IHIST< OF THE RITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS AVARY H. FORBES M, A. RALPH, HOLLAND & C THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ^r M V yK^ ~A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS (1558-1 91 0). EDITED BY AVARYBL_FORBES, M.A. (Barrister-at-Laio), GOLD MEDALLIST IN ENGLISH LITEEATDKE, AND SENIOR MODERATOR, UNIVERSITr OF DUBLIN ; AUTHOR OP " CERTIFICATE HISTOIiy (1763-1815)," " A CONCISE HISrORT OF EUROPE," "ESSAYS AND HOW TO WRITE THEM," " HISTOUY OF ENGLAND (1688-1820)." Ralph Holland a Co.. Temple Chambers. E.G. • • • • • • • • » • • • • • I « • • * • * * •• -•. • « • • • • • • • ••• v ; • • - PREFACE. With some slight emendations this volume embodies " Clough's Expansion of the British Empire (1558-1858)," and continuea the same down to 1910. The book treats of the origin, growth and development of the Colonial Empire of Great Britain, in- ckiding thereunder not only the great depen.lency of India, but all the recently acqmred Protectorates — such as those of Nigeria and Nyassaland — and leaseholds or " contingent " holdings such as Cyprus and Weihaiwei. The last fifty years have been exceedingly active in Colonial growth, both as regards terri- torial expansion and federal consolidation, and no pains have been spared to obtain the latest and most reliable information respecting these great advances. The present volume is plentifully supplied with Maps, as well as Tables — all brought up to date — illustrating the up- building of the Empire, and biographical and glossarial Appendices have likewise been added. Many of our South African possessions have undergone frequent experimental changes, being declared, at one time protectorates, at another time dependencies of a larger state, and anon separate colonies or protectorates again. This will account for some seeming inconsistencies in the dates or descriptions in the following Tables ; but gi'eat care has been taken to make the matter as accurate and clear as possible. Every effort has also been made to keep up with the spelUug vagaries of the day ; but perfect success in this respect is not to be looked for, since, before these sheets are dry, the orthography of many geographical names will probably have altered ! A. H. F. Upper Tooting, 1910. 410374 CONTENTS. CHAPTKR. PAOE. Introfinctory ... ... ... ... ••• ••• 13 I. Phases of the Empire's Growth 28 II. The Early Navigators ^3 III. British Kule in India 51 IV. The British in America 108 V. The British in the West Indies 142 VI. Australasia 154 VII. British Kule in Africa 185 Vili. Miscellaneous Acquisitions -19 Appendix — I. Biographical ... ... •.• •.• ••• .•• 225 II. Epochs of Expansion 2:);3 III. Glossary of Colonial Terms 235 MAPS AND TABLES. MAPS. The British Empire The World, to illustrate Commerce and iinder Queen Elizabeth Greater Britain under the Stuarts India in 1785 ... India in 1858 ... The American Colonies at the Beginning of Years' War The American Colonies at the End of Years' War The Alaska Boundary The British West Indies, 1858 South Africa British East Africa Protectorates ... British West Africa Burma ... Borneo ... British New Guinea (Papua) PAGE. Frontispiece. Discovery the Seven 35 39 59 87 112 the Seven 117 140 143 {to face) 192 (to face) 200 {to face) 208 220 , 222 TABLES. The Growth of the British Empire 7 The Growth of the British Empire (Chronological) ... 11 The Growth of British Rule in India lO-j CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ILLUSTKATING THE Growth of the British Empire. 1583. Newfout: aland. 1600. St. Helena. 160S. Barbadoes. 1609. Bermudas. 1631. Gambia. {Abandoned and re-settled in 1S18.) 1632. Antigua, Montseirat, and the Leeward Islands 1655. Jamaica. 1661. Gold Coast. 1661. Barbuda. 1666. The Virgin Islands. 1666. Bahamas. 1678. Turks and Caicos Islands. 1704. Gibraltar. 1713. New Brunswick. Prince Edward's Island. Nova Scotia. 1739. Canada. (Ontario and Quebec.) 1763. St. Vincent, Tobago, Granada, Dominica. The Windward Islands. 1783. St. Christopher, Nevis. 1787. Sierra Leone. 1787. New South Wales. 1795. Ceylon. 1797. Trinidad. 1798. Honduras. 1800. Malta and Gozo. ' 1803. British Guiana, St. Lucia. 1806. Cape Colony. 1810. Mauritius. 1815. Ascension. 1818. Gambia, Tristan d'Acmha. 1825. Tasmania. 12 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEVOND THE SEAS. 1829. West Australia. 1832. Falkland Islands. 1836. South Australia. 1838. Aden. 18i0. New Zealand. 1813. Hong Kong. 1844. Natal. 1846. Labuan. 18S1. Victoria. 1855. Perim. 1857. Keeling Islands. 1858. Straits Settlements. 1858. British Columbia. 1858. India formally placed under the British Crown.* 1859. Queensland. 1861. Lagos. 1862. Griqualand East. 1868-1884. Basutoland. 1870. Manitoba. 1871. Griqualand West. 1871. Fiji Islands. 1877. West Pacific Islands. 1878. Cyprus. 1881. North Borneo. 1884-1883. Nigeria Protectorate. 1884. British New Guinea (Papua). 1883. Bechuanaland. 1886. Upper Bm-ma. 1883-1890. British East Africa. 1887. Zululand. 1887. Somaliland Protectorate. 1888. Nyassaland. 1888. Sarawak. » 1888. Rhodesia. 1888. Brunei Protectorate. 1890. Zanzibar Protectorate. 1894-1896. Uganda Protectorate. 1898. Weihaiwei. 1902 Transvaal. 1902. Orange River Colony. 1905. Alberta, Saskatchewan. • For Table illuslraling the growth of British rule in India, see p. lOo. A HISTOEY OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. The foundation of Britain's vast colonial empire forms a chapter of absorbing interest in the history of civiUsation. Indeed, it might well be asserted that the spread of the Anglo-Saxon people forms the feature of the present age, in that it has, more than any other cause, influenced the destinies of mankind and affected the happiness of tlie human race. Equally momentous is the question as to the relations which are to obtain between the mother country and her various dependencies. To the effectual solution of this question it may be of value to consider briefly some few of the causes which have brought about the success of the British colonies rather than those of those rival nations, which, tliough first in the field, have now been hopelessly outdistanced. A colony may be defined as the planting of a portion of the inhabitants of one country on the territory of another. In ancient times the foundation of colonies was the natural outcome of the growth of the population and of the inevitable law of food necessity. Colonies. As a nation grew, its population became too great both for its bounds and for its food supply. The readiest solution of the difficulty which thus periodically 14 BRITISH DOMINIONS BKYOND THE SEAS. occurred was to be found in conquest. A population which had developed to a burdensome pitch, found its natural outlet in an inroad upon some neighbouring people, more richly endowed with territory and better supphed with food. Hence, one great reason for the anxiety of ancient peoples to breed a race of soldiers. Thus it was formerly in Greece and Rome. Two noteworthy differences, however, existed between the colonies of these great nations of the ancient world. Those of Greece were all planted at a distance from the parent state and became, for the most part, independent countries, while those of ancient Rome, planted first in the immediate vicinity of the great city itself, gradually spread throughout Italy into the adjacent countries, thus forming a vast territory of which Rome was the centre and of which the various states were all held in the strictest subjection to the central authority. Thus in very early times we see two distinct types of colonies. The types persist throughout the history of colonisation, and it is on the conflict between them that that history txurns. As we approach modem times there rise in long array the fruits of the energy and enterprise of the greatest nations of the civilised world. The thirst for discovery which prompted men to penetrate into hitherto unexplored „ , *'. ^"? regions and to brave dangers, all the more Colonisation. ° ° terrifying because unknown, was not con- fined to any one nation. Five great European peoples shared the risk and divided the glory. Spaniard, Portuguese, Dutch- man, Frenchman and Enghshman each attempted to plant his country's flag and extend her dominions among the barbarous nations of the world, and each, in turn, achieved pre-eminence in the endeavour to found a colonial empire. New Spain, New Portugal, New Holland and New France all had their day. But all these once great empires have fallen INTRODUCTORY. 15 or have du'indied into uoihingnesa or insignificance. England, alone, has succeeded in firmly establishing her dominion, and the history of her progress should, in displaying the reasons (or this, furnish a clue to the policy on which her future relations with the vast dependencies thus called into being should be based. Early attempts at colonisation were doubtless due, in great measure, to the caprice of adventurers, the greed of traders and the despairing eflforts of br )ken men to repair their fortunes, or of public spirited ones to escape the incidence Colonisation °^ unjust laws or to free themselves from the yoke of civil or religious oppression. At other times they have resulted from the determination of the government itself to further commerce, provide an outlet for the surplus population or to secure a convenient means of disposing of its convicted prisoners, or yet again to guard its other possessions from attack or to maintain the route to them in time of war. In each case, whether the settlement was originally a triiding station, an agricultural colony, a penal settlement or a military outpost, the course of after events was much the same. The original settlement speedily became the centre of an enterprising population, tending its flocks and herds, tilling the soil, or developing the natural resources of its new home. It should, however, be remembered, that a colony in the strict sense of the word can only be maintained in such parts of the world as afford Europeans a permanent home. Such a place wUl grow the cereals which form so igrloultural great a part of the diet of the white man, „, , ,, will admit, without serious detriment to Plantation Colonies. health, of the niost arduous and sustained labour on his part, and will, moreover, adujit of his rearing a famUy in full health and vigour. Where such conditions do not prevail, the agricultural colony gives way 16 BRITISH IJOMIMONS BEYOXD THE SEAS. before the plantation, upon wliich the settler, at more or less peril to health, if not to life, remains until he has won a suffi- cient comi^etence to enable him to return to Europe and to the family, from which the nature of the chmate has necessitated his parting. In such a colony white labour is all but unattain- able, and the population divides itself into aliens and natives, the former the masters, and the latter, — the original owners of the soil — their servants or slaves. The history of modern colonisation fitly besjins with the first of the Spanish settlements in America. True the early Spanish adventurers were hardly to be termed colonists in the proper sense of the word. Thej' sought but Hew Spain. to satiate the thirst for wealth excited by the stories, current among the mariners, of the riches of the New World. Their daring was of the most extraordinary type. Indeed they were no less famous for their courage and hardihood than they were notorious for their cruelty. Their names stand imperishably upon the roll of fame : they are no less indelibly inscribed upon that terrible record of gold-hunger and blood-lust that caused Christendom to thrill with horror at the " devildoms of Spain." But these adventurers made no attempt at colonisation. The country drained of its floating wealth, they sought other and more profitable spheres of industry. To them succeeded the planter, the missionary and the governor from Europe. The missionaries brought the refining influences of Christianity to bear upon the natives, and the Home Government insisted upon such measures as would ensin'e that the colonics were,at least, decently governed. But the planter and the adventurer had one great feature in common. Each desired to exploit the new country for his own benefit. The planter desired merely to obtain a competence with which to retire to his owTi land, and to this end he sought to bring the wretched aborigines under his yoke, wringing unwilling labour from them while he himself battened INTRODUCTORY. 17 on the riches thus produced. He sought to take everything and give nothing. No home poUcy, be it never so wise, could make a colony where such principles prevailed, flourish, or could even bolster it from faU. Without individual enex'gy and enterprise there can be no success. The colonist who is to succeed must justify his existence : the colony which is to prosper must give as weU as take. The natives were ground down by forced labour and exaction, the country impoverished by the continual drain upon its resources. Nor was the evil less when the planter acted as the agent of a company at home. For a time, it is true, success seemed to follow the settlers. The accumulated riches of the East and West needed only to be tapped, not created. It was only necessary to fit out an expedition and, barring accidents, success was sure. But such success was as ephemeral as easily won. After a time the system failed. The labourer — the wealth producer — grew more and more in importance, while the capitalist grew less and less. Then the decline began and the downfall of the conamercial colonies — those whose riches were exploited by a company from Europe, has been signal. Nor was the lot of those governed directly by the home government to be preferred. Their rulers, often without the most elementary knowledge of the requirements of the district or the conditions of existence which there prevailed, legislated without sympathy for their desires or comprehension of their needs. Laws, which might have proved entirely beneficial in the old country, here produced nothing but disaster. Such conditions were fatal, but such conditions never- theless prevailed everywhere througliout the American settlements of Spain and Portugal. As a result, the colonial history of these, the first of the great colonising nations, is a record of almost unbroken failure. The loss, by revolt, of the chief of their colonies at the beginning of the nineteenth 18 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. century is, in itself, a proof of their incapacity to rule them wisely. Even in the few that remain, no spirit of loyalty exists such as, for instance, Britain's colonies have shown when the mother country has passed through a time of stress and difficulty. All that they can claim is a reluctant allegiance wrung from the natives by force and maintained by means of a vast mihtary expenditure. The triumph of Anglo-Saxon colonisation and the cause of the expansion of Britain is largely due to a recognition of these facts. English settlers looked upon a colony as a place where persevering labour might win wealth. They went thither tb work, not to enjoy what the natural wealth of the country afforded or what the labour of others had created. Moreover, they believed that a colony could only be administered on the spot, and not governed, machine-wise, by a power thousands of miles away in Europe ; a power, moreover, blindly ignorant of the necessities of the settlement and of the conditions of its successful development. Thus each and aU of the British colonies came in time to possess freedom of action, within certain well-defined limits, although the mother country, until the revolt of the American colonies opened her eyes, was still blind enough to claim the right of regulating both taxation and trade. Probably another influence tended to the triumph of the English colonies over those of Spain and Portugal — the '• insularity " of the Briton, who carried into his new home all the ideas and tastes of the old, while, on the other handj/ Spaniard and Portuguese were adapting themselves, with & fatal facility, to habits and customs prevalent around them, amalgamating with the native population and merging their identity more and more in that of the conquered races. Thus an English community abroad presented the charac- teristics of a similar community at home, and Greater Britain INTRODUCTORY. became not only an extension of the state, lilve Greater Spalu and Greater Portugal, but au expansion of the natioil as well. Perhaps one of the mosi valuable lessons which the world has learned from the fall of the color^al empires of Spain and Portugal is that, when the grO"niih of am empire is counter- balanced by no corresponding dwelopment of the nation to which it belongs, then the hold of thaijiation upon the empire becomes loosened, its rule artificial, andrts^tepure precarious. To one portion of the British dominions only does this apply. In the vast dependency of India alone do we find the vast bulk of the nation of other than Anglo-Saxon race. Ml other parts of the empire are not only ruled by Britons but peopled by settlers of British descent, who are linked to the parent race by ties of common blood, common tastes and feelings, common modes of thought and copamon reUgion. It may be objected that in Canada there still exists a remnant of the conquered French ; in the Indies, bodies of enfranchised negroes, relics of English pre-eminence in the unholy traflic in human flesh and blood ; and at the Cape, both the aboriginal races of Kaffirs and Hottentots and the descendants of their first conquerors — the Dutch ; yet the conflict of races in these colonies has presented Uttle real difficulty and the tendency in them is to approximate, year by year, more and more closely to the Anglo-Saxon type. In the two former, indeed, the question of the relations between the settlers of British birth and those of alien origin has been, in great part, solved by the wise adoption of a policy which grants the colonies political freedom and which sacrifices no jot of their welfare for the advantage of the home government. In the last, the question presents greater difficulties of solution. Yet even here there is little danger of such a rising as that which reft from Spain and Portugal their vast possessions in Central and South America, emd, by the foundation of the Central and South American republics and the kingdom of Brazil, }. 20 BRITISH DOMINION'S BEYOND THE SEAS. annihUated New Spain and New Portugal, which, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, bade fair to engross between them the whole of the New World. From that time Spain and Portugal have stood, as regards the rest of Europe, as they did before Columbus made his adventurous voyage and placed the key of the New World in the hands of their rulers. The Exclusive System.— It should be noted that the greed ol gain which played so great a part in the establishment of colonies, was equally potent in its effect upon their administration. Whether the settlement had been the work of individuals, or of a trading company, or of a nation, the prime object of its rulers was to secure siX the advantages possible to be gained from it and to exclude all other individuals, merchants or nations from participating in them. England had been the last to adopt this system. Up to the passing of the Navigation Act under the Commonwealth in 1G51, the American colonies had been free to trade with whom they pleased. Indeed the liberty to do so was specifically secured to them in their original charters, and as early as 1620, the Virginias had their warehouses in Middelburg and Flushing, and did a great trade in tobacco among the Dutch. As England had been the last to adopt this policy of rigid protection, so she was the first to give it up. But meanwhile the rigid adherence of her statesmen to it brought about the destruction of the first New England, and in the empire she had then to found afresh, England reversed a policy whose effects had been so fatal in the past, and adopted in its stead that system of virtual self-government under which later colonies have flourished until her empire has become the greatest in the world. The motives which have led to the growth and development of our colonies have been various. It has depended upon the lust of conquest, awakened either by the desire for. enlarged resources or the endeavour to protect rights Growth of or territories already acquired ; upon the op.isa . desire, first shown to great purpose by the sea-dogs of Elizabethan times, to attack an enemy's foreign possessions or to cripple his resources in that most vulnerable of points — his commerce ; or upon schemes for the disposal of convicted prisoners, whom it was felt undesirable to retain INTRODUCTORY. 21 longer in the countiy and whose lawless energies and turbulent tendencies might (it was thought) be turned to good account in a younger civilisation. The actual growth of the colonies themstilves, however, depended in the greatest degree, upon the outflow of the surplus population. Religious persecution in the seventeenth g . . . century had much to do with increasing the stream that flowed from England; the revolt of the American colonies, the downfall of the " exclusive system," and the advent of the " era of independence " rapidly increased it in the eighteenth. As early as 1710, too, the advocation of emigration was made a direct part of the poUcy of the government, in the case of distressed agricultural labourers and their families. In the nineteenth century, there has been a vast increase consequent, to a great degree, on the industrial revolution, which, by the increased employment of machinery, threw vast numbers of hands out of work. The improved facihties for navigation and the enlarged knowledge of the resources of the New World have all tended in the same direction. The legislative union of England and Scotland, in 1707, led to the emigration of large numbers of Scots, to whom the English colonies had hitherto been barred, by their exclusion from the advantages of English trade. Their attempt to set up a separate colony on the Isthmus of Darien had ended in disastrous failinre and bitter disappointment. Then, however, the spirit of enterprise, characteristic of the North Briton, led to a vast exodus, and now the Scot is found wherever the flag is planted, prominent alike in business, in agriculture and in politics. Of late years, it is the unhappy Isle of Erin which has been drained of its inhabitiints by emigi-ation. To this result many causes have been contributory. The destruction, in the last century, of the smiiU holdings for the benefit of the greater landlords, the unjust penal laws and the constant bitterness of religious strife stand among the chief. The intro- 22 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. duction of the potato and its adoption as the staple food of the country has not been without effect upon emigration. One consequence of the ease with which the potato crop could be cultivated was a general decline in industry, and the failure of that crop left the people without resources and tha prey of famine. The two disastrous years, 1846 and 1847, drove nearly two million Irish to seek a new home beyond the seas. As a natural result of the overcrowding that exists at home and the increasing difficulty of finding work for the whole population, it has been proposed that a regular scheme should be organised by the government, having for its object the encouragement of emigration and the consequent lessening of pauperism at home. Many serious objections may be made to such a course. The advent of shiploads of useless and indolent paupers is not an event to be looked forward to with pleasure by any country. America, in particular, has strongly set her face against the introduction of such useless additions to her population. Only those who are able and willing to work can find benefit in emigration or contribute to the well bein" of the cotmtry selected. Given these qualities, emi- gration is in every way desirable, the colonies hold out their hands to welcome the new comer, assist his passage and provide him, if agriculture is his aim, with a grant of land on which he can settle. The Value of the Colonies. — The value of her colonial empire to Great Britain has been immense. She has created vast communities in distant lands, and fostered them until they have matured into settled prosperity, but the reaction of the colonies on the mother couutrj' has been no less momentous. It is to her colonies that Britain is mainly indebted for that vast trade which fills her great seaports with their forests of masts and lines them with their miles of docks and wharves, filled with the products of her energy and INTRODUCTORY. 