fought, in which thirteen of the Englishmen and 
 a thousand of their followers were killed, the re- 
 mainder escaping with the greatest difficulty. 
 
 The victorious Zulus then marched to Durban, and 
 destroyed everything they found there. Some of the 
 
DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 239 
 
 missionaries had previously left in a trading vessel 
 bound to Port Elizabeth that happened to call, and 
 fortunately another trading vessel bound to Delagoa 
 Bay was then in the harbour. In her the remain- 
 ing Englishmen and missionaries with their families 
 took refuge, and the surviving blacks concealed 
 themselves in the thickets as best they could. When 
 the Zulus retired eight or nine undaunted English- 
 men returned to land to resume their former occupa- 
 tions as chiefs, hunters, and traders, but all the others 
 left in the Comet. 
 
 Commandant Potgieter, after his defeat, also left 
 Natal and returned to Winburg. In November of 
 this year, as he had been joined by many fresh emi- 
 grants from the colony, he with a considerable num- 
 ber of farmers, including Paul Kruger's family, 
 crossed the Vaal, and settled on the banks of the 
 Mooi River, where they laid out a town which they 
 called Potchefstroom. Here they established an in- 
 dependent government, with a volksraad which 
 claimed jurisdiction over all the territory that had 
 been overrun by Moselekatse, including the district 
 south of the Vaal purchased from Makwana. 
 
 Other emigrants, not daunted by the misfortunes 
 of their countrymen, moved into Natal, so that in 
 May there were six hundred and forty Europeans 
 in that territory capable of bearing arms, with three 
 thousand two hundred women and children. In 
 August Dingan's army attacked them again, but they 
 were well prepared for defence, and inflicted heavy 
 loss upon their assailants at the cost of only one man 
 killed on their side. They were suffering severely 
 at this time, however, from want of many articles of 
 food to which they had been accustomed, from an 
 insufficiency of clothing, and a lack of medicines. 
 
240 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 In November Mr. Andries Pretorius, a man of 
 greater ability than any other who had yet left the 
 colony, except Pieter Retief, arrived in Natal, and 
 was at once elected commandant-general by the various 
 parties there. He was then thirty-nine years of age, 
 was possessed of considerable wealth, and bore a very 
 high character, though his education from books had 
 been exceedingly meagre. Like his compatriots, 
 every evening he read a chapter of the Bible, and 
 contented himself with a knowledge of that volume 
 alone. 
 
 Mr. Pretorius recognised that the first thing to be 
 done was to destroy the power of Dingan, because 
 until that was effected the emigrants were obliged 
 to remain in lager and were unable to conduct farm- 
 ing operations of any kind. He therefore assembled 
 a commando, which, as finally arranged, consisted 
 of four hundred and sixty-four mounted men. 
 Among them were Carel Cilliers, who every morning 
 and evening during the march conducted religious 
 services, and an Englishman named Alexander Big- 
 gar, a leading man among the British settlers of 
 1820, one of whose sons had lost his life in the mas- 
 sacre at Weenen and another in the battle on the Tu- 
 gela. Paul Kruger, at the age when boys in Eng- 
 land play cricket and study grammar, was among 
 them too, completing his education as a warrior. 
 This was the school in which he was trained, and the 
 man who more than any other influenced his after 
 life was the stern, religious, undaunted Carel Cil- 
 liers. 
 
 The commando was provided with a sufficient num- 
 ber of waggons to form a lager, which were carefully 
 drawn up every night and lashed together, so that the 
 men could sleep within a movable fort, while scouts 
 
DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 241 
 
 were continually riding in all directions to prevent 
 surprise. The army made a vow that if God would 
 give them victory over the cruel heathen they would 
 build a church and set apart a festival every year to 
 commemorate it, and they kept their vow, as the 
 church at Maritzburg and the annual celebration of 
 Dingan's day testify to the present time. 
 
 They reached the Blood River safely and formed 
 their lager in a very strong position on one of its 
 banks, and there, at early dawn on Sunday the 16th 
 of December, 1838, were attacked by a Zulu army ten 
 or twelve thousand strong. The enemy strove to 
 force an entrance by sheer weight, the foremost regi- 
 ments being pressed on by those behind, but this 
 movement enabled the defenders to execute terrible 
 havoc with their firearms and some small field-guns 
 they had with them. Yet for two full hours the 
 Zulus persevered in their attempt, until Pretorius 
 seized an opportunity to make his way out with a 
 number of horsemen, who rode round to their rear 
 and placed them between two fires. Then the dis- 
 comfited warriors broke and fled, leaving a fourth 
 of their number dead and dying, while only three 
 white men, one of whom was the commandant-gen- 
 eral, were slightly wounded. From the blood run- 
 ning into the river it received the name which it 
 bears to this day. 
 
 The emigrants then marched to Umkungunhlovu, 
 which they reached on the 21st, to find that Dingan 
 had burnt the huts and retired to the fastnesses 
 of the Umvolosi River. On the hill of slaughter 
 close by were the skeletons of their countrymen who 
 had been murdered, with the remains of their cloth- 
 ing upon them, and in a leather bag slung over the 
 shoulder of one, which was known to be that of 
 
 R 
 
24:2 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Pieter Relief, was Dingan's gift of Natal that had 
 been drawn up by the Reverend Mr. Owen. The 
 remains were interred, and then the track of the Zulu 
 army was followed. It led into a valley so broken 
 that horsemen were at a great disadvantage, and 
 there the Zulus made another attack, which obliged 
 the emigrants to retire with a loss of five men killed, 
 among whom was Alexander Biggar. A mountain 
 in Natal bears the unfortunate Englishman's name, 
 but neither he nor his sons found a grave in the land 
 in which they died. 
 
 As it was impossible to pursue the enemy farther, 
 the commando now returned to Natal. On the way 
 a herd of four or five thousand head of cattle was 
 secured, which helped to a small extent to relieve 
 the distress of those who had lost their whole pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 For some time after this no military operations 
 took place, and there was even a protracted negotia- 
 tion between Mr. Pretorius and the Zulu chief with 
 a view of arranging terms of peace. Dingan had lost 
 about ten thousand warriors in all since the massacre 
 at Weenen, so it was supposed that he would respect 
 the emigrants' power, especially as he actually did 
 restore a few of the cattle that his people had swept 
 off. But in point of fact his spirit was far from 
 broken, and at length the emigrants ascertained that 
 the real object of his messengers was to spy out 
 whether they kept in lager or not and that he had no 
 intention of making good their losses, which was the 
 condition of peace that they demanded. 
 
 Matters were in this condition when in September, 
 1839, there was an insurrection in Zululand. Panda, 
 a half-brother of Dingan, rose in rebellion, and with 
 a large following crossed the Tugela and entreated 
 
DINGAN AND THE EMIGRANT FARMERS. 243 
 
 assistance from the white people, offering in return 
 to become their subject. It was supposed for a time 
 that this might be a stratagem to draw them to de- 
 struction, but at length the emigrants were con- 
 vinced that Panda was in earnest, and his proposal 
 was agreed to. A strong commando was assembled, 
 and in company with Panda's adherents marched 
 against Dingan. 
 
 On the way a messenger from the Zulu chief met 
 Mr. Pretorius, and stated that he came as an envoy 
 to endeavour to arrange terms of peace. Contrary 
 to all law and justice this man was brought to trial 
 before a court-martial, and on Panda's charge that 
 he was the instigator of the massacre at Umkungun- 
 hlovu, he and his servant were condemned to death 
 and were shot. There was nothing whatever to jus- 
 tify such a barbarous act. 
 
 Dingan staked the issue of the quarrel between 
 himself and Panda upon a single battle, which was 
 fought on the 30th of January, 1840. The emigrant 
 commando, which was marching at several miles' dis- 
 tance from the native allies, took no part in the en- 
 gagement, though its proximity really turned the 
 scale. The whole Zulu force was engaged on one side 
 or the other. The desertion of two of Dingan's best 
 regiments to Panda at the beginning of the battle 
 made the strength of the combating armies about 
 equal, and they fought hand to hand with the utmost 
 fury. The slaughter was enormous. It ended in 
 the total defeat and nearly total destruction of Din- 
 gan's adherents, only a small number escaping by 
 flight. The chief himself reached the border of 
 Swaziland, where he was shortly afterwards mur- 
 dered by a man who stole upon him unawares. 
 
 On the 10th of February Mr. Pretorius formally 
 
244 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 installed Panda as chief of the Zulus, but in vassal- 
 age to the emigrant government. It was agreed that 
 he and his followers should reside between the Tu- 
 gela and Black Umvolosi rivers, and this territory 
 was proclaimed a fief of Natal. Of Dingan's cattle 
 the farmers took forty thousand head, and Panda the 
 remainder. And so the great Zulu power, which had 
 been such a scourge to South Africa, was overthrown 
 by a few hundred plain farmers, and progress was 
 possible in the beautiful land of Natal. 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 245 
 
 CHAPTEK XXL 
 
 THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 
 
 IN the preceding chapters the emigrant farmers 
 have been seen acting with a bravery and a tenacity 
 of purpose never surpassed by any people: a differ- 
 ent picture must now be shown. The men who per- 
 formed for South Africa the great service of hum- 
 bling the Matabele and Zulu tribes, of opening the 
 vast territory between the Limpopo and the Umzim- 
 vubu to civilisation, were practically without a gov- 
 ernment, kept together solely by common peril, and 
 in that condition no society can long exist. Great 
 Britain claimed them still as her subjects, but an- 
 nounced again and again an unalterable resolution 
 not to extend her dominions in South Africa by a 
 single square mile, and therefore could exercise no 
 control over them. Sir George Napier attempted 
 to compel them to return to the Cape Colony, and 
 with that object in November, 1838, sent a company 
 of the 72nd regiment and a few artillerymen from 
 Capetown by sea to close the port of Natal. These 
 troops landed while the commando under Pretorius 
 was marching against Dingan, and fortified them- 
 selves at Durban. The occupation was announced 
 as only temporary. The officer in command seized 
 some ammunition that was stored there, and sum- 
 marily put a stop to all intercourse with the outer 
 world by sea. But this measure had not the effect 
 
246 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of turning back a single family, and in December 
 of the following year the troops were withdrawn. 
 
 The emigrants were left to themselves in Natal 
 as well as in the country north of the Orange, with 
 only the declaration by the imperial and colonial 
 authorities that they were still British subjects and 
 could not throw off their allegiance by any act of their 
 own. On their part they claimed that away from 
 British soil they were absolutely independent, and 
 set about forming what they called a government. 
 In March, 1839, a site for a town was selected, and 
 erven or building allotments were laid out. It 
 was named Pietermaritzburg, after Pieter Betief 
 and Gerrit Maritz, and was intended to be the capital 
 of the republic. The situation was particularly 
 fine, and the founders carried out their ideal of a 
 perfect place of abode for all who were not on farms, 
 by drawing the streets in parallel lines, with erven 
 each one hundred and fifty by four hundred and fifty 
 feet in size, thus large enough for a garden and an 
 orchard, and a commonage beyond a hundred and 
 twenty square miles in extent. 
 
 In 1840 Weenen was laid out on precisely the same 
 plan. The three towns, Pietermaritzburg usually 
 shortened into Maritzburg, Weenen, and Durban 
 were made the centres of three magisterial and eccles- 
 iastical districts of the same names, into which the 
 territory between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers 
 was divided. Every burgher of full age who settled 
 in !N"atal before 1840 received free two farms of six 
 thousand acres each and one erf in whichever of the 
 towns he preferred, and every one who arrived after 
 that date received one farm without payment. To 
 save repetition it may be mentioned here that wher- 
 ever the emigrants settled this was the rule adopted. 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 247 
 
 They could hope now to live in the manner most 
 conducive to happiness according to their ideas, 
 which were naturally different from those of modern 
 Europeans or Americans, for they were men and 
 women with seventeenth century thoughts though 
 they had been born in the nineteenth. A great cattle 
 run called a farm, with plenty of grass and running 
 water, a thatched-roof house on it with a broad ele- 
 vated terrace or stoep in front, a garden with an or- 
 chard and a couple of acres of corn land under irriga- 
 tion close by, shady trees growing around, large folds 
 or kraals filled at night with fat kine and sheep and 
 goats, a few good horses, and abundance of game for 
 hunting, that was their ideal of what a home should 
 be. Add to this an erf in a village, with a green- 
 shuttered cottage on it, in which to reside three or 
 four days every quarter when attending the church 
 services and buying or selling at auctions or stores, 
 and what could a reasonable being wish for more? 
 Surely if God gave this and health, a Christian man 
 or woman should be satisfied, and not incur anxiety 
 or weariness of mind and body by striving for some- 
 thing else. 
 
 But even to enjoy this unprogressive mode of ex- 
 istence a government is necessary, for property 
 cannot be held without laws and courts of justice. 
 The government that the emigrant farmers estab- 
 lished was probably the simplest democracy ever 
 known. There was a volksraad of twenty-four mem- 
 bers elected by the whole body of people for one 
 year. It met once every quarter at Maritzburg, and 
 at the commencement of every session appointed a 
 chairman, who had the title of president, and with 
 the assistance of a few of the members carried on 
 the administration during the next three months. 
 
248 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 All appointments to office were made by the volks- 
 raad. Commandants and fieldcornets were chosen 
 by it for military purposes, and landdrosts and heem- 
 raden for each of the three districts to carry out the 
 laws. But it was not the supreme authority, for 
 every measure of importance had to be submitted 
 to the whole body of the people for approval or re- 
 jection. 
 
 There was a trait in the character of the emigrants 
 that made any kind of real government almost impos- 
 sible : they objected to pay any but the most trifling 
 direct taxes. They therefore tried to raise a revenue 
 by means of customs duties, on a scale by which arti- 
 cles of luxury or such as could be produced in the 
 country were very heavily rated, while necessary 
 manufactures of common use were lightly charged; 
 but the total receipts hardly met the cost of collection. 
 The only direct tax was one of four dollars and 
 thirty-two cents a year on each farm, and this was 
 hardly ever paid. Thus the republic was practically 
 without a revenue, and though the civil list was so 
 small as to be ludicrous it did not amount alto- 
 gether to $2,400 a year, the trifling salaries of the 
 few officials were always behindhand. 
 
 The real condition of the country was one of an- 
 archy. There was no police, so that any one who 
 chose could set the law at defiance. Jealousy be- 
 tween individuals was so high that violent scenes 
 were frequent even in the volksraad chamber, and as 
 the number of men in the country who could write 
 a letter correctly or keep a ledger could be counted 
 on the fingers of one hand, public affairs of every 
 kind were in a state of constant confusion. 
 
 Yet these people aspired not only to independence, 
 but to a recognised position of equality among the 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 249 
 
 nations of the earth. It is indeed a good thing for a 
 community as well as for an individual to set a high 
 ideal before the eye, but in the one case as in the 
 other that is useless unless a strong and continuous 
 effort tempered by prudence and carefulness be made 
 to realise it. And of prudence, in the sense of po- 
 litical tact, the farmer founders of Natal were more 
 destitute than any other people in the world. Just 
 over the Drakensberg there was a man from whom 
 they could have learned much, if they had been dis- 
 posed to learn at all There Moshesh, the astute 
 chief of the mountain, profiting by the defeat of 
 Moselekatse and Dingan, was building up a great 
 power, and taking care to keep very quiet during the 
 process. But they did not learn how to act from 
 him. 
 
 Instead of this they wrote to Sir George Napier 
 asking for an acknowledgment of their independence 
 by the British government, offering a kind of friend- 
 ly alliance, and then set blindly to work to provoke 
 the jealousy of British merchants and the interfer- 
 ence of the Cape authorities. Foreign vessels were 
 admitted to trade at Port Natal, and though the 
 amount of business carried on was exceedingly small, 
 the eyes of merchants in Port Elizabeth and Cape- 
 town were drawn to the fact that a gateway was open 
 through which commerce with the interior and the 
 Kaffir country might be very largely developed under 
 a hostile tariff. 
 
 Some cattle having been stolen from various farm- 
 ers, their spoors were traced to the rugged country 
 along the Umzimvubu River which was occupied by 
 a remnant of the once powerful Baca tribe under the 
 chief Ncapayi, and in December, 1840, a commando 
 of two hundred and sixty men was called out to pun- 
 
250 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ish the robbers. There was really no other way 
 without an effective police of recovering the lost prop- 
 erty and preventing such acts in future, but this was 
 exactly what the British government of the day con- 
 demned most strongly, and it might be certain that 
 the act would be resented. The commando was 
 joined by the Hlangweni chief Podo, who was at 
 feud with the Bacas, and the combined force fell 
 upon Ncapayi and easily defeated him. The Eur> 
 peans took three thousand head of horned cattle, 
 among which were some of those that had been 
 stolen, and the Hlangwenis took about two thousand 
 sheep and goats. 
 
 A report of this event was at once sent to Sir 
 George Napier by some missionaries who were in 
 the neighbourhood, accompanied by a petition from 
 the Pondo chief Paku for protection against a sim- 
 ilar attack. Thereupon the governor sent a couple of 
 hundred soldiers under Captain Thomas Charlton 
 Smith, of the 27th regiment, to form a post on the 
 Umgazi River, close to the southern border of Natal, 
 for the defence of the Bantu tribes. 
 
 Natal, with Zululand on the north and Kaffirland 
 on the south, was like the low ground under two 
 reservoirs of water. Now that Dingan's power was 
 destroyed the sluices were open, and it was just as 
 inevitable that natives should move into the almost 
 vacant territory for the emigrant farmers could 
 only occupy a very small portion of it as that the 
 water should run into the lower fields. Part of the 
 Pondo tribe moved in from beyond the Umzimvubu, 
 and some thousands of refugees came trooping over 
 the Tugela. The volksraad decided to put a stop 
 to this. In August, 1841, it was determined to sffer 
 these people the choice either of returning whence 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 251 
 
 they came, of taking service with the Europeans, or 
 of being confined to a location which it was proposed 
 to form between the Umtamvuna and Umzimvubu 
 rivers, where they would be under the superintend- 
 ence and general control of an officer appointed by 
 the volksraad. These terms do not seem to be in any 
 way harsh or unjust, but the massing of natives in 
 the place intended was objectionable to Sir George 
 Napier, because it might have a tendency to press 
 the southern tribes down upon the Cape Colony. 
 
 All this time a correspondence was being carried 
 on between the volksraad and Sir George Napier, 
 the one maintaining that the emigrants were abso- 
 lutely independent, the other that they were and must 
 remain British subjects. But now the governor's 
 hands were strengthened by a despatch from Lord 
 John Eussell, dated 21st of August, 1841, in which 
 he was authorised to reoccupy Port Natal in such a 
 manner as to command the harbour, but not to inter- 
 fere with the emigrants unless the troops or friendly 
 Kaffir tribes were attacked. As soon as this despatch 
 was received a proclamation was issued, 2nd of De- 
 cember, 1841, in which the governor announced his 
 intention of sending a detachment of troops to the 
 port and warned all British subjects of the conse- 
 quences of resistance to them or to Her Majesty's 
 authority. 
 
 Accordingly reinforcements were sent on to the 
 TJmgazi post, and Captain Smith was directed to 
 march to Port Natal and form a camp. Some stores 
 were sent from the colony by sea to meet him there 
 about the time of his arrival. When this became 
 known at Maritzburg the volksraad met in special 
 session, and on the 21st of February, 1842, addressed 
 a long letter to the governor, recapitulating their case 
 
252 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and their claims, and denying a desire for war, but 
 announcing their intention to resist. 
 
 On the 1st of April, 1842, Captain Smith with two 
 hundred and sixty-three men of all ranks and three 
 cannon left the Umgazi, and on the 4th of May, after 
 a march of two hundred and sixty miles, reached his 
 destination, having met with no obstacle on the 
 way except from swollen rivers. A protest from 
 the volksraad was at once presented to him, which 
 was followed by a declaration that an envoy had been 
 sent to Holland and that the republic had been 
 placed under the protection of that power ; and when 
 he took no notice of either the one or the other, on 
 the 20th a formal demand was made that he should 
 immediately withdraw his troops. His reply was 
 laconic : " I shall not go." 
 
 Meantime Commandant-General Pretorius had 
 sent over the mountains for assistance, and the bur- 
 ghers of ISTatal were assembling at Kongela, about 
 three miles from the English camp. Captain Smith, 
 who altogether underrated both their bravery and 
 their military skill, resolved to attack and disperse 
 them before they became too strong, and with that 
 intention during the night of the 23rd set out with 
 a hundred and thirty-seven men and two guns drawn 
 by oxen. It was clear moonlight, and the road was 
 along a dense thicket. The expedition could not 
 have been better planned to court disaster. When in 
 the most exposed position a volley was poured into 
 the line of troops, who returned it harmlessly on the 
 thicket. A second volley wounded some of the 
 oxen, which broke loose and rushed about, adding 
 to the confusion. There was nothing to do but to re- 
 treat as quickly as possible, leaving everything be- 
 hind. Nineteen men lost their lives and thirty-one 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 253 
 
 were wounded. These were carefully tended by the 
 farmers, and on the following day were sent to the 
 English camp, as were the dead bodies to be buried 
 by their comrades. 
 
 There were two small vessels in the harbour laden 
 with stores and ammunition. Some of the cargo 
 had been landed, and was lying on the beach under 
 charge of a sergeant and twenty-three men. On the 
 26th the emigrants took possession of the vessels 
 and everything else, after a skirmish in which two 
 soldiers of the guard and a civilian were killed, two 
 other soldiers wounded, and the remainder taken 
 prisoners. A proposal was then made to Captain 
 Smith that he should leave in the vessels, and to gain 
 time to put his camp in a condition for defence, he 
 consented to enter into negotiations. In the mean- 
 while Richard King, one of the English inhabitants 
 of Durban, had set off with two good horses to ride 
 overland to Grahamstown with intelligence of what 
 had happened. 
 
 The negotiations of course came to nothing, and 
 in the evening of the 31st the English camp was in- 
 vested. There were some women and children in 
 it, but Commandant Pretorius offered them shelter 
 on board the Mazeppa, which was gladly accepted. 
 Captain Smith had now between a hundred and 
 eighty and a hundred and ninety effective men with- 
 in his earthworks, and to add to his food supply, 
 which was small, the officers' horses were killed and 
 their flesh was dried in the sun. The besiegers were 
 about six hundred strong. But for this kind of war- 
 fare the emigrants were not adapted, and though they 
 dug trenches and kept up a fire from their cannon, 
 their chief hope of success was that the soldiers 
 would be compelled by hunger to surrender. During 
 
254 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the twenty-six days of the siege only eight men were 
 killed and as many wounded on the British side, and 
 not a breach was made, while the farmers' loss was 
 almost as great. 
 
 Richard King, upon whose mission Captain Smith 
 depended for relief, was a hunter with extraordinary 
 power of endurance, as good a horseman as any in 
 South Africa, and perfectly at home in Kaffirland. 
 He was just the man for the feat. Riding night 
 and day with the shortest possible intervals for sleep, 
 and getting fresh horses occasionally, he made a mar- 
 vellously rapid journey. The military authorities 
 heard his story, and recognised that there was not a 
 moment to lose. Troops were hurried away from 
 Port Elizabeth and Capetown, with the result that 
 on the 26th of June the frigate Southampton and 
 the schooner Conch were before the bay of Natal 
 with the needed relief. A breeze was blowing fair 
 to enter, so the Conch took the frigate's boats in tow, 
 and sailed in with two hundred and twenty soldiers, 
 while the Southampton covered the Bluff with her 
 heavy guns. Fire was opened upon her as soon as 
 she passed the line of protection, and three men were 
 killed and five wounded, but these were the last 
 shots in defence of the Republic of Natal, for before 
 she dropped her anchors the farmers began to dis- 
 perse, and at four o'clock in the afternoon the fam- 
 ished soldiers in the camp, who could not have held 
 out much longer, were relieved. 
 
 The farmers retired to Maritzburg, where a meet- 
 ing of the volksraad was held, at which accusations 
 of each other and recriminations were bandied about 
 with the utmost violence. Many little groups retired 
 from the town to their farms, declaring that they 
 would not consider themselves bound by any resolu- 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 255 
 
 tions that were passed, in other words repudiating 
 their own government. Matters military and polit- 
 ical were thus in a condition of perfect chaos, and 
 the best men in the country despaired of any improve- 
 ment except under British rule. Messrs. Pretorius, 
 Boshof, Landman, and others thereupon sent an in- 
 vitation to the officer commanding the troops to visit 
 the town, and on the day after his arrival, 15th of 
 July, an agreement was concluded between him and a 
 quorum of the volksraad, which amounted practically 
 to a cessation of arms and a continuance of things 
 just as they were until the Queen's pleasure could 
 be known. 
 
 Even yet there was the greatest reluctance on the 
 part of the imperial ministers to include Natal in 
 the British dominions. Sir George Napier urged it 
 upon them as an unavoidable necessity to prevent the 
 opening of a rival port to the commerce of the in- 
 terior, and he even went so far as to take upon him- 
 self the responsibility of detaining the troops there 
 after the receipt of instructions to withdraw them. 
 At length, after a long correspondence, he was direct- 
 ed to send a commissioner to the country to report 
 fully upon the condition of everything there, and in 
 May, 1843, Advocate Henry Cloete was appointed 
 for that purpose. 
 
 Upon his arrival Mr. Cloete found that there was 
 not a single cent in the treasury of the republic, while 
 the salaries of the officials were months in arrear; 
 that the landdrosts had no power to enforce their 
 judgments, there being but one policeman in the 
 whole country and he infirm, so that practically every 
 man was a law to himself; that dissension was so 
 rife that there was danger even of the members of the 
 volksraad coming to blows; that in Zululand there 
 
256 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 had been an insurrection in which Panda had be- 
 haved with the most atrocious ferocity, with the re- 
 sult that fifty thousand refugees were then moving 
 up and down on Natal soil; that the British com- 
 manding officer would not permit a commando to 
 be raised to drive the refugees back, and that conse- 
 quently many families had abandoned their farms 
 and taken refuge in the two up-country towns. 
 
 In August, 1843, Mr. Cloete met the great body of 
 the emigrants at Maritzburg. Armed bands from 
 beyond the mountains were there also, having come to 
 take part in proceedings that were to decide the fate 
 of Natal. The great majority were in favour of 
 resistance to the British government, and on this side 
 were practically the whole of the women, but a few 
 of the most intelligent men saw no chance of con- 
 tinuing the strife successfully, and candidly admitted 
 that the Republic of Natal had failed. The discord 
 was great, but upon Mr. Cloete's stating that he 
 would recommend the Drakensberg as the British 
 boundary, all those who were prepared to undergo 
 further sacrifices for independence withdrew, and 
 moved away to the district of Potchefstroom north! 
 of the Vaal River. The others agreed to admit the 
 Queen's sovereignty, but at the close of 1843 there 
 were not five hundred emigrant families left in Natal. 
 
 The result of the commissioner's proceedings and 
 report was that Natal with limits as yet undefined 
 was recognised as a British possession, and in Novem- 
 ber, 1843, custom house officers were appointed. In 
 May of the following year the imperial authorities 
 decided that the country was to be a dependency 
 of the Cape Colony. On the 21st of August, 1845, 
 its boundaries were defined, when all the land south 
 of the Umzimkulu River was cut off, but on the north 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF NATAL. 257 
 
 the territory between the Umzinyati or Buffalo River 
 and the Tngela was included, as had previously been 
 arranged with Panda. A little later a staff of offi- 
 cials was appointed, and with their arrival in De- 
 cember, 1845, the new order of things may be said to 
 have been completed. Unfortunately the long delay 
 in taking possession, to which must be added the 
 policy pursued thereafter, had allowed so many 
 Bantu refugees to enter the territory that it was a 
 black man's not a white man's land that was taken 
 over. 
 
 In this year, 1845, the exports of Natal consisted 
 of farm produce to the value of $31,704 and ivory 
 to the value of $17,073.60. 
 
 And so, entirely against the wish of the British 
 ministry, but under the pressure of circumstances 
 materially affecting the Cape Colony, the imperial 
 domain in South Africa was enlarged by some nine- 
 teen thousand square miles. 
 
258 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 
 
 WHEW the emigrants from Natal settled in the dis- 
 trict of Potchefstroom, Commandant Potgieter 
 and his adherents moved farther north and founded 
 the village of Lydenburg, their object being to get 
 as close as possible to Delagoa Bay ; but as fever at- 
 tacked them a good many families soon afterwards 
 went on to the Zoutpansberg. The condition of 
 things there was already very different from what it 
 had been ten years previously. Then, the only na- 
 tives to be seen were a few faint-hearted, half -starved 
 little bands occupying almost inaccessible positions 
 in the mountains; now, these had emerged into the 
 open country, and having been joined by many fugi- 
 tives from beyond the Limpopo, where Moselekatse 
 had settled, were swelling out into the Baramapulana 
 tribe. The same thing was taking place farther 
 south, where the present Bapedi tribe was being 
 formed; and there was a still more notable instance 
 around Thaba Bosigo, where in 1842 the missionaries 
 reckoned that Moshesh had already a following of 
 from thirty to forty thousand souls. 
 
 These people did not want white men to settle 
 among them, more especially white rulers. They 
 recognised of course the great service that had been 
 performed for them by the driving away of the Mata- 
 bele, but when that was done their great desire was 
 
CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 259 
 
 to be left to themselves, to live as they chose in their 
 own way, without being worried by strangers of an- 
 other race. 
 
 The emigrant farmers took a different view of 
 the matter. The country belonged to them, as they 
 had wrested it from Moselekatse, and if black people 
 came there to live it must be as subjects. It mat- 
 tered not that most of them were the lineal descend- 
 ants of those who had once owned the country and 
 who were now returning from exile, as the Bakwena, 
 the tribe with which the Reverend Dr. Livingstone 
 was soon afterwards a missionary, whose remnant 
 had just come out of the desert to Kolobeng, the 
 Bahurutsi, the Bangwaketsi, the Bamangwato, and 
 many more. They could live in their own way and 
 according to their own laws as they wished to, but 
 they must hold their locations as fiefs from the 
 Europeans, and they must pay a labour tax. In 
 no case would any one among them be allowed to hold 
 a farm under individual tenure, as he would then be- 
 come a burgher with the same rights and duties as 
 the white man, and that could not be permitted. 
 
 The labour tax needs explanation, as it has been 
 widely condemned, especially by the missionaries, 
 as really slavery under another name. A location 
 was defined, and a chief with his clan was permitted 
 to live upon it on condition of furnishing a fixed 
 number of male labourers for a certain number of 
 days every year. A commandant or a fieldcornet 
 would then call out these labourers and distribute 
 them as they were needed. Unquestionably such a 
 system was liable to be greatly abused in a country 
 and at a time when there was no settled government, 
 no police, no protection for the weak from the power- 
 ful, and there can be little doubt that there were 
 
260 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 many cases of real hardship under it. Under a 
 strong government, and especially if the labourers 
 were employed on some public work, it would seem 
 to be an admirable form of taxation, as it compelled 
 idle young men to learn to labour. The farmers 
 who enforced it always maintained that in practice 
 it was more reasonable and more humane than the 
 English system of taxation, by which the head of a 
 family had to pay a fixed sum of money every year, 
 which sum he obtained by the labour of his wives 
 and daughters. The difference is, they said, that we 
 make the men work and the English the women, that 
 is all. 
 
 In general the natives were submissive, but some 
 of the stronger clans from time to time set the white 
 men at defiance, and then a petty war followed, 
 which invariably ended in the defeat of the blacks. 
 There is neither space in a work such as this for even 
 a brief account of these disturbances, nor do they 
 come within the compass of its subject, but those 
 who wish for information upon them can obtain 
 it in the fifth and sixth volumes of my History of 
 South Africa. 
 
 By this time the whole country between the Orange 
 and Limpopo rivers was thinly occupied by Euro- 
 peans, and there were at least a dozen different govern- 
 ments so-called among them, for there was not even 
 as much cohesion among the different parties as there 
 had been in the Republic of Natal. This condition 
 of things seemed to invite vagabonds of every de- 
 scription, absconding debtors, deserters from the 
 British army, ruffians pure and simple, to make the 
 northern territory their home, and thereafter, espe- 
 cially on the borders of Zoutpansberg, were to be 
 found gangs of miscreants of various nationalities 
 
CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 261 
 
 living by hunting and plundering, and whose hands 
 were often steeped in blood. 
 
 It was really a very difficult matter for the colonial 
 government to give advice, or for the imperial gov- 
 ernment to give instructions, as to what was to be 
 done under these circumstances. The great mission- 
 ary and philanthropic societies in England, aghast 
 at the quantity of blood that had been shed in the 
 wars with Moselekatse and Dingan, and believing 
 those chiefs and their people to have been the inno- 
 cent and helpless victims of brutal violence on the 
 part of the farmers, were calling out in a tone that 
 the secretary of state could not but heed. The Rev- 
 erend Dr. Philip, superintendent of the London 
 Society's missions in South Africa, devised a plan 
 that all his supporters regarded as just and feasible, 
 that the colonial government itself approved of, and 
 which it was therefore instructed to carry into exe- 
 cution. 
 
 It was to form a band of Native Treaty States 
 along the borders of the Cape Colony, which would 
 cut off intercourse with the interior and thereby 
 compel the emigrant farmers to return across the 
 Orange. For this purpose the chiefs most friendly 
 with the missionaries, who were to be their advisers, 
 were to be selected, and treaties were to be entered 
 into with them, providing not only for British friend- 
 ship and influence on their behalf, but, if needed, 
 for British military support. A policy more antag- 
 onistic to that of the present day could hardly be de- 
 vised, yet in 1843 no one of any importance in Eng- 
 land opposed it, and the colonists in South Africa, 
 whether English or Dutch, had no voice in the 
 matter. 
 
 The individuals selected by Dr. Philip to be the 
 
262 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 heads of the new states, and who were approved of 
 by the governor, were the Griqua captain Adam Kok 
 and the Basuto chief Moshesh. A treaty had been 
 entered into nine years before with the Griqua cap- 
 tain Andries Waterboer, by which, in return for cer- 
 tain specified assistance, that individual had under- 
 taken to protect the northern colonial border opposite 
 the Orange River from a little kraal named Kheis 
 on the west to the mission outpost of Ramah on the 
 east, and Waterboer had kept his engagement well. 
 Provided by the colonial government with muskets 
 and ammunition, he armed a considerable band of 
 followers, with whom he attacked a Hottentot ma- 
 rauder named Stuurman, whose gang occupied the 
 same islands in the Orange River that had once been 
 held by Afrikanders, and utterly exterminated the 
 robbers. Thus there was already one head of a clan 
 in treaty alliance, though without a defined territory 
 excepting from Kheis to Ramah, that is, from the 
 desert to some distance up the Orange River. Here 
 the country was of such a nature that no emigrants 
 were ever likely to attempt to pass through it. 
 
 To Adam Kok was now assigned the territory 
 between the Orange and Modder rivers from Ramah 
 up to the French mission station Bethulie. He 
 had at the time a following of from fifteen hundred 
 to two thousand souls of both sexes and all ages, and 
 there were actually more Europeans than Griqua 3 
 on the ground of which he was recognised as the 
 owner. He was to have a hundred muskets with a 
 quantity of ammunition and a yearly subsidy of 
 $480 in money, and the London Missionary Society 
 was to have $240 yearly for a school. 
 
 To Moshesh was assigned the whole remaining 
 country along the Orange northward almost to tha 
 
CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 263 
 
 sources of the Caledon. He was to have a subsidy of 
 $360 a year either in money or in arms and ammuni- 
 tion as he should choose. 
 
 These treaties did not have the effect intended. 
 The emigrant farmers in both the new states refused 
 to recognise them or to consider themselves the sub- 
 jects of barbarian chiefs. A number of little groups 
 of people, Griqua, Korana, and Barolong, had been 
 collected by Wesleyan missionaries at different places 
 on the western bank of the Caledon, where stations 
 had been formed, and these declared one and all 
 that they would perish rather than submit to the au- 
 thority of Moshesh. That chief behaved with great 
 prudence and moderation in endeavouring to con- 
 ciliate them, but his sons, who were without a share 
 of his sagacity, acted differently, and wars arose 
 which kept the country along the Caledon in con- 
 fusion for many years. 
 
 In March, 1844, Sir Peregrine Maitland succeeded 
 Sir George ISTapier as governor of the Cape Colony. 
 Upon his arrival he found that matters in the Griqua 
 Treaty State were fast tending towards war. Adam 
 Kok had attempted to exercise authority over a farm- 
 er, upon which the whole body of Europeans in the 
 territory threatened resistance. But these were now 
 divided into two parties, one under Commandant 
 Michiel Oberholster, weary of the prevailing anarchy 
 and desirous of a firm government under the British 
 flag, the other under Commandants Jan Mocke and 
 Jan Kock, bitterly opposed to British interference. 
 Early in the following year hostilities actually broke 
 out, upon which the governor sent two hundred sol- 
 diers to the mission station Philippolis, where Adam 
 Kok resided, to support the authority of the chief. 
 This force was followed very shortly by another and 
 
264 PROGRESS OP SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 larger one of cavalry, and being joined by the Gri- 
 quas advanced against a camp which the farmers had 
 formed. Some two hundred and fifty of these were 
 drawn out by stratagem, and on the 2nd of May, 1845, 
 there was a skirmish at a place called Zwartkopjes, 
 in which three men were killed on the emigrant and 
 one on the British side, and which ended in the utter 
 rout of the farmers. The camp was taken with a 
 hundred prisoners and a quantity of spare arms and 
 
 fl.TnTnrmif.ifm. 
 
 Sir Peregrine Maitland then visited the country 
 in person to endeavour to make some arrangement 
 for its pacification. All the chiefs and captains 
 of the slightest note between the Orange and the 
 Vaal, except Sikonyela, assembled to meet him, and 
 he listened patiently to what they had to say. The 
 emigrant farmers were there too, and they were al- 
 lowed to tell their story. The conclusion that the 
 governor came to was that the farmers had as much 
 moral right to be in the territory as the Griquas, and. 
 that it was now impossible for them to return to the 
 colony, even if they wished to. But it was absurd to 
 suppose that they could be placed under the rule 
 of a Griqua captain, and at the same time Great Brit- 
 ain would neither absolve them from their allegiance 
 and so enable him to recognise a government of their 
 own, nor would she extend her boundaries and so 
 permit him to establish direct authority over them. 
 The governor, however, was clever enough to devise 
 means for solving the difficulty. His plan was to 
 give them a real, though indirect government by 
 British officials, while professing to maintain the 
 Griqua Treaty State. 
 
 He therefore proposed to [dam Kok, who tinder 
 the treaty claimed all the rights of an independent 
 
CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 265 
 
 sovereign, to divide his country into two sections. 
 The one between the Riet and Modder rivers was to 
 be open to the emigrant farmers, who were to pay 
 quitrent for the ground. The one between the Riet 
 and Orange rivers was to be reserved for Griquas, 
 and as there were over eighty farms in it then held by 
 Europeans, these were to be regarded only as lease- 
 holds for forty years. The governor would appoint a 
 gentleman to reside at Philippolis as British Resi- 
 dent, and Adam Kok would sign a commission em- 
 powering him to act as a magistrate. The governor 
 would also station troops in the country for Kok's 
 protection and to enforce the decisions of the magis- 
 trate. Half the quitrents and fines of court should 
 be devoted to paying the costs of the magistrate, 
 and the other half should be handed over to Kok to 
 do what he liked with. 
 
 The whole arrangement was a farce, but Adam 
 Kok at once agreed to it, for it maintained his dig- 
 nity and provided him with a salary, and many of 
 the emigrant farmers consented to it too, as it gave 
 them peace and a prospect of relief from anarchy. 
 Three hundred and sixteen heads of families had 
 taken an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty, and these 
 now settled on farms. The others, under Command- 
 ants Mocke and Kock, moved away, some to Win- 
 burg and some over the Vaal, to be free from British 
 influence. 
 
 The new arrangement with Adam Kok was em- 
 bodied in a treaty not dated or signed until February, 
 1846, though it was put into operation in June, 1845. 
 Captain Henry Douglas Warden, of the Cape corps, 
 was appointed British Resident, and took up his sta- 
 tion at Philippolis, with a company of his regiment 
 to support him. A few months later he selected 
 
266 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 a better site, which was named Bloemfontein, where 
 he fixed his court. Justice was administered by him 
 in the name of Adam Kok, and thus white emigrants 
 from the colony were theoretically governed by a 
 semi-barbarian, an emigrant like themselves, but with 
 the advantage as far as treatment by the British 
 authorities of the day was concerned of having a 
 coloured skin. The plan was fairly successful, how- 
 ever, and for some years there was peace and pros- 
 perity in that part of the country. 
 
 The governor tried to make a similar arrangement 
 with Moshesh, but that chief, though he was careful 
 not to give offence by declining outright, was suffi- 
 ciently astute to prevent the loss of any part of the 
 territory assigned to him by the Napier treaty. He 
 professed a strong desire for friendship and peace 
 with the governor and the white people, and offered 
 a plot of land far distant from that occupied by his 
 followers and so small that no revenue derived from 
 it could suffice to meet the cost of a Resident. Ad- 
 joining the plot thus offered there were nearly three 
 hundred farmers occupying ground, and still there 
 was a great open space between them and his out- 
 posts. These families he desired the governor to re- 
 move. It was impossible to comply with his pro- 
 posal, and thus nothing could be done in the Basuto 
 Treaty State. 
 
 Moshesh did not attempt to molest or interfere 
 directly with the white people, however, and though 
 immediately after the conference he began to push 
 his outposts into the districts occupied by them, peace 
 remained unbroken. Mr. Jacobus Theodoras Sny- 
 man, who was the principal commandant of the emi- 
 grants there, was a man of good sense and prudence, 
 who, like Commandant Oberholster, had a dread of 
 
CREATION OF NATIVE TREATY STATES. 267 
 
 anarchy, and was desirous of the introduction of 
 British authority to prevent it. But that, under the 
 circumstances, was impossible, so he did what he 
 could to keep his adherents out of disturbances. 
 
 A treaty of less importance than either of those 
 above mentioned was concluded in 1844 with the 
 Pondo chief Faku, by which the whole territory be- 
 tween the Umtata and Umzimkulu rivers, the 
 Drakensberg and the sea, was assigned to him. It 
 led to a great deal of strife and bloodshed between 
 his people and other tribes living there, but needs 
 no further mention in these pages than the statement 
 that it completed the chain of native treaty states 
 by which it was attempted to cut off the Cape Colony 
 from the rest of Africa. 
 
 And now that the highest point of the mistaken 
 policy of the philanthropic societies regarding the 
 treatment of the Bantu has been reached, or rather 
 has just been passed, a glance may be given at the 
 general condition of those people along the whole 
 line from the mouth of the Fish River to the Zambesi. 
 
 Along the eastern border of the Cape Colony all 
 is confusion and unrest. The British settlers, suf- 
 fering from constant thefts by the Xosas, are in a 
 state of exasperation and hardly know what to do. 
 
 In Kaffirland, the territory between the Cape 
 Colony and Natal, there is an interminable series 
 of feuds between the tribes and clans, which prevent 
 anything like progress in civilisation or the develop- 
 ment of mission work. 
 
 In Natal a great portion of the land that might 
 have been used for European colonisation, to the ad- 
 vantage of the empire and the world, is being laid 
 out in locations for Bantu refugees. 
 
 In Zululand, Panda, released from the obligations 
 
268 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 imposed upon him by the emigrant farmers, is treated 
 by the British authorities as an independent ruler, 
 and is beginning to build up again that formidable 
 power which in later years cost so much British and 
 colonial blood to break. 
 
 The Swazis in their mountain land are growing 
 in strength, and between them and the Zulus there is 
 often war. 
 
 In Basutoland Moshesh is welding together the 
 fragments of half a hundred clans from which is 
 to grow a tribe of more importance than any other 
 in South Africa. 
 
 Sekwati in the same way is building up the Bapedi 
 power, but as yet is submissive to the emigrant 
 farmers. 
 
 The Baramapulana are gathering numbers in the 
 Zoutpansberg. 
 
 The Betshuana tribes have come out of the desert 
 and settled where they are to be found to-day, but 
 are as yet too feeble to attract much notice. 
 
 Sotshangana is still on the Sabi, Sebetuane is at 
 Linyanti, and Moselekatse is among the Motopo 
 hills, but though these names are words of terror to 
 the scattered and peeled Mashona, Makalanga, and 
 Batonga clans, their followers have lost much of the 
 ferocity which they exhibited at the commencement 
 of their destructive careers. 
 
PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY, 183G-1850. 269 
 
 CHAPTEK XXIII. 
 
 PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY FROM 1836 TO 1850. 
 
 WITHIN the Cape Colony at this time, notwith- 
 standing the great depression of agriculture that 
 followed the emancipation of the slaves, the unrest of 
 the settlers along the eastern frontier, and the emi- 
 gration of many thousands of stockbreeders, marks 
 of progress were not wanting. 
 
 Among these was the establishment in 1836 of 
 municipal government for the towns and villages. 
 To councils elected by residents owning fixed 
 property were confided all such matters as providing 
 a proper supply of water, keeping in order and light- 
 ing the streets, drainage, and local improvements in 
 general, for which purposes they were empowered 
 to levy rates. This must be regarded as the school 
 in which men are trained to take part in representa- 
 tive government, although where the towns are so 
 small as those in South Africa there is not much 
 scope for the acquirement of facility in debate or of 
 an extensive acquaintance with the management of 
 public affairs. The chief value of the training for 
 participation in larger representative assemblies that 
 municipal boards give here consists in the lessons 
 learned in them by men possessed perhaps of ability, 
 but otherwise selfish and mean-minded. Exposed to 
 public observation, with their conduct freely com- 
 mented upon by the newspapers, such men learn that 
 
270 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to avoid the contempt of their fellows they must pur- 
 sue a course of rectitude. 
 
 In the Cape Colony, as everywhere else, there are 
 clever men who are incapable of understanding that 
 the highest aim in life should be formation of char- 
 acter, whose sole object is the acquisition of wealth, 
 and without the training that municipal institutions 
 ordinarily give, such men would make representative 
 government a curse instead of a blessing to a country. 
 They would find their way into parliament and taint 
 it with the baseness of their motives. 
 
 Municipal government has as a rule worked well 
 in South Africa. There have of course been blun- 
 ders, where public money has been misspent, and 
 sections of ratepayers have often been found 
 grumbling ; but of corruption such as one reads of in 
 other countries, of party purposes served, of coun- 
 cillors making use of their power for the benefit of 
 their own pockets, of such contemptible practices 
 the country has been singularly free. There has 
 been indeed one instance recently, which cannot be 
 ignored, of a different line of conduct pursued by 
 an individual in the position of a mayor; but the 
 closest inquiry shows that it stands alone in the 
 Cape Colony, and a single exception does not de- 
 tract from the truth of the statement made above. 
 
 In 1843 another step in the same direction was 
 taken by the creation of elective divisional road 
 boards, which have since developed into divisional 
 councils. In the Cape Colony the word district is 
 applied to any tract of territory in which there is 
 a resident stipendiary magistrate, the word division 
 to a tract of territory under the administration of 
 a civil commissioner. The latter is equivalent to 
 the word county in Canada and elsewhere. A dig- 
 
PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY, 1836-1850. 271 
 
 trict and a division usually embrace exactly the 
 same area, and the resident magistrate is also civil 
 commissioner, but this is not always the case, and 
 there may be several magisterial districts within one 
 fiscal division. 
 
 The road boards as created in 1843 consisted of 
 four members elected for three years by the owners 
 of property in each division, with the civil commisr 
 sioner as chairman. They had power to levy rates for 
 the construction and maintenance of branch roads. 
 A central road board was established, consisting of 
 three official and three unofficial members appointed 
 by the governor, who had power to levy yearly rates 
 not exceeding one two-hundred-and-fortieth of the 
 appraised value of all landed property in the colony, 
 and to establish tolls and ferries, for the purpose of 
 constructing and maintaining main roads through- 
 out the country. The central board had also the 
 control of convict labour, and received grants of 
 money from the legislative council in aid of particu- 
 lar pieces of work. By it in a few years a great deal 
 was done in the way of making roads through moun- 
 tain passes and bringing the interior into easy com- 
 munication with the coast. 
 
 In course of time the duties of the central board 
 were transferred to the elective divisional boards, 
 then termed councils, to which additional powers 
 were given. Every landholder in the colony is under 
 the obligation of paying divisional rates varying in 
 amount according to circumstances, and has a vote 
 in the election of the divisional councillors. This 
 is exclusive of municipal rates and taxes in the towns 
 and villages, which owners and occupiers of property 
 residing within the municipal areas must also pay. 
 
 The divisional councils have worked fairly well, 
 
272 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 though the complaint is frequently heard in thinly 
 populated parts of the colony that the cost of their 
 maintenance, consisting chiefly in salaries of officers 
 and travelling expenses, absorbs so much of their 
 revenue that either the rates are unduly heavy or 
 the expenditure on public works is inadequately 
 small. 
 
 A great improvement in the system of public edu- 
 cation was made in 1838, in accordance with a plan 
 drawn up by the eminent astronomer Sir John 
 Herschel, who was then residing in the colony. Two 
 classes of schools were established in the chief centres 
 of European population. Those of the elementary 
 class were open without charge to all children of 
 good behaviour in the community, and the Dutch 
 language could be used as the medium of instruc- 
 tion where parents desired it. Above these in the 
 principal villages were high schools, in which the 
 medium of instruction was English only, and in 
 which fees not exceeding $19.20 per annum could 
 be charged to pupils. The teachers were appointed 
 and paid by the government, the schoolrooms and 
 furniture were provided by local boards, and the 
 chief administration was confided to an official termed 
 the superintendent-general of education. 
 
 This system was modified and improved in later 
 years, and gradually grew into the admirable edu- 
 cational establishment of the present day. After 
 his return to Europe Sir John Herschel took much 
 trouble in selecting and sending out suitable Scotch 
 teachers. As an acknowledgment of his services in 
 this respect, some years later a district in the colony 
 was named after him. 
 
 During the early part of this period the colony re- 
 ceived from Great Britain a few immigrants, and 
 
PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY, 1836-1850. 273 
 
 retired officers of the East India Company's service 
 began to settle in the suburbs of Capetown, where 
 they afterwards grew into a small community which 
 gave a distinct tone to society in the peninsula. 
 Several hundred soldiers whose time of service had 
 expired were allowed to take their discharge in 
 Albany, where they could make a living much more 
 easily than in Europe. About seven hundred and 
 fifty destitute boys and girls collected in English 
 towns were sent out by a benevolent society between 
 1835 and 1839, and were apprenticed to colonists. 
 Some of these turned out badly, but the majority 
 did tolerably well, though owing to their early habits 
 and in many instances to defective stamina they were 
 not the most desirable persons to form colonists. 
 
 For several years after this there were hardly any 
 additions to the European population from the 
 mother country, but between 1846 and 1848 there 
 was a stream of immigration into the colony of the 
 very best possible kind. The legislative council 
 voted $48,000 yearly for the purpose of giving free 
 passages to small farmers, agricultural labourers, 
 gardeners, mechanics, and domestic servants from 
 the British islands, and commissioners were ap- 
 pointed to select from applicants those who were 
 most suitable. The result was the choice of a num- 
 ber of industrious married people in the prime of 
 life, who added very greatly to the welfare of the 
 country. 
 
 They numbered in all four thousand one hundred 
 and eighty-five individuals, who removed from Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and the north of Ireland, like the 
 British settlers of 1820, with the intention of making 
 more comfortable homes for themselves and their 
 children than those they were leaving in the places 
 
 T 
 
274 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of their birth. They were sent out in twenty ships 
 sailing at regular intervals, so that each party had 
 time to get settled before another arrived. Many of 
 them at once arranged to take over portions of 
 stocked farms to work on shares, and the others 
 readily obtained employment until they found open- 
 ings to do something for themselves. There were 
 no instances whatever of failure to make a comfort- 
 able living. 
 
 There can be nothing but regret now with regard 
 to the immigration of these settlers of 1846-48, that 
 it was not on a very much larger scale. They were 
 people with country habits, which fitted them for 
 obtaining a living from the soil. Such people were 
 then plentiful in the British islands, but they are not 
 to be had there now, so that no future stream of immi- 
 gration is likely to be of the permanent importance 
 to South Africa that this was. They filled to a con- 
 siderable extent the places of the farmers of Dutch 
 descent who had moved away to the north, and they 
 brought the proportion of the two nationalities in the 
 Cape Colony more nearly to an equality than it was 
 before. 
 
 In 1843 it was suddenly discovered that vast de- 
 posits of guano on some uninhabited rocky islets off 
 the coast of Great Namaqualand were worth $35 a 
 ton in England. Immediately whole fleets of ships 
 were employed in removing the valuable manure, 
 and when it was all gone some merchants in Cape- 
 town took possession of the bare rocks for the sake 
 of the fresh deposits. The colonial government 
 benefited to the amount of about a quarter of a mil- 
 lion dollars from licenses to remove the guano from 
 a couple of islands farther south, within waters under 
 its jurisdiction. In 1861 the largest of the northern 
 
PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY, 1836-1850. 275 
 
 rocks they are nothing more was annexed to the 
 British dominions, and the others followed in 1866. 
 Since that date they have formed dependencies of the 
 Cape Colony, and the guano yearly deposited on them 
 is now removed and sold by officers of the government. 
 
 The public revenue was steadily advancing, owing 
 not merely to the increase of population, but to the 
 development of trade. A less vexatious method of 
 taxation than the old system was introduced, and the 
 public debt was paid off, which enabled useful works 
 to be taken in hand. By 1850 the revenue 
 amounted yearly to about $1,000,000. Goods to the 
 value of $5,000,000 were imported annually, of 
 which ninety-three per cent, were carried in British 
 bottoms. The customs duties were five per cent, 
 of the value on articles from British possessions, 
 twelve per cent, on all other. 
 
 The number of magistrates was considerably in- 
 creased, a matter of the first importance for the 
 preservation of order in places remote from the seat 
 of government. 
 
 In 1838 steamships began to be employed in the 
 coasting trade between Capetown and Port Elizabeth, 
 calling at Mossel Bay and sometimes at other inter- 
 mediate ports on the passage. In 1845 a lightship 
 was stationed in Simon's Bay. In 1849 a lighthouse 
 of the first order was completed and opened for use 
 at Cape Agulhas, and in 1851 one at Cape Kecife. 
 The navigation along the southern coast was thus 
 made much less dangerous than in early years. 
 
 Banks and insurance offices were established in 
 the principal towns, and excellently conducted news- 
 papers, representing different views of politics, as 
 well as magazines of a high class, were issued from 
 the press. Many new villages were springing up, 
 
276 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 mostly around Dutch churches built in favourable 
 positions. 
 
 Thus the colony was unquestionably making as 
 much progress as could reasonably be expected. On 
 the eastern frontier, however, matters were con- 
 tinually getting worse. Sir George Napier, after 
 trying every plan that he could devise to suppress 
 the robberies of the Kaffirs without overturning the 
 Glenelg system of treating with the chiefs as with 
 civilised rulers, came at last to the conclusion that 
 Sir Benjamin D'Urban had been right and that a 
 reversion to that able and benevolent governor's sys- 
 tem was highly advisable. This, however, he could 
 not bring about without the approval of the im- 
 perial government and without war. In 1844 he 
 was succeeded as governor of the colony by Sir 
 Peregrine Maitland, a deeply religious and humane 
 man, then far advanced in years. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival the new governor pro- 
 ceeded to the frontier, and was at once convinced that 
 things could not long remain as they then were. The 
 chiefs were ready to promise anything or to put 
 their marks to any documents they were asked to 
 sign, but to restrain their followers from cattle-lift- 
 ing and murdering herdsmen who attempted to resist 
 was something that they had no intention of doing. 
 A series of new treaties was entered into, under which 
 annual subsidies were to be paid to some of the chiefs, 
 and the government obtained the right to establish 
 military posts anywhere west of the Keiskama. As 
 over a hundred individuals had lost their lives by 
 the hands of Kaffirs since the introduction of the 
 Glenelg system, the chiefs also undertook that persons 
 accused of murdering British subjects should be sur- 
 rendered for trial by colonial courts. 
 
PROGRESS IN THE CAPE COLONY, 1836-1850. 277 
 
 A very simple fort was then constructed near the 
 present village of Alice, in the hope that the presence 
 of soldiers would restrain the marauders, and the 
 governor returned to Capetown. For a few months 
 cattle-stealing nearly ceased, but when it became evi- 
 dent to the clans that their movements could not be 
 watched by one little company of soldiers, it com- 
 menced again as before. Sandile, the successor of 
 Gaika, was at this time the principal chief near the 
 border. When remonstrated with he replied that 
 he would do as he pleased, and openly set the British 
 authorities at defiance. This was the condition of 
 things along the Kaffir border at the beginning 
 of 1846, after nine years' trial of the system for 
 which Lord Glenelg had declared himself responsible. 
 
278 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN SOUTH 
 AFRICA. 
 
 ON the 16th of March, 1846, a Kaffir who was de- 
 tected in the act of stealing an axe at Fort Beaufort 
 was arrested, and with some other persons accused 
 of having committed crimes was placed in the custody 
 of a guard to be conducted to Grahamstown for trial. 
 On the way a band of his tribesmen, who had heard 
 of the occurrence and at once made a dash over the 
 boundary, released him by force, and cut off the hand 
 of a Hottentot prisoner to whom he was manacled, 
 as they could not otherwise get him free. The gov- 
 ernment demanded the surrender of the thief and 
 the murderers of the Hottentot, in order that they 
 might be tried by a colonial court, and met with an 
 emphatic refusal from the chiefs. 
 
 A military force was then directed to occupy San- 
 dile's kraal, in hope that its presence would be suffi- 
 cient to bring him to submission; but the strength 
 of the Kaffirs was altogether under-estimated, and a 
 great disaster occurred. The troops marched into 
 an ambush and lost severely, not only in killed and 
 wounded, but by the Kaffirs obtaining possession of 
 sixty-one waggons laden with baggage and stores. 
 The column fought its way back as far as the mission 
 station Lovedale, where a large stone building was 
 converted into a temporary fort. 
 
 And now the terrible scene was again witnessed 
 
EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 279 
 
 of a great barbarian horde rushing into the colony, 
 murdering, plundering, and devastating far and 
 wide. Once more many hundreds of British and 
 Dutch families were reduced from comfort to desti- 
 tution, and were thrown upon the government for 
 support in the towns and lagers to which they barely 
 escaped with their lives. Every mission station ex- 
 cept Lovedale, which was then a fort, and every 
 trader's shop in the Xosa country was pillaged and 
 destroyed, but the white people were allowed to re- 
 tire to places of safety. 
 
 The soldiers were hurried to the front from Cape- 
 town, and the farmers all over the colony were called 
 out to take part in the war. The aged governor 
 hastened to the border to direct military operations 
 in person. But the country was parched with 
 drought, so that the transport of food for men and 
 horses was almost impossible, and for a long time 
 nothing could be done to check the enemy. An at- 
 tempt to throw supplies into Fort Peddie, which was 
 beleaguered, failed, the whole convoy falling into 
 the hands of the Kaffirs. 
 
 These early successes caused clans that were 
 wavering before to join the enemy, and very shortly 
 the entire Xosa tribe with the exception of a few 
 individuals and nearly the whole of the Tembus 
 had to be dealt with. The Fingos were on the white 
 man's side, but they had enough to do to protect their 
 own kraals. 
 
 In June the enemy met with a severe defeat at the 
 Gwanga, but beyond that little was done until the 
 rains in September and October made transport easy. 
 Strong reinforcements of troops were now arriving 
 from England, and the governor could put a force in 
 the field that the Xosas and Teinbus were unable to 
 
280 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 resist. They were much too astute to give him an 
 opportunity to crush them. As the armies advanced 
 the men simply sat down in front, knowing they 
 would not be shot while offering no resistance, and 
 the women and children crowded round the troops 
 and burgher forces, begging for food. The governor 
 could not make them prisoners, he could not kill 
 them, and he could not expel them. 
 
 Under these circumstances he determined to revert 
 to the plan of Sir Benjamin D'Urban, and rule them 
 as British subjects. The territory termed by Sir 
 Benjamin the Province of Queen Adelaide he in- 
 tended to annex to the empire under the name of 
 British Kaffraria, and in the meantime the people 
 in it, except three or four clans along the Kei who 
 were still in arms, were placed under the authority 
 of English officers. On this occasion no objections 
 were raised by any one in South Africa. The 
 Reverend Dr. Philip had seen his plans terminate in 
 disaster, and when Jan Tshatshu, whom he had ex- 
 hibited in England as a Christian Kaffir, took part 
 in the atrocities with which the war commenced, 
 he became a changed man. He had gone through 
 great domestic affliction, and had borne up against 
 it with the spirit of a Christian, but when Tshatshu's 
 defection was announced to him he broke down com- 
 pletely. Soon afterwards he retired to the mission 
 station Hankey, and never again took part in politics. 
 
 Sir Peregrine Maitland had not completed his 
 arrangements for the administration of British 
 Kaffraria, nor had he issued a formal proclamation 
 annexing the province, when in January, 1847, he 
 was succeeded as governor by Sir Henry Pottinger, 
 who had also power as high commissioner to settle 
 affairs in the territories adjacent to the colony. The 
 
EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 281 
 
 new governor proceeded to the eastern border, and 
 sent a considerable force against the clans still in 
 arms. To keep in order those who professed to have 
 submitted, four or five hundred Kaffirs were armed 
 and enrolled as police, a measure that the colonists 
 believed to be fraught with danger. 
 
 In June, 1847, when the Kaffirs had gathered 
 their crops and hidden their corn, Sandile threw off 
 the mask of apparent submission, and the circle of 
 war was again enlarged. But by sending patrols 
 frequently into their retreats and keeping them from 
 settling anywhere, the Kaffirs were soon again 
 begging for peace, and by the time for planting 
 gardens there was not a single chief openly in arms. 
 Among themselves of course there was much merri- 
 ment over the ease with which the white people could 
 be deceived, for what the government termed peace 
 they regarded merely as a truce. 
 
 At this time the mouth of the Buffalo River was 
 first used as a convenient place for landing troops 
 and stores, and Fort Glamorgan was built on the 
 right bank near the entrance and garrisoned. Here 
 a small village named East London sprang up, but 
 since 1875 the opposite bank has become of much 
 greater importance, on account of its being the 
 terminus of a line of railway to the interior. The 
 name East London embraces both banks, and the port 
 is now the third in the Cape Colony in the value of 
 its trade. 
 
 Sir Henry Pottinger's term of government was 
 short. In December, 1847, he was relieved by Sir 
 Harry Smith, who as Colonel Smith had been the 
 head of the administration of the Province of Queen 
 Adelaide under Sir Benjamin D'Urban. The whole 
 country was jubilant, for Sir Harry was regarded 
 
282 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 with the highest esteem by every one whether of 
 Dutch or English birth. He was indeed a grand 
 man, a brave and dashing soldier, generous and un- 
 selfish to the last degree, with broad and liberal views, 
 just the officer for the post, if he had not come a 
 dozen years too late. He had his faults like every 
 one else, but they were few compared with his merits. 
 Quick-tempered, he seemed at times to lose command 
 of his tongue, but after swearing roundly at any one 
 who annoyed him, his passion quickly cooled. Emo- 
 tional, he would burst into tears on hearing a pathetic 
 tale or an earnest exhortation from the pulpit. They 
 are fast passing away from sight who knew Sir 
 Harry Smith in South Africa, but even yet the men- 
 tion of his name recalls to the aged something of the 
 enthusiasm of their youth. 
 
 He came out with large power, and he lost no time 
 in making use of it. Speeding to the frontier, on the 
 17th of December, 1847, he issued a proclamation 
 from Grahamstown extending the boundary of the 
 Cape Colony to the Orange River along its whole 
 course on the north, and to the Kraai, Klaas Smit's, 
 Zwart Kei, Tyumie, and Keiskama rivers on the 
 east. Then pushing on to King-Williamstown, on 
 the 23rd of the same month, in presence of the Xosa 
 chiefs who were assembled for the purpose, he pro- 
 claimed the Queen's sovereignty over the territory 
 between the new colonial boundary and the Kei, and 
 announced that the days of treaties with the tribes 
 were gone for ever. 
 
 Arrangements were then made for the new prov- 
 ince of British Kaffraria almost identical with those 
 of Sir Benjamin D'Urban, and Lieutenant-Colonel 
 George Mackinnon was stationed at King- Williams- 
 town in the same position as that once held by the 
 
EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 283 
 
 governor himself. He was to receive his instruc- 
 tions from the high commissioner, to whom he was 
 to report upon all matters that might occur. A staff 
 of officials to take charge of the various clans was 
 then selected, and about two thousand soldiers were 
 stationed at different places in the province. The 
 weak feature of the arrangement was the retention 
 of the Kaffir police of between four and five hundred 
 men, who were armed with muskets and trained to 
 use them. 
 
 As soon as these matters were concluded the 
 energetic governor set out for the country north of 
 the Orange, and on ike 24th of January, 1848, had 
 a conference at Bloemfontein with the Griqua cap- 
 tain Adam Kok. Sir Harry intended to destroy 
 the treaty states, and to bring the Europeans in 
 them under the Queen's government, for which pur- 
 pose he was desirous of obtaining the consent of 
 Adam Kok and Moshesh to other arrangements. 
 Kok spoke at first of his rights as an independent 
 sovereign in alliance with the Queen of England, 
 and assumed such an attitude that the governor lost 
 his temper and gave utterance, to threats of the direst 
 punishment. The Griqua captain then consented to 
 affix his name to a document, by which in return for 
 an allowance of $960 a year for himself and $480 
 a year for division among his people who had 
 leased land north of the Riet River to Europeans, 
 he abandoned all claim to territory excepting be- 
 tween the Riet and Orange rivers. 
 
 The farmers of Oberholster's party who occupied 
 the ground thus surrendered by Adam Kok and 
 those under Commandant Snyman who were living 
 within the Basuto Treaty State sent deputations to 
 Bloemfontein to welcome the governor, and to in- 
 
284 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 form him that they would be glad if he would ar- 
 range for the establishment of proper courts among 
 them in which justice should be administered in the 
 name of the Queen. They were quite elated with 
 the subversion of the Glenelg system of dealing with 
 the coloured people, and generally with the turn 
 things had taken. 
 
 From Bloemfontein the governor proceeded to 
 Winburg, where Moshesh had been invited to meet 
 him. The Basuto chief had by this time a power- 
 ful well-armed tribe at his back, but he was much 
 too prudent to speak of his strength or to conduct 
 himself as Adam Kok had done. He wished for the 
 governor's friendship, he said, and made his mark 
 on the paper that was placed before him, though he 
 probably did not realise that by so doing he destroyed 
 the only claim he could make to the larger portion 
 of the territory assigned to him by Sir George 
 Napier's treaty. The governor made him some 
 valuable presents and treated him with the greatest 
 courtesy, so that they parted on excellent terms, each 
 gratified with the result of the interview. 
 
 From Winburg Sir Harry hurried over the Kath- 
 lamba to Natal, as he had been informed that the 
 whole remaining families of Dutch blood were leav- 
 ing that territory in a body, and he wished if possible 
 to induce them not to do so. On the left bank of the 
 Tugela, near the foot of the great range, he found 
 them encamped and waiting for him. They could 
 not remain in Natal, they said, as so many Bantu 
 refugees had entered that country and had been lo- 
 cated among the white people that their property 
 and their lives were no longer safe. The governor 
 promised to make arrangements for their security 
 if they would return, and succeeded in persuading 
 
EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 285 
 
 some of them to do so. They settled on the high- 
 lands in the northern part of the colony, where their 
 descendants are still to be found. Many, however, 
 could not be induced to remain longer under the 
 British flag, and moved on to the Magalisberg, where 
 they hoped to live unmolested. 
 
 On the 3rd of February, 1848, Sir Harry Smith 
 issued a proclamation from the camp on the Tugela, 
 declaring the whole territory between the Orange and 
 Yaal rivers up to the Drakensberg a British posses- 
 sion, under the name of the Orange River Sover- 
 eignty. This included the former Griqua and 
 Basuto treaty states, besides several small tracts of 
 land occupied by petty Bantu and Korana clans, 
 the district of Winburg occupied by emigrant farm- 
 ers, and much open ground farther west. At the 
 moment he could count upon the whole of the farmers 
 south of the Modder to support him in this act, and 
 he believed, though as afterwards seen incorrectly, 
 that the greater number of those north of that stream 
 would offer no objection. 
 
 He then returned to Bloemfontein, and made ar- 
 rangements for the government of the new province. 
 These were exceedingly simple, but well adapted to 
 the condition of the inhabitants, white and black, if 
 they had only been willing to submit to them, or 
 if there had been means to enforce them. The 
 Sovereignty was divided into three districts, named 
 Caledon River, Bloemfontein, and Winburg. In 
 each there was to be a civil commissioner and resident 
 magistrate, with the same powers as those of similar 
 officers in the Cape Colony, but their jurisdiction was 
 to extend only to white people and such blacks as chose 
 to live with them as servants. The ground occupied 
 bv black people was to be carefully beaconed off, and 
 
286 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 each chief was to govern his own followers without 
 interference within his own location. Disputes be- 
 tween the various chiefs were to be decided by the 
 British Resident at Bloemfontein, who was thus to 
 control what may be termed their foreign relations. 
 In each district there was to be a land board consist- 
 ing of the civil commissioner, two surveyors, and a 
 burgher elected by the resident farmers, whose duties 
 were to be the apportioning of farms and fixing the 
 quitrents, which were not to be less than $9.60 or 
 more than $38.40 per annum. The commandants 
 and fieldcornets were to be elected by the burghers, 
 and the military system was to be that of all other 
 parts of South Africa occupied by Europeans. Any 
 surplus revenue, after the few officials were paid, 
 was to be devoted to the establishment of churches 
 and schools. 
 
 Major Warden, with the title of British Resident, 
 was instructed to remain at Bloemfontein as head of 
 the government and correspond with the high com- 
 missioner in Capetown. Men of ability were 
 selected for the other posts, and a garrison of from 
 fifty to sixty men of the Cape regiment was left at 
 Bloemfontein to support the established authority. 
 
 Sir Harry Smith returned to Capetown in the be- 
 lief that he had provided for the future peace and 
 happiness of all classes of people in the Orange 
 River Sovereignty, and that a territory over fifty 
 thousand square miles in extent Had been added to 
 Her Majesty's dominions without violence, solely 
 in the interests of humanity. There was still the 
 vast region north of the Yaal open to those who would 
 not submit to British rule, so he did not apprehend 
 danger from them, nor did he dream that Moshesh 
 would scheme to destroy his plans. 
 
EXPANSION OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 287 
 
 He was soon undeceived as to the emigrant 
 farmers. The great majority of those living in the 
 district of Winburg resolved to appeal to arms, and 
 sent to ask assistance from Commandant Pretorius 
 and their friends over the Vaal. This was given, 
 and a commando under Pretorius marched upon 
 Bloemfontein and compelled the British Resident 
 and all his adherents to retire to the southern bank 
 of the Orange. When intelligence of this reached 
 Capetown Sir Harry immediately set out with a 
 strong body of troops, and marching as rapidly 
 as possible, on the 26th of August reached the 
 Sovereignty, without his passage of the river being 
 disputed. Leaving here a guard to protect his 
 pontoons, he continued his march with about eight 
 hundred soldiers, a few farmers under Commandants 
 Erasmus and Snyman, and two hundred and fifty 
 Griquas under the captains Andries Waterboer and 
 Adam Kok. 
 
 Three days after leaving the river 29th of 
 August, 1848 the column reached Boomplaats and 
 found a commando variously estimated at from five 
 hundred to seven hundred and fifty men, under Mr. 
 Pretorius, occupying a position of great natural 
 strength. The governor believed that no white man 
 in South Africa would fire at him, and in this con- 
 fidence he was riding with a few soldiers some dis- 
 tance in advance of the main body when a shower of 
 bullets from a boulder-covered hill fell around him. 
 A European officer was badly wounded, three Hot- 
 tentots of the Cape corps were killed, and one of Sir 
 Harry's stirrup leathers was half cut through. 
 
 The farmers were sheltered behind boulders, but 
 the troops stormed the hill and took it. The same 
 thing occurred at other ranges farther in advance. 
 
288 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 but when the last was taken the whole commando fled 
 and crossed the Vaal River without any further at- 
 tempt at resistance. The English loss in this en- 
 gagement was twenty-two killed and thirty-eight 
 severely wounded; the farmers, fighting under 
 shelter, had nine killed and five badly wounded. 
 
 After the action the governor and the troops moved 
 on to Bloemfontein. There two men who had 
 fought at Boomplaats and had been made prisoners 
 one a deserter from the British army, the other 
 a young farmer were brought to trial before a court- 
 martial, were condemned to death, and executed. 
 Those who had been in arms were declared banished 
 from the Sovereignty and their property was con- 
 fiscated, fines were levied upon those who had aided 
 them, and prices were set upon the heads of the prin- 
 cipal leaders who had gone over the Vaal. A few 
 days later the Queen's sovereignty was again pro- 
 claimed at Winburg, and another district, named 
 Vaal River, was created. 
 
 Major Warden and the magistrates were then re- 
 instated in office, a considerable garrison was left 
 in Bloemfontein, where a fort in a commanding 
 position was to be built without delay, and Sir Harry 
 Smith with the remainder of the troops returned to 
 Capetown. 
 
 The imperial authorities were still averse to as- 
 suming fresh responsibilities in South Africa, but 
 they had such faith in the governor's judgment, and 
 the result of the Glenelg policy had been so dis- 
 astrous, that they reluctantly approved of what had 
 been done, and thus in 1848 the British ensign 
 waved over four distinct possessions in this part of 
 the globe: the Cape Colony, British Kaffraria, Na- 
 tal, and the Orange River Sovereignty. 
 
SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 289 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 
 
 AN event of the greatest importance, as far as the 
 welfare of South Africa was concerned, took place in 
 1849 and 1850, when an attempt was made by the 
 imperial authorities to convert the Cape Colony into 
 a penal settlement. As early as May, 1841, the 
 secretary of state proposed that Europeans chiefly 
 soldiers condemned in India to long terms of im- 
 prisonment should be confined on Robben Island, 
 and liberated in Capetown on the expiration of their 
 sentences ; but Sir George Napier represented so 
 forcibly the bad effect which such a measure would 
 probably have upon the coloured people, and so 
 many remonstrances and petitions against it were 
 forwarded by the colonists to the Queen and to both 
 houses of parliament, that this scheme was aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Another, however, equally objectionable, was 
 proposed by Lord Stanley in March, 1842, which 
 was to send out fifty convict boys to be apprenticed 
 in the colony as an experiment. There was as much 
 agitation over this scheme as over the other, and in 
 November of the same year the secretary of state 
 announced that it would not be carried out. 
 
 In 1848 still another, for the introduction of 
 political convicts, was brought forward. At this 
 time feeling was running strong in the colony over 
 a different side of the immigration question. In 
 
 U 
 
290 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 April, 1848, Earl Grey issued directions that no 
 more agricultural families or artisans were to be sent 
 out, as the remaining balance of the money voted by 
 the legislative council to defray the cost of their 
 passages was needed for certain military villages 
 which were to be founded on the eastern frontier. 
 This affected the colonists in two ways. First, 
 though no one had any objection to the military 
 villages, it was held that unmarried discharged sol- 
 diers, mostly men who had passed the prime of life, 
 could not be of the same value to the country as the 
 healthy industrious young married people for whose 
 introduction the money was voted, and who were 
 now debarred from migrating, except at their own 
 expense. Secondly, it was regarded as a most 
 arbitrary act that money voted by the legislative 
 council for a particular purpose should be diverted 
 by the secretary of state to something else, even if 
 that something else had been of equal importance. 
 Thus public feeling on Earl Grey's interference with 
 immigration was already running strong when the 
 proposal to send out political convicts was made. 
 
 Immediately there was a general agitation 
 throughout the country, and memorials against the 
 measure, circulated and signed everywhere, left 
 Capetown for England on the 1st of January, 1849. 
 Meantime, in August, 1848, Earl Grey had in- 
 formed the governor that he would not send any con- 
 victs out unless there should be a prevalent opinion 
 in the colony in favour of the measure, and as that 
 was made known generally the excitement rapidly 
 died away. 
 
 It revived again, however, with tenfold force when 
 on the 21st of March, 1849, an announcement was 
 made in the Commercial Advertiser at Capetown, 
 
SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 291 
 
 taken over from an English newspaper of the 30th 
 of December, that a ship with convicts from the model 
 prison at Pentonville was on her way to Bermuda, 
 there to take in others for conveyance to the Cape of 
 Good Hope. On the 4th of September, 1848, an 
 order in council, to come into force on the 25th of 
 November, had been issued, making the Cape a penal 
 settlement, and this was the beginning of its opera- 
 tion. 
 
 In the general excitement which this announce- 
 ment occasioned, it was some days before the people 
 of the Cape peninsula could decide upon the course 
 to be pursued to avert the dire calamity that threat- 
 ened them, though all, English and Dutch alike, 
 were resolved to use every exertion in their power 
 to prevent the landing of the convicts. At length, 
 on the suggestion of Mr. John Eairbairn, editor of 
 the Commercial Advertiser, the following pledge was 
 placed in the Commercial Exchange for signature : 
 
 " CAPE Tow^, 5th April, 1849. 
 
 " The undersigned Inhabitants of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, having heard that, in violation of the 
 pledge given by Lord Grey, Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies, conveyed to the Colonists through His 
 Excellency the Governor, his Lordship has resolved 
 to convert this Colony into a Penal Settlement, on 
 the worst and most dangerous principles, in defiance 
 of the petitions and remonstrances of Her Majesty's 
 faithful subjects presented to Her Majesty in 1842, 
 and said to have been graciously received, and also 
 to both Houses of Parliament, 
 
 " We hereby declare and solemnly promise to each 
 other, and to all our fellow Colonists, that we will 
 not employ in any capacity, or receive on any terms 
 
292 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 into our establishments, any one of the Convicted 
 Felons, whom the Secretary of State for the Colo- 
 nies has ordered to be transported to our shores and 
 turned loose among us, under the designation of 
 i Exiles/ or Convicts holding Tickets of Leave. 
 
 " And we hereby call upon his Excellency the 
 Governor, in the exercise of that discretionary power 
 with which the Governor of every distant Colony is 
 virtually invested, for the protection of his province 
 against sudden or unforeseen dangers to prohibit 
 and prevent the landing at any port or place within 
 the Colony, of any such Convicted Felons, and to 
 convey to Her Majesty, by the first opportunity, this 
 expression of the grief, shame, and indignation which 
 this breach of faith, on the part of the Secretary for 
 the Colonies, has filled every loyal heart." 
 
 As intelligence was received from the country 
 districts it became known that the European inhabi- 
 tants practically to a man were united on this ques- 
 tion, and delegates from all quarters were sent to 
 Capetown, where on the 19th of May over five thou- 
 sand men were assembled on the grand parade and 
 without a single dissentient voice declared themselves 
 opposed to the reception of convicts. A committee 
 termed the Anti-Convict Association, with Mr. 
 John Bardwell Ebden as its chairman, was elected 
 to direct the movement, and a new and more strin- 
 gent pledge was adopted. It read as follows : 
 
 " We, the Undersigned, Colonists and Inhabitants 
 of the Cape of Good Hope, hereby solemnly declare 
 and pledge our faith to each other, that we will not 
 employ, or knowingly admit into our Establish- 
 ments or Houses, work with or for, or associate with, 
 
SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 293 
 
 any convicted Felon or Felons sent to this Colony 
 under Sentence of Transportation, and that we will 
 discountenance and drop connection with any Person 
 who may assist in landing, supporting, or employing 
 such convicted Felons." 
 
 On the 15th of June a message was sent by the 
 governor to the legislative council, which was then 
 in session, announcing that on the preceding evening 
 he had received despatches from Earl Grey contain- 
 ing instructions for the reception of the convicts from 
 Bermuda, which it would be his duty to carry out. 
 Every member of the council was opposed to the 
 measure, and it was known that the governor personal- 
 ly objected to it as strongly as the colonists. It was 
 therefore hoped that he would take the responsibility 
 of suspending the operation of the order in council, 
 but this he declined to do, and in consequence lost a 
 good deal of his popularity. On the llth of July, 
 however, he stated his intention of keeping the con- 
 victs in the ship after her arrival until further in- 
 structions concerning their disposal should be re- 
 ceived from Earl Grey. It would be beyond his 
 power, he said, to order the vessel to leave. 
 
 And now petitions to the Queen, to the parliament, 
 and to the people of England poured in from all 
 parts of the country, pleading that the colony should 
 not be ruined by the introduction of criminals who 
 would not only bring a stain upon the character of 
 its white inhabitants, but would be likely to lead the 
 coloured people into all kinds of vice. Many 
 justices of the peace and neldcornets resigned their 
 offices, with a view of creating a deadlock in the gov- 
 ernment. Messrs. Hamilton Ross, William Matthew 
 Harries, John Bardwell Ebden, and Henry Cloete, 
 
294 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 unofficial members of the legislative council, with the 
 same object resigned their seats. Messrs. Abraham 
 de Smidt, Pieter Laurens Cloete, and Jacob Letter- 
 stedt, to whom the governor offered three of the 
 vacant places, declined to accept them. 
 
 The different banks and insurance offices published 
 notices that they would transact no business what- 
 ever with any person who employed a convict. The 
 owners of hire houses in Capetown advertised to the 
 same effect. The bakers refused to tender for sup- 
 plies of biscuit needed by the commissariat, for fear 
 it might be used to feed convicts. A great meeting 
 was held at Malmesbury, and when it was over the 
 whole assembly, with the Dutch clergyman at its 
 head, proceeded to the church and solemnly com- 
 mitted its cause to the Almighty God. 
 
 On the 19th of September the Neptune, a ship of 
 643 tons burden, arrived in Simon's Bay with two 
 hundred and eighty-two convicts who had committed 
 offences during the pressure of the famine in 
 Ireland. She had sailed from Bermuda on the 22nd 
 of April, but had been delayed some time at Per- 
 nambuco, which port she left on the llth of August 
 Two officers and forty-seven rank and file of the 91st 
 regiment were on board as guards. Her arrival was 
 announced to the inhabitants of Capetown by the 
 tolling of the town-house gong and of all the church 
 bells in the city, and was communicated as rapidly 
 as possible to the most distant parts of the colony, 
 where the intelligence was received as if it had been 
 a report of the outbreak of the plague. 
 
 By the governor's orders no one was allowed to 
 land from the ship, and indeed had any one ven- 
 tured to do so he must have perished of hunger or 
 have performed some act to be committed to prison, 
 
SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 295 
 
 but to the urgent entreaties of the colonists that 
 she should be sent away, as they feared that the 
 secretary of state would not relent and might even 
 grant the convicts a free pardon in order to enable 
 them to settle in the country, Sir Harry Smith turned 
 a deaf ear. 
 
 On the 10th of October twelve individuals who 
 were suspected of furnishing the government de- 
 partments with provisions were denounced in the 
 press, and were at once ostracised from society by 
 their fellow citizens. At the same time a consider- 
 able sum of money was subscribed by wealthy persons 
 to indemnify those who should sustain pecuniary 
 loss by adhering faithfully to the pledge. 
 
 On the following day the Anti-Convict Associa- 
 tion resolved that the whole of the stores and shops 
 in the peninsula should be closed to every one but 
 known customers, and that all intercourse with the 
 government should be suspended. This was im- 
 mediately done, and much of the business ordinarily 
 carried on ceased entirely. The governor announced 
 that he would use force, if necessary, to prevent the 
 troops and civil servants from being starved, but he 
 managed to obtain supplies without having recourse to 
 extreme measures, chiefly through the agency of Cap- 
 tain Robert Stanford, a resident of Caledon, who 
 afterwards received the honour of knighthood as a 
 reward for his services to the imperial authorities 
 on this occasion. A little later, however, Sir Robert 
 published a volume concerning his affairs, in which 
 he complained of having been utterly ruined in 
 pocket by the attitude of his neighbours and earlier 
 friends towards him. 
 
 This condition of things evoked a spirit of lawless- 
 ness. On the 15th of October there was a good deal 
 
296 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of rioting in Capetown, and several persons were as- 
 saulted. Late in the evening some twelve or thir- 
 teen negroes, who had been temporarily thrown out 
 of employment by the cessation of business, led by a 
 couple of disguised white men, attacked the residence 
 of Mr. John Fairbairn at Green Point. This gentle- 
 man was the secretary and one of the most active 
 members of the Anti-Convict Association, and as 
 such was regarded by the ignorant blacks as the cause 
 of their being without anything to do, certainly not 
 a common grievance with men of their class. Mr. 
 Fairbairn received some severe injuries, and his 
 house was utterly wrecked before his neighbours 
 could gather to his assistance, when the rioters 
 withdrew. 
 
 Most of them had been recognised, and were after- 
 wards arrested and brought to trial on the charge 
 of housebreaking, theft, and assault with intent to 
 commit murder. They were found guilty, but es- 
 caped punishment, owing to the discovery that one 
 of the jurymen had personated his brother who had 
 been summoned. 
 
 Week after week passed away, and Capetown re- 
 mained like a city on the Sabbath, with its ordinary 
 occupations suspended. Money was raised by sub- 
 scription, and the unemployed were provided for, 
 so that there was no longer a fear of riots and dis- 
 order. In December came a repetition of an earlier 
 assurance by Earl Grey that there was no intention 
 of sending any more convicts to the Cape, but the 
 colonists did not relax their vigilance for a moment, 
 nor waver in their determination that not one should 
 be landed if they could prevent it. 
 
 This perseverance had its reward. At last, on 
 the 13th of February, 1850, a despatch was received 
 
SUCCESSFUL ANTI-CONVICT AGITATION. 297 
 
 by the governor from the secretary of state, dated the 
 30th of the preceding November, instructing Mm to 
 send the Neptune to Van Diemen's Land, where the 
 convicts on board were to receive a conditional par- 
 don. She sailed in the morning of the 21st of Feb- 
 ruary. 
 
 The long vigil was over, and everywhere there 
 was rejoicing. Capetown was illuminated that 
 night, and the streets were filled with people con- 
 gratulating each other that the colony had been 
 saved. Yes, the colony, more still, all South Africa 
 had been saved from pollution. And Englishmen 
 and Dutchmen had worked hand in hand, like 
 brothers as they ought to be, to preserve their com- 
 mon country from the foulest of stains. To God 
 who had given them grace to act as they had done 
 their humble thanks were due. And so Friday, the 
 8th of March, 1850, was observed as a day of gen- 
 eral thanksgiving to the Almighty for the deliverance 
 of the country from the dreadful calamity with which 
 it had been threatened. 
 
 Among the wretched prisoners on board the Nep- 
 tune was the celebrated Mitchell, and, setting aside 
 his political views and conduct, surely few men had 
 fewer criminal propensities than he. To such a man 
 to be regarded as unfit to set his foot on the soil of 
 South Africa must have been galling indeed, yet he 
 afterwards wrote that he greatly admired the con- 
 duct of the colonists and entirely approved of what 
 they had done. A small sum of money $480 was 
 subscribed in Capetown and sent on board the Nep- 
 tune to be distributed among the convicts on their 
 arrival in Van Diemen's Land, but beyond that no 
 pity was manifested for them, more on account of 
 the principle that was being contended for than owing 
 
298 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to disregard of the fact that many perhaps most 
 of these men were not criminals in the ordinary 
 sense of the word. 
 
 Mr. C. B. Adderley, a member of the House of 
 Commons, had advocated the South African cause in 
 a very able manner, and it was felt that some fitting 
 acknowledgment should be made to him. Accord- 
 ingly the municipality of Capetown voted $480 to 
 purchase a piece of plate as a testimony of their 
 gratitude, and to the principal street in the city, 
 which for nearly two centuries had been called the 
 Heeregracht, his name was given. 
 
 The determined opposition of the colonists to the 
 introduction of convicts is one of the most important 
 features in the progress of South Africa during the 
 nineteenth century. Men who could act as they had 
 done had unquestionably risen to a high moral and 
 intellectual standard, and had shown that they were 
 qualified to take a leading part in the public affairs 
 of the country. 
 
WARS THAT LED TO SAND RIVER CONVENTION. 299 
 
 CHAPTEK XXVI. 
 
 WARS AND TROUBLES THAT LED TO THE SAND RIVEE 
 CONVENTION. 
 
 UPON the completion of Sir Harry Smith's ar- 
 rangements for the government of British Kaffraria 
 the skeletons of the 27th, one wing of the 62nd, the 
 90th, and the first battalion of the 91st regiments 
 of the line and the 7th Dragoon Guards, altogether 
 about fifteen hundred strong, were sent back to Eng- 
 land. The greater number of the men of these regi- 
 ments had been allowed to take their discharge in 
 South Africa, and with some of them four military 
 villages, named Johannesburg, Woburn, Auckland, 
 and Ely, were formed in the Tyumie valley. 
 
 The conditions of settlement in these villages were 
 that each soldier was to have twelve acres of land 
 with a free title after seven years' occupation; arms 
 and ammunition, rations for twelve months for him- 
 self, wife, and children, a plough and a harrow, tools 
 for constructing a house, and seed for cornlands and 
 garden free; $24 to purchase furniture; with a 
 loan of oxen and waggons for the first season and of 
 a tent till he could build a house. He could be called 
 out for military service when needed, and was then 
 to receive from sixty to eighty-four cents a day ac- 
 cording to his class, and when required to drill was to 
 be paid twelve cents a day less. In each village there 
 was to be a superintendent, who was to have a hun- 
 dred acres of land and $1.20 a day for two years. 
 
300 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Under these conditions seventy men with two 
 women and two children were located under the su- 
 perintendency of Captain Moultrie at Johannesburg, 
 seventy men under the superintendency of Lieutenant 
 Armytage at Woburn, sixty-three men with twelve 
 women and forty-two children under the superin- 
 tendency of Sergeant Porter at Auckland, and forty- 
 four men with three women and eleven children un- 
 der the superintendency of Corporal Jacob at Ely. 
 It is difficult to imagine by what train of reasoning 
 any one could suppose that such villages would prove 
 a success. For the first year indeed, while free ra- 
 tions were served out, there was no sign of failure, 
 but as soon as the issue of food ceased a falling off 
 in the number of the residents commenced. Some of 
 the men set to work with a will, but most of them were 
 unfit to gain a living as independent landowners, 
 and the absence of women was of itself fatal to the 
 scheme. 
 
 To garrison the whole of South Africa three 
 thousand eight hundred and eighty European troops 
 were now regarded as sufficient, to which force must 
 be added the Cape corps composed of Hottentot sol- 
 diers with English officers, eight hundred and twenty- 
 four strong. And in British Kaffraria alone there 
 were some ninety thousand Xosas, of whom fifteen 
 thousand at least were warriors, only waiting for a 
 favourable opportunity to take up arms again, re- 
 garding the existing condition of things merely as 
 a truce. 
 
 All looked peaceful, however, and Colonel Mac- 
 kinnon reported from King-Williamstown at the 
 close of 1848 that the Kaffirs were contented, the 
 colonists were enjoying security, agriculture and 
 industry were making progress among the natives, 
 
WARS THAT LED TO SAND RIVER CONVENTION. 301 
 
 the British population was on the increase, order was 
 maintained among the people at little cost, and 
 finally the Kaffrarian province was no burden to the 
 colony in a financial point of view. 
 
 The missionaries had returned, and were rebuild- 
 ing stations on ground held from the Queen, and trad- 
 ers were again numerous, though they had to pay 
 $240 a year for a license and were not permitted 
 to sell munitions of war or spirituous liquors. On 
 the 7th of October, 1848, there was a conference 
 in King-Williamstown between Sir Harry Smith 
 and the chiefs and leading people of the province, 
 when none but the most loyal expressions were heard. 
 Bishop Grey, who accompanied the governor, laid the 
 foundation-stone of the beautiful edifice now known 
 as Trinity Church, and Sir Harry laid the founda- 
 tion of the Wesleyan Church in Berkeley Street. 
 Kreli, who arrived from beyond the Kei on the fol- 
 lowing day, just after -His Excellency left on his re- 
 turn to Capetown, galloped five miles till he over- 
 took the governor, with whom he had a very friendly 
 interview. 
 
 This placid appearance was maintained by the 
 Xosas until the year 1850 was well advanced, when 
 marks of approaching trouble began to be observed. 
 The whole of the Kaffir servants in the colony were 
 then returning to their clans at the bidding of their 
 chiefs, and a medicine man named Umlanjeni was 
 busy preparing the people for war. From all quar- 
 ters young men were going to him to obtain charms 
 to make them invulnerable by bullets. These occur- 
 rences were reported to the governor, who understood 
 at once what they meant, but thought he could put 
 things right by his presence in Kaffraria. 
 
 Accordingly he proceeded by sea from Simons- 
 
302 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 town to East London, and sent an invitation to the 
 chiefs to meet him on the 26th of October at King- 
 Williamstown. On the day appointed not a single 
 Gaika chief of any importance was present, and 
 many of the others also failed to attend. Sandile 
 stated afterwards that he feared he would be made 
 a prisoner if he met the governor, but this was a mere 
 attempt to furnish an excuse. At the time appointed 
 for the meeting only a few captains of inferior rank 
 made their appearance, with petty bands of attend- 
 ants, three hundred and forty individuals in all. 
 This course of conduct was naturally regarded as 
 equivalent to a direct defiance of the government. Sir 
 Harry, however, still believed that he could intimi- 
 date the Xosas, and with this object on the 30th of 
 October he issued a proclamation deposing Sandile 
 from his position as head of the Gaika clans and ap- 
 pointing Mr. Charles Brownlee in his stead. Then, 
 as no rising actually took place, the governor, after 
 making a few trifling arrangements for the conduct 
 of affairs, returned to Capetown. 
 
 The deposition of Sandile and his replacement 
 by a European had not the slightest effect upon a 
 single Kaffir. Mr. Brownlee was born and brought 
 up among them, being a son of the first missionary 
 of the London Society who settled in Kaffraria, he 
 was as conversant with their language as with Eng- 
 lish or Dutch, and as his mother was a Dutch colonial 
 woman he had equal sympathy with the three nation- 
 alities in the country. He was also an able and high- 
 minded man, and, what was of great importance 
 from a Kaffir point of view, large in person and an 
 athlete in strength. There was at the time no other 
 man in South Africa so well fitted in every essential 
 respect for the position assigned to him. 
 
WARS THAT LED TO SAND RIVER CONVENTION. 3Q3 
 
 though a European may acquire enormous influence 
 with Bantu, he never can replace a chief, and that for 
 the simple reason that he cannot occupy the position 
 in their religion that the hereditary ruler holds, for 
 he is not the descendant and representative of the 
 object of their worship. And so Mr. Brownlee 
 could do nothing to bring the Xosas to a different 
 frame of mind. 
 
 The governor was hardly at work again in his office 
 in Capetown when despatches of an alarming nature 
 from Kaffraria reached him. Umlanjeni was busier 
 than ever distributing charms and using incanta- 
 tions to prepare the warriors for battle, and the peo- 
 ple generally were assuming a defiant tone. Back 
 to King-Williamstown went Sir Harry at full speed, 
 and at once sent a strong force of soldiers and Kaffir 
 police to arrest Sandile, whose great place or princi- 
 pal kraal was then at Rabula, a charming locality 
 amidst magnificent scenery at the foot of the Ama- 
 tola range. On the way the expedition was obliged 
 to go through a narrow gorge between precipitous 
 hills called the Boomah Pass, and was there attacked 
 by thousands of Kaffirs. It fought its way through 
 indeed, but with the loss of twenty-three men killed 
 and as many wounded, and was unable to reach its 
 destination. So commenced the eighth Kaffir war, 
 which was beyond comparison more serious than any 
 of the preceding struggles with the Xosas. 
 
 A few hours after the engagement at the Boomah 
 Pass a patrol of fifteen soldiers was encountered 
 by some of Sandile's people, when all were killed. 
 On the following day Christmas, 1850 the mili- 
 tary villages in the Tyumie valley were wiped out 
 of existence. Ely had already been abandoned for 
 some time by the settlers, but at Auckland, Woburn, 
 
304 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and Johannesburg the married men and some others 
 still remained. The Kaffirs now came down upon 
 them and murdered forty-six men in cold blood, 
 burned the houses, and utterly destroyed all other 
 property. A few men from Johannesburg managed 
 to escape to Fort Hare, close to the village of Alice, 
 and the women and children, after being stripped 
 of clothing, were allowed to go there also. 
 
 Then followed, what had always been feared by 
 the colonists, the union of the Kaffir police with their 
 own people. These men took their arms with them, 
 and as they had been trained to use muskets and had 
 an intimate acquaintance with the military posts, 
 they added considerably to the fighting power of the 
 enemy. The Hottentots of the London Society's 
 mission station Theopolis and of the Kat River Set- 
 tlement also joined the Kaffirs, as the colonists had 
 predicted they would some day, though they had no 
 serious grievance against the white people. They 
 placed themselves under the leadership of a man 
 named "Willem Uithaalder, and vowed their in- 
 tention of becoming an independent community. At 
 Theopolis especially some of the massacres of Fingos 
 and other atrocities committed by the rebel Hotten- 
 tots almost equalled the actions of tigers. These 
 were joined by a great part of the Cape corps, 
 trained Hottentot soldiers, who deserted with their 
 arms and equipments. The Tembu tribe too joined 
 the Xosas, so that the hostile combination was exceed- 
 ingly formidable. 
 
 Kaffir wars are alike in this respect, that at their 
 commencement the colony has always been unpre- 
 pared and the military force on the frontier so small 
 that the most it could do was to hold the principal 
 forts until the arrival of reinforcements. Even in 
 
WARS THAT LED TO SAND RIVER CONVENTION. 305 
 
 1850 at least four months were needed to obtain 
 troops from England, and the burghers from the 
 western districts could not assemble and march to 
 the front in a shorter time than four or five weeks. 
 During this interval the eastern districts have al- 
 ways been open to invasion, and very large areas have 
 been laid waste. Men considered themselves fortu- 
 nate if they could get their families to a town or a 
 lager where life would be safe, and their houses were 
 burned and their cattle swept off by the barbarian 
 hordes who rushed into the colony in search of plun- 
 der. 
 
 It was so on this occasion, but as the whole force 
 of the country was called to arms and hurried to the 
 scene of hostilities the marauders were soon obliged 
 to retire. Then troops came from England, and a 
 harassing guerilla war was carried on during the 
 whole of 1851 and part of 1852. The same thickets 
 had to be cleared over and over again, for as soon as 
 the troops or burghers retired from any position the 
 Kaffirs doubled upon them and returned to their for- 
 mer haunts. In the comparatively open country 
 occupied by the Tembus military operations were 
 much easier than along the Amatola range, and thus 
 the enemy there was effectually subdued, but the 
 Xosas were never really conquered, and it was only 
 the complete want of provisions that caused them 
 at length to beg for another truce, or peace as the 
 Europeans termed it. 
 
 It was during this war that the world-renowned 
 heroism of the troops on board the Birkenhead was 
 shown. The ship struck on a rock off Danger Point 
 when on her way eastward with reinforcements from 
 Capetown, and it was apparent to every one that she 
 would soon go to pieces. The boats were got out, 
 
 v 
 
306 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 but could contain only a very small proportion of 
 the people on board. Then the soldiers were drawn 
 up on deck while the women and children were sent 
 away, no one striving to take their place, and only 
 when that was done, as the wreck was breaking into 
 fragments, those on board threw themselves into the 
 sea, where sharks were swarming, and tried to reach 
 the land. A few succeeded, but four hundred of 
 Britain's bravest were seen no more. 
 
 The war in Kaffraria had very important effects 
 in the Orange River Sovereignty. Boundary bea- 
 cons had been set up to mark the locations belonging 
 to the various chiefs, which were the grounds actually 
 occupied at the time by their people; but Moshesh 
 was not satisfied with this. He wanted plenty of room 
 for expansion, and desired to retain as much as pos- 
 sible of what Sir George Napier had given him and 
 Sir Harry Smith was depriving him of. With the 
 British authorities he did not want open war, 
 for reasons which will hereafter be stated, even 
 though he knew well that Sir Harry Smith needed 
 every soldier under his command in Kaffraria, and 
 could spare none to fight against him. He therefore 
 tried to destroy the Sovereignty government by in- 
 direct means. 
 
 One of his captains, whose actions he could after- 
 wards either acknowledge or disown at his pleasure, 
 was directed to make an attack upon a neighbouring 
 clan. This was done, with the expected result, that 
 the chief assailed appealed to Major Warden at 
 Bloemfontein for protection. Tedious negotiations 
 followed, and the case became complicated by other 
 chiefs being brought into the quarrel and by attacks 
 and counter attacks among the clans along the Cale- 
 don, until Major Warden, believing that the matter 
 
WARS THAT LED TO SAND RIVER CONVENTION. 307 
 
 could only be settled by arms, and never dreaming 
 that the fair-spoken Moshesh was as powerful as he 
 afterwards proved to be, called out the whole mili- 
 tary, burgher, and native force at his disposal. 
 
 On the 30th of June, 1851, by the British Resi- 
 dent's direction Major Donovan at the head of this 
 force attacked the mischief-maker Molitsane at Vier- 
 voet, and was drawn into a trap where he met with a 
 crushing defeat from a powerful Basuto army. It 
 was with the greatest difficulty that he made his es- 
 cape with part of his force, leaving behind several 
 hundred dead and wounded, chiefly of the Barolong 
 contingent. He fell back to Bloemf ontein, and from 
 that moment all was chaos in the Sovereignty. 
 
 The clans that had obeyed Major Warden's call to 
 arms were thrown upon him for protection, and had 
 to remove to the neighbourhood of Bloemf ontein, 
 when the Basuto took possession of their locations. 
 The farmers who had taken part in the expedition 
 were marked by Moshesh's captains for plunder, and 
 an offer was made to all others that if they would dis- 
 own the British authority and remain quiet no harm 
 would be done to them. Sir Harry Smith directed 
 the Resident to act only on the defensive until a 
 strong body of troops could be spared to aid him, 
 and from IsTatal a couple of hundred soldiers and 
 about six hundred blacks were sent to his support 
 in the meantime. The blacks, however, regarded the 
 occasion as a favourable one for plunder, and with- 
 out sparing either friend or foe they took what they 
 could and returned to their homes with the spoil. 
 
 A considerable number of Englishmen had moved 
 into the Sovereignty after the battle of Boomplaats 
 had apparently secured it for ever to the British 
 crown, and these with many of the best of the Dutch 
 
308 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 farmers remained faithful to the government, though 
 sorely harassed by the Basuto on account of their do- 
 ing so. But the attachment of the other Dutch farm- 
 ers was unequal to the strain put upon it, and among 
 those in the northern part of the territory a desire 
 for an independent republic was again showing it- 
 self. On the 25th of August one hundred and thirty- 
 seven men at Winburg signed an application to Com- 
 mandant Pretorius to come from beyond the Vaal 
 and place himself at their head, and Moshesh joined 
 in the request. 
 
 Then a deputation proceeded openly to Thaba 
 Bosigo, and on the 3rd of September entered into a 
 formal agreement of peace and friendship with the 
 Basuto chief, his sons, and his people, an agreement 
 that was afterwards faithfully kept on both sides. 
 Major Warden had next the mortification of receiv- 
 ing a letter from Mr. Pretorius, for whose appre- 
 hension the sum of $9,600 was still offered, an- 
 nouncing an intended visit to the Sovereignty to de- 
 vise measures for the prevention of its ruin. A 
 little later this letter was followed by another from 
 the same hand, stating that the emigrants north of 
 the Yaal were desirous of entering into a lasting 
 treaty of peace with the British government, and that 
 the writer with two others had been deputed to nego- 
 tiate it. 
 
 Major Warden now reported to the high commis- 
 sioner that the fate of the Sovereignty depended 
 upon the movements of a proscribed man. He man- 
 aged, however, to stave off Mr. Pretorius' visit by 
 diplomatic correspondence until the receipt of Sir 
 Harry Smith's reply, which was that two assistant 
 commissioners, Major W. S. Hogg and Mr. C. Mos- 
 tyn Owen, had recently been appointed with large 
 
WARS THAT LED TO SAND RIVER CONVENTION. 3Q9 
 
 powers, and would proceed to the Sovereignty with 
 as little delay as possible for the purpose of arrang- 
 ing matters. 
 
 These gentlemen reached Bloemfontein on the 
 27th of November, and at once entered into corres- 
 pondence with Mr. Pretorius, which ended in an ar- 
 rangement for a conference at a farm on the Sand 
 River on the 16th of January, 1852. They were pre- 
 pared to acknowledge the independence of the farm- 
 ers beyond the Vaal, as British authority had never 
 been established there, and the imperial government 
 had resolved in the most decided manner not to per- 
 mit any further extension of the Queen's dominions 
 in South Africa. The benefits that would arise from 
 this acknowledgment were in their opinion consider- 
 able. 
 
 1. It was the only way to secure the friendship 
 of the Transvaal farmers. 
 
 2. It would detach them from the disaffected 
 farmers in the Sovereignty. 
 
 3. It would prevent their alliance with Moshesh, 
 which that chief was seeking. 
 
 4. The Transvaal farmers of their own free will 
 offered to bind themselves to certain conditions, such 
 as the prohibition of slavery and the delivery of 
 criminals, which otherwise could not be enforced. 
 
 At the conference about three hundred Transvaal 
 farmers were present, besides sixteen delegates who 
 had been appointed to conduct the negotiations. On 
 the first day the terms were arranged, and on the 
 second the 17th of January, 1852, the document 
 ever since known as the Sand River Convention was 
 signed, in which the assistant commissioners guar- 
 anteed in the fullest manner, on the part of the 
 British government, to the emigrant farmers beyond 
 
310 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs 
 and to govern themselves according to their own laws, 
 without interference. There were also clauses con- 
 cerning the prohibition of slavery, the extradition of 
 criminals, the right of purchasing arms and ammuni- 
 tion in the British colonies, and other matters of 
 less importance. The farmers were left at perfect 
 liberty to fix their northern, western, and eastern 
 boundaries wherever they chose. 
 
 The convention was approved on behalf of the 
 British government by Sir John Pakington, secre- 
 tary of state for the colonies, on the 24th of June, 
 1852, and was received with the deepest feelings of 
 satisfaction by the Europeans in the Transvaal ter- 
 ritory, who consisted then of about five thousand 
 families. 
 
THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 3H 
 
 OHAPTEK XXVII. 
 
 THE ABANDONMENT OF THE OBANGE KIVEE SOVER- 
 EIGNTY. 
 
 FOLLOWING the established rule that a governor 
 in whose term of office a war breaks out must be re- 
 called, on the 31st of March, 1852, Sir George Cath- 
 cart took the place of Sir Harry Smith. The victor 
 of Aliwal, the ardent imperialist as he would be 
 called to-day, the man of untiring energy, returned 
 out of favour to his native country, because he had 
 not preserved order and prevented war in South 
 Africa with a military force of less than four thou- 
 sand men, a thing that was impossible. 
 
 Sir George Cathcart had little more to do in Brit- 
 ish Kaffraria and in the Tembu country than to ar- 
 range conditions of peace. The Xosas pretended to 
 be submissive, because their supplies of food were 
 exhausted and they wanted to make gardens; the 
 Tembus were really submissive, because they had 
 been thoroughly beaten; many of the rebel Hotten- 
 tots had been killed in the struggle, the others with 
 few exceptions were prisoners, and Willem Uit- 
 haalder was a fugitive beyond the Kei, where soon 
 afterwards in utter despair he committed suicide. 
 
 Bands of Fingos, who had fought well on the Brit- 
 ish side, were now located along the Amatola range, 
 to secure the fastnesses there, and the Gaikas were 
 settled on more open ground. The Tembus west of 
 the upper Kei were collected together and located 
 
312 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 in the district known ever since as Glen Grey, besides 
 which they had all the ground between the Bashee 
 and Umtata rivers to retire to if they chose. The 
 territory of which they were deprived was added 
 to the Cape Colony, and as great care was taken to 
 approve only of suitable men, the very flower of the 
 colony, English and Dutch, settled there, and the 
 district soon became one of the most flourishing in the 
 country. In an excellent position a town was laid 
 out, and a civil commissioner and resident magistrate 
 was stationed in it. All colonial towns founded by 
 the Dutch have their main streets running in paral- 
 lel lines, with cross streets at right angles, but Queens- 
 town, being laid out by a military man with a view 
 to defence, has its streets radiating from an open 
 space in the centre. Its growth was so rapid, how- 
 ever, that it was soon beyond fear of an attack by 
 natives, and no trouble has ever since arisen in its 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Sir George Cathcart enrolled a body of men ad- 
 mirably adapted for the preservation of order in 
 Kafiraria. It consisted of young colonists accus- 
 tomed to ride and to shoot, who were well paid, 
 but who were required to maintain themselves and to 
 purchase their own horses and weapons. There was 
 not a finer body of light cavalry in the world than 
 this, the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police as it 
 was at first termed, now the Cape Mounted Rifles. 
 With Fingo detectives attached to it, it was able to do 
 more towards suppressing stock thefts than ten 
 times the same number of regular soldiers could have 
 done, and as a military force of great mobility it 
 could suppress disturbances anywhere on the border 
 as soon as they arose. Under Sir Walter Currie, 
 its first commander, and Colonel Bowker, who sue- 
 
THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 313 
 
 ceeded him, this force acquired a very high repu- 
 tation for usefulness, which it has retained to the 
 present day. Its cost was borne for a short time 
 by the imperial treasury, but was soon transferred to 
 the colonial government, which thus took upon itself 
 a considerable portion of the burden of defence 
 against its barbarian neighbours. 
 
 It can only be attributed to hereditary views that 
 this serviceable regiment has never been popular 
 with the Dutch farmers in the Cape Colony. ~Not 
 only has it been recruited almost entirely from the 
 British and German youth, but its existence even 
 is not generally favoured by the country people away 
 from the frontier. Their ideas are that the burghers 
 in person should compose the military force of the 
 country, and they look with suspicion upon regular 
 paid troops and even upon volunteer corps as the pos- 
 sible instruments of tyranny. The experience of 
 forty-eight years to the contrary has not been suffi- 
 cient to eradicate this idea, or to convince the farm- 
 ers that it is cheaper and better to pay taxes to pro- 
 vide a first line of defence than to pay less and be 
 liable at any time to be called out to fight them- 
 selves. 
 
 As soon as his arrangements in the colony and 
 British Kaffraria were completed Sir George Cath- 
 cart set out with what he and every one else be- 
 lieved to be an ample force for the settlement of 
 affairs in the Orange River Sovereignty. The as- 
 sistant commissioners Hogg and Owen had meantime 
 been doing all they could to allay the disturbances 
 along the Caledon, but in vain. They had offered 
 Moshesh to abandon all claim to interference in purs, 
 ly native disputes, to enlarge his territory consider- 
 ably on the south, and practically to allow him to 
 
314 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 incorporate the little clans on the border, if he would 
 only agree to respect the outer line between Euro- 
 peans and Bantu and cease to plunder the farmers. 
 The chief accepted all they offered with many thanks, 
 and talked much of his strong desire for peace, but 
 did nothing to put an end to the depredations. The 
 farmers who were most disaffected to British rule and 
 who had been in close alliance with him had moved 
 over the Vaal after the signing of the Sand River 
 Convention, so that the whole Sovereignty was open 
 to his bands of raiders. 
 
 A legislative council consisting of nominee mem- 
 bers had for some time existed in the Sovereignty, 
 but as the imperial government was desirous of as- 
 certaining whether the inhabitants were willing to 
 submit to British authority, as otherwise they had 
 resolved to abandon the country, Mr. Owen Major 
 Hogg having died suddenly was instructed to con- 
 vene an assembly elected on the principle of man- 
 hood suffrage to determine this question. On the 
 21st of June, 1852, seventy-nine representatives 
 so elected met in Bloemfontem. They decided 
 almost without a dissentient voice in favour of the 
 retention of British authority, but desired to have an 
 elective legislative assembly and to be assisted in pro- 
 tecting themselves against Moshesh. In July Major 
 Warden was superseded as British Resident by Mr. 
 Henry Green, when an executive council of five mem- 
 bers nominated by the high commissioner, with the 
 Resident as chairman, was appointed. 
 
 In November, 1852, Sir George Cathcart crossed 
 the Orange at the Bethulie ford, and marched along 
 the right bank of the Caledon to the Wesleyan mis- 
 sion station Platberg, where he formed a camp. On 
 the march he sent invitations to Moshesh and the other. 
 
THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 315 
 
 chiefs to meet him on the 13th of December, and 
 appointed a commission to examine into and report 
 upon the boundary lines and the number of cattle 
 stolen by the Basuto. None of the chiefs appeared 
 at the time appointed, but Moshesh sent two of his 
 sons to hear what the governor had to say. 
 
 The report of the commission was then considered, 
 and on the 14tii Mr. Owen was sent to Thaba Bosigo 
 with the governor's ultimatum demanding the de- 
 livery within three days of ten thousand head of 
 full-grown cattle and one thousand horses, with a 
 promise of compensation to the petty clans for the 
 damage done to them, observance of the boundaries 
 fixed by Sir Harry Smith, peace with all the neigh- 
 bouring people, and the cessation by the Basuto of 
 being a nation of thieves. 
 
 Moshesh was now placed in a position of great 
 difficulty. His tribe would not comply with the gov- 
 ernor's demands, and he was afraid of war. Per- 
 haps he did not realise his own strength, for he had 
 been as much astonished as pleased with the result 
 of the engagement at Viervoet. At any rate he of 
 all the rulers in South Africa could least afford to 
 risk a defeat. His tribe was not yet thoroughly ce- 
 mented together, he had no hereditary claim to the 
 allegiance of a single clan in it, for his own father 
 and senior members of his family were still alive, and 
 a single adverse blow would shatter the power he had 
 so carefully built up. He therefore attempted to 
 compromise. On the following day he visited the 
 British camp, and talked much of the blessings of 
 peace, stated that the collection of so many cattle was 
 impossible in so short a time, and hinted in figurative 
 language that an attempt to seize them would be re- 
 eisted. The governor, however, would abate nothing 
 
316 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of his demand, and would only extend the time by 
 one day. On the 18th the chief sent in three thou- 
 sand five hundred head of cattle, in hope that they 
 would be received in satisfaction of the claim, but 
 was disappointed. 
 
 At daybreak in the morning of the 20th of Decem- 
 ber, 1852, the British forces crossed the Caledon at 
 the ford ever since known as Cathcart's drift, and in 
 three divisions, altogether about a thousand and fifty 
 picked men, marched towards Thaba Bosigo. A 
 strong guard was left at the camp, with a body of 
 troops to act as a reserve if needed. The officers and 
 men alike were light-hearted, for they held the Ba- 
 suto power in contempt, and believed themselves to 
 be irresistible. But one of the divisions in the 
 course of the morning was drawn into an ambuscade 
 on the Berea mountain, and while some of the men 
 were securing a herd of four thousand cattle, the 
 others were 'attacked and driven back with a loss of 
 thirty-two men killed. The whole division must 
 have perished if relief had not been sent to it from 
 the camp. 
 
 Another division was attacked on the march, but 
 fought its way onward, and towards evening reached 
 the foot of Thaba Bosigo with a loss of six men killed 
 and seven wounded. The third division, under Sir 
 George Cathcart in person, arrived there a little ear- 
 lier without loss, and found itself in front of six thou- 
 sand well armed Basuto horsemen, with whom un- 
 til dark it fought without success on either side. 
 Two officers and six soldiers were wounded in this 
 engagement. The British general took up a strong 
 defensive position for the night, and at daybreak 
 on the following morning set out to return to his 
 camp. Such was the battle of Berea, where Sir 
 
THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 317 
 
 George Cathcart was said to have put his hand into a 
 scorpion's hole and drawn it back on being stung. 
 
 Moshesh now acted in a manner that shows him 
 to have been a man of exceeding wisdom. A letter 
 to the British general was written in his name, prob- 
 ably dictated by the Reverend Mr. Casalis, but cer- 
 tainly with the chief's full approbation, in which he 
 stated that he had been chastised, that many cattle 
 had been taken from him, and that he begged for 
 peace and would try all he could to keep his people in 
 order in the future. This letter was sent to the Brit- 
 ish camp at the same time that his messengers were 
 leaving to convey to the native tribes far and near in- 
 telligence that he had won a great victory and driven 
 the white invaders out of his country. 
 
 Sir George Cathcart eagerly availed himself of 
 the opening of escape from a great difficulty which 
 the chief's letter afforded. He had learned much in 
 the previous twenty-four hours, and he knew that the 
 British people would stand aghast at war with the 
 powerful Basuto tribe. He therefore declared him- 
 self satisfied, and within three days broke up the 
 camp at Platberg and set out on his return to the col- 
 ony. His officers remonstrated, and spoke bitterly 
 of the disgrace of retreat under such circumstances, 
 but he was not to be moved in his resolution. The 
 people of the Sovereignty were authorised to organ- 
 ise for their safety, and were then left to protect 
 themselves as best they could from the victorious 
 and exultant Basuto. 
 
 As soon as intelligence of what had occurred 
 reached England the Duke of Newcastle an- 
 nounced that Her Majesty's government would with- 
 draw from the Orange River Sovereignty, and on the 
 Gth of April, 1853, Sir George Russell Clerk was ap- 
 
318 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 pointed Special Commissioner to carry out this de- 
 cision. He arrived at Bloemfontein on the 8th of 
 August. 
 
 On the following day a notice was issued calling 
 upon the inhabitants to elect delegates to arrange for 
 their future government. While the elections were 
 taking place the Special Commissioner gathered 
 as much information as he could upon the condi- 
 tion of the country, both from official and private 
 sources. He ascertained that there were then in 
 the Sovereignty about fifteen thousand Europeans, 
 young and old; that twelve hundred and sixty-five 
 farms, containing eleven million acres of ground, 
 had been given out; that the native reserves covered 
 thirteen million acres, and that about eight million 
 acres remained unappropriated. In Adam Kok's 
 reserve between the Riet and Orange rivers Griqua 
 proprietors' in defiance of the regulations were always 
 ready to sell ground to white men, and an important 
 village Fauresmith had actually been established 
 there. Being far from the Basuto border property 
 was much more secure in that part of the territory 
 than near the Caledon. 
 
 In the districts of Bloemfontein, Smithfield, Win- 
 burg, and Harrismith life and property were far 
 from safe, in many parts armed bands of blacks 
 wandered about at will, and raids and counter raids 
 were perpetual among the clans along the Caledon. 
 The government, with only a very few soldiers at 
 its disposal, was powerless to maintain order. 
 
 On the 5th of September the elected representa- 
 tives of the people, ninety-five in number, met in 
 Bloemfontein. Seventy-six of them were Dutch 
 South Africans and nineteen were Englishmen, 
 which was the proportion of the two nationalities 
 
THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 319 
 
 in the country. Dr. Fraser was elected chairman, 
 and business was taken in hand. It was at once 
 evident that the assembly was opposed to the aban- 
 donment of the country by Great Britain, and 
 after making this very clear during three days 7 dis- 
 cussion, a committee of twenty-five members was ap- 
 pointed to confer with the Special Commissioner, 
 and the others returned to their homes. 
 