23 enterprise in every part of the globe — the great harvest of the richest commerce the world has ever knowTi. Commerce, in turn, has called into being her enormous mercantile marine, and, for its defence and by means of the wealth it carries, has created her mighty navy. It has made England the richest of the manufacturing nations of the earth, for from her colonies she draws the material for her industries and every stroke of the miner's pick and every movement of the squatter's shears feeds the fires of her factories or wakes to motion the shuttles of her looms. It is, in fact, only by means of the resources which she has obtained from her dependencies across the sea, that Britain has been able to dominate the commerce and industry of the world and maintain her position inviolate and secure among the powerful nations with which she is surrounded. Indeed, it may be said that only bj' the aid of her dependents and by the loyalty and spirit of their people has she been enabled to make the empire what it is. It was largely by the devotion of the Sepoys that India was won : it was, in no small degree, to the efforts of the North American colonists that we owe the conquest of Canada. The political benefits Britain has derived from the possession of her colonies were most apparent in the early stages of her history. Then it was that successive waves of emigration swept from England those bold and unquiet spirits who threatened her peace, and who found, in a new land, that freedom of action and of thought which the settled condition of an established government forbade. Not the least notable of the developments which occurred in this connection was the formation of the penaJ settlements where some, whose criminal and anti-social tendencies brought them into dangerous conflict with the authorities at home, were converted, amidst new surroundings, into honest and industrious citizens, who, in forwarding their own fortunes, vastly improved the prospects 24 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. of the land of their exile. Such a result is pregnant with meaning for the philanthropist or social economist of to-day who seeks a remedy for the povertj' and distress which form an ever-present blot upon the richest civilisation the world has seen. The value of colonies as schools for the training of forces for the defence of the empire is equally pronounced. In her colonies England can foster every quality of manly endurance and soldierly discipline. The native races, many of them war- like by nature and instinct, might also be trained in their turn for the safeguarding of the empire. The drafting of Sikhs to Africa and, say, Kaffirs to India, would — the first strangeness gone — tend to consolidate the British power and promote the fusion of the British dominions into one great and powerful whole. As a nursery for her seamen Britain's colonial empire is even of greater value. The vast mercantile navy which her enormous trade has called into being would furnish, in time of need, a sufficient supply of sailors skilled in their work and eager to emulate, in their coimtry's behalf, the deeds of their fore-fellows, who earned for England the proud title of " the Mistress of the Seas." The Future of the Colonies. — The great question of the future, as far as Imperial politics are concerned, is the relation which is to obtain between the mother country and her dependencies. As the colonies grow in wealth and influence the present position becomes more and more untenable, and the relations more and more strained. The question lies between two opinions. On the one hand it is claimed that each colony as soon as it becomes self-supporting ; as soon, to speak fignratively, as it attains its full growth, should be cut adrift from its parent and allowed to shift for itself as an independent nation, with no tie between it and the country that gave it birth, save only the sentiment arising from common rare. On the other hand, it is insisted that the time has come INTRODUCTORY. 25 for a closer union between Britain and her colonies ; and the followers of this belief advocate the formation of a great federation, which should unite all the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain under one vast dominion, the members of which, while enjoying the free exercise of all constitutional rights, and controlling all affairs pertaining to independent self-government, should yet render a loyal homage to the British Crown, and act, in questions affecting the welfare of the empire as a whole, in union with all the other units of that empire by means of some system of Imperial representation, by which each dependency could make its voice heard in the councils of the empire. In support of the idea of federation stands the shining example of Canada. Since the formation of the Dominion the progress of that Colony has been singularly rapid.* The Australian colonies followed Canada's example in 1900, and although there has been some little difficulty with West Australia, owing to the general weakness of the colony and her distance from the seat of government, the unification appears to be working well. A similar movement was long on foot for the federaUsation of British South Africa, and by the Bill of 1909 the Rubicon has at length been crossed. The difficulties there are great— from race, language, religion, and geographical conditions. Still, the Mother Country will waft her benediction, and say — " Floreat I " In the appointment of colonial lawyers to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (the Court which, sitting at Whitehall, hears colonial appeals), as well as in the despatch of colonial troops from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc., to the assistance of the mother country in the South African War of 1899-1902, some pioneer movements have been made towards Imperial Federation, which may perhaps be followed ♦ Some indication of the economic progress of Canada may be gleaned from the fact that in ten years-lK99-1909-the increase in exported corn m one Canadian province alone was from 9,000,000 to 200,000,000 bushels. 26 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. up in the near future. Disraeli's aphoridm, that the unity of the British Empire "depends as much on sympathy as on force," is certainly being more forcibly verified as time goes by, and so is the still greater sentiment of Burke, when pleadmg for a more hberal and magnanimous treatment of Britain beyond the seas : — "My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which "grows from common names, from kindred blood, from "similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties, " which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. " Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights "associated with your government — they will cling and " grapple to you ; and no force under heaven will be of power "to tear them from their allegiance. But let it once be " understood, that your government may be one thing, and " their privileges another; that these two things may exist "without any mutual relation, the cement is gone; the " cohesion is loosened ; and everything hastens to decay and " dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the " sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of " liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, " wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship free- " dom, they will turn their faces towards you. The more " they multiply, the more friends you will have ; the more "ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will bo "their obedience. . . . This is the true Act of Navigation " which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and " through them secures to you the wealth of the world. . . . " It is the spirit of the English constitution, which, infused " through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, "invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down " to the minutest member. . . . We ought to elevate " our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the "order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the "dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a INTRODUCTOUY. 27 " savage wilderness into a glorious empire, and have made " the most extensive, and the only honourable couqueatfl, " not by destroying, but by promoting the vyealth, tha •• number, the happiness of the human race." ' t^S^^SJfp"^ — 28 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. CHAPTER I. Phases of the Empire's Growth, The growth of the British Empire has been the work of three centuries of unremitting effort, in which our forefathers have borne the brunt of the hostility of the world. Three great potentates of modern history have set them- selves against it. Phihp II. of Spain, Louis XIV. of France, and the first Napoleon, each endeavoured to stem its onward progress. Against them have been arrayed, on England's side, EUzabeth and her great seamen, Wilham III. and the famous Duke of Marlborough, and Chatham and Nelson. Thus the history divides itself into three great historic duels, the first with Spain, and the second and third with France. The result of the first was the overthrow of the Spanish Empu-e, with its vast dominions across the Atlantic, and its claim under the Papal Bull to the monopoly of the New World. The second determined Spain's successor. Her European possessions passed to the House of Bourbon; her trade and her maritime and colonial supremacy to England. The third shattered Napoleon's hopes, as British ascendency at sea crushed his projects of an empire in the east, and forced his ambition to confine itself to Europe. Thus the three centuries which have elapsed between the death of Queen 2^Iary in 1558 and the proclamation of Victoria's sovereignty over India in 1858, fall naturally mto three periods. In the first of these, from the accession of Elizabeth to the '"■'^ death of Anne, England expanded into Great Britain and laid PHASES OF THE EMPIKe's GROWTH. 29 the foundations of her empire abroad. In the aecond, from the death of Anne to the battle of "Waterloo, there was waged the long contest between England and France for supremacy in India and America, during which the British Empire rose from its fmindations ; while during the third period, from 1815 to 1858, Britain admittedly supreme as a maritime and colonial power, has everywhere extended, developed and consolidated the empire she had gained. England and Spain.— It was against these adversaries and through these phases, that the small half island over which Elizabeth ruled, developed into the world wide empire which 'acknowledges Britain's sway. The efforts of the Elizabethan seamen, greatly as they shook the maritime supremacy of Spain, did little to affect her colonial empire. But Drake was ■uoceeded by Raleigh, the pioneer of the Empire of the Seas, and by the founders of that vast Empire of the West, whose continents lay yet for the most part unexplored. Greater Britain sprang uito existence when Englishmen made their permanent home across the Atlantic. In point of territory gained, the reign of Elizabeth has little to show. What it did was to initiate a policy of expansion and to strike at the foundations of the sea-power of Spain until the superstructure tottered to its fall. The natural consequence followed. The flag of England floated over every sea, and the trade of England followed the flag. " The Spanish Armada marks the moment when the period of pre- paration or apprenticeship closes. The nation . . . looks no longer towards the continent, but towards the ocean and the New World. It has become both maritime and industrial." — (Seelet). Holland ranged itself on the side of England in the contest and throughout the early Stuart period, Dutch and English are found combined as the rivals of Spain in commerce and is colonisation. 80 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. England and Holland.— But the British Empire entered upon a new phase of its development with the establishment of the Commonwealth. Secure by land, it was essential that the Protectorate should guard itself against attack by sea. With the navy, which thus came into existence, organised by Vane and commanded by Blake, England finally committed herself to a maritime career. "At this moment, England woke more clearly than ever before to a consciousness of her geographical position, of the fact that a maritime vocation was that to which she was called by nature itself."— (Rankb). Two events stand clearly prominent, the passing of the Navigation Act in 1651j and the seizure of Jamaica by Penn and Venables in 1655, "the most high-handed measure recorded in the modern history of England." Cromwell's foreign policy revealed England's great possi- bUities as a maritime power. "It is a first sketch of the British Empire." "The Navigation Act consummated the work which had been commenced by Drake, discussed and expounded by Baleigh and continued by others. It completed the apparatus of our foreign trade by creating an English commercial navy." — iSeeley). But for England to commit herself to a maritime career was to enter into rivalry with the Dutch. The great power of Spain had sunk to a shadow. The revolt of Portugal had robbed her of much of her power and prestige. France was wholly occupied with internal dissensions. Holland alone could offer a dangerous opposition, and hence- forth, England and Holland were engaged in a deadly contest for supremacy. It was a war of growth and expansion for England, a struggle of Hfe or death for Holland. The contest began with the massacre of Amboyna in 1623. It grew acute at the beginning of the reign of Charles II. It ended, when, in 1674. Charles II. withdrew from his alliance with France. From PHASES OF THE EMPIRE'S GROWTH. 31 this time forward, England and Holland were once more side by side in resisting the aggressions of France. But the Dutch power had seen its meridian. Henceforth it began to decline. "These sturdy seamen now lost the great position which they, like the Spaniards previously, had held for nearly a century, and the field was left clear for the rivalry of Great Britain and France by land and sea." — (Burrows). England and France.— The next phase in the development of Greater Britain, found England and Holland once more allied, this time to resist the aggressions of France. The latter country had been little, if at all, behind England in exploration, and had even preceded her in settlement. When the pilgrims of the Mayflower founded, in 1620, the New England states, Acadia and Canada were already settled, and Champlain had founded, in the natural fortress of Quebec, the stronghold of French power in America. During the Protectorate, French policy had lain in the hands of Cardinal Mazarin to whom colonial development did not appeal. France feU behind in the race for expansion. He died in the year after the Restora- tion, and was succeeded by Colbert. The latter, full of the spirit of the times, entered into eager competition with English and Dutch for the empire of the New World, and the commerce of the Old. Hence the efforts of France to set England and Holland at variance and to keep them so. The restoration of peace, or the supremacy of either combatant, would have left her face to face with a formidable adversary. The combatants, finding that the policy of France was to allow them to destroy one another, speedily made peace and took sides against their common adversary, and the Netherlands and Britain were driven into a close alliance which mutual interest preserved intact for more than a century. It was cemented by the accession of the Dutch Stadholder, William of Orange, to the English throne, and was indeed, one of the main causes of the EngUsh revolution of 1688. 32 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Two of the most characteristic features of the early part of the struggle were the series of naval victories gained by England over the French, commencing with that of La Hogue, and the even more brilhant series of battles on land which are associated with the genius of Marlborough. But it was abroad, among the colonies of India and America, that the contest was keenest. France and Spain closed round our American settle- ments, and together attempted to shut our commerce from the Mediterranean. In India, the French were already dreaming of a great empire of the East bmlt upon the ruins of British dominion. In the struggle which ensued, Britain, after many vicissitudes, was everywhere successful. In the Mediterranean, the capture of Gibraltar secured the British commerce with the East, while shutting off the western ports of France and Spain from communication with those upon the Mediterranean. In America, Pitt's scheme for the conquest of Canada was carried to a perfect realisation, and the fall of Quebec in 1759 added French North America to the British Empire. In India, the mUitary genius of Olive, and the administrative abUity of Warren Hastings, placed the British power upon a basis too firm to be easily shaken. The accession of Napoleon renewed the conflict. His design was to regain for France in the Mediterranean, in India and in the New World, the supremacy of which she had been deprived. His failure to do so was the great failure of his life. Vanquished at the Nile, driven from Egypt and then from Malta, his naval power annihilated at Trafalgar, he had to fall back on an attempt to breakthe British power by ruining British trade. His fall at Waterloo set the coping stone in the security of the British Empire, and in securing it, gained for her, as the reward of three centuries of strenuous effort and desperate struggle against heavy odds, a world-wide commerce and an empire on which the sun never sets. CHAPTER II. The Early Navigators. The year 1558 marks a crisis in the history of England. It was the year in which Queen Elizabeth came to the throne and the great rivalry between England and Spain began. From this time dates that great impulse of discovery and exploration which was to plant England's flag in every quarter of the globe : from the defeat of the Armada, thirty years later, we may reckon the commencement of her supremacy upon the sea, which alone enabled the work to be successfully accomplished. True, navigators had sailed from England on voyages of discovery before that date, and investigators had previously explored new regions, but such attempts were rather the result of isolated efforts than due to any great national movement for the extension of the empire or of its commerce. The Bristol Merchants. — Foremost in the annals of English commerce stand the merchants of Bristol. First on the list of English explorers is to be found their chosen navigator, Sebastian Cabot. Towards the end of the fifteenth century there settled in Bristol one Giovanni Cabotto (or Gabotto), a man skilled in the geographical lore of his day, and, withal, a man of enterprise and daring. He, in the year 1496, first became emulous of rivalling, in the interests of the country of his adoption, the exploits of Columbus, " of whom there was great talk in the court of King Henry VII., insomuch that all men, with great admiration, aflintied it to be a thing more divine than human to sail by the west into the east by a way that was never known before." From Henry VII., Sebastian sought permission to attempt a like voyajje of discovery. That monarch, keen to the advantages of the project, if chary to adventure on his own part, freely granted a 34 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. patent to "John Cabote, citizen of Venice; to Lewes, Sebastiau and Santius, sons of the said John, settled at Bristol, to navigate the northern seas under the English flag with five ships and as many men as they should think proper at their own sole cost and charges, to discover the Countries of Gentiles or Infidels, in whatever part of the world situated, which had hitherto been unknown to ail Christians," and, further, to rule such countries, " as our vassals, Ueutenants, governors or deputies — the dominions, title and jurisdiction of them remain- ing with us, and a fifth part of the profits of such enterprise being payable to us ; " — a most economical arrangement on the part of the King, and one thoroughly characteristic of the gracious monarch from whom it proceeded. With two ships, Cabot sailed from the port of Bristol, toward the end of May, 1497, on perhaps the most momentous voyage in English history, for with it begins the history of EngUsh colonisation. Sailing to the north and west, he touched at Iceland, and thence, impressed by the legends of the early Vikings, determined to follow their path and win, if it might be, to the fertile land they had discovered beyond the western ocean. It is to the Vikings, our brothers in blood, rather than to Genoese or Spaniard, that the credit of the discovery of America is due. The history of their voyaging is preserved in the old Norse sagas of Eric the Red, and of Thorfinn Karlsefni, both dating, in their manu- script shape, from the twelfth century and probably handed down from skald to skald, for some generations before that. Here, with much that is mythical and more that is conjectural, there is mingled sufficient truth to enable modern geographers to trace the course of their voyages with something approaching to certainty, and to connect the Hellaland, Markland and Vinland of the Scandinavian sagas, with Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the New England provinces of the present day, while the wonderful Purthastrandir is, with little margin of doubt, the name they axiplied to the sandy beaches of Chatham and Monomy, lying to the south of Cape Cod. Following in their track, Cabot reached land. True, it wag Qot the Cathay which he sought. No one could have mistaken THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 35 36 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. its rocky and icebound coast for the golden sands of that fabled region, or its barren soil for the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics. So his crew concluded, and as each day the number of icebergs increased and the sea fogs grew denser and denser, they insisted upon his quitting this inhospitable region, where there was nothing save a wonderful and apparently inexhaustible supply of fish. He was in Bristol again in August, and his report led to the formation of a fleet, which, year by year, set out from that port to gather the harvest of the sea upon the rich banks of Cabot's "New-found- land." Fishing stations were established where the " take " ■ might be cured, and to maintain these, certsdn of the seamen, the first English settlers in America, made their home on the shores of Labrador, carrying on, between the fishing seasons, ■; a rude trafl&c with the natives and collecting what rarities theli ! country afforded for sale at home. Henry VII., in 1505, paid 13s. 4d. " for popinjays, and wild eats ol the Newfoundland islands." At the period when our history begins, the Newfoundland fishery had risen into considerable importance, some forty ships were engaged in it and the prosperity of the fishing towns of the west of England greatly increased. Although Cabot's search for Cathay had been vain, the spirit of discovery was in no wise quenched. Other expeditions were planned, and the royal aid Bought. Still no substantial result followed. The adventurers were unable, alone, to subsidise the enterprise, while the parsimonious king was so chary of his wealth, that he not only refused them assistance, but even when a continent was discovered lor him, would not be at the expense of developing its resources. It is, however, only just to note that the record of Henry's Privy Purse contains under date, August 10, 1497, the entry : " ^£10 to him that found the new isle." Sebastian Cabot. Numbers of voyages were, however, made at the cost of private persons, and many of these owed their origin to the zeal of Sebastian Cabot. He had, in his youth, proceeded to Spain, where Charles V. made him the Pilot-iilajor of the Empire. In 1547, after a disastrous voyage to La Plata, he came to England, and had much to do with the planning of the voyages of Willoughby and Stephen Borrough, in search of the North-East jjassage to Cathay, » quest be bad himself undertaken in 1517. Ten years later, be died in ■rUV. EAKLY NAVIGATOnS. 