 After some correspondence with Sir George Clerk, 
 the committee informed him that what they desired 
 was an elective legislative assembly and to remain 
 under Her Majesty's government. Finding further 
 negotiation with them useless, the Special Commis- 
 sioner then turned to other sources. With his ap- 
 proval Commandant Adriaan Stander, an ardent re- 
 publican and noted opponent of British rule, came 
 from beyond the Vaal and succeeded in rallying a 
 number of farmers about him. Words have dif- 
 ferent meanings at different times, and now in the 
 Special Commissioner's phraseology these persons 
 were termed the well-disposed, while the elected rep- 
 resentatives of the people, who desired the continu- 
 ance of English rule, were designated obstructionists. 
 
 A historian should use calm language, but that 
 need not prevent an expression of regret and shame 
 that a great province should have been severed from 
 the empire in the way in which the Orange River 
 Sovereignty was abandoned. British policy enabled 
 Moshesh to create the powerful tribe which was caus- 
 ing all the trouble, surely Britain should have kept 
 the country and assisted to protect its people until 
 they were strong enough to defend themselves. A 
 thousand soldiers could not indeed penetrate the 
 Lesuto or preserve order between the different sec- 
 tions of Bantu, but five hundred well-armed light 
 
320 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 horsemen such as the Cape Frontier Police, with 
 the hurghers behind them in case of need, would 
 have been ample to guard the European border and 
 put a stop to the Basuto raids. To furnish these, 
 however, was something which the British authori- 
 ties of the day had no mind for, as in their opinion 
 the empire had no interest in the interior of South 
 Africa. 
 
 Through Commandant Stander's persuasion in a 
 short time addresses with nine hundred and fifty- 
 nine names attached to them, offering to take over the 
 government on certain conditions, were presented to 
 the Special Commissioner, and on the 19th of Janu- 
 ary, 1854, he issued a notice inviting those persons 
 to send representatives to Bloemfontein on the 15th 
 of February. The elected committee thereupon re- 
 quested Dr. Fraser and the Reverend Andrew Mur- 
 ray,* clergyman of the Dutch Church in Bloemfon- 
 tein, to proceed without delay to England to lay their 
 case before the imperial parliament, and to protest 
 against the people of the Sovereignty being aban- 
 doned under the circumstances of the country. 
 
 * Now, 1899, D.D., recognised throughout the English- 
 speaking world as an exceptionally talented and earnest 
 evangelical writer, a man who is held in the highest esteem 
 throughout South Africa for his eminent services in connec- 
 tion with education as well as religion. He was the founder 
 in 1874 of the Huguenot Seminary at Wellington in the Cape 
 Colony, which has now branches in the Orange River Colony 
 and in Natal, and in which many hundreds of farmers' 
 daughters are receiving a thoroughly Christian and practical 
 education. He also founded in 1882 at Wellington the Mission 
 Training College of the Dutch Church, in which young men 
 are prepared for work in the mission field. In both these 
 institutions the principal teachers are Americans, and from 
 America much pecuniary aid has been received. For more 
 than a quarter of a century Dr. Murray was moderator of the 
 synod of the Dutch Church in the Cape Colony. The numer- 
 ous volumes from his pen were published first in Dutch and 
 then in English translations. 
 
THE ORANGE RIVER SOVEREIGNTY. 321 
 
 On the 15th of February two assemblies of rep- 
 resentatives met in Bloemfontein. The " obstruc- 
 tionist " committee had been reduced by defection 
 and the absence of Dr. Eraser to thirteen members, 
 but these were determined not to yield. Thereupon 
 the Special Commissioner formally dissolved this 
 body, and recommended its members to agree with 
 those who were prepared to take over the govern- 
 ment. Instead of this, however, they resorted to 
 various wild schemes to stave off the threatened aban- 
 donment until the result of Messrs. Eraser and Mur- 
 ray's mission should be known, but without success. 
 
 The " well-disposed " assembly elected Mr. Josias 
 Philip Hoffman as chairman, and proceeded to nego- 
 tiate with the Special Commissioner. Money was 
 freely used to allay opposition, over $230,000 being 
 expended by Sir George Clerk under the name of 
 compensation for losses and arrear salaries. During 
 eight days the arrangements were discussed and set- 
 tled, and then, on the 23rd of February, 1854, a con- 
 vention was signed, in the little room that now forms 
 the vestibule of the museum in Bloemfontein, by Sir 
 George Kussell Clerk, as Her Majesty's Special Com- 
 missioner, and the twenty-four members of the as- 
 sembly, in which the future independence of the 
 country and its government was guaranteed by Great 
 Britain. 
 
 On the llth of March the flag of England was low- 
 ered at the fort, and immediately afterwards the Spe- 
 cial Commissioner with his attendants, the few sol- 
 diers in the country, and the British officials left 
 Bloemfontein for Capetown. 
 
 About the same time Messrs. Eraser and Murray 
 reached England. There they learned that on the 
 30th of January a royal proclamation had been is- 
 
 w 
 
822 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 sued abandoning and renouncing all dominion and 
 sovereignty over the Orange River territory. On 
 the 16th of March they were admitted to an interview 
 with the Duke of Newcastle, who informed them that 
 it was too late to discuss the question. In his 
 opinion the Queen's authority had been extended 
 too far, it being impossible for England to supply 
 troops to defend constantly advancing outposts, espe- 
 cially as Capetown and the port of Table Bay were 
 all she really required in South Africa. 
 
 The delegates then tried to get the question dis- 
 cussed in the House of Commons. At their instance 
 Mr. C. B. Adderley, on the 9th of May, moved an 
 address to Her Majesty, praying that she would be 
 pleased to reconsider the order in council renouncing 
 sovereignty over the Orange River territory. 
 
 A few members spoke on the government side, 
 among them being the attorney-general. All of them 
 regarded the abandonment as expedient and per- 
 fectly legal. Sir John Pakington and Sir Frederick 
 Thesiger thought it would have been better if the leg- 
 islature had been consulted, but concurred in the ex- 
 pediency of the measure. Being without a single 
 supporter, Mr. Adderley then withdrew his motion. 
 
GRANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 323 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 GRANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT TO THE 
 CAPE COLONY. 
 
 WE have now to turn over a different leaf in the 
 history of South Africa, and instead of the misrule 
 of men living more than six thousand miles away 
 whose intentions indeed were just and benevolent, 
 but whose want of practical knowledge of the condi- 
 tions of the country and its people necessarily resulted 
 in blunder after blunder, we shall see a well-governed 
 community, attached to the parent state, because 
 permitted to work out its destinies in its own way, 
 while protected from foreign foes. Self-government 
 by the great colonies is what really binds the mag- 
 nificent British empire together and makes it one. 
 The sympathies of blood are strong, and in the mid- 
 dle of the nineteenth century about two-fifths of the 
 white inhabitants of the Cape Colony were of British 
 birth or descent, but blood alone failed to keep the 
 Central North Americans under the English crown. 
 To make a perfectly loyal people in a distant pos- 
 session freedom and interest must combine with sen- 
 timent : at the Cape the three forces could be united 
 as regards a large proportion of the white people, 
 and as to the Dutch farmers, given freedom and in- 
 terest, sentiment might be depended upon to spring 
 up in course of time. 
 
 Over and over again the colonists had petitioned 
 for representative government. Some of these 
 
324 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 petitions have already been mentioned, but perhaps 
 the most urgent were those forwarded through Sir 
 George Napier to the Queen in council on the 20th 
 of December, 1841, at the time when the frontier peo- 
 ple were suffering most acutely from Lord Glenelg's 
 measures. That these prayers were not granted 
 sooner was due to the fear that a representative as- 
 sembly would be merely an arena of strife between 
 Dutch and English, which could only have had bad 
 effects upon both parties. The seventh Kaffir war, 
 however, was so clearly due to a mistaken policy 
 directed from Downing Street that any difficulties 
 which might arise from friction between the two 
 European nationalities in South Africa were lost 
 sight of. That war had cost the colonists in de- 
 struction of property alone $1,948,810, according 
 to a careful official computation, and the military 
 charges borne by the imperial treasury during its 
 continuance were in round numbers $5,000,000 above 
 the ordinary cost of the South African garrison. To 
 avoid such a burden again upon the British taxpayer 
 was thus an incentive towards granting representa- 
 tive government to the Gape Colony. And lastly, 
 there was a real honest desire to do justice by allow- 
 ing the South Africans to participate in that liberty 
 which British subjects elsewhere enjoyed. 
 
 Letters patent were therefore issued on the 23rd 
 of May, 1850, providing for the creation of an 
 elective council, over which the chief justice of the 
 colony was to preside, and an elective assembly, the 
 details to be filled in by the existing legislature at 
 the Cape, subject to the approval of the Queen in 
 council. 
 
 Owing to the anti-convict movement, as has pre- 
 viously been mentioned, five of the unofficial mem- 
 
GRANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 325 
 
 bers of the nominee council had resigned, and others 
 to whom the seats were offered declined to accept 
 them. On the 6th of May, 1850, Sir Harry Smith 
 issued a notice requesting the municipal and di' 
 visional road boards throughout the colony to trans- 
 mit to the secretary to government with the least 
 possible delay the names of the five persons whom 
 they wished to see filling the vacant seats. This was 
 equivalent to an appeal to the country, but it was 
 the only occasion on which the popular will was con- 
 sulted before the elections to the first parliament, as 
 the secretary of state disapproved of the proceeding. 
 
 From the nominations of the different boards, on 
 the 23rd of July the governor appointed Mr. Chris- 
 toffel J. Brand, who had twenty-five votes, Sir 
 Andries Stockenstrom, who came next with twenty- 
 three, Mr. Francis William Reitz, who followed with 
 twenty-one, Mr. John Fairbairn, who had nineteen, 
 and Mr. Robert Godlonton, who had three votes. 
 Against the appointment of the last named gentle- 
 man a petition was sent in, on the ground that nine 
 votes had been recorded for Mr. J. H. Wicht, seven 
 for Mr. J. J. Meintjes, and four each for a number 
 of others, whereas he had received only three. The 
 governor announced that he could appoint any one 
 he chose, and the attorney-general made known that 
 he had advised the selection of Mr. Godlonton in- 
 stead of Mr. Wicht, in order that the British settlers 
 of 1820 might have two unofficial representatives, 
 Mr. William Cock, who had not resigned his seat 
 and who was therefore still a member, being the 
 other. 
 
 On the 6th of September, 1850, the legislative 
 council met. There were present the governor, Sir 
 Harry Smith, who presided, the secretary to govern- 
 
326 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 merit, Mr. John Montagu, the auditor-general, Mr. 
 William Hope, the collector of customs, Mr. William 
 Field, the treasurer-general, Mr. Harry Kivers, the 
 attorney-general, Mr. William Porter, and the six 
 unofficial members named above. After the formal 
 opening the governor read a minute in which he in- 
 formed the members that one of the principal objects 
 for which they had been called together was to pass 
 an ordinance or ordinances to form the basis of a new 
 constitution for the government of the colony on 
 liberal principles, with popular representation. The 
 council then immediately went into committee to 
 discuss the details of the proposed constitution. 
 
 Very soon it was evident that there were almost 
 irreconcilable differences of opinion between the 
 governor and four of the unofficial members Sir 
 Andries Stockenstrom and Messrs. Brand, Reitz, and 
 Fairbairn regarding the qualifications for a seat in 
 the upper house and the length of the term for which 
 its members should be elected. The governor de- 
 sired the qualification to be the possession of unen- 
 cumbered landed property to the value of $9,600, 
 and the length of the term to be ten years. The 
 four members, who wanted a much more democratic 
 council, declared they would regard a chamber so 
 constituted as an oligarchy of the worst description. 
 Thereupon the secretary to government gave it as 
 his opinion that the official members were bound to 
 vote in favour of any measure proposed by the gov- 
 ernor, whether they approved of it or not, a state- 
 ment which puts in a very clear light the value of a 
 mixed official and nominee council. The four mem- 
 bers were thus outvoted. 
 
 On the 20th of September some drafts of ordinances 
 and the estimates for the ensuing year were brought 
 
GEANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 327 
 
 on by the government. The same four members ob- 
 jected to any other business being taken in hand until 
 the constitution ordinances were completed, and upon 
 a motion to proceed with the estimates being carried 
 against them, they resigned their seats. On the 25th 
 the governor appointed the five oflfrcial members with 
 Messrs. Godlonton and Cock a commission to pro- 
 ceed with the constitution, but as this could not be 
 completed without a full council, a long delay was 
 occasioned. 
 
 The municipality of Capetown now requested the 
 four gentlemen who had resigned, together with Mr. 
 Jan Hendrik Wicht, to draft a constitution accord- 
 ing to their views, to be taken to England by Sir 
 Andries Stockenstrom and Mr. Fairbairn. It was 
 hoped that as they had received the highest number 
 of votes from the municipal and road boards, they 
 would be regarded by the secretary of state ag the 
 true representatives of the colonists, and the con- 
 stitution framed by them as what was generally de- 
 sired. It was further intended to circulate petitions 
 to be signed in its support. 
 
 The principal differences between the document 
 drawn up by these gentlemen and the constitution 
 which afterwards received the approbation of Her 
 Majesty's government were with respect to the legis- 
 lative council, or upper chamber, which they desired 
 to make more democratic in principle and less sub- 
 ject to the influence of the British settlers of Albany 
 and the other eastern districts. They wished this 
 branch of the legislature to consist of fifteen mem- 
 bers elected for four years by the whole colony as 
 one constituency, the elections to take place by means 
 of written papers containing fifteen names. The 
 qualifications for membership they desired to be the 
 
328 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 attainment of thirty years of age, residence of three 
 years in the colony, and the possession of property 
 in land to the value of $4,800. They wished this 
 chamber to elect its own chairman or speaker. 
 
 The differences in the lower chamber, or house of 
 assembly, which they desired were merely that the 
 members should be elected for three years, that the 
 governor should have no power to dissolve it with- 
 out dissolving the legislative council at the same 
 time, and that the voters' qualification for both 
 houses should be occupation for twelve months of 
 property valued at or above $240. In principle a 
 chamber so constituted would have been more demo- 
 cratic than the one afterwards established. 
 
 On the 26th of October Mr. Fairbairn left Cape- 
 town for England with the draft of a constitution 
 so framed and with numerous petitions in its favour. 
 Sir Andries Stockenstrom was in delicate health, 
 and therefore feared a European winter, so did not 
 go. The mission, however, was unsuccessful, for 
 the imperial authorities would make no alteration 
 in the settled course of procedure. 
 
 The eighth Kaffir war caused further delay, but 
 at length, on the 3rd of April, 1852, the ordinance 
 required was completed, and with some few amend- 
 ments by the imperial authorities, was confirmed by 
 an order in council on the llth of March, 1853. It 
 provided for the creation of two chambers, termed 
 the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly. 
 
 The legislative council was to consist of fifteen 
 members elected for ten years, excepting that on the 
 first occasion, or after a general dissolution of parlia- 
 ment, the eight members who should receive the least 
 number of votes were to retire after five years, so 
 that practically half the members should be chosen 
 
GRANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 329 
 
 at the end of every fifth year. The whole colony was 
 to be divided into two constituencies, the eastern and 
 the western, the former of which was to return seven, 
 and the latter eight members. The electors, who 
 were to be the same as those for the house of as- 
 sembly, could distribute their votes as they chose, 
 one to each of the number of representatives re- 
 quired, two or three to one and the remainder to an- 
 other, or they could give all to one candidate if they 
 so desired, thus providing for the representation of 
 minorities. Of this chamber the chief justice of the 
 colony was to be president, with the right of taking 
 part in debates, but not of voting, unless the mem- 
 bers were equally divided, when he was to have a 
 casting voice. Five members were to form a quorum. 
 
 The qualifications of a member of the legislative 
 council were to be those of a voter and the possession 
 of land free of all encumbrances to the value of 
 $9,600 or of general property above all debts to the 
 value of $19,200, in addition to which he was re- 
 quired to be over thirty years of age. 
 
 The house of assembly was to consist of forty-six 
 members, elected by twenty-two constituencies for a 
 term of five years. These constituencies were the 
 different divisions in which there were civil commis- 
 sioners, except that the cities of Capetown and 
 Grahamstown were to be represented separately from 
 the other parts of the divisions in which they were 
 situated. Capetown was to have four members, and 
 the remainder of the Cape division two; Grahams- 
 town was to have two members, and the remainder of 
 the division of Albany two; and the divisions of 
 Stellenbosch, Paarl, Malmesbury, Caledon, Clan- 
 william, Worcester, Beaufort West, Swellendam, 
 and George, forming with tHe Cape the western prov- 
 
330 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ince, and TJitenhage, Port Elizabeth, Somerset East, 
 Graaff-Keinet, Fort Beaufort, Victoria East, Albert, 
 Cradock, and Colesberg, forming with Albany the 
 eastern province, each two. In the election of mem- 
 bers for this chamber, only one vote could be given to 
 each of two candidates, not two votes to one, except 
 in the city of Capetown, where the four votes could 
 be distributed as in elections for the legislative coun- 
 cil. The members of the house of assembly were to 
 elect one of their number as speaker, who was not to 
 have a vote except in case of equal divisions, when 
 he was to have a casting voice. Twelve members, 
 exclusive of the speaker, were to form a quorum. 
 For a seat in this chamber any voter who should re- 
 ceive a sufficient requisition could become a candidate. 
 
 The governor was to be at liberty to dissolve the 
 two chambers together, or the house of assembly 
 alone, but not the legislative council alone. Par- 
 liament was to be convened by the governor once 
 every year, or oftener if he should consider a special 
 session necessary, and in no case was a period of 
 twelve months to elapse between the close of one 
 session and the beginning of another. 
 
 The colonial secretary, the attorney-general, the 
 treasurer-general, and the auditor-general, who held 
 their appointments from the crown and were not re- 
 sponsible to parliament for their conduct, were to 
 have the right of introducing measures in either 
 house and of taking part in debates, but were not to 
 have votes. Acts after being read three times and 
 passed by both chambers were to be signed by the 
 governor before becoming of force, and he could re- 
 fer any of them for the approval of Her Majesty, to 
 whom the power was reserved of disallowing all acts 
 within two years after their reaching England. 
 
GRANT OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 331 
 
 The franchise was made exceedingly low, con- 
 sidering the great preponderance in the colony of 
 semi-barbarians and people who had no conception 
 of what representative government meant. No dis- 
 tinction between classes or creeds, between white men 
 or blacks, was made; the Hottentot, or freed slave, 
 or prize negro, or Kaffir clothed in nothing but a 
 blanket, was to be as free to go to the poll as the 
 astronomer-royal or the richest merchant in Cape- 
 town, provided he was a subject of Her Majesty, 
 twenty-one years of age, an owner or an occupant for 
 a year of a house or land worth $120, or to meet 
 the case of Kaffirs a joint occupant with others of 
 land which if the value were divided among them 
 would yield $120 for each, or who had been for 
 twelve months in receipt of a salary at the rate of 
 $240 per annum or $120 per annum with board 
 and lodging. That was all. No education was 
 needed, for the voting was to be by word of mouth. 
 Any one who had sufficient property in two divisions, 
 or who had land in one division and drew a salary 
 in another, was to have the right of voting in both 
 for members of the house of assembly, but not of the 
 legislative council. 
 
 A fresh registration of qualified voters was to be 
 made in each division every alternate year, to be 
 used at the polls for the identification of voters. 
 
 This was the system of representative government 
 introduced to the great satisfaction of the colonists. 
 It seems imperfect now when it is compared with the 
 system of the present day, but it was an almost in- 
 calculable improvement upon the mixed official and 
 nominee council which preceded it. The first par- 
 liament met in Capetown on the 30thi of June, 1854, 
 the house of assembly in the banqueting hall of the 
 
332 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 masonic lodge de Goede Hoop, and the legislative 
 council in one of the rooms in the public offices that 
 had in earlier times been the slave lodge of the Dutch 
 East India Company. At last, two hundred and two 
 years after its birth, the colony was on its feet and 
 able to make rapid progress. 
 
 At this time there were about one hundred and 
 forty thousand Europeans and two hundred and ten 
 thousand coloured people of all kinds residing with- 
 in its boundaries. 
 
 The public revenue in 1854 was $1,419,850, made 
 up of the following items : customs duties $621,130, 
 transfer duty $2 11,79 5, stamps and licenses $119,093, 
 auction duty $118,099, land revenue $110,554, post- 
 age $66,686, land sales $59,045, and all other sources 
 $113,448. 
 
 The imports from abroad amounted in value to 
 $7,927,507, and the exports of produce, which in- 
 cluded everything from the two republics as well as 
 from the colony itself, were valued at $3,161,822. 
 The articles exported were: wool $2,145,307, hides 
 and skins $245,568, wine $193,344, copper ore 
 $120,269, grain $98,333, horses $74,275, ivory 
 $37,109, dried fish $32,338, aloes $29,779, ostrich 
 feathers $29,563, dried fruit $25,243. salted beef 
 $22,954, argol $13,958, horns $10,473, all other, 
 articles $83,309. 
 
 These figures, it will be seen, represent an amount 
 of production and commerce very far short of those 
 of the present day. 
 
GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1854^1809. 333 
 
 CHAPTEK XXIX. 
 
 GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY FROM 1854 TO 1869. 
 
 As was seen in the last chapter, sheep's wool had 
 risen to the first place among the colonial exports, 
 and it was now steadily increasing in quantity. To 
 improve the stock enterprising breeders were every 
 year importing the very best rams that could be ob- 
 tained in Europe, and some were occasionally 
 brought from Australia. As far back as June, 1839, 
 Captain George Robb, of the barque Hamilton Ross, 
 brought to Capetown thirty Saxon rams from the 
 celebrated flock of Mr. Edward Riley, of Raby, New 
 South Wales, and they were generally regarded as 
 the most suitable animals for the South African 
 climate that had up to that date been introduced. 
 The communication between Australia and the Cape 
 was irregular, or the importations in later years 
 would have been more frequent than they were. It is 
 worthy of note that the first sheep in the island con- 
 tinent were taken there from South Africa, but at 
 a time when our farmers were mostly indifferent 
 about the production of wool. 
 
 Another industry which was destined to be of 
 great importance to South Africa was at this time 
 in its initial stage. Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson, 
 a gentleman who was well acquainted with Asiatic 
 Turkey, had come to reside at the Cape, and was im- 
 pressed with the view that the country was eminent- 
 ly adapted for the production of mohair, the silk- 
 
334: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 like fleece of the Angora goat. Accordingly he pro- 
 cured through agents, though with considerable diffi- 
 culty and at great expense, a flock of thirty-nine of 
 the valuable animals, which were sent through Con- 
 stantinople to Egypt. From Egypt they were taken 
 through Arabia and Persia to Bombay, and from that 
 port shipped to the Cape. Twenty-seven of them 
 died on the passage. In 1838 one she goat, eleven of 
 the original males, and one male born on the way ar- 
 rived, but to the great disappointment of their owner, 
 the whole of the original males, though apparently 
 perfect, had by some means been made useless for 
 breeding purposes. The she goat too never bred 
 after arrival. The male born on the passage, how- 
 ever, was purchased by Mr. Hendrik Yos, and by 
 crossing with selected ordinary goats, and then with 
 their offspring, in course of time a flock with fairly 
 good fleeces was obtained. 
 
 A beginning having been made, some merchants 
 in Port Elizabeth took the matter in hand, and man- 
 aged to procure pure-bred goats occasionally, until 
 the industry was thoroughly established and South 
 Africa became, what it is to-day, the first mohair 
 producing country in the world. The Angora goat, 
 being a highly-bred animal, is far from hardy, and re- 
 quires great care. It is not adapted to all parts of 
 the country, but in some places it thrives well under 
 good management, and brings in fair returns. 
 
 Among the articles of export mentioned was cop- 
 per ore. As early as 1685 some of the copper mines 
 of Narnaqualand were visited by a Dutch governor of 
 the Cape, but at that time it was not considered pos- 
 sible to convey the ore through that rugged and barren 
 district to the sea. In 1837 Captain James Alexander* 
 a British military officer who travelled through the 
 
GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1854-1869. 335 
 
 country from Capetown to Walfish Bay, sent some 
 specimens of ore to Mr. George Thompson, a mer- 
 chant in Capetown. They had been obtained on the 
 southern bank of the Orange River, about eighty 
 miles from the sea. The best of these specimens 
 were assayed by Sir John Herschel, at Mr. Thomp- 
 son's request, and were found to contain sixty-five 
 per cent, of pure copper. The remaining specimens 
 were taken to London by Mr. Samuel Bennett, and 
 were submitted to an assayer in Hatton Garden, who 
 certified that they contained a percentage of 27.875 
 pure copper. Mr. Bennett tried to form a company 
 in England to work the mines, but did not succeed. 
 
 Soon afterwards, however, a number of merchants 
 in Capetown and Port Elizabeth took the matter in 
 hand, and several companies were formed for the pur- 
 pose. Mining operations were commenced in several 
 places, some of which were found not to answer ex- 
 pectation, and from all the difficulty of transport 
 through a district so arid that oxen could not long 
 exist in it was very great. Most of the companies, 
 after losing a good deal of money, abandoned the 
 enterprise, and in 1854 only two remained, Messrs. 
 Philips and King, who had a very rich mine at/ 
 Springbokfontein, and another firm, who had a valu>-- 
 able mine at Concordia. In 1852 the first ore 
 only eleven tons was exported by Messrs. Philips 
 and King. 
 
 Some years later this firm was merged into the 
 Cape Copper Mining Company, and a new and ex- 
 tremely rich mine was opened at Ookiep, five miles 
 from Springbokfontein. A railway with a gauge 
 of only thirty inches and with a gradient in one place 
 of one in thirty was constructed between 1869 and 
 1875 from Port Nolloth to Ookiep, a distance of 
 
336 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ninety miles, for the conveyance of the ore to the sea 
 and of supplies inland. The other firm was merged 
 into the Namaqualand Mining Company, and both 
 are in existence and working profitably at the present 
 day. 
 
 The opening of the copper mines had no effect 
 whatever upon the people of the Cape Colony, who 
 remained as purely an agricultural and pastoral a 
 community as before. The white labour employed 
 was obtained from Cornwall, and the district was 
 as secluded, owing to its physical features and its 
 barrenness, as if it had been an island. The mines 
 indeed provided a small market for Cape produce, 
 but that was sent by sea from Capetown to Honde- 
 klip Bay or Port Nolloth, and the farmers came no 
 closer in contact with the consumers than did the 
 Malay fishermen on the south-western coast with the 
 labourers on the sugar plantations of Mauritius for 
 whose use they dried snoek and geelbek. 
 
 With the grant of a parliament the long line of 
 military governors from Sir John Cradock to Sir 
 George Cathcart ended, and in December, 1854, Sir 
 George Grey, the ruler most widely esteemed by Eng- 
 lish, Dutch, and blacks alike, that the colony has 
 ever had, arrived in Capetown. Since that date the 
 governors have been civilians, though the commanders 
 of the forces, who hold commissions as lieutenant- 
 governors, act as administrators during temporary 
 vacancies. Sir George Grey had been in South Af- 
 rica once before, when sent by the imperial govern- 
 ment to explore Western Australia, and in October, 
 1837, with his associate Lieutenant Lushington 
 landed at Capetown on the way out. There he 
 chartered the schooner Jjynher, of 155 tons burden, 
 to convey his expedition with cattle, stores, and 
 
GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1854-1869. 337 
 
 plants to Hanover Bay. Since that time he had been 
 governor of South Australia and of New Zealand, 
 and had proved his rare ability to deal with men, 
 whether civilised, barbarian, or savage. He had the 
 faculty of inspiring all classes of people with con- 
 fidence, and the measures which he initiated for the 
 benefit of the country have stood the best of all tests, 
 that of time. 
 
 One of his first acts was to endeavour to make the 
 chiefs in British Kaffraria satisfied with their posi- 
 tion. He offered them pensions, payable monthly, 
 in return for a formal surrender of the judicial 
 authority which Sir Harry Smith and Sir George 
 Cathcart had taken from them in name. They ac- 
 cepted the offer, and though the enmity of the Xosa 
 leaders of that day to the white man's rule was not 
 removed by it, the system has succeeded in many 
 other instances, and as a measure of justice as well 
 as of policy is continued still. 
 
 With funds provided by the imperial government 
 he built a large hospital in King-Williamstown, in 
 which sick natives were received, maintained, and 
 treated by skilful medical practitioners free of 
 charge, the object being to wean them from the belief 
 in spells and witchcraft. Further he offered to sub- 
 sidise missionary institutions that would undertake 
 to train Bantu youth in industrial occupations and 
 to fit them to act as interpreters, evangelists, and 
 schoolmasters among their own people. The Free 
 Church of Scotland and the Wesleyan Society fa- 
 voured this idea, and at once began to carry it out. 
 Then to teach the Kaffirs the use of money he em- 
 ployed as many as could be induced to work in mak- 
 ing roads and building sea-walls at East London, pay- 
 ing them with the imperial funds at his disposal. 
 
 x 
 
338 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 These excellent measures were frustrated for a 
 time by the infatuation of the Xosas and their de- 
 termination to renew the struggle for supremacy with 
 the Europeans, as in their hearts they regarded the 
 existing condition of things only as a truce. When, 
 therefore, in 1856 a girl named ISTongqause and a 
 man named Umhlakaza announced that they were in 
 communication with the spirit world and were in- 
 structed to tell the people to kill all their cattle and 
 destroy their grain, after which fresh herds would 
 rise from the ground in countless numbers, vast fields 
 of maize and millet would spring up instantly fit for 
 use, and all the heroes of the past return to life and 
 assist them to drive the white people and the Fingos 
 into the sea, the chiefs commanded that the directions 
 of the spirits were to be obeyed. 
 
 From the Bashee to the Keiskama the slaughtering 
 of cattle now commenced, first those of one colour, 
 then after an interval those of another, but the work 
 was carried out in such a bungling manner that some 
 clans were destitute and starving while others still 
 had full folds. The governor, who feared that the 
 object was to precipitate the whole Xosa tribe in a 
 famishing condition, but with arms in hand, upon the 
 colony, sent agents among the people to dissuade 
 them from their mad purpose, but in vain. Then he 
 strengthened the military posts on the frontier, and 
 collected in King-Williamstown all the grain he 
 could get to save as many as possible of the de- 
 luded creatures from death. 
 
 Over two hundred thousand head of cattle were 
 killed and all the corn was destroyed before the 
 Xosas woke from their delusion. Then an attempt 
 was made to rush into the colony, not as an armed 
 body, but as suppliants begging for food. Tens 
 
GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1854-1869. 339 
 
 of thousands perished of hunger on the way. The 
 district between the Bashee and the Kei was left 
 without inhabitants, so that a few hundred of the 
 frontier armed and mounted police could enter and 
 hold it for years without molestation. Kreli, the 
 head of the tribe, with a little band of followers took 
 refuge with the Bomvana clan beyond the Bashee, 
 who kindly gave him shelter and food. In British 
 Kaffraria on the 1st of January, 1857, there were 
 one hundred and five thousand Xosas, at the end of 
 the year there were only thirty-eight thousand. 
 Twenty-eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-two 
 individuals were provided with food from the govern- 
 ment stores in King-Williamstown and sent into the 
 colony as servants, five or six thousand more reached 
 Albany and Somerset without aid, the others who 
 made up the deficiency perished. 
 
 By this tragic occurrence trouble with the Xosa 
 tribe was averted for the next twenty years, and the 
 frontier farmers were almost entirely relieved of the 
 incessant depredations from which they had previous- 
 ly suffered. ISTot only so, but a large number of 
 Europeans were settled in British Kaffraria. Farms 
 were given out there by the high commissioner to se- 
 lected English and Dutch colonists on the same terms 
 as those under which the district of Queenstown was 
 occupied. The German legion enrolled in the Brit- 
 ish service during the Crimean war was sent out and 
 disbanded there, plots of ground being given to the 
 officers and soldiers to be held under military tenure. 
 These men, however, were not adapted for life as 
 agriculturists, and on the outbreak of the mutiny 
 in India Sir George Grey took upon himself the re- 
 sponsibility of enrolling most of them again and 
 sending them to Hindostan. Those who remained 
 
340 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 behind found their way into towns, where they be- 
 came prosperous residents. 
 
 To take the place of those who went to India Sir 
 George Grey arranged with a merchant in Hamburg 
 to send out a number of families of agricultural la- 
 bourers from Northern Germany, and in 1858 and 
 1859 over two thousand individuals of this class ar- 
 rived, and had little farms assigned to them. These 
 people, who were frugal, temperate, and industrious, 
 prospered wonderfully in their new homes. Their 
 well-tilled farms, their neat stone houses, their 
 flocks and herds at this day testify to what can be 
 done by the right kind of settlers in South Africa. 
 
 The great tract of land between the Kei and the 
 Bashee remained without inhabitants. The imperial 
 authorities were so averse to any extension of the 
 Queen's dominions that they would not allow it to be 
 annexed to British Kaffraria, and thus one of the 
 fairest opportunities that have occurred for strength- 
 ening the English element in the country was lost 
 for ever. Some years later Kreli was permitted 
 to resume possession of a portion of it, another por- 
 tion was given to the Fingos, whose old locations 
 were already overcrowded, and the remainder was 
 offered to the Tembus of Glen Grey in exchange for 
 that district, which, being within the colony, could 
 then, it was supposed, have been allotted to Euro- 
 peans. The Tembus agreed to the proposal, and sent 
 out a swarm to take possession of the new country, 
 but so many remained behind that they retained 
 Glen Grey as well, for it was not allowable to re- 
 move them by force. So all the territory east of the 
 Kei was again occupied by Bantu independent of 
 the British crown, and through the dispersion of the 
 Xosas in the frontier districts of the colony that race 
 
GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1854-1869. 34! 
 
 was mixed with the Europeans as far west as Port 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 The white population of the colony was rapidly in- 
 creasing, the censuses taken at various times showing 
 that the Dutch farmers double their number in about 
 twenty-four years by excess of births over deaths, 
 and there was a constant, though small immigration 
 from Europe. The blacks were also growing fast 
 in number, though their rate of increase in the towns 
 and villages, where they can obtain spirituous liquor 
 and where they must conform in some respects to 
 European customs, falls far short of that of the 
 Bantu in locations and reserves. There, as the na- 
 tives are prevented from destroying one another in 
 war or on charges of dealing in witchcraft, as they 
 are succoured in times of famine, allowed to live 
 in their own way, and prohibited from obtaining 
 strong drink, they multiply at a marvellous rate. 
 Every female without exception is married at an 
 early age, so that in no other part of the world is 
 there anything like the increase of the Bantu under 
 British or Dutch rule in South Africa. 
 
 In 1859 a beginning was made in the construction 
 of railways in the colony, the first sod of the line 
 from Capetown through Stellenbosch to Wellington, 
 with a branch from Salt River to Wynberg, having 
 been turned by Governor Sir George Grey on the 31st 
 of March of that year. This line was constructed 
 by a company with a guarantee from the public 
 treasury of a certain rate of profit on the outlay, but 
 the government had the right of taking it over under 
 stipulated conditions, which it did in 1873, when the 
 line began to be extended. 
 
 The first electric telegraphs from Capetown to 
 Simonstown and from King-Williamstown to East 
 
342 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 London were opened in 1860. They were con- 
 structed by the government, and were soon followed 
 by other and longer lines. 
 
 The improvement of the harbours on the coast 
 was commenced at the same time, the first tmckload 
 of stones for the great breakwater which has con- 
 verted Table Bay from a place of wrecks to one of 
 the safest ports in the empire having been tilted 
 by His Royal Highness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, 
 then Prince Alfred, on the 17th of September, 1860. 
 In Port Elizabeth and at East London harbour works 
 were also taken in hand, but unfortunately the first 
 plans were faulty, so that a good deal of money was 
 thrown away. More lighthouses too were at this 
 time erected along the coast. 
 
 The province of British Kaffraria remained sep- 
 arate from the Cape Colony until 1865. The laws 
 were kept uniform, however, by the high commission- 
 er proclaiming acts passed by the Cape parliament 
 in force in Kaffraria. After the filling up of the ter- 
 ritory between the Kei and the Bashee with Bantu 
 the possibility of the province remaining a distinct 
 dependency of the empire vanished, though before 
 that date its inhabitants had hoped that the vacant 
 ground would have been allotted to Europeans and 
 united to theirs, to make a compact and self-sup- 
 porting colony. There was no difference of any 
 kind in the people between the Kei and the Keis- 
 kama and those between the Keiskama and the Gam- 
 toos, so the imperial government, in order to be re- 
 leased from the necessity of making good any de- 
 ficiency in the revenue and from responsibility for 
 the defence of the little territory, desired its an- 
 nexation to the old colony. On several occasions 
 proposals to this effect were made to the Cape parlia- 
 
GROWTH OF THE CAPE COLONY, 1854^1869. 343 
 
 merit, but were always rejected by a majority, be- 
 cause their acceptance would disturb the existing 
 balance of parties by adding to the English element, 
 and because of the liability for defence that would 
 be incurred. 
 
 The imperial parliament then pased an act of 
 union, which was not to come into operation, however, 
 until the Cape parliament should have another 
 opportunity of deciding the question. Upon this Sir 
 Philip Wodehouse, who in January, 1862, had suc- 
 ceeded Sir George Grey as governor and high com- 
 missioner, convened a session in Grahamstown, where 
 he could rely upon public opinion being favourable 
 to the measure. On this occasion only has parlia- 
 ment met out of Capetown, and no little incon- 
 venience was caused by holding a session at such a 
 distance from the public records and offices. The 
 governor, however, has power according to the con- 
 stitution to summon it wherever he thinks fit. 
 
 There was much opposition to the proposed an- 
 nexation, and the bill was only carried by including 
 in it an increase to the existing electoral divisions. 
 It provided that British Kaffraria should be incorpo- 
 rated with the Cape Colony as two divisions, King- 
 Williamstown and East London, each to return two 
 members to the house of assembly, and that in ad- 
 dition to these eight new divisions Aliwal ISTorth, 
 Queenstown, and Richmond, in the eastern province, 
 and Namaqualand, Piquetberg, Riversdale, Oudts- 
 hoorn, and Victoria West, in the western province 
 should be created, each to return two members. 
 Thus the balance of parties remained as before, 
 though the house of assembly was made to consist 
 of sixty-six members. 
 
 By the same act the number of members of the 
 
344 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 legislative council was increased to twenty-one, 
 eleven for the western province and ten for the east- 
 ern, which now included the divisions of King-Wil- 
 liamstown and East London. This act came into 
 force in 1865. 
 
 Sir Philip Wodehouse was one of the least popu- 
 lar governors the colony had ever known. He had 
 neither the attractive manner nor the breadth of view 
 of his able predecessor, and his arbitrary conduct 
 on more than one occasion gave much offence. Dur- 
 ing his tenure of office, which extended to Novem- 
 ber, 1868, nothing that needs further mention oc- 
 curred in the colony, which, however, continued to 
 grow steadily in population and commercial impor- 
 tance. 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 185^1869. 345 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 EVENTS IN THE ORANGE FREE STATE FROM 1854: 
 TO 1869. 
 
 THE great plain between the Orange and Vaal 
 rivers that had been called the Orange River Sover- 
 eignty is nowhere capable of supporting a dense agri- 
 cultural population. Its soil in most parts is shal- 
 low, and especially on the western side it is subject 
 to long and severe droughts, when, unless water is 
 conserved by artificial means, it is almost uninhabit- 
 able by man. It is adapted chiefly for pastoral pur- 
 suits, and its power of bearing stock must be calcu- 
 lated as what it can support when in its worst con- 
 dition. Nature, however, has provided it with vege- 
 tation far better fitted to withstand drought than the 
 grasses of Europe, so that with a supply of water in 
 reservoirs, a considerable number of horned cattle, 
 sheep, and goats can always exist on its pastures. 
 In 1854 vast herds of antelopes of different kinds, 
 but chiefly springbucks, wandered over it, and fur- 
 nished the inhabitants with an abundant supply of 
 animal food. 
 
 To the east of the plain rose the mountains of the 
 Lesuto, or Basutoland, range after range from the 
 base of the Maluti to the summit of the Drakensberg, 
 eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea. Num- 
 berless fertile valleys, well watered by mountain 
 storms and drained by rivulets coursing down to the 
 Caledon, maintained in plenty the great tribe that 
 
34:6 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Moshesh had gathered together. In the summer 
 their herds were driven high up on the terraces to 
 feed, and from May to October, when the snow lay 
 thick on the Maluti and the Drakensberg and pierc- 
 ing winds swept along the heights, the cattle were 
 brought down to graze in the lower valleys that had 
 shortly before been clothed with crops of millet and 
 garden plants. The Lesuto was Switzerland in 
 Africa, a grand natural fortress overlooking a vast 
 expanse of plain. 
 
 Before the abandonment of the Sovereignty, even 
 while the special commissioner was in Bloemfontein, 
 Moshesh had conquered or driven out the whole of 
 the clans along the upper Caledon, and had taken 
 possession of the locations assigned to them by Sir 
 Harry Smith. Only the Barolong under Moroko 
 at Thaba Ntshu and a little band under Lepui at 
 Bethulie, on the Orange, remained unsubdued, and 
 these were living in close terms of friendship with 
 the white people, to whom they looked for support. 
 At this time Moshesh could bring about twelve war- 
 riors into the field against each European on the 
 plain, and a large proportion of them were mounted 
 and armed with muskets. 
 
 The committee to whom Sir George Clerk had 
 transferred the government called upon the inhabi- 
 tants to elect representatives to frame a constitu- 
 tion, and on the 28th of March, 1854, a volksraad 
 of twenty-nine members met at Bloemfontein. 
 There were parties among them, and under ordinary 
 circumstances they would not have united, but the 
 imminent danger in which they all stood acted as 
 a welding force, so they resolved to form one state, 
 with a volksraad for which a representative should 
 be elected by the burghers of each village and each 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854r-1869. 347 
 
 fieldcornetcy for four years, except that half of those 
 first returned were to retire in 1856, when their 
 places were to be filled by others elected for the full 
 term. The volksraad was to have supreme and sole 
 legislative power, and no appointments to office could 
 be made without its confi.rma.tion. The landdrosts 
 and heads of departments were to have the right of 
 debate, but not of voting, during its sessions. 
 
 The executive authority was to be entrusted to a 
 president elected by the whole body of burghers from 
 a list of names proposed by the volksraad. He was 
 to hold office for five years, and was to be assisted 
 by an executive council of two official and three un- 
 official members chosen by the volksraad. He was 
 to propose laws, and to have a right of debate, but 
 not a vote, much less a veto. Such was in brief the 
 constitution of the new republic that took the name 
 of the Orange Free State, and at a little later date 
 hoisted its own independent flag, seven white and 
 orange stripes with the red, white, and blue of the 
 Netherlands in the upper corner next the staff. 
 
 Mr. Josias Philip Hoffman, whose principal quali- 
 fication was his intimacy with Moshesh, was elected 
 as the first president. He was of opinion that much 
 could be done with the chief by means of persuasion, 
 for who could talk so sensibly or expatiate so for- 
 cibly upon the blessings of peace as the great Mosu- 
 to ? So the president went to see him, and Moshesh 
 promised to exert himself to stop the cattle thieving 
 then going on along his southern border. He wanted 
 a small favour too, would his friend Hoffman make 
 him a present of some gunpowder? On returning 
 to Bloemfontein the president sent him a keg contain- 
 ing fifty pounds, and omitted to report the matter to 
 the volksraad. It became known, however, and the 
 
348 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 result was such an outcry that in February, 1855, 
 Mr. Hoffman was compelled to resign. 
 
 Mr. Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof was then elected 
 president. He was a man of good education, who 
 had been trained in the civil service of the Cape Col- 
 ony, and who in later years held a high appointment 
 under the British crown in Natal, where the last 
 years of his life were spent. To him the Free State 
 is indebted for putting its public offices in thorough 
 order and arranging the routine of business in accord- 
 ance with the best system known elsewhere. This 
 was no small service, and had it not been for the one 
 great difficulty which overshadowed everything else, 
 the liberal, courteous, and talented president would 
 have made a model head of the state. But he was 
 wanting in that determined perseverance under ex- 
 treme difficulties which has always been a character- 
 istic of the great majority of the sons of the sea beg- 
 gars in South Africa, and in astuteness he was no 
 match for Moshesh. 
 
 At this time thefts were taking place in the dis- 
 trict of Smithfield to an alarming extent, Moshesh's 
 object being to compel the farmers to retire, so that 
 his tribe might have more territory to expand in. 
 Sir George Grey saw that war was impending, and 
 though Great Britain had abandoned the territory 
 and disclaimed responsibility to preserve order there, 
 if Moshesh should sweep the Free State and exter- 
 minate or drive out the white people, the effect upon 
 the Cape Colony and especially upon Natal might 
 be extremely disastrous. There was the question 
 of humanity also to be considered, and the high- 
 minded governor was strongly of opinion that the dis- 
 grace would be great if destruction were to be the 
 natural sequence of abandonment. 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854-1869. 349 
 
 So of his own accord in October, 1855, he visited 
 the country and invited Mr. Boshof and Moshesh 
 to meet him at Smithfield, where he would act as mu- 
 tual friend. At the first conference the ch[ief declined 
 to discuss matters of business, but on the second day 
 the governor succeeded in persuading him to affix his 
 mark to an agreement which, if it had been faith- 
 fully kept, would have preserved peace and main- 
 tained the rights of both parties. 
 
 Out of respect for Sir George Grey Moshesh really 
 kept to his engagement for a few weeks, but then the 
 plundering was renewed on as extensive a scale as 
 before. Sometimes the chief would stop it for a 
 short interval, at other times he would make par- 
 tial compensation, now he was profuse in promises, 
 and again he would do nothing, playing like a cat 
 with its victim, making the farmers feel how 
 entirely they were at his mercy, and hoping by this 
 treatment to cause them to remove in despair. At 
 length, in February, 1858, armed bands of Basuto 
 took forcible possession of several Free State farms 
 and destroyed the buildings and orchards on them, 
 and upon Moshesh being remonstrated with he would 
 give no redress. The attempt to avoid an open rup- 
 ture was then of necessity abandoned, the whole bur- 
 gher force of the State was called to arms, and on the 
 19th of March a declaration of war with the Basuto 
 was issued at Bloemfontein. 
 
 The plan of campaign adopted by the Free State 
 was to send two commandos from different directions 
 to meet at Thaba Bosigo and endeavour to carry that 
 stronghold by storm. The first conflict took place 
 at the French mission station Beersheba, where the 
 men, on being called upon to surrender their arms, 
 Defused to do so, and were consequently fired upon 
 
350 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and driven away. Each commando then pursued its 
 march, and met with resistance at every point where 
 the ground was favourable for the enemy. Their 
 losses were heavy, but they still pushed forward, the 
 Basuto always yielding and retiring after a short en- 
 counter, so that they thought their progress was one 
 of continuous triumph. 
 
 Too late they discovered that this was Moshesh's 
 plan of drawing them on. They reached Thaba 
 Bosigo to find an impregnable mountain fortress 
 before them, and to learn that while they were fight- 
 ing their way to it strong bands of Basuto horsemen 
 had been laying waste the districts of Smithfield and 
 Winburg, sweeping off the cattle and burning the 
 houses with their contents. With heavy hearts the 
 burghers retreated, the commandos were disbanded, 
 and every man hastened to look for the helpless mem- 
 bers of his family. 
 
 The Free State seemed utterly crushed. But 
 Moshesh was too wise to push his advantage further, 
 for he knew that if he did the burghers north of the 
 Vaal would come to their kinsmen's aid. So he 
 accepted the mediation of Sir George Grey, which 
 President Boshof had asked for, and in the mean- 
 time agreed to an armistice. 
 
 Some little Korana clans living on reserves in the 
 western part of the State regarded this as a favour- 
 able opportunity for securing plunder, and being 
 joined by a branch of the Batlapin from the other 
 side of the Vaal, commenced to steal cattle and kill 
 white people without the slightest provocation. Some 
 shocking acts of barbarity were committed by these 
 savages. But a commando was got together, and ter- 
 rible retaliation followed. Most of the Koranas were 
 shot down in action or when their stronghold on the 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854-1869. 351 
 
 Vaal was stormed, forty-two of them who were made 
 prisoners and were being conveyed to Bloemfontein 
 were murdered in cold blood by some masked farmers 
 on the way, and then the hills in which the Batlapin 
 were posted were cleared by a force from the northern 
 State under Commandant Paul Kruger, when the 
 head of the slain chief Gasibone was cut off and sent 
 to one of his relatives who had assisted him. Such 
 horrible deeds brought the infuriated white men for 
 a time down to the level of the wretched savages they 
 were destroying. 
 
 On the 20th of August Sir George Grey reached 
 Bloemfontein and made arrangements for a meeting 
 between commissioners of the Free State and Mo- 
 shesh. There he received urgent despatches from 
 England requiring him to send to India with the 
 least possible delay every soldier that could be spared 
 from South Africa. To bring about peace was there- 
 fore a matter of the first importance, as the tribes on 
 the colonial border had already become restless owing 
 to the success of the Basuto. From Bloemfontein he 
 proceeded in great haste to Thaba Bosigo, and ar- 
 ranged with Moshesh to meet the Free State commis- 
 sioners at Beersheba on the 15th of September, where 
 both parties were to have their cases prepared to be 
 laid before him. 
 
 The governor then galloped to King-Williamstown. 
 issued directions for the despatch of the troops, and 
 was back at Beersheba on the 14th of September. 
 The Free State commissioners were there, but Mo- 
 shesh was not, so the governor went in search of him. 
 The chief was found at Morija, and a statement of 
 his claims was obtained, which, if conceded, would 
 have annihilated the infant republic. He was, how- 
 ever, induced to send plenipotentiaries to Aliwal 
 
352 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 North, and there, after mature consideration, the gov- 
 ernor gave his decision, which was embodied in a 
 treaty and signed by both parties on the 29th of Sep- 
 tember. To the Basuto as victors was given a very 
 considerable extension of territory on their southern 
 border, from which the white occupants were to be 
 withdrawn. The governor in person saw the new 
 line beaconed off, the farmers retired from within it, 
 but Moshesh remained dissatisfied, and though on 
 the 15th of October he confirmed the treaty and 
 affixed his mark to it, he soon showed that he had no 
 intention of observing it. 
 
 Finding the effort to check thefts by the Basuto 
 along the new border hopeless, in February, 1859, 
 Mr. Boshof lost heart and resigned. Mr. Esaias 
 Eynier Snyman was appointed by the volksraad 
 acting head of the State, which office he held until 
 February, 1860, when Mr. Marthinus Wessel Pre- 
 torius, son of the famous commandant-general, was 
 elected president. At this time several of the old 
 native reserves in the western part of the territory 
 and Bethulie, on the Orange River, were acquired 
 by purchase. Their occupants moved away beyond 
 the borders, and farmers from the colony took their 
 places, so that the European power was considerably 
 strengthened. Three new districts Boshof, Kroon- 
 stad, and Bethulie were created, to the great ad- 
 vantage of the administration. 
 
 Mr. Pretorius was elected president with the hope 
 of bringing about some form of union with the re- 
 public north of the Vaal, as it was believed that the 
 Free State could not stand alone against the Basuto 
 tribe. Mr. Boshof, the volksraad, and a majority of 
 the people had desired union with the Cape Colony 
 under a federal government, and had urged that they 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854-1869. 353 
 
 should be admitted again into the British empire in 
 this manner and receive some little assistance towards 
 protection. Sir George Grey had been warmly in 
 favour of this scheme, and had brought it before the 
 Cape parliament and the imperial government as 
 offering enormous advantages for the security and 
 prosperity of South Africa, but in England the pro- 
 posal had been received with much disfavour. 
 
 In no way or form would the imperial authorities 
 incur responsibility for anything that might take 
 place north of the Orange. The able governor who 
 had recommended federation was regarded as a dan- 
 gerous man, and on the 4th of June, 1859, Sir Ed- 
 ward Bulwer Lytton, who was then the head of the 
 colonial department, on that account recalled him. 
 By the ministry which shortly afterwards came into 
 office he was indeed reappointed, but was not permit- 
 ted to bring forward federation proposals again. 
 And so the people of the territory, indignant at the 
 way in which they were treated by Great Britain, 
 turned to the northern State in their distress. 
 
 Mr. Pretorius was at the same time president of 
 the South African Republic, but had obtained six 
 months' leave of absence from the volksraad at Pre- 
 toria. Negotiations for union or close alliance of 
 some kind were then commenced between representa- 
 tives of the two countries, but fell through, owing to 
 information supplied by Sir George Grey, that if car- 
 ried out the clauses in the conventions of Sand River 
 and Bloemfontein disowning alliances with natives 
 and providing for the supply of ammunition through 
 colonial ports would not be considered as longer bind- 
 ing by Great Britain. 
 
 Mr. Pretorius then resigned as president of the 
 northern republic, and exerted himself to the utmost 
 
 Y 
 
354 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 to bring about a better condition of affairs with Mo- 
 shesh. Several meetings took place between him and 
 the chief, at which the most friendly language was 
 used on both sides, and arrangements were agreed 
 upon for the suppression of thefts, but as Moshesh 
 did not keep his promises, and the Europeans were 
 too weak to compel him to do so, matters remained 
 as they were. 
 
 The most important event of Mr. Pretorius's ad- 
 ministration was the purchase of Adam Kok's re- 
 serve, which greatly improved the position of the 
 Free State. In December, 1861, the captain sold his 
 rights of every kind to the volksraad, and his people 
 disposed of their farms to white men, mostly from 
 the Cape Colony, after which the whole clan moved 
 away to the unoccupied territory since termed Gri- 
 qualand East, on the southern border of fatal, below 
 the Drakensberg, which Sir George Grey had taken 
 over from its nominal owner, the Pondo chief Faku, 
 and offered to Kok. This made the Free State a 
 compact European possession from the Orange to 
 the Vaal. The territory acquired became the dis- 
 trict of Philippolis, and with the recent creation 
 of the district of Jacobsdal the number of landdrosts* 
 courts in the State was now brought up to ten. 
 
 During the remainder of Mr. Pretorius's admin- 
 istration all possible efforts were made to come to 
 terms with Moshesh. Parties of Basuto were openly 
 taking forcible possession of ground far beyond their 
 northern border as denned by Si? Harry Smith, until 
 a strip of land there fifteen miles in width was com- 
 pletely abandoned by the white people. Great hunt- 
 ing parties rode very much farther, defying and in- 
 sulting the farmers, even in some cases trampling 
 down and destroying their gardens. At length Mo- 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854-1869. 355 
 
 shesh was induced to say what boundary he would 
 respect in that direction, but it was one that would 
 give him nearly half the districts of Winburg and 
 Harrismith, and include in the Lesuto about two hun- 
 dred and fifty farms held under British titles. 
 
 Worn out with so much worry, added to severe do- 
 mestic affliction and urgent invitations from the 
 northern republic to return and resume the conduct 
 of affairs there, in April, 1863, Mr. Pretorius re- 
 signed, when Mr. Jacobus Johannes Venter acted 
 as head of the State until February, 1864. Ad- 
 vocate Jan Hendrik Brand, son of the speaker of 
 the Cape house of assembly, an extremely able and 
 prudent man, then became president. 
 
 Sir Philip Wodehouse had in the meantime suc- 
 ceeded Sir George Grey as governor of the Cape 
 Colony and high commissioner. He came to South 
 Africa prejudiced against the people north of the 
 Orange, and never made any attempt to conceal his 
 dislike of them and their institutions. In his ad- 
 dresses and his correspondence he always put the 
 worst construction upon their conduct, so that in 
 all probability he would have declined to assist them 
 if it had not been that their destruction by Moshesh 
 would have reacted disastrously upon the colony. 
 The president and the volksraad implored him to 
 come to their aid by acting as a mediator and laying 
 down a boundary line on the north as Sir George 
 Grey had done on the south. 
 
 It was with great difficulty that Moshesh could be 
 induced to accept of intervention by the high commis- 
 sioner, but at length he put his mark to a document 
 to that effect, and in October, 1864, Sir Philip Wode- 
 house arrived at Jammerberg Drift on the Caledon, 
 where, as previously arranged, the representatives 
 
356 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of the Free State and the Basuto chief and leading 
 men were to lay their respective cases before him. 
 A great number of interested persons on both sides 
 were present. 
 
 The Free State case was that the boundary estab- 
 lished by the British authorities in 1849 and con- 
 firmed by Moshesh himself in 1858 should be main- 
 tained. On their side of that line the ground had 
 been absolutely waste and unoccupied when white 
 men took possession of it, and Moshesh never could 
 have recovered it from the Matabele. 
 
 Moshesh's case was that there had been a time 
 before the wars of Tshaka when all the land from 
 the Caledon to the Vaal was in possession of Bantu 
 tribes, and the remnants of those tribes were now 
 his subjects. He handed in a list of their titles, and 
 asked that the ground which had once been theirs 
 should be restored to them. 
 
 The governor considered the evidence on both sides, 
 and then went over the ground and carefully exam- 
 ined its physical features. The result was that on 
 the 28th of October, 1864, he announced his decision, 
 which was in favour of the Free State and the main- 
 tenance of Sir Harry Smith's line with a slight 
 modification in Moshesh's favour in one place. 
 
 Moshesh promised to comply with the governor's 
 decision, and recall his people from the Free State 
 side of the border, but he had no real intention of 
 respecting the award. Matters were soon again as 
 bad as ever. After fruitless negotiations, President 
 Brand made a specific demand upon the chief, who 
 took no notice of it, and so, as nothing else could be 
 done, on the 9th of June, 1865, war with the Basuto 
 was formally declared. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into the details of this 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854-1869. 357 
 
 conflict, which commenced like the Xosa wars with 
 the rush of large armed bodies into the State, the 
 destruction of a great amount of property, and the 
 surprise and death of nearly ninety individuals. 
 Among these was a party of Transvaal travellers, near 
 relatives of President Pretorius, and as Moshesh 
 declined to surrender the men who murdered them, 
 in September a strong force under Commandant 
 General Paul Kruger arrived to take part in hostili- 
 ties. The northern republic, however, was in such a 
 condition at the time that its burghers were soon 
 under the necessity of returning, and the Free State 
 was left to its own resources. 
 
 The most strenuous exertions were made, and the 
 war was carried into the Lesuto, where many strong- 
 holds were taken by storm and some large herds of 
 cattle were captured. But Thaba Bosigo could not 
 be scaled or its garrison starved out, though des- 
 perate efforts were made to get possession of it, in 
 one of which the bravest and ablest commandant in 
 the republic Louw Wepener was killed. 
 
 As time went on the Basuto losses became so great 
 that dissensions arose in the tribe, and in March, 
 1866, Molapo, the second son of Moshesh, asked for 
 peace and offered to surrender two thousand head of 
 cattle and to become a Free State subject. His re- 
 quest was agreed to, and he paid the cattle and gave 
 hostages for his good conduct. Moshesh and his 
 great son Letsie, to gain time to gather their crops 
 and make preparations for a renewal of the war, 
 then offered to cede a large tract of land and to pay 
 three thousand cattle in return for peace. These 
 terms were gladly accepted, as the president and the 
 burghers believed the offer was made in sincerity, and 
 in April, 1866, a treaty to that effect was concluded. 
 
358 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The Basuto did not remove from the ground ceded, 
 and when called upon to do so, requested rather to 
 be received as Free State subjects. To this the volks- 
 raad would not at first consent, but at length it was 
 agreed that Letsie and his clan should: 'be taken over 
 and permitted to remain where they were, that Mo- 
 peri, Moshesh's brother, and his clan should be taken 
 over and removed to another part of the State, and 
 that the same course should be adopted with regard 
 to several other chiefs. By this means the Basuto 
 gained time to secure very large crops in 1867, and 
 then, after the grain was safely stored in strongholds, 
 the mask was thrown off. Only Moperi remained 
 true to his word, and he and his people, who were 
 located at Witsi's Hoek, took no part in the war that 
 followed. 
 
 The murder of two white men, defiance of the Free 
 State authorities, and open assertions by Moshesh 
 that he would not abide by his agreement brought on 
 hostilities in July, 1867. The finances of the repub- 
 lic were in a deplorable condition, the only cur- 
 rency consisted of government notes termed blue- 
 backs, and poverty was visible everywhere; but the 
 spirit of the burghers rose as high as ever it had 
 done in the best of their Batavian or English an- 
 cestors in similar difficult circumstances. This war 
 was to be the last, both sides recognised that, and 
 both entered into it with a determination to succeed 
 or perish. 
 
 For a short time no marked success was gained by 
 either party, but when the first important stronghold 
 was taken by the Free State forces disintegration 
 of the Basuto tribe began to set in, and a large clan 
 moved away over the mountains into the territory 
 adjoining that occupied by Adam Kok, Then strong- 
 
EVENTS IN ORANGE FREE STATE, 1854-1869. 359 
 
 hold after stronghold fell, and of course the maga- 
 zines of corn on them were lost to Moshesh's people, 
 until only Thaba Bosigo remained and more than 
 half the tribe was in danger of perishing from star- 
 vation. 
 
 Meantime Moshesh had been sending the most 
 urgent entreaties to the high commissioner and to 
 the government of !N"atal to be taken over with his 
 tribe as British subjects, and Sir Philip Wodehouse 
 had obtained the consent of the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham and Chandos, then secretary of state for the 
 colonies, to receive them as such. It was the only 
 way, Sir Philip said, of saving them from being pre- 
 cipitated upon other parts of South Africa as fugi- 
 tives and vagrants. So on the 12th of March, 1868, 
 he issued a proclamation declaring the Basuto tribe 
 British subjects and their country British territory. 
 
 A strong body of the Cape frontier armed and 
 mounted police under Sir Walter Currie was sent 
 into the Lesuto, with instructions to resist the Free 
 State forces if they did not cease hostilities. Presi- 
 dent Brand and the volksraad naturally protested 
 against these acts in the strongest terms, but they 
 were careful not to embroil themselves in further 
 difficulties, and so made no more attacks. The Rev- 
 erend Mr. Van de Wall and Mr. C. J. de Villiers 
 were sent to England by the volksraad to remonstrate 
 with the imperial government, but were referred back 
 to the high commissioner, who, they were informed, 
 was entrusted with the settlement of the question. 
 
 The Free State now recognised that it was entirely 
 at the high commissioner's mercy, and after fruit- 
 less correspondence, on the 4th of February, 1869, a 
 conference took place at Aliwal 2Torth between Sir 
 Philip Wodehouse and President Brand assisted by 
 
360 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 a deputation of four gentlemen appointed by the 
 volksraad for the purpose. There, after a week's 
 discussion of plans and proposals, on the 12th a con- 
 vention was signed, by which the Caledon River, 
 from its source to Jammerberg Drift, and thence a 
 line practically the same as that of Sir Harry Smith 
 eastward to Kornet Spruit, was agreed upon as the 
 new boundary. Mr. James Henry Bowker was then 
 stationed in the Lesuto as the high commissioners 
 agent, and a form of government for the tribe was in* 
 augurated which left to the chiefs a great deal of 
 their former power. 
 
 At this time the European population of the Free 
 State consisted of about thirty-seven thousand souls. 
 The war had almost exhausted the country, and not 
 only the government but nearly every individual 
 was deeply involved in debt. There was hardly a 
 family that was not in mourning. But a strong na- 
 tional sentiment had been born, and henceforth men 
 and women gloried in the name of Free Stater and 
 were proud of the suffering they had endured to- 
 gether and the deeds they had accomplished against 
 such tremendous odds. To this feeling resentment 
 against Great Britain must be added, but this weak- 
 ened as it became apparent that after all they had 
 probably gained more by Sir Philip Wodehouse's 
 act than if they had been left to govern the Basuto 
 tribe and keep it in order. 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 361 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 EVENTS TTOKTH OF THE VAAL FROM 1852 TO 1860. 
 
 FOR many years after the Sand Eiver conven- 
 tion was signed the history of the people north of the 
 Vaal is little more than a narrative of feuds and of 
 wars with natives. There were no educated men to 
 conduct public affairs, consequently the offices, or 
 what went by that name, never were in the same 
 order as those in the Free State. The inhabitants 
 were the least refined of all the Europeans in South 
 Africa, men and women whose ancestors for many 
 generations had been borderers accustomed to con- 
 tend with Bushmen or Kaffirs for their existence. 
 Added to this, the practical anarchy which prevailed 
 attracted men of indifferent character, some of whom 
 were fugitive criminals from the Cape Colony, so 
 that outside of the illiterate but well-intentioned 
 body of farmers there was a fringe of ruffianism, 
 composed of the dregs of the whole country mixed 
 with reckless characters of many European nation- 
 alities. Only a strong government could have recti- 
 fied this condition of things, and there was really 
 no proper government at all. 
 
 There was indeed a volksraad, but no adminis- 
 trative authorities except the four landdrosts of 
 Potchefstroom, Lydenburg, Zoutpansberg, and Rust- 
 enburg, and there was no police. Party feeling, or 
 rather rivalry between the commandants, was so 
 strong that even union for military purposes was im- 
 
362 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 possible. In January, 1851, the volksraad appointed 
 four commandants-general equal in rank and inde- 
 pendent of each other : Mr. W. F. Joubert for Lyden- 
 burg, Mr. J. A. Enslin for the western border, Mr. 
 Hendrik Potgieter for Potchefstroom, Zoutpansberg, 
 and Rustenburg, and Mr. Andries Pretorius for 
 Potchefstroom and Rustenburg, each individual in 
 these districts being left at liberty to choose which 
 of the commandants he would serve under. Surely 
 no other people in the world have ever tried to live 
 under such rule or misrule as this. There was no 
 public revenue to speak of, for no one cared to pay 
 taxes. All was confusion, the only thing that kept 
 the people together being the presence of the natives, 
 who were increasing very rapidly in number. 
 
 The native question must be looked at from both 
 sides. Did the ejection of the Matabele make the 
 remnants of the old tribes subjects of the farmers 
 or not ? The farmers claimed that it did, the mis- 
 sionaries of the London Society and the stronger 
 chiefs, especially after Moshesh's victories, main- 
 tained that it did not. Among the missionaries was 
 one whose name as an explorer is world-famed, the 
 Reverend Dr. Livingstone, who since 1845 had re- 
 sided with the Bakwena chief Setyeli. There were 
 many points of character common to Dr. Livingstone 
 and the emigrant farmers, but each looked only at 
 those in which they differed, consequently the feel- 
 ing between them was one of antipathy. The farm- 
 ers complained that the natives were being armed 
 by English hunters and traders who entered the coun- 
 try by the line of mission stations among the Bet- 
 shuana clans, and they tried to close that road. Dr. 
 Livingstone announced his determination to keep it 
 open. He termed it the English road, and claimed 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 363 
 
 absolute independence for the clans along it. Then 
 he gave great offence by challenging Commandant 
 Potgieter as a proof of relative civilisation to pro- 
 duce a class of white boys and girls who could read 
 as well as the Bakwena children under his tuition. 
 
 A tract of land had been allotted by Command- 
 ant Potgieter to Setyeli on condition that he should 
 not acquire any guns, horses, or waggons. ~No tax of 
 any kind was imposed upon him, because his location 
 was a long way from the nearest farms, and he was 
 not regarded as a chief of much importance. Dr. 
 Livingstone had induced him to move from the loca- 
 tion to a place on the Kolobeng River forty miles 
 farther westward, where he obtained ammunition 
 and guns to arm his men. 
 
 There was a little band calling itself the Bakatla, 
 under a chief named Moselele, living on the Ma- 
 rikwa among the farmers, and greatly addicted to 
 cattle-lifting. It became necessary to call Moselele 
 to account, upon which he fled with most of his ad- 
 herents to Setyeli, who gave him shelter and re- 
 fused to surrender him when called upon to do so. 
 
 In August, 1852, a strong burgher force marched 
 to Kolobeng, where the Bakwena were found in- 
 trenched and their chief defiant. After waiting 
 forty-eight hours, an attack was made, which was 
 not entirely successful, but during the following 
 night Setyeli and his warriors retired into the des- 
 ert, leaving the women and children behind. Field- 
 cornet Paul Kruger, who went out to reconnoitre in 
 the morning, found the Bakwena positions aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Dr. Livingstone's house was at a distance of eight 
 or nine miles from the scene of action, and was at 
 the time unoccupied. A patrol that visited it a 
 
364 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 couple of days later reported that it had been broken 
 open before their arrival, and books and other prop- 
 erty had been destroyed, but by whom this wanton 
 damage was done remains to the present day doubt- 
 ful. In an outbuilding some guns and gunsmith's 
 tools were found, which were confiscated by the com- 
 mando. 
 
 The expedition then returned, taking with it be- 
 tween two and three hundred of the women and chil- 
 dren who had been abandoned by the warriors. There 
 are circumstances in which this is justifiable or neces- 
 sary, but where government is as weak as it was at 
 that time among the emigrant farmers the practice 
 is liable to lead to great abuses. Such captives, if 
 not claimed by their friends, were presumed to be 
 destitute, and were apprenticed to individuals for a 
 term of years, when practically they had no safe- 
 guard against ill-treatment except the facility with 
 which they could make their escape. This system, 
 which was followed in most of the native wars of 
 the northern republic at this period, gave rise to a 
 charge against the farmers that they were practising 
 slavery, but they have always maintained that the 
 term is incorrect when applied to the condition of 
 such native apprentices. 
 
 Another expedition in the same year was against 
 the Bapedi tribe, which occupied a district that was 
 a great natural fortress, and had now become so 
 strong that its chief, Sekwati by name, thought he 
 could pillage the white people in his neighbourhood 
 at will. In August, 1852, this drew upon him a 
 burgher force under Commandant Potgieter, who 
 laid siege to a mountain stronghold on which the 
 chief and many of his people were stationed. Sek- 
 wati was called upon to surrender his guns, but would 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 365 
 
 not do so, though from the want of water on his 
 mountain a large proportion of the people with him 
 perished of thirst After maintaining the siege for 
 twenty days the commando retired, without having 
 brought the chief to submission, but having inflicted 
 such punishment upon him that it was long before 
 his people troubled the farmers again. 
 
 In May, 1853, the Keverend Dirk van der Hoff, 
 the first clergyman who settled in the country north 
 of the Vaal, arrived from Holland. Before this 
 time services were held only at long intervals by 
 clergymen who made visitation tours from JSTatal, 
 the Cape Colony, or the Free State, so that for six- 
 teen years the people had been almost without the 
 ministrations of the Gospel. Yet their faith was not 
 weakened in the slightest degree, for the Bible was 
 in constant use in every household. It was the only 
 book they had, and they clung to its teaching as 
 they interpreted it 
 
 At this time the territory between the Limpopo 
 and Zambesi rivers was opened under certain re- 
 strictions to European hunters. Three brothers 
 named Pieter Jacobus, Jan Abraham, and Frans 
 Gerhard Joubert, uncles of the late General P. 
 J. Joubert, taking their lives in their hands, pro- 
 ceeded to the kraal of Moselekatse, and to their great 
 satisfaction were able to conclude an agreement of 
 amity, which was afterwards faithfully observed 
 on both sides. Proper precautions had, of course, 
 to be used when entering the country, and the regula- 
 tions laid down by the chief had to be strictly com- 
 plied with, for anything like colonisation was pro- 
 hibited. Thenceforth the ivory of Matabeleland 
 found its way to the different villages of the repub- 
 lic, and with ostrich feathers and skins of wild ani- 
 
366 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 mals constituted a medium of exchange for manu- 
 factured articles from abroad. 
 
 In 1853 the commandants-general Pretorius, Pot- 
 gieter, and Enslin died. ]STo successor to the last 
 named was appointed, but the volksraad conferred 
 upon Mr. Marthinus Wessel Pretorius and Mr. 
 Pieter Potgieter the offices which their fathers had 
 held. The discord between the different parties con- 
 tinued, or if anything grew more violent after this 
 event, but the character of the people was such that 
 neither life nor property was endangered by it. 
 
 In 1854 an event took place which was very 
 severely commented upon in Europe. A party of 
 elephant hunters, under the leadership of Hermanns 
 Potgieter, a brother of the late commandant-general, 
 arrived with their waggons at the kraal of the chief 
 Makapan, at the place since known as Makapan's 
 Poort. The party consisted of thirteen white men, 
 with ten women and children, for hunters often took 
 their families with them. Whether any provocation 
 was given has never been correctly ascertained, but 
 some time after their arrival Makapan's people fell 
 upon them and murdered them all. Potgieter was 
 skinned alive, and all the bodies were mutilated in a 
 shocking manner, but whether this was done before 
 or after death was never known. Immediately after 
 the massacre Makapan's people were joined by six 
 other clans, and commenced to pillage and lay waste 
 the district of Zoutpansberg. 
 
 The farmers had barely time to construct lagers 
 when their dwellings were in flames and their herds 
 swept off, but two commandos, under Pieter Pot- 
 gieter and Marthinus Pretorius, were quickly on the 
 scene. The burghers became infuriated on seeing 
 the mangled remains of the murdered people, and 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 367 
 
 determined to inflict a terrible punishment. Maka- 
 pan with his retainers took shelter in an immense 
 cavern, and after a fruitless attempt to get posses- 
 sion of it, followed by an effort to smoke the occu- 
 pants out, the mouth was blocked up with brushwood 
 and stones and a strong guard was set over it. 
 
 On the 6th of November Commandant Potgieter, 
 when standing in front of the entrance, was shot 
 dead by some one inside. Fieldcornet Paul Kru- 
 ger carried the body away, and the investment con- 
 tinued. The surrounding country was scoured by 
 Kruger and other officers until opposition ceased, 
 and then, on the twenty-fifth day of the blockade, 
 the cavern was entered. There was hardly any re- 
 sistance, for most of the occupants had perished, 
 but the overpowering stench prevented the burghers 
 from exploring the recesses and passages that led 
 away to unknown distances in all directions. It was 
 supposed that nearly two thousand persons had per- 
 ished of thirst, and about nine hundred had been 
 killed outside, so that Makapan's clan was almost 
 annihilated. 
 
 Mr. Stephanus Schoeman was appointed command- 
 ant-general in place of Mr. Potgieter, but his au- 
 thority did not extend beyond the district of Zout- 
 pansberg. In Potchefstroom and Rustenburg Mr. 
 Pretorius alone was henceforth recognised. 
 
 Violent ecclesiastical dissension was now added to 
 the political discord in the country. The chief ques- 
 tion disputed was whether the church should be con- 
 nected with the synod of the Cape Colony or not. 
 This seems a trivial matter, but many of the burghers 
 believed that their independence might be affected by 
 it. They asserted that Sir Harry Smith had once 
 said that if he could not conquer them with the 
 
368 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Sword he would do it with the Word, and they 
 wished therefore to be as little connected with any 
 institution in the Cape Colony as possible. A visit 
 of the Reverend Messrs. Neethling and Louw, two 
 clergymen who had been deputed by the Cape synod 
 to visit the country and conduct services, was held 
 by this party to be uncalled-for interference, as they 
 had a minister of their own and had not asked for 
 aid from outside. 
 
 On the 9th of April, 1844, a kind of constitution, 
 consisting of thirty-three articles, had been adopted 
 by Commandant Potgieter's adherents, and ait a meet- 
 ing of delegates from the different parties at Derde 
 Poort on the 23rd of May, 1849, it was agreed that 
 there should be a single volksraad, with these thirty- 
 three articles as the fundamental law. In theory 
 this arrangement still held good, but in practice each 
 man accepted as much or as little of this constitu- 
 tion as pleased him. 
 
 The ecclesiastical dispute brought on a crisis. The 
 adherents of Commandant-General Joubert, who were 
 the residents of the district of Lydenburg, and the 
 party of Commandant-General Schoeman, who occu- 
 pied Zoutpansberg, declared for union with the Cape 
 synod, and no change in the form of government; 
 the adherents of Commandant-General Pretorius, 
 who formed the great majority of the inhabitants of 
 Potchefstroom, Eustenburg, and the new district 
 of Pretoria created in November, 1855, de- 
 clared for an independent church and a more 
 compact form of government. In 1855 the 
 volksraad met in session at Elands River, 
 and a petition was presented asking for the 
 appointment of a committee to draft a new 
 constitution. The adherents of Mr. Pretorius being 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 369 
 
 in a majority, this was agreed to, and a committee 
 of three members was appointed for the purpose, one 
 of whom was Paul Kruger. In every important 
 event in the history of the country this determined, 
 courageous, and highly intelligent, but illiterate 
 man was an actor, even to the framing of the con- 
 stitution, though he was as ignorant of jurispru- 
 dence as a little child. 
 
 An educated Hollander named Jacobus Stuart, 
 who was visiting the country in the interests of a 
 trading association, was appointed secretary to the 
 committee, and he drew up the resolutions of the 
 members in correct language and arranged them in 
 order. Then Mr. Pretorius made a tour through 
 the districts of Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, and 
 Pretoria, and submitted the draft to meetings of the 
 burghers at all the centres of population. It was 
 generally well received, so immediately afterwards a 
 representative assembly of twenty-four members, one 
 for each field cornetcy, was elected for the special 
 purpose of adopting it with any modifications that 
 might be considered advisable, and of appointing 
 the officials that were to form the new executive 
 branch of the government. 
 
 The assembly met at Potchefstroom on the 16th 
 of December, 1856, and during a session of nearly 
 three weeks made several changes in the original 
 draft. As finally adopted, the constitution provided 
 that legislative power should be vested in a volksraad 
 to be elected by the burghers, and to meet in session 
 at least once every year ; that the executive authority 
 should be entrusted to a president to be elected by the 
 burghers; that there should be an executive council 
 to assist the president ; that there should be only one 
 commandant-general, who was to be elected by the 
 
 z 
 
370 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 burghers liable to military service, and who should 
 receive his instructions from the president in time of 
 war; that Potchefstroom should be the seat of gov- 
 ernment ; and that the church should be independent 
 of outside connections. It also provided for the elec- 
 tion of landdrosts, commandants, and fieldcornets, 
 and for a variety of other matters. "No equality of 
 the coloured people with the burghers either in 
 church or state was to be tolerated. 
 
 The country w r as to be termed the South African 
 Republic, and a flag was adopted: the Batavian tri- 
 colour with a green vertical stripe at the inner end. 
 Mr. Marthinus Wessel Pretorius was appointed presi- 
 dent by twenty-one votes to three, and Mr. Stephanus 
 Schoeman was chosen commandant-general. 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1857, the president and 
 members of the executive council were installed with 
 much ceremony, and the new flag was raised and 
 saluted, after a blessing had been invoked upon it 
 by the Reverend Mr. Van der Hoff. 
 
 As soon as this became known in Zoutpansberg 
 there was an outburst of indignation. On the 29th 
 of January at a public meeting the people of the 
 district disowned the new constitution and every- 
 thing connected with it. Mr. Schoeman declined to 
 accept office under Mr. Pretorius, and a manifesto 
 of independence was published and acted upon. 
 ; The rump of the old volksraad met at Lydenburg 
 on the 17th of December, 1856, and repudiating 
 what was taking place at Potchefstroom, declared 
 .the district a sovereign and independent state, under 
 the name of the Republic of Lydenburg. There 
 was a district called Utrecht on the borders of 
 Zululand and JSTatal, that had been settled in 1848, 
 and whose inhabitants had hitherto claimed entire 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 371 
 
 independence of all other communities. There was, 
 however, strong sympathy between them and their 
 neighbours in Lydenburg, and negotiations for union 
 were now opened, with the result that on the 8th of 
 May, 1858, the two districts came under a single 
 government. 
 
 Absurd as it seems, for some time after this there 
 were three distinct and rival states north of the 
 Vaal, where there were not in all twenty thousand 
 Europeans. 
 
 Mr. Pretorius's party hoped to be joined by the 
 Orange Free State, and in February, 1857, he him- 
 self with a colleague named Goetz proceeded to 
 Bloemfontein to ascertain what could be done there. 
 But at that time most of the Free State people 
 were desirous of alliance with the Cape Colony 
 under a federal government, so the visitors returned 
 from Bloemfontein without success. On the way, 
 however, they met with several partisans, and in the 
 belief that in other parts of the State persons friend- 
 ly to their cause must be numerous, the government 
 at Potchef stroom resolved to send an armed force to 
 overthrow Mr. Boshof ? s authority. 
 
 Upon Mr. Schoeman's secession, Mr. J. F. Dreyer 
 was appointed commandant-general. In April at the 
 head of two or three hundred men he crossed the 
 Vaal, but only to find that the Free State people 
 had rallied round President Boshof, and that a 
 strong force was in arms to resist him. Command- 
 ant-General Schoeman from Zoutpansberg and Com- 
 mandant-General Joubert from Lydenburg also were 
 offering military assistance to the Free State, so that 
 Mr. Pretorius's cause was utterly hopeless. 
 
 The two commandos came face to face on opposite 
 banks of the Ehenoster Kiver, but as there were 
 
372 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 literally brothers and cousins in the opposing camps, 
 there was great reluctance to come to a combat. Mr. 
 Pretorius then sent Commandant Paul Kruger with 
 a flag of truce to propose a pacific settlement, and 
 this being agreed to by Mr. Boshof, on the 1st of 
 June, 1857, a formal treaty was signed, in which 
 each party recognized the other as absolutely free 
 and independent. 
 
 A very short experience proved to the people of 
 Zoutpansberg that they could not stand alone. 
 Therefore when proposals for reconciliation were 
 made to them from Potchefstroom they considered 
 them favourably, and Mr. Schoeman, who raised 
 objections to the last, was overruled. Deputies from 
 each side met and arranged terms, and in January, 
 1858, Zoutpansberg became part of the South Afri- 
 can Republic, and Mr. Schoeman took Mr. Dreyer's 
 place as commandant-general. 
 
 In 1858 two more clergymen arrived from the 
 Netherlands, one of whom was. stationed at Lyden- 
 burg and the other at Rustenburg. With their ar- 
 rival religious discord was revived, for the Reverend 
 Mr. Postma, of Rustenburg, differed from the others 
 in being more rigidly calvinistic. Attempts to re- 
 store concord were futile, and in August, 1859, a 
 formal separation between the two parties took place, 
 when what is termed the Separatist Reformed or 
 by its opponents the Dopper Church came into 
 existence in the South African Republic. Its mem- 
 bers maintain the extremest simplicity in worship, 
 and object to innovations of any kind, even to the 
 use of hymns in public services. In all their habits 
 they are conservative to the last degree, and are 
 about as stubborn a people to meet in opposition as 
 can be found on the face of the earth. They cor- 
 
EVENTS NORTH OF THE VAAL, 1852-1860. 373 
 
 respond closely to the Scotch Covenanters of days 
 gone by. In this church men like Mr. Paul Kruger, 
 with deep religious convictions combined with great 
 austerity in manner of life, find best what meets 
 their needs. In later years congregations were 
 formed in other parts of South Africa, and this com- 
 munion has now its own training college for clergy- 
 men at Burghersdorp in the Cape Colony. 
 
 A desire for union of the two states north of the 
 Vaal had by this time become general, and long 
 negotiations led to a meeting of representatives of 
 both at Pretoria on the 3rd of April, 1860. There 
 were present fifteen members of the volksraad of the 
 districts Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, Pretoria, and 
 Zoutpansberg, forming the South African Republic, 
 and twelve members of the volksraad of the districts 
 Lydenburg and Utrecht, forming the Republic of 
 Lydenburg. On the following day articles of union 
 were signed, when the smaller state was absorbed by 
 the larger, and it was agreed that Pretoria, as a more 
 central position than Potchefstroom, should become 
 the capital. 
 
374: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXII. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC FROM 1860 TO 1869. 
 
 THERE was now a single republic north of the 
 Vaal, but the dissension between the different fac- 
 tions was as strong as ever. The party that in 
 earlier years had adhered to Commandant Potgieter, 
 that may be termed the progressive section of the 
 community as far as concerns religious tolerance 
 and treatment of foreigners, immediately set itself 
 in opposition to the officials of the existing govern- 
 ment. President Pretorius had obtained six months' 
 leave of absence, and had gone to Bloemfontein to 
 take up a similar position in the Orange Free State, 
 with the avowed object of trying to bring about the 
 incorporation of that country also. Wlien the volks- 
 raad met at Pretoria in September, 1860, the ani- 
 mosity displayed towards him was so strong that he 
 resigned as president of the South African Repub- 
 lic, and all chance of union was at an end. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Grobbelaar was then appointed acting 
 president by the volksraad, but the other party held 
 a mass meeting at Potchefstroom, and resolved that 
 Mr. Stephanus Schoeman should fill that office. 
 After a series of meetings and counter-meetings Mr. 
 Schoeman raised an armed force to support his au- 
 thority, upon which Commandant Paul Kruger 
 called out the burghers of his district Rustenburg, 
 and marched to Pretoria to drive Schoeman out. 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, 1860-1869. 375 
 
 A number of influential persons then tried to prevent 
 civil war, and Kruger and Schoeman were induced 
 to consent to the election of three men from each 
 commando to form a court, with Mr. M. W. Preto- 
 rius as chairman, to determine what should be done. 
 This court decided that both commandos should be 
 disbanded, and that a new volksraad should be 
 elected, to whose authority all should bow. 
 
 In April, 1862, the new volksraad met. It made 
 a clean sweep of all the old officials as well as the 
 claimants to authority, selected a new staff, resolved 
 that a president should be elected by the people as 
 soon as circumstances would permit, and appointed 
 Mr. Willem C. Janse van Rensburg to act in the 
 meantime. Mr. Schoeman refused to submit, and 
 called his adherents to arms. Then Commandant 
 Kruger, without any other authority than his own 
 will, raised a strong force, with which he expelled 
 Schoeman and his partisans from Pretoria, followed 
 them to Potchefstroom, where they took shelter, and 
 laid siege to that village. He had three pieces of ar- 
 tillery and Schoeman only one. Fire was opened 
 upon the place, but very little damage was done, ex- 
 cept to the gables of a few houses. In a sortie 
 Schoeman lost his cannon and one man killed, and 
 was wounded himself with seven others, after which 
 he fled with his principal adherents to the Free State. 
 
 As soon as Kruger retired, however, he returned, 
 and was soon again at the head of eight hundred 
 men. Mr. Pretorius then appeared as a mediator, 
 and both parties agreed to await the decision of the 
 people to be made known at the polls. The dis- 
 turbed condition of the country prevented anything 
 like a fair general election until October, 1863, when 
 Mr. \ 7 an Kensburg was returned by a small majority 
 
376 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 as president and Mr. Paul Kruger by an unques- 
 tionable excess of votes as commandant-general. 
 
 The opposition now asserted that the ballot papers 
 for the president had been tampered with, and an- 
 other appeal to arms was made. On this occasion 
 Commandant Jan Viljoen, of the Marikwa, took the 
 lead. In December, 1863, he occupied Potchef- 
 stroom, and upon Commandant-General Kruger pro- 
 ceeding against him he was found to have such a 
 strong following that Kruger was obliged to retire 
 across the Vaal and most of his men surrendered. 
 Viljoen then marched upon Pretoria, when Presi- 
 dent Van Rensburg and the officials fled to Rusten- 
 burg, so he installed others of his own choice. He 
 then marched towards Rustenburg, but on the way at 
 the ford of the Limpopo was met by Kruger, who 
 had collected another army of eight or nine hun- 
 dred men. 
 
 On the 5th of January, 1864, a battle was fought, 
 in which Viljoen was driven back, but his commando 
 held together and retired in good order. He lost five 
 men killed and about thirty wounded, Kruger's 
 loss being two men killed and six or eight wounded. 
 On the following day Mr. Pretorius appeared again 
 as a mediator, and both parties agreed to abide by 
 the result of a new presidential election. 
 
 On this occasion one thousand five hundred and 
 nineteen votes were recorded for Marthinus Wessel 
 Pretorius and one thousand one hundred and eigh- 
 teen for Willem C. Janse van Rensburg. On the 
 10th of May, 1864, the volksraad met, and Mr. Pre- 
 torius took the oath of office. The civil strife now 
 ceased, not because party feeling was allayed, but 
 because of the pressure upon the Europeans by the 
 Bantu inhabitants. 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, 1860-1869. 377 
 
 Naturally these people had taken advantage of the 
 opportunity afforded by the dissensions among the 
 burghers to strengthen their own position. They 
 like independence as much as Englishmen or Dutch- 
 men do, and no one can justly blame them for it, al- 
 though to our ideas liberty is anything but a blessing 
 in their case. On the west the whole of the Betshu- 
 ana tribes were now practically free of control, and 
 the republic was never again able to exercise author- 
 ity over them. This was partly due to the facility 
 with which they could retire to the Kalahari desert 
 if attacked, partly to their having obtained arms 
 and ammunition in abundance in exchange for 
 peltry, and partly to the arid nature of the land on 
 which they lived, as it offered no temptation for set- 
 tlement to Europeans while better ground could be 
 had elsewhere. 
 
 On the east two powerful clans had risen in open 
 rebellion, and the white people had been obliged to 
 go into lagers, where they managed to defend them- 
 selves until the Swazis came to their aid and almost 
 exterminated the insurgents. This relief, however, 
 placed the Europeans in an extremely precarious 
 position, as owing their safety, not to their own 
 strength, but to that of a Bantu tribe. On this side 
 also a dispute with Cetywayo, son of the Zulu chief 
 Panda, concerning the ownership of a tract of land 
 on the Natal border, was beginning to cause trouble, 
 though actual hostilities were avoided. 
 
 In the north the large district of Zoutpansberg 
 was a scene of the wildest confusion. Refugees from 
 Matabeleland had crowded in there and occupied the 
 mountainous parts, and through this immigration 
 and the amazing natural increase of the earlier Bantu 
 inhabitants a very large portion of the district was 
 
378 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 in possession of black people. Many of the Euro- 
 peans on that border were of the roughest and most 
 turbulent type, and when the Bantu quarrelled 
 among themselves, as was their wont, these outcasts 
 took part in the strife and often committed acts re- 
 volting to humanity. They called themselves hunt- 
 ers and traders, but were in reality little better than 
 brigands. There was a mission station of the Dutch 
 Eeformed Church at Goedverwacht in this district, 
 and a clergyman of the same communion resided in 
 the village of Schoemansdal, where the ivory and 
 ostrich feather trade was brisk and where the land- 
 drost held his court, but outside of these two centres 
 all was lawlessness and disorder. 
 
 The most powerful chief in Zoutpansberg was 
 named Magadu, and owing to the Europeans having 
 aided his brother and rival, he was in a state of hos- 
 tility. President Pretorius visited the district in 
 July, 1864, and by some judicious arrangements en- 
 deavoured to restore order, but in vain. After his 
 departure things went from bad to worse, but the 
 government was powerless. In July, 1865, the mis- 
 sionaries were obliged to abandon Go-edverwacht, 
 and when in November of this year the president 
 and the commandant-general visited Schoemansdal 
 they found the farms laid waste even on the outskirts 
 of the village. An attempt to get together an armed 
 force failed at first, owing to the mutual dislike of 
 the burghers of the south and the north, and to want 
 of ammunition, for the government was in such 
 straits for want of money that it actually had not 
 means sufficient to pay for the transport from Dur- 
 ban of some powder stored there. 
 
 At length, in June, 1867, Commandant-General 
 Kruger got together five hundred poorly equipped 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, 1860-1869. 379 
 
 men, and marched to Zoutpansberg. With so small a 
 force he soon found that he could do nothing, so he 
 encamped at Schoemansdal and appealed to the coun- 
 try for fifteen hundred more men and a sufficient 
 supply of ammunition, without which he stated the 
 district must be abandoned. His appeal fell upon 
 deaf ears, for no aid was forthcoming. While he 
 was waiting in suspense two of the white inhabit- 
 ants were brought to trial for robbery of cattle from 
 natives, and were found guilty by the court of jus- 
 tice. TJpon this an unruly mob took possession of the 
 courthouse, released the prisoners, and set the au- 
 thorities at defiance. 
 
 This act was illustrative of the prevailing law- 
 lessness. The commandant-general was not disposed 
 to protect such individuals, and as no help came from 
 the south, he abandoned Schoemansdal. The inhab- 
 itants retired with him, and the landdrost and the 
 clergyman went to reside at Marabastad, a hamlet 
 seventy miles to the south-west. The village was at 
 once destroyed by the blacks. Some feeble efforts 
 were subsequently made to recover the abandoned 
 part of the district, but they all failed. Then the 
 various clans fought with each other, and a Swazi 
 army came down upon them and nearly exterminated 
 several, after which Mr. Stephanus Schoeman, who 
 was appointed diplomatic commissioner, arranged 
 terms with most of the chiefs, by which they ad- 
 mitted in name the supremacy of the republic, but 
 remained in reality almost independent. The north- 
 ern and larger portion of the district of Zoutpans- 
 berg was thus lost to the Europeans. 
 
 Since the first exploration of the country by white 
 men its mineral wealth was known to be great, but 
 not much had yet been done towards developing it. 
 
380 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Lead was obtained for home use, but the difficulty 
 and expense of carriage prevented its exportation. 
 Coal was found in the south-eastern districts, and 
 was used for fuel in some parts where wood was 
 scarce. Iron could be obtained in vast quantities, 
 and was smelted by the blacks for their own wants, 
 small clans often being in possession of many tons 
 of it. One mountain in the district of Lydenburg 
 was composed of nearly pure iron ore, and affected 
 the magnetic needle at a distance of ten miles. Salt 
 was plentiful and easily obtained from the pans. 
 Silver, copper, cobalt, sulphur, and saltpetre were 
 also found in various localities, but whether the 
 quantity and quality of these minerals were such as 
 to make their extraction profitable was, and still is, 
 unknown. 
 
 In December, 1867, a German explorer, by name 
 Karl Mauch, arrived at Pretoria from Matabeleland, 
 and reported that he had discovered rich and exten- 
 sive goldfields at the Tati, on a stream flowing from 
 the north-west into the Limpopo. A few weeks after 
 this announcement parties of gold seekers began to 
 leave the villages of the republic, and to pass through 
 them from other parts of South Africa. Exagger- 
 ated reports of the value of the discovery reached 
 Australia, and from that country a party of experi- 
 enced miners arrived at Natal, expecting to find gold 
 digging an established industry. Some of them 
 were sent to the Tati by a Natal company, others 
 were employed to prospect for gold in that colony. 
 In England the London and Limpopo Mining Com- 
 pany was formed in 1868, and in April of the fol- 
 lowing year Sir John Swinburne, its chief manager, 
 reached the Tati with expensive machinery. At 
 this time more than a hundred European diggers 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC, 1860-1869. 381 
 
 were at work, and two or three times that number 
 of blacks were employed by them. Gold was ob- 
 tained, and some specimens of quartz were found to 
 be extremely rich; but on the whole mining did not 
 then pay, and shortly most of the diggers dispersed. 
 
 Owing to the discovery of gold at the Tati, on the 
 29th of April, 1868, President Pretorius issued a 
 proclamation defining the boundaries of the republic, 
 making it extend to Lake ISTgami at one point and 
 to the mouth of the Maputa River at another. Such 
 a proclamation would have passed unnoticed by the 
 British authorities fifteen years earlier, but it was 
 very -different now. The tide of public opinion in 
 Great Britain had already turned in the direction 
 of enlargement of the empire, and though it had not 
 yet acquired much force, many Englishmen, and 
 among them the governor of the Cape Colony, were 
 not disposed to look calmly on while other countries 
 were acquiring vast tracts of land which might some 
 day be found of great value. 
 
 Sir Philip Wodehouse therefore immediately 
 raised objections to the inclusion in the South Afri- 
 can Republic of territory occupied by independent 
 native tribes, and the Portuguese consul-general in 
 South Africa protested against the annexation of 
 ground belonging to the kingdom he represented. 
 The objections of Sir Philip Wodehouse will be 
 dealt with in another chapter, those of the consul- 
 general were followed by negotiations which re- 
 sulted in a treaty of friendship between the South 
 African Republic and Portugal, dated 29th of July, 
 1869, in which the eastern boundary of the country 
 was defined. 
 
 The white population during these years had been 
 increasing, though immigration had been small. 
 
382 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Among the new settlers were a few Scotch families 
 introduced in 1866 by a gentleman named McCork- 
 indale, who had land assigned to them round Lake 
 Chrissie, near the Swazi border, where they soon be- 
 came a prosperous community. Nearly all the vil- 
 lages were now supplied with clergymen, and the 
 Berlin, Hermansburg, and Wesleyan missionary 
 societies, as well as the Dutch Reformed, had com- 
 menced to work among the blacks. The new dis- 
 tricts of Wakkerstroom, Middelburg, Waterberg, 
 Heidelberg, and Bloemhof had been formed, and 
 landdrosts were stationed in each of them. 
 
 The public revenue was never sufficient to meet 
 the expenditure, trifling as that was, for the burgh- 
 ers would not pay taxes when they could avoid doing 
 so. At different times paper had been stamped and 
 put into circulation, until in 1869 the face value of 
 the notes was $354,365. Though over six million 
 acres of waste land were pledged as security for these 
 notes, their purchasing power was small, at times 
 only one-fourth of that of gold. The public build- 
 ings were of the plainest description, and such works 
 as good roads or bridges over the rivers had not been 
 thought of. 
 
 The country had been proved to be well adapted 
 for agriculture and large cattle breeding. Woolled 
 sheep, however, did not thrive as well, except in lim- 
 ited localities, as in the Free State. In the warm 
 valleys coffee and almost every kind of tropical fruit 
 attained perfection, and on the highlands flourished 
 all the plants of Central and Southern Europe. 
 Without much effort therefore the tables of the farm- 
 ers were always supplied with food of the best kind, 
 but they grew no more than they needed for them- 
 selves, as there was no market for surplus produce. 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 383 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 A TRIVIAL cause often produces a startling effect. 
 In 1866 on a lonely farm, in one of the dreariest 
 parts of South Africa that is occupied by Europeans, 
 a little child picked up a pebble to play with, and in 
 doing so altered the whole condition of society in the 
 country. Mr. Schalk van Niekerk, a neighbour, hap- 
 pening to call, admired the pretty stone, upon which 
 Mrs. Jacobs, the child's mother, made him a present 
 of it. Some months later an itinerant trader named 
 O'Reilly visited Mr. Van Kiekerk's house in the 
 way of business, and the pebble which sparkled so 
 wondrously in the light was shown to him as a curi- 
 osity. He at once suspected that it was a diamond, 
 and by his advice it was sent to Grahamstown first 
 and then to Capetown to be tested. 
 
 It proved to be a diamond of twenty-one carats, 
 and was purchased by Sir Philip Wodehouse for 
 $2,400, which was fairly divided among its first 
 possessors, Mrs. Jacobs receiving $1,200, or a full 
 half, as her share. The place where this gem was 
 picked up was close to the southern bank of the 
 Orange River, about thirty miles below Hopetown. 
 The eyes of every one in the arid district were now 
 cast upon the pebbles, and soon another diamond, 
 and then a third, were found, the last away on the 
 northern bank of the Vaal. Still there was no 
 rush of people from other parts of the country, and 
 
884: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 very little sensation was caused by the discovery 
 except in the immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 But in March, 1869, Mr. Van Niekerk, whose 
 eyes and ears were very wide open by this time, came 
 to learn that a native witchfinder had long been in 
 possession of a wonderful charm, and from the de- 
 scription which was givenjto him he concluded that it 
 might be worth looking after. He found the witch- 
 finder, was shown the charm, and before the inter- 
 view was over had it in his pocket in exchange for 
 cattle worth about a thousand dollars. It was the 
 famous Star of South Africa, a magnificent brilliant 
 of eighty-three carats weight when uncut, for which 
 the merchants Lilienveld Brothers readily gave the 
 lucky Van Niekerk $53,760. It was believed that 
 this gem had been found on the bank of the Vaal, 
 above the junfction of the Hart, but this is not quite 
 certain. 
 
 All kinds of industry were in a state of great de- 
 pression at this time, owing to a protracted drought, 
 and thus many hundreds of young men were ready 
 for any new enterprise. They formed small parties, 
 and went to look for diamonds. Soon camps arose 
 along the banks of the Yaal, and as success attended 
 the search for the precious stones, these grew ever 
 larger and larger. Farmers, and clerks, and mechan- 
 ics, men of every occupation in short, Dutch and 
 English, swarmed to the place where fortunes were 
 to be made by a few, but then each individual hoped 
 to be one of those few. From Africa the lust for dia- 
 monds spread to Europe and America and Australia, 
 and before, the close of 1870 strangers were flocking 
 in from all parts of the civilised world. 
 
 In this year the mines at Dutoitspan and Bultfon- 
 tein, between the Vaal and Modder rivers, were dis- 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 385 
 
 covered, and quickly canvas camps rose there also. 
 In June, 1871, the marvellous pipe at Yooruitzigt 
 now Kimberley the most valuable spot of its size 
 on the surface of the earth, was opened, and at its 
 side appeared a city of tents. No machinery was 
 required at this early stage, all that a digger needed 
 was a sieve with a shovel and a pickaxe, and each 
 one worked on his own account, except in cases where 
 three or four clubbed together. 
 
 ~No railway then extended beyond the coast belt, 
 but the roads from the ports to the diamond fields 
 were covered with heavy waggons drawn by fourteen 
 or sixteen oxen, carrying supplies of food and mer- 
 chandise to the diggers. It was not long before lines 
 of coaches too were laid on, for the convenience of 
 passengers of many classes, and the large camps be- 
 came places where the style of living \^as in marked 
 contrast to that elsewhere in South Africa. Excite- 
 ment became almost a necessity of existence, days 
 of toil were followed by evenings of revelry, in not 
 a few instances perhaps by something worse. But 
 what need is there to describe it further ? A mining 
 camp in its early stages, where a large number of men 
 are massed together, without home restraints or 
 home comforts, is the same all the world over. 
 
 North of the Vaal the ground where diamonds were 
 found was claimed by the South African Republic 
 and by each of the native clans living near it. The 
 volksraad of the republic very foolishly granted a 
 monopoly of mining rights to a single company, 
 which was promptly repudiated by the diggers, who 
 thereupon set that government aside. Several Euro- 
 peans obtained concessions from native claimants, 
 and tried to establish exclusive privileges under them, 
 but were unsuccessful. One camp formed itself 
 
 2A 
 
386 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 into an independent republic, and elected a presi- 
 dent of its own. Matters political were certainly 
 complicated, but fortunately no serious crimes were 
 committed, and in case of petty offences by blacks 
 rough and ready justice was administered, in accord- 
 ance with public opinion, by laying the offender over 
 a cask and inflicting a few strokes with a sembok. 
 It was evident, however, that matters could not re- 
 main long in this condition. 
 
 Sir Philip Wodehouse had returned to England, 
 and Lieutenant-General Hay was acting as high com- 
 missioner until the arrival of Sir Henry Barkly, 
 who had been appointed governor of the Cape Colony. 
 Most of the diggers were British subjects, so General 
 Hay issued a commission to Mr. John Campbell 
 under the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Bill, and 
 sent him as special magistrate to Klipdrift now 
 Barkly West on the Yaal Kiver to preserve order. 
 He was very well received, but his power was so ex- 
 tremely limited under the Act, which had also long 
 been regarded as obsolete, that his authority was al- 
 most entirely of a moral nature. A commission was 
 indeed procured for him from the petty Griqua cap- 
 tain Nicholas Waterboer, who lived about ninety 
 miles away, and whose agent, Mr. David Arnot, was 
 one of the claimants of the territory, but Water- 
 boer's pretensions were considered by every one on 
 the spot to be so absurd that Mr. Campbell deemed 
 it expedient to keep any power derived from him in 
 the background. 
 
 Meantime President Pretorius was making ex- 
 traordinary exertions to come to terms with the vari- 
 ous Bantu and Korana claimants to the ground, 
 all of whom were now represented by clever Euro- 
 pean agents, who worked up cases for them that they 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 387 
 
 would never have thought of themselves, and who 
 were intensely hostile to Dutch supremacy as affect- 
 ing their positions. Under these circumstances all 
 negotiations failed, and so the new governor, Sir 
 Henry Barkly, when he visited Klipdrift in Feb- 
 ruary, 1871, found an immediate settlement of some 
 kind imperative. President Pretorius was there to 
 meet him, as were the whole of the native claim- 
 ants and their European agents. A simple tempo- 
 rary administration was established by agreement 
 between the high commissioner and the president, 
 and all parties were induced to refer their claims to 
 a court of arbitration, whose decision they bound 
 themselves to abide by. President Pretorius nomi- 
 nated Mr. Anthony Alexander O'Reilly, landdrost 
 of Wakkerstroom, as one member of the court, and 
 Sir Henry Barkly nominated Mr. John Campbell, 
 the special magistrate at Klipdrift, as the other. 
 It was agreed that if they should differ, the final 
 decision was to rest with Mr. Robert William Keate, 
 lieutenant-governor of the colony of Natal. 
 
 The diamond mines between the Yaal and Mod- 
 der rivers were in territory that had formed part of 
 the Orange River Sovereignty, and over which the 
 government of the Orange Free State had exercised 
 jurisdiction ever since 1854. But Mr. Arnot, on 
 behalf of Nicholas Waterboer, laid claim to it also, 
 though not a single Griqua lived in it, and he offered 
 at the same time to cede it to the British government,; 
 together with the territory some distance to the west- 
 ward actually occupied by the little clan, in return 
 for a handsome annuity to the captain. Order was 
 well preserved at these fields, the Free State land- 
 drost was popular, and a good deal of power was left 
 by the volksraad to a local elected committee, which 
 
388 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 had one-tenth of the whole revenue derived from 
 mining licenses at its disposal. There had been a 
 long correspondence between President Brand and 
 General Hay concerning Waterboer's claim, and the 
 volksraad at Bloemfontein sent the president and 
 Mr. C. W. Hutton to Capetown to meet Sir Henry, 
 Barkly on his arrival and explain matters to him. 
 
 The new governor, who assumed duty on the 31st 
 of December, 1870, had an opportunity to bring 
 the different communities in South Africa closer to- 
 gether, and he deliberately threw it away. The 
 Free State was prepared to admit that the discovery 
 of diamonds in vast numbers had created a new con- 
 dition of things in the country, and was ready to 
 make any reasonable arrangement that would give to 
 Great Britain that voice in the management and con- 
 trol of the new industry and those engaged in it to 
 which she was entitled as the preponderating power. 
 But, smarting as its people were from Sir Philip 
 Wodehouse's treatment, they were not in the humour 
 to submit to further humiliation, and they claimed 
 a right to be dealt with as a people upon whom in- 
 dependence had indeed been forced, but who had 
 proved themselves worthy of freedom and had come 
 to prize it as the greatest of blessings. 
 
 Sir Henry Barkly treated the delegates with super- 
 cilious disdain. He kept their time occupied with 
 the most trivial matters, and then proposed to them 
 to submit Waterboer's claim to the diamond fields 
 to arbitration by a local court. To this they would 
 not consent. They believed themselves rightly en- 
 titled to a tract of land beyond the lower Yaal River 
 that had been purchased from the agent of a native 
 chief, and their claim to this they were willing to 
 submit to the decision of a foreign potentate; but 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 to ground that had formed part of the Orange River 
 Sovereignty, that had been transferred to them by 
 the British special commissioner Sir George Clerk, 
 they would not admit that there could be any doubt 
 of ownership, and therefore no reason existed for 
 arbitration concerning it. In the part of the former 
 Sovereignty claimed by Mr. Arnot for Waterboer 
 there were at least a hundred and forty occupied 
 farms, a considerable number of which were held 
 under British titles. These they would not place in 
 the slightest jeopardy. 
 
 The Free State was therefore not represented in 
 the arbitration court that opened its sittings at the 
 village of Bloemhof on the 4th of April, 1871. The 
 whole proceedings there were a farce. To conduct 
 the case for the South African Republic President 
 Pretorius and the state attorney Frederik Klein 
 appeared, but without documents, with no ar- 
 ranged plans or evidence, leaving in fact everything 
 to chance and fate. It may be said with truth that 
 the real ground on which the republic ought to have 
 rested its claim was never put before the court at 
 all. On the other side were several clever men, chief 
 among whom was Mr. David Arnot, agent for Water- 
 boer. He was a lawyer, practising at Colesberg in 
 the Cape Colony, and had the reputation of being 
 exceedingly smart in his profession. He knew that 
 he had no case, not a trump card in his hand, as ho 
 afterwards said to the writer of this volume, only 
 the stupidity of his opponents to work upon. But 
 upon that he worked with the utmost effect during 
 the whole proceedings, which lasted until the 19th 
 of June. 
 
 The arbitrators, as had been foreseen, disagreed, 
 and the evidence was then sent to Lieutenant-Gov- 
 
390 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ernor Keate for his decision. On the 17th of 
 October, 1871, Mr. Keate issued his award. It gave 
 to Nicholas Waterboer the whole of the territory 
 claimed by him west of Platberg on the Vaal, and 
 cut off from the South African Republic in favour 
 of different Bantu clans the entire country west of 
 Makwasi Spruit. In this was the district of Bloem- 
 hof, part of the district of Potchefstroom, and part 
 of the Marikwa, containing many of the farms first 
 occupied by Europeans in the time of Commandant 
 Hendrik Potgieter. 
 
 Four days later the award reached Capetown, 
 when Sir Henry Barkly immediately issued a series 
 of proclamations, taking over Nicholas Waterboer 
 and his people as British subjects and their country 
 with the boundaries of the present province of 
 Griqualand West as British territory, making pro- 
 vision for its government, and appointing a staff of 
 officials. Without delay a strong detachment of the 
 frontier armed and mounted police was sent to the 
 diamond fields, the proceedings of the landdrost's 
 court were interrupted, and the Free State officials 
 withdrew under protest. The territory then became 
 a crown colony under the name of Griqualand West. 
 Utterly ridiculous as it may seem, it was really be- 
 lieved in England as may be seen from Lord Kim- 
 berley's despatches that this measure prevented 
 " an encroachment on the Griqua territory by the 
 republics which would open to the Boers an extended 
 field for their slave-dealing operations, and prob- 
 ably lead to much oppression of the natives and 
 disturbance of peace." The burghers of the Eree 
 State were so irritated by such language and treat- 
 ment that it was with difficulty President Brand 
 could prevent hostilities. He felt as keenly on the 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 391 
 
 subject as any of them, but he was far too wise to 
 risk an encounter that could only have ended dis- 
 astrously for his people. 
 
 But if the manner in which the principal dia- 
 mond fields were taken from the Free State was cal- 
 culated to produce great soreness of feeling, it can 
 be asserted almost without fear of contradiction that 
 their severance was really advantageous to the little 
 republic. The government at Bloemfontein was 
 freed from the difficulty and trouble of preserving 
 order among a body of men so different in thought 
 and habits from the farming population, and from 
 the danger of a revolt. The market for produce re- 
 mained as free and open as before. A mine at 
 Jagersfontein, far from the others, still remained 
 under its control, and though less productive than 
 Kimberley or Dutoitspan, afforded ample employ- 
 ment for as many of the burghers as chose to follow 
 the occupation of diamond digging. 
 
 It was at this time indeed that the Orange Free 
 State entered upon a career of prosperity unsur- 
 passed by any other community in South Africa. 
 The attention of the government, undistracted by 
 difficulties with native tribes or by contentions with 
 outsiders, could be devoted wholly to internal im- 
 provements, to the effectual administration of justice, 
 and to the education of youth, in all of which it has 
 kept pace with the most progressive and enlightened 
 of nations. Its treatment of the coloured people 
 within its borders has been most exemplary, not even 
 a labour tax having ever been imposed, in order to 
 avoid everything that could by any construction of 
 words be made to signify an inclination for slavery 
 or unremunerated toil. Nowhere else in South 
 Africa is an equal number of this class of the in- 
 
392 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 habitants in possession of so much material wealth, 
 or under more careful protection by the law, though 
 the blacks are not admitted to the franchise except 
 by special resolution of the volksraad in rare cases 
 where they have lived long after the manner of 
 Europeans. 
 
 In 1876, nearly five years after Griqualand West 
 became a British colony, the claimants to a number 
 of farms brought actions before the high court to 
 obtain possession. Among them were several to 
 whom Nicholas Waterboer had granted land at the 
 time when his pretensions to the country were before 
 the court of arbitration, and they rested their cases 
 upon the fact that he was then the declared legiti- 
 mate proprietor. The same ground was claimed 
 by others as having been granted by the Eree State 
 government. It was an awkward position for a 
 British judge to be in, but he did his duty honestly 
 and regardless of political consequences, as became 
 his responsible position. For weeks he listened to 
 evidence in which the whole past history of the little 
 Griqua clan was given in the minutest detail, and 
 then after careful consideration he delivered judg- 
 ment. Waterboer's grants were thrown out, because 
 neither he nor his father, the first captain, had ever 
 any ownership in or jurisdiction over that part of 
 the country. 
 
 Upon this President Brand went to England to 
 claim justice from the imperial government. "You 
 took this territory with the diamond mines from me," 
 he said, " on the ground that it belonged to Nicholas 
 Waterboer; now your own judge, after a most ex- 
 haustive investigation, has decided that Waterboer 
 had no right to it. Surely equity requires that you 
 should restore it to its proper owner?" But this 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 393 
 
 was now impossible. Vested interests had been 
 created, and the population had become so entirely 
 British in feeling that the flag could not be with- 
 drawn without immediate strife. Further it was 
 almost everywhere held that Great Britain as the 
 preponderating power in the country should be in 
 possession of the diamond fields. So the president 
 was informed that the territory would not be re- 
 stored, but he was offered a pecuniary solatium of 
 $432,000. This he accepted, and with it paid off 
 the public debt of the Free State, which enabled a 
 larger amount than before to be devoted to useful 
 purposes. 
 
 It was supposed by the imperial government at the 
 time of taking over the country that the Cape Colony 
 would gladly annex it and provide for its defence. 
 But this a majority in the Cape parliament was un- 
 willing to do, as under the circumstances it would 
 have been an unfriendly act towards the Orange 
 Free State. But now that difficulty was removed, 
 and in 1877 an Act was passed by which Griqualand 
 West was incorporated with the Cape Colony. 
 
 Previous to this the parliament had undergone 
 important changes. In 1872 responsible government 
 was introduced, when the heads of departments 
 ceased to be appointed in England, and were re- 
 placed by ministers commanding the confidence of 
 the two houses and holding office only so long as they 
 did so. The ministers were a colonial secretary, a 
 treasurer-general, an attorney-general, a commis- 
 sioner of crown lands and public works, and a secre- 
 tary for native affairs. The leader of the majority 
 in the house of assembly selected them, and could 
 take any one of the five portfolios which he chose for 
 himself. Thus was completed the measure of liberty; 
 
394 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 granted by Great Britain to the colonists, and the 
 country took its place among the great self-governing 
 dependencies of the empire. In the same year an- 
 other constituency, that of the division of Wode- 
 house, was added to the eastern province, with the 
 right of returning two members to the house of as- 
 sembly. 
 
 In 1874 a change was made in the manner of elect- 
 ing members for the legislative council. Instead of 
 two provinces, the colony was divided into seven, 
 each returning three members, who were to hold 
 their seats for seven years. 
 
 The Act for the incorporation of Griqualand West 
 provided that it should form an electoral province 
 and return one member to the legislative council, 
 and that in it two electoral divisions should be con- 
 stituted, to be known as Kimberley and Barkly, each 
 returning two members to the house of assembly. 
 
 By this time diamond digging, except along the 
 banks of the Vaal where only surface soil was worked, 
 was becoming too expensive an operation for single 
 individuals without capital. The pipes at Dutoits- 
 pan, De Beer's, and Kimberley had been emptied 
 of their contents to such a depth that expensive 
 machinery was needed to bring up the ground, and 
 the vast quantity of diamonds thrown into the 
 markets of the world had caused a great diminution 
 in their value. To meet the first difficulty a number 
 of small companies came into existence, and to meet 
 the second most of these companies were finally 
 amalgamated into one great association, termed the 
 De Beer's Mining Company, by the skilful manage- 
 ment of the Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes. 
 As this association can control the quantity placed 
 yearly on the market, it can to a considerable extent 
 
DISCOVERY OF DIAMONDS AND ITS EFFECTS. 395 
 
 regulate the price, and therefore its dividends have 
 always been large. 
 
 To the close of the year 1899 diamonds valued at 
 about four hundred million dollars have been ob- 
 tained in Griqualand West. The canvas camps have 
 long since disappeared, and substantially built towns, 
 with well laid out streets, lit by electricity and sup- 
 plied with all modern conveniences, have taken their 
 places. 
 
396 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXIV. 
 
 THE ANNEXATION OF THE SOUTH AFEICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 THE Keate award was received in the South Afri- 
 can Republic with the utmost consternation. There 
 was such an outcry against the government for hav- 
 ing consented to arbitration that President Pretorius, 
 the state secretary Proes, and the state attorney 
 Klein were obliged to resign their posts. The volks- 
 raad assembled, and appointed Mr. Daniel Jacobus 
 Erasmus acting president, who immediately wrote to 
 the high commissioner repudiating the award on the 
 ground of informalities in the deed of agreement. 
 Sir Henry Barkly replied that he was determined 
 to enforce it, but in order to do so it would have been 
 necessary for the British government to take over 
 the territory cut off from the republic, and this the 
 ministry declined to do. The expansion of the em- 
 pire in Africa was not yet a national passion, and 
 all the known diamond fields north of the Yaal, as 
 well as the richest mines south of that river, were 
 within the boundaries of Griqualand West, so that 
 the country between Makwasi Spruit and the Kala- 
 hari desert had no attraction. 
 
 The republic therefore in practice kept possession 
 of all the territory in it that was occupied by farm- 
 ers, and the landdrost of Bloemhof continued to hold 
 his court and exercise jurisdiction as before, while 
 elsewhere the wildest confusion reigned. The native 
 
ANNEXATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 397 
 
 chiefs and their agents quarrelled with each other, 
 and the scum of the white population of all parts 
 of South Africa drifted there to take part in the 
 strife and foment further trouble for their own 
 temporary benefit. 
 
 There was now an intense desire throughout the 
 republic to obtain as president a man of education 
 and ability to contend with the high commissioner. 
 All other qualifications were regarded as of second- 
 ary importance to cleverness in this respect. With- 
 out education from books themselves, the burghers 
 believed for the moment that an educated president 
 could put their affairs right, for they did not, and 
 could not, recognise that they were not contending 
 with an individual, but with the will of a mighty 
 nation whose opinions had undergone great changes 
 since the middle of the century. There was no one 
 in the republic with the qualifications they needed, 
 so the volksraad hastily resolved that an outsider 
 could be elected. The constitution, it must be ob- 
 served, was always regarded as flexible, not as rigid 
 like that of the United States of America or of the 
 Orange Free State, and a resolution of the volksraad, 
 even in opposition to any of its clauses, had thus 
 the force of law. 
 