37 great obscurity, and in the direst poverty, but his fame has grown till be is now recognised as havinu been one o( the jjreatest o( navigatorn and cosmographers, "the author of the maritime strength of Englan.!, who opened the way to those improvements which have made the English so great, so eminent and »o nourishing a people." Throughout the whole of Ehzabeth's reign the desire of ex|Dloration grew, fed by the tales spread by English seamen of the wealth of the Spanish settlements beyond the Atlantic. Two famous half-brothers, Sir Humphry Sir Humphry Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, led the Gilbert. ° van. The former had arranged at his own expense, two voyages to the western seas, only to find his projects of colonisation thwarted by the inefficiency and half-heartedness of his crews. In June, 1583, undaunted by his former failures, he succeeded in fitting out five ships in order to plant a colony on the shores of Newfoundland. From this voyage he never returned. His men, lacking his :'eal, refused to proceed with the hazardous task he had set himself of mapping the dangerous coast for the benefit of future voyagers and compelled him to turn homewards. Two- thirds of the way had been passed when there fell foul weather and " seas breaking short and pyramid-wise." The remainder may be given in the words of the original chronicler. " Monday, the 9th of September, the frigate was near cast " away, oppressed by the waves, but at that time recovered, " and giving forth signs of joy, the general sitting abaft with " a book in his hand, cried unto us in the Hinde, so often as " we did approach within hearing, ' We are as near to " Heaven by sea as by land,' reiterating the same speech, " beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ as I can " testify he was. The same Monday night, about twelve of " the clock, the frigate being ahead of us in the ' Golden " Hinde,' suddenly her lights were out, whereof, as it were " in a moment, we lost the sight ; and withal, our watch " cried ' The General was cast away,' which was too true." — (HaKLUYT'B VOTAQIS.i 410374 38 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS. It is interesting to note the size of the ships of his little fleet. The " Delight " was 120 tons, the " Raleigh " 200 tons (she, however, deserted off the Land's End), the " Golden Hinde " and the " Swallow," both of 40 tons, while the " Squirrel," which the chronicler calls "the frigate "—the vessel chosen by Sir HumiJhi^ for all his investigations, and the one in which he went down, was but of 10 toas burden. Nor was Raleigh more successful. In 1584 he obtained a chaxter from her Majesty appointing him successor to Sir Humphry Gilbert. The following year he organised an expedition to Virginia, fovmding there a colony which led a precarious existence for a twelvemonth, at the end of which time the colonists, by their harsh treatment of the Indians, provoked so severe a retaliation that they were glad to return again to England. A second body of colonists, planted in 1587, was killed to a man, the result of the legacy of hate its predecessors had won. Still, these were but the first ripples of that great tide which was to foUow. The business of Englishmen, under good Queen Bess, was not so much to colonise as to fight, and, in fighting, to win for their country the mastery of the sea, to defeat the Spaniard, and to prepare the way for the expansion which was to come. The Sea-Dogs. — Elizabeth's policy in the early part of her reign had been to keep the peace, above all with Spain. Her people were of another mind. The growing enthusiasm for discovery sent one adventurous Englishman after another across the Atlantic, to poach upon the preserves of Spain. Many were the deeds of daring they performed, till the terror of their names spread through the Spanish jjorts. Ever at home upon the sea, the EngUsh seamen now learned to ply their craft with unmatched skill, to fight against their great rival, no matter how heavy the odds, and, in most cases, to win. The Spaniards hated them no less than they feared them, and when, as often occurred, a few wretched Englishmen fell into their hands, the tortures of the Inquisition were requisi- THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 39 u 40 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. tdoned to wipe out the debt of revenge which the daring of his companions had incurred, and many an English prisoner, escaping from the Spanish dungeons, carried home tales of horrors which made the blood boil with desire for retaliation. Moreover, there were immense riches to be won on the Spanish main. The Spaniards at home, too, by reason of their religion and the attempts they had made — and were still pre- pared to make — to force it upon England, furnished another cause for revenge. Thus such men as Drake, Hawkins, Howard, Raleigh and Grenville were actuated by motives which were curiously diverse. Religion, discovery, revenge and gold were with them impulses of almost equal weight. Their hearts were stirred by the tales of the cruelties of the Inquisition, and their imaginations fired by the stories of the wonders and the wealth of the Americas. "While the profits to be gained by a favourable voyage were such as to justify the risk and compensate, in some degree, for the perils of the voyage, it was the same chivalrous spirit as sent all Europe, at the bidding of Peter the Hermit, against the Infidel, that actuated these rovers of the sea. They believed themselves the champions of Protestantism against the Spaniard and that to damage his power, to capture his galleons, to free his slaves, and, above all, to destroy his influence and break the power of the Inquisition was a task meet for God's elect, and it was in this spirit that they met the Spaniard with a fanaticism as great as his own. It has been the fashion during these latter years to term such adventurers pirates, and to see in such a man as Drake or Raleigh nothing more than a successful buccaneer, one whose animal courage was beyond question, but whose pretences to religion were almost on a par with the devotion of an African savage to his fetish. As an illustration of the feeling with which they set about their task, the following quotations may suffice. The first is from a letter of Raleigh's, who had gained the consent of THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 41 the statesmen of his day to an attempt to colonise Guiana. The attempt was never made, for the Spanish Armada called for the services of all such as he at home. " Who will not be persuaded that now at length the great "judge of the world hath heard the sighs, groans and " lamentations, hath seen the tears and blood of so many " millions of innocent men, women and children, afflicted, " robbed, reviled, branded with hot irons, roasted, dis- " membered. mangled, stabbed, whipped, racked, scalded " with hot oil, put to the strappado, ripped alive, beheaded " in sport, drowned, dashed against the rocks, famished, " devoured by mastiCs, burned and by infinite tortures "consumed, and purposeth to scourge and plague that " cursed nation, and to take the yoke of servitude from that " distressed people, as free by nature as any Christian." When one remembers that in addition to the list of tortures given above, English prisoners were subject to the terrors of the Inquisition, and that the said prisoners included to-\vnsmen, friends and brothers of the " Sea-dogs " of EUza- beth's time, one begins to understand somewhat of the hatred of Spain which filled their hearts and led them to those reprisals which ended in the destruction of the naval and colonial supremacy of Spain and the development of the British empire. The noble words which foUow are the concluding sentences of a memorial, drawn up by Sir Humphry Gilbert after his examination by her Majesty's Privy Council, as to the results of his voyages. "Never therefore mislike with me for taking in hand any " laudable and honest enterprise, for if through pleasure or " idleness we purchase shame, the pleasure vanisheth, but " the shame abideth for ever. " Give me leave therefore, without oSence, always to live and " die in this mind : that he is not worthy to live at all, that, " for fear or danger of death shunneth his country's service 42 BKITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. " and his own honour, seeing that death is inevitable and the " fame of virtue immortal, wherefore, in this behalf, mutare " vel timere spemo." No one can read such great words as these and not feel that the spirit which actuated these seamen of old was far diflferent from the vulgar greed of gain or the bloody lust of slaughter. No one who reads and can appreciate such high thoughts as these, can associate the noble spirit and high aspirations which shine through them with the name of pirate. Even Hawkins, first of English slave dealers though he was, showed himself actuated by the like spirit. Among the regulations of his voyage was one to the ell'ect that the crew should gather together " morning and evening to serve God," whUe a fire that occurred on one of his ships was made the occa- sion to banish profane swearing, a notable achievement in the days of Elizabeth, when everyone's mouth, from her Majesty's downward, was full of strange oaths. Altogether, the picture left us by the Sea-dogs of the Elizabethan age is one of gallantry, disinterestedness and high heroic energy, all the more remark- able since it was the result of no special discipline or training but a spontaneous growth among the men themselves. The North-West Passage. — The same spirit was shown in the many expeditions to the Ar-ctic seas. Hither the attention of the navigators was early drawn in the hope of finding a north-west passage to India. " The ice was strong but God was stronger," says one of Frobisher's men, after grinding for a day and a night among the icebergs, not waiting for God to come dcuTi and split the ice for him but toiling manfully through the long hours, and then, when all had been done that man could do, rendering the glory to the Creator. The attempts to discover a North-East or North-West Passage furnish some of the finest episodes of that stirring time. The first among our countrymen to seek to traverse the THK EARLY NAVIGATORS. 43 ice-bound highway was "Willoughby, who with two ships started in the year 1553. Of the vicissitudes of the voyage, we know nothing. Of its fate we unhappil.v know more. Two years^ later some Russian fishermen found in the haven of Arzina, in Lapland, two ships fast frozen in the ice and round about them Willoughby and his companions — seventy dead men. The ships were freighted with their frozen crews and set sail foi England, but being, as is surmised, unstaimch by reason of their two winters' sojourn among the ice, sank by the way with their dead and those who navigated them. There followed Martin Frobisher, with two ships the Gabriel and the Michael and a pinnace, on June 9th, 1576. His second voyage took place in the next year and his third, with a fleet of fifteen ships, in the next. His successor was John Davis, a man of remarkable daring, skill as a navigator, and peculiar sweetness of chai-acter and disposition ; a man whose epitaph is written on the map of the world, in enduring testimony to the success of his voyages. He was the first to reach the great ice -barrier, which he coasted for thirteen days without finding an opening. Then his crew began to murmur and to fall sick and become faint-hearted, as well they might, for ropes and shrouds were stiff with ice, and there was none of the elaborate precautions against cold and hunger that are to be met with in modern voyages of explora- tion to the frozen seas. But the remainder of the story shall be given in his own words. " Our men through this extremity began to grow sick and "feeble and withal hopeless of good success; whereupon, " very orderly, with good discretion they entreated me to " regard the state of this business and withal advised me " that in conscience I ought to regard the safety of mine own •' life with the preservation of theirs, and that I should not " through overboldness, leave their widows and fatherless " children to give me bitter curses .... Wboreupon 44 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. " seeking help from God, the fountain of all mercies, it " pleased His Divine Majesty to move my heart to prosecute " that which I hope shall be to BQs glory and to the conten- " tation of every Christian mind."— (Haklijyt's Voyages.) The determination thus arrived at was to make over his large vessel, the Mermaid, of 120 tons, to such as wished to return, while he with a volunteer crew prosecuted the voyage in the Moonlight, a craft of 35 tons, " thinking it better to die with honour than to live with infamy." The upshot of the decision, so adventurously taken, was the discovery of that great arm of the sea ever since known as Davis Strait. He reached four degrees north of the highest point yet attained, coasted along the shores of America and discovered Hudson Strait, which was then and for many a year after believed to be the longed-for passage to the Indies. The Buccaneers. — The great adventurers of the days of Elizabeth were succeeded by a race not less adventurous, hardy and daring, but who were actuated rather by a greed of gain than by any of those heroic aspirations which had stimulated their forerunners. Early in the seventeenth century, as soon as it was shown that the Spanish power was no longer supreme upon the sea, there flocked to the West Indies crowds of hardy seamen, English, French and Dutch, aU burning with the desire to prey upon Spanish commerce and upon the Spanish colonies. These were the buccaneers. The English and French were mamly pu-ates, the Dutch confined their attention chiefly to the less dsuring but equally lucrative trade of smuggling. The business was a profitable one and the seas round the Spanish main swarmed with thousands of swift and well-equipped ships, vliehooten as the Dutch called them, a name corrupted by men of other speech into freebooters ox filibusters. The term buccaneer is derived from the Caribbean word boucan, a place or hut for smoking meat, and was given in the THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 46 first place to those Europeans who had settled in the West Indies for the purpose of hunting the wild animals to he found there and of smoking their flesh to preserve it for exportation. The immense profits of piracy caused the abandonment of these more peaceful pursuits, the number of the buccaneers increased, and they banded together under a rough code of laws as the " brethren of the coast," among whom all provision for sustenance was in common and whose fellowship supplied the place of those domestic ties from which their lawless deeds had cut them off for ever. The chief virtue of the community was physical courage, which, urged by desperation, frequently reached a marvellous pitch. But that same fear of the gallows, which prompted many of their most daring exploits, frequently converted the bold adventurer into a reckless savage, and the terrible deeds of buccaneers became a byword throughout Europe and finally led to expeditions for their extermination. As often as not, indeed, the privateers who were licensed against them ended by joining them, until the buccaneers became strong enough, had they been efficiently led, to have conquered all the Americas. As it was, they made themselves a name of terror along the shores of New Spain, passed into the Pacific, and swept its coasts as far as California. Van Horn and Morgan, Grammont, Lolonois and Dampier were names of fear in the Spanish main. When Spain abandoned her claim to the exclusive possession of the West Indies, many of them were induced, by the promise of grants of land, to settle down and abandon piracy for planting. For a long time the little island of Tortuga had been their chief place of resort. Here they had established a colony where they spent their gains in wild excess, and where also crowded those traders who lived by ministei*ing to their vices. A terrible attack by Spain,- while its fighting population was at sea, laid waste tha island and destroyed its rude civilisation. Then France seized 46 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. it, permitted none but French buccaneers to resort thither, and Tortuga became a French colony. The English rovers, seeking another haunt, found one ready to hand in Jamaica, which had only just been captured by Cromwell's forces, under Penn and Venables. Thither a vast number of the buccaneers repaired, and lent powerful aid in repulsing Spanish attempts to recover the island in 1657 and 1658. Because of this assistance, the English governor countenanced them. The island became then: headquarters ; its wealth was vastly increased by their extravagances, and its morals were vitiated by their debauchery. " Port Royal, itself, united to more than regal opulence the worst vices and the lowest depravity that ever disgraced a seaport; nor could any- thing else be expected in a city whose most honoured denizens were buccaneers, whose most welcome visitors were slave traders."— Mabtin. Henrj' Morgan.— First and most formidable on the roil of the bucca- neers was the name of Henry Morgan. At the height of his fame, the terror of his name was such that women used it to awe fractious children to sleep, while themselves lying awake in quaking terror. His roving disposition early appeared, when, in his youth, rather than settle to the humdrum routine of a country village, he took ship for the Barbadoes, naying for his passage thither by allowing himself at the journey's end, to be sold, for a term, into the "white slavery" of the plantations. The period of service expired, he was attracted by the lawless life of the buccaneers, then beginning to rise into notoriety. Here he found fitting scope for bis talents. He speedily shewed himself more lawless, brutal and debauched than the worst of his companions, while his daring and genius as a commander speedily won him pre-eminence among the crew. He was a bom leader of men, and his ambition was equal to his talents. Under his rule, the buccaneers were organised into something like'discipline, and he determined to attempt, with their aid, the great enterprise on which he had set his mind, nothing less than the conquest of the whole of the Spanish Americas; an undertaking from which he hoped to win great plunder for himself and perhaps new dominion for his country. His first attempt was on Portobello, which he carried by assault. Hern his resources and unscrupulousness were displayed in his infamous but effective device for enabling his followers to scale the walls in safety. Before delivering the assault, he had captured certain neighbouring reli^ons houses, and the monks and nuns from these were now forced np TUE EAKLY NAVIGATOUS. 47 the scaling ladders in tbe front of the stormere, Morgan aolculating that toe reverence inspired by tbeir calling would prevent the defeuJers from firing upon them, and that their presence would thus secure his troops from loss. The city was captured, looted and left a very wilderness of desolation. The fame of the exploit brought re'-ruits to his flng till be found himself at the head of an army, small it is true, hut terrible in its strength, since each man fought with the fear of death behind him. Panama was the next aim, and towards this stronghold of the Spanish power in America, the buccaneers now marched. Ten days' toilsome journey lay between them and their goal. Provisions were scarce, the difficulties of the route immense, but the buccaneers pressed forward. The dawn was rising on its glittering roofs v.hen they siqhted the city, and moved by sudden impulse, the great band of organised ferocity threw itself, as one man, on its knees, "rendering thanks to God tor so auspicious a termination to the voyage." Success attended them here as at Portobello, and after the usual interval of debauchery and license, the adventurers returned with a hundred and seventy mules laden with their plunder— gold, silver and jewels. Signs were not, however, wanting that Morgan's success had aroused the jealousy of his companions ; and plots for his deposition were speedily on foot. Morgan wisely determined not to await their developn ent and, with the greater part of the spoil in his possession, set sail for England, adding to the greatness of his notoriety, the distinction of being the only buccaneer of any standing who had robbed his comrades. In England his good qualities, or perhaps, the wealth he had acquired, earned him the favour of King Charles II. by whom he was successively made Commander in the Royal Navy, Knight, and Governor of Jamaica, in which last ofBce, says an old historian : "Sir Henry much distinguished himself by the vigilance and severity with which he suppressed those unlawful bodies of pirates called buccaneers." Thus after Morgan's defection, buccaneering began to wane. He hanged so many of his old comrades that the work grew scanty and unremunerative. The red flag still floated here and there in the Spanish main, and now and again was seen at the head of a successftil foray on the coast, but at Morgan's death the buccaneers, their haunts ravaged and their ships burned, had practically become extinct as a class. The romance which had surrounded their calling was gone. They became mere vulgar pinues, and as such, every man's hand was against them. With the death of the notorious Captain Kidd at "Execution Dock," thirty years later, the name of buccaneer ceased to be a name of terror among the shipping and in the seaports of the Western main. The Plantations.- The earliest Spanish settlements had been made upon the Islands of the "West Indies. The whole of 48 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. the West Indian group, settled and unsettled, was included in the dominions which the Spaniards claimed, and to which they gave the title of New Spain. But the wealth there sought by the Spaniards was that which could be obtained with little expenditure of labour — their booty was the gold and silver that lay almost erposed upon the soil or which had been laboriously acquired by the inhabitants, and which was now ravished from them by the conquering and rapacious Spaniards. The store of wealth was small, new and richer discoveries tempted them to Peru and Mexico, and the beautiful islands, once drained of their portable riches, were almost totally neglected. No account was made of the wonderful fertility of the soil, in time to come to prove a source of riches greater even than the gold and silver mines of the main- land. When Spain, through pressure elsewhere, tacitly relinquished her claims, there were not wanting men of other nationalities — English, French and Dutch, capable of dis- cerning the potentiaUties of these islands. Vast planta- tions of sugar, cocoa, indigo and cotton sprang up. The fame of the plantations spread; the riches of the planters were magnified and other islands hitherto unoccupied by Europeans, became in their turn great centres of hvmaan industry, and of immigration from the home country. But the great difficulty the planters had to face was the scarcity of labour. The cruelty of the Spaniards had alienated the native races ; indeed, in too many cases, had aU but exterminated them, and what might have been flourishing plantations now languished for want of labovu:. Cromwell, when Jamaica had fallen into his hands, solved the difficult}', characteristically, by ordering the Scotch government to collect all the idle and dis- affected persons they could find, and to ship them off to Jamaica. Many others were procured from Ireland, where, after the terrible settlement of the country by Henry Cromwell, there must have been many to whom this compulsory exile THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 49 was a positive benefit. Following this example, it became customary to despatch prisoners, on conviction, to the plantations, where they were sold into slavery for a term of years, and grants of such prisoners were frequently made to persons who had influence with the government, or some claim upon it which, it was desirable, should be satisfied. Prisoners taken in battle or persons found, in a time of disaffec- tion, with arms in their hands, were often subjected to similar treatment. Thus, after Sedgemoor, considerable numbers of those triedby the infamous Jeffreys were thus despatched, being granted by the CrowTi, in the first place, to various persons and sold by these to merchants ; who, in turn, calculated to make a profit by disposing of their white slaves to the American planters. (A similar plan was tried in the case of the Australian colonies. The secession of the United States had put an end to the transportation of convicts to the plantations of America, and the discoveries of Captain Cook came at the exact moment when the nation was most exercised as to the disposal of its convicted prisoners.) But the supply of white labour was by no means sufficient to meet the demand. Hence arose the dependence of America on Africa for labour. Spaniards and Portuguese sought labourers for the work in their mines, the planters found them no less essential upon their vast farms of Bugar, tobacco, indigo, cotton or rice. The Slave Trade.