 They turned their eyes first to President Brand, 
 of the Orange Free State, in hope that by electing 
 him the two republics might be welded into one, or 
 if that could not be completely effected, that they 
 might be under the same general direction and thus 
 have greater weight in controversy. He, however, 
 rejected their overtures, because, as he said, his 
 election and the union of the two countries would 
 be taken as a menace by England, and would prob- 
 ably be followed by cancellation of the conventions 
 
398 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 of 1852 and 1854. They replied that those conven- 
 tions were of little real value, as Great Britain vio- 
 lated them at will, that they must depend upon them- 
 selves, and therefore urged him to comply with their 
 wishes. But he still declined, for it was absolutely 
 necessary, he said, in view of the amazingly rapid in- 
 crease of the Bantu population that the two white 
 races in South Africa should live together in friend- 
 ship and peace, and he could do nothing that might 
 tend to bring about a conflict between Dutch and 
 English settlers. , 
 
 They then selected the Reverend Thomas Fran- 
 c,ois Burgers, previously clergyman of Hanover, in 
 the Cape Colony. Mr. Burgers, who was a member 
 of one of the oldest Cape families, was a man of en- 
 gaging manners, with the power of fascinating those 
 with whom he came in contact. He had received 
 a good education at Utrecht in the Netherlands, and 
 was recognised everywhere as a man of high ability. 
 Having adopted views with regard to religion that 
 were certainly not orthodox, an attempt was made 
 to oust him from his position as clergyman of Han- 
 over, to which he had been appointed by the govern- 
 ment, and in a sejies of trials before the presbytery 
 of GraafF-Reinet and the supreme court at Cape- 
 town, ending in an appeal by his opponents to the 
 privy council of England, he had conducted his case 
 with the greatest skill. This was the man the 
 burghers of the South African Republic thought 
 they wanted, a man who, though an Afrikander, 
 was as unlike themselves in disposition as in relig- 
 ious thought. There was another candidate in the 
 field, Mr. W. Robinson, but Mr. Burgers obtained 
 two thousand nine hundred and sixty-four votes 
 against three hundred and eighty-eight for his oppo- 
 
ANNEXATION OP SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 399 
 
 nent, and on the 1st of July, 1872, he took the oath 
 of office as president. 
 
 There was a long and somewhat acrimonious corres- 
 pondence between the high commissioner and the 
 president, which, however, ended in nothing, as Sir 
 Henry Barkly's hands were tied with regard to the 
 western territory. The finances of the republic were 
 in their normal condition, that is to say the treasury 
 was empty and the bluebacks were depreciated to a 
 mere fraction of their face value. The first task to 
 which the new president applied himself was to im- 
 prove this condition of affairs, and he succeeded, con- 
 trary to the anticipation of most people, in obtain- 
 ing a large loan from a bank, which enabled him to 
 withdraw the almost worthless paper from circulation 
 and to carry on the government in a becoming man- 
 ner. Then he obtained authority from the volksraad 
 to proceed to Europe to carry out large plans which 
 he had formed for the progress of the country. 
 
 His objects in this visit were first to obtain means 
 for the construction of a railroad from Pretoria to 
 Loureno Marques, which would make the republic 
 independent of the British seaports in Natal and the 
 Cape Colony, next to engage a staff of educated offi- 
 cials and of teachers for schools which he intended to 
 establish throughout the country, and lastly to induce 
 people with modern ideas to migrate to his part of 
 South Africa and strengthen the population. With 
 these views he went to Holland in 1875, where he had 
 an enthusiastic reception. The Dutch people were 
 not unmindful that in the time of their greatness 
 they had possessed territories beyond the sea capable 
 of colonisation by Europeans, and that none were 
 left to them now where white people could thrive 
 and multiply. But here was a state founded by 
 
400 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 men of their own race, whose inhabitants were as 
 truly the descendants and representatives of the 
 famous sea beggars as they were themselves, and 
 here was an opportunity of perpetuating the Dutch 
 language and Dutch ideas in a country not indeed 
 under their own flag, but which they could legiti- 
 mately consider as a daughter republic. Already 
 too in 1871 gold had been found in Zoutpans- 
 berg and, a little later, in Lydenburg, and though 
 these discoveries had not yet led to mining opera- 
 tions on a large scale, the South African Republic 
 was believed to have great possibilities before it. 
 
 President Burgers therefore succeeded in getting as 
 many recruits for the public service as he had means 
 of providing salaries for, he had the satisfaction of 
 seeing a stream though very small of emigrants 
 from the Netherlands flowing into his state, and he 
 obtained some of the money that he wanted. With 
 this he purchased railway material, which was sent 
 out, but only to rot and rust on the shore of Delagoa 
 Bay. 
 
 In April, 1876, he arrived again at Pretoria, where 
 nothing but evil tidings met him. During his absence 
 Sekukuni, who had succeeded his father Sekwati as 
 chief of the Bapedi tribe, had risen in rebellion, 
 and was carrying on a destructive war against the 
 republic. The district which he occupied was one of 
 great natural strength, his tribe was large and well 
 armed, and all attempts to restore peace had hither- 
 to failed. To the president, who desired nothing so 
 much as quietness to carry out his plans, the prospect 
 was gloomy in the extreme. 
 
 There was no other resource, so a large comman- 
 do was called out, and Mr. Burgers made the fatal 
 mistake of conducting it in person. Paul Kruger, 
 
ANNEXATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 401 
 
 then vice-president, was the man to whom a little re- 
 flection should have convinced him the supreme con- 
 trol ought to have been given. But between these two 
 men there was very little in common, and each dis- 
 liked the other. The burghers in general had by this 
 time recovered from the panic into which the Keate 
 award had thrown them, they were suspicious of many 
 of the new officials who were believed not to be ortho- 
 dox in creed, and they were beginning to ask them- 
 selves whether God's blessing could be upon a com- 
 mando led by a man who disavowed belief in the 
 whole contents of the Bible. They answered the 
 call to arms, but literally in fear and trembling. 
 
 The army marched to Sekukuni's location, and a 
 stronghold garrisoned by the followers of one of his 
 subordinate captains was taken, which the president 
 in overdrawn language described as the Gibraltar of 
 South Africa. But soon after this a slight reverse 
 was sustained, when the cry " To your tents, O 
 Israel," was sounded, and the flight was general. The 
 president begged the fugitives to shoot him rather than 
 disgrace him in this way, but it was of no use. Men 
 whose courage cannot now be questioned took the lead 
 in running away, calling upon God to forgive them 
 for being in the field under an impious commander, 
 and with the utmost speed they returned to their 
 homes. All that the president could now do was to 
 engage a band of mercenaries to prevent the Bapedi 
 from making raids, and he returned to Pretoria rec- 
 ognising that all his plans were ruined. 
 
 Tidings of this event rapidly reached England, 
 where it was commonly represented that the repub- 
 lic had made aggressive war upon an independent 
 tribe, and had deservedly met with a severe defeat. 
 The impression too was general that slavery was 
 
 2B 
 
402 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 carried on in the country, and that the farmers 
 usually known by the Dutch equivalent boers were 
 excessively cruel in their treatment of coloured 
 people. A more certain fact was that an attempt 
 was being made to open up a rival port to the detri- 
 ment of British commerce, and to build up in South 
 Africa a community whose spirit would not be 
 English. 
 
 Lord Carnarvon, then secretary of state for the 
 colonies, was waited upon by deputations and in- 
 dividuals of influence, all urging him to interfere 
 and terminate a condition of things that was not only 
 disgraceful but dangerous to the whole of South 
 Africa. And a great change had come over public 
 opinion in England. The confederation of the dif- 
 ferent colonies and republics, which the Orange Free 
 State had once implored for in vain, which Sir 
 George Grey had been deprived of office for recom- 
 mending, was now in high favour, and Lord Car- 
 narvon was its principal exponent. He did not recog- 
 nise that the political blunders of the past could 
 not easily be rectified, and that confederation had 
 become very much more difficult of accomplishment 
 than it would have been twenty years before. In 
 1875 he sent Mr. Eroude, the historian, to South 
 Africa to convince the different legislatures and the 
 people of the advantage of the scheme, and in 1876 
 he invited the various governments to send delegates 
 to London to meet in conference and discuss the 
 subject. 
 
 Sir John Molteno, the first prime minister of the 
 Cape Colony under responsible government, and his 
 colleagues would have nothing to do with it, because, 
 in their opinion, the proposals for confederation 
 should emanate from the communities to be affected, 
 
ANNEXATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 4Q3 
 
 and not be pressed upon them from outside. Both 
 the republics declined the invitation for the same 
 reason, and only Natal sent delegates, one of whom 
 was Sir Theophilus Shepstone, secretary for native 
 affairs in that colony. 
 
 What passed in London between Lord Carnarvon 
 and Sir Theophilus Shepstone is not known, and 
 cannot be ascertained until the documents of that 
 period arq as open to inspection as are those of a 
 century ago. For this reason contemporary history 
 must always be defective, because in many transac- 
 tions the motives and intentions of the actors are 
 only laid bare as far as they themselves desire at 
 the time. It can thus not be stated positively 
 whether Lord Carnarvon instructed Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone to annex the South African Republic to 
 the British Empire under any circumstances, or 
 whether it was to be done only under certain con- 
 tingencies. 
 
 In the early days of 1877 Sir Theophilus with a 
 small staff and an escort of twenty-five policemen 
 reached Pretoria. Along the road from Natal he 
 was warmly welcomed, particularly by the English 
 and German residents in the villages, and his entry 
 into the capital was as if he had been a public 
 benefactor. As yet no one knew exactly what he 
 had come to do, and he announced no more than that 
 he had been commissioned to assist the republic in 
 word and deed. 
 
 Truly at that moment it needed assistance. The 
 government was helpless, poverty-stricken, unable to 
 meet expenses of the most pressing kind. No 
 taxes were being collected, for the burghers would 
 not in most cases could not pay them. A kind 
 of peace had been patched up with Sekukuni, but 
 
404 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 every one knew that its duration depended entirely 
 upon the will of the chief. A large proportion of 
 the people had lost confidence in the president, and 
 he in them. He had been found utterly wanting 
 in that stubborn perseverance and that cautious pro- 
 ceeding from step to step which were such marked 
 features of their character. A new presidential elec- 
 tion was at hand, and the belief was general that it 
 would be followed by civil war, when the republic 
 would relapse into the condition of ten years before. 
 Mr. Paul Kruger was the rival of Mr. Burgers, and 
 a considerable section of the farmers it was not 
 known exactly what proportion of the whole number 
 had determined to place him at the head of affairs. 
 
 To all these troubles Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
 informed the government another must be added 
 at least as great as any of them. Cetywayo, he said, 
 was ready to invade their territory, and it was only 
 his influence that kept the Zulu legions back. This, 
 however, the burghers did not believe, and certainly 
 they had no fear of the Zulu power. To them 
 Sekukuni, who had to be attacked on fortified hills, 
 was a much more formidable opponent than Cety- 
 wayo, who would meet them on open ground where 
 they would have every advantage. They were con- 
 vinced also that Cetywayo had no hostile designs 
 against them. This statement of Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone was afterwards distorted to signify that 
 he had threatened to let the Zulu army loose upon 
 the republic, but of that he was quite innocent. At 
 the time it was believed in England and in Natal 
 that his influence with Cetywayo was very strong, 
 and he may have thought so himself, but now it is 
 known to have been purely imaginary. 
 
 After a while he informed the president that some- 
 
ANNEXATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 thing must be done at once, or he would be under 
 the necessity of declaring the country a British pos- 
 session, but he gave no advice as to what changes 
 should be made. The volksraad was then called to- 
 gether, and in impassioned language Mr. Burgers 
 represented his utter want of power, the necessity 
 for funds to carry on the administration, the need 
 of reform in the judicial system, and the danger 
 the republic was in from British interference. He 
 implored the members to sink all differences, and 
 to devise means for saving their independence. Thus 
 appealed to, they made some alterations in the con- 
 stitution, provided for the establishment of a su- 
 preme court with properly qualified judges in place 
 of the old high court of combined landdrosts, post- 
 poned the presidential election for a year, and re- 
 turned to their homes, leaving him in the sorest 
 straits for want of money. 
 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone now announced that he 
 could wait no longer. Whatever his confidential 
 instructions from the secretary of state were, he cer- 
 tainly had large powers.' Many years before he had 
 endeavoured to induce the imperial government to 
 allow him to remove the bulk of the Bantu in Natal 
 to the vacant territory along the head waters of the 
 Umzimvubu, where he proposed that he should rule 
 over them as a semi-independent chief, but his plans 
 were not entertained. After his annexation of the 
 South African Republic, many people in the colonies* 
 considered it as merely his old plan carried out with 
 another race and on another field, but he would 
 hardly have ventured upon such a step without pre- 
 vious instructions, and at any rate Lord Carnarvon 
 approved of it afterwards. 
 
 President Burgers was a party to the transaction, 
 
406 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 for he had abandoned all hope of being able to carry 
 on the administration. Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
 submitted to him for perusal the proclamation about 
 to be issued, and he in return submitted to the 
 British commissioner the draft of a protest he in- 
 tended to publish as a matter of form, some slight 
 alterations in both documents being made by mutual 
 agreement. Then on the 12th of April, 1877, the 
 annexation was carried out. Mr. Melmoth Osborne, 
 one of the staff of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, read 
 the proclamation, and Mr. Rider Haggard, the emi- 
 nent novelist, who was then the commissioner's sec- 
 retary, hoisted the British flag at Pretoria. There 
 was no armed resistance, for the spirit of the people 
 was for the moment crushed by their misfortunes. 
 The executive council met immediately afterwards, 
 and resolved to send a deputation to England to pro- 
 test against the act, that was all. Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone assumed the government, and most of 
 the officials carried out his instructions without hesi- 
 tation or demur. 
 
 So fell the South African Republic, after a troub- 
 lous existence of nearly forty years from the time 
 that Commandant Potgieter took possession of the 
 country. 
 
FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION PLANS. 407 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXV. 
 
 FAILURE OF LORD CARNARVON^ CONFEDERATION 
 PLANS AND ABSORPTION OF NATIVE TERRITORIES. 
 
 ON the 31st of March, 1877, Sir Bartle Frere 
 landed at Capetown and assumed duty as governor of 
 the Cape Colony and high commissioner for South 
 Africa. He was a man of great talents, and in India 
 had performed eminent service to the empire, so that 
 the colonists felt nattered by his appointment. He 
 had been selected by Lord Carnarvon on account of 
 the suavity of his manners, as well as his universally 
 acknowledged abilities, to carry out the scheme of con- 
 federation of the various South African communities 
 which was now a favourite idea in England. 
 
 It was supposed that as the English and French 
 provinces of Canada had been confederated to great 
 advantage, the English and Dutch colonies and states 
 in South Africa could also be joined together for 
 their common good. There was really much less dif- 
 ference in blood, habits, and religion between Eng- 
 lishmen and Dutchmen than between Englishmen 
 and Frenchmen, it was said, therefore union in 
 South Africa ought to be more easily brought about 
 than in Canada. But in point of fact the two cases 
 were utterly dissimilar. To bring them upon a level, 
 it would be necessary that Quebec should have been 
 an independent republic for forty years, that four- 
 fifths of the inhabitants of New Brunswick should 
 have been French and that province a free republic 
 
4-08 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 for a quarter of a century, that three-fifths of the in- 
 habitants of Ontario should have been French, that 
 Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island should have 
 been left out altogether, and that British Columbia 
 alone should have been almost purely English. It 
 is most unlikely that if these had been the conditions 
 in Canada confederation would have taken place, or 
 that the British Empire would have gained any 
 strength by the inclusion of Quebec and New Bruns- 
 wick so circumstanced. 
 
 It is true that intermarriage between English and 
 Dutch families in South Africa has taken place to 
 a very much greater extent than between English and 
 French families in Canada, but the process of fusion 
 between the two nationalities as a whole can hardly 
 be said to have more than commenced. The religious 
 differences in South Africa are indeed much less than 
 in Canada, but even in this respect there is not per- 
 fect agreement. The Presbyterian and Dutch Re- 
 formed Churches are in full accord, and there is no 
 antipathy between them and the large body of Wes- 
 leyans, the Baptists, and some others, but the Epis- 
 copal Church of England has more adherents among 
 the English section of the population than any other 
 body of Christians, and between the clergymen of this 
 communion, with very few exceptions, and those of the 
 Dutch churches there is as little sympathy as between 
 the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches of Can- 
 ada. Many of the missionaries also, who favour the 
 absolute political and social equality of blacks and 
 whites, are altogether out of touch with the Dutch 
 people. 
 
 The actual condition of civilised South Africa was : 
 one large colony, more important than all the other 
 communities combined, with a mixed Dutch and 
 
FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION PLANS. 4Q9 
 
 English population, the former in numerical excess ; 
 one small colony almost purely English; and two 
 small Dutch republics prizing their independence as 
 life itself. 
 
 The great majority of the people of the Cape Col- 
 ony were desirous of a closer connection of some kind 
 between the several colonies and republics, and bit- 
 terly regretted the events that had led to the condition 
 of things then existing. But only a few regarded 
 the confederation of the various communities as feas- 
 ible, and even these few were divided in opinion as 
 to how it should be brought about. Some wanted the 
 Cape Colony divided into two, so that the English 
 element in the eastern districts should be supreme 
 in one of them. Others objected to this scheme, 
 and desired such a redistribution of the electoral con- 
 stituencies as would give their party predominance 
 in the colony as it was. Then a little pressure upon 
 the republics they believed would do the rest. 
 
 The preponderating opinion, however, was in fa- 
 vour of quite a different plan. This was to extend the 
 Cape Colony itself wherever it could be done without 
 encroaching on the rights of other civilised communi- 
 ties, to avoid the expense of provincial governments, 
 and to keep on the most friendly terms with the two 
 republics, without attempting in any way to destroy 
 their independence. A telegraph, postal, railway, and 
 customs union with them could easily be arranged, 
 and if more should be found necessary and practicable 
 time would bring it about. Confederation even be- 
 tween the two British dependencies was not regarded 
 by this party as coming within the region of practi- 
 cal politics, for at that moment there were actually 
 more interests in common between the Cape Colony 
 and the Orange Free State, which wei^e under differ- 
 
4:10 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ent flags, than between the Cape Colony and !N"atal, 
 which were under the same flag. 
 
 Parliamentary institutions had worked extremely 
 well in the Cape Colony, and the Dutch farmers, 
 who formed a majority of the white population, had 
 become satisfied with their political condition and 
 content to remain British subjects, though the ties 
 of blood naturally drew their sympathies towards 
 their relatives north of the Orange in such matters 
 as the annexation of Basutoland and the diamond 
 mines to the empire and the dismemberment of the 
 northern republic by the Keate award. In parlia- 
 ment there were often questions on which Dutch 
 ideas differed from English ideas, and in divisions 
 a majority of the Dutch members would be found 
 on one side and a majority of the English on the 
 other, but the utmost good feeling prevailed, and the 
 decisions, on whichever side they might be, were 
 submitted to without demur. Many purely Dutch 
 constituencies indeed were represented by English- 
 men with sympathetic views, for it was not until 
 1882 that the great measure of giving to the Dutch 
 language equal rights with the English in parlia- 
 ment, courts of law, public offices, and schools was 
 carried. The industries of the colony, except at the 
 diamond and copper mines, were agricultural and 
 pastoral, hence high protective duties were levied 
 on imported provisions of all kinds. 
 
 It was very different in ISTatal. Into that beauti- 
 ful territory, after it became a possession of the 
 British crown, Bantu refugees crowded in such num- 
 bers that it became unfit for occupation by white 
 agriculturists on a large scale, and European im- 
 migration was small. The coast belt, which is 
 heated by the warm Mozambique current, was found 
 
FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION PLANS. 41 1 
 
 to be adapted to the growth of tropical plants, and as 
 it was also healthy for Europeans, a very much larger 
 industry arose there than in any other part of the 
 country. Coffee, arrowroot, ginger, and especially 
 sugar plantations came into existence, and if one 
 plant was found not to pay another was tried. At 
 the present day sugar and tea are produced on this 
 coast belt in considerable quantities. 
 
 A few Dutch farmers remained on the high lands, 
 but their voice was hardly heard in the legislature, 
 which consisted of a single chamber, partly elective 
 and partly nominee. There were indeed a few 
 English and German farmers in other parts of the 
 country, but their number was so small that their 
 opinions had little weight. The great majority of 
 the Europeans were engaged in commerce and in 
 forwarding goods to the interior. More than half 
 of the whole number resided in the two towns of 
 Durban and Maritzburg, and a considerable propor- 
 tion of the remainder in the different villages along 
 the trading routes. Economic views have their 
 origin in the circumstances in which people live, 
 consequently all the residents in the towns, the 
 traders among the Bantu, the civil servants in coun- 
 try places, and the coffee and sugar planters wanted 
 cheap food and a low customs tariff. 
 
 This was a great barrier to union between the 
 Cape Colony and Natal. Then the one might be 
 said to be largely Dutch in sentiment, while the other 
 was almost purely English. A still greater diffi- 
 culty existed in what is known locally as the coolie 
 question. The planters on the coast belt of Natal 
 needed a large supply of labour, and as the Bantu 
 would only work when it pleased them and could 
 not be depended upon at any time, Indian coolies 
 
4:12 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 were brought over under contracts to serve a certain 
 number of years. As they were entitled to free pas- 
 sages back to their own country, it was at first sup- 
 posed that they would return with their savings 
 when the time of their contracts expired; but they 
 had found a better country than India, and many 
 of them chose to remain where they were. Then a 
 trading class followed, and so the Indian population 
 grew, until it now outnumbers the whites in Natal. 
 All the light occupations of the country and even a 
 great deal of the commerce fell into their hands. 
 
 This is a vital question for all the rest of South 
 Africa, as if Indians come in the Europeans must go 
 out. There can be no competition between a man 
 who can live on ten cents a day and another who can- 
 not exist on less than fifty. The English especially 
 have reason to dread the appearance of the Indians, 
 for they are easily displaced in many occupations, 
 such as keeping retail shops, light mechanical work, 
 market gardening, in short every mode of making a 
 living that does not require much capital, skill, or toil. 
 The Dutch farmer is more secure and his interest in 
 the question, though undoubtedly great, is not so di- 
 rect and personal. A Natal planter, wholesale mer- 
 chant, civil servant, or forwarding agent might look 
 upon the coolie as a useful individual, whose services 
 were necessary for his success in life, but elsewhere 
 the same coolie was regarded as a being who contrib- 
 uted little or nothing to the revenue, who by his filthy 
 habits gave endless trouble to municipal authorities, 
 who was unfit to take any part in the protection of 
 the country, and who occupied a place that ought to 
 be filled by a European. 
 
 These and some other matters of minor importance 
 kept the colonies apart. The Orange Free State had 
 
FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION PLANS. 413 
 
 become enamoured of independence, but under Presi- 
 dent Brand's guidance might have been induced to 
 enter into such a close alliance with the Cape Colony 
 as to have practically amounted to confederation, and 
 the South African Republic was in such a condition 
 that a really friendly hand held out to it would almost 
 certainly have been eagerly grasped and the firmest 
 connection consistent with its independence secured. 
 
 At this time the signs of material prosperity were 
 everywhere visible south of the Orange. Railroads 
 and telegraphs were being rapidly pushed forward, 
 commerce with the interior was expanding, and 
 a new industry, that of ostrich farming, was 
 bringing in large returns. In earlier years the feath- 
 ers of the wild bird were obtained by hunters and 
 exported, but now it had been found that ostriches 
 hatched in incubators and kept in paddocks were very 
 profitable. A mania for ostrich farming had set in ; 
 and lasted until the production of feathers was so 
 great that prices fell, and the industry assumed its 
 proper proportions. Meantime a great deal of money 
 was made, and farms everywhere were much im- 
 proved by being enclosed with wire fences. 
 
 This was the condition of affaire in South Africa 
 when Sir Bartle Frere became high commissioner. 
 Less than a fortnight later, on the 12th of April, Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone annexed the South African 
 Republic, and whatever chances of confederating the 
 different states and colonies existed before, that act 
 completely destroyed them all. It was announced 
 that the majority of the people there were in favour 
 of the change, but the Dutch farmers of the Cape 
 Colony and the Orange Free State knew better than 
 that. They believed that a wrong had been done, and 
 they would not be parties to condoning it. 
 
4:14 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 It should be obvious to the most thoughtless per- 
 son that confederation of self-governing or partly self- 
 governing communities cannot be brought about un- 
 less by the will of the people themselves. Under a des- 
 potic government, supported by an irresistible mili- 
 tary force, any combinations are of course possible, 
 but that was not in Lord Carnarvon's mind at all. 
 He wanted the various communities to come together 
 voluntarily, and yet so little did he know of the con- 
 dition of the country that with his sanction an act was 
 committed which irritated every Dutchman from the 
 Limpopo to Cape Agulhas. And everywhere except 
 in ISTatal they formed a majority, without a prospect 
 of its being otherwise at any future time. The farm- 
 ers doubled their numbers every quarter of a century, 
 and they had a greater power of assimilating strangers 
 than any other people in the world. English agri- 
 culturists had long since ceased to migrate to South 
 Africa, only people from towns went there now. 
 Surely then the annexation was a great political 
 blunder. 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere had hardly time to look about him 
 before the ninth war with the Xosa tribe broke out. 
 It commenced with a trivial quarrel between a few 
 Xosas and Fiugos at a wedding feast in the territory 
 beyond the Kei, when as both sides were reinforced 
 and hard fighting took place, some of the frontier 
 armed and mounted police were sent to restore order. 
 This could not easily be done, and before the close of 
 August, 1877, the colonial volunteers were called out, 
 and with a regiment of the line were sent to the scene 
 of the disturbances. Several actions followed, in 
 which the Xosas under Kreli lost about seven hun- 
 dred men, and then the chief fled to Pondoland. 
 
 In the belief that the disturbance was over, the 
 
FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION PLANS. 415 
 
 troops were withdrawn and the volunteers returned to 
 their homes, which they had hardly reached when 
 Kreli made his appearance again. One of his cap- 
 tains enteTed the colony and appealed to the Xosas 
 west of the Kei to assist him, when Sandile and other 
 chiefs rose in arms. Large forces were called out, 
 and operations were commenced which lasted many 
 months and entailed much loss of life, but at length 
 Kreli was thoroughly beaten, Sandile was killed in 
 action, and tranquillity was restored. 
 
 During this war Sir Bartle Frere dismissed the 
 Molteno ministry, and on the 6th of February, 1878, 
 Sir Gordon Sprigg became prime minister with a 
 cabinet representing exclusively the English section 
 of the community. The differences between the 
 governor and the Molteno ministry were not con- 
 fined to the confederation question. Sir Bartle 
 Frere, with his training in India, had the most im- 
 plicit confidence in the British soldier's ability to 
 fight the Kaffirs and the British general's capacity 
 for directing the necessary operations. Sir John 
 Molteno, who in 1847 had seen a strong regular 
 army encamped for months at the seaside, unable to 
 move for want of transport, while he himself as 
 commandant of a burgher cavalry division pene- 
 trated Kaffirland right to Kreli's kraal, had much 
 more confidence in the colonists than in the soldiers, 
 and was unwilling to subject them to the orders of 
 the British general Sir Arthur Cuninghame. Mr. 
 J. X. Merriman, a member of the cabinet, issued 
 some instructions to a body of the colonial forces, 
 upon which the governor dismissed the ministry. 
 
 The question was warmly debated in the next ses- 
 sion of parliament whether he had acted constitu- 
 tionally or not, but his personal influence was so 
 
416 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 great that the decision was in his favour, and the 
 Sprigg ministry retained office more than three 
 years. 
 
 Some portions of the territory between the Kei 
 and the Natal border had been under the adminis- 
 tration of British officials for several years before 
 this war, though without being formally annexed. 
 But now an era of expansion had set in, and by de- 
 grees one part after another was added to the Cape 
 Colony until the whole was absorbed. Some locali- 
 ties in the highlands are at present occupied by 
 Europeans, but the first and second terraces from the 
 sea are entirely held by Bantu. The territory is 
 divided into little districts, in each of which a mag- 
 istrate is stationed, who tries civil cases according 
 to native law, but important criminal cases are 
 brought before a judge on circuit. Order is main- 
 tained by a strong body of police. No efforts are 
 spared to improve the condition of the people; mis- 
 sionaries of many denominations are thickly scat- 
 tered among them, and traffic in spirituous liquors 
 is strictly suppressed. 
 
 Whether the Cape Colony is stronger or wealthier 
 by possessing this dependency is a disputed question, 
 its cost exceeds its direct revenue considerably, but 
 the fact remains that there was no other way of 
 maintaining peace in it, and perpetual strife could 
 not be tolerated near the border. 
 
 Shortly after the ninth war with the Xosas was 
 brought to a close, a much more formidable contest 
 with the Zulu tribe took place. Cetywayo had suc- 
 ceeded his father Panda in 1872, after having 
 been the real ruler of the tribe since 1856, when he 
 exterminated the adherents of his brother and rival 
 Umbulazi, whom he put to death by torture. He 
 
ABSORPTION OF NATIVE TERRITORIES. 
 
 was a magnificent specimen of a barbarian, and 
 under him the army, which had lost its vigour during 
 the early years of Panda's rule, was reorganised and 
 brought to as great efficiency as it had been in when 
 his uncle Tshaka lived. Cetywayo's object in keep- 
 ing up a great military force may have been for 
 purposes of state, that he might be recognised as the 
 most important chief in South Africa, or for pur- 
 poses of defence, as he probably did not regard 
 either of his European neighbours as very scrupu- 
 lous. Whatever the purpose may have been, the 
 army was there, and was a menace to the Europeans 
 north of the Vaal on one side, and very much more 
 so to Natal on another. 
 
 Several acts of provocation against Natal drew 
 from Sir Bartle Frere a demand for redress and for 
 the disbanding of the Zulu army, and as no notice 
 was taken of this, on the 10th of January, 1879, a 
 large force of soldiers and colonists that had been 
 assembled for the purpose crossed the Tugela in 
 three divisions and entered Zululand under Lord 
 Chelmsford as commander-in-chief. 
 
 Unfortunately either the Zulu power had been 
 greatly underestimated, or the capacity in the field 
 of the force to be opposed to it was overestimated, 
 and the advice of Pieter Uys and other Dutch farm- 
 ers to be careful in scouting and forming lagers 
 was disregarded, with the result that a little before 
 midday on the 22nd of January, 1879, the central 
 column was surprised in an unprotected camp at the 
 foot of the mountain Isandlwana, and after a desper- 
 ate resistance was annihilated. Nearly seven hun- 
 dred British soldiers and over one hundred and thirty 
 colonists perished. 
 
 The same afternoon the post at Korke's Drift on 
 2 c 
 
418 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the Tugela was attacked by a Zulu army, but was 
 heroically held by a little garrison under Lieuten- 
 ants Brornhead and Chard, and its successful de- 
 fence saved Natal from invasion. 
 
 The other columns fared better. The one on the 
 right defeated a Zulu army at Inyesane, and reached 
 the Norwegian mission station Etshowe, where tid- 
 ings of the disaster at Isandlwana were received. 
 Colonel Pearson, who was in command, then forti- 
 fied the station, and remained there. 
 
 The left column reached Kambula without an en- 
 counter. There, on hearing of Isandlwana, an en- 
 trenched camp was formed, from which Colonel 
 Evelyn Wood frequently sent out patrols to harass 
 the enemy. One of these patrols was almost sur- 
 rounded at Hlobane and ninety-six men were killed, 
 among whom were Colonel Weatherly, his son, and 
 Pieter Uys, whose father and brother had fallen in 
 the first war with Dingan. The division of the Zulu 
 army by which this was effected then attacked 
 Colonel Wood's camp, but was beaten back with 
 heavy loss. 
 
 In April Lord Chelmsford, with a corps of soldiers 
 and sailors, reached Etshowe, after defeating a Zulu 
 army at Ginginhlovu. And now reinforcements 
 began to arrive from England, and kept increasing 
 until by the end of IVlay nine or ten thousand sol- 
 diers were on the border of Natal. The former 
 Prince Imperial of France was with them as a vol- 
 unteer, whose fate was to be killed a few weeks 
 later by a Zulu spear when out with a scouting party. 
 
 Lord Chelmsford had no time to lose. Intelli- 
 gence was received that Sir Garnet Wolseley was 
 coming out not only to supersede him as commander- 
 in-chief of the army, but to supersede Sir Bartle 
 
ABSORPTION OF NATIVE TERRITORIES. 419 
 
 Frere as high commissioner for South-E astern Africa. 
 He therefore moved forward as speedily as possible, 
 and on the 4th of July reached Ulundi, the great 
 kraal of Cetywayo. There on that day a battle was 
 fought, desperately by the Zulu warriors, who hurled 
 themselves in dense masses against the British square, 
 but in vain. They were totally overthrown, and 
 when some time later Cetywayo was made a pris- 
 oner, all chance of further resistance was over and 
 the Zulu people submitted to the English will. 
 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley divided the territory into thir- 
 teen districts, and gave each to an independent chief, 
 with a single British resident as adviser to them all. 
 This scheme worked very badly, and so in 1883 
 Cetywayo, who had conducted himself in a most 
 exemplary manner during his captivity, was per- 
 mitted to return under certain conditions that it 
 was thought would secure tranquillity. But Sibepu, 
 a rival chief, had in the meantime got together a 
 strong following, and war immediately broke out 
 between them. 
 
 In the following year Cetywayo died of grief, but 
 his son Dinizulu continued the war with Sibepu. 
 He invited a party of Transvaal farmers to assist 
 him, and with their aid Sibepu was conquered. In 
 return he gave them the tract of land which was 
 formed first into what was termed the ISTew Republic, 
 but was afterwards incorporated with the South 
 African Republic, and is now the district of Vryheid. 
 
 Strife, however, still continued among the Zulus, 
 so in 1887 Great Britain annexed what remained of 
 the country, and placed it under the administration 
 of the governor of Natal. It was formed into six 
 districts, and a European magistrate was stationed 
 in each with a police force to support his authority. 
 
420 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Dinizulu naturally resisted, and as it was found 
 impossible to restore order while he was in the coun- 
 try he was made a prisoner, and in 1889, with two 
 other chiefs, was sent in captivity to St. Helena. 
 There he remained in exile until 1898, when he was 
 permitted to return, as the country had then been 
 quiet for a long time and British rule was believed 
 to be firmly established. 
 
 The Zulu war drew the attention of every one in 
 England and South Africa for the time away from 
 the principal object of Sir Bartle Erere's appoint- 
 ment, but as soon as it was over the question of con- 
 federation came on again. It was even supposed 
 by some persons that the Transvaal people would be 
 more friendly towards English rule on account of 
 the destruction of the Zulu power, which was be- 
 lieved to have threatened them, and it was generally 
 felt that Transvaal opinion was the most powerful 
 factor in the question. But those people would not 
 admit that they ever had anything to fear from the 
 Zulus, or that the war had benefited them as it un- 
 questionably had Natal. With the exception of 
 Pieter Uys and a few of his friends, none of them 
 had taken part in it, and they constantly averred 
 that it was a matter in which they had no concern. 
 This view was also held by their kinsmen in the 
 Cape Colony, so that the Zulu war really made no 
 change in the position. 
 
 Sir Gordon Sprigg's views were in accord with 
 those of the governor, but there was not sufficient 
 power behind him to enable him to carry a resolu- 
 tion in favour of confederation through parliament 
 in the session of 1880. With this failure Sir Bartle 
 Erere's work in South Africa came to an end. He 
 had not done what was impossible for any man 
 
ABSORPTION OF NATIVE TERRITORIES. 421 
 
 even so grand and highly gifted a man as he to 
 do, he had not overcome the will of the great major- 
 ity of the electors, for in addition to the entire 
 Dutch party there were also many Englishmen in 
 the colony who felt that the annexation of the South 
 African Republic was not only unwise but unjust, 
 and who would not support any measure that de- 
 pended on it. So he was recalled. In September, 
 1880, he returned to England, and in January, 1881, 
 his place was taken by Sir Hercules Eobinson, after- 
 wards Lord Bosmead. 
 
422 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 EVENTS THAT LED TO THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after the issue of Sir Theophilus 
 Shepstone's proclamation annexing the South African 
 Republic to the British Empire, troops that had been 
 stationed on the Natal border in readiness entered 
 the country and occupied the principal towns. For 
 the former name of the state was substituted that of 
 the Transvaal Territory. In a short time English cap- 
 ital began to now in, and before the close of the year 
 property of all kinds attained a value never known 
 before. Immigrants too, chiefly traders and specula- 
 tors, but including a few farmers, arrived to the num- 
 ber of about a thousand of both sexes and all ages 
 annually during the next four years. There was at 
 last a prospect of the resources of the country being 
 developed. To modern Europeans of the commercial 
 class the results of the substitution of the British 
 ensign for the four-colour justified the annexation, 
 if it could not be defended on other principles. 
 
 Some of the grounds on which it had been carried 
 out had unquestionably proved to be incorrect. Not 
 a single slave had been released, because not one was 
 found in the country. There, as everywhere else in 
 South Africa, it was seen that the Dutch inhabitants 
 had no greater difficulty than the English in inducing 
 Bantu to take service with them, proving at least that 
 in the opinion of the people most concerned they were 
 
THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 423 
 
 subject to no harsher treatment from one class of 
 Europeans than from another. Sir Theophilus Shep- 
 stone found that the war with Sekukuni had been not 
 only justifiable but unavoidable, and stranger still he 
 found that in the dispute concerning the boundary 
 with Cetywayo the real justice of the case had been 
 on the side of the republic. 
 
 What remained then ? The facts that in the north- 
 ern part of , the state the Bantu had been victorious 
 and driven the Europeans back, that owing to the dis- 
 sensions among the farmers the supremacy of the 
 white race in the country was endangered, that unwill- 
 ingness or inability to pay taxes made good govern- 
 ment impossible, that the attempt to open intercourse 
 with the outer world through Delagoa Bay was hostile 
 to British commerce, and that the spirit of the recent 
 republican government was not in sympathy with 
 British ideas as to the future of South Africa. 
 
 The farmers, who prized their independence above 
 all things, were not affected in disposition by the com- 
 mercial improvements that annexation had brought 
 about. The old party divisions among them began to 
 disappear, and they set themselves to the task of pre- 
 paring for armed resistance in case the representations 
 made in England by their delegates should prove of no 
 avail. 
 
 In May, 1877, Mr. Paul Kruger, late vice-presi- 
 dent, and Dr. Jorissen, state attorney, who had been 
 instructed by the executive council to proceed to Eng- 
 land with the protest, left Pretoria on their mission. 
 Upon their arrival in London they found the doors of 
 the foreign office closed against them, but were re- 
 ceived with politeness by Lord Carnarvon, secretary 
 of state for the colonies. He informed them, how- 
 ever, that the annexation would not be cancelled, and 
 
424 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 stated as his belief that the majority of the Europeans 
 in the country were in favour of the change. 
 
 The delegates reached Pretoria again in December, 
 1877, and the result of their mission was soon known 
 in every homestead in the country. Thereupon the 
 burghers resolved to hold a general meeting to decide 
 upon what should be done. This took place at Doorn- 
 fontein in April, 1878, when it was determined to 
 send another deputation to London with a memorial 
 signed by those who objected to become British sub- 
 jects, which they believed would convince the secre- 
 tary of state that his opinion was founded on incor- 
 rect information. ,The memorial received six thou- 
 sand five hundred and ninety-one signatures, repre- 
 senting rather more than four-fifths of the whole in- 
 habitants of the country, Dutch and English com- 
 bined. With it Messrs. Paul Kruger and Pieter 
 Joubert, with Mr. Eduard Bok as secretary, left for 
 England. 
 
 Sir Michael Hicks-Beach had in the meantime suc- 
 ceeded Lord Carnarvon as secretary of state for the 
 colonies. Before him the delegates laid their me- 
 morial, professing to believe, or really believing, that 
 the number of signatures attached to it would give 
 it great weight. But it had just the contrary effect. 
 Was this all that people aspiring to be a nation could 
 produce? Why, a little English market town could 
 do as much. The annexation was an accomplished 
 fact, and would not be withdrawn ; in course of time 
 there was no doubt every one would see that it was the 
 best thing possible for all concerned. So the depu- 
 tation returned to Pretoria with heavy hearts, and re- 
 ported its failure. 
 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone had promised the people 
 that under British rule they would have a voice in 
 
THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 425 
 
 their government, but this promise had not been 
 carried out. The thing was indeed impossible. The 
 British authorities knew that the first resolution oi 
 any elected body in the country would be in favour 
 of independence^ and therefore they could not create 
 representative institutions. The government was 
 carried on as a despotism, but at first of the very 
 mildest kind. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, whose 
 habits differed little from those of the farmers, was 
 accessible to every one, spoke Dutch like one of them- 
 selves, and was personally not disliked except for hav- 
 ing been the instrument through whom the annexa- 
 tion had been effected. But in March, 1879, he was 
 replaced by Sir Owen Lanyon, a retired military 
 officer, who regarded the farming people with some- 
 thing like contempt, and who made no effort of any 
 kind to conciliate them. Then, they said, the iron 
 truly entered into their souls. 
 
 In April, 1879, Sir Bartle Erere visited the coun- 
 try for the first time. At Kleinfontein, on the road 
 from Natal to Pretoria, some thousands of burghers 
 had been waiting for weeks to meet him. On his 
 first visit to their camp he went almost alone, as 
 there was some talk in Natal that he might be seized 
 and detained as a hostage, and he wished to show his 
 fearlessness and his confidence in them. But he was 
 coldly received, so two days later, on his second visit, 
 he was accompanied by his staff and an escort. The 
 assembly had but one desire, the restoration of inde- 
 pendence, and a memorial to Her Majesty the Queen 
 to that effect was given to the high commissioner to 
 be forwarded. No reply was ever made to it. 
 
 On the 16th of December, 1879, there was another 
 large meeting at Luipards Vlei, when it was re- 
 solved to take up arms and restore the republican 
 
26 PEOGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 government in April, 1880, if nothing to prevent 
 the necessity for so doing occurred before that date. 
 Those present took an oath of fidelity to the cause, 
 and sent a declaration of rights to the new high 
 commissioner Sir Garnet Wolseley, who replied by 
 imprisoning Messrs. M. W. Pretorius and Eduard 
 Bok, the chairman and secretary. They were, how- 
 ever, not kept long in confinement. 
 
 Sekukuni at this time was giving the British 
 authorities as much trouble as he had given a few 
 years before to the republican government. Sir 
 Garnet Wolseley thereupon raised a strong contin- 
 gent of Swazis, with whom and his troops he 
 marched against the Bapedi, and inflicted very 
 heavy punishment upon them. The chief himself 
 was made a prisoner, and taken to Pretoria, where 
 he was kept in captivity until the next change of 
 government. This is the only event of note that 
 occurred before Sir Garnet Wolseley was succeeded 
 as commander-in-chief by Sir George Colley. 
 
 The elections in Great Britain which ended with 
 the downfall of the Beaconsfield ministry caused the 
 republican party to postpone the action they had 
 intended to take. Mr. Gladstone, who became prime 
 minister, had denounced the annexation in his Mid- 
 lothian speeches in as strong language as any one 
 in South Africa had ever used, and the burghers 
 therefore had reason to hope that he would undo 
 the act which was so objectionable to both him and 
 them. But this he did not do, on the grounds that it 
 was an accomplished fact, that new interests had 
 grown up, and that another change might be perilous. 
 
 Towards the close of 1880 an attempt to collect 
 taxes began to be made, which was at once resisted. 
 A farmer named Bezuidenhout, who resided near 
 
THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 427 
 
 Potchefstroom, refused to meet the demand against 
 him, upon which the messenger of the court 
 seized his waggon, and it was exposed to sale by 
 public auction in the village. An armed party under 
 Commandant P. Cronje then rescued the waggon, 
 and the government realised that a general rising 
 was imminent. 
 
 On the 8th of December, 1880, the burghers began 
 to assemble in large numbers at Paardekraal, and 
 a few days later a resolution was carried unani- 
 mously that the volksraad should resume its sittings, 
 and that Messrs. Paul Kruger, Marthinus Wessel 
 Pretorius, and Pieter Joubert should form a tri- 
 umvirate to carry on the administration provision- 
 ally. Mr. Joubert was also elected commandant- 
 general. Each man of the five or six thousand 
 present took an oath to be faithful to death, and 
 deposited a stone as a witness on a heap, which is 
 now covered by the national monument close to 
 Krugersdorp. The cause was then solemnly commit- 
 ted to the Almighty God, and the commandos marched 
 away under their respective leaders. 
 
 On Dingan's day, the 16th of December, 1880, 
 the four-colour was hoisted again at Heidelberg, where 
 the provisional government established its headquar- 
 ters, and a notification that the republic had been re 4 
 stored was sent to Sir Owen Lanyon, with a request 
 that he would, retire at once from the country with the 
 British troops. A proclamation announcing what was 
 being done had been sent from Paardekraal to Pot- 
 chef stroom to be printed. Commandant Cronje, who 
 took it, entered the village with his men on the 16th, 
 and was fired upon by the soldiers in garrison there, 
 when a burgher was severely wounded and the first 
 blood in this deplorable war was shed. 
 
428 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The main British camp, under Colonel Winsloe, 
 was outside the village, but there was a detachment 
 of troops under Major Clarke at the landdrost's office 
 and some buildings adjoining it, which had been pre- 
 pared for defence. Cronje returned the fire of the 
 soldiers, and invested the houses held by Major 
 Clarke, who after two days' resistance was obliged to 
 surrender. Siege was laid to Colonel Winsloe's 
 camp, but it was so ably defended that it did not fall 
 until after the armistice of the 6th of March, 1881. 
 
 Before this event Sir Owen Lanyon had sent in- 
 structions to Colonel Anstruther, who was in com- 
 mand at Lydenburg, to march at once to Pretoria to 
 strengthen the garrison there, and he was warned to 
 be careful, as a general rising of the farmers was 
 probable. This movement was anticipated by the 
 triumvirate, and Commandant Frans Joubert was or- 
 dered to prevent it. The commandant selected a 
 strong position at Bronkhorst's Spruit, thirty-eight 
 miles from Pretoria, on the Lydenburg road, and 
 waited for the troops to come up. Colonel An- 
 struther, who had nothing but disdain for the farmers 
 as fighting men, reached Bronkhorst's Spruit on the 
 20th of December with two hundred and fifty-nine 
 officers and soldiers of the 94th regiment and a long 
 waggon train, without a single scout having been sent 
 ahead to examine the country. Suddenly he became 
 aware that he was abreast of armed men, and a 
 farmer with a white flag in his hand rode up and in- 
 formed him that he could go no farther without being 
 fired upon. He replied that he would go on, when 
 the messenger retired, and a volley was poured in. 
 The resistance was feeble, and in a few minutes so 
 many men were dead or disabled that the colonel, who 
 was dying of a wound, was obliged to surrender. 
 
THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 429 
 
 Sir George Colley, the commander-in-chief, was in 
 Natal when tidings reached him that the farmers of 
 the Transvaal had risen in a body, and that the Eng- 
 lish residents had retired to the four garrisoned towns, 
 Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, and Stander- 
 ton, which were closely besieged. He too altogether 
 underestimated the military qualities of the men he 
 had to deal with, and to relieve the besieged garrisons 
 he attempted to cross the Drakensberg with a force 
 of twelve hundred soldiers. Commandant-General 
 Joubert lay in wait at Lang's Nek, an extremely for- 
 midable position that had to be passed, and when on 
 the 28th of January, 1881, General Colley attempted 
 to force his way through he was driven back with 
 heavy loss. 
 
 He retired to a place close by named Mount Pros- 
 pect, where he formed an entrenched camp, and 
 awaited the arrival of trcops from England. A few 
 days later he learned that a body of farmers was be- 
 tween him and Newcastle, and that his communica- 
 tions with Maritzburg were being cut off. On the 8th 
 of February he left Mount Prospect with four or five 
 hundred men, chiefly of the 60th rifles, and at Schuins 
 Hoogte on the right bank of the Ingogo River encoun- 
 tered a commando under Nicolaas Smit, with which 
 an engagement was carried on during the remainder 
 of the day. After nightfall, in heavy rain, General 
 Colley was able to return to his camp, but he left a 
 very large proportion of his men dead and wounded 
 on the field of battle. 
 
 There seemed now but one chance of victory left. 
 Beside the farmers' camp at Lang's Nek rose a peak 
 called Majuba, and its summit was accessible by 
 means of a ridge that ran down near Mount Pros- 
 pect. If that could be occupied the Nek would be 
 
4-30 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 commanded, and the farmers would be obliged to with- 
 draw. Reinforcements had just reached him, so dur- 
 ing the night of the 26th of February General Col- 
 ley with about five hundred and sixty men made his 
 way up the mountain, and leaving two pickets on the 
 slope, reached the summit in safety. At dawn on the 
 27th the farmers two thousand feet below observed 
 the soldiers on the top of Majuba, and at once realised 
 that their position was untenable unless the mountain 
 could be taken by storm. For that kind of warfare 
 they had never regarded themselves as qualified, but 
 on this occasion they were moved by divine guid- 
 ance they afterwards said to make the attempt. 
 Led by Commandant Nicolaas Smit, they crept up 
 from boulder to boulder without receiving harm from 
 the fire above, until a little after midday seventy or 
 eighty of them appeared over the rim of the hollow 
 crest, when the soldiers were seized with panic, and 
 fled downward by the way they had gone, up in the 
 night. Sir George Colley lay in front of the dead 
 on the top of Majuba, and the path of the fugitives 
 was thickly strewn with corpses and wounded men. 
 
 The enormous disparity between the British losses, 
 amounting in all these engagements to about eight 
 hundred and twenty-five killed and wounded and 
 two or three hundred made prisoners, and the eigh- 
 teen killed and thirty-three wounded on the farmers' 
 side, is easily accounted for. In every instance, 
 except towards the close of the attack at Majuba, 
 the soldiers were fully exposed and the burghers 
 were wholly or partly under cover. The number 
 of troops engaged was absurdly small to attempt 
 the conquest of the country, though on the other 
 hand the farmers were practically without artillery 
 and but poorly supplied with other munitions of war. 
 
THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 431 
 
 They had not been able to get possession by force 
 of arms of any of the four besieged towns, though 
 the garrison under Colonel Winsloe at Potchefstroom 
 was obliged to surrender for want of provisions with- 
 in a fortnight after the storming of Majuba. 
 
 Sir Evelyn Wood succeeded Sir George Colley as 
 commander-in-chief, and as reinforcements had ar- 
 rived from England he was at the head of twelve 
 thousand men. In his opinion he held the Trans- 
 vaal farmers in the hollow of his hand. Perhaps 
 he did, but there were many in South Africa who 
 doubted it. The triumvirate and those they repre- 
 sented were well aware of the enormous power of 
 Great Britain. But they believed firmly that God 
 was helping them, and would continue to do so as 
 long as they were prepared to accept for the sake 
 of peace even a portion of what they considered they 
 were justly entitled to. Or if it was His will that 
 they should be punished for their sins and that a 
 British army should subject their country, when 
 resistance failed they had resolved to burn every 
 building, to lay the land utterly waste, and to retire 
 farther into the interior. The women particularly 
 were determined upon this, and in the race of the 
 sea beggars woman's influence is supreme. Whether 
 one feels inclined to praise or to condemn them for 
 it, it is indisputable that they were not degene- 
 rate kinsmen of those Netherlanders who cut their 
 dikes and flooded their country rather than see their 
 foes in possession of it. 
 
 President Brand had done his utmost to keep the 
 Orange Free State out of the contest, and was trying 
 to act as a mediator, but some of his burghers in 
 their strong sympathy with their kinsmen had al- 
 ready taken the field, and the others could not be 
 
432 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 restrained much longer. In the Cape Colony too, 
 though no one wished to be under any other than the 
 British flag, the strain upon the lo/yalty of many 
 thousands of men and women was great, for the 
 Dutch section of the population certainly held that 
 the people of the Transvaal territory had a right to 
 independence if they wished it. 
 
 Under these circumstances Mr. Gladstone accepted 
 the offer of President Brand, with whose assistance 
 an armistice was concluded on the 6th of March, 
 1881, between Sir Evelyn Wood and Commandant- 
 General Joubert, and the terms of a general settle- 
 ment between the contending parties were broadly 
 laid down in a document signed a little later. The 
 burghers then returned to their homes, and every- 
 thing remained unchanged until royal commission- 
 ers who were appointed to enter fully into particu- 
 lars and draw up a new convention had completed 
 their labours. 
 
 The convention as finally arranged and signed on 
 the 3rd of August is a lengthy document containing 
 thirty-three articles. It provided for the complete 
 self-government, under certain conditions, of the 
 white inhabitants of a territory whose boundaries 
 were defined, and which was much smaller in extent 
 than the old republic or the country under British 
 rule. It was to be under the suzerainty of Her 
 Majesty the Queen. Her Majesty was to have the 
 right of appointing a Resident, of moving troops 
 through the country in time of war, and of con- 
 trolling all the external relations of the state. The 
 Resident, besides other duties, was to be protector 
 of the Bantu inhabitants, and no legislation affecting 
 those people was to be in force until approved of 
 by Her Majesty's government. The Transvaal state 
 
THE CONVENTION OF PRETORIA. 433 
 
 was made liable for the debt of the old republic, 
 amounting to $748,162, and for the expense incurred 
 by the British government in carrying on the civil 
 administration from 1877 to 1881, amounting to 
 $1,272,000. The government, under these and other 
 less important conditions, was to be transferred to 
 the triumvirate on the 8th of August, 1881, and the 
 convention was to be ratified by a duly elected volks- 
 raad within three months after that date, other- 
 wise it was to be null and void. 
 
 It is impossible to see in what respect a state 
 created by such a convention could be regarded as 
 more independent than a self-governing colony of 
 the empire. However, Messrs, Kruger, Pretorius, 
 and Joubert signed the document, and on the 8th of 
 August the government was transferred to them by 
 Sir Hercules Robinson, the chairman of the royal 
 commission, the other members, Sir Evelyn Wood 
 and Sir Henry de Yilliers, chief justice of the Cape 
 Colony, being with him. Sir Hercules, in presence 
 of a large assembly of Europeans and Bantu, for- 
 mally annulled Sir Theophilus Shepstone's proclama- 
 tion annexing the country, and delivered an address 
 explaining the new condition of affairs. 
 
 A volksraad was elected, but for some time it was 
 doubtful whether the convention would be ratified. 
 The members realised that if they approved of it 
 they could no longer appeal to the Sand River Con- 
 vention, which they held still to be morally and 
 legally in force, as they had never consented to its 
 abolition. The condition of things which that docu- 
 ment laid down was what they wanted and what they 
 believed they had a right to, not such shackled privi- 
 leges as were described in this Convention of 
 Pretoria. 
 
 2D 
 
434: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 But it was clearly explained to them by the trium- 
 virate that their only choice in the matter was that 
 or war with Great Britain. Public opinion in Eng- 
 land would not allow Mr. Gladstone to consent to 
 more, even if he were personally disposed to do so. 
 How could they tempt Providence by renewing a 
 war which they had no means of carrying on, and 
 in which they would not have the strong sympathy 
 of their kinsmen in other parts of South Africa, who 
 were all of opinion that they should accept these 
 terms as the best they could hope to obtain ? 
 
 The volksraad then yielded, and on the 25th of 
 October the convention was formally ratified, but to 
 say that it was approved of would be incorrect. Mr. 
 Kruger was shortly afterwards elected president of 
 the vassal state, which took its former name of the 
 South African Republic, and entered upon a career 
 beset with difficulties. 
 
THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 4.35 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC UNTIL THE DEVELOP- 
 MENT OF GOLD MINING. 
 
 THE arrangement made by the Pretoria Conven- 
 tion proved to be anything but a permanent settle- 
 ment of the difficulties in South Africa. The 
 Englishmen who had either gone to reside in the 
 Transvaal territory between 1877 and 1881, or who 
 had invested money there, were loud in denunciation 
 of the imperial government for having abandoned 
 them, and declared they would never be satisfied 
 until British rule was again restored. Many of 
 them left the country altogether. The union jack 
 was ceremoniously buried at Pretoria with demon- 
 strations of grief and shame, but on the epitaph was 
 the significant word Resurgam, which clearly ex- 
 pressed the view of the mourners. Unjustifiable 
 acts, or what appeared as such, committed by some 
 farmers during the period of hostilities were noised 
 abroad, and among them was the deliberate murder 
 of a British officer, Captain Elliot. 
 
 On the other hand the farmers chafed under the 
 restrictions imposed upon their government, especial- 
 ly the suzerainty, which might mean anything or 
 nothing according as Great Britain chose to inter- 
 pret it. Their view of the matter may be given, as 
 it was once placed before the author of this volume, 
 in the following simile, which does not differ in 
 meaning from President Kruger's illustrations. 
 
4:36 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 " If you were ill and weak, and a very strong man 
 were to knock you down and take from you your 
 purse, and watch, and clothing, leaving you naked, 
 and afterwards offered you your clothing again, 
 would you accept it ? " 
 
 " I think I should, that would be better than to 
 remain naked." 
 
 " But would you be satisfied until your watcn 
 and purse were also restored ? " 
 
 " No, I should not be." 
 
 " Well, that is exactly our case. In taking our 
 independence from us, Great Britain took all that we 
 valued, clothing, and purse, and watch; now Mr. 
 Gladstone has returned the clothing, but we have not 
 got the purse or the watch, and therefore we are 
 dissatisfied still." 
 
 When people who have dealings with each other 
 are in these frames of mind matters cannot go on 
 smoothly between them. The position of the British 
 Resident, under any circumstances a most delicate 
 one, was a thorn in the side of the administration, 
 which felt itself hampered in a way and to an extent 
 that no ministry in any self-governing colony is ever 
 subject to. The state of affairs beyond the western 
 border was also causing much trouble. The farmers 
 in the territory cut off by the Convention of Pre- 
 toria were theoretically under the rule of native 
 chiefs, but in practice any attempt to interfere 
 with them was at once resisted, and in such events 
 those within the border could not be restrained 
 from assisting those without The chiefs there were 
 quarrelling among themselves, the renegade white 
 men living with them were constantly fomenting 
 trouble, crimes of the greatest magnitude remained 
 unpunished, and thus all was unrest and confusion. 
 
THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 437 
 
 These matters were represented to the Earl of 
 Derby, who in December, 1882, became secretary of 
 state for the colonies, and a member of the Transvaal 
 civil service went to London semi-officially to confer 
 with him upon them. The administration at Pretoria 
 and the burghers of the country desired chiefly the 
 withdrawal of the suzerainty, the abrogation of the 
 powers of the British Resident, the extension of the 
 south-western boundary, and the reduction of the debt 
 to Great Britain, which they were then unable to 
 pay. The secretary of state entertained the proposals 
 favourably, and early in 1884 a deputation from the 
 Transvaal, consisting of President Kruger, the Rev- 
 erend Stephanus Jacobus du Toit, superintendent- 
 general of education, and Commandant Nicolaas 
 Smit, reached London, where matters were arranged 
 between the Earl of Derby and themselves entirely to 
 their satisfaction. The suzerainty was abolished; 
 the powers of the British Resident were abrogated 
 and that officer was to be replaced by one having the 
 position of a consul, the south-western boundary was 
 extended so as to embrace all the farms occupied by 
 Europeans, and the debt was reduce,d. 
 