— The difficulty was met by the introduc- tion of negro slaves. An Englishman, Sir John Hawkins, is notorious as being the first European slave trader to the Americas. Slaves had, however, been bought and sold from time immemorial in the markets of the east. They were now introduced into those of the west. The Portuguese were the first to develop the trade to anything like considerable pro- portions. Their colonies on the African coast, furnished an inexhaustible supply of negroes, and their plantations in Brazil were the first to take advantage of it. Later, when the decline I* 50 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. of the Portuguese empire in the east placed their carrying trade in the hands of the English, the slave trade went with it, and England became the great slave trading nation of the world. The introduction of negroes into the "West India planta- tions once effected, they speedily became indispensable, and every planter set apart a share of his capital for the purchase of slaves, and a portion of his yearly profits for the maintenance of his stock ; for the effect of the arduous labour and the terrible conditions under which it was carried on, was such, that the slave mortahty became extreme, averaging, over a considerable number of years, no less than 16 per cent, of the total negro population. It is a matter of regret that the slaves in the English plantations were legally worse off than in those of any other nation. There the slaves were entirely at the mercy of their owner; in the French colonies they had certain civil rights secured to them by the Code Noir, passed in 1685, while the Spanish planters showed themselves more humane than the original conquerors of the country, or the Spanish gold-seekers who followed them. It is possible that without slave labour, it would have been impossible to cultivate the West Indies, to anything like the same extent, since the climate forbids anything like sustained labour to the natives of temperate climates on peril of their lives. This of course argues nothing in favour of the nefarious traffic in slaves. Under the condi- tions which obtain at present, free labour is not only more desirable than slave labour from the point of view of morality, but also from that of economy. The researches of ppUtical economists have shown that no form of labour is so dear as slave labour, and that only the most remunerative crops are capable of sustaining the heavy expenditure it entails, and that wherever it has been efficiently replaced by free labour, the rate of production has increased and the prosperity, both of the community and of the individual planter has been stimulated by the change. BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 61 CHAPTER III. o British Rule in India. SECTION I.— BEFORE 1858. The history of British rule in India may be fairly said to have commenced with the last day of the sixteenth century, when Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory, keenly desirous for the glory of England and no less keenly alive to her own interests, granted a charter to " The Governors and Company of the Merchants of the City of London trading to the East Indies," empowering them to carry on trade, acquire territory by treaty or conquest, and raise troops for the defence of their possessions. The riches of the Indies were, however, by no means unknown. Drake and Cavendish had called there on their return " by way of the Portugals," from their adventurous voyages, and English merchants had carried on a successful, if limited, trade by the overland route. Moreover, the daring of English seamen had wrested from the Portuguese, then the masters of the trade to the East, the spoils of war in the shape of many a richly laden galleon. But in the year 1580, the tmion of the crowns of Spain and Portugal converted the latter into little more than a province of her more powerful neighbour, and from this time her power upon the sea began to decline, — Spain, the predominant partner, concentrating all her strength upon the development of her American dominions. As a result, the Dutch gradually acquired the coiinnercial supremacy of the East and the magnificent Portuguese 52 BRITISH DOMINION'S BEYOND THE SEAS. possessions dwindled sadly by degrees, till they came to consist of only a few small separate stations, of which Goa and Diu were the chief. The Company in India. — The first voyage of the new company was undertaken under the commaaid of the vetferan Lancaster, in 1601. This, however, together with the next two, were to the Spice Islands and not to the mainland of India, a fact which brought the English traders into direct and open rivalry with the Dutch. In 1609, however. Captain Hawkins landed at Surat on a miesion, unfortunately unsuccessful, to the Shah Jehan, praj-iog him to grant facilities for trade. Captain Best, in 1612, was more fortunate and readily obtained from the Mogul permission to estabUsh an English factory at Surat. The factory was built in the same year, and with it the foundation of the British Empire in India was laid. The three years which followed were years of steady development, and at their close the intercourse between England and Hindustan, hitherto spasmodic, had grown into a regular,' if somewhat attenuated, stream of commerce. In 1615, the first English ambassador reached the court of the Great Mogul in the person of Sir Thomas Roe, to whose tact and diplomatic powers the Company were indebted for the favour shown them by that potentate, for the concession of the right to plant factories anywhere in his dominions, for their security from vexe.tious exactions and for various facilities in the transport of their merchandise to and from their settlements. The English and Dutch. — Meanwhile the progress of the trade with the Spice Islands had aroused the apprehensions of the Dutch, and the traders were speedily in open rivalry. True, efforts were made by the home governments to patch up a compromise, and in 1619 a treaty of peace was signed. By this the English company was to claim as its right BlilTISll RULE IN INDIA. 58 one-third of the spices from the Dutch islands and one-half of the pepper from Java, while the forces of both nations were to unite to hasten the decline of Portugal. The news of the treaty brought a momeutary cessation of hostilities. The fleets exchanged the battle cannonade for harmless salvos of poUte congratulation. But the peace was as transient as the smoke of that salutation, the rivalry ripened into jealousy and jealousy broke into open warfare. The Massacre of rni. i- .li_ ^i Aniboyna, 1628 cumax came with the notorious massacre at Amboyna. The Dutch, pro- fessing to fear their English rivals, suborned certain of their Japanese servants to swear to the existence of a plot among the British for the capture of the fort and the subsequent expulsion of the Dutch. It was patent that there was little to fear, since the Dutch were vastly more powerful than their rivals. The former, however, glad of any pretext, seized the most prominent of the English, put them to the torture, and, extorting from them in their agony a confession of the truth of the accusation, made this the ground for a secret attack upon the remainder of the English traders. The massacre which followed caused England to thrill with indignation, but the country was too deeply involved in her quarrel with Spain to lightly enter upon war with Spain's greatest enemy. The Dutch government promised retribution but took no very decided steps towards discovering those of its subjects implic- ated, although the question furnished sulUcient matter for negotiations extending over some two jears. The upshot of the whole matter was that the English trade with the Spice Islands was ruined. The Dutch, in reprisal for the alleged treachery, made themselves masters of the English factories in the islands, thus monopolising the trade as at first. The effect of this check was in the end beneficial to England. All her energies were now directed to the mainland of India, where she began to make rapid headway. Here tha 54 BRITIsU DOillNlONS BEYOND THli SEAS. Dutch, though equally hostile, had not the same power of offence, for the East India Company had since 1615 grown with such rapid strides as to make it a power to be reckoned with. Its career was, however, by no means unchequered. Its adversaries were many. These included the trading com- panies of other nations and " pirate " companies of its own, for the possession of so profitable a monopoly was by no means grateful to other traders, who cast a covetous eye on the riches of the East. The native rulers, too, saw its encroachments with growing apprehension, while the depredations of pirates and (in war-time) privateers, upon its fleet made considerable inroads upon its profits. Moreover, its growing wealth made it the prey of impecunious monarchs, whose coffers needed replenishing and who were quick to seize upon the renewal of its charter as a convenient occasion for mulcting it in heavy and ever-increasing sums. The Pepper Loan. — Charles I., in 1&40, seized the pepper warehoused by the Company, and valued, wholesale, at 2s. Id. per lb. aud sold it at Is. 8d. He obtained £50,626 in cash ; the traders were paid in bills, which were unmet for many years. In 1624, Morris Abbott, brother of the Archbishop of Canterbury, became Governor of the Company, and under his able administration its affairs steadily prospered. The year 1630 saw the final defeat of the Portuguese, and England had now to reckon only with the Dutch. The great danger was lest the weak, though thriving, settlements should be invaded from the great Dutch colony of Java, and it was to guard against the possibility of this that the factory of Armegon, on the Coromandel coast, was strongly fortified, and the factories in what was after the Madras Presidency protected by the erection of Fort St. George in 1639. The extent of the British power in India at this period may be gathered from the fact that the defence was entrusted to two imposing gamsons of BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. OO twon.y-three and twenty-six respectively. Bombay, part of the dower of Catherine of liraganza, was leased by Charles II. to the Company in 1668, and in 1685 replaced Surat as its lieadciuarters on the Malabar coast. In 1698. the Bengal Presidency, with Fort William — afterwards Calcutta — as its centre, was founded. At the lime of the foundation of the fnctory of Madras, the afTairs of the Comiiany had grown to such an extent that the dockyard at Deptford was not large enough to provide sufBcient accommodation, and a piece of ground was purchased in a marsh at Blackwall and a new dock built. The Company now built its own ships, made its own sails and cordage, baked its own bread and made its own gunpowder, and, generally, did eTerything that was needed in the fitting out of its yessels. It was not, however, able to build fast enough for its needs, and wm compelled to hire ships to make np its fleets. John Company.— Chief among the foes of the company were those merchants who advocated the policy of free-trade to the Indies and consequently deprecated the existence of the company. These steadily opposed its monopoly, and with such success, that Cromwell was all but induced to suppress it. The danger, however, blew over for the time, but reached a crisis in the reign of WiUiam III. when the free-traders succeeded in obtaining a charter of incorporation as the " General Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies," and commenced a competition which threatened the ruin both of themselves and their adversaries. Mainly through the offices of Godolphin, the rivals were brought to agree to share their profits, and six years later, in 1708, the two were amalgamated, as the " United Company of l\Ierchants of England Trading to the East Indies," a body which speedily came to be known by the familiar appellation of " John Company." It endured, as a political power, for a hundred and fifty years, iintil, as a result of the Mutiny of 18.j7, the government of India was taken over by the British Crown. As a trading corporation, it existed until 1873. 56 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. English and Dutch at Sea. — As already indicated, the Dutch were the greatest rivals of the English in the East. Mainly through the wealth gained in their eastern trade, the Dutch had, by this time, become the first nation in Europe. Their fleet was greater than that of all the other European kingdoms together, and in 1672, we find them strong enough to defy the united power of England and France, while the spirit of commercial enterprise, reflected on the national life, gave a marvellous stimulus to art, learning and industry. After this, however, a long series of disastrous wars against England, France and Spain, brought about a decline in the importance of Holland, and a consequent lessening of her maritime and colonial power. The knell of Dutch supremacy in the East was sounded by Clive, when, in 1758, he attacked them at Chrnsurah both by land and sea, and forced them to an ignominious capitulation. England and France. — The Dutch colonies had been managed on strictly commercial principles. The welfare of the inhabitants and indeed of the settlers, was in every case, subordinated to the desire of gain. The trade was in the hands of companies of merchants at home, and these must have their dividends whatever befell. As a result, Holland quickly lost the supremacy she had wrested from Portugal, and France replaced her, as England's great rival in India. Indeed, ihe constant warfare between England and France during the eighteenth century, was, in the main, the outcome of their commercial and colonial rivalry. A French East India Company had been founded in 1G04, and this was followed by other companies in 1611, 1615, 1642 and 1644. In 1719. the East India, the West India, Senegal and China companies were amalgamated under the title of the " Company of the Indies "— a corporation which was only finally abolished by the National Assembly in 1796. BKJTISH RULE IN INDIA. 57 The earlier part of the eighteenth century was indeed the most flourishing period of French colonisation. Her ministers, quick to recognise the potential benefits to be derived from the possession of colonies, were liberal in their support and careful in their regulation. In England, on the other hiuid, the government, up to the time of Charles II., had taken no official notice of the colonies. Then a Committee of the Privy Council : " The Committee of Trade and Plantations," was formed, but the Stuarts took little or no interest in the welfare of England beyond the seas, and it was not until the reign of William III., that the British colonies received any adequate measure of government support. Hence, while British power in India grew as a result of the efforts of the Company's servants, French influence. su[iported by the government, developed at a far more rapid rate. Before entering upon the great duel between England and France for the Empire of India, it will be desirable to glance for a moment at the condition of India, and the circumstances which made it possible for a band of adventurers, for the most part untrained to war, to conquer a country of such immense size, so great a population, and such vast resources. The Mogul Empire. — Enclosed on two sides by the sea and shut off from the continent of Asia on the north by the impassable barrier of the Himalayas, it would almost seem as though India was secure against invasion. But the vast barrier of the Himalayas is vulnerable at one point, and the whole history of India, up to the time when Vasco da Gama discovered the sea-route to it round the Cape of Good Hope, centres in the successive waves of invasion which rr.lled through Afghanistan and the Himalayan passes over the fertile plains of the north and north-west. Chief among these inroads is that of Mahmoud in 1001 a.d. This leader, by birth a Turk, by religion a Mohammedan, and by disposition a fanatic, conceived the idea of converting India 58 BRITISH DOMINIOXS BEYOND THE SEAS. to Islam; and for five centuries, he and his successors continued the promulgation of the Mohammedan faith, and claimed the title of Lords of All India. With the invasion of Baber, in 1524, was laid the foundation of the great INIogul Empire. By the middle of the sixteenth centurj-, the rule of the Moguls had been extended to cover almost all northern India. The Dekhau remained, however, uncouquered until the time of the Great Emperor Aurungzeb, who swept over it like a devastat- ing scourge in 1683. His conquest was at once the high-water mark of the INfogul power, and the commencement of its fall. The tribes of the Dekhan were of vastly different fibre to the effeminate races of the northern plains, and their princes, roused by his cruelty and the oppression of his rule, banded in the great Maratha confederation to shake off the Mohammedan yoke. While their conqueror lived, they could make but Uttle headway and remained nominally subject to his rule. At his death, the power of the Mogul rapidly declined. His successors possessed neither his mihtary genius nor his administrative abihty, and the Marathas steadily grew in extent, in power, and in independence. On the north, too, the empire suffered. Here the warlike Afghan tribes, swept down, time after time, by the path the Moguls themselves had made, while, in 1739, Shah Nadir of Persia swooped upon Delhi, their capital, sacked the city, and carried off booty to the value of £32,000,000 sterlmg. The blow practically ruined the empire and left the Marathas the masters of India. Their ascendency was, however, by no means universal or secure. Powerful Hindu princes, swaying vast territories, still held aloof from the confederation or took arms against them, openly denying the supremacy of the Peshwa, and asserting their own independence. Thus at the very time when the relations between the English and French traders in India became strained to the breaking point, the BRITISH RULE IN IXUIA. »tifil<,Kai;t'i i c ' 60 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. country itself, in lieu of being a united nation, capable of presenting a common front to an invader, was merely a con- glomeration of states, eiLlier passively indifferent or openly hostile to one another, and with no common ground of nationality, interest or religion, on which they could unite. It is to the state of anarchy, which existed in India in the eighteenth century, that we must attribute the ease with which the British empire was founded against such overwhelming odds. THE FRENCH IN THE KARNATIK.— The Anglo-French Struggle (First Phase). — The disorder incident upon the down- fall of the Mogul Empire was greatest in the south-east. Here, too, the English and French traders had their chief stations. At home, the peace policy of Walpole was being gradually broken down and the relations between England and France were becoming more and more strained, uutU, in 1744, the War of the Austrian Succession yielded place to a definite contest between England and France. Although the Peace of Utrecht had made England Mistress of the Seas, she was not, so far, a match for the united strength of France and Spain, the one striving to attain the sovereignty of the seas and the other to retain something like her old supremacy. For the moment, France held the upper hand in eastern waters and Labour- donnais, the French governor of Mauritius, sent a fleet against the British stronghold of Madras, besieged Fort George, captured it and held it, with its garrison and stores, to ransom, pledging his honour that a moderate sum only should be exacted. His success roused the jealousy of his superior in the Indies — Dupleix, the governor of Pondicherry. The latter, a man of immense ambition and overweening vanity, interposed, chose in his spleen to ignore the terms of the capitulation, rased Fort George to the ground, carried the prisoners in BRITISH RULE IN INIJIA. 61 triumph to Pondicherry, and, without the formalit} cf con- sulting the native ruler, added Madras to the French dominions. The Nawab of the Karnatik, wroth at this summary annexation of his possessions, gathered an army of 10,000 men and marched against the French, only to find his forces routed with the utmost ease by a body of 250 French troops aided by some 700 sepoys (sipahis), armed and dis- ciplined after the European fashion. The victory of St. Thome is the key to the conqnopfc (•■ India. It proved that the great armies which the Indian princes might bring into the field were of little avaU against Europeans or troops under European Daplelx. discipline. It showed Dupleix what he had long conceived, the possibiUty of found- ing a great French empire in India upon the rnins of the petty native kingdoms. For a time, Fort St. David became the headquarters of the British power in the Karnatik. Dupleir, stunulated by his success at Madras and bent upon driving the English from India, now put forth aU his efforts to capture it. In 1748, however, an English fleet, under Boscawen, succeeded in relieving it and turned the tables by besieging Pondicherry. Before any definite issue had been arrived at, news came of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Peace was nominally settled : aU conquests mutually restored. But the enmity was as bitter as ever. Open hostilities were unpossible, but the endless quarrels of the native princes offered an outlet for the racial and commercial hatred that daily grow more bitter between the traders. The Anglo-French Struggle (Second Phase). — If EngUsh and French in the Karnatik dared not proceed to open war while the mother countries were at peace, they might at least gratify their hatred by siding with the quarrels of the rival princes. Dupleix, in particular, saw in this a means of gratifying his ambition and proposed, should occasion offer, to 62 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. officer with Europeans the army of the native prince with whom he sided. In this way he hoped to gradually consolidate a force capable of defeating any army that could be brought against him, and of ousting the only rivals able to defeat his purposes. Opportunity lent her aid to his ambitions. In the year 1748, died Azaf Jah, the Nizam or Viceroy of the Dekhan. His possessions descended to his son NazLr Jang. The Karnatik, the wealthiest of the provinces tributary to Nizam of the Dekhan, was ruled by the Nawab Anwaru'din. There were, however, pretenders in the field who sought to oust both the Nizam and the Nawab. These were respectively Salabat Jang, grandson of the late Niz4m, and Chanda Sahib, a son-in-law of a former Nawab. These agreed to unite their interests, invaded the Karnatik, and invoked the aid of the French. Dupleix seized the opportunity with avidity. He saw nim- self , in imagination, ruhng the whole of southern India. The Nizam of the Dekhan and the Nawab of the Karnatik, indebted to him for their thrones, would, of necessity, be as wax in his hands. He sent four hundred French troops and two thousand sepoys, well armed and well disciplined. The victory that ensued wag due, to a great extent, to their valour. Anwaru'din was slain, his son Muhammed Ali, with the remnant of his army, fled to Trichinopoly, the Nizam was shortly afterwards assassinated by his own followers, Salabat Jang and Chanda Sahib were enthroned at Haiderabad and at Arcot respectively, and French influence was paramount in the Dekhan. Duplebc was the greatest man in India. He assumed open equaUty with the Nizam. Privately he claimed to be his superior. He took the title of " Governor of India from the Krishna to Cape Comorin," acquired vast wealth and exercised unbounded influence. BRITISH RILE IN INDIA. C'^ The English had offered Utile opposition. They had, uideed, supported Muhammed Ali, the son of Anwi'ini'din, who had assumed his father's title of Nawab of Arcot. But his flag flew over Trichinopoly alone, and here he was rigorously besieged by Chanda Sahib and his French allies. His position seemed hopeless and with his fall would go all liopes of an extension of the British power in India. The native princes, who had seen with awe the success of the French, had learned to look with something like contempt upon the easily vanquished Bx-itish, and no aid might be anticipated from this quarter. Still some attempt must be made. Delay meant ruin. The traders at Madras succeeded in raising a body of some two hundred English and three hundred sepoj's. The question now was how to employ it. To attempt the relief of Trichinopoly, with such a force, was absurd. The difficulty was solved by a youth — Robert Clive — formerly a writer in the Company's service, but now employed in a half civil, half military capacity as commissary to the forces. At his advice it was resolved to effect a diversion by attacking the Nawab's capital, in the hope that to save it, he would abandon Trichinopoly. The plan was entertained and its execution entrusted to ,.., ' Clive himself. The scheme worked to a 1 lOl. marvel. The garrison of Arcot, surprised in the midst of a great storm, fled from the fort without a blow. Clive entrenching himself behind its walls, prepared as best he could, to meet the siege he knew would follow. Day- light showed his weakness, and the troops which had fled in dismay before his approach, now rallied, roused the surrounding country, and to the number of three thousand men, closely invested the place. Clive, by a night surprise, put them to utter rout, slew great numbers and returned to his can:p without the loss of a man. News of these proceedings reached Trichinopoly and the Nawab detached four thousand troops, 64 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. under the command of his son Raja Sahib, for the recapture of his capital. These, reinforced by two thousand men from Vellore and by a detachment of French troops sent by Dupleix, swept into their ranks the remnants of the fugitives from Arcot, marched to the capital, surrounded it, and the siege began. The history of the siege is one of the most memorable episodes in Indian history. The garrison consisted of one hundred and twenty Europeans and about two hundred sepoys. The general was a youth of twenty-five, The Siege with no previous military training. Pro- of Arcot, 1751. . . , 11 . 