 To this effect a new convention was drawn up and 
 signed on the 27th of February, 1884. It is much 
 shorter than the one it replaced, containing only twen- 
 ty articles. By it the South African Republic was 
 restored to the position of an independent state, and 
 its administration, in the Earl of Derby's words, "was 
 left free to govern the country without interference, 
 and to conduct its diplomatic correspondence and 
 shape its foreign policy, subject only to the require- 
 ment that any treaty with a foreign state should not 
 have effect without the approval of the Queen." The 
 exact wording of the fourth article, the one of greatest 
 
438 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 importance in this Convention of London, is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " The South African Republic will conclude no 
 treaty or engagement with any State or Nation other 
 than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe 
 to the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the 
 e&me has been approved by Her Majesty the Queen. 
 Such approval shall be considered to have been 
 granted if Her Majesty's Government shall not, 
 within six months after receiving a copy of such 
 treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediate- 
 ly upon its completion), have notified that the con- 
 clusion of such treaty is in conflict with the inter- 
 ests of Great Britain or of any of Her Majesty's pos- 
 sessions in South Africa." 
 
 In the fourteenth article the rights of European 
 strangers entering the republic are defined. It 
 reads : " All persons, other than natives, conforming 
 themselves to the laws of the South African Republic, 
 will have full liberty, with their families, to enter, 
 travel, or reside in any part of the South African 
 Republic; they will be entitled to hire or possess 
 houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops, and prem- 
 ises ; they may carry on their commerce either in per- 
 son or by any agents whom they may think fit to em- 
 ploy ; they will not be subject, in respect of their per- 
 sons or property, or in respect of their commerce or 
 industry, to any taxes, whether general or local, 
 other than those which are or may be imposed upon 
 citizens of the said Republic." 
 
 The conclusion of this convention was unquestion- 
 ably an act of liberality on the part of the British 
 government, and there seemed no reason now why 
 the most friendly feelings should not be renewed 
 on the part of the little state. The condition of un- 
 
THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 439 
 
 rest beyond the western border was also soon after- 
 wards brought to an end. In the feud between the 
 Korana chief Taaibosch and the Batlapin chief 
 Mankoroane, each had invited the assistance of 
 European volunteers, and had offered farms as pay- 
 ment, intending to give ground taken from his ad- 
 versary. Exactly the same course was followed 
 by the two Barolong chiefs Moshete and Montsiwa 
 in their feud with each other. There is a class of 
 men, mostly the outcasts of society, to whom adven- 
 ture of this kind has a particular charm, and con- 
 siderable bands were enrolled without difficulty in 
 the service of each chief. It was believed in England 
 that the South African Republic allowed enlistment 
 to take place within its borders, and permitted its 
 territory to be used as a base of operations without 
 any serious effort to prevent it. In South Africa it 
 was known that enlistment was just as freely carried 
 on at Kimberley and the diamond fields along the 
 Vaal, and that as far as nationality was concerned 
 our own countrymen were fully as active as any 
 others in the matter. 
 
 In contests in tho field only those Europeans who 
 made themselves generally offensive ran any risk of 
 being killed, for, as they said, they had volunteered 
 to fight against natives, not against men of their own 
 colour. After a while they got tired of fighting at all, 
 and then they divided two large tracts of land among 
 themselves and each man had a farm to sell. One 
 tract was formed into the republic of Stellaland, the 
 other into the republic of Goshen. The whole thing 
 would have been a comedy, if it were not for the com- 
 miseration due to the natives, who, however, were of a 
 very low and immoral type, not to be compared in any 
 way with the manly Zulus or Xosas. 
 
440 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Montsiwa and Mankoroane now complained to the 
 British government, and the missionary and philan- 
 thropic societies supported their appeal for protec- 
 tion. Some efforts to settle matters were made by 
 the Cape government, but did not succeed, and then 
 a strong expedition was sent from England under 
 command of Sir Charles Warren to put things right. 
 Upon reaching Stellaland Sir Charles found that 
 most of the farms had been purchased by orderly 
 people, that a village named Vryburg was being built, 
 and that native rights except for hunting purposes 
 had hardly been disturbed. The people were quiet 
 and peaceable, so he did not interfere with them 
 further than to abolish their government. The peo- 
 ple of Goshen dispersed before he reached Mafeking, 
 where they had intended to found a village. 
 
 In September, 1885, the whole territory from the 
 border of the South African Republic westward to 
 the twentieth meridian from Greenwich, and from 
 Griqualand West and the Orange River on the south 
 to the Molopo River andRamathlabama Spruit on the 
 north, was annexed to the British Empire and formed 
 into a crown colony under the name of British Bechu- 
 analand. It was divided into five districts, named 
 Gordonia, Kuruman, Taung, Yryburg, and Mafe- 
 king, in each of which a magistrate was stationed, 
 with a body of police to maintain order. As much 
 ground as was needed by the natives was then set 
 apart for their use, and the remainder was opened 
 for settlement by European farmers. 
 
 The greater portion of the land being waterless, 
 this extension of dominion was not of so much im- 
 portance to Great Britain on account of the value of 
 the territory itself as for opening a road to the in- 
 terior, and for the preservation of order in South 
 
THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 441 
 
 'Africa. Lost to the republic through the dissensions 
 among the burghers a quarter of a century before, its 
 occupation by Great Britain could in justice hardly 
 be regarded even as a sentimental grievance, still, 
 though no open complaint was made, some heartburn- 
 ing was felt when the union jack was hoisted at Vry- 
 burg and Mafeking, and a powerful neighbour was 
 established along the whole western border. 
 
 It was high time for Great Britain to take posses- 
 sion of this territory, for the eyes of another Euro- 
 pean power were already fixed upon South Africa. 
 In 1884 the German flag had been hoisted at Angra 
 Pequena, on the western coast. A race had com- 
 menced for the seizure of every square inch of ground 
 not yet appropriated, and even while Mr. Palgrave, 
 an agent of the Cape government, was in Damara- 
 land negotiating with the chiefs for the extension of 
 British authority over that territory, it too became 
 German property. From the Cunene River on the 
 north to the Orange on the south, and from the At- 
 lantic Ocean on the west to the twentieth meridian 
 from Greenwich with a great outward bend below 
 the Zambesi on the east, all the territory became a 
 dependency of the German Empire. In the south it 
 is arid, and its only natural harbour Walfish Bay 
 belongs to the Cape Colony, but the introduction of 
 a new and energetic power controlling this great dis- 
 trict may mean much in future South African his- 
 tory. It may become a home for those to whom 
 British rule is obnoxious to the last degree, but there 
 is no need to say more concerning it in this volume, 
 which has to deal exclusively with events connected 
 with English and Afrikander progress in the country 
 down to the present day. 
 
 Within twelve months after the signing of the Con- 
 
442 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 vention of London, South Africa was startled by re- 
 ports that rich and extensive goldfields had been dis- 
 covered in the district of Lydenburg. In parts of 
 that district, especially at and near Pilgrim's Rest, 
 two or three hundred men, or at times a smaller num- 
 f ber, had been washing the soil for gold for twelve or 
 fifteen years, but barely paid their expenses, and 
 produced nothing to attract general attention. They 
 lived more upon hope than upon actual success, and 
 hope itself was almost dead when it was suddenly dis- 
 covered that the richest localities had been neglected. 
 These were some distance farther south, within the 
 area known as De Kaap, not far from the north-west- 
 ern boundary of Swaziland. 
 
 To these new fields men made their way from all 
 parts of South Africa. A town of considerable size, 
 named Barberton, sprang up with astonishing ra- 
 pidity. But the place was difficult of access, costly 
 machinery was required to crush the rock in which 
 the gold was embedded, and in most instances also 
 the richest reefs were situated high on the sides of 
 rugged mountains. This to some extent retarded 
 the development of the mining industry, although it 
 was making steady progress up to the time of the dis- 
 covery of the still richer fields at Witwatersrand, 
 which naturally drew away most of the miners and 
 those dependent upon them. But even then many of 
 these mines at De Kaap, though eclipsed in fame by 
 those on the Rand, continued to be worked, and have 
 yielded quantities of gold that would have made that 
 metal the chief export of the republic, as it rose to a 
 value of over two million dollars a year. 
 
 And now came a discovery that has had a greater 
 effect upon South Africa than even that of the dia- 
 mond mines, but an account of it cannot be given in 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD MINING, 443 
 
 a volume professing to be a narrative of progress 
 without some preliminary remarks. Increase of 
 wealth either of a country or of an individual is not 
 always progress in the right direction. " Prosperity 
 shall try thee, boy, as ne'er thy sires were tried," 
 said the English mother to her son in one of our most 
 beautiful poems. And when the trial leads to loss 
 or diminution of high morality, prosperity is a curse, 
 not a blessing, to either individual or community. 
 Great wealth suddenly succeeding a mere sufficiency 
 for the necessaries of life has usually a deteriorating 
 effect. Frugality disappears with industry and ener- 
 gy, pride and vanity take possession of the mind, and, 
 worse than all, the old struggle to do what is right 
 and honest and true, and the old trust in the Almighty 
 God, wane away into nothingness. 
 
 He would not be a close observer of the people of 
 South Africa during recent years who could say that 
 the wealth derived from the Rand has not had a bad 
 effect upon many of them. It is not that thousands 
 of worthless characters of both sexes have migrated 
 there from Europe, though that cannot be too much 
 deplored. The country people do not come into con- 
 tact with them. It is because the desire to share in 
 the gold has brought a new and much less healthy 
 spirit into the country, and things can be openly done 
 there now which thirty years ago would have been 
 followed by ostracism from respectable society. One 
 reads much of the corruption of certain petty officials 
 of the South African Republic, who will not do their 
 duty unless they are first bribed. But that is only 
 one feature of the evil, the worst feature being that 
 people have generally come to look upon such matters 
 as only venial offences. 
 
 As late as 1881 many hundreds of families in the 
 
44:4: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 South African Republic resolved to set fire to their 
 own houses and to move away to a wilderness rather 
 than submit to English rule. It may be doubted if 
 that high spirit is still in the land, at any rate to the 
 extent that it was only twenty years ago, though 
 trouble and misfortune may indeed restore it. Look- 
 ing at the matter in this light, and noting the violent 
 passions that have been roused, the animosities be- 
 tween men who ought to be as brothers, and the awful 
 strife now raging, all of which arose from the wealth 
 of the Rand, the writer of this volume has no hesita- 
 tion in saying that good would it have been for South 
 Africa if there were not a particle of gold in her 
 bosom. 
 
 The revenue of the republic was so small that it 
 was with difficulty the most necessary expenses of the 
 administration were met, when in 1886 some gentle- 
 men named Struben, who had been for over a year 
 prospecting on the high belt of land between Pretoria 
 and the Vaal River, proved the existence of gold there 
 in payable quantities. It was soon found that the 
 extent of the gold-bearing reefs was very great, 
 though some parts were much richer than others. It 
 was not a field for individual diggers, because the 
 precious metal was embedded in rock or conglomer- 
 ate, which had first to be removed, then to be crushed 
 by powerful machinery, and finally to be treated by 
 different processes, all of which required large capital 
 and special skill. But companies were rapidly 
 formed, and for a distance of thirty miles along the 
 reef mining rights were secured and men were set to 
 work. 
 
 In the centre of this line, five thousand six hundred 
 feet above the level of the sea, rose almost as by magic 
 the largest city in South Africa, the world-famed 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD MINING. 445 
 
 Johannesburg. !N"ot a city of tents and iron sheds, 
 like Kimberley in its early days, but of massive edi- 
 fices, many of architectural beauty that would not be 
 out of place in any capital of the world. A city of 
 parks, and luxurious clubs, and magnificent hotels, 
 and shops with great plate glass windows rivalling 
 those of Regent Street or the Rue de Rivoli. A city 
 that within ten years from the time the first founda- 
 tion-stone was laid contained over a hundred and 
 twenty miles of streets, and possessed fixed property, 
 exclusive of public buildings, churches of all denomi- 
 nations, schoolhouses, and hospitals, valued at over 
 sixty-seven million dollars. A city lit with electric- 
 ity, with trams and telephones, and all other luxu- 
 ries of modern life. 
 
 To it flocked people from all parts of the world. 
 Its stock exchange during the early years was a scene 
 of the wildest speculation, for companies were floated 
 and their shares bought and sold without any proof 
 that they were worth more than so much clean paper. 
 Great fortunes were made by a few individuals in 
 this way, and great misery was caused to thousands 
 of excited and foolish wealth hunters. At length, 
 however, this period of reckless speculation passed 
 away, the fictitious companies disappeared, and the 
 industry settled down into proper order. 
 
 The great difficulty at first was want of transport. 
 All the building material, provisions, and machinery 
 had to be conveyed on bullock waggons from the 
 termini of the Cape and Natal railways. It was thus 
 impossible to erect stamping batteries until many 
 months, sometimes years, after really legitimate 
 companies were formed. The only requisite at hand 
 was coal, which was abundant and close by. A rail- 
 way was therefore constructed from the coal mines 
 
4A6 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 along the whole length of the reef, and as soon as 
 stamps could be erected the fuel was there for the 
 engines. So the output of gold increased yearly by 
 leaps and bounds. In 1888 it was 230,189 ounces, 
 in 1889 369,551 ounces, in 1890 494,810 ounces, 
 in 1891 729,233 ounces, in 1892 1,210,865 ounces, 
 in 1893 1,478,477 ounces, and in 1894 2,024,164 
 ounces. 
 
 To secure railway communication between Jo- 
 hannesburg and the sea was now a matter of the first 
 importance. The question was what port should be 
 selected. Delagoa Bay was the nearest, the harbour 
 was the best on the coast, and there had always been 
 a longing on the part of the republic for access to the 
 outer world by that route. But if President Kruger 
 had been a diplomatist, and had regarded tranquil- 
 lity as the first consideration, he would probably have 
 selected a line to Port Elizabeth as the first to be con- 
 structed. He had a perfectly legal right to choose 
 the route to Delagoa Bay, but it is not always judici- 
 ous for a weak power to make use of its full privi- 
 leges. His training, however, as well as his disposi- 
 tion, put him out of the pale of diplomacy, though 
 his strong common sense must have acquainted him 
 that by trying to divert trade from the Cape Colony 
 he was rousing the jealousy, if not the hostility, of a 
 powerful neighbour. To these considerations he 
 acted as if he was indifferent. He would not permit 
 either the Cape or Natal to extend a line beyond his 
 border until one to Delagoa Bay was secured. In; 
 1887 a concession was granted to an association in 
 Holland termed the Netherlands South African Rail- 
 way Company, under which a monopoly of the con- 
 struction and working of lines within the republic 
 was given to that body, and an agreement was made 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOLD MINING. 447 
 
 with Portugal to link a line from Johannesburg to 
 the border with one from the border to Lourengo 
 Marques. 
 
 The Portuguese government granted a concession 
 to a Company in London to construct its portion of 
 the railroad, but when the work was nearly completed 
 seized the line on the ground that one of the clauses of 
 the concession had not been carried out. The amount 
 of compensation to be given to the shareholders was 
 referred to the arbitration of three Swiss jurists, 
 who issued their award, giving a much smaller 
 sum than was anticipated. By the Netherlands 
 Company the line was completed from Johannesburg 
 through Pretoria to Komati Poort, on the Portuguese 
 border, when the whole road was opened for traffic. 
 Loureno Marques, which had previously been a place 
 of little or no importance, now rose to be a thriving 
 seaport town, as through it passed much of the com- 
 merce of the South African Republic. 
 
 Meantime the Cape government in agreement with 
 the Orange Free State had pushed its line northward 
 through Bloemfontein to the Vaal, and then an ar- 
 rangement was made with the Netherlands Company 
 to continue it to Johannesburg, which it reached a 
 couple of years before its Delagoa Bay rival. In 
 July, 1895, the formal opening took place of the 
 transcontinental railway from Table Bay to Lourengo 
 Marques, with connections from Port Elizabeth and 
 East London. Subsequently Natal was also linked 
 in, giving Johannesburg connection with no fewer 
 than five seaports. 
 
 Since that date a branch line Has been constructed 
 to Barberton, and much other railway development 
 has taken place in the republic. Gold has been 
 found in the north as well, in the Zoutpansberg and 
 
448 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Waterberg districts, but nowhere else has mining as- 
 sumed such proportions as at Witwatersrand. 
 
 In 1888 the first presidential term of Mr. Kruger 
 expired. Under his firm administration the republic 
 had enjoyed such freedom from dissension as it had 
 never known before, and certainly he was the very 
 incarnation of the spirit of the great majority of the 
 burghers. He was therefore re-elected by four thou- 
 sand four hundred and eighty-three votes against 
 eight hundred and thirty-four given to Mr. Pieter 
 Joubert. In the same year President Brand, of the 
 Orange Free State, died, when the chief justice of 
 that republic, Mr. Frederick William Reitz, was 
 elected president by four thousand and seven votes 
 against four hundred and twenty-four given to the 
 rival candidate, the Reverend Mr. Van der Lingen. 
 
GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXVIII. 
 
 GEEAT EXTENSION OF BEITISH DOMINION IN SOUTH 
 AJFEICA. 
 
 THE vast territory that extends from the Limpopo 
 to the Zambesi was before 1888 in pretty much the 
 same condition as that between the Limpopo and the 
 Vaal when the emigrant farmers under Commandant 
 Potgieter entered it. Lobengula, son and successor 
 of Moselekatse, who had fifteen thousand disciplined 
 warriors at his disposal, was lord of all the land that 
 his armies could reach. From his chief kraal of 
 Buluwayo divisions of his forces went out periodi- 
 cally in all directions, according to the established 
 Matabele custom, to gather in any spoil that was to 
 be had. Two circumstances, however, made his gov- 
 ernment milder than that of Moselekatse had been. 
 The first was the personal character of the chief, who 
 was by no means of a ferocious disposition, and who 
 had learned much from long and close intercourse 
 witK Europeans who visited the country. The sec- 
 ond was that the army was now principally composed 
 of Betshuana and Makalaka captives, who from bur- 
 den-bearers had been raised to the rank of soldiers. 
 Comparatively few pure Zulus remained, as the 
 number of women that accompanied Moselekatse in 
 his flight from Tshaka was small, and thus the army 
 had greatly degenerated in courage, for the Makalaka 
 especially were poor specimens of the Bantu family. 
 
 In the scramble for African soil then taking place 
 2E 
 
450 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 among the European nations, this territory could not 
 long be overlooked. A great part of it consists of a 
 plain over four thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea, en joying an excellent climate, where white people 
 can not only live, but thrive and multiply. Here 
 were those mysterious ruins, showing that at some dis- 
 tant period of the world's history Asiatic conquerors 
 ruled the land. Here were vast numbers of long 
 abandoned gold mines, which by means of modern 
 appliances might be turned into sources of wealth, 
 for at the water level all ancient working ceased. 
 Here was a country in which almost anything could 
 be cultivated, and where cattle-breeding on a very 
 large scale was practicable. Whose was it to be? 
 South Africa Had become too small for such a system 
 as that of the Matabele to continue longer. What 
 power was to take their place, to purge the land from 
 the rule of the assagai, to enable the miserable rem- 
 nants of a hundred tribes to come down from their 
 abodes on almost inaccessible mountain tops, and to 
 replace the darkest barbarism with the light of Euro- 
 pean civilisation ? 
 
 The Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes an- 
 swered this question. The Portuguese indeed 
 claimed to have dominion under international law 
 over a very large portion of it, derived from their 
 missionary and trading settlements in Eastern 
 Mashonaland in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies, but not an individual of their nation resided 
 on any part of the high plateau in 1888. The people 
 of the South African Republic regarded it as their 
 natural field of expansion, but they were too few in 
 number to take possession of it then and permanently 
 occupy it. From the west, through Damaraland, a 
 little expedition, or even a single individual, might 
 
GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION. 451 
 
 any day enter the country and make arrangements 
 that would for ever cut off the Cape Colony from the 
 interior of Africa, by bringing the territory under the 
 German flag. 
 
 Early in 1888 a treaty was concluded between the 
 British government and Lobengula for the exclusion 
 of foreign influence, which was the first step towards 
 occupation. The next step was taken in November 
 of the same year, when a mining concession was ob- 
 tained from the chief by Messrs. Kudd, Maguire, and 
 Thompson. Other concessions were subsequently ob- 
 tained, and were united by the amalgamating genius 
 of Mr. Rhodes into the privileges of a single associa- 
 tion, for which on the 29th of October, 1889, a royal 
 charter was granted. Whether it would not have 
 been better for the imperial government to have taken 
 possession of the country and established direct au- 
 thority in it need not be discussed, because the min- 
 istry was averse to anything of the kind, and it was 
 thus the British South Africa Chartered Company or 
 nothing. 
 
 The charter provided for the establishment of a 
 board of eight directors, three of whom were to be ap- 
 pointed by the crown and five by the shareholders in 
 the Company. Power fully equal to that granted to 
 the Transvaal government by the Convention of Pre- 
 toria was given to this directorate, and it was not 
 hampered by restrictions of so irritating a nature. 
 The territory in which it was to act was not strictly 
 defined. Mr. Rhodes was appointed managing di- 
 rector, which in effect gave him complete control of 
 the whole undertaking. 
 
 A strong armed force was now raised, which left 
 the Cape Colony in March, 1890, and under the 
 guidance of the celebrated hunter, Mr. Frederick 
 
452 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Courtenay Selous, passed far to the eastward of the 
 Matabele kraals, and established a line of military 
 posts Tuli, Victoria, Charter, and Salisbury in 
 Mashonaland. Prospecting for gold was then com- 
 menced, and numerous adventurers from the south 
 arrived in the country. Unfortunately there was a 
 lack of provisions and medical stores for so many 
 immigrants, and as the rains from October to March 
 were unusually heavy, a great deal of discomfort 
 was experienced and many deaths took place. After 
 a few months, however, ample supplies of food and 
 all other necessaries reached the posts, and matters 
 took a more favourable turn. Salisbury was selected 
 as the seat of government, and Dr. Leander Starr 
 Jameson fixed his residence there as administrator. 
 A telegraph line was constructed so rapidly that in 
 February, 1892, there was communication with 
 Capetown, and in July of that year building allot- 
 ments were sold not only in the capital but at Vic- 
 toria and Umtali. A fair commencement had now 
 been made in the occupation of the country. 
 
 Meantime the limits of the Portuguese territory 
 along the coast had been settled, though in a some- 
 what highhanded manner. In September, 1890, a 
 concession was obtained from the chief Umtasa, re- 
 siding in Manika, whom the Portuguese claimed as 
 their subject, and when soon afterwards some Por- 
 tuguese officials visited his kraal they were arrested 
 by Major Forbes and sent as prisoners to Salis- 
 bury. This act caused great excitement in Portu- 
 gal, and volunteers, who eagerly came forward, were 
 sent out with all haste to Beira. The first who 
 arrived proceeded to a station near Umtasa's kraal, 
 and on the llth of May, 1891, when making a 
 reconnaissance, fell in with a detachment of the 
 
GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION. 453 
 
 Chartered Company's police. An engagement fol- 
 lowed, which resulted in the total defeat of the 
 Portuguese and their precipitate return to the coast. 
 Their camp, stores, and eleven machine guns fell 
 into the hands of the victors. Negotiations between 
 the two governments in Europe followed, and in 
 June a treaty was concluded which fixed the present 
 boundary and provided for the construction of a 
 railway from the border to Beira, at the mouth of the 
 Pungwe River. 
 
 The next event of importance was an attempt to 
 settle a portion of the territory by a party of Dutch 
 farmers under the leadership of a man named 
 Adendorff, who had obtained a grant of land from 
 a chief claiming to be independent of Lobengula. 
 This party was ready to cross the Limpopo when 
 Dr. Jameson reached its northern bank with a de- 
 tachment of the Chartered Company's police, and 
 threatened resistance unless they would acknowledge 
 his authority and declare themselves British sub- 
 jects. A few consented to do so, and were permitted 
 to pass in, but the greater number declined, and as 
 President Kruger refused to support them they were 
 obliged to retire. 
 
 It was evident from the first that peaceful de- 
 velopment of the resources of the country was not 
 possible while the Matabele bands were at liberty to 
 make raids whenever they pleased upon the Mashona 
 kraals. Two ruling powers may exist in the same 
 country, if the government is purely tribal, but not 
 two such ruling powers as Lobengula and the Char- 
 tered Company. The territory that the chief occupied 
 was indeed attractive, but had it been a desert war 
 would have been just as inevitable. It was brought 
 on by an incident illustrative of barbarian habits. 
 
4:54: PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Some miserable Mashona thieves cut the telegraph 
 wire near Victoria, and took away a piece, probably 
 to make armlets of. They were detected, tried before 
 the European court, and punished by fine, which they 
 paid with cattle stolen from Lobengula. Thereupon 
 the chief sent a regiment to chastise them as he 
 thought they deserved, which meant of course a mas- 
 sacre. Most likely many a white man who had to 
 deal with these Mashona would have had little 
 scruple in using a sembok freely upon them himself, 
 but when on the 9th of July, 1893, a number of them 
 were pursued by Matabele soldiers into the township 
 of Victoria, and stabbed to death there, the Euro- 
 peans could not look calmly on. A telegraphic mes- 
 sage to Dr. Jameson brought him with all speed from 
 Salisbury. On his arrival he ordered the Matabele, 
 who were still on the commonage, to return immedi- 
 ately to Buluwayo, and later in the day directed a 
 detachment of police to compel them to retire. A 
 collision occurred, and eight or ten of the warriors 
 were killed. No European was harmed in person in 
 this affair, but it was necessary to prevent its being 
 repeated, and as Lobengula would give no security or 
 even a promise to act otherwise in future, war was 
 made upon him. 
 
 The Chartered Company enrolled two strong bodies 
 of men specially adapted for such service, one of 
 which marched from the south and the other from the 
 east, to join at Buluwayo. The eastern column, 
 under Major Forbes, was twice attacked on its march, 
 but on each occasion was secure in a lager protected 
 by numerous machine guns. The first of these en- 
 gagements was on the 25th of October at the source of 
 the Shangani River, and the second was on the 1st of 
 November near the source of the Iinbembesi. On 
 
GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION. 455 
 
 both occasions the Matabele attacked with the greatest 
 bravery, but were driven back with terrible loss by 
 the fire from maxim guns and rifles. 
 
 Fugitives from the last battle informed the chief of 
 the defeat of his armies, when he set fire to his kraal, 
 and with all the people he could gather together fled 
 northward towards the Zambesi. He had treated the 
 few Europeans in his neighbourhood with the utmost 
 kindness, having assisted some to remove to places 
 of safety and protected others. On the 4th of No- 
 vember the eastern column reached the burnt kraal of 
 Buluwayo, and found there as the only inhabitants 
 two unharmed white traders, whose property even had 
 been respected. Eleven days later the southern 
 column arrived, having had only one skirmish on the 
 way. 
 
 Major Forbes then followed the chief, in hope of 
 getting possession of his person. It was not known 
 that he had sent to beg for peace, and had given his 
 envoys a large sum of money to offer as an earnest of 
 his wishes, that these envoys had fallen in with two 
 troopers of the Bechuanaland imperial police, who 
 took message and money, but never delivered either. 
 Surely the empire might be searched in vain for two 
 baser scoundrels than these, whose crime was then 
 undetected. On the morning of the 4th of December 
 an advance party of thirty-four men overtook Loben- 
 gula and those with him, who were desperate, as they 
 believed their proposals for peace had been rejected. 
 Major Allan Wilson, who was in command, rode up 
 too close, and the patrol was surrounded and every 
 man killed in a desperate fight. After this disaster 
 Major Forbes, whose supplies were exhausted, re- 
 turned to Buluwayo, where several headmen were 
 already coming in and tendering submission. On 
 
456 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the 23rd of January, 1894, Lobengula died of fever 
 and distress, and the whole tribe, being thus left with- 
 out a head, ceased resistance and came under the rule 
 of the Chartered Company. 
 
 On the site of Lobengula's kraal a township was 
 laid out, which retained the old native name. In 
 July several hundred building lots were sold in it by 
 auction, and brought an average price of over five 
 hundred dollars each. Substantial buildings, public 
 and private, rose rapidly, and soon a stately Euro- 
 pean town was standing where the Matabele huts had 
 erstwhile been seen. Another township was laid out 
 at Gwelo, in the centre of a district believed to be 
 rich in gold mines, but its growth was slow compared 
 with that of Buluwayo. 
 
 Though six years have passed away since these 
 events, it is impossible yet to state what the mining 
 prospects of Rhodesia, as the Chartered Company's 
 territory south of the Zambesi is named, really are. 
 "No machinery of importance could be conveyed into 
 the country until the construction of railways. These 
 were pushed on as rapidly as possible, and a line was 
 opened in November, 1897, connecting Buluwayo 
 with Capetown, thirteen hundred and sixty miles dis- 
 tant, passing through Mafeking, Vryburg, and Kim- 
 berley; but it is not yet fully completed to Gwelo. 
 From Beira, on the Portuguese coast, to Salisbury, a 
 distance of three hundred and eighty miles, a line 
 was opened in May, 1899. A long drought in 1895 
 was followed by the ravages of immense swarms of 
 locusts, and these by an outbreak of rinderpest among 
 horned cattle, which put an end for a time to ox-wag- 
 gon traffic. 
 
 Next came an insurrection of the natives, caused 
 by the belief that the white men were sorcerers and 
 
GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION. 457 
 
 had brought on these troubles, and made possible by 
 Dr. Jameson's removal of the police force of the 
 country for his raid into the South African Republic. 
 During the night of the 24th of March, 1896, the 
 Matabele rose and began to murder the scattered 
 white people wherever they could be found. The 
 Mashona clans followed their example, and the rising 
 became general. All the Europeans who could not 
 escape to towns or lagers were cut off, but strong 
 forces were soon in the field, and in every engage- 
 ment that took place the barbarians were defeated. 
 In August Mr. Rhodes, with fearlessness approaching 
 rashness, met the Matabele leaders in the Matopo 
 hills, and arranged terms of peace with them, but the 
 Mashona insurgents did not submit until some months 
 later. This insurrection cost the lives of over four 
 hundred Europeans, and nearly two hundred others 
 received wounds more or less severe. 
 
 All these circumstances, added to the high taxation 
 of the Chartered Company upon prospecting for 
 metals, retarded the development of mining industry, 
 still the output of gold reached 15,804 ounces in 
 1898, and was rising very rapidly in 1899, when the 
 outbreak of the present war again interrupted its 
 progress. Coal is abundant in the country, and silver, 
 copper, iron, and several other metals have been 
 found. 
 
 The outbreak of rinderpest destroyed cattle-breed- 
 ing for a time, but pastoral pursuits will to a cer- 
 tainty be carried on largely in the future. Agricul- 
 ture has succeeded as far as it has been tried, and 
 fruit, grain, and vegetables of nearly every kind can 
 be cultivated wherever the surface is adapted for the 
 plough, as the rainfall during the summer months is 
 usually ample. Unfortunately very few, if any, 
 
458 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 British immigrants of the present day care to pursue 
 that occupation. Some Dutch families have settled 
 on farms, and only the recent political troubles have 
 prevented a very considerable number from becom- 
 ing residents in Rhodesia. 
 
 The government has of late undergone important 
 changes. In April, 1896, Earl Grey became admin- 
 istrator, Dr. Jameson having lost that office through 
 his raid into the South African Republic. In 1898 
 an order in council was issued, which greatly modified 
 the Company's political power. The high commis- 
 sioner, as representing the crown, has now almost 
 supreme control over legislative and administrative 
 matters, and a resident imperial commissioner is sta- 
 tioned at Salisbury to correspond with him. There 
 is an administrator at Salisbury, for Mashonaland, 
 and another at Buluwayo, for Matabeleland. A 
 legislative council, consisting of seven officials and 
 four elected members two each for Matabeleland 
 and Mashonaland holds its sessions at Salisbury. 
 The officer in command of the police force a body 
 of about twelve hundred men is appointed by the 
 imperial government. The Company defrays costs 
 of administration in excess of the public revenue. It 
 is evident that this is only a transition form of gov- 
 ernment, and there is already a desire on the part of 
 the settlers for perfect representative institutions. 
 
 The country is divided into several European ma- 
 gistracies, and into twenty-nine districts in each of 
 which there is an officer in charge of the natives. 
 There is a high court, from which an appeal in im- 
 portant civil cases can be made to the supreme court 
 of the Cape Colony. Order is well preserved, and 
 justice is within the reach of every one as much as in 
 any part of the empire. 
 
GREAT EXTENSION OF BRITISH DOMINION. 459 
 
 Beyond the Zambesi the Chartered Company has 
 acquired rights over an enormous territory, extending 
 to the border of the Congo Free State, but with that 
 this volume has not to deal. 
 
 Between Rhodesia and the German territory, from 
 the Molopo River and Ramathlabama Spruit on the 
 south to the Botletle River on the north, lies what is 
 termed the British Protectorate. It is the least val- 
 uable part of South Africa, and is thinly inhabited 
 by the Betshuana tribes under the chiefs. Khama, 
 Sebele, Bathoen, and some others. In 1885 these 
 chiefs voluntarily accepted British supremacy, but 
 continue to govern their own people without interfer- 
 ence, as before. The London Missionary Society has 
 had agents working here for more than half a century, 
 and under their guidance many of the people have 
 made a considerable advance towards civilisation and 
 have embraced the doctrines of Christianity. The 
 chiefs are the most enlightened native rulers in South 
 Africa. The Protectorate is divided into two dis- 
 tricts, in each of which a British official is stationed, 
 who has magisterial authority over European and 
 other inhabitants not subjects of the chiefs, and who 
 also controls the relationship of the tribes to each 
 other. A resident commissioner receives instruc- 
 tions from, and corresponds with, the high commis- 
 sioner in Capetown, who represents the crown as 
 supreme ruler. The railway from Capetown to 
 Buluwayo passes near Kanye, Molopolole, and Pala- 
 pye, the residences of the three chiefs above named. 
 The district of Tati, where a gold mine is worked, is 
 also included in the Protectorate, because the proprie- 
 tors of the mine had earlier rights than the Chartered 
 Company and objected to come under its government. 
 
 The only territory south of the Zambesi that now 
 
460 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 remained free of European control was the little strip 
 of land along the eastern coast between the Portu- 
 guese possessions and Zululand. In April and May, 
 1895, it was taken possession of by Great Britain, 
 and on the 31st of December, 1897, together with 
 Zululand it was incorporated with and became part 
 of the colony of Natal. 
 
 South Africa was thus divided between Great 
 Britain, Germany, Portugal, and the two republics, 
 the first named power possessing by far the greatest 
 extent of territory and the most important interests. 
 
CAPE COLONY DURING LAST TWENTY YEARS. 461 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXIX. 
 
 EVENTS IN THE CAPE COLONY DURING THE LAST 
 TWENTY YEAKS. 
 
 DURING the last twenty years the Cape Colony 
 has made great advances in material prosperity, 
 though there have been many and serious checks to its 
 progress. There was first an unsuccessful war with 
 the Basuto tribe, which cost from fifteen to twenty 
 million dollars of public money. From 1868 to 
 1871 the Lesuto was nominally governed by an 
 agent of the high commissioner, but in reality the 
 three principal sons of Moshesh ruled the tribe. 
 Fortunately for the European officials they were so 
 jealous of each other that combination was impos- 
 sible, and Letsie, the highest in rank of the three, was 
 a man of such little force of character that he leant 
 upon British support against his brothers Molapo 
 and Masupha. In 1871 the country was annexed to 
 the Cape Colony, and was thereafter governed in the 
 same way as other purely native districts. The 
 chiefs were subsidised, and were accorded many priv- 
 ileges, but jurisdiction in criminal cases was legally 
 taken from them. Colonel Griffith, a man of high 
 ability, was stationed at Maseru as chief magistrate, 
 and a number of subordinate magistrates were placed 
 in the different districts into which the territory was 
 divided. Great efforts were made to educate the 
 people, and to lead them forward in the path of civil- 
 isation. 
 
462 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 After the Zulu war it was considered advisable by 
 the Cape government to disarm the natives under its 
 jurisdiction, for the sake of preserving peace. All 
 the tribes in South Africa had been arming, by send- 
 ing their young men to the diamond mines, where 
 guns were openly sold, with instructions from the 
 chiefs that each one was to bring back a weapon. The 
 republican governments had protested against the 
 trade, but in vain. It was asserted that a sufficient 
 number of native labourers could not be obtained to 
 work the mines unless the temptation of becoming 
 possessors of guns was held out to them, and that a 
 man with a gun which he could not use properly was 
 less dangerous as an enemy than the same man with 
 an assagai which he could deftly wield. That might 
 be true, but the possession of guns certainly gave a 
 native tribe a spirit for war that it would not have 
 had without them. 
 
 The Basuto among others were now called upon to 
 surrender their guns upon being paid the full value 
 of them, and they refused to do so. Force was 
 brought against them, and they resisted, Lerothodi, 
 son of Letsie, Masupha, and Joel, son of Molapo, 
 taking the lead. The war lasted during a great part 
 of the years 1880 and 1881, and in the end the colony 
 was unsuccessful in maintaining its authority. It 
 caused the downfall of Sir Gordon Sprigg's ministry, 
 and in May, 1881, Sir Thomas Scanlen took office. 
 Negotiations with the imperial government were 
 opened, with the result that in March, 1884, the 
 Lesuto again became a direct dependency of the 
 crown, which it remains to the present day. A resi- 
 dent commissioner, who receives his instructions from 
 the high commissioner in Capetown, resides at Mas- 
 eru, and under his authority are six magistrates who 
 
CAPE COLONY DURING LAST TWENTY YEARS. 463 
 
 deal with, any cases brought before them. The Cape 
 treasury is under obligation to contribute $86,400 
 yearly towards the revenue, but from that has been 
 deducted since 1891 whatever amount might be due 
 to Basutoland as a member of the customs union. 
 
 In 1880 some Tembu and Pondomisi clans in the 
 territory below the Drakensberg rose in rebellion, and 
 a few white men were murdered in a very treacherous 
 manner. But within four months from the com- 
 mencement of the outbreak it was completely sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 From that time until 1896 there were no native dis- 
 turbances of any consequence. Towards the close of 
 that year the Batlapin, the most degraded of all the 
 Bantu tribes, with some other clans living on the 
 border of the Kalahari, north of the Orange, set 
 themselves against the government. At first it was 
 not considered possible that they could successfully 
 resist a strong body of police, but the nature of their 
 country was such that military operations were ex- 
 ceedingly difficult in it, and shortly large volunteer 
 forces were sent to aid in suppressing the insurrec- 
 tion. For eight or nine months hostilities were car- 
 ried on, at a cost to the country of over two million 
 dollars, and when it was suppressed the wretched 
 insurgents were thrown upon the hands of the gov- 
 ernment as paupers without food. Under these cir- 
 cumstances they were required to take service on 
 farms, a measure which was not approved of by the 
 whole of the missionaries, but as precautions were 
 taken to secure their good treatment and they them- 
 selves entered willingly into contracts rather than be 
 tried for rebellion, it is not easy to see what better 
 course could have been adopted with regard to them. 
 
 The failure of the Union and Cape of Good Hope 
 
464 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 banks in 1890, owing to rash advances on gold-mining 
 shares, brought severe pecuniary trouble to a large 
 number of people. 
 
 Long droughts in some parts of the colony caused 
 much distress, particularly in 1895 and 1896, and 
 the damage done by locusts has more than once oc- 
 casioned widespread loss. Then came the rinderpest, 
 which ravaged all South Africa a few years ago, and 
 swept off cattle worth many millions of dollars. Add 
 to these the destruction of the orange groves of the 
 west by the dorthesia before an insect enemy was dis- 
 covered and brought from America to exterminate it, 
 and the ravages of the phylloxera which are necessi- 
 tating the entire replanting of the vineyards with 
 stocks grafted on roots that can resist it, and it will 
 be seen that the colony has had to contend with 
 serious troubles. 
 
 These, however, have been more than counter- 
 balanced by improvements. Railways have been con- 
 structed to an extent that would have been deemed 
 incredible twenty years ago. Besides the main lines 
 from the three ports of Table Bay, Algoa Bay, and 
 East London to Buluwayo soon to Gwelo in one 
 direction, and to Port Natal or Delagoa Bay in an- 
 other, there are various branch lines to important 
 centres of trade. The railways in the colony, with 
 some trifling exceptions, are the property of the gov- 
 ernment, constructed with money obtained on loan, 
 chiefly in England, and the receipts for traffic form 
 part of the public revenue. They are of a uniform 
 gauge of three feet six inches. The carriages are in 
 compartments, as in England, with side doors. The 
 rate of speed is necessarily much lower than on the 
 broad gauge American lines, and some of the gradi- 
 ents are steep and the curves short, especially in 
 
CAPE COLONY DURING LAST TWENTY YEARS. 465 
 
 mountain passes. But the difference between a train 
 running twenty-four miles an hour and a passenger 
 coach is very great, and still greater is the difference 
 between a goods train at fifteen miles an hour and an 
 ox-waggon at fifteen miles a day. Thus great de- 
 velopment in traffic of every kind has resulted from 
 the construction of railways within the colony, apart 
 from the transport of goods and passengers to and 
 from the territories beyond the border. 
 
 The marine works which have made Table Bay one 
 of the best and safest ports in the world, with a dry 
 dock of the first order for repairing ships, have done 
 much for the progress of the colony. So have other 
 works at East London, where formerly ships lay at 
 anchor in an open roadstead and discharged and took 
 in cargo by means of surf boats, and where now they 
 lie along quays within the river as securely as in the 
 docks at Brooklyn, and are unladen by steam cranes 
 into railway trucks, as is the case also at Port Natal 
 in the sister colony. The coast, along which steam- 
 ships and sailing vessels are constantly passing, is 
 well lit, and accidents now rarely occur. 
 
 The colony has been covered with a network of 
 telegraph wires, as one of the necessities of modern 
 civilisation. Three lines of under-sea cables, one on 
 the east and two on the west coast, connect it so closely 
 with all parts of the world that anything of impor- 
 tance which occurs in Capetown is known on the 
 same day in Melbourne, London, and Montreal. 
 
 Magnificent steamships, only inferior in size to the 
 largest that cross the Atlantic, and hot inferior even 
 to these in provision for the comfort of travellers, 
 leave Table Bay weekly, and speed to Southampton; 
 six thousand miles distant, often in less than sixteen 
 days. Hundreds of tons of letters, newspapers, lit- 
 
 2F 
 
4:66 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 erature of all kinds, and small parcels of merchandise 
 are constantly on the way backward and forward in 
 these mailships, and for two cents one can send greet- 
 ings from the most remote hamlet in the colony to a 
 friend at the other extremity of the empire. Four or 
 five other lines of steamers are constantly plying be- 
 tween England and the Cape with passengers and 
 merchandise, usually taking from twenty to twenty- 
 four days from departure to arrival. 
 
 Large sections of the colony are without surface 
 water, and as the natural drainage is perfect, such 
 areas were formerly regarded as waste. Of late 
 years the construction of artificial reservoirs has 
 made great progress, and it has been found that water 
 may be had in abundance in many localities by sink- 
 ing artesian wells. Wherever an igneous dike 
 crosses a sedimentary deposit more or less inclined, 
 fountains can be opened by means of drills, and to 
 this the government has recently paid much atten- 
 tion with excellent results. 
 
 Fruit culture, notwithstanding the invasion of 
 many insect pests, has made considerable progress 
 in the south-western districts, and Cape peaches, 
 plums, and grapes, though still in very small quan- 
 tities, can now be had in London in the early months 
 of the year. 
 
 The fisheries on the coast, particularly on the 
 great Agulhas bank, are being rapidly developed. 
 Twenty years ago the only fish eaten in the colony 
 were caught either by seines along the shore or by 
 hooks cast from open boats. An American schooner 
 that secured a cargo of mackerel by improved 
 methods drew attention to what might be done, and 
 the government got out a steam trawler which 
 proved that a great source of wealth had been lying 
 
CAPE COLONY DURING LAST TWENTY YEARS. 467 
 
 unheeded within easy reach of all the southern 
 ports. 
 
 During this period the school system of the colony 
 has been greatly extended, and has been adapted to 
 meet the wants even of the scattered farming popula- 
 tion. A government grant sufficiently large to at- 
 tract a qualified lady teacher can now be obtained on 
 every homestead where a few children can be 
 gathered together. Every village is provided 
 with a good primary school, and in the towns edu- 
 cational advantages are equal to those of any part of 
 the empire. There are numerous colleges of high 
 standing in the colony, among which are institutions 
 for the training of theological students and for the 
 acquirement of knowledge in matters pertaining to 
 agriculture. Above the whole is a university, 
 established by royal charter in August, 1877, with 
 the power of conferring degrees. It is purely an 
 examining body, but has many studentships at its 
 disposal, as it has been richly endowed. 
 
 The education of coloured children is chiefly car- 
 ried on by missionaries of almost every Christian de- 
 nomination, who receive grants from the govern- 
 ment for meeting the teachers' salaries. The 
 schools are subject to inspection by an official of the 
 educational department, and if they are found in 
 proper working order the grant is made, without any 
 distinction whatever between religious bodies, Catho- 
 lic or any variety of Protestant. Every year, how- 
 ever, it is becoming more evident that upon indus- 
 trial rather than upon literary training the future 
 welfare of this class of the population depends. The 
 difficulty is how to carry out industrial training 
 without some form of compulsion, a difficulty that 
 no one has yet been able to devise means to sur- 
 
468 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 mount. There are high schools or colleges for these 
 people also, the most important of which are the 
 Lovedale Institution, established by the Free Church 
 of Scotland, and the Healdtown Institution, estab-. 
 lished by the Wesleyan Church, both aided by gov- 
 ernment grants. 
 
 These institutions have produced not a few Bantu 
 who have proved that here and there an individual 
 of this race is capable of attaining a high intellec- 
 tual position. Mr. Tengo Jabavu, editor of a Kaf- 
 fir newspaper at King-Williamstown, educated at 
 Healdtown, writes an article in either English or 
 Kaffir that any one can read with pleasure; Mr. 
 .William Seti, educated at Lovedale, is a most effi- 
 cient and trustworthy clerk in a public office; Mr. 
 John Knox Bokwe, educated at Lovedale, can keep 
 a ledger as well as any European and has composed 
 some plaintive airs for hymns and songs; and these 
 names might easily be extended to twenty or thirty. 
 
 But there is another side to this narrative of in- 
 dividual progress. There is a very strong national 
 feeling in all, or nearly all, of the educated Bantu, 
 for which they cannot be blamed, but which is not 
 so friendly as could be wished towards European 
 control. A couple of instances that have just oc- 
 curred will illustrate this. The Reverend Mr. 
 Dwane, educated at Healdtown, an ordained clergy- 
 man of the Wesleyan Church, was placed in charge 
 of a native congregation in Tembuland. Resenting 
 even the slight European guidance to which he 
 was subject, he seceded, and formed a new connec- 
 tion with an African church in the Southern States. 
 The Reverend Mr. Pambani Mzimba, educated at 
 Lovedale, was an ordained clergyman of the Free 
 Church of Scotland, in charge of a native congrega- 
 
CAPE COLONY DURING LAST TWENTY YEARS. 469 
 
 tion. There was not even a shadow of European 
 control in his case, only a possibility of being out- 
 voted by Europeans at a presbytery meeting. Yet 
 he too has seceded from the church to which he 
 owed his position, and set up an independent Afri- 
 can religious community. This spirit may easily be- 
 come dangerous when it extends from church to state. 
 
 Another feature of the educated native is that in 
 most instances unless he is placed at once in a good 
 position he becomes surly, and broods over fancied 
 wrongs sustained from the European community. 
 With abundance of conceit, but devoid of persever- 
 ance, he does not attempt to qualify himself for 
 some useful occupation, but goes about discontented or 
 gives way to intemperance. It is possible that this 
 class of man may prove troublesome in the future. 
 They are certainly neither so useful to their race nor 
 so comfortable and cheerful in their own lives as 
 those who have had a good training in manual labour 
 on a farm. 
 
 In connection with education the public libraries 
 of the colony may be mentioned. There is hardly a 
 village, and not a town of any importance, without 
 one. The government contributes as much to the 
 maintenance of each as is locally subscribed, and the 
 libraries are open to any one of good behaviour, 
 though only subscribers are allowed to take out 
 books. Many of them, for instance those of Gra- 
 hamstown, Kimberley, and Port Elizabeth, would be 
 creditable to any provincial town in England, while 
 the one in Capetown, termed by way of excellence 
 the South African Public Library, is a really noble 
 institution, having been enriched by many valuable 
 donations, notably that of Sir George Grey. It is 
 specially subsidised by government. 
 
4:70 
 
 many fine baaMing* have 
 al tfc& large towns of the colony. Stone 
 ace the materials universally used, as modi 
 to the climate. Some of the ataeets 
 ff Ca^etawai or o Ftart Elizabeth would not be out 
 t gbra iat aocjr European capital Hardly a town 
 off any GnumpHBBft is without a botanic garden, or 
 a pasifc witfe s&ady trees and fountain^ maintained 
 T auth.oafitaKfc. Perhaps the most un- 
 interior towns and villages 
 
 use of galvanised iron for roofing, 
 to tie glare and heat, but is fireproof 
 and dur-i 
 
 The rntroductioii of responsible government, here 
 as everywhere' efee^. has had as a consequence the 
 <ii*iaumi the people into parties. For several 
 years this was hardly noticeable, but the annexation 
 WE. VHK Suiriih African .Republic m IS 1 7 created a 
 feeing- which had as its result the formation of 
 a political party known as the Afrikander Bond. 
 TMs association had branches in the Orange Free 
 "feat im the colony its aim was in no sense 
 to BrrfciisiL interests,, though it certainly de- 
 home role to- as large an extent as is possible in 
 & dfipendtemcy and the cultivation of the closest 
 with the rejpdffiefe. Its leader proposed 
 mflsWnEe the imposition of prefer- 
 ential customs duties int favour of British, commerce,, 
 its represer. :n parliament without a dis- 
 
 voice in 1&96- voted for a yearly grant of 
 he (HffifbiimaB tiraKuiry towards the 
 of the British navy. But while it pro- 
 loyalty to the Queen and the em- 
 Tyrrei. nlfr QQBBGDQQD. tt8> csHnry out JJutcii ideas TH trie 
 C^onpGDcBHfi mainly of fanners,, it supported 
 
4:72 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the two the same feeling exists as between ex- 
 treme liberals and extreme conservatives in England. 
 Outside of both these is a body of men of moderate 
 opinions, Dutch and English as well as those of 
 mixed blood, whose efforts are mainly directed 
 towards conciliation, but they are gradually being 
 forced by circumstances to take one side or the 
 other. There is no room in South Africa for such 
 men now. 
 
 During these years the number of members of 
 parliament has been considerably increased, and the 
 qualifications for voters have been altered. In 1882 
 two additional members in the house of assembly 
 were given to Kimberley, and in 1887 the two new 
 electoral divisions of Tembuland and Griqualand 
 East were created, each to return one member to that 
 chamber. 
 
 In 1892 the franchise was raised, owing to the 
 peculiar circumstances of the colony in regard to 
 the large native population. In some districts there 
 was danger of the European votes being swamped 
 at no distant period by the votes of barbarians who 
 had no conception of the nature of representative 
 government, but who possessed the qualifications of 
 electors and could be led to the poll by the man of 
 most influence among them. It was not a question 
 between the different sections of Europeans, for the 
 Bantu could not be depended upon by one more than 
 the other. The ballot system of voting was there- 
 fore introduced, and the elector was required to 
 write his name, address, and occupation, in addition 
 to which the franchise was restricted to men who 
 had either occupied during the previous twelvemonth 
 property worth $360 or who had been in continuous 
 receipt of a salary or wages amounting to $240 a year. 
 
CAPE COLONY DURING LAST TWENTY YEARS. 473 
 
 In 1893 the ministerial department of the secre- 
 tary for agriculture was created and the office of 
 secretary for native affairs was combined with that 
 of prime minister, so that the cabinet still consisted 
 of five members, as before. 
 
 In 1895 the crown colony of British Bechuana- 
 land was incorporated with the Cape Colony, in ac- 
 cordance with the view that one large and strong 
 country under a single government is preferable to a 
 confederation of smaller and weaker provinces. The 
 annexation act provided that British Bechuanaland 
 should return one member to the legislative council, 
 and be divided into two electoral districts, of which 
 one, named Vryburg, should return two members to 
 the house of assembly, and the other, named Mafe- 
 king, should return one. 
 
 In 1898 a number of new seats were created in 
 the house of assembly. This measure was forced on 
 by the League party in the belief that by a redistri- 
 bution of constituencies its power would be increased, 
 but the result, as proved by the elections that fol- 
 lowed, was considerably in favour of the Bond. 
 To constituencies already existing were given: Port 
 Elizabeth, two more members; Capetown, George, 
 "Worcester, Tembuland, and Griqualand East, each 
 one more member. The Cape district was divided 
 into two, Wynberg and Woodstock, each entitled to 
 return two members. And the following new dis- 
 tricts were created : Jansenville, to return two mem- 
 bers, and Cathcart, Humansdorp, Middelburg, 
 Prieska, and Simonstown, each to return one. 
 
 The legislative council now consists of twenty- 
 three members elected by nine provinces, and the 
 house of assembly of ninety-five members elected by 
 forty-six divisions. 
 
4:74 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 THE discovery of gold at Witwatersrand brought 
 into the South African Republic a large European 
 population differing widely in thought as well as in 
 manner of living from the farmers who called the 
 country their own. Men with ideas of the close of 
 the nineteenth century were brought into a condition 
 of dependency upon others whose views were those 
 of the seventeenth, and naturally they could not 
 agree. It was inevitable that a struggle should 
 sooner or later take place, which could have but 
 one ending. 
 
 For a few years this was not so evident as it is 
 now. The farmers, who were as incompetent as 
 people well could be to develop the mineral wealth 
 of the country, were pleased to sell their ground at 
 prices that seemed to them almost fabulous, and to 
 move to other parts where they could live in their 
 own cherished way. It was generally supposed that 
 before those who were then in their cradles were 
 fullgrown men and women the gold-bearing reefs 
 would be exhausted, when the strangers would 
 seek other lands to display their marvellous energy 
 in. In the meantime, while it lasted, as much of 
 the wealth as possible should be secured, for it be- 
 longed of right to the country. But with new dis- 
 coveries, and particularly with the development of 
 mining to great depths, these anticipations were 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 475 
 
 found to be erroneous, and the position had to be 
 faced that a large and unsympathetic body of men 
 would be resident in the republic for a long time to 
 come. 
 
 To the farmers' way of thinking it would be j 
 suicidal to admit these men to full political privi- \ 
 leges, because if they had power they would subvert , 
 the existing institutions, and even if the country 
 should remain a separate and independent state, it 
 would be no longer a republic such as its founders 
 had made it. They became impressed with fear 
 that either Great Britain would take possession of 
 the country again, or that the foreigners would by 
 some means or other endeavour to get the upper 
 hand in the government. President Kruger, whose 
 influence was supreme among them because he was 
 so thorough an embodiment of their spirit, had this 
 fear constantly before his eyes, and all his actions 
 were guided by it. Unfortunately, however, though 
 he was possessed of many high qualities, he was not 
 gifted with the wisdom and prudence so much needed 
 in the difficult position which he occupied. Presi- 
 dent Brand would have acted very differently. 
 
 Instead of attempting to conciliate the strangers ] 
 who were appearing in ever-increasing numbers, the ; 
 republican government acted in a high-handed man- 
 ner towards them. Probably if matters had been 
 made easy, they, or at least the English section of ^ 
 them, would never have striven to obtain the fran- 
 chise, for few would have cared to renounce their 
 rights as subjects of a world-wide empire in order to 
 become citizens of a little state which they did not 
 look upon as their permanent home. But the grant- 
 ing of monopolies of various kinds, especially one 
 for the manufacture of dynamite, an article indis- 
 
 II 
 
4:76 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 pensable for mining, and the heavy duties on im- 
 ported provisions, led the strangers to believe that 
 their only method of obtaining relief was to acquire 
 power in the legislature. Of course they did not 
 all think alike, and it must be borne in mind when 
 speaking of either side in this contest that only a 
 prevailing majority is meant. 
 
 National feeling tended very greatly to widen the 
 breach thus created. The old farmers were not 
 given to boasting, it was even difficult to get them to 
 speak at all about their successes in the short war 
 that led to the convention of Pretoria, which they 
 attributed to the hand of the Almighty, not to their 
 own prowess. But many young men, particularly 
 striplings from other parts of South Africa, were 
 addicted to the use of exasperating language and 
 taunting references to Lang's Nek and Majuba Hill. 
 Our countrymen were in no wise behind in this 
 respect either. Language that would be regarded 
 as immoderately loyal in London or Bristol was used 
 without stint by press and people at Johannesburg, 
 and so far did this feeling go that in 1890 when 
 President Kruger visited that city he was greeted 
 with " Rule Britannia " and the flag of the republic 
 was hauled down and torn to pieces almost before 
 his eyes. Naturally the burghers regarded this 
 ebullition of feeling as we should regard the tearing 
 down of the union jack and the singing of the " Mar- 
 seillaise " if the Queen were to visit a street occupied 
 by Frenchmen in London. The government was par- 
 ticularly sensitive on the point of its dignity, and here 
 it was treated with disrespect and contumely. So bad 
 feeling was accentuated on both sides, and many men 
 who would not have quarrelled on other grounds 
 took part in the strife on purely national lines. 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 477 
 
 To prevent the strangers from obtaining political 
 power, President Kruger and the great body of the 
 farmers who acted under his guidance resolved to 
 alter the franchise. Before 1877 a single year's 
 residence in the republic gave any European a right 
 to vote at all elections. But in 1882, in consequence 
 of the part the townspeople had taken in welcoming 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the volksraad raised the 
 period of residence to five years and arranged the 
 constituencies so that the urban votes should be in- 
 cluded in those of the districts. This was the sys- 
 tem when the Witwatersrand gold fields were dis- 
 covered. 
 
 In 1890, before any considerable number of names 
 could be added to the voters' list, a great change was 
 made. A second volksraad was created, which might 
 be termed an advisory rather than a legislative body, 
 as its functions were limited and its acts could be 
 overruled by the first volksraad. An alien two 
 years after his name was registered by a fieldcornet 
 could become naturalised and vote for members of this 
 second volksraad. To obtain a seat in it, however, 
 it was requisite that he should be thirty years of age, 
 a member of a Protestant church, an owner of prop- 
 erty in the republic, and a naturalised burgher of 
 two years' standing. Before he could vote for the 
 president, commandant-general, or a member of the 
 first volksraad, it was made necessary that he should 
 possess the qualifications for a seat in the second 
 volksraad for ten years. 
 
 Thus no foreigner could obtain full burgher rights 
 until he had been fourteen years resident in the 
 country and was forty years of age, nor could he even 
 then if he had not registered his name at the begin- 
 ning of the period with a fieldcornet, whose books 
 
478 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 were frequently very carelessly kept. At the same 
 time the first volksraad reserved the power of enfran- 
 chising at its pleasure any man or body of men for 
 special services, so that practically it could admit 
 those who would be likely to work with it and keep 
 out those who would not. 
 
 In 1893 a numerously signed petition in favour 
 of the reduction of this franchise was sent from 
 Johannesburg, but was rejected by the first volksraad. 
 It was followed in 1894 by another to the same 
 effect, with over thirty-five thousand names attached 
 to it. That many of these names were spurious, 
 however, is certain, though what number were really 
 genuine cannot be stated. At any rate this monster 
 petition could not fail to alarm the government, as a 
 ; keenly contested presidential election had recently 
 . taken place, in which Mr. Kruger, who was returned 
 for the third time, had been opposed by General 
 Joubert, and the whole number of votes cast for both 
 candidates did not amount to fifteen thousand. Were 
 there then actually many more adult male foreigners 
 than burghers in the country ? asked every one. So 
 in place of lowering the franchise it was made even 
 more difficult to obtain, by providing that at the end 
 of the fourteen years' residence the applicant should 
 be obliged to obtain the consent in writing of a major- 
 ity of the burghers of the ward in which he resided 
 and should also be approved of by the president and 
 the executive council. Children born in the repub- 
 lic were to have the status of their fathers, so that 
 the son of an alien would have to go through the same 
 process of naturalisation when he became of age. 
 