11- • ^ visions were scanty, walls falling mto rums, battlements too low to protect from the enemy's shot. Yet, for fifty days, the garrison held out. The young commander displaj'ed a wariness, vigilance and skill, that would have done credit to a veteran commander. But the number of the defenders grew daily less, the small stock of provisions dwindled, the breach grew wider and an attempt at relief failed. Yet the spirit of the garrison never wavered. In lieu of the dissensions that might have been expected in a body of mixed nationality there was displayed an unparalleled unanimity. The sepoys in particular showed a rare devotion, and a dog-Uke fidelity to Clive. When all hope seemed gone, help came and from an imexpected quarter. A body of troops had been hired from the Marathas to assist Muhammed Ali. Considering his cause hopeless, these had remained massed upon the frontier of the Karnatik. To them, imbued as they were, by the French triumphs, with something hke contempt for the English arms, the stubborn valour of Olive's defence, and the reckless daring of his attack came with the force of a revelation. The heroism of the defenders stirred their hearts. These, at least, were men, and they naoved forward to the rescue. Raja Sahib, apprised by his spies of their approach, attempted by bribery and threats to cajole Clive BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 65 into yielding. Both were vain. The Raja determined upon a final attempt. Religious enthusiasm and drunken daring were invoked to lend their fury to the attack. The besieged met it with the courage of despair. Three times the B&ji's troops swept in desperate onset against the fort : thrice they were rolled back, broken and defeated. Neither fanaticism nor intoxication availed against the steady bravery of the defenders and the watchfulness and cool courage of Clive. The attack had lasted only for an hour, but that hour had cost the besiegers four hundred men. Morning dawned on an empty camp. The Raja, with his army, was in full retreat. The news of the exploit thrilled the EngUsh with hope, its fame raised CUve to the rank of a leader of men. A little force of two hundred Europeans and seven hundred sepoys was raised, and with them as his command Clive once more took the field. The Raja was defeated at Ami and Coverp4k; the French at Conjeveram, Covelong and Chinglepat, while the besiegers of Trichinopoly were, in their turn, besieged, and were forced at the end of two years to capitulate. Chdnda Sahib fell into the hands of the Marathis and was put to death, and the English candidate, Muhammed Ali, was firmly seated on the throne of the Karnatik as Nawab of Arcot. Dupleix, viewing with dismay the failure of his plans and smarting under the disgrace of his defeat, refused to recognise the English choice and laid schemes for further war. But he had to bear the stigma of failure. Enemies accused him at home. His employers repudiated his schemes ; the merchants, who woiild have gained by their success, united in reviling him ; the matter of the succession to the throne of the Karnatik was referred to the home governments, and decidod against him ; he was superseded in his command, and returned to Europe to die in poverty and disj,'race. His successor, Godelieu, signed a treaty recognising Muhammed Ali as the Nawab of the Karnatik, restoring all the possessions that K 66 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Dupleix had gained, and agreeixig to cease, for the future, all intrigues with native rulers, Clive returned to Madras covered with honours, but with shattered health. His condition, in fact, made it imperative that he should return to England. Here he was the cynosure of all eyes ; his victories were the theme of every tongue. He entered Parliament but only to be unseated on a petition, the costs of which, added to those of the election, had the effect of practically reducing him to penury. In these straits his thoughts turned to India again. The directors of the Company showed themselves nothing loth to expedite his return. War with France again seemed imminent, and neither the nation nor the Company could afford to lose the services of a " heaven-born general " like Clive. The directors appointed him governor of Fort St. David, the king gave him his commission as lieutenant-colonel, and in 1755 he sailed again for India. The Anglo-French Struggle. (Third Phase.) —Hardly was the ink of the treaty reconciling the English and French interests in India dry, before the differences in America assumed so serious an aspect that war once more loomed imminent. The English in India prepared to renew the struggle. Before the threatened war was declared, Chve was once more in the field, this time against the native ruler of Bengal — Siraj-ud-Daula (Surajah Dowlah). This potentate was a youth of eighteen, of weak temperament and ungovern- able passions, whom unbridled licence had reduced to little better than a wild beast. He had inherited, against the EngUsh, a prejudice whose violence was equalled only by his dread lest they should encroach upon his dominions and authority. The fear was now a lively one. The English of Calcutta, in expectation of the outbreak of hostilities with the French, had commenced to fortify their settlement, by deepening the BRITISH ROLE IN INDIA. 67 Mar4th& ditch — a relic of the time when Bengal was periodically harried by the warlike tribes of the upland districts. A pretext only was needed for the Nawdb to attack the settle- ment — from the looting of which, moreover, he anticipated great gain. The pretext was soon found. It chanced that a native, a relative of his own, whom the Nawab had desired to plunder, had fled for refuge to Calcutta, and had not been given up by the governor immediately on demand. Siraj-ud-Daul4 raised a great army and marched towards Calcutta. The residents were mere traders. They had not, like their confreres in Madras, been schooled to arms by constant quarrels with the French, and continual bickering with the native rulers around them. Moreover, tales of the Nawab'a cruelty had preceded him and his dislike to the English was well known. The governor, with many others, fled, the few who remained found it impossible to maintain their wall for more than four days. The fort surrendered and its defenders, to the number of one hundred and forty-six, fell into the handa of the Nawab. These were confined for the night in the miUtary prison — the " black hole," a name which has won a terrible significance in the record of horror, as the Black Hole of Calcutta. The prison was some eighteen feet square, it had two small windows for ventilation, and the time was June. The The Black Hole wretched prisoners, protesting vainly that of Calcutta. j^ covldi only be a joke, were driven into it at the point of the sword. Then the doors were closed. The horror of that night has never been surpassed. The captives after vainly appealing for mercy and otTering fruitless bribes to their gaolers, fought each other under foot, in their struggles to get to the windows. The guards, fit subjects of theur master, looked placidly on at their gtruggles, jeeringly refusing to disturb their master, without whose orders 68 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. nothing could be done. The stifling heat of midsummer added to the terror of suflfooation the madness of thirst ; the scene baffles description. In the morning twenty-three spectres staggered out to testify to a crime which thrilled all India, as its memory even now thrills the world with horror. Chve, hastily collecting a thousand men, took ship for Calcutta. He landed in December. The Nawab, already feeling, in the loss of his revenues, the folly of oppressing the English traders, was cowed by the vigour of these measmres into making overtures for peace. Chve would have preferred to decide the matter, once and for all, at the point of the sword. He was, however, but the servant of the Company, his superiors had already decided to treat, and he had perforce to change his role. From a general he now became a diplomat. He was equally successful but his success won him notoriety in Ueu of fame. He appears to have been imbued with the idea that, in eastern diplomacy, nothing would serve but to meet the natives with their own weapons of treachery, falsehood and deceit. Thus though in his private dealings, one of the most honourable of men, he displayed in the course of his negotiations with the Hindu rulers a duplicity in no degree less than their own. A nominal peace was patched up with Siraj-ud-Daul&, but that prince showed himself in no wise to be trusted, and Clive determined upon his deposition. A plot was hatching to dethrone the Nawab and to confer the crown upon the leader of his troops, Mir Jafar. Clive induced the English leaders to lend their support, and, while flattering the Nawab into security, took steps to secure his downfall. The Nawab's own treachery accelerated his fall. The French had a settlement at Chandernagar. He opened negotiations with them, while still professing the utmost friendship for the English. Decisive measures became necessary. An expedition was sent against Chandernagar, Clive being in command by land and Admiral BRTTISU RULR IN INDIA. G9 Watson by sea. The succcsa of the movement w.ia complete. The settlement with all its stores fell into the hands of the E iglish, and its garrison, including five hundred French troops, became prisoners of war. Then, changing his tone, Clive wrote to the Raja complaining of his duplicity and announcing his deter- mination to exact, if necessary by force of arms, redress for the injuries the Company and its servants had received at its hands. For reply the Raja assembled his forces, marched to riassey, and there entrenched himself to await events. Mir Jafar, who had agreed to desert with all liis troops, now hesitated and temporised. Clive was in a dilemma. Whatever advantage European troops might hold over the native armies, the position was a serious one. He had to oppose, with a thousand European troops and two thousand sepoys, an army consisting of some thirty e *'' ^ thousand foot and, worse than all, fifteen Plassey, 1737. thousand horse, drawn from among the warlilce races of the northern hills. Through a whole morning he lay on the defensive, repelling attack after attack ; then, when the Nawab's troops drew ofT for refreshment, Clive assumed the offensive, and by a sudden onslaught threw the whole camp into confusion. The attack was pressed home, many of the most prominent of the Nawiib's oflQcers were slain, and the ruler himself, lending a ready ear to suggestions of flight, which accorded only too well with his own desires, left the field, and the whole army fell into a panic. Mir Jafar, whose prudence seems to have exceeded his valour and who had hitherto held aloof, now threw his troops on Clive's side and the victory was won. Plassey made " John Company " master of Northern India. True, Mir Jdfar occupied the throne, but it was as the Company's nominee and at the Company's good pleasure. From Mir Jafar, on his elevation, the Company proceeded to exact compensation for the misdeeds of hia predecessor. (0 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Vast stuns were claiiaed, amounting in the aggregate to no less than ^62.700,000. The treasury did not contain sufacient to meet half these demands, and the Company, to meet the deficiency, was granted a ZaminddH, or landholder's right, over an extensive tract of land around Calcutta. CHve, two years later, received from the Nawab the right to the land-tax {Jacjir) of the same district, a right which practically made him owner of the soil and thus the overlord of his own masters the " Company." He also accepted treasure to the amount of about ^6250,000, a fact which was utilised against him at his trial in England, after his return, in 1760. In spite of his pliancy the new ruler was not a success, and was speedUy superseded by his son-in-law, Mir Kasim. The latter was a man of independent character and strong abihties, quahties which brought him into conflict with the oiJicials of the Company, whose proceedings, particularly in iihe collection of the inland dues claimed by the Company, certainly did not err on the side of justice or leniency. The Nawab protested that the Company's servants habitually disregarded his authority : the Government turned a deaf ear. The Nawab thereupon abohshed all the inland duties in dispute, thus placing the Company, as regards trade, on the same footing as his own subjects. The Company refused to resign its privileges and the quarrel daily waxed more bitter. The climax came when the Nawab's officers fired upon an Enghsh boat. Then all Bengal flew to arms against the traders. Some two thousand sepoys, in the service The aBsacre o ^ ^j^^ Company, were surprised and mas- Patna,17e3. i ./ ' i sacred at Patna and about two hundred Enghshmen killed in other parts of the presidency. The rising was vain. As before, the army of the Nawab could make no stand against the disciplined valour of the Company's troops, aided as they were by the prestige which attached to the British arms. Mir Kasim, defeated at Gheriah and Udha- BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 71 nala by Major Adams, fled to Oudh and claimed the hospitality and protection of the Nawab Wazir, who, first refusing to give him up at the demand of the Company, ended by openly espousing his quarrel in the field. To add to the danger, symptoms of disaflfection appeared among the Company's own troops, which after smouldering for a time broke out into the first Sepoy Mutiny (1764). The Nawab was, however, decisively defeated by Major Muuro at Baxar (1764) ; the victory added Oudh to the dominions of the Company and brought its ruler, after ineffectual endeavours to obtain aid from the Marathas and Afghan chiefs, a suppliant to the English camp. Clive's Administration in Bengal (1765—1767) — In 1765, Clive, now Baron Clive in the peerage of Ireland, returned to India for the third time, with the rank of Governor-general of Bengal, and with a firm determination to carry out certain reforms of the first importance, both in the administration of India and in the Company's service. Clive's administrative reforms took form as a system of dual control, by which the native princes were to retain the control of army and police, law and justice, while the Company undertook the fiscal administration of the province, receiving the revenues, which, however, were for some time collected by native ofticials, and paying over a sum of jE600,000 to the Nawab, and half that amount as tribute to the Grand Mogul. Abuses which sprang up under this new system were, however, so great as to compel The Treaty or the Company to take more and more of the Aliahab&d, 1783. government of the province into its own hands. The reform of the service was an even more serious matter. The Company's servants had always been iusutlici- ently paid, and had been accustomed, \vith the cognisance of th«ir masters, to supplement their iiicomes by eugaginj; in 72 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. private trade. Much of the iuterual trade of the province had fallen into their hands, and was carried on for their private benefit, while the collectors rapidly amassed fortunes by tb* most ruthless extortions from the natives. Even more questionable means were employed. Bribery was rife and the high officials of the Company habitually made large sums by their exactions from the native princes. It was this state of things that Olive now set himself to remedy. It may bs imagined that the task was one of the utmost difficulty. Yet in the face of the strenuous resistance of the whole service and an actual mutiny of some two hundred of its members, the reforms were carried. Salaries were increased with the money raised by the imposition of a tax on salt, and the servants of the Company were forbidden to receive gifts from the native princes or to engage in private trade. Olive's reforms aroused vast opposition, not only in India but in England, and this opposition frustrated many of his designs for the consolidation of the British power. In 1767, he returned to England for the last time. There Indian affairs were beginning to take fast hold upon a certain section of the parliament, and his enemies found it an easy matter to move a vote of censure upon his conduct during the period of his administration. Chief among the charges were the treachery attendant upon the deposition of Siraj-ud-Daula: the drawing up of a fictitious treaty with Mir Jafar for the purpose of deceiving a Hindu — Omichand — who had threatened to betray the plot against the Nawab, unless he received an immense reward : the forgery of Admiral Watson's name to this treaty : and finally, the enormous gifts he had received from Mir Jafar. A stormy debate ensued. At its close, the Commons found that Clive had received vast sums, and that to do so was illegal. Here they stopped. The events had happened sixteen years before. Olive's later administration had done much to redeem them. He had since had many opportunities of BRITISH RULE IN INDI\ 73 increasing his fortune anJ had held his hand. Moreover, waa he not the saviour of India? The House refused to say that ha, had abused his powers to his advantage, and instead, passed a resolution to the effect that " Robert CKve did, at the same time, render great and meritorious services to his country." The effect of the struggle was, however, lamentable. The stress of the parliamentary conflict unliingcd a mind which had already shown a tendency to mental aberration, its bitterness left him a prey to a settled melancholy, a painful disease aggravated the evil, and in 1774, the greatest of English generals since the days of Marlborough, died by his own hand. The Anglo-French Struggle (Fourth Phase). While Clive was cousohdating the British power in Bengal, tlic French wore making strenuous efforts to recover their supremacy in the Karniitik. A powerftd French fleet had forced its way past Admiral Pocock at Pondicherry, and had adventurer in the French service, who had been recently appointed to the supreme command in the East Indies. The vigour of his proceedings and his skill in the iicld earned him a temporary success. Fort St. David was captured, and Madras besieged. The defence, in the hands of Olive's old colleague and commander — Major Lawrence, was so ably conducted, that after wasting two months, the French were forced to retire. Meanwhile Sir Eyre Coote had arrived from England, and lost no time in carrying the war into the enemy's country. Wandewash was stormed and Pondicherry besieged. Marching to its relief, Lally was met at Wandewash by Coote and utterly defeated. The victory gained England the control of the Karndtik. Lally, retreating, threw himself within the walls of Pondicherry, but was compelled to capitulate in 176L and with his surrender ended the French power in India. Lally was sent as a prisoner to England, hut was Uberated on 74 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. pfirole to go to Paris, there to meet accusers who desired to make him the scapegoat for the noQ-success of the French East India Company. He was tried for his failure, and beheaded In 1766. Twelve years after his death his sentence was formally reversed. Thus bad the French East India Company, within a few years destroyed the only three eminent men who had ever been placed at the head of their aflairs in India — Labourdonnais, Dupleii and Lally. It did not long survive this last display of its imbecility and igrnorarce. — Mill (" History of British India.") Haidar Ali. The success of the English against LaUy resulted in the acquisition of great prestige and considerable territory. Further, their alliance was now eagerly sought by the native princes. An agreement had been made with Nizam Ali of Haiderabad to oppose Haidar Ali, a «f ??n«''* soldier of fortune who had risen to the rank War, 1780. of Sultan of Mysore — the price to be paid for English aid being the cession of the tract of territory, known as the Northern Sirkars. Out of this sprang the first of our wars with Mysore, which ended ingloriously enough, in 1769, by treaty, on the basis of a mutual restoration of conquests and a defensive alliance. An invasion of the Marathas led Haidar to appeal to the British, now his aUies, for aid. Nothing could have been more distasteful to the rulers of the Company. The demand passed unheeded, and Haidar bitterly resented the breach of faith. An opportunity for revenge occurred. In 1780, war again broke out between England and France. Mysore was swarming with French adventurers and Haidar gladly accepted their proffered assistance in drilling his troops. In July the storm burst. With 90,000 men, largelj' officered by Europeans, many of them adventurers of the most desperate tj'pe, Haidar swept down upon the Karnatik, devastating a huge area round Madras. The British forces available, could offer no effective resistance and had, perforce, to retreat before BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 75 the formidable foe. Arcot wtis captured and the remaining strongholds invested ; a French fleet with re-inforcements waa daily expected, and the English power in the Karnatik seemed to totter. The situation was saved by the energy of the governor-general, Warren Hastings, and the brilliant military abihty of the veteran Sir Eyre Coote. An army of sepoys was raised and with these, together with a few Europeans, Coote encountered Haidar's huge army, and defeated it in the great battles of Porto Novo, Polhlore, Sholingur and Arni. In the following year Haidar died, and Tipu, his son and successor opened negotiations for peace, which were completed in 1784. The GoYcrnment and the Company. — The continual warfare had so reduced the income of the Company that, in 1772, it found itself unable to pay its dividend and appealed to the Government for assistance. A committee was appointed to enquire into the matter, and its report showed the Company to be on the verge of bankruptcy. Moreover, such a record of maladministration, cruelty, oppression and fraud waa brought to light as made England ring with indignation. The req nired aid was granted but only on certain conditions, embodied m the Regulating Act of 1773, which placed the Company's affairs more directly under control of the Crown. The administration was to be in the hands of a Governor- General aided by a council of five, aU of whom were, in the first place, to be appointed by the Crown. The first of the Governor-Generals thus appointed was Warren Hastings. Warren Hastings had entered the East India Company's service as a clerk in 1750. He was one of the prisoners captured by Siraj -ud-Daula at Calcutta, but escaped, fled to Cli ve, and carried a musket at Plassey as a volunteer in his ranks CUve, quick to discern merit, appointed him British resident at the court of Mir Jafar. In 1761, he was made a member of the Council, and three years later retired to England wiUi 7fi BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. a moderate competence. The loss of this sent him as a suppliant to his old directors, who willingly re-engaged him in their service and sent him back to India, in 1769, as a member of the Council at Madras. In 1772, he was appointed Governor of Bengal, and, with the passing of the Regulating Act, took his place in 1773, as the first Governor-General of India. He set himself the task of consoUdating the Company's authority, and, what was of no less importance at this critical stage of its history, of increasing its revenue. Had the latter decreased at this juncture, the British power in India must have fallen. Some of the measures he adopted, however, aroused great indignation. Certain of them admit of no palliation, and for these he was, in after years, brought to trial before the House of Commons. Among the chief of the crimes laid to Hastings' charge were his extortions from Chait Singh, Raja of Benares, from whom he demanded subsidy after subsidy, until the prince was compelled to refuse further supplies. His refusal was treated as a crime and punished by the confiscation of the whole of his possessions. The affair ended in a dangerous revolt, which, however, Hastings subdued. The Raja fled, his treasury was looted, and his dominions added to the Compan3''s territory. But the money found in the treasvu-y of Chait Singh was appropriated by the victorious troops, to whom, as prize money, it legitimately feU. Hastings' plight was as bad as ever. It became necessary to find some other means of raising the funds, now more necessary than ever, for the maintenance of the British rule in India against the attacks of Haidar AH and the French in the Karnatik. Further victims vrere found in the persons of the Begams of Oudh. The late Nawab had called in the aid of the British troops against the Rohilla Afghans. Part of the subsidy agreed upon for this had not been paid. But the Nawab was dead and the DGITISH RULE IN INDIA. 77 bulk of his property was in the bauds of the Begams — bin mother and his wife. The present Nawab had exhausted his resources in vicious living, and the Bengal Council had ba'l to mtcrfere to prevent his exacting money from the I'.e^ams. Hastings now proposed that he should demand from them the surrender of their treasures. They refused and virere imprisoned, and some of their servants were tortured into compliance. Much of the difficulty experienced by Hastings in his dealings with the natives arose from the opposition he met with from the members of the Council, notably Sir lUiilip Francis- — the reputed author of " The Letters of Junius " — with whom he fought a duel, the result being that Francis was so severely wounded as to be obliged to return to England. Hastings himself returned in 1785, to meet with an enthusi- astic reception. But the abuses of his administration had bo impressed certain members of the Commons, that they resolved upon his impeachment. The trial that Warren HasUngs. ^oUowed, and which lasted for seven years, is one of the most famous in our history. It resulted in his practical acquittal. The House, generously, refused to visit with its censure one who had wrought so much for the British name in India. The immense cost of a trial extending over a period of seven years, however, com- pletely exhausted his resources and he was, for the remainder of his life, dependent upon the bounty of his former masters — the Company — a bounty which, to their credit, was never denied. Apart from his having saved the country from the French and from the inroads of Haidar AU, Hastings' great claim to tame rests on his administrative work. He had reorganised the Company's service, reformed the method of collecting the revenue, established courts of justice, and created some semblance of a police. History, however, sometimes forgets these Ewimirable achievements and remembers oulv his bolH 78 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. and aggressive policy for the advancement of the Company's power and the crimes to which it led. The rule of his successor, Lord Cornwallis, was chiefly remarkable for its fiscal reforms, and the permanent fixing of the Bengal land rents. It was the governorship of his successor — Lord Mornington, better known as the Marquis of Wellesley — that marks the real commencement of British empire in India. Two principles dominated his pohcy; the first to crush for ever the French hopes of an Indian Empire, and the second to make the British power paramount throughout the peninsula, allowing the native princes to retain the insignia of royalty only on condition of acknowledging their political dependence upon Britain. Hitherto, the struggles which had taken place in India had been for the purpose of defending the Company's trade or possessions. These still continued in the southern portion of the peninsula as the Mysore Wars. Now, however, in addition to them there began a new series of wars of acquisition, waged chiefly against the warlike peoples of Northern and North-western India. The Mysore Wars.— The peace made by Tipu Sultan, son of Haidar Ah, was not of long duration. The imagination of Napoleon had been fired by dreams of an Indian empire, and French emissaries swarmed throughout India to prepare for the mighty mvasion which was to be led by the Emperor in person. Tipii, in particular allowed himself to become the creature of the French, and even went so far as to plant a " tree of liberty " in his dominions, and to enrol himself in a repubU- can club as Citizen Tipii. But Bonaparte got no further than Egypt. The threatened invasion did not take place, and the result was the invasion of Mysore by a British force, organised by Lord Wellesley in person and led by General Harris. -The Sultan's forces, after the feeblest resistance in the field, were BRITISH KULF, IN INDIA. 79 cooped up in Scringapatain, the town was brilliantly stormed and Tipii died like the son of his father, fighting valiantly in the breach. His dominions were parted ; the old state of Mysore was restored to its ancient Rajas from whom it had been reft by Haidar Ali, and the remainder apportioned among the British, the Nizam and the Marathas, while the dependency of the Karnatik, together with the province of Tanjore was added to the British dominions, forming, with Madras, the Presidency of Madras, much as it exists to-day. The Maratha Wars. — By this time, the great Marathd. con- federation had begun to break up, as a result of the contests between its leaders for supremacy. The nominal head — the Peshw& was, in 1802, defeated by Hollcar and forced to flee for shelter to the British territories. Whilst there, he was induced to sign the treaty of Bassem, acknowledging British supremacy and granting a yearly subsidy, secured on the rents of certain districts, for the purpose of maintaining those forces necessary for his protection. The other leaders of the Marathas refused to ratify this agreement, and during the Governor-generalship of the Marquis of Wellesley,the second Maratha war broke out. The campaigns which followed are perhaps, the most glorious in the history of British India. The Marathas were led by Sindhia and the Raja of Nagpur and the English forces by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Duke of "Wellington) and General Lake. Wellesley, in the Deklian, won the famous victories of Assaye and Argaum and captured Ahmadnagar. Lake's campaign was equally brilliant. He defeated the Marathas in the pitched battles of Lasawri and Aligarh, and captiired Delhi and Agra. Before the end of 1803, both Sindhia and the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur sued for peace. Sindhia resigned all the territory north of the Jumna, and the Raja ceded Orissa to the English and Bcrar to their ally the Nizam. Only the free-booter Hollcar remained in the field, maintaining a guerilla warfare, and every now and then, raiding 80 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEA3. Malwa and Rajputana, and the remaining years of Lord Wellesley's administration were occupied with fruitless attempts to crush him. Still the Governor, during the six yeajs of his rule had carried out almost all that he had set himself to do. The North-West Provinces were united under British authority, the Madras Presidency in the south-east existed in almost the same form as it does to-day, and the Peshwa — the head of the Maratha confederation in the Bouth-west — was compelled to acknowledge British authority. Lord Moira, better known as the Marquis of Hastings, — the title he received as the reward of his labours — completed Lord Wellesley's conquests in Central India. Under his administration, too, the Bombay Presidency was formed. Two great wars were included in the nine years of his rule, one against the Gurkhas of Nepal, and the other the last contest with the Marathas. The results were, the freeing of the inhabitants of the Ganges valley from the raids which brought the hardy Giirkhas from their Himalayan fastnesses in a resistless flood upon the fi-uitiul plains, and the annexation of a vast tract of country to the Bombay Presidency, together with the formation of the nucleus of the present Central Provinces. The work of conquest was continued by Lord Amherst. The first Burmese War laid the foundation of British Burmah by the annexation of the provinces of Assam, Aracan andTenasserim, already in the mihtary occupation of the British, while a further expedition into Central India succeeded in storming Bhartpur — a stronghold hitherto foiidly deemed impregnable — a notion which had become a standing menace to British power in Central India. The Marathas.— The M&riith4 powers at this time were Ave in number. The Peshw4 of Poona was the head of the confederacy ; its other members were the Gdikwdr of Baroda, the BhonslA Rdjd of Nagpur and the two Chiefs Sindhia of Gwalior and Hoikar of Indore and Malwd, who continually struggled for pre-eminence in Central India. BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 81 The seven years' government of Lord "William Bentinck added nothing to the territorial extent of British India, but will ever form an epoch of administrative reform. " He aboUshed," says Macaulay," cruel rites, he effaced humiliating distinctions, he gave liberty to the expression Lord William of popular opinion ; his constant study was Bentlnok, 1828-38. ^^ elevate the moral and mtellectual character of the natives committed to his charge." Among the most memorable of his acts are the abolition of sati or widow-burning and the suppression of the Thugs, whose barbarous practice it was to lie in wait for the purpose of strangling unwary wayfarers. In 1833, the charter of the Company was revised, its monopoly of trade being withdrawn and itself reduced to Uttle more than a department of the British Government. The year 1843 saw the addition of Sindh to the British dominions. The conquest was carried out by Sir Charles Napier — whose victory of Miani, in which 8,000 British troops defeated 20,000 Baluchis is one of the most brilliant feats of Indian history. There now remained but one of the great independent races of India, the Sikhs, a great religious sect bound together by the rules of a stern military discipline. Bunjit Singh, Maharaja of the Punjab, and founder of the Sikh power in India, had organised an army, disciplined by Europeans, and filled with religious fervour to an extent unparalleled in history, save by Cromwell's Ironsides. He, him- self, wisely refrained from coming into conflict with the British power, but after his death no successor was found to take his place. The whole power vested in the army and its chiefs burned to measure its strength with that of the British troops. Thus, in 1845, the whole force of some 60,000 men crossed the Sutlej into British territory. A British army imder Sir Hugh Gough marched at once to the front, and within threa weeks, no fewer than four pitched battles were fought at Mudki, Ferozshah, AliwAl, and Sobrdou. In the Inst of these theSikb'^ 82 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. were hopelessly defeated, driven back over the Sutlej, aiid Lahore captured. By the terms of the peace which followed, the doab between the Sutlej and the Rdvl was ceded to Britain, and a British resident. Sir Henry La-s\'rence, appointed to the court of Lahore. Sir Henry Hardinge, the then governor, returned to England with the title of Lord Hardinge in 1848. He was succeeded by one of the ablest of the Indian Governors-General — Lord Dalhousie. His maxim " that the rulers of a country only exist for the good of those they rule " has ever since his time prevailed ^°'','i.»*l't=!f^*°' in Indian politics. . In spite of his desire 1848 — 18dO. for peace, however, circrunstances forced him into two disastrous wars. An outbreak of fanaticism at Multan led to the Second Sikh War and the famous Jchalsa army, the " Ironsides" of the Sikhs, was called into the field with, at the first, disastrous results to the British arms. In the terrible Battle of Chilianwalla the British lost 2,400 men, and, although patriotic historians choose to term it a drawn fight, there is no doubt that British power here received one of its severest checks. Reinforcements were sent from England but before they arrived. Lord Gough, in the crowning victory of Guzerat, had recovered the advantage he had lost, restored the prestige of the British arms, and all but annihilated the Sikh army. As a result a large portion of the Punjab came under British rule, together with Nagpur, Oudb and several minor states. In 1852, the Second Burmese War broke out, and the whole valley of the Irriwadi, from Rangoon to Pronie, was annexed to British India under the name of Pegu. The Indian Mutiny, 1857. — Lord Dalhousie was followed by Lord Canning. The fabric of the British empire in India was now completely mapped out. But the policy of annexation which had been laid down by the Company, and conscientiously carried out by Lord Dalhousie in all cases where the natives BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 83 vere ground down by the tjTanny of their rulers, or tue British rule promised to ameliorate their lot, had become distasteful to a large section of the population. Together with the introduction of scientific inventions, the steam engine and the telegraph, it was believed to be indicative of a determination to destroy the old civilisation of the Hindus with the view of replacing it by that of Europe. The native princes, the oppressors of India in the past, whose thrones and powers had fallen before the determination of the En;^lish rulers to secure the welfare of the people under their rule, were naturally the first to foment, the spirit of disaffection which was abroad. The native troops, too, which, trained and led by Europeans had been the instruments of the change, were induced to believe that all India had been conquered by their prowess and that the fear of them alone maintained it in peace. Now a rumour spread abroad of an insidious scheme afoot, to complete the subjugation of the native races by destroying caste. The army had been suppUed with a new ride, the cartridges of which, before being placed in the rifle, required to be bitten in order to loosen the bullet. It was spread abroad that these cartridges had been greased with the fat of pigs — an animal unclean alike to Hindu and Mohammedan, and to taste whose flesh meant to the former the loss of caste. The discipline of the sepoy army rapidly declined under this belief until only its semblance remained. Ofl&cers were openly insulted by their men, fires broke out nightly in the native cantonments and finally, on the afternoon of Sunday, Hay 10th, 1855, the sepoys at Meerut broke into open revolt, murdered their officers, massacred, in their fury, every European whom they could find, and rushed in a disorderly rout to the neighbouring city of Delhi, there to stir their fellows into following their example. 84 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. The English army had been weakened by the appointment of many of its officers to civil posts of pohtical importance, and those who remained seem to have acted with irrational irresolution. A strong will suid a firm hand, at the commence- ment of the outbreak, might have saved India the horrors that followed. The European garrison at Meerut was a strong one and, efficiently led, might not unreasonably have expected to overcome the mutineers before they reached Delhi. The news was sent to that city by telegraph, but that was aU. Next day the troops of Delhi mutinied, the Europeans blew up the magazine and fled as best they could, and the revolt spread like wildfire throughout the Nortb-West Provinces and Oudh, and so on into Lower Bengal. Europeans every- where suffered the cruellest and most shameful of deaths, or were suffered to live only to undergo a fate to which death itself would have been preferable. The Punjab alone was quiet. There the plans of the sepoys were anticipated by stern measures of prevention. It was fortunate, too, that the Sikhs never wavered in their allegiance to Britain. Indeed, it was largely through the invaluable aid afforded by these warlike tribes that the revolt was so effectually checked. In addition to Delhi, the chief centres of the revolt were the cities of Cawnpore and Lucknow. The former was one of the greatest of the native garrisons of British India, the latter had been strongly fortified by Sir Henry Lawrence, the governor of Oudh, who had foreseen the coming storm. Near Cawnpore, too, was the palace of Dandhu Panth, better known to infamy as Nana Sahib, the adopted son and heir of Baji Rao, the last of the Peshwas — the titular heads of the great Marathd confederation. No one was more profuse in his expressions of loj-alty to the British, and few were equally energetic in fomenting the revolt in private. On June 6th he threw off the mask, put himself at the head of the rebels, and proclaimed himself Peshwa of the Marathas, BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 85 Bignalisiiig his new dignity by marching on Cawnpore. The garrison of the ill-fated city, comprising far more women and children than fighting men, withstood him during a siege of nineteen days and then, confiding in his promise of a safe conduct down the Ganges to Allah^bd-d, yielded. No sooner were they embarked, than a murderous fire was opened from masked batteries along the banks upon the defenceless occupants of the boats. A single boat only escaped. The remainder were brought to shore after the fusilade and every man massacred save four, who, escaping, swam the river under a hail of shot and sought the protection of a friendly r4j4. The women and children — a hundred and twenty-five — were taken back to their prison, there to wait the captor's pleasure. Meanwhile Havelock, with a little army of relief, was pressing forward under the burning sun vdth a heroic fortitude rarely equalled in the annals of war. On the 15th of July he was at hand. At the first sound of his guns the captives were massacred in cold blood, women and children together, by the order of Nana S4hib. When Havelock's troops, storming through the city, entered the prison house, its courtyard swam with blood, while from the well in its centre the horror-stricken soldiers drew some two hundred bodies all warm, some still quivering with departing life. Few sights recorded in the history of the world can have equalled in horror the well of Cawnpore. Strong men sat and wept like little children, then, conquering their grief, swore a terrible vengeance upon the authors of so terrible an outrage. The Relief of Lucknow. — Lucknow had been fortified in readiness for the outbreak, and when it occurred, as it did on May 30th, it fouiul the Europeans prepared, and the 750 British troops in the city, after a gallant stand succeeded in driving the rebels towards Sitapur. The city thus remained in the hands of the British — the onl.v 86 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. post in Oudh. The fall of Cawnpore was followed by a determined attack upon Lucknow. The garrison made a gallant resistance. Thrice the mutineers attempted to carry the place by assault, but each time they were repulsed with heavy loss. Famine, sickness and the incessant cannonade maintained by the rebels were, however, doing their work, and the defenders looked anxiously for relief. Failing that, death even was preferable to falling into the hands of the mutineers. On September 22nd, Havelock, who with his relieving column had performed prodigies of endurance, stormed the Alambagh -with his tired troops and swept through streets lined by the enemy, who kept up a constant fire from windows, loopholes and house tops, to the Eesidency, where the little garrison had finally entrenched themselves. Even now, the forces under the command of the European generals were not sufficient to attack the investing army, with any reasonable prospect of success. All that could be done was to fortify a larger area of the town until a stronger force could be brought to the reUef. The siege continued till October lOlh, when Sir Cohn Campbell reached the Alambagh, captured it, forded the canal and attacked the Sikandrabagh, the chief of the rebels' Btrongholds, and carried it by assault. Havelock with his little garrison marched out from the Eesidency to meet him. The force was still insufficient to risk a pitched battle and it was determined to retvurn to Cawnpore and abandon, to the rebels, the Eesidency for which they had fought so long, and whose possession had cost them so dear. Before the departure. Sir Henry Havelock died from dysentery, and was buried in the Alambagh on the scene of his triumphs. Sir James Outram with 3,500 men held the Alambagh against all the attempts of the mutineers to recapture it, until the army returned, in the following year, to finally reoccupy the city. The Alambagh was a walled garden on the Cawnpore road, which was strongly fortified by the rebels, who made it one ut the chief ot their stronEholds. BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 87 An ab\j A IV \Uccadive ' • /stands • . C Comart Ml/a, re /s/and* ^ O I A N O C E A N N INDIA 1853 « -90 190 ioO VtQ Qrtlish Oom-nions IMCM* 90tong C afC'tt^fO* S^lfih. MaltMn($ I U 88 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. The Siege of Delhi. — The siege of Delhi was hardly a siege in the ordinary sense of the word. Eight thousand British troops camped on a ridge outside the city could hardly be said to besiege a rebel force of thirty thousand men within. About the middle of August there came a considerable re-inforcement from the Punjab, and a month later, on September 14th, it was determined to attempt to capture the city by assault. The attack was successful, the walls stormed, and the gates blown down. Six days' street to street and house to house fighting placed Delhi once more ia English hands, but at a cost of 66 oflBcers and 1,100 men. With the capture of Delhi, the interest of the mutiny largely died out. Fighting went on for some eighteen months longer in various parts of the country, chiefly in Oudh, which indeed was the only part of India where the rising assumed the character of a general revolt rather than a mutiay among the troops. Here the campaign was carried on by Sir Colin Campbell, whUe Sir Hugh Rose conducted that in Central India. The Mutiny sealed the fate of the East India Company, which had ruled the affairs of the country during a career of two and a half centuries. The " Act for the better government of India," which passed the British Parliament in 1858, after acrimonious discussion in the House, and strong opposition from the directors, enacted that India should be governed by and in the name of the Queen of England, that the Governor- general should henceforth bear the title of Viceroy, and that the troops of the Company should be amalgamated with those of the royal service, and the Indian navy be abolished. The first of the Viceroys was Lord Canning, to whose lot it fell both to suppress the mutiny and to inaugurate the series of peaceful reforms, which have done so much to secure the peace and prosperity of India during the period in which it has been under the control of the British Crown. Peace was proclaimed throughout India on July 8th, 1859. BRITISH KULE IN INDIA. 89 SECTION II.