 This enactment removed from the British residents 
 in the country all hope of being able to obtain legis- 
 lative power by peaceable means. It is but right, 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 479 
 
 however, to add that the greater number of them never 
 had any intention of becoming burghers of the repub- 
 lic in the same sense that the farmers were, no mat- 
 ter how short the period of residence necessary for 
 naturalisation might have been made. What they 
 really wanted was the right of voting, without their 
 ceasing to be British subjects except during the 
 period of their residence in the country, and there 
 can be no question that they would not have consented 
 to perform burgher duties. In a war which the re- 
 public was obliged to wage against a chief named 
 Malaboch some of them were called out for military 
 service. Four or five refused to comply with the 
 order, and so great was the excitement and so violent 
 was the opposition to the government that Lord Loch, 
 the high commissioner, went to Pretoria to settle mat- 
 ters. Upon his remonstrances on the ground that 
 the men called out were not citizens of the republic, 
 they were released from the order; but the opinion 
 was generally expressed at Johannesburg that this 
 system of carrying on war was most objectionable, 
 whether the persons required to take up arms were 
 burghers or aliens. 
 
 The complaints of the mining population against 
 the government were so many that it is impossible 
 in this volume to mention more than the principal 
 of them. They asserted that they had found the 
 country practically in a condition little short of bank- 
 ruptcy, and had raised it to great wealth, yet they 
 had no voice in the public expenditure, nor were 
 their wants attended to. The revenue of the republic 
 in 1884, they pointed out, was only $775,000, and 
 through them in 1894 it had risen to $10,789,000, 
 which was far in excess of the public needs. 
 
 Owing to the excessive charges for dynamite aris- 
 
4:80 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 ing from its manufacture and sale being a monopoly, 
 the high rates of carriage charged by the railway 
 company, and the import duties on provisions, the 
 cost of mining was so great that only rich ores could 
 be worked with profit. The companies were obliged 
 to pay their European labourers on an average over 
 $1,500 a year as wages, and their native labourers 
 $15 a month and food. If dynamite, provisions, 
 and transport, particularly of coal, were cheaper, 
 working expenses and wages could be so reduced that 
 it would be possible to open many more mines. This 
 complaint, as is evident, was confined to a small sec- 
 tion of the community. 
 
 Unwilling to recognise that they were in a foreign 
 country, the British residents were greatly irritated 
 by Dutch alone being used as the official language 
 and the chief medium of instruction in the public 
 schools. 
 
 They protested against the insecurity of the tenure 
 under which they held their property, as a simple 
 resolution of the first volksraad, in which they were 
 not represented, could override the constitution and 
 all other law. 
 
 While admitting that there were many exemplary 
 officials whose conduct was above reproach, they de- 
 clared that corruption prevailed to a very large ex- 
 tent, not only in the subordinate offices of the ad- 
 ministration, but in the volksraad itself. Coupled 
 with this they charged the government with making 
 use of a secret service fund altogether too great in 
 proportion ito the amount of revenue openly ac- 
 counted for, and with recklessly squandering public 
 funds. 
 
 They complained that they were not even per- 
 mitted to have proper municipal government, to the 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 481 
 
 want of which, they attributed the high death rate 
 in Johannesburg, a city that under modern sanitary 
 regulations should be one of the most healthy in the 
 world. 
 
 They stated that they were debarred by law from 
 the right of public meeting, and that neither their 
 lives nor liberties were safe, because only burghers 
 could be jurymen, and in the excited condition of 
 the country any of them, though innocent, accused 
 of a political offence could not expect a fair verdict. 
 
 They complained of being menaced by force, as 
 orders for cannon and other munitions of war had 
 been sent to Europe, and very large sums were about 
 to be expended in fortifying Pretoria and Johannes- 
 burg with the object of overawing them. 
 
 On the part of the republic explanations and con- 
 tradictions have been given to these and many other 
 statements of grievances, by comparing its taxation 
 with that of other countries, notably with that of the 
 United States, Canada, and the Cape Colony, show- 
 ing that its tariff upon the necessaries of life was 
 more moderate on an average than any of these; 
 demonstrating that nowhere else was taxation upon 
 everything pertaining to mining industry lower; 
 classing the Cape government railways as equally 
 grasping with those of the Netherlands South Afri- 
 can Company in the endeavour to make as much as 
 possible out of Johannesburg; asserting that the 
 president and the volksraad were anxious to introduce 
 reforms as soon as was consistent with safety; and 
 generally with regard to the restrictive legislation 
 that it was necessary to maintain the independence 
 of the state. By independence is here meant the re- 
 tention of the control of the government by those 
 who then possessed that power, as opposed to the 
 
 2o 
 
4:82 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 country becoming either a British dependency or an 
 English republic, one of which would be just as 
 distasteful as the other to men like President 
 Kruger. 
 
 At this time, in 1895, an event took place which 
 caused much friction between the governments at 
 Pretoria and at Capetown. To favour the introduc- 
 tion of goods through Delagoa Bay, a very high rate 
 of carriage was imposed on the section of the Cape 
 line between Johannesburg and the Vaal River, that 
 is the part within the South African Republic and 
 consequently under the control of the Netherlands 
 Company. By the Cape Colony this was naturally 
 regarded as a most unfriendly act, and all parties 
 were agreed that it should in some way be frus- 
 trated. Goods were therefore conveyed from the 
 colonial ports by rail to the southern bank of the 
 Vaal River, where they were transferred to ox wag- 
 gons and sent on to their destination. Upon this 
 President Kruger took the unwise step of proclaim- 
 ing the fords or drifts as termed in South Africa 
 of the Yaal closed to traffic. This is a common prac- 
 tice where a bridge is built, or a pontoon provided, 
 and a toll is levied, but there was no reason what- 
 ever for closing these drifts except to compel the 
 payment of excessive charges by the train or to 
 divert the traffic altogether. The imperial govern- 
 ment regarded the president's action as a breach of 
 the convention of London, and a demand, in which 
 the Cape authorities concurred, was made that he 
 should withdraw his proclamation. This he did, 
 rather than run the risk of hostilities in which he 
 would not have had the sympathy of any one beyond 
 his borders. 
 
 Towards the close of 1895 the leading men of the 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 483 
 
 dissatisfied party at Johannesburg, who had formed 
 themselves into an association termed the National 
 Union, resolved to attempt to gain by force what they 
 had failed to obtain by petition. Unfortunately for 
 himself, most unfortunately for South Africa, the 
 Bight Honourable Cecil John Rhodes allied himself 
 secretly with this party. He was at the time beyond 
 all comparison the most powerful man in the country, 
 fertile in large ideas, managing director of the 
 British South Africa Company, of De Beer's Dia- 
 mond Mining Company, and of the Consolidated 
 Goldfields Company, each a position of enormous 
 influence; he had been since July, 1890, also prime 
 minister of the Cape Colony, and commanded a very 
 large majority of the Dutch as well as the English 
 votes in both houses. How a man of his clear in- 
 tellect came to take the part that he did in the trans* 
 actions that followed is a mystery not even yet ex- 
 plained, though much has been written on the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 But whatever his views were in favouring a 
 scheme that might have been almost as fatal to his 
 grand plans for the advancement of South Africa if 
 it proved successful as if it should fail, Mr. Rhodes 
 became the strongest ally of the National Union at 
 Johannesburg, and not only contributed liberally to 
 its funds, but undertook to aid it with the armed 
 force of the Chartered Company, which has ever since 
 been regarded as the most objectionable part of the 
 whole proceeding. 
 
 A plan was now formed to convey rifles, ammuni- 
 tion, and even maxim guns and other fieldpieces, 
 secretly to Johannesburg. Dr. Jameson, the ad- 
 ministrator of Rhodesia, was to collect a strong force 
 of armed and mounted police at and near Mafeking, 
 
484 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 under pretence of protecting the railway from an 
 apprehended attack by natives, and when all was 
 ready, upon receiving information from the National 
 Union, was to make a rapid march to the gold fields. 
 Just as he was setting out, the arsenal at Pretoria, a 
 poorly guarded and weak structure, was to be seized 
 in the night, and such of its contents as could not 
 be immediately forwarded to Johannesburg by the 
 railway, which was also to be seized, were to be de- 
 stroyed. By this thje government would be left 
 without artillery, and with the arrival of Dr. Jame- 
 son it was supposed that nine or ten thousand men 
 could be assembled under arms. The high commis- 
 sioner, Lord Rosmead, who a few months previously 
 had succeeded Lord Loch, was then to be invited to 
 mediate, in order to prevent bloodshed, when it 
 was anticipated that the government would be com- 
 pelled to yield to all demands. 
 
 Whether there was ever any possibility of this 
 scheme proving successful is no longer an open ques- 
 tion. The Dutch as well as the English in the Caps 
 Colony, and at least a large proportion of the in- 
 habitants of the Orange Free State, sympathised 
 with the people of Johannesburg in their desire 
 for a reformation of the existing condition of things, 
 but war upon the republic by an armed force from 
 beyond the border would at once have swept all 
 such feeling from the breasts of the great majority 
 of South Africans. What could ten thousand men, 
 most of them unpractised in shooting though with 
 rifles in their hands, then have done? Without 
 firing a shot, the farmers could have guarded the 
 railways and starved them into submission. 
 
 But in point of fact the National Union did not 
 succeed in getting more than three thousand rifles 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 485 
 
 smuggled into Johannesburg when a contention arose 
 as to the flag they were to rally under. They had 
 professed all along that what they desired was to 
 substitute for an oligarchy a pure republic, in which 
 they should have equal rights with the farmers, but 
 now some were desirous of making the country a 
 British possession. Time was lost in discussing 
 this question and in sending messengers to Cape- 
 town to consult Mr. Rhodes and receive his assur- 
 ances that he would not insist on the British flag, 
 and while this was taking place Dr. Jameson was on 
 the border chafing at the delay. 
 
 Nothing was in readiness at Johannesburg when in 
 the evening of Sunday, the 29th of December, 1895, 
 with almost inconceivable rashness he crossed the bor- 
 der with five hundred mounted men and eleven pieces 
 of artillery to make his way to the gold fields one 
 hundred and seventy miles distant. He feared that 
 if his forces remained any longer at Pitsani and 
 Mafeking the republican government would suspect 
 his purpose and prepare to oppose him, and further 
 he believed that the leaders of the National Union 
 were wrangling and wasting time, so that his pres- 
 ence was necessary to force them to take immediate 
 action. He seems to have held the farmers in such 
 light esteem as to imagine that if he could reach his 
 destination all would yet be well. 
 
 Intelligence of the invasion spread rapidly, and 
 the farmers hastily saddled and rode, each one in- 
 stinctively, to the hilly country about twenty miles 
 west of Krugersdorp, through which Dr. Jameson 
 would have to pass. On Tuesday evening he reached 
 that part of the road, and skirmishing commenced, 
 though as yet his opponents were too few in number 
 to bar Lis passage. But the farther he advanced 
 
486 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 the more difficult he found it to force his way 
 through, and at noon on Wednesday, when Krugers- 
 dorp was in sight, he found it impossible to get in. 
 Leaving the entrenched hills in front of him, he 
 now turned in another direction, and tried to make 
 a detour to Johannesburg. But it was useless, the 
 force to which he was opposed could move as rapidly 
 as his own, and was every hour increasing in num- 
 ber. In the morning of Thursday, the 2nd of Jan- 
 uary, 1896, the last attempt to break through was 
 made at Doornkop, and when it failed there was 
 nothing left but to surrender. Commandant Pieter 
 Cronje, who was the leader of the farmers, sent 
 his prisoners to Krugersdorp, whence they were for- 
 warded under escort to Pretoria. The column had 
 lost eighteen killed and about forty wounded in the 
 different engagements. 
 
 [NOTE. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness for much 
 of the information in this chapter and the next to Dr. A. 
 Hillier's volume Raid and Reform, Mr. J. P. Fitzpatrick's 
 volume The Transvaal from Within, and State Secretary 
 Reitz's volume A Century of Wrong. My own notes upon 
 the events as they occurred were not as complete as they 
 ought to have been, and the volumes here named contain 
 matter previously unknown.] 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 48 7 
 
 CHAPTEE XLL 
 
 STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC (continued). 
 
 Oisr Monday morning, the 30th of December, 
 1895, intelligence was received at Johannesburg 
 that Dr. Jameson had set out, when the reform com- 
 mittee, which was composed of the leading members 
 of the National Union, at once recognised that all pros- 
 pect of the success of the revolution was destroyed. 
 There was now no possibility of seizing the arsenal 
 at Pretoria, and they could not arm more than three 
 thousand men. They took possession of the hills 
 commanding the city, however, and threw up en- 
 trenchments, enrolled a strong body of police, and as- 
 sumed the local government, in hope that by putting 
 on a bold face they would be able to secure from the 
 authorities at Pretoria a part at least of what they de- 
 sired. Meantime a panic set in among the labouring 
 classes, who, of course, had known nothing of what 
 was in preparation. Great crowds appeared at the 
 railway station, and packed the trains going coast- 
 ward, some even fighting their way into the carriages 
 and turning out the weaker. A dreadful accident 
 to one of these trains on its way to Durban, by which 
 some forty persons lost their lives, added to the gen- 
 eral misery. At the colonial seaports thousands of 
 these refugees, a very large proportion of whom were 
 Cornish miners who had regularly remitted the bet- 
 ter part of their wages to their families in England, 
 
4:88 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 and who had no reserve funds, arrived in a condition 
 next to helpless. 
 
 An urgent request was made by the reform com- 
 mittee to the high commissioner to visit Pretoria 
 and act as a mediator, in consequence of which he 
 offered his services in that capacity to the republican 
 government, which availed itself of them. In the 
 meantime negotiations were opened with President 
 Kruger, who professed his willingness to concede re- 
 forms, and issued a proclamation to that effect, but 
 without making any definite promises. Sir Her- 
 cules Robinson afterwards Lord Rosmead ar- 
 rived at Pretoria in the evening of the 4th of Janu- 
 ary. A few hours before he left Capetown he had re- 
 ceived information of the surrender of Dr. Jameson 
 and his band, whose action he had repudiated on be- 
 half of the British government, and whom he had 
 forbidden all British subjects to assist. But they 
 were there before him as prisoners, and as they could 
 not be abandoned to their fate, the task of the high 
 commissioner was a particularly difficult one. 
 
 On the morning of Monday the 6th he had an in- 
 terview with the president and the executive council. 
 Sir Hercules was ill and feeble in body, and the 
 strain was almost too great for him. The president 
 and his advisers were firm. Johannesburg, they 
 said, must lay down its arms unconditionally as a 
 precedent to any discussion or consideration of griev- 
 ances: if this were not done before four o'clock 
 the next afternoon the city would be attacked; if it 
 were, Dr. Jameson and his party would be handed 
 over to him to be dealt with by the British authori- 
 ties. To this kind of mediation the disastrous re- 
 sult of the raid had reduced Her Majesty's high 
 commissioner. The reform committee, fearing for 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 489 
 
 the safety of the prisoners in Pretoria, and recognis- 
 ing the hopelessness of attempting to resist, submitted 
 and surrendered their arms. The rifles given up 
 were so few that at first the government believed it 
 was being imposed upon, but after a strict search 
 no more were found, and it was then apparent that 
 Johannesburg had made a bold show without the 
 strength to support it. 
 
 Dr. Jameson and all his party were then handed 
 over to the high commissioner, the republican govern- 
 ment thus throwing upon Great Britain the unpleas- 
 ant duty of punishing them. Those of the rank and 
 file who were domiciled in South Africa were re- 
 leased there, and the others were sent to England, 
 where the troopers were set free and the officers were 
 placed upon their trial. Most of them held commis- 
 sions in Her Majesty's service, of which they were 
 deprived when they were sentenced to various short 
 terms of imprisonment. The sentences were, how- 
 ever, afterwards considerably reduced, and the 
 commissions, except that of Sir John Willoughby, 
 who was the military leader, have long since been re- 
 stored. 
 
 On the 9th and 10th of January sixty-four mem- 
 bers of the reform committee were arrested in Johan- 
 nesburg and committed to prison in Pretoria. The 
 high commissioner was still there, but he did not feel 
 warranted in interfering on their behalf, and on the 
 14th he left for Capetown. On the 24th of April 
 sixty-three of the prisoners were brought to trial, one 
 being too ill to be produced in court. A special judge 
 named Gregorowski, previously state attorney at 
 Bloemfontein, had been engaged for the occasion. 
 The prisoners pleaded guilty to different counts in 
 the indictment, in the belief that by doing so the 
 
490 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 sentences would be light ; but they were grievously 
 mistaken, for on the 28th four of them Colonel 
 Francis Rhodes, and Messrs. Lionel Phillips, John 
 Hays Hammond, and George Farrar were con- 
 demned to death, and all the others to two years' 
 imprisonment, a fine of $9,600 or another year's 
 imprisonment, and thereafter to banishment for 
 three years. The four sentenced to death were re- 
 garded as the most culpable because they had signed 
 an undated letter addressed to Dr. Jameson, invit- 
 ing him to come to their assistance, though it was 
 understood that he was not to date it or to act upon 
 it until they announced their readiness, which they 
 had never done. As four farmers had been killed 
 and five wounded in the actions with Dr. Jameson's 
 band, these men were held accountable for the blood- 
 shed. 
 
 On the following day the government announced 
 that the death sentences would not be carried out, 
 but what other punishment would be inflicted in- 
 stead was not made known. To men who had been 
 living in luxury the discomforts of a prison were so 
 great that some of them became ill, and one, labour- 
 ing under anxiety and distress, lost his reason and 
 committed suicide. All South Africa was stirred with 
 compassion for the unfortunate men, and from the 
 towns of the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, 
 and E~atal representations were sent to Pretoria by 
 the heads of the municipalities that in the interests 
 of peace it was necessary to adopt milder measures. 
 The prisoners themselves with two exceptions 
 sent in petitions for reduction of their penalties, 
 which led on the 20th of May to the commutation 
 of the four death sentences to imprisonment for 
 fifteen years, of four others to one year's imprison- 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 491 
 
 ment, of eighteen to five months, of twenty-four to 
 three months, and ten were released, the fines of 
 $9,600 each, however, to be paid in all cases. 
 
 Ten days later the delegates from the towns of the 
 Cape Colony, the Free State, and Natal began to 
 arrive at Pretoria, but before they had an official 
 interview with the government, all the prisoners 
 except Messrs. Rhodes, Farrar, Hammond, Phillips, 
 Wools Sampson, and Karri Davies, were set at lib- 
 erty upon payment of their fines and binding them- 
 selves not to meddle with politics in the South Afri- 
 can Republic during the next three years. On the 
 llth of June Messrs. Rhodes, Farrar, Hammond, 
 and Phillips were released on payment of fines 
 of $120,000 each, the three last named binding 
 themselves also not to take any part in the politics 
 of the republic for fifteen years. As Colonel Rhodes 
 Would not agree to this condition, he was banished 
 instead. Messrs. Sampson and Davies could not 
 bring themselves to petition the government for any 
 favour, so they were detained in prison until the 
 celebration of Her Majesty's jubilee in 1897 gave 
 the president an opportunity to liberate them as a 
 simple act of grace. 
 
 This event had wide-spreading effects throughout 
 South Africa. Through it Mr. Rhodes lost the com- 
 manding position he had previously occupied, and 
 on the 13th of January, 1896, was succeeded by Sir 
 Gordon Sprigg as prime minister of the Cape 
 Colony. The constitution of Rhodesia was changed, 
 and he ceased to be managing director of the Char- 
 tered Company, though his influence in that territory 
 continued to be very great. Passionate feeling 
 everywhere was roused, and the line of variance 
 between Dutch and English was deepened as it had 
 
492 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 not been for years before. In the South African 
 Republic ecclesiastical disputes had been so rife that 
 it was even generally believed they might lead to 
 political dissension, but now all sections of the 
 farming population were welded together in one 
 compact body placing the independence of the coun- 
 try and the control of its administration by Dutch- 
 speaking electors far above all other questions. 
 
 In the Orange Free State it led public opinion 
 to the closest union with the northern republic for 
 defensive purposes, and upon the retirement of 
 President Reitz through ill-health placed Judge 
 Marthinus Theunis Steyn at the head of the govern- 
 ment. The contest at the election was keen, Mr. 
 Steyn, who represented the party desiring alliance 
 with the South African Republic, being opposed by 
 Mr. Eraser, the chairman of the volksraad, who de- 
 sired to avoid all complications. There was a third 
 candidate, but he was of very little account. At 
 the polls 96 votes were recorded for the Reverend 
 Mr. Van der Lingen, 1,403 for Mr. Eraser, and 
 7,504 for Mr. Steyn, who on the 4th of March, 1896, 
 took office as president of the Orange Free State. 
 
 A frightful disaster occurred at Johannesburg in 
 February, 1896, when by an explosion of dynamite 
 caused by the shunting of some trucks at a railway 
 station a great part of one of the poorest wards was 
 destroyed and over a hundred individuals were 
 killed. So great was the political excitement through- 
 out South Africa, however, that this event soon passed 
 out of remembrance. 
 
 The government of President Kruger now set it- 
 self to the task of increasing its military strength 
 to prevent the possibility of a successful insurrection 
 in the future. Arms of the latest description were 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 493 
 
 imported in large quantities, and strong fortresses 
 for the protection of Pretoria and the domination of 
 Johannesburg began to rise. Some efforts were 
 made to conciliate the English residents, but the 
 president and his adherents were firm in their deter- 
 mination not to admit to political power an element 
 that would certainly be hostile to them. On the 
 other hand the English would not be satisfied with 
 anything short of equal privileges with the old 
 burghers, and so the feeling of enmity remained as 
 strong as ever. A law passed in 1897, which gave 
 the executive power to dismiss any judge who should 
 disregard a volksraad resolution, was considered 
 by the English community as destructive of all con- 
 fidence in justice, though it is difficult to see to what 
 other authority the judges could have been made re- 
 sponsible under a constitution that had always been 
 viewed as flexible. Chief Justice Kotze and Judge 
 Ameshof, who considered their offices degraded, were 
 removed, and Judge Gregorowski, who had tried the 
 reform prisoners and was exceedingly unpopular at 
 Johannesburg, was appointed chief justice. 
 
 A little later a commission of inquiry into the con- 
 ditions of the mining industry was appointed by the 
 government, and after making careful investigation 
 sent in a report recommending nearly all the eco- 
 nomical changes that the English companies desired. 
 In other parts of South Africa the excitement had by 
 this time abated, and there seemed to be good hope 
 that everything would at last be settled in such a way 
 that the mining industry would be relieved of all 
 unnecessary burdens, and that the miners would 
 cease to agitate for franchise rights in a country that 
 very few of them thought of making their permanent 
 home. 
 
4:94 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Meantime President Kruger had proposed that 
 differences between Great Britain and the Republic 
 should be referred to an arbitrator to be appointed 
 by the head of the Swiss confederation, and just at 
 this critical period came a reply from the secretary 
 of state declining that method of settlement on the 
 ground of the suzerainty of Great Britain over the 
 republic making it impossible. This word suzerainty , 
 so much detested, and which had not been heard for 
 thirteen years, hardened the president and his party 
 into the most determined conservatism. It was at 
 once repudiated. The efforts to fortify the country 
 and arm the burghers were redoubled, until Pre- 
 toria appeared to be the Metz of South Africa, Johan- 
 nesburg was commanded by a frowning fortress, and 
 vast stores of cannon of the latest type, repeating 
 rifles, and munitions of war of all descriptions were 
 stored in the republican arsenals. An able but very- 
 imprudent envoy in the person of Dr. Leyds, previ- 
 ously state secretary, was sent to Europe accredited 
 to all the courts for the purpose of securing as much 
 assistance as possible. Sooner or later, it was firmly 
 believed, the independence of the republic would have 
 to be defended by force of arms, and so preparations 
 were made for the contest. 
 
 Was the republic really under the suzerainty 
 of Great Britain? may be asked. The word had 
 been withdrawn by Lord Derby in the convention 
 of London, and it has since been proved that he him- 
 self struck out the preamble of the earlier convention 
 of Pretoria in which it occurred, when the relation- 
 ship of the two countries to each other was defined. 
 That the republic was subordinate to Great Britain 
 to the extent that its treaties with foreign powers ex- 
 cept the Orange Free State were subject to approval 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 495 
 
 was not disputed by President Kruger, though he 
 would have given much to be free from that re- 
 straint; but that this constituted suzerainty in sub- 
 stance he denied and those opposed to him main- 
 tained. Each reader can judge in this matter for 
 himself, as the words of the convention have been 
 given in a previous chapter. 
 
 And so the South African Republic became a 
 strong military state, a position which Great Britain 
 could not regard with indifference, considering her 
 vast interests not only in the southern extremity of 
 the continent but in the interior, and that the armed 
 country lay along the line of rail that Mr. Rhodes 
 had projected from the Cape to Cairo. No one out- 
 side of South Africa had imagined that there was 
 so much latent energy and determination in the sons 
 of the sea beggars, who usually presented the appear- 
 ance of simple slow-going farmers. 
 
 The president's five years' term of office expired in 
 1898, but the new election showed how thoroughly 
 he represented the burghers. He had two opponents, 
 one of whom, Mr. Schalk Burger, represented those 
 who were most favourably inclined towards the 
 English residents and the mining industry. Mr. 
 Kruger received 12,764 votes, Mr. Burger 3,716, 
 and General Joubert 1,943. Thus the illiterate, un- 
 daunted old man, whose ideas were those of the 
 seventeenth century, the story of whose life is the 
 story of his country, entered upon his fourth term of 
 office. 
 
 The people of Johannesburg were composed of 
 nearly all the nationalities of the world, but a ma- 
 jority of them were British subjects. Most of the 
 others sympathised rather with the republic than with 
 England, but the president did not see that if the 
 
496 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 franchise was extended they would constitute a set- 
 off against English voters : he simply desired to keep 
 all foreigners out of the first volksiaad in order to 
 avoid strife in that body, and his power was now so 
 great that he could do almost as he chose. 
 
 The discontent among the English on the Rand 
 grew apace. During the night of the 18th of De- 
 cember, 1898, a man named Foster was knocked down 
 in a street by another named Edgar, and as he ap- 
 peared to have been killed some policemen proceeded 
 to Edgar's house close by to arrest him. As the door 
 was fastened it was broken in, and in a scuffle that fol- 
 lowed Edgar was shot dead by a policeman of mixed 
 English and Dutch blood, named Jones. Foster 
 died in the hospital, and Jones, who was put upon 
 his trial for manslaughter, was acquitted by a jury 
 on the ground that the shooting of Edgar under the 
 circumstances was justifiable. The republican gov- 
 ernment has ever since maintained that there was no 
 miscarriage of justice, and that the same thing might 
 have happened in any city of Europe. But it was 
 differently regarded at Johannesburg, where the 
 English asserted that their lives were not safe, and it 
 led to a petition for protection being sent to the 
 Queen with about twenty-one thousand names at- 
 tached to it. 
 
 Correspondence between the two governments fol- 
 lowed, but nothing came of it. At length, however, 
 a meeting was arranged to take place at Bloemfontein 
 between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner, 
 who on the 5th of May, 1897, had succeeded Lord 
 Rosmead as Her Majesty's high commissioner in 
 South Africa, to see if some amicable settlement 
 could not be reached and the long-standing unrest be 
 done away with. The Orange Free State and the 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 497 
 
 Afrikander Bond in the Cape Colony exerted all 
 their influence to induce the president to adopt a 
 conciliatory attitude for the sake of the peace of the 
 country, and pointed out the terrible consequences of 
 an open conflict with Great Britain which would cer- 
 tainly follow if he did not come to terms. 
 
 In May, 1899, the conference upon which so much 
 depended took place. The high commissioner de- 
 manded the full franchise for all European aliens 
 after five years 7 residence, and the president, assert- 
 ing that if he were to concede that he would give 
 away the independence of the republic, declined. So 
 the conference ended, and in every homestead in 
 South Africa it was realised that a supreme crisis 
 in the country's fate had been reached, for Great 
 Britain could not now withdraw. 
 
 A ministry having the confidence of the Bond had 
 come into power at the Cape in October, 1898, with 
 Mr. William Philip Schreiner at its head. He and 
 President Steyn redoubled their pressure upon Mr. 
 Kruger, who now began to see that the admission of 
 English members into the volksraad, who would be 
 opposed by other foreigners, might be an evil to him 
 less than war. He therefore introduced a law con- 
 ferring the franchise a.fter seven years 7 residence, 
 and it was at once passed. With this Mr. Schreiner 
 and President Steyn expressed themselves satisfied, 
 but the secretary of state was apprehensive that the 
 law might not be as effective as appeared on the sur- 
 face, and proposed that a joint commission should be 
 appointed to examine whether it really provided 
 efficient representation for the aliens in the state. 
 
 Each side was thus deeply suspicious of the other : 
 the secretary of state that the president was not act- 
 ing in good faith, the president that the secretary of 
 
498 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 state was bent upon destroying the independence of 
 the republic. The proposal of a joint commission to 
 examine the new franchise law was most distasteful 
 at Pretoria, because it meant direct interference with 
 the internal administration of the country. A counter 
 proposal was therefore made by Mr. Kruger to give 
 the franchise after five years' residence, as demanded 
 by Sir Alfred Milner, but on the following condi- 
 tions : that all further interference should cease and 
 the convention of London be strictly adhered to, that 
 the claim of suzerainty should drop, and that there- 
 after all differences between the two governments 
 should be settled by arbitration. The secretary of 
 state declined to accept this proposal in its entirety, 
 and the president then consented to the joint com- 
 mission, but was informed in reply that it was too 
 late, the scheme of the joint commission was with- 
 drawn. 
 
 While these negotiations were taking place troops 
 were being sent to South Africa, and were massed on 
 the borders of the republics. The Free State be- 
 came alarmed, but was assured that there was no 
 cause to fear, as the British government had no dis- 
 agreement whatever with it. At Johannesburg the 
 English residents declared that neither the seven nor 
 the five years' franchise would satisfy them, they 
 must also be armed as well as the farmers, and the 
 forts must be broken down. In England the news- 
 papers with few exceptions were urging the despatch 
 of very large forces to South Africa to overawe the 
 government at Pretoria and so induce Mr. Kruger to 
 accept any demands whatever that might be made 
 upon him. It was supposed that fifty or sixty thou- 
 sand soldiers could, if necessary, advance upon the 
 republican capital, and like a steam-roller crush 
 
STRIFE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC. 499 
 
 everything before them. But their presence alone 
 would be needed, it was affirmed, to make the ob- 
 stinate old president submit to anything. In the 
 Cape Colony the unrest and excitement were so great 
 that war itself came afterwards as a relief. 
 
 It had been announced by the secretary of state 
 that there were other matters than the franchise to be 
 settled, but what they were or what satisfaction he re- 
 quired was not stated, so that the government at Pre- 
 toria came to believe that nothing short of placing 
 itself unconditionally in his hands would suffice to 
 avert hostilities. On the 28th of September he wrote 
 that the British government would lay down the de- 
 mands which it was prepared to enforce, but this had 
 not been done when on the 7th of October the first re- 
 serves were called out in order to send an army corps 
 to South Africa. By the republic this act was re- 
 garded as equivalent to a declaration of war, and as 
 the Orange Free State was bound by the terms of its 
 alliance to assist in such a case, it was also so regarded 
 at Bloemfontein. On the 9th an ultimatum was is- 
 sued at Pretoria, demanding the removal of the 
 British troops from the borders within forty-eight 
 hours, with an undertaking that no more should be 
 landed in South Africa, a proceeding that astonished 
 as well as angered Her Majesty's subjects throughout 
 the empire. A rush of people from Johannesburg to 
 the seaports then took place, and many thousands 
 reached their destination to be dependent upon public 
 charity. On the evening of the llth of October, 
 1899, the republican commandos crossed the borders 
 in hope of being able to defeat the British troops in 
 their neighbourhood before assistance could reach 
 them, and the first step was taken in the most deplor- 
 able conflict that South Africa has ever known. 
 
500 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The history of this war is to be written by another 
 pen, and in another volume of this series will appear 
 an account of the unanticipated magnitude that it 
 speedily assumed, of the unexampled transport of 
 nearly two hundred thousand fighting men with enor- 
 mous material of war over six thousand miles of 
 ocean, of the supreme efforts made by those who are 
 fighting for the independence of their countries as 
 well as of those who are fighting for the maintenance 
 of the prestige of the British Empire, of the splen- 
 did manner in which the various colonies of that em- 
 pire sprang to the assistance of the mother land, and 
 of long sieges, disasters, and victories. Let us hope 
 that the time of passion and bloodshed may speedily 
 pass away, and that the restoration of peace and con- 
 cord in South Africa may be followed by the still 
 closer political union of the states widely severed by 
 land and sea that have shown themselves at heart to 
 be one. 
 
SOUTH AFRICA AT CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 501 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 SOUTH APEICA AT THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 
 
 WHILE this chapter is being written a terrible war 
 is being carried on in the country to which it relates, 
 the loss of life and property has already been appal- 
 ling, and the fiercest feelings of enmity and hatred 
 have been roused between people who must continue 
 to live together on the same soil, whose interests are 
 identical, and who ought to be as one in face of the 
 great mass of barbarism beyond and among them. It 
 seems almost mockery to write of moral progress in 
 South Africa during the nineteenth century, when at 
 its close Englishmen and Dutchmen, so closely allied 
 in blood and character, are found heaping reproaches 
 upon each other and steeping their hands in each 
 other's gore. This chapter will therefore describe 
 the country, not as it is at this moment, but as it was 
 at the beginning of October, 1899, before the com- 
 mencement of hostilities, and as we may hope it will 
 be again when through God's mercy peace is restored 
 and happiness and prosperity take the place of mis- 
 ery, devastation, and death. 
 
 The whole territory from the Zambesi to Cape 
 Agulhas is now under European dominion, though 
 in some parts Damaraland, the British Protector- 
 ate, the Portuguese Territory, and Basutoland the 
 white man's authority is more nominal than real. It 
 is politically divided as follows : 
 
502 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 Square Miles. 
 Cape Colony area 277,151 
 
 BRITISH ' Natal - - " 29 > 434 
 
 POSSESSIONS. 
 
 Rhodesia " about 175,000 
 
 Basutoland " 10,293 
 
 British Protectorate.... " about 250,000 
 
 Total under the British Flag 741,878 
 
 Orange Free State area 48,326 
 
 South African Republic " 119,200 
 
 German Protectorate... " about 325,000 
 
 Portuguese Territory... " about 113,000 
 
 Total 1,347,404 
 
 The oversea commerce of the country is shown in 
 the following lists, from which can also be seen its 
 productions and their proportions in value. The ex- 
 ports of the German Protectorate and of the Portu- 
 guese Territory are small, and do not need to be re- 
 ferred to in this volume. The imports throngli 
 Loureno Marques to the South African Republic 
 are considerable, and those through Beira to Rhodesia 
 are rapidly increasing, but only trade through 
 British ports is given below. 
 
 Articles sent through ports of the Cape Colony to places 
 not in South Africa. 
 
 1898. 1899. 
 
 Gold $ 73,893,322 $ 66,315,278 
 
 Diamonds 21,921,106 18,271,896 
 
 Sheep's Wool 8,479,142 10,482,739 
 
 Ostrich Feathers 3,593,112 4,041,600 
 
 Angora Hair 3,108,043 3,743 083 
 
 Hides and Skins 2,637,216 1,517,722 
 
 Copper Ore 1,261,584 2,145,528 
 
 Guano 127,646 
 
 Preserved and Dried Fish 70,430 61,608 
 
 Dried Flowers 60,706 81,619 
 
 Horns 60,466 20,227 
 
 Wine 38,107 92,275 
 
 Fruit 21,504 31,699 
 
 Horses 17,760 9,182 
 
 Argol....: 12,192 11,914 
 
SOUTH AFRICA AT CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 5Q3 
 
 1898. 1899. 
 
 Aloes $ 11,112 $ 14,856 
 
 Buchu Leaves 9,782 
 
 Asbestos 9,777 
 
 All other Articles 84,203 1 ,063,278 
 
 Total $115,417,210 $107,904,504 
 
 In 1898 the whole of the gold was sent to the 
 United Kingdom, 98.6 per cent of the diamonds, and 
 98.7 per cent, of the other articles. The gold and 
 diamonds exported in 1899 represent only nine 
 months' production, owing to the outbreak of the war. 
 
 Articles sent through Port Natal to places not in South Africa. 
 
 1898. 1899. 
 
 Sheep's Wool $2,714,299 $2,921,813 
 
 Hides and Skins 887,280 312,806 
 
 Angora Hair 175,416 191,827 
 
 Wattle Bark 148,459 277,848 
 
 Gold 195,048 720 
 
 Horns 34,387 11,016 
 
 Total $4,154,889 $3,716,030 
 
 These figures, however, are a very imperfect repre- 
 sentation of the industry of the energetic colony of 
 Natal. Owing to the character of its coast belt a 
 very important part of its produce is tropical, and in 
 consequence much of its commerce is with other parts 
 of South Africa. Its coal fields too are more fa- 
 vourably situated for the distribution of that mineral 
 than are those of the Cape Colony, so that a consider- 
 able trade is carried on with it. Very beautiful 
 marble is found within its southern border, and it is 
 anticipated that this article will soon be added to the 
 exports, though this has not yet been the case owing 
 to the difficulty of land carriage. In 1899 there were 
 sent from this colony to other parts of South Africa 
 by sea or supplied to steamers 163,610 tons of coal, 
 
504 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 valued at $744,206, sugar to the value of $707,942, 
 tea to the value of $39,821, fruit chiefly pineapples 
 and bananas to the value of $33,461, jams and 
 pickles to the value of $24,662, and coffee to the value 
 of $6,472. 
 
 The imports of the Cape Colony, exclusive of arti- 
 cles bonded and sent away again, were in value in 
 1898 $78,934,267 and in 1899 $70,266,163. Of 
 these 75.2 per cent, came from Great Britain and 
 other British possessions, and 24.8 per cent, from for- 
 eign countries. 
 
 The imports of Natal were from 
 
 The United Kingdom 
 
 . . $17,820,384 
 
 $16,772,429 
 
 Other European Countries. . 
 
 2 207 366 
 
 2 225 698 
 
 America 
 
 3,158 558 
 
 3 205 435 
 
 India 
 
 995,150 
 
 1,048 003 
 
 Australia . . 
 
 793 200 
 
 1 435 858 
 
 Mauritius 
 
 33,216 
 
 11,933 
 
 
 
 
 $25,007,874 $24,699,356 
 
 The Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, 
 Basutoland, and the British Protectorate are com- 
 bined in a customs union, in which the tariff is fixed 
 by agreement; each territory receives the duties on 
 goods consumed within it in the case of those inland 
 minus a charge for collection, and the products of one 
 pass free into any of the others. 
 
 Great as has been the expansion of commerce dur- 
 ing the century, it has been equalled all over South 
 Africa by the increase in churches, educational es- 
 tablishments, and courts of justice. In this respect 
 the towns and villages are not behind any in Europe 
 or America, though in some of the rural districts 
 there are still many European children ignorant of 
 books, owing to their living on lonely farms. Dur- 
 
SOUTH AFRICA AT CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 505 
 
 ing recent years, however, great efforts have been made 
 to reach this class of the population, not only in the 
 Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and Natal, but 
 in the South African Republic, and now wherever five 
 children can be got together the governments con- 
 tribute towards the payment of a teacher. 
 
 The postal service is almost as perfect as it can be 
 made, no village of any importance is unconnected 
 with the telegraph wire, the public roads are kept in 
 good order, railways checker the land, and the coast 
 is well lit. Harbour improvements have been re- 
 ferred to elsewhere. All this has of course neces- 
 sitated borrowing money, and the public debt of each 
 of the colonies is large, that of the Cape Colony, in- 
 curred chiefly for railway construction, being at the 
 beginning of 1899 $136,242,826, and that of Natal 
 $38,491,886. 
 
 The conservation of water by means of artificial 
 reservoirs in some places and the sinking of artesian 
 wells in others has enabled parts of the country 
 formerly regarded as uninhabitable to be occupied, 
 and has greatly increased the value of land on the 
 upper terraces and the great interior plain. Of late 
 years arboriculture has attracted attention, and in 
 particular the forest department of the Cape govern- 
 ment is doing useful work in this direction. Of the 
 foreign trees introduced, the Australian gums and 
 willows, which shed their bark but not their leaves 
 annually, thrive wherever there is moisture and suffi- 
 cient depth of soil, and the oak, the pine, and the 
 poplar of Europe do well in certain localities. The 
 native timber trees are of slow growth compared with' 
 any of these. 
 
 Large game have almost disappeared from the 
 parts occupied by Europeans over half a centurj. A 
 
506 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 few elephants are preserved by the Cape govern- 
 ment in the forest land along the coast east of the 
 Knysna, but the buffalo, the rhinoceros, and the hip- 
 popotamus are no longer met with. A few of the 
 larger antelopes and some zebras are protected befre 
 and there on farms, and the small carnivora and ante- 
 lopes are still tolerably abundant in most parts. But 
 in general it may be said that the native animals have 
 given place to the domesticated horse, ass, ox, sheep, 
 and goat, which are more useful in the service of 
 man, if perhaps less picturesque on the plains and 
 hillsides of South Africa. 
 
 In nothing is the change between 1800 and 1900 
 greater than in the systems of government. The 
 murderous rule of the Bantu despot has gone for 
 ever, as even where the tribes are still intact under 
 their chiefs, their power for evil on an extensive scale 
 has been broken. The great progress of late years is 
 due more to the several European communities being 
 free to direct their own affairs in their own way than 
 to all other causes combined, and certainly the native 
 races, whose advancement in civilisation and prosper- 
 ity must always be an object of the very first impor- 
 tance with the Caucasian settlers in the land, have 
 benefited immensely by the change. 
 
 The governments of all the divisions of the country 
 except Natal have already been fully described. That 
 colony since 1893 has enjoyed responsible govern- 
 ment, though its constitution is not so liberal as that 
 of the Cape, as its legislative council is composed of 
 nominees, twelve in number, who hold their seats for 
 ten years, half being replaced every five years. The 
 legislative assembly consists of thirty-nine members, 
 who hold their seats for four years. Male British 
 subjects, being Europeans, who own land worth $240,. 
 
SOUTH AFRICA AT CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 507 
 
 or who pay $48 a year for rent, or who have lived 
 three years in the country and are in receipt of sal- 
 aries of $460.80 a year are entitled to vote. Asiatics 
 are excluded, as well as such Bantu as do not possess 
 the above qualifications, and in addition have been by 
 their own desire for seven years exempted from tribal 
 and subject to colonial law. This provision secures 
 equal rights with Europeans for the few who have 
 embraced Christianity and live in a civilised manner, 
 while it withholds from barbarians a privilege of 
 which they are incapable of making proper use, In 
 Natal party feeling does not run so high as in the 
 Cape Colony, as the English settlers are in an over- 
 whelming majority, and race prejudice does not come 
 into play in the legislature. 
 
 !N"o census has been taken since 1891, and of recent 
 years such movements of people have been going on 
 that it is difficult to form a calculation that can be 
 relied upon. Eor some of the territories there is no 
 other guide than a rough conjecture by missionaries 
 or traders. The following figures must therefore be 
 taken merely as an approximation to the truth. 
 
 EI,, Bantu and 
 
 Europeans. other Blacks> 
 
 Cape Colony.. . 480,000 1,550,000 
 
 Natal 54,000 862,000 
 
 Rhodesia 13 ' 000 310 ' 000 
 
 Basutoland 600 275,000 
 
 British Protectorate. 500 200,000 
 
 548,100 3,197,000 
 South African Repub- 
 
 lic ................. 220,000 700,000 
 
 Orange Free State.... 100,000 160,000 
 
 Portuguese Territory. 6,000 300,000 
 
 German Protectorate. 2,000 250,000 
 
 Total.. . 876,100 4,607,000 
 
508 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 To keep the large number of Bantu in order every 
 possible effort is made to treat them justly and kind- 
 ly, and to interfere with their customs no more than 
 is prudent and necessary for their own good. So far 
 it has always been possible in cases of emergency to 
 oppose one tribe to another, but their old feuds are 
 now rapidly dying out, and this system, even if it 
 were advisable to continue it, can no longer be de- 
 pended upon. As they are subject to excitement and 
 liable to commit themselves to hostilities without any 
 sufficient reason apparent to Europeans, it is neces- 
 sary to keep an armed force in readiness to suppress 
 any outbreak before it has time to spread. 
 
 For this purpose the Cape Colony maintains a 
 most effective regiment of light cavalry, termed the 
 Cape Mounted Rifles, with its officers one thousand 
 strong, mostly recruited from the middle class of 
 Englishmen, and a force termed the Cape Police, con- 
 sisting of thirteen hundred Europeans and six hun- 
 dred native auxiliaries. In addition to these there 
 are seven thousand volunteers of different arms re- 
 ceiving capitation grants from the government, and 
 liable at any time to be called upon to take the field. 
 Last of all, in case of necessity, the whole body of 
 burghers is available. 
 
 Natal maintains a mounted police force five hun- 
 dred strong, and has fifteen hundred and fifty volun- 
 teers of different arms, who have on several occasions 
 as in the rebellion of Langalibalele and the Zulu 
 war proved themselves a most courageous and ef- 
 fective body of men. 
 
 The Chartered Company maintains a strong police 
 force in Rhodesia. 
 
 Each of the republics has a small force of trained 
 artillerymen, but otherwise depends solely upon its 
 
SOUTH AFRICA AT CLOSE OF THE CENTURY. 509 
 
 burghers. In the Orange Free State the blacks are 
 fewer in proportion to the Europeans than in any- 
 other part of South Africa, and as they are generally; 
 for people of their class in exceptionally prosperous 
 circumstances, for many years they have given no 
 trouble, nor has any been apprehended from them. 
 It has been different in the South African Republic, 
 where for want of a proper police native tribes have 
 often committed acts that have provoked ruthless re- 
 taliation. 
 
 The tendency of events during recent years in 
 South Africa has been to produce much greater in- 
 equality as far as the possession of property is con- 
 cerned than existed formerly. As long as any man 
 could obtain a farm by merely applying for it there 
 were no families in a condition of permanent poverty, 
 and at that time no one was very rich. Successful 
 speculation in mining shares has now produced a 
 class of exceedingly wealthy men, and on the other 
 hand great numbers have sunk into indigence through 
 the various cattle plagues, the rise in the value of 
 ground, want of education, and inability to compete 
 in the struggle that is taking place here as every- 
 where. With poverty has come in many cases loss 
 of energy, joined to aversion to work as labourers for 
 others, so that the class of poor whites is a depressing 
 element in South African society. It is a class too 
 that must be greatly increased by the widespread de- 
 struction of property consequent on the present war. 
 
 Another unsatisfactory tendency during recent 
 years is in the much greater relative growth of towns 
 than cultivation of land. For a long time practically 
 no agriculturists have arrived in the country from 
 abroad, and many of the old settlers of English blood 
 have abandoned farming and adopted urban life. 
 
510 
 
 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 The chief towns of the country, of which the popula- 
 tion can only be given approximately, are 
 
 Europeans 
 
 Total of 
 all Races. 
 
 Johannesburg, S. A. Republic 90,000 230.000 
 
 Capetown, Cape Colony 35,000 72,000 
 
 Durban, Natal 18,000 40,000 
 
 Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony 13,500 25,500 
 
 Kimberley. " 12,500 28,500 
 
 Pietermaritzburg, Natal 11,500 20,500 
 
 East London, Cape Colony 8,000 13,000 
 
 Pretoria, S. A. Republic 12,000 
 
 Bloemfontein, Orange Free State 7,000 10,000 
 
 Grahamstown, Cape Colony 6,500 10,500 
 
 Paarl, " 8,000 
 
 King-Williamstown " 7,500 
 
 Uitenhage " 7,000 
 
 Klerksdorp, S. A. Republic 6,000 
 
 Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony 6,000 
 
 Stellenbosch, " 5,500 
 
 Worcester, " 5,500 
 
 Potchefstroom, S. A. Republic 5,000 
 
 Ladysmith, Natal 4,500 
 
 Cradock, Cape Colony 4,500 
 
 Oudtshoorn, " 4,500 
 
 Queenstown, " 4,000 
 
 Buluwayo, Rhodesia 4,000 
 
 South Africa is the land of good hope. Every 
 notable advance that it has made has been preceded 
 by a period of deep depression. God grant that the 
 present the greatest trouble it has ever known may 
 be followed by the perfect reconciliation of the two 
 kindred peoples who occupy its soil, by which alone 
 it can attain the highest point of happiness and 
 perity. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adderley, C. B., member of the House 
 of Commons : references to, 298 
 and 322 
 
 Adendorff trek : particulars concern- 
 ing, 453 
 
 Afrikander Bond : account of, 470 
 
 Agricultural productions of the South 
 African Republic, 382 
 
 Albany : formation and settlement of 
 the district of, 137 
 
 Algoa Bay : in 1799 a fort is built and 
 occupied at, 80 ; further refer- 
 ence to, 92 
 
 Amalinde : battle of, 125 
 
 Amangwane tribe : career of, 174, 175 
 
 Ambergris : trade in, 33 
 
 American missions in South Africa : 
 references to, 226 and 233 
 
 Angoni tribe : career of, 173 
 
 Angora goats : introduction of, 834 
 
 Angora hair : export of, 502 and 503 
 
 d'Anhaya, Pedro : in 1505 forms the 
 first European settlement in 
 South Africa, 32 
 
 Anti-Convict Pledge, 291 and 292 
 
 Arabs : trade with India carried on 
 by, 30 
 
 Arab settlements on the eastern 
 coast : references to, 20 and 32 
 
 Archbell, Rev. Mr. : reference to, 
 224 
 
 Arming of the South African Re- 
 public, 492 
 
 Asiatic occupation of Rhodesia in an- 
 cient times : reference to, 21 
 
 Auckland, military village : forma- 
 tion of, 299 ; destruction of, 303 
 
 Baca tribe : reference to, 249 
 Bahurutsi tribe : references to, 178 
 
 and 259 
 
 Baird, Lieutenant General Sir David : 
 in 1805 is sent from England with 
 an expedition to seize the Cape 
 Colony, 93 ; on the 4th of January, 
 1806, arrives in Table Bay, 93 ; on 
 the 8th of January, 1806, defeats 
 the Dutch forces at Blueberg, 
 94 ; from January, 1806 to January, 
 
 1807 is at the head of the Cape 
 government, 97 
 
 Bakwena tribe : references to, 178 
 and 259 
 
 Bamangwato tribe : references to, 
 178 and 259 
 
 Bangwaketsi tribe : references to, 178 
 and 259 
 
 Banks : establishment of, 275 
 
 Bantu : description of, 19 ; migra- 
 tions of, 19 ; mixture of blood, 
 20 ; tribal divisions, 22 ; form of 
 government, 22 ; standard of vir- 
 tue, 22 ; religion, 22 ; cause of 
 power of chiefs, 28 ; belief in spir. 
 its assuming animal forms, 23 ; 
 derivation of tribal titles, 23 ; 
 sacrifices to spirits, 23 ; supersti- 
 tion, 24 ; belief in witchcraft, 24 ; 
 want of imaginative power, 25 ; 
 marriage customs, 25 ; prolific 
 nature of, 27 ; cultivation of the 
 ground, 27 ; productions of gar- 
 dens, 27 ; division of labour, 27 ; 
 division of language into numer. 
 ous dialects, 27 ; contact with 
 Hottentots, 28 ; practice of the 
 law of the strongest, 29 ; area of 
 occupation in 1800, 29 ; weapons, 
 172 ; customs, 194 ; capacity of 
 individuals, 468 
 
 Bapedi tribe : formation of, 258 and 
 268 ; war of the South African 
 Republic with, 400 
 
 Barberton : foundation of the town 
 of, 442 
 
 Barkly, Sir Henry : from December 
 1870 to March, 1877 is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 888 
 
 Barolong tribe : references to, 178, 
 224, 225, 307, 346, and 439 
 
 Barreto, Francisco : in 1572 conducts 
 the first military expedition 
 against the Bantu in South 
 Africa, 34 ; dies at Sena after the 
 failure of the expedition, 85 
 
 Barrow, Sir John : reference to, 111 
 
 Basutoland : description of, 846 ; fur- 
 ther account of, 461 to 463 
 
 Basuto : formation of the tribe by 
 Moshesh, 180 ; in March, 1868, are 
 taken over as British subjects, 
 
512 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Batavian Republic : character of the 
 government of the Cape Colony 
 by the, 85 
 
 Bathurst : foundation of the village 
 of, 140 
 
 Batlapin tribe : reference to, 350 ; in- 
 surrection in 1896 of, 463 
 
 Beira, town of : mention of, 456 
 
 Berea : battle of, 316 
 
 Beresf ord, Brigadier-General : in 1806 
 takes part in the conquest of the 
 Cape Colony, 94 
 
 Berlin missions in South Africa : ref- 
 erences to, 161 and 382 
 
 Bethelsdorp mission station : foun- 
 dation of, 82 
 
 Bezuidenhout, Frederik : conduct of 
 in connection with the Slagter's 
 Nek insurrection, 114 
 
 Bezuidenhout, Jan : conduct of in 
 connection with the Slagter's Nek 
 insurrection, 114, 116, and 118 
 
 Biggar, Alexander : mention of, 240 
 and 242 
 
 Birkenhead : loss of the, 805 
 
 Black Circuit : account of the, 103 
 
 Bloemfontein : foundation of the 
 town of, 266 
 
 Bloemhof Arbitration : particulars 
 concerning, 387 and 389 
 
 Blood River : battle of, 241 
 
 Blueberg : battle of, 94 
 
 Boomah Pass : action with Xosas at, 
 803 
 
 Boomplaats : battle of, 287 
 
 Boring for water, 466 
 
 Boshof , Jacobus Nicolaas : is the sec- 
 ond president of the Orange Free 
 State, 348 
 
 Botanic Garden in Capetown: men- 
 tion of, 52 
 
 Bourke, Major-General Richard : from 
 March, 1826, to September, 1828, 
 acts as head of the Cape govern- 
 ment, 154 
 
 Brand, Advocate Jan Hendrik : is the 
 fourth president of the Orange 
 Free State, 355 
 
 Brereton, Lieutenant-Colonel: expe- 
 dition in 1818 under, 126 
 
 Bresler, F R., landdrost of Graaff- 
 Reinet : mention of, 74 and 75 
 
 Bridges : want of, 3 
 
 British Bechuanaland : in September, 
 1885, becomes a crown colony, 440 ; 
 in 1895 is annexed to the Cape 
 Colony, 473 
 
 British Kaffraria : in December, 1847, 
 is proclaimed British territory 
 and placed under a provincial 
 government, 282 ; policy of Sir 
 George Grey towards the natives 
 in, 337; self-destruction of the 
 natives in, 338 ; settlement of 
 Europeans in, 839 ; in 1865 is an- 
 nexed to the Capo Colony, 343 
 
 British immigrants of 1817 : particu- 
 lars concerning, 133 
 
 British money : after 1825 supersedes 
 Dutch in South Africa, 150 
 
 British Protectorate : account of, 459 
 
 British settlers of 1820 : particulars 
 concerning, 135 ; subsequent 
 troubles of, 209 
 
 British South Africa Chartered Com- 
 pany : formation of, 451 
 
 Bronkhorst's Spruit : action at, 428 
 
 Brownlee, Charles: mention of, 303 
 
 Bultfontein diamond mine : in 1870 ia 
 discovered, 384 
 
 Buluwayo : foundation of the town 
 of, 456 
 
 Burgers, Rev. T. F. : is the second 
 president of the South African 
 Republic, 398 ; proceedings in 
 Europe of, 399 
 
 Burgher Senate : in 1828 is abolished, 
 151 
 
 Bushmen : description of, 9 ; clothing, 
 9 ; dwellings, 10 ; weapons, 10 ; 
 food, 10 ; powers of body and 
 mind, 10 ; religion, 11 ; area of 
 occupation, 12 ; war with, 54 and 
 164 
 
 Butterworth, Wesleyan mission sta- 
 tion : destruction of, 199 
 
 Caledon, Lord: from May, 1807 to 
 July, 1811, is governor of the Cape 
 Colony, 97 
 
 Caledon, village of : in 1811 is found- 
 ed, 107 
 
 Campbell, Rev. John : mention of, 163 
 
 Canada : comparison with. Ill, 146, 
 and 407 
 
 Cape Colony : foundation of, 45 ; 
 cause of the early expansion of, 
 49 ; condition of in 1795, 68 ; on 
 the 16th of September, 1795, is sur- 
 rendered to a British force, 71 ; 
 on the 20th of February, 1803, is 
 restored to the Batavian Repub- 
 lic, 83 ; value of to England, 92, in 
 January, 1806, is again conquered 
 by the English, 95 ; in August, 1814, 
 is ceded to Great Britain by the 
 king of the Netherlands, 109 ; en- 
 largement of, 156 and 282 ; area in 
 1900 of, 502 ; population in 1900 of, 
 507 
 
 Cape Copper Mining Company : for- 
 mation of, 335 
 
 Cape of Good Hope : discovery of by 
 Bartholomeu Dias, 81 
 
 Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act : 
 particulars concerning, 212 
 
 Capetown: in 1652 is founded, 44; 
 condition of in 1700, 52 ; condition 
 of in 1805, 91 ; on the 10th of Jan- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 513 
 
 uary, 1806, capitulates to the 
 English, 94 : present population 
 of, 510 
 
 Casalis, Rev. Eugene: mention of, 
 317 
 
 Cathcart, Sir George : from March, 
 1852, to May, 1854, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 311 
 
 Cattle breeders, European : object 
 of the introduction of by the 
 Dutch East India Company, 49 
 
 Census of the Cape Colony : in 1700, 
 51 ; in 1805, 91 
 
 Cetywayo, Zulu chief : mention of, 
 377, 404, 416, 417, 419, and 423 
 
 Champion, Rev. Mr. : mention of, 
 233 
 
 Charter of Justice of the Cape Col- 
 ony ; particulars concerning, 150 
 
 Churches : number of in South Africa 
 in 1800, 2 
 
 Cilliers, Carel : mention of, 219, 222, 
 229, 230, and 240 
 
 Circuit Courts: in 1811 are estab- 
 lished, 104 
 
 Civil Commissioners: in 1828 are first 
 appointed, 151 ; duties of, 151 
 
 Clanwilliam, village of: in 1808 is 
 founded, 107 
 
 Clarke, Major-General Alured: in 
 1795 is serrt'from England in com- 
 mand of a body of troops to seize 
 the Cape Colony, 71 ; on the 4th 
 of September of that year arrives 
 in Simon's Bay, 71 ; on the 16th 
 of September receives possession 
 of the colony by capitulation, 71 
 
 Clerk, Sir George Russell, special 
 commissioner : proceedings of, 
 317 to 321 
 
 Cloote, Advocate Henry : proceed- 
 ings in Natal of, 255 
 
 Coal : in the South African Republic, 
 445 : in Natal, 503 
 
 Coast belt, south-western : descrip- 
 tion of, 51 
 
 Cole, Sir Galbraith Lowry : from 
 September, 1828, to August, 1833,as 
 governor of the Cape Colony, 
 
 College, South African : is established 
 
 in 1829, 157 
 Colley, Sir George : death of in action, 
 
 Commerce : various methods of con- 
 ducting by the Portuguese in 
 Eastern Africa, 85 ; extent of in 
 1800, 1 ; under the Batavian Re- 
 public, 91 
 
 Commerce with India : before the six- 
 teenth century is carried on by the 
 Arabs and Venetians, 80 
 
 Commissioners of Enquiry : arrival 
 in 1823 of, 147 
 
 Communal responsibility under Kaffir 
 law, 122 
 
 2 
 
 Complaints against the government 
 
 of the South African Republic. 
 