— SINCE 1858. After the Mutiny. — Canning had been made Governor General in 1856. After the abolition of the Company, the Governor General received the title of Viceroy. To Canning, as has been said, it fell to quiet India after the Mutiny. He did so with such mildness and forbearance that his critics gave him the name of " Clemency Canning." At a grand darhar held at Allahabad, 1st November, 1858, a royal proclamation was issued that the Queen had assumed the government of India ; and an amnesty was granted to all except those who had actually murdered British subjects during the Mutiny. The Mutiny raised the Indian debt by ^40,000,000, to deal with which deficit and to reorganise the Indian finances generally, Mr. James Wilson was appointed Finance Minister, and a paper currency was established. In these transformation scenes hitches were bound to occur. There was something Uke a mutiny amongst the British officers on account of their transfer from the service of the Company to that of the Crown without any bounty being given. But the rub was smoothed over. In 1861, the order of the " Star of India " was insti- tuted. The Penal Code and the Courts of Justice were reformed, and many progressive steps taken, especially in the construction of railways, canals, macadamised roads, and lines of telegraph. In 1860-1861, there was a terrible famine in the Punjab, owing to the failure of the monsoons, and the mortality amounted to about 500,000 persons. The London Mansion House subscription totalled about J6115.000. Under Lord Elgin (1862-1863) the " Wahabees " at Patna gave trouble, and had to be repressed. The Wahabees wei-e 90 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. followers of Abd-el-Wahab ("Servant of the Bountiful"), a Muslim reformer, born in Arabia, 1691 (died 1787), who maiBtained that the Turks and other Mohammedans had departed widely from the teaching of the Koran. The cotton industry was being vigorously pushed in India at this time, and the first Indian Agricultural Exhibition was held in Calcutta in 1863. Under Sir John Lawrence (1864-1868) there were several matters deserving notice. Frontier trouble with the Bhootanese resulted in a little war, in which the latter were defeated at Dhalimcote and at Diwangiri. Peace was made, November, 1865. There was another severe famine in Orissa, in which a million- and- a- half persons are said to have perished. After this terrible disaster, irrigation works were undertaken on a larger scale than ever in the Punjab, the North West Provinces, Bengal, Central Provinces, Bombay, Madras, and Mysore, where the chief rivers were linked together by canals, enabling vast tracts of country to be irrigated, which considerably reduced the danger, — though that danger has even yet by no means passed. These famines, in the expenses they entailed, greatly deranged, from time to time, the financial resources of India, and made India, on several occasions, a source of great anxiety to the mother country. In 1867, there was a deficit of nearly d62,50O,OO0. Excited bj' the Patna rising, the Bazotis, a tribe of fanatical Mohammedans on the North West Frontier, flew to arms, and committed many outrages on British subjects, for which they were punished by General Wilde. A new land settlement in Oudh and the Punjab, begun by Canning, was finished by Lawrence. The quieting and re- organisation of the North West Provinces, moreover, under- taken by Sir Richard Temple, and prosecuted by him with the most praiseworthy energy, must not be ignored. This process meant a vast amount of varied labour, and included laud BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 91 settlements, the organisation of native police and magistrates, the reformation or creation of vernacular schools, dispensaries, vaccination and sanitary measures, the erection of churches, barracks, court houses, the formation of roads, the building of travellers' rests, etc. Lord Mayo (1869-1872). The appointment of Lord Mayo, severely criticised at first, turned out a great success, and his period of office was one of much moral and material progress for India. To make up for a considerable deficit in the revenue, an income tax was imposed (in the face, however, of great opposition), and was allowed to remain in force until 1873. The Calcutta and Bombay Railway was completed in 1870, and in the following year a civil engineering college for India was opened at Cooper's Hill on the banks of the Thames. Expeditions against the refractory Looshais in 1871, and against the Kukas in 1872, were but the prelude to more serious trouble with the Afghans. Our relations with those people were always of a difficult and deUcate character, owing to the fact that in a sense the Amir held the key to the situation. With the great Russian power encroaching on one frontier, and India on the other, he could side with either as it suited his purpose. England and Russia were both jealous and suspicious of each other, and the Amir knew it, and acted accordingly. The problem was how to treat Afghanistan. We might conquer the country no doubt; but that might possibly involve us in a war with Russia, and in any case it would be very diificult to hold Afghanistan, as the natives are intensely hostile to foreign, especially to Christian, rule. Yet it would hardly be politic to allow Russia, who had for many years been creeping on through Central Asia and swallowing up territory in all directions, a free hand in Afghan affairs. It seemed advisable to get the Amir on our side by making a treaty with him, granting him a pension, and in some way estab- 92 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. lishing a " scientific frontier " on this side. All these difficulties and problems had been fully experienced in the last Afghan "War of 1842, when Dost Mohammed had been for a time deposed. Since the death of Dost (in 1865) his three sons had been fighting for the master}^ and their wars had gone on for five years. Lord Lawrence had pursued towards these brothers a policy of strict non-intervention, or as some called it, "masterly inactivity." When at length, however, the third son, Shere Ali, had succeeded in making himself supreme, the Indian Viceroy determined to recognise the de facto ruler. Lord Mayo therefore held a darhar at Ambala (Umballa) with this object, and invited Shere Ali to be present. Shere came with apparently ambitious expectations of obtaining a large and settled annuity, and recognition of the sovereignty as entailed on his younger son to the exclusion of the elder. In these expectations he was not altogether gratified ; but he did receive an annuity and valuable presents, and returned, on the whole, as a friendly and well-disposed neighbour. (It was the reversal of this wise policy afterwards by Lord Lytton, under Lord Beaconsfleld's ministry, that brought about the terrible Cavagnari tragedy of 1878). Lord Mayo was a most assiduous worker, and took a great personal interest in his duties. In 1872, he travelled round his Viceroyalty, and visited Further India. On returning from Eangoon, he took the penal settlement of the Andaman Islands on his way. Landing at Port Blair, he went round the island, not knowing that he was being stalked by a Malay convict whose resentment burned for revenge. The miscreant succeeded in assassinating the Viceroy with a dagger before the latter could regain his vessel. This tragedy aroused the deepest sorrow and indignation at home, and all parties now joined in recognising Lord Mayo's brilliant and statesmanlike qualities. His remains were taken to Ireland, and accorded a public funeral in Dublin, where the many BRITISU HULK IN INDIA. 98 thousands of citizens gathered to honour the memory of their couutr\ iiuui. Lord Northbrook (1872-1876) was destined to see yet another famine, this time in Bengal, and affecting fourteen millions of persons. The Government relief works, organised by Sir Richard Temple, did much to save the situation (1874). The Prince of Wales's tour through the dependency, in 1875-76, tended to put the people in a good humour, and it forms a kmd of landmark in Indian history for the loyalty it awakened. Lord Northbrook's financial ability, and his success in coping with the famine must always be remembered to his credit. Municipal institutions were developed consider- ably under his regime, while the staving off of several frontier wars must also be placed to his honour. In 1875, Mulkar Rao, the Gaikwar of Baroda, was tried and deposed for misgoveru- ment, disloyalty, and attempting to poison Colonel Phayre. Lord Lytton (1876-1880). As the result or sequel of the Prince of Wales's visit. Queen Victoria, at a great darbar at Delhi (January 1st, 1877), was proclaimed Empress of India — after previous proclamation in London. A long drought, from 1876 to 1878, brought about perhaps the severest famine that ever visited India. It was worst in the Dekhan and Southern India, where it carried off some five and a quarter milUons of people, and cost the Government jeii,ooo,ooo. Restrictions placed on the native press in 1878, and further restrictions on the privileges of war correspondents (1879), caused some loud and hostile criticism. But the chief feature of Lytton's rule was the Afghan imbroglio. Sh- Bartle Frere, Sir Henry Rawlinson, and others were strongly of opinion that there should be a British resident in Afghanistan, to "tunc" the foreign policy of the country and form a counterpoise to Russian intrigues. Others, however, including Lord Northbrook, knowing how bitterly 94 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. the British ''Giaour" was hated by the MusUm Afghan, and how suspicious the latter was of Indian designs on his independence, as strongly discountenanced the "residential" policy. Lord Northbrook, rather than pursue such a policy, resigned, but the Home Government found in Lord Lytton a viceroy who would obey their behests. Negotiations were opened with Shere Ali, but that potentate decUned all overtures towards receiving a minister, and, on the contrary, welcomed a Russian agent at Kabul. This behaviour was treated as an act of war, and a British force was immediately ordered into Afghanistan. Shere Ali fled into Turkestan, and died there. A treaty was then made with his son, Yakub Khan, at Gandamak, by which the British frontier was to be advanced somewhat, and a British ofl&cer to be received at Kabul. Yakub was not unfriendly to the English, but he was a mere puppet in the hands of the army, and against the strongly expressed national sentiment he was powerless. Sir Louis Cavagnari, with an escort, I'epaired to Kabul, but within a few months he and his whole escort were murdered by the indignant Afghans. The war was at once renewed. Yakub abdicated, or was deposed, and another Afghan chief proclaimed, while the country was put under mirtial law. Ayub Khan, Yakub's brother, was decidedly anti-English, and as he was moving about in the neighbourhood of Kandahar, it was deemed prudent to check his advance. In this attempt, however, another disaster befel the English, for General Burrows, with an auxiliary force of about 2,500 English soldiers, was defeated at Maiwand (near Kandahar) by Ayub, who captured seven British guns (July, 1880). General Roberts then marched south from Kabul, and defeated Ayub (September 1st, 1880) and relieved Kandahar. Abdurrahman, the eldest male of the family, was then proclaimed Amir, and the "residential" policy finally abandoned. HiariSU ROLE IN INDIA. 95 Under Lord Ripon. who foUowc-l Lytton, (1880-1884) a period of peace aud local development ensued, and an Indian contingent went to help the British in the war against Arabi Pasha in Egypt (1832-1884). borne excitement was caused by the trial of Mr, Banerji, Editor of the Bengali, who was sentenced to imprisonment for Ubelling Judge Norris, and monster meetings of protest were held by the Hindus. Under Lord Dufferin (1884-1883) occurred the third Burmese war, in which Upper Burma aud the Shan States were annexed. In 1888, outrages upon British troops by the Akozai tribes led to the Black Mountain expedition under General McQueen, which ended in smart punishment of and submission by the Akozais. Lady Dufiferin interested herself much in Indian affairs, and raised a large fund to equip female medical practitioners. Under Lord Lansdowne (18881893), the Fortress of Quetta was completed, and the frontiers of the Empire further strengthened and made " scientific." A treaty with China provided for more extended British control over Sikkim. The Hunga and Nagar tribes, tributaries of Kashmir, who objected to British road-making in their vicinity, were reduced to more immediate British jurisdiction. Trouble from the Chins and Lushais (Burmese frontier tribes), necessitated a punitive expedition, which, under General Symons, however, not only inflicted punishment on those exceedingly troublesome neighbours, but also opened up and made comparatively secure new commercial highways between India and Burma. The currency, meanwhile, was reformed, and independent mints were closed to the free coinage of silver. The legislative councils were opened to a larger popular element, and, generally speaking, reform proceeded along democratic lines. Under Lord Elgin (1894-1898) there were many local troubles caused by famine, plague, earthquake, and frontier fighting. An outbreak among the Chitral tribes, in the extreme northern 96 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. highlands between Kashmir and Afghanistan, necessitated the sending of a large military force to put an end to outrages and relieve the British garrison there (1895). In 1896-1897, the outbreaks were renewed, and, extending along the great stretch of frontier as far as Baluchistan, included Pathans, Afridis, Orakzais, and many other tribes, together with the followers of the "Mad Mullah." Sixty thousand troops had to be employed in these hostilities, and the losses amounted to neaiiy 1,900 men and officers, before quiet was restored. The Afridis were not subdued till 1898. Further boundary definitions were arrived at, e.g., between Asiatic Russia and the Pamirs, and with French Territory on the Mekong river. Legislative councils were created for the Punjab and for Burma, and the laws against sedition were modified. Meanwhile, a terrible plague and famine were raging in Bombay, Sindh, Oudh, Punjab, etc. (1896-1897), while an earthquake in Assam caused great disaster. Lord Curzon's term of office (1899-1905) was a stirring and eventful one, and several new departures took place. The previous consoUdations of the Empire seemed to be bearing fruit in the despatch of Indian troops to help the mother country in several foreign wars and compUcations, vit., in South Africa (1899), in China (1900), and in Somaliland (1903-1904). The famine fiend, however, was no means cast out, and it is painful to have to record another terrible famine — one of the worst — in the Punjab, the North West Provinces, Bombay and elsewhere, affecting 450,000 square- miles and about 62,000,000 people, and involving a loss of ^50,000,000. A kindly element in this calamity was the help that came from Germany and elsewhere abroad. There was general grief and mourning in India for the death of Queen Victoria (January, 1901), and Lord Curzon's proposal for a memorial to her memory in that country was responded to with large and generous donations. BRITISH HULK IN INDIA. 97 A great many reforms — educational, agricultural, financial and commercial — were initiated, and developments encom-aged, under Lord Curzon. He also undertook many tours and held several darbars in different places. A new province— the North West Frontier — was created. The Aden and the Perso- Afghan frontiers were more accurately defined, while from amongst the native princes and nobles a corps of Imperial Cadets was formed. From the Nizam a perpetual lease of Berar was secured by a treaty by which the Nizam, in consideration of receiving thirty lakhs of rupees yearly, gave up all his territorial claims to that country. In 1902, many native princes and troops attended King Edward's coronation in London, and on the 1st of January, 1903, the same ceremony was celebrated at a great darbar at Delhi, which ancient city the Viceroy entered in state, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Cormaught and fifty native princes. Many honours were distributed on the occasion, and 16,000 prisoners were released. In 1903-1904, a new epoch was made in the history of Tibet by the expedition of Colonel Younghusband and General Macdonald. Buddhism had been introduced into Tibet in the seventh centm-y, a.d. The Jesuits had visited the country in the seventeenth century, but not until recent years had there been any attempts to explore that ancient, strange and very exclusive land. Bussians and Germans, as well as Englishmen, had endeavoui'ed to traverse and survey the country, but such attempts were jealously opposed not only by the Tibetans, but by the Chinese, who claimed a suzerainty over Tibet. For a long time, relations between Great Britain and Tibet had been very unsatisfactory. The government at Calcutta had been anxious to arrange several outstanding frontier disputes, and to open up trade and commerce with their northern neighbour. In 1886, British troops had been obliged to drive Tibetans out of Sikkim, 98 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. with which a commercial treaty, initiated by Chinese influence, was concluded. This compact, however, like all others with Tibet, had been evaded or ignored. In 1890 and 1893, similar treaties had been made, and had had a similar fate. As was stated in the House of Commons (April 13th, 1904) : — "Treaties had been violated, representations disregarded, letters from the Viceroy returned unopened, trade stopped, pillars to mark boundaries overthrown. All this had gone on for fourteen yeai:s ; it now must cease ; but we had no desire to occupy Tibetan territory. Annexation would be a mis- fortime to India." At last reports of Muscovite intrigue were brought to Calcutta, tending to show that Russia was playing the same game here as she had played in Afghanistan. With a continual Russian advance in Central Asia, and a Russian railway across Siberia from west to east, it seemed equally important to make Tibet a "buffer" state; and Lord Curzon resolved to send a peaceful mission to Tibet. This expedition, under Colonel Younghusband, started, in 1903, to negotiate with the Tibetan chiefs direct. The country is ruled by Buddhist priests, or lamas, the chief of whom, the Dalai Lama, is (like the whilom Mikados of Japan) both the spiritual and temporal ruler of the country. The Tibetans viewed the Indian expedition first with suspicion and alarm, and then with hostility. There was no wish to violate the "sacred capital" of Lhassa, but continual provocation and hostility on the part of the Tibetans caused the expedition to advance to Gyangtse, about 150 miles from Lhassa. In April (1903), that town was occupied by the British troops, and its fortress, which surrendered without resistance, was dismantled. As the lamas still held aloof, playing a double game, the expedition advanced to Lhassa. The British force was attacked all along the line of march, and several villages had to be captured and defeats inflicted upon the enemy, BRITISH RULE IN INDIA, 09 before General Macdonald could reach his goal. On arriving at Lhassa (August 3rd, 1904) the British leader found that the Dalai Lama had fled, leaving, however, his seal to a kind of Regent, with whom negotiations wore carried on. With this Regent a treaty was signed, by which the Tibetans agreed to establish markets at Gyangtse and Garlok as well as at Yatung, for British trade, and officials of both countries were to be stationed at those places. Provision was also made for the promotion an 1 protection of trade and traffic along existing routes, and others that might be opened up. The Tibetans, moreover, agreed to pay an indemnity of 7,000,000 rupees (£'500,000) ; and as security for this and the other terms of the treaty, the British troops were to occupy the Chumba Valley for three years. The forts between Gyangtse and the Indian Frontier were to be demolished, and the Tibetan authorities were not to alienate any portion of their country to a foreign power without the consent of Great Britain. (The indemnity was afterwards reduced to i2166,000.) The other events of Lord Curzon's rule included a temble earthquake in north-western India (1905) involving immense loss of life and property both to natives and Europeans in Dharmsala, Lahore, Amritsar, Kangra, and other districts. Fifteen thousand persons lost their lives, and Lady Curzon had a narrow escape at Simla. The plague supervened in the same year, and caused far greater mortality, 57,000 deaths being reported in one week. Bengal having become too unwieldy for single management, it was resolved to divide it into two for administrative purposes. This was accordingly done, the eastern portion of Bengal being united to Assam ; but the change was not fully efifected until Lord Minto's regime. Important army reforms were meanwhile being carried out in conjunction with Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief, J 100 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. but dififerences between the two chiefs caused Lord Curzon to resign (August, 1905).* Lord Minto (1905- ) succeeded Lord Curzon. In 1905- 1906, the Prince and Princess of Wales made a tour through India, but the ethical value of the tour was not greatly apparent. The Hindu mind had been greatly stu-red by the partition of Bengal, and monster meetings were held, at which resolutions to boycott British goods were passed. The unrest extended to the Punjab, and, in 1907, it was found necessary to pass an act against seditious gatherings. Lord Morley, in his Budget speech of this year, foreshadowed important reforms in the Indian administration, including the appoint- ment of native members to his own council, the extension of the native element in the vice-regal and provincial legislative councils, and the formation of imperial and provincial advisory councils of notables. Decentralisation was to be the key to these changes, which were, therefore, thoroughly democratic in their character. The Indian Councils Act of 1909 enlarges the vice-regal and legislative councils, and extends the elective element, and generally proceeds on democratic lines. INDIAN UNREST. The results of British rule in India have not, on the whole, been very encouraging, at least not brilliantly satisfactory. With droughts, pestilences and famines, of more or less regular recurrence (five great famines occurred within 40 j'ears) ; with 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 of people insufficiently fed in the intervals ; with the military expenditure, and with it taxation, steadily rising — and that without any internal wars in the country itself — it is not to be wondered at that there has been ♦ Lord Kitchener demanded the abolition of the divided military control, which made in time of war the military member of the council virtually omnipotent in military matters, while Lord Curzon feared that the change would result in a dangerous military dictatorship. The Home Government, however, upheld Lord Kitchener. UUITISH HULK l.V INDIA. lUl considerablo discontent amongst the natives. But other and more important causes have combined to sharpen that dJKConteut. Some of those causes are political, some social, and some religious, and in investigating these we can trace a remarkable parallel between India and Ireland. Religious Causes. — In both India and Ireland there are two religious communions, each violently opposed to the other, Hinduism and Islam (or Mohammedanism) in the former; and Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in the latter country. In both countries the older creed has a decided majority — Hinduism in India, and Roman Catholicism in Ii'eland. In both countries the religious antagonism has led to political hostility. In both countries the dominant creed favours " Home Rule." The Hindus demand " India for the Indians," as the Irish Roman Catholics demand " Ireland for the Irish." In both countries the minority objects to Home Rule, and for similar reasons. The Mohammedans fear that the withdrawal of the English would leave them to the mercy of the Hindus, to be oppressed, if not exterminated, by a code of anti-Islam laws ; and the Irish Protestants fear for their own future at the hands of the Nationalists under Home Rule, and (as they complain) they are already being systematically boycotted and tyrannised over by the County and Borough Councils with every extension of local self- government. Industrial Causes. — The industrial classes of India used to do very good hand- work, especially in weaving, dyeing, metal and leather work, for which they had good markets, and received good pay. But with the vast extension of steam and machinery, the loom-owners of England have been demanding more and more of the raw {i.e., cheap) material, and British firms less and less of the manufactured {i.e.. the well-paid) article. 102 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. "In the early days of the Company's rule, fabrics produced by Indian weavers supplied the markets of Europe, and men still living can remember the days when every village in the weaving district had its looms, and millions of Indian weavers were supported by that profitable industry'. How this industry was gradually strangled and destroyed, first by protective duties imposed on Indian goods in England, and then by an unequal competition ; how Indian weavers, who were content with threepence or fourpence a day, found themselves ruined by the cheaper products of English looms ; and how the weaver communities of India were compelled to abandon their trade, and to depend on agriculture or petty trade, or on humble and ill-paid appointments in public and private offices — all this forms one of the saddest chapters in the history of British India. What happened to the weavers has also happened to the other industrial classes. The production of the lac dyes has died out since the importa- tion of aniline dyes ; and Indian workers in metals and in leather can scarcely hold their own against imported goods. Millions of artisans have been ousted from their occupations, and have taken to agriculture, and the pressure on the resources of the soil has thus increased with the decadence of our industries. We have ourselves seen, and all Indian administrators who have spent years of their life in the old weaving districts have seen, that the old villages of weavers are often overgrown with jungle, temples constructed by those classes are in decay, large irrigation tanks excavated by them are silted up, and have not been re-du'j; or replaced by other tanks. The villages know not their artisan population who flourished there of old; they have dispersed all over the country as agriculturists, or have crowded to towns as petty traders. ' Leave off weaving ; supply us with the raw material, and we will weave for you,' was virtually what the East India Company said to the Indian weaver at the BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 103 beLjinnini^ of tho ceiitui-y, and this mandate has been only too scrupulously and cruelly followed."'*' Social Causes. — The normal state of poverty in which a very large number of the native population live, is traced by many of tho native agitators and journalists to the periodical valuations of laud. In only one province of India are the land rents permanently fixed by law, and therefore unalterable, viz., in Bengal. In other parts fresh valuations are made every thirty, twenty, and sometimes even fifteen years, so that the unearned increment may go partly to the landlord {i.e., the Government), and not altogether to the tenant- Bengal (it is claimed) has on this account always been more prosperous than other parts of India, and therefore that the principle of permanency of rents should be applied to the rest of India. International Causes. — But perhaps the most potent cause of all in producing the present "national" movement in India is the phenomenal rise of Japan. In Japan, the East has seen a small, weak and obscure community of islanders rise suddenly into — not only a great eastern, but a great world- power, and after prosecuting two great and successful wars, spread her products and manufactures over a great part of the civilised world. What Japan, with a perfectly free hand has done, why might not India, with a similarly free hand, do? Conclusion. — It must not be inferred from the foregoing paragraphs that British rule in India has been a failure. The agitators are loud and conspicuous, but they are a small minority, and when we come to scrutinise what England has really done for India, we may, without self-complewency, pronounce it a magnificent achievement. Droughts are still frequent — as they must always have been — because, depending on the monsoons, they are beyond the control of man ; but * England and India, by Romesh C. Outt, pp. 127-129. lOi BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. the irrigation works, and the complex and elaborate organisa- tion to cope with famines and relieve distress, are nothing short of marvellous ; and the loss of life becomes less and less every time. Add to this the medical and sanitary systems established, and the hospitals erected, the courts of law and justice, and the native police which have been instituted, the development of railways, the spread of education, and the foundation of schools, colleges and universities, the harbours, roads, bridges, and public buildings which adorn the municipal centres ; the care of the aborigines, lepers and other outcasts, and all the other beneficent work accomplished by the missionaries; the abolition of the sdti, the suppression of infanticide and of the thugs; the raising of the status of women ; when we remember these things, and, lastly, when we recall the incessant civil wars, broils, conspiracies, and murders, which were a chronic characteristic of Indian life before the country came under British rule, and which would infallibly revive were British rule withdrawn, we may fairly congratulate British statesmanship on the monument she has raised to health, wealth, peace and progress in India. miee ee o eoe* BUITISU RULE IN INDIA. 105 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ILLUSTRATING The Growth of British Rule in India. 1602. East India Company incorporated. 1612. First Settlement founded at Surat. 1639. Fort St. George founded. le^lO. Factory founded at Hughli. 168.5. Bombay becomes tiie Company's bieadqnarters on tlie Malabar Coast. 1698. Founding of l-'ort William and Calcutta. 1707. Death of Aurungzeb, the Great Mughal. 1774. War lUclnred between Eti'iland and France. 1746. Madras captured by Labourdonnais. 1748. Battle of St. Thome. The Nawib of the KarnAtik (Anwuru'din) attacks Madras and is easily defeated by the French under Dupleix. Treaty of illx-la-Chapelle, 1748. (All eonqueds restored.) 17i9. The Secund Anglo-French Struggle. Cause:— T/k- ambitious tehemes of Dupleix, who detired to found a French Empire in India. 1750. Siege of Trichinopoly. Muhammed All holds the city against Chand& S&hib aided by the French. 1751. Siege of Arcot. Clive defends Arcot against R4j4 S&hib. 1752-4. Siege of Trichinopoly (Second). The British defend Trichinopoly against the Niz4m of the Dekhan and his French allies. 1756, Tlie Seven Yean' War e immences. 17S6. The Black Hole of Calcutta. 1757. Battle of Plassey. THE FOUNDA TION OF BRITISH R ULE IN INDIA. 1760. Battle of Wandewash. Sir Eyre Coote defeats the Comte de Lally and gains the control of the Karn&tik. 1761. Capture of Pondicherry. 1763. Massacre of Patni. 1764. Battle of Bax&r. British victory. Oadh conquered. 1765. Treaty of AUah&bdd. 1767-9. War with Haidar AH. 1773. The Regulating Act. 1774. The First Roliilli War. 1778. First MarithA War. (Ended with the Treaty of Salhai, 1782.) 106 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. 1780. Haidar AU invades the Karniitik. (Second war with Haidar AH 1780-3.) 1781. Battles of Porto Novo and Pollilore. British victories. Treaty of Versailles, 1783. 1784. Pitt's India Bill. 1790. Third Mysore War (with Tipii, son of Haidar All). 1798. Marquis of Wellesley, Governor-General. The Subsidiary System. 1799. Capture of Seringapatam. 1802. Treaty of Bassein. The Mardtha Confederation broken. 1803. Battle of Assaye. (Second Marath& War— with SindhiaK 1813. The East India Company loses the Monopoly of Indian Trade. 1814. War with the Gurkhas. 1817. Third Marith4 War. Capture of Rangoon. 1825. Cession of Assam. 1826. Cession of Arakan and Tenasserim by the King of Ava. 1830. Mysore becomes a Protectorate. 1838. First Afghan War. 1839. Capture of Kabul and Kandahar. 1841. Disastrous British retreat through the Khyber Pass. 1843. Annexation of Sindh. 1845. The First Sikh War. British victories at Ferozshah and Mudki. 1816. ,, „ „ British victories at Aliwal and Sobrion. Dhulep Singh made Maharajah of the Punjab. 1848. Second Sikh War. British victories at Multan, Chilianwilla and Guzerat. 1849. Annexation of the Punjab. 1852. Annexation of Pegu. 1853. Cession of Berar. 1836. Annexation of Oudh. 1837. The Indian Mutiny. The Sepoys alone mutinied, the Sikhs remaining loyal. 1838. East India Company abolished. 1859. The Punjab made a Presidency. 1864. Bhootan War. 1875. Deposition of the Gaikw.ir of Baroda. 1877. Royal Titles Act— Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India. 1873. Second Afghan War. " Scientific " definition of Indo-Afghan frontier. 1879. Treaty of Gandamak (Afghan). 1882. Indian troops serve in Egypt. 1885-6. Third Burmese War — Annexation of Upper Burma and the Shan States. 18S7. Annexation of Quetta and other parts of Beluchistan. BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 107 1888. Black Mountain Expedition (General McQueen). 1890. Treaty with China re Sikkini. Manipur Rising. Lushai Expedition. 1891. Black Mountain Expedition (General EUes). Miranzai Valley Expedition (General Lockhart). 1895. Chitral Expedition ^Colonel Kelly). 1897-8. " Mullah" War; Afridi rising. Tirah Campaii,'n ; Darijai and Chaijni actions. 1899. Indian troops serve in South Africa. 1900. Indian troops serve in China. 1901. North-West Frontier Province formed out of portion of Punjab. 1902. Perpetual lease of Berar obtained— the Nizam renounces claims and receives a pension. 1902. Coronation Darbar of King Edward VII. 1903-4. Tibet Expedition. 1903-4. Indian troops serve in Somaliland. 1905. Indo-Japanese Commercial Treaty. 1905. Formation of Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. 1905. Renewal of Afghan Treaty. 1909. Indian Councils Act— increasing personal powers of Legislative Councils and enlarging elective element. Came into force, January, 1910. GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA. Warren Hastings ... Lord Cornwallis ... Sir John Shore Marquis Wellesley Lord Cornwallis ... Sir George Barlow Lord Minto 1774 1786 1793 1793 1805 1805 1807 Lord Moira (Marquis of Hastings) 1818 Lord Amherst 18i!3 Lord Wm. Bentinck 1828 Sir Charles Metcalfe 1835 Lord Auckland 1836 Lord Ellenborough 1812 Sir Henry Hardinge 1841 Lord Dalhousie 1948 Lord Canning 1855 „ „ first VicEROT ... (1858) Lord Elgin 1862 Sir John Lawrence 18C4 Lord Mayo 18C9 Lord Northbrook 1872 Lord Lytton 1S76 Lord Ripon 1883 Lord Duflferin 1884 Lord Lansdowne 1898 Lord Elgin 1894 Lord Curzon 1899 Lord Minto 1905 108 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. CHAPTER IV. o The British in America. SECTION I BEFORE 1858. Early Attempta at Colonisation. — The history of the English in America begins with the memorable expedition sent out in 1497, by King Henry VII., in which John Cabot, sailing due west, reached that part of Labrador, which he termed New- found-land, together with the island known by that name, whose barren and rocky shores formed a poor substitute for that fabled region of Cathay, which he had set out to find. If the riches he had desired were not to be obtained, wealth of another sort was not wanting, and the Bristol seamen, who had followed Cabot, were quick to take advantage of the limitless supply of fish yielded by the great sand banks, now discovered for the iirst time. Eighty years later, the Bristol fishing fleet to the banks had grown to fifty saU, and the prosperity of the city had vastly increased in consequence. The first attempt at colonisation was made by Sir Humphry Gilbert in 1583, who sailed for St. John's with four ships. When, however, the colonists saw the bleak and barren region to which they had come, their hearts failed, they became mutinous and forced their leader to re-embark for England. On the "vay back occurred a great storm, and Sir Humphry, THK BUITISU IN AMKltlCA. 100 with all his ship's crew was drowned. His project perished with him. His famous half-brother — Sir Walter Raleigh — fared no better. In 1584, he, with a charter from Queen Elizabeth, organised expeditions to the state he had named Virginia in honour of the Virgin Queen, hoping to build up there another Englanl. Disaster dogged his steps, and each expedition seemed more unfortunate than its predecessor. The attempt of the settlers to obtain land from the natives provoked such savage reprisals that scarce a man returned to England. Thus the reign of Elizabeth, glorious as it was, by reason of that great movement of expansion which it inaugurated, saw but little of its effects. The age was one of cdntlict, and the men, who, in a time of peace, would have become the leaders of colonisation, were emploj-ed in repelling the attacks of their country's enemies, or in preying upon their commerce. But the work they did in exploring, and in bringing before men's eyes the wealth that was to be gained beyond seas had a value all its own and bore ample fruit in the period of peace which followed the defeat of the Spanish Armada. England, like other countries, habitually bargained away the commercial rights she had gained in war to private adventurers, or to companies, who thus acquired the monopoly of a given trade. Hence there arose numbers of trading companies, willing to adventure considerable sums of money in enterprises to distant lands. The work attempted with such disastrous results by " Raleigh was continued by two great corporations, the riymouth Adventurers and the South Virginia Company, and in U/Op, a little settlement was made at Jamestown, the first of our American colonies. Captain Smith, its founder, instead of attempting, by force, to wring concessions from the Indians adopted the plan of attempting to conciliate them. The story of his American bride Pocahontas, the " belle sauvage," is one of the most familiar as well as the most pleasmg in the romance of history. 110 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. In 1620, occurred the famous voyage of the Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrim Fathers from religious persecution at home, to foimd in New England a state where they might worship according to the dictates of their conscience. Three years later, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were settled. In 1636, the Catholics, under Lord Baltimore, sought relief from the pressure of the recusancy laws, by foimding the colony of Maryland, as their Puritan fellow countrymen of the Mayflower had founded the New England states of Massachu. aetts and New Plymouth. To the latter, there came a steady stream of Puritan emigration until by 1643 there were four goodly groups of colonies, Ehode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire, which organised themselves as the United Colonies of New England. Then followed Georgia, the outcome of the philanthropic Oglethorpe's efforts on behalf of insolvent debtors, who, doomed to imprisonment at home, might, he thought, here become useful citizens and loyal subjects of King George. The North and South Carolinas were granted by the first Charles in payment of a debt to Robert Heath, and transferred by him to the Earl of Arundel, who colonised them in 1660, calling them the Carolinas in compliment to King Charles II., who had confirmed his father's grant. Lastly came New York and New Jersey, both of which were originally settled by the Dutch and captured from them during the Dutch war of 1664. The settled areas, however, as yet comprised the merest fringe on the Atlantic coast, hedged in by the Alleghanies, beyond which lay the Indian villages and the French settlements along the Mississippi. TllK imiTISn IN AMKKICA. Ill Britain and her American Colonies. — Under the old system of colonisatioa, Britain treated her colonies as existing merely for the benefit of the mother country. All other nations were excluded from their trade in the hope of fostering the home industries. Spain had been the first of the great European countries to adopt this policy, and her example had been quickly followed by Holland and the other colonising nations of the Continent. Britain had been the last to adopt the practice. Until the time of the Protectorate, trade with the Americas had been perfectly free. The charters granted to the early settlers had clearly permitted them to trade with other countries, and as early as 1620 the tobacco planters of Virgmia had their warehouses in Middleburg and Flushing and did a lucrative and increasing trade with Holland. But the Navigation Laws changed all this. The first of these, passed in 1651, secured to Britain the carrying trade with the American colonies and forbade the importation of European oommodities save in English bottoms, while the third, passed In 1673, made the exportation of colonial produce, save to England, illegal. The rigorous enforcement of these laws would have ruined the trade of the colonies, and it is to be feared that they were honoured rather in the breach than in the observance. As a consequence, a vast illicit trade sprang up, chiefly with the Spanish and the French West Indies, a trade which the home government in vain attempted to check. In the end public opinion became strongly heated on both sides, and relations between the mother country and her American offshoots grew more and more strained. The Treaty of Utrecht recognised the evil by sanctioning trade between the American colonies and those of tlie Spanish and French colonies "where hitherto trade and commerce had been accustomed " ; a proviso significant of the fact that the British government recognised both the evil which had prevailed and the difliculty of dealing with it without extreme 112 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. /\ilph, H,)lli/ld i Ct TUE BRITISH IN AMIItlCA. 111! measures, which they were loth to adopt. Even now, the ^owth of manufactures in the colonies was distinctly dis- couraged upon the ground that it interfered with British industries and tended to lessen the dependence of the colonies upon Britain. The colonists claimed, with justice, that the home government attempted to cripple their trade and prevent their advancement, while the EngUsh statesmen, who took the opposite view, protested that they were quite within their rights and that as the colonists had flourished under the protection of the mother country, it was but just that the latter should receive all the advantage possible from the connection. Tempers rose high on both sides the Atlantic. jMatters were in this state when the illness of the great Earl of Chatham left the control of aflfairs in the hands of bis able but erratic and headstrong lieutenant, Charles Townshend. The latter determined, with the sanction of the King, to make the colonists pay for the expense to which the country had been put in their defence, by the imposition of new customs duties and the rigorous exaction of the old. The Navigation Acts, hitherto practically a dead letter in the West Indian seas, were, henceforth, to be strictly enforced; British cruisers picketed the seas, and Custom house officers, armed with " writs of assistance " — obnoxious warrants, in which no person was named — entered private houses at will in the search for smuggled or excisable goods. As a result of these " writs of assistance," pablio opinion became greatly heftted and n conflict arose exactly similar to tbat botween the government and John Wilkes at home, and on the same subject —the legality of general warrants. Tou-nshend's successor — Grenville — went a step further. Not only did he require the colonies to assist in paying for their own defence, but they must now also help to defray the cost of the defence of the empire. Siuce the war which H 114 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. had ju«t been concluded had been undertaken in the defence of the colonies, it seemed reasonable from ' an English point of view that the colonies should aid in bearing the cost. The means suggested — a tax on aU stamped documents— seemed, again from an Enghsh standpoint, equally unobjectionable. The colonies thought otherwise. They were willing to vote, each in its own Assembly, a sum of money to assist the old country at this juncture, but they denied the country's right to tax them whUe they were unrepresented in its Parliament. In vain did British statesmen point out that the majority of EngUsh boroughs were as little represented as they. The colonists retorted that there was all the more need for reform. The colonial Houses of Assembly carried resolution after resolution denying the right of the British Parliament to levy the imposition, and colonial feeling went with its represen- tatives. Pubhc meetings were held, the agitation grew till it attained the proportions of a tumult, riots broke out in various parts of the country, effigies of Lord Bute, the King's adviser and confidant, and of Oliver — the official " Stamp- master" — were burned, and a band of young men calling themselves " Patriots " broke into the Boston stamp-ofiice, destroyed all the stamped documents it contained, and burnt it to the ground. From the agitation thus raised, grew the idea among the leaders of colonial opinion that their future welfare lay in the direction of independence. Henceforth they were constantly on the qui vive for some cause of complaint which they could make the ground of a breach with the home government. The Stamp Act, which had been the cause of all the tumult, was repealed in the following year (1766). but its repeal was foolishly accompanied by a Declara- tory Act insisting on the right of the British Parliament to levy what taxes they pleased in the colonies. Thus whila THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. 115 In securing the repeal of the obnoxious act, the colonial agitators felt that they had scoped a victory over the home government ; the real point at issue — the right of the British parliament to tax the colonies — was still in abeyance, and might, should occasion arise, cause a renewal of all the trouble. The occasion was not long in coming. The colonists had, whilst resisting the excise, acknowledged their liability to pay customs duties. The year following the repeal of the Stamp Act, saw the imposition of a customs duty on tea, glass, painters' colours, paper and other small articles. It was understood that the whole of the proceeds should be devoted to the defence of the colonies. But the idea of independence, conceived during the former agitation, had now taken deep root. The agitation revived but with a difference. Forraorlv the right of Britain to impose internal duties had alone been contested, now its right to levy taxes of any description was denied. Lord North, then in power, repealed all save the tax on tea. This he retained " on principle." But the question was F. question of principle and of principle alone. By arrange- ments made with the East India Company, the colonists would have been enabled to get their tea actually cheaper than before, if they would but consent to pay the small The " Detestable duty of three-pence a pound now levied. They refused to be bribed. A party of youths, disguised as Red Indians, boarded the first ship which entered Boston harbour laden with the "detestable tea," and threw her cargo into the water. At other ports ita reception, if less violent, was no less decisive. The King, already annoyed at the " fatal compliance " v/hich led to the withdrawal of the Stamp Act in 1766, was now exultant. The colonietB were rebels and he would crush them as such. Troops wore despatched from Europe, and all persons impli- cated in the recent di^-turbances ordered to be brought to England for trial. "The colonists," decided the King, "must 116 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND TEE SEAS. either triumph or submit." He certainly had no fear of the result. " They will only be lions while we are lambs," he sapiently concluded, " if we take the resolute part they will undoubtedly be very meek." There was little sign of meek- ness aboub the proceedings of the rebellious colonies. "At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom," wrote George Washington, " no man should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in defence of so great a blessing." The spirit was general throughout the colonies. A congress was called, including delegates from twelve colonies, and a Declaration of Rights of America drawn up. Both sides now prepared for war. The first outbreak occurred at Lexington in 1775, when a party of British troops — sent to destroy a store of arms and ammunition which the rebels had collected at Concord — were attacked and utterly routed by the colonial militia. Compelled, without the possibility of retaUation, to run a gauntlet of fire, all order was lost and discipline disappeared in the panic. The retreat became a headlong