 479 et seq. 
 Confederation : efforts for, 402, 407 et 
 
 seq., and 420 
 Constitution : the first adopted by 
 
 the emigrant farmers, 228 ; of the 
 
 republic of Natal, 247 
 Convention : of Sand River, 309 ; of 
 
 Bloemfontein, 321 ; of Pretoria, 
 
 432 ; of London, 437 
 Coolies : introduction into Natal of, 
 
 411 
 Coolie question : a vital one for South 
 
 Africa, 412 
 Copper mines : opening in Nama- 
 
 qualand, 335 
 
 Copper ore : export of, 502 
 Corruption of the government under 
 
 the Dutch East India Company, 
 
 Council of advice : creation in 1825 of, 
 147 ; in 1828 two colonists are nom- 
 inated to the, 151 
 
 Courts of justice : reference to, 2 ; In 
 1828 the Dutch system is abol- 
 ished, and English courts are 
 substituted, 150 
 
 Cowan, Dr., explorer : mention of, 107 
 
 Cradoek, Sir John Francis : from 
 September, 1811, to April, 1814, ia 
 governor of the Cape Colony, 101 
 
 Cradock, town of : in 1812 is founded, 
 107 
 
 Craig, Major-General James : com- 
 mands part of an expedition sent 
 from England in 1795 to seize the 
 Cape Colony, 69 ; in June of that 
 year arrives in Simon's Bay, 69 ; 
 carries on unsuccessful negotia- 
 tions with the Cape government, 
 69 ; occupies Simonstown, 71 ; on 
 the 7th of August drives the 
 Dutch forces from Muizenburg, 
 71 ; on the 16th of September re- 
 ceives possession of the colony by 
 capitulation, 71 ; from September, 
 1795, to May, 1797, is at the head of 
 the Cape government, 73 
 
 Cronje, Commandant Pieter : men- 
 tion of, 427, 428, and 486 
 
 Customs Duties : particulars concern- 
 ing, 155 and 275 
 
 Customs Union : particulars con- 
 cerning, 504 
 
 Cuyler, J. G., landdrost of Uiten- 
 hage : mention of, 102, 104, 105, 
 117, and 119 
 
 D. 
 
 De Beer's Mining Company : forma- 
 tion of, 894 
 
 Delagoa Bay : particulars concerning, 
 4, 36, 75, 215, 217, 220, and 232. See 
 Lourengo Marques 
 
 I 
 
514 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Delport, Commandant Jacobus : men- 
 tion of, 66, 70, 76, and 77 
 
 van Dessin, Joaquim : bequest of, for 
 the formation of a public library, 
 156 
 
 Diamonds : account of the discovery 
 of, 383 
 
 Diamond mining : commencement of, 
 384 
 
 Diamonds : value of exports, 395 and 
 502 
 
 Diamond fields along the Vaal River : 
 claimants to, 385 ; early govern- 
 ment of, 386 
 
 Diamond mines : annexation to the 
 British Empire of the, 390, sola- 
 tium paid to the Orange Free 
 State for, 393 
 
 Dias, Bartholomeu : in 1486 sails from 
 Lisbon, 30 ; reaches the mouth of 
 the Fish River on the South 
 African coast, 31 
 
 Dingan : in September, 1828, murders 
 his half-brother Tshaka and be- 
 comes chief of the Zulu tribe, 
 179 ; further mention of, 233, 234, 
 239, 241, 242, and 243 
 
 Dingan's day : mention of, 241 
 
 Dingiswayo, chief of the Abatetwa 
 tribe : mention of, 171 
 
 Dinizulu, chief of the Zulu tribe: 
 mention of, 419 and 420 
 
 Divisional Councils : formation in the 
 Cape Colony of, 271 ; working of, 
 272 
 
 Dominican missions in South Africa, 
 34, 36, and 40 
 
 Donkin, Sir Rufane Shawe: from 
 January, 1820, to November, 1821, 
 acts as nead of the Cape govern- 
 ment, 131 
 
 Donovan, Lieutenant, explorer : men- 
 tion of, 107 
 
 Doornkop : failure of Dr. Jameson's 
 band at, 486 
 
 Drakenstein : mention of, 52 
 
 Drifts of the Vaal River : closing by 
 President Kruger of, 482 
 
 Dundas, Major General Francis : 
 from November, 1798, to Decem- 
 ber, 1799, and from April, 1801, to 
 February, 1803, is at the head of 
 the Cape government, 81 
 
 D'Urban, Sir Benjamin : from Jan- 
 uary, 1834, to January, 1838, is gov- 
 ernor of the Cape Colony, 155 ; is 
 dismissed from office by Lord 
 Glenelg, but remains in the 
 colony until 1846, 209 
 
 Durban : foundation of the town of, 
 233 ; further mention of, 238, 245, 
 and 249 
 
 Dutch, the : wrest the Indian com- 
 merce from the Portuguese, 
 42 
 
 Dutch colonists ia South Africa: 
 
 characteristics of, 54, 57, 58, 110, 
 213, and 313 
 
 Dutch East India Company : forma- 
 tion of the, 43 ; sustains very 
 heavy losses during war with Eng- 
 land, 63 ; insolvency of, 68 
 
 Dutch immigrants : particulars con- 
 cerning, 49 
 
 Dutch language : modification of, in 
 South Africa, 61 ; in 1828 is sup- 
 pressed as the official language of 
 the Cape Colony, 145 ; in 1882 is 
 restored to equal rights with 
 English, 410 
 
 Dutch Reformed Church Mission: 
 mention of, 382 
 
 Dutch settlement in South Africa : 
 area of in 1800, 1 
 
 Dutoitspan diamond mine : in 1870 is 
 discovered, 384 
 
 E. 
 
 East London, town of: in 1847 is 
 founded, 281 ; improvement of the 
 port, 342 and 465 
 
 Ebden, John Bardwell: mention of, 
 292 and 293 
 
 Edgar case at Johannesburg : account 
 of, 496 
 
 Education: condition of, in 1800, 2; 
 progress of, 60, 108, 146, 272, 467, 
 and 504 
 
 Electric Telegraphs : construction of, 
 341,413, 452, and 465 
 
 Elphinstone, Admiral : in 1795 is sent 
 from England to seize the Cape 
 Colony, 69; in June of that year 
 arrives in Simon's Bay, 69 ; carries 
 on unsuccessful negotiations with 
 the Cape government, 69 ; occu- 
 pies Simonstown, 71 ; on the 16th 
 of September receives possession 
 of the colony by capitulation, 71 ; 
 in August, 1796, captures a Dutch 
 fleet in Saldanha Bay, 74 
 
 Ely, military village : foundation of, 
 299 ; abandonment of, 803 
 
 Emancipation of slaves : in early 
 times, 59 ; the South African plan 
 of, 186 ; the English plan as car- 
 ried out, 187 ; effects of the meas- 
 ure, 189 
 
 Emigration of Dutch farmers from 
 the Cape Colony : principal cause 
 of, 210 ; account of, 214 
 
 Emigrant farmers : characteristics of, 
 248 : treatment of Bantu by the, 
 259 
 
 English language : knowledge of, by 
 civil servants made necessary, 110 
 
 Executive Council : in 1834 is created, 
 153 
 
 Expansion of the European settle- 
 ment during the eighteenth cen- 
 . tury : mode of, 54 
 
INDEX. 
 
 515 
 
 Exploration : progress of, 107 
 
 Exports : before 1836, 155 ; in 1854, 
 
 332; of the Cape Colony, 502; 
 
 of Natal in 1845, 257; of Natal, 
 
 F. 
 
 Fairbairn, John : mention of, 891, 
 296, and 825 to 328 
 
 Fairs : establishment at Fort Will- 
 shire of, 131 ; come to an end in 
 1830, when traders are licensed to 
 enter the Kaffir country, 141 
 
 Faku, Pondo chief : mention of, 250, 
 267, and 354 
 
 False Bay : reference to, 4 
 
 Fauna of South Africa : references 
 to, 6 and 505 
 
 Fingos : origin of the, 175 ; dealings 
 of Sir Benjamin D'Urban with, 
 199 ; further references to. 204, 
 210, 279, 311, and 340 
 
 Fisheries : account of, 466 
 
 Fish River : disadvantages of as a 
 boundary, 121 
 
 Floods of 1823 : particulars concern- 
 ing, 142 
 
 Flora of South Africa : reference 
 to, 7 
 
 Fodo, Hlangweni chief : mention of, 
 250 
 
 Fort Beaufort : erection of, 168 
 
 Fort Glamorgan : erection of, 281 
 
 Fort Peddie : is built for the protect- 
 ion of the Fingos, 210 
 
 Fort Wiltshire : erection of, 131 ; 
 abandonment of, 206 
 
 Franchise : of the Cape Colony as 
 fixed in 1853, 331; of the Cape 
 Colony at present, 472 ; of Natal, 
 506 ; of the South African Repub- 
 lic, 477, 478, and 497 
 
 Free Church of Scotland missions, 
 337 and 468 
 
 French Privateers : havoc created 
 by, 92 
 
 Frere, Sir Bartle : from March, 1877, 
 to September. 1880, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 407 
 
 Frontier Armed and Mounted Police : 
 enrolment of, 312 
 
 Froude, Mr. J. A. : visit to South 
 Africa of, 402 
 
 G. 
 
 Gaika, Xosa chief : mention of, 78, 
 88, 101, 115, 122, 123, 125, 129, 130, 
 195, and 196 
 
 da Gama, Vasco : in July, 1497, sails 
 from the Tagus, 31 ; touches at 
 various South African ports, 31 ; 
 names the land in sight on Christ- 
 mas, 1497, Natal, 81 ; is the first 
 
 European to reach India by sea, 
 8* 
 Gardiner, Captain Allen : mention of, 
 
 George : in 1811 the town is founded 
 and the district formed, 106 
 
 German acquisition of part of South 
 Africa, 441 
 
 German immigrants Into British 
 Kaffraria : particulars concern- 
 ing, 340 
 
 Glasgow Missionary Society : work 
 in South Africa of, 160 
 
 Glenelg, Lord : mention of, 206 and 
 209 
 
 Glenelg system : working of, 276 
 
 Glen Grey : settlement of conquered 
 Tembus in, 312 ; the Tembus ex- 
 change it for ground elsewhere, 
 but do not all remove, 340 
 
 Goedverwacht, Dutch reformed mis- 
 sion station : mention of, 378 
 
 Gold : exportation of in 1800, 7 ; dis- 
 covery of in the district of Lyd- 
 enburg, 442 ; discovery of at Wit- 
 watersrand, 444 ; output of, 446, 
 457, and 502 
 
 Gold mining in Rhodesia in ancient 
 times : reference to, 21 
 
 Gold trade of Sof ala : references to, 
 32, 33, and 43 
 
 Gonnema, Hottentot chief : carries 
 on war against the Dutch for four 
 years, 48 
 
 Goshen, republic of : account of, 439 
 and 440 
 
 Government : form of under the 
 Dutch East India Company, 61 ; 
 changes made by the British con- 
 quest in 1795, 72 
 
 Government Gazette: is established 
 in 1800, 4 
 
 Graaff-Reinet : insurrection in 1795 
 at, 66 ; the insurgents submit to 
 the British government, 75 ; revolt 
 of some of the inhabitants in 
 1799, 77 ; and again in 1801, 81 
 
 Grahamstown : in 1812 is founded, 
 103 ; in April, 1819, is attacked by 
 a Xosa army, 127 ; growth of, 140 
 
 Grey, Lieutenant General Henry 
 George : is at the head of the 
 Cape government from January 
 to May, 1807, and from July to 
 September, 1811, 97 
 
 Grey, Sir George : from December, 
 1854, to August, 1859, is governor 
 of the Cape Colony, 336 ; in 
 October, 1855, acts as a mediator 
 between the Orange Free State 
 and Moshesh, 849 ; in 1858 arranges 
 peace between the Orange Free 
 State and Moshesh, 351 ; is re- 
 called for advocating federation 
 of the Cape Colony and the Orange 
 Free State, 853 ; is reappointed, 
 
516 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 and from July, 1860, to August, 
 1861, is again governor 
 
 Grievances of the colonists under the 
 Dutch East India Company, 62 
 
 Griqualand West : formation of the 
 crown colony of, 390 ; which in 
 1877 is annexed to the Cape 
 Colony, 393 ; decision of the high 
 court concerning Waterboer's 
 claims, 392 
 
 Griquas : formation of the clans of, 
 163 ; in June, 1823, they defeat the 
 Mantati horde, 174 ; further ref- 
 erences to, 181 and 212. See Kok 
 and Waterboer 
 
 Grout, Rev. Mr. : mention of, 233 
 
 Guano : export of, 274 
 
 Guano Islands : annexation to the 
 Cape Colony of, 275 
 
 Gwanga : defeat of the Xosas at, 279 
 
 Gwelo : foundation of the town of, 
 456 
 
 H. 
 
 Healdtown Institution : mention of, 
 468 
 
 Hermansburg Mission : mention of, 
 382 
 
 Herschel, Sir John : services to the 
 Cape Colony of, 272 
 
 High Commissioner : in 1847 the office 
 is created, 280 
 
 High Court of Justice : constitution 
 of under the Batavian Republic, 
 85 ; constitution of from 1806 to 
 1828, 98 
 
 Hintsa, Xosa chief : mention of, 199, 
 200, and 201 
 
 Hoffman, Josias Philip : is the first 
 president of the Orange Free 
 State, 347 
 
 van Hogendorp, Gysbert Karel : 
 colonising efforts made by, 90 
 
 Hogg, Major W. S., assistant com- 
 missioner : mention of, 308, 313, 
 and 314 
 
 Horses: improvement in the breed 
 of, 112 
 
 Hottentots : description of, 18 ; area of 
 occupation, 13, ; language, 14 ; 
 mixture of Bushman blood, 14 ; 
 possession of horned cattle and 
 sheep, 15; knowledge of metals, 
 15; weapons, 15; clothing, 15; 
 power of mind, 16 ; religion, 
 16 ; condition in 1800, 17 ; further 
 notices of, 45, 54, 56, 87, 91, 99, 164, 
 and 166 ; insurrection of in 1799, 
 77; insurrection of those of the 
 London Missionary Society's sta- 
 tions in 1851 and 1852, 304 
 
 Hottentot soldiers: particulars con- 
 cerning, 77, 88, 95, 100, 103, 113, 114, 
 122, 286, and 304 
 
 Huguenot immigrants: particulars 
 concerning, 50 
 
 Immigration of British settlers: ac- 
 count of, 135 and 273 
 
 Imports : particulars concerning, 155, 
 275, 332, and 504 
 
 Indian trade: before the sixteenth 
 century is in the hands of the 
 Arabs and Venetians, 80 
 
 Indian traders in South Africa : refer- 
 ence to, 39 
 
 Inhambane : mention of, 2, 36, 41, and 
 178 
 
 Insect pests : damage caused by, 464 
 
 Insurance offices: establishment of, 
 275 
 
 Insurrection : at Graaff-Reinet in 1795, 
 66; at Graaff-Reinet in 1799, 77; 
 at Swellendam in 1795, 66 ; of Hot- 
 tentots in 1799, 77 ; of slaves in 
 1808, 99 ; of Slagter's Nek, 114 
 
 Irish immigrants of 1823 : particulars 
 concerning, 144 
 
 Iron : in 1800 is in common use by the 
 Bantu, 8 ; abundance of in the 
 South African Republic, 380 
 
 Isandlwana : destruction of a British 
 force at, 417 
 
 Ivory trade: references to, 33, 40, and 
 141 
 
 J. 
 
 van Jaarsveld, Adriaan : mention of, 
 64 and 76 
 
 Jagersfontein diamond mine: refer- 
 ence to, 891 
 
 Jameson, Dr. : raid into the South 
 African Republic, 485 
 
 Janssens, Lieutenant-General Jan 
 Willem : from February, 1803, to 
 January, 1806, is governor of the 
 Cape Colony, 85 and 86 ; strength 
 of the military force at his com- 
 mand, 92 ; on the 8th of January, 
 1806, is defeated by an English 
 army at Blueberg, 94 ; on the 18th 
 of the same month surrenders to 
 the British force, 95 
 
 Jesuit missions in South Africa, 33 
 and 40 
 
 Johannesburg, military village : foun- 
 dation of, 299 ; destruction of, 
 303 
 
 Johannesburg : foundation of the 
 city of, 445 
 
 Joubert, Commandant-General Piet- 
 er : mention of, 427, 429, 432, 433, 
 448, and 495 
 
 Jury system of trial : in 1828 is intro- 
 duced, 151 
 
 Kaffir Police : unreliability of, 304 
 Kaffraria from the Kei to Natal : aa- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 51? 
 
 negation of to the Cape Colony, 
 
 416 
 
 Karoo, the : description of, 193 
 Kat River Hottentot Settlement : for- 
 
 mation of, 167 
 Keate Award, the : account of, 390 ; 
 
 immediate effect of, 396 
 Keiskama River : in 1819 is made the 
 
 southern boundary of the Xosa 
 
 country, 130 
 Kimberley Diamond Mine: in 1871 is 
 
 discovered, 385 
 
 King, Richard ; exploit of, 254 
 King-Williamstown : foundation of, 
 
 g- 
 
 202 
 
 Kock, Commandant Jan : mention of, 
 263 and 265 
 
 Kok, Adam, Griqua captain : mention 
 of, 262, 263, 264, 283, 287, and 354 
 
 Korana clans : mention of, 350 
 
 Kreli, Xosa chief: mention of, 201, 
 301, 340, 414, and 415 
 
 Kruger, S. J. P. : early career of, 210, 
 224, 240, 351, 357, 363, 367, 369, 372 
 to 376, 378, 400, 404, 423, 424, 427, 
 and 433 ; is third president of tae 
 South African Republic, 434 
 
 Labour tax : description of the, 259 
 
 Landdrosts and heemraden, courts of : 
 in 1828 are abolished, 151 
 
 Land tenures under the Dutch East 
 India Company, 53 ; as altered by 
 Sir John Cradock, 108 
 
 Lang's Nek : action at, 429 
 
 Lanyon, Sir Owen : in March, 1879, 
 becomes administrator of the 
 Transvaal territory, 425 
 
 Legislative Council : creation in 1834 
 of, 153 ; particulars concerning, 
 325 and 473 
 
 Lesuto : see Basutoland 
 
 Letsie, Basuto chief : mention of, 357 
 and 358 
 
 Library, South African Public : es- 
 tablishment of, 156 
 
 Lighthouses : erection of, 157 and 
 275 
 
 Lindley, Rev. Mr. : mention of, 227 
 and 228 
 
 Livingstone, Rev. Dr. : mention of, 
 165, 179, 259, 862, and 363 
 
 Lobengula, Matabele chief : mention 
 of, 449 and 453 to 456 
 
 Loch, Sir Henry : from December, 
 1889, to March, 1895, is governor 
 of the Cape Colony, 479 
 
 London and Limpopo Mining Com- 
 pany : in 1869 commences work 
 at the Tati, 380 
 
 London Missionary Society : refer- 
 ences to, 2, 82, 100, 104, 106, 107, 
 132.. 136, 160, 162, 203, 204, 228, 261, 
 262, 362, and 459 
 
 Lourenco Marques : mention of, 2, 41, 
 173, 217, 218, 221, 447, and 502 
 
 Lovedale Institution : mention of, 
 468 
 
 Lucas, Rear Admiral Engelbertus : 
 in August, 1796, surrenders a 
 Dutch fleet in Saldanha Bay to 
 Admiral Elphinstone, 74 
 
 Lydenburg, republic of : in Decem- 
 ber, 1856, comes into existence, 
 870 ; in April, 1860, is united with 
 the South African Republic, 373 
 
 Lydenburg : foundation of the village 
 of, 258 
 
 M. 
 
 Macartney, Lord : from May, 1797, to 
 
 November, 1798, is governor of tho 
 
 Cape Colony, 76 
 Madikane : defeat in December, 1824, 
 
 of the horde under, 175 
 Magadu, Baramapulana chief : men- 
 tion of, 378 
 Magwamba tribe : references to, 216 
 
 and 221 
 Maitland, Sir Peregrine : from March, 
 
 1844, to January, 1847, is governor 
 
 of the Cape Colony, 263 
 Majuba Hill : action at, 430 
 Makalaka clans : reference to, 268 
 Makana, Kaffir seer : mention of, 124 
 
 and 129 
 Makapan : destruction of the tribe 
 
 of, 367 
 
 Makapan's Poort : massacre of Euro- 
 peans at, 366 
 
 Makololo tribe : reference to, 174 
 Makoma, Xosa chief : mention of, 195 
 
 and 197 
 Makwana, Bataung chief: sells a 
 
 tract of land to the emigrant 
 
 farmers, 219 
 
 Malays : introduction of, 60 
 Manikusa or Sotshangana, Gaza chief : 
 
 mention of, 173, 178, 179, and 268 
 Ma Ntatisi, Batlokua chieftainess ; 
 
 career of, 174 
 
 Marble : found in Natal, 503 
 Marikwa ; defeat of the Matabele at, 
 
 229 
 Maritz, Commandant Gerrit : men- 
 
 tion of, 225 and 237 
 Maritzburg : see Pietermaritzburg 
 Mashona clans : reference to, 268 
 Massacres of emigrant farmers by the 
 
 Zulus, 235 
 Matabele tribe : early career of, 176 ; 
 
 massacre of emigrant farmers by, 
 
 221 ; repulse at Vechtkop of, 224 ; 
 
 flight to the north of, 230 ; further 
 
 reference to, 449 
 
 Matlabe, a Morolong : career of, 225 
 Matiwane, Amangwane chief : men. 
 
 tion of, 175 
 Mauritius, island of: in December, 
 
518 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 1810, ig conquered by the British, 
 108 
 
 Maynier, H. C. D. : mention of, 65, 66, 
 79, 80, and 81 
 
 Merino Rams : importation of, 333 
 
 Military force : or Rhodesia, 458 ; of 
 the Cape Colony, 508 ; of Natal, 
 508 ; of the Orange Free State, 
 508 ; of the South African Repub- 
 lic, 508 
 
 Military settlements in the Tyumie 
 valley : formation of, 299 ; des- 
 truction of, 303 
 
 Milner, Sir Alfred : in May, 1897, be- 
 comes governor of the Cape 
 Colony and high commissioner 
 for South Africa, 496 
 
 Minerals of South Africa as known in 
 1800,7 
 
 Ministry of the Cape Colony : partic- 
 ulars concerning, 393 and 473 
 
 de Mist, Jacob Abraham : from Feb- 
 ruary, 1803, to September, 1804, is 
 commissioner general of the 
 Cape Colony, 85 and 86 
 
 Mocke, Commandant Jan : mention 
 of, 263 and 265 
 
 Molapo, Basuto chief : mention of, 
 357 
 
 Molteno, Sir John, prime minister of 
 the Cape Colony : mention of, 402 
 and 415 
 
 Monopolies under the Dutch East In- 
 dia Company, 62 
 
 Montsiwa, Barolong chief : mention 
 of, 439 
 
 Moperi, Basuto chief : mention of ,358 
 
 Moravian missions in South Africa, 2, 
 17, 107, and 159 
 
 Moroko, Barolong chief : mention of, 
 224 
 
 Mosega : defeat of the Matabele at, 
 226 
 
 Moselekatse, Matabele chief : des- 
 tructive career of, 176, 179, 216, 230, 
 268, and 3G5 
 
 Moshesh, founder of the Basuto 
 tribe : mention of, 180, 249, 258, 262, 
 266, 268, 283, 284, 286, 306, 307, 308, 
 813, 815, 317, 319, and 346 to 359 
 
 Moshete, Barolong chief : mention of, 
 439 
 
 Mossel Bay : reference to, 81 
 
 Mozambique : is three times unsuc- 
 cessfully attacked by the Dutch, 
 43 
 
 Municipal government : in 1836 is in- 
 troduced in the Cape Colony, 269 ; 
 general working of, 270 
 
 Murray, Rev. Dr. Andrew: mention 
 of, 320 and 321 
 
 N. 
 
 Namaqualand Mining Company : 
 formation of, 836 
 
 Napier, Sir George : from January, 
 1838, to March, 1844, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 209 
 
 Natal : receives its name from Vasco 
 da Gama on Christmas, 1497, 31 ; 
 is depopulated by the Zulus, 175 ; 
 different localities so called, 232 ; 
 [exports in 1845 of, 257; condi- 
 'tion of, 410; form of government 
 of, 411 and 506; aiea of, 502; 
 population of 507; exports of, 
 503 
 
 Natalia, republic of : constitution of, 
 247 ; regulations concerning 
 Bantu immigrants, 250 ; in 1843 
 becomes a British colony, 256 
 
 Native Treaty States : creation of, 
 261 and 267 ; destruction of 283 
 
 Ncapayi, Baca chief : defeat of by tho 
 emigrant farmers, 250 
 
 Ndlambe, Xosa chief : mention of, 65, 
 78, 88, 101, 123, 125, 129, 195, and 100 
 
 Negroes, prize : introduction of, 98 
 
 Nel, Commandant Willem : conduct 
 of in connection with the Slagter's 
 Nek Rebellion, 116 
 
 Neptune, convict ship : arrival of, 
 294 ; departure of, 297 
 
 Netherlands, the : factions in 1795 in, 
 68 ; overrunning of the country 
 by the French, and consequent 
 change of government, 68 ; con- 
 dition of at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, 96 
 
 Netherlands South African Railway 
 Company : mention of, 446 and 
 447 
 
 Newspapers : establishment of, 275 
 
 da Nhaya : see d'Anhaya 
 
 Norwegian missions in South Africa : 
 mention of, 418 
 
 O. 
 
 Oak trees : introduction of, 53 
 
 Oberholster, Commandant Miclriel: 
 mention of, 263 and 283 
 
 Orange Free State : description of, 
 345 ; constitution of, 346 ; down 
 to 1859 desires union with the 
 Cape Colony under a federal gov- 
 ernment, 352 ; in 1868 protests 
 against the reception of the 
 Basuto as British subjects, 359 ; 
 eastern boundary as settled in 
 1869, 860 ; population of in 1869, 
 360 ; prosperity of, 391 ; area of, 
 502 ; population of, 507 
 
 Orange River Sovereignty : in Feb- 
 ruary, 1848, is proclaimed a Brit- 
 ish colony, 285 ; form of govern- 
 ment of, 285 and 314 ; condition of 
 matters caused by Moshesh, 307 ; 
 statistics of in 1853, 818; objec- 
 tions of the people to abandon, 
 meut by the British government, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 510 
 
 819 ; in February, 1854, is aban- 
 doned by Great Britain, 321 
 Orphan girls : immigration of, 50 
 Ostriches : taming of, 413 
 Ostrich feathers : export of, 502 
 van Overbeek, Arnout : purchases 
 territory from Hottentot cap- 
 tains, 48 
 
 Owen, Assistant Commissioner C. 
 Mostyn : mention of, 308, 313, 314, 
 and 315 
 Owen, Rev. Mr.: mention of, 233 to 
 
 P. 
 
 Paarl, town of : mention of, 60 
 
 Panda, Zulu chief : mention of, 242, 
 243, 256, and 267 
 
 Pandours : see Hottentot soldiers 
 
 Paper money in the Cape Colony: 
 particulars concerning, 63, 72, and 
 148 : in the South African Repub- 
 lic, 382 and 399 
 
 Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, 
 160, 262, and 349 
 
 Parliament of the Cape Colony : legis- 
 lation creating, 324 et seq. ; differ- 
 ent views concerning, 327 ; form 
 of as created in 1853, 328 ; meets 
 for the first time in June, 1854, 
 331 ; enlargement of, 343, 394, 472, 
 and 473 
 
 Pato, Xosa chief : mention of, 195 
 
 Penal Settlement : attempts to make 
 the Cape Colony a, 289 et seq. ; 
 successful resistance to, 291 et 
 seq. 
 
 Philip, Rev. Dr. : mention of, 162, 164, 
 203, 205, 261, and 280 
 
 Pietermaritzburg : foundation of the 
 city of, 246 
 
 Pine trees : introduction of, 52 
 
 Places of public worship in 1800, 2 ; in 
 1700, 52 
 
 Pondo tribe : reference to, 250 
 
 Popham, Commodore Sir Home : 
 commands the fleet in the opera- 
 tions against the Cape Colony in 
 1806, 94 
 
 Population : of the Cape Colony in 
 1854, 332 ; of the various divisions 
 of South Africa, 507 ; of the prin- 
 cipal towns of South Africa, 510 
 
 Port Elizabeth : growth of, 140 
 
 Port Natal : references to, 232, 251, 
 and 465 
 
 Portugal : decline of, 86 ; by union 
 with the Spanish monarchy its 
 possessions become a prey to the 
 Dutch, 42 
 
 Portuguese : are the first to sail 
 round Africa, 30 ; make fruitless 
 efforts to conquer the Zambesi 
 basin, 37 ; mode of living in East- 
 ern Africa, 33 ; singular method 
 
 of holding estates in Eastern 
 Africa, 39 ; defeat of in 1891 at 
 Umtasa's kraal, 452 
 
 Portuguese possessions in South 
 Africa ; extent of in 1800, 1 ; con- 
 dition of in 1800, 41 
 
 Postal communications : references 
 to, 3, 133, and 157 
 
 Potchefstroom : foundation of the 
 town of, 239 
 
 Potgieter, Commandant Andries Hen- 
 drik: mention of, 219, 230, 237, 
 239, 258, 362, 364, 366, and 368 
 
 Potgieter, Hermanus : mention of, 225 
 and 366 
 
 Pottinger, Sir Henry, from January 
 to December, 1847, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 280 
 
 Pretorius, Commandant Andries r 
 mention of, 240, 252, 287, 308, 309, 
 362, and 366 
 
 Pretorius, Marthinus "Wessel : is the 
 third president of the Orange 
 Free State, 352 ; mention of, 306 
 to 369 ; is the first president of 
 the South African Republic, 370 ; 
 mention of, 371, 426, 427, and 433 
 
 Progress : definition of, 67 
 
 Province of Queen Adelaide : creation 
 of, 202 ; system of government of, 
 204 ; abandonment of, 206 
 
 Prinsloo, Hendrik : conduct of in con- 
 nection with the Slagter's Nek 
 Insurrection, 115 
 
 Public Libraries : particulars con- 
 cerning, 469 
 
 Public Debt : of the Cape Colony in 
 1834, 153 ; of the Cape Colony in 
 1899, 505 ; of Natal in 1899, 505 
 
 Q. 
 Queenstown : foundation of, 312 
 
 R. 
 
 Raid into the South African Republic 
 
 by Dr. Jameson, 485 
 Railways : construction of, 335, 341, 
 
 413, 445 to 447, 453, 456, and 464 
 Rainfall : reference to, 5 
 Ravenous animals : damage done by, 
 
 57 
 Read, Rev. James : mention of, 104 
 
 and 105 
 Reform Leaders : trial and sentences 
 
 of, 489 
 Reitz, F. W. : is fifth president of the 
 
 Orange Free State, 448 
 van Rensburg, Jan : mention of, 215 
 Responsible Government : in 1872 is 
 
 introduced in the Cape Colony, 
 
 393 ; in 1893 is introduced in Natal, 
 
 506 
 Retief, Commandant-General Pieter : 
 
520 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 mention of, 237, 228, 232, 233, 235, 
 and 242 
 
 Revenue : of the Cape Colony in 1850, 
 275; of the Cape Colony in 1854, 
 332; of the South African Re- 
 public, 479 
 
 van Riebeek, Jan : is the leader of 
 the party that founds Capetown, 
 
 Rinderpest: outbreak of , 457 and 464 
 Rising at Johannesburg : account of, 
 
 483 
 
 Rhenish Missionary Society, 160 
 Rhodes, Right Hon. C. J. : mention 
 of, 394, 450, 451, 457, 483, 485, and 
 491 
 
 Rhodesia: description of, 450; occu- 
 pation of, 451 ; form of govern- 
 ment of, 458 
 
 Road Boards : formation of, 270 
 Roads : references to, 3 
 Robber bands : reference to, 5 
 Robinson, Sir Hercules (later Lord 
 Rosmead) : from January, 1881, 
 to December, 1886, and from May, 
 1895, to March, 1897, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 421 and 484 
 Roman Dutch law : remains in force 
 
 in the Cape Colony, 151 
 Ruins in Rhodesia : reference to, 20 
 
 S. 
 
 Saldanha Bay : references to, 4 and 
 
 74 
 Salisbury : foundation of the town of, 
 
 452 
 
 Salt : abundance of, 8 
 Sandile, Xosa chief : mention of, 196, 
 
 277, 278, 281, 302, 803, and 415 
 Savings Banks : establishment of, 157 
 Scanlen, Sir Thomas, prime minister 
 
 of the Cape Colony : mention of, 
 
 462 
 Schoeman, Commandant Stephanus : 
 
 mention of, 367, 368, 370 to 375, and 
 
 379 
 Schoemansdal, chief town of the 
 
 Zoutpansberg district : abandon- 
 
 ment of, 379 
 Schools : see Education 
 Schreiner, Hon. W. P., prime minister 
 
 of the Cape Colony : mention of, 
 
 497 
 
 Schuins Hoogte : action at, 429 
 Scotch clergymen in the Dutch Re- 
 formed Church: particulars con- 
 cerning, 146 
 Scotch settlers of 1866 in the South 
 
 African Republic : account of, 382 
 Scurvy : ravages of, 43 
 Seal hunting : references to, 2 and 45 
 Sebetuane, Makololo chief : mention 
 
 of, 174, 179, and 268 
 Sekukuni, Bapedi chief : mention of, 
 
 400, 403, 404, 423, and 426 
 
 Sekwati, Bapedi chief : mention of, 
 268, 364, and 400 
 
 Sena, Portuguese town : mention of, 
 2, 33, 34, 85; 39, 41, and 173 
 
 Separatist Reformed Church : partic- 
 ulars concerning, 372 
 
 Setyeli, Bakwena chief : mention of, 
 
 Shaw, Rev. William : mention of, 195 
 
 Shepstone, Sir Theophilus : in April, 
 1877, annexes the South African 
 Republic to the British Empire, 
 406 
 
 Sikonyela, Batlokua chief : mention 
 of, 234 and 264 
 
 Simon's Bay : reference to, 4 
 
 Slagter's Nek Insurrection, 114 ; re- 
 sult of, 119 
 
 Slaves : exportation of, 2 ; introduc- 
 tion of, 57 ; treatment of, 59 ; 
 mention of, 98 ; condition of in 
 South Africa, 182 ; legislation 
 concerning, 185 ; Graaff-Reinet 
 resolutions regarding emancipa- 
 tion of, 186 ; emancipation of, 187 ; 
 number of at the time of the 
 emancipation, 188 ; present con- 
 dition of the descendants of, 191 
 
 Slave Insurrection in 1808 : account 
 of, 99 
 
 Slave trade on the eastern coast : 
 reference to, 40 
 
 Slave trade oversea : in March, 1807, 
 is prohibited in British vessels, 98 
 
 Sluysken, Abraham Josias : in 1795 is 
 at the head of the Cape govern- 
 ment, 69 ; on the 16th of Sep- 
 tember of that year surrenders 
 the colony to a British force, 71 
 
 Small-pox : ravages of, 17 and 56 
 
 Smith, Sir Harry : mention of, 198. 
 201, and 204 ; from December, 
 1847, to March, 1852, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 281 
 
 Smith, Captain Thomas Charlton : 
 with a military force occupies 
 Durban, 252 ; is defeated in action 
 by the emigrant farmers, 252 ; is 
 besieged in his camp, 253 ; after 
 twenty-six days is relieved, 254 
 
 Snyman, Commandant Jacobus Theo- 
 dorus : mention of, 266, 283, and 
 287 
 
 Society for the Emancipation of 
 Slaves : reference to, 184 
 
 Sofala : mention of, 2, 32, 35, 41, and 
 173 
 
 Somerset, Lord Charles Henry : from 
 April, 1814, to January, 1820, and 
 from November, 1821, to March, 
 1826, is governor of the Cape 
 Colony, 112 
 
 Sotshangana : see Manikusa 
 
 South Africa : in 1800 the greater part 
 is unexplored, 1 ; extent or its 
 commerce in 1800, 1 ; number of 
 
INDEX. 
 
 521 
 
 churches in 1800, 2 ; number of 
 schools in 1800, 2 ; number of 
 courts of justice in 1800, 2 ; de- 
 scription of the coast, 4 ; physical 
 features, 5 ; form of government 
 in 1800, 6 ; fauna in 1800, 6 ; flora 
 in 1800, 7 ; mineral wealth as 
 known in 1800, 7 ; population in 
 1800,8 
 
 South African League : formation of, 
 471 
 
 South African Missionary Society : 
 reference to, 160 
 
 South African Republic : independ- 
 ence acknowledged by Great 
 Britain in January, 1852, 809 ; early 
 condition of, 361 ; constitution of, 
 868 and 369 ; long discord in, 874 ; 
 dismemberment of by the Keate 
 award, 390 ; in April, 1877, is an- 
 nexed to the British Empire, 406 ; 
 events in from 1877 to 1881, 422 et 
 seq. ; in August, 1881, becomes a 
 state in a condition of suzerainty 
 to Great Britain, 432; in Febru- 
 ary, 1884, acquires a much better 
 gj'sition, 437 ; area of, 502 ; popu- 
 tion of, 507 
 
 Sprigg, Right Hon. Sir Gordon, prime 
 minister of the Cape Colony: 
 mention of, 415, 420, 462, and 491 
 
 Stadholder of the Netherlands: in 
 1795 flees to England, 68 
 
 Stander, Commandant Adriaan : men- 
 tion of, 319 and 320 
 
 Steam communication with England, 
 465 
 
 Steamships : in 1838 are first em- 
 ployed in the coasting trade, 275 
 
 Stellaland, republic of : particulars 
 concerning, 439 and 440 
 
 Stellenbosch, village of : mention of, 
 52 and 60 
 
 Steyn, Marthinus Theunis: is the 
 sixth president of the Orange 
 Free State, 492 
 
 Stockenstrom, Andries, landdrost of 
 Graaff-Reinet : murder of by 
 Xosas, 103 
 
 Sugar : a product of Natal, 504 
 
 Supreme Court of the Cape Colony : 
 in 1828 is established, 150 
 
 Swazi tribe : reference to, 268 
 
 Swellendam : insurrection in 1795 at, 
 66 ; submits to the British author- 
 ities, 73 
 
 T. 
 
 Table Bay : particulars concerning, 
 4, 44, 342, and 465 
 
 Tati gold mines : in 1867 are discov- 
 ered by Karl Mauch, 380 
 
 Tea : a product of Natal, 504 
 
 Tembu tribe : wars with, 279, 304, and 
 
 Tete, Portuguese town : mention of, 
 
 2, 33, 85, 39, and 41 
 Thaba Bosigo : reference to, 180 
 Thompson, Rev. William : mention 
 
 of, 167 
 Tongaland: in 1897 is annexed to 
 
 Natal, 460 
 
 Trafalgar : effect upon the Cape Col- 
 ony of the battle of, 96 
 Transport of goods : mode of in 
 
 1800, 3 
 Treaty of Amiens: on the 27th of 
 
 March, 1802, is signed, 82; on the 
 
 12th of May, 1803, war is renewed, 
 
 91 
 Treaty: between Portugal and the 
 
 South African Republic, 381 ; of 
 
 June, 1891, between Great Britain 
 
 and Portugal, 453 
 Treaties with native chiefs : 262, 265, 
 
 267, and 276 
 Triechard,Louis, leader of the pioneer 
 
 party of emigrants : account of, 
 
 215 
 
 Tsetse fly : ravages of, 217 
 Tshaka, founder of the Zulu tribe : 
 
 account of, 169, 179, and 233 
 Tugela : battle of the, 238 
 Tulbagh : formation of the district 
 
 of, 89 
 Tyali, Xosa chief: mention of, 195 
 
 and 197 
 Tyumie Valley : description of, 123 
 
 U. 
 
 Uitenhage : foundation of the town: 
 and district of, 89 i 
 
 Uithaalder, Willem, rebel Hottentot 
 leader : mention of, 304 and 311 
 
 Ulundi : battle of, 419 
 
 Umhlakaza, Xosa medicine man : 
 mention of 338. 
 
 Umlanjeni, Xosa medicine man: 
 mention of, 301 and 803 
 
 Umtali : foundation of the town of, 
 452 
 
 Utrecht, district of : particulars con- 
 cerning, 370 
 
 Uys, Dirk Cornelis : death of, 238 
 
 Uys, Commandant Jacobus : mention 
 of, 229 
 
 Uys, Commandant Pieter Lavras : 
 mention of, 229 and 237 
 
 V. 
 
 Vanderkemp, Rev. Dr.: mention of, 
 
 82 and 162 
 Vechtkop: repulse of the Matabele 
 
 at, 222 
 
 Venable, Rev. Mr. : mention of, 227 
 Venice : trade with India carried on 
 
 by, 30 
 Victoria : foundation of the town of, 
 
522 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Viervoet : engagement at, 807 
 Viljoen, Commandant Jan: part 
 taken in the civil war in the 
 South African Republic by, 376 
 Volksraad: election of the first, 228 
 
 W. 
 
 Wade, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas 
 Francis: from August, 1833, to 
 January, 1834, acts as head of the 
 Cape government 
 
 ran der Walt, Commandant Tjaart: 
 in August, 1802, is killed in bat- 
 tle, 82 
 
 Warden, Captain Henry Douglas: 
 mention of, 265; in 1848 is ap- 
 pointed British Resident in the 
 Orange River Sovereignty, 286 ; in 
 July, 1852, is succeeded by Mr. 
 Henry Green, 314 
 
 Warren, Sir Charles: expedition to 
 Bechuanaland under, 440 
 
 Wars : first with Hottentots, 47 ; sec- 
 ond with Hottentots, 48 ; first with 
 Xosas, 64 ; second with Xosas, 64 ; 
 third with Xosas, 78 ; fourth with 
 Xosas, 102 ; fifth with Xosas, 121 ; 
 sixth with Xosas, 197; seventh 
 with Xosas, 278 ; cost of this war, 
 324 ; eighth with Xosas, 803 ; ninth 
 with Xosas, 414 ; first of the 
 Orange Free State with the Ba- 
 suto tribe, 349 ; second, 356 ; third, 
 358 ; with the Zulu tribe in 18TO, 
 417 ; between the Cape Colony 
 and the Basuto tribe, 462; first 
 war with the Matabele, 454 ; sec- 
 ond, 457; commencement of the 
 present with the two republics, 499 
 
 Waterboer, Andries, Griqua captain : 
 mention of, 262 and 287 
 
 Waterboer, Nicholas, Griqua captain : 
 mention of, 386, 387, 390, and 392 
 
 Water Supply : reference to, 5 
 
 Weenen : foundation of the village 
 of, 246 
 
 Wepener, Commandant Louw : is 
 killed in battle, 357 
 
 Wesleyan missions : mention of, 132, 
 
 160, 195, 203, 224, 263, 314, 337, 382, 
 and 468 
 
 Whale fishery: references to, 2 and 
 45 
 
 Wheat : production of, 52 
 
 Willshire, Lieutenant Colonel : expe- 
 dition in 1819 under, 128 
 
 Winburg : foundation of the village 
 of, 227 
 
 Wine: production of, 52; export of, 
 502 
 
 Woburn, military village : foundation 
 of, 299 ; destruction of, 303 
 
 Wodehouse, Sir Philip: from Janu- 
 ary, 1862, to November, 1868, is 
 governor of the Cape Colony, 343 ; 
 in 1864 mediates between the Or- 
 ange Free State and Moshesh, 355 
 
 Wool : rapid increase in the produc- 
 tion of after the emancipation of 
 the slaves, 192 ; value of export 
 in 1854, 382 ; present value of ex- 
 port, 502 and 503 
 
 Woyer, Jan Pieter: mission to Java 
 of, 75 
 
 Wynberg, village of : mention of, 48 
 
 X. 
 
 Xosa tribe: self-destruction of, 838 
 Y. 
 
 Yonge, Sir George : from December, 
 1799, to April, 1801, is governor of 
 the Cape Colony, 80 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zoutpansberg : exploration of, 215 ; 
 condition of the district in the 
 early days of the republic, 377 
 
 Zulu tribe : formation of, 171 ; organ- 
 ization of the army by Tshaka, 
 172 ; conquests of, 172 ; defeat of 
 the army at the Blood river, 241 
 
 Zululand: annexation to Natal of, 
 419 and 460 
 
 Zwartkopjes : skirmish at, 264 
 
LANDMARKS OF PROGRESS 
 
 DURING THE CENTURY, CHRONOLOGICALLY 
 ARRANGED. 
 
 1800 European occupation extends 
 
 north to the Stormberg range 
 and east to the Bushman's 
 river. 
 
 European population, 26,000. 
 
 Government purely autocratic. 
 
 Government Gazette, just estab- 
 lished, the only newspaper. 
 
 Total exports, $300,000. 
 
 1801 Exploration of Southern Bechu- 
 
 analand. 
 
 1803 Restoration of the Cape Colony 
 to Holland. 
 
 1805 First inland posts. 
 
 1806 Conquest of the Cape Colony by 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 1809 All Hottentots made subject to 
 colonial laws. 
 
 1811 First military governor of the 
 
 Cape Colony. 
 Establishment of circuit courts. 
 
 1812 The Xosas driven beyond the 
 
 Fish river. 
 
 Land tenure greatly improved. 
 1814 Cession of the Cape Colony to 
 Great Britain by the king of 
 the Netherlands. 
 
 1817 Arrival of a few Scotch settlers. 
 
 1818 Opening of the South African 
 
 Public Library. 
 
 1819 First occupation by Europeans 
 
 of ground in the present 
 Orange Free State. 
 
 1820 Arrival of nearly five thousand 
 
 British settlers. 
 1823 Arrival of a few Irish settlers. 
 
 1823 to 1828 Suppression of Dutch as 
 
 the official language of the 
 Cape Colony. 
 
 1824 Construction of the first light- 
 
 house on the coast. 
 Settlement at Durban, Natal, of 
 a few Englishmen. 
 
 1825 Creation of an official and nom- 
 
 inee council of advice. 
 Destruction of inconvertible 
 paper money previously in 
 use. 
 1823 Establishment of a supreme 
 
 court with qualified judges 
 
 and trial by jury. 
 1829 Opening of the South African 
 
 College. 
 1834 Creation of a mixed official and 
 
 nominee legislative council. 
 Emancipation of the slaves. 
 
 1836 Beginning of the great emigra- 
 
 tion from the Cape Colony. 
 Introduction of municipal gov- 
 ernment in the towns and 
 villages. 
 
 1837 Ejection of the Matabele from 
 
 the country south of the Lim- 
 popo by the emigrant farmers. 
 
 1838 Occupation of Natal by the 
 
 emigrant farmers. 
 
 Great improvement in the pub- 
 lic school system of the Cape 
 Colony. 
 
 Steamships first employed in 
 the coasting trade. 
 
 Beginning of production of 
 mohair. 
 
 Rapid increase in production of 
 
 sheep's wool. 
 1840 Destruction of the Zulu power. 
 
 1842 Conquest of Natal by Great 
 
 Britain. 
 
 1843 Establishment of elective divi- 
 
 sional road boards. 
 
 1846 Beginning of immigration into 
 
 the Cape Colony of over four 
 thousand selected British set- 
 tlers. 
 
 1847 Extension of the Cape Colony to 
 
 the Orange River. 
 Country between the Fish River 
 and the Kei annexed to the 
 British dominions under the 
 name of British Kaffraria. 
 
 1848 Country between the Orange 
 
 and Vaal Rivers annexed to 
 the British dominions under 
 the name of the Orange River 
 Sovereignty. 
 
 1849 Successful resistance to the in- 
 
 troduction of convicts. 
 1852 Acknowledgment by Great Brit- 
 
524 + xxxii = 556 LANDMARKS OF PROGRESS. 
 
 am of the independence of the 
 emigrant farmers north of the 
 Vaal. 
 
 First exportation of copper. 
 
 Commencement of sugar plant- 
 ing in Natal. 
 
 1853 Grant of a liberal constitution 
 
 to the Cape Colony. 
 
 1854 Meeting of the first Cape par- 
 
 liament, both chambers elect- 
 ed under a very low franchise 
 
 The last of the military govern- 
 ors. 
 
 Abandonment by Great Britain 
 of the Orange River Sover- 
 eignty and establishment of 
 the Orange Free State. 
 1856 Establishment of a mixed offi- 
 cial and representative legis- 
 lative council in Natal. 
 
 Beginning of the self-destruc- 
 tion of the Xosas. 
 
 1858 Settlement of over two thou- 
 
 sand German agricultural 
 immigrants in British Kaff- 
 raria. 
 
 1859 Beginning of the construction of 
 
 railroads in South Africa. 
 
 1860 Union of all the Europeans 
 
 north of the Vaal in the South 
 African Republic. 
 Opening of the first electric 
 
 telegraphs. 
 
 Commencement of the great 
 breakwater in Table Bay. 
 
 1865 Annexation of British Kaf- 
 f raria to the Cape Colony. 
 
 1806 Discovery of the first diamond. 
 
 1668 Entire reversal of the former 
 British policy by the accep- 
 tance as British subjects of 
 the Basuto tribe north of the 
 Orange. 
 
 1869 Commencement of regular dia- 
 mond-digging industry. 
 
 1871 Annexation of the territory 
 
 containing the diamond fields 
 to the British dominions as 
 the crown colony of Griqua- 
 land West. 
 
 Dismemberment of the South 
 African Republic by the Keate 
 Award. 
 
 1872 Introduction of responsible gov- 
 
 ernment in the Cape Colony. 
 
 1877 Annexation of the South Afri- 
 can Republic to the British 
 Empire. 
 
 Royal Charter granted to the 
 University of the Cape of 
 Good Hope. 
 
 1879 Commencement of annexation 
 of the territory between the 
 Kei River and Natal to the 
 Cape Colony. 
 
 1880 Completion of the annexation 
 
 of Griqualand West to the 
 Cape Colony. 
 
 1881 Restoration of semi-independ- 
 
 ence to the South African 
 Republic. 
 
 1882 Restoration of Dutch to equal- 
 
 ity with English as an ofiicial 
 language of the Cape Colony. 
 
 1884 Commencement of the German 
 
 Protectorate north of the 
 Orange. 
 
 Concession of almost complete 
 independence to the South 
 African Republic. 
 
 1885 Annexation of territory south 
 
 of the Molopo to the British 
 Empire as the crown colony of 
 British Bechuanaland. 
 
 Commencement of the British 
 Protectorate north of the 
 Molopo. 
 
 Discovery of valuable goldfields 
 in the South African Repub- 
 lic. 
 
 1887 Annexation of Zululand to the 
 British Empire. 
 
 1889 Grant of a charter to the Brit- 
 
 ish South Africa Company. 
 
 1890 Occupation of Mashonaland by 
 
 the Chartered Company. 
 
 1893 Occupation of Matabeleland by 
 
 the Chartered Company. 
 Introduction of responsible gov- 
 ernment in Natal. 
 
 1894 Completion of annexation of the 
 
 territory between the Kei 
 River and Natal to the Cape 
 Colony. 
 
 1895 Annexation of British Bechuan- 
 
 aland to the Cape Colony. 
 
 Annexation of Tongaland to the 
 British Empire. 
 
 Opening of the railway from 
 Capetown to Lourenco Mar- 
 ques. 
 
 1897 Annexation of Zululand and 
 Tongaland to Natal. 
 
 Opening of the railway from 
 Capetown to Buluwayo. 
 
 1899 Opening of the railway from 
 
 Beira to Salisbury. 
 
 1900 European occupation extends 
 
 from Cape Agulhas to the 
 Zambesi. 
 
 European population, 876,000. 
 
 Government of the Cape Colony, 
 Natal, and the Orange Free 
 State representative and as 
 free as can be desired, no- 
 where else entirely autocratic. 
 
 Exports, including those of the 
 German and Portuguese ter- 
 ritories, fully ^120,000,000 
 yearly. 
 
The Nineteenth Century 
 Series. 
 
 <oc> 
 
 THE aim of the series is to present in a popular way, 
 but with fullness and accuracy, the progress of the 
 nineteenth century from every practical standpoint, 
 and to embrace the chief subjects in which English- 
 speaking people are interested. 
 
 After conference with many of the best-informed men, 
 and a very large correspondence with hundreds of the 
 leading thinkers and writers of the world, the Editors 
 and Publishers decided that the realisation of their plans 
 would be most successfully carried out by the publication 
 of this Series. 
 
 It will be seen that the twenty-five volumes of this 
 work survey the progress of each of the English-speaking 
 states and colonies Great Britain, the United States, 
 Canada, Australasia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as 
 well as of India, China, and Japan; deal with the course 
 of events under the various Continental rulers during the 
 period; and trace developments in causes so near the 
 heart of civilisation as religion, temperance, sociology, 
 science, art, literature, education, commerce, inventions, 
 wars, discoveries, explorations, economics, politics, medi- 
 cine, surgery, and hygiene in short, all matters pertaining 
 to human thought and well-being. The progress of the 
 world in the century is thus most comprehensively treated, 
 and the Series should prove an important addition to all 
 Public Libraries, besides being a very desirable set of 
 books for the general reader. 
 
The Nineteenth Century 
 Series. 
 
 Titles of the Volumes, 
 
 NOW READY. 
 
 RELIGIOUS PROGRESS IN THE CENTURY. 
 
 By W. H. WITHROW, M.A., D.D,, F.R.S.C. 
 PROGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA IN THE CENTURY. 
 
 By George McCall Theal, D.Lit., LL.D., Historiographer to the Cape Govt. 
 
 The following Volumes will be issued at short intervals : 
 
 Literature of the Century. By Professor A. B. cle Mi lie, M. A. 
 Medicine, Surgery, and Hygiene in the Century. 
 
 By Ezra Hurlburt Stafford, M.D. 
 Progress of India, Japan, and China in the Century. 
 
 By the Right Hon. Sir Richard Temple, Bart., P.C., G.C.S.I., D.C.L. (Oxon.), 
 LL.D. (Cantab.), F.R.S. 
 Progress of the United States of America in the Century. 
 
 By Professor William Peterfield Trent, M.A., LL.D. 
 Continental Rulers in the Century* By Percy M. Thornton, LL.B. 
 British Sovereigns in the Century. By T. H. S. Escott, M.A. 
 Progress of British Empire in the Century. By James Stanley Little. 
 Progress of Canada in the Century. By J. Castell Hopkins, F.S.S. 
 Progress of Australasia in the Century. 
 
 By T. A. Coghlan, F.S.S., and Thomas T. Ewing, Member of the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly of New South Wales. 
 Progress of New Zealand in the Century. By R. F. Irvine, M.A., and 
 
 0. T. J. Alpers, M.A. 
 
 Political Progress of the Century. By Thomas Macknight. 
 Discoveries and Explorations of the Century. 
 
 By Professor Charles G. D. Roberts, M.A. 
 Economic and Industrial Progress of the Century. 
 
 By Henry de Beltgens Gibbins, D.Lit., M.A., F.R.G.S. 
 Inventions of the Century. By William H. Doolittle. 
 Wars of the Century, and the Development of Military Science. 
 
 By Professor Oscar Browning, M.A. 
 
 Naval Battles of the Century. By Rear-Admiral Francis John Higginson. 
 Naval Development of the Century. By Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, K.C.B. 
 Presidents of the United States in the Century (from Jefferson to 
 
 Fillmore). By Francis Bellamy. 
 Presidents of the United States In the Century (from Pierce to 
 
 Me Kin ley). By Francis Knowles. 
 The Fine Arts in the Century. By William Sharp. 
 Progress of Education in the Century. 
 
 By James Laughlin Hughes and Louis R. Klein in, Ph.D. 
 Temperance and Social Progress of the Century. 
 
 By the Hon. John G. Woolley, M.A. 
 Progress of Science in the Century. By Professor J, Arthur Thomson, M.A, 
 
Nineteenth Century Series. 
 
 PRE-VIEWS OF CANADIAN EDITORS AND OPINIONS 
 OF PUBLIC MEN. 
 
 " Presents in a popular way, with fullness and accuracy, the Progress of the 
 Nineteenth Century from every practical standpoint. . . . Destined to find a place 
 in every good library." Hamilton Times. 
 
 " Twenty-five volumes in which is admirably arranged a complete history of 
 the Century's progress. ... To tell the story of all this in a fashion that shall be at 
 once full and accurate and accessible to the average man, is a task of such 
 magnitude as to, one would think, put it out of the question. Precisely this has, 
 however, been accomplished in the production of the Nineteenth Century Series, 
 and the labour entailed must have been prodigious. . . . All in all, the undertaking 
 was unique, and it has been carried out with wonderful success." London 
 News. 
 
 " An exceedingly valuable work. . . . Writers from all over the world whose 
 names should command the confidence of all readers of the English language. 
 ... A unique record of the wonders of a wonderful century." Saturday 
 Night, Toronto. 
 
 " One of the most promising of works. . . . While being a record, this history 
 will be sufficiently critical to interest intelligent and scholarly readers. . . . 
 This Series will be a valuable library in itself and almost a necessity In every 
 house." British Whig, Kingston. 
 
 " Although the list of subjects and authors is a most promising one for the 
 general reader, yet many of the volumes will, of course, be of special value to 
 particular classes of the reading public. . . . Every volume Of the Series Should 
 be interesting to teachers." Daily News, Toronto. 
 
 "The work will be one of great historical value." H. F. GARDINER, B.A., 
 Editor of Tlte Times, Toronto. 
 
 "Editors of ' Nineteenth Century Series ' : 
 
 " Gentlemen, Permit me to thank you for the privilege of examining your 
 Prospectus of the above-mentioned Series. The conception is admirable, and the 
 mapping-out of its details strikes me as being, in all respects, worthy of the 
 highest commendation. . . . The names of the contributors afford an ample 
 guarantee that the execution of the work will be on a par with its programme. 
 ... It justly merits success." Rev. D. MACRAE, M.A., D.D., President, 
 Morrin College, Quebec. 
 
 " I have no doubt the work in question will be a most valuable one. . . . 
 When we see such men as the Rev. W. H. Withrow, D.D., F.R.S.C., and others of 
 the same class, amongst the contributors, ... we can have no hesitation in saying 
 that the subjects treated will be dealt with in the most scientific manner." 
 Hon. HUGH JOHN MACDONAI.D, Premier of Manitoba. 
 
 " To the Linscott Co. 
 
 "Gentlemen, Your design of publishing a series of volumes on the 
 Nineteenth Century seems to me an excellent one. The subjects of the succes- 
 sive volumes are certainly well chosen ; and in the editors and contributors 
 you have a guarantee that the work will be satisfactorily done." Prof. 
 WM. CLARK, M.A., D.C.L., President of the Royal Society of Canada, Trinity 
 University, Toronto. 
 
 "The names of the writers of the different topics abundantly guarantee their 
 educational value. . . . Each of the volumes will appeal to a large class of 
 readers." Hon. RICHARD HARCOURT, Minister of Education for Ontario. 
 
 "The names of the writers and the subjects to be treated are strong 
 guarantees of exceptional ability and the value of the entire Series." Rev. 
 E. I. BADGLEY, LL.D., Professor of Philosophy, Victoria University, Toronto. 
 
" A miracle of scholarship and cheapness combined." 
 
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 TWENTIETH CENTURY DICTIONARY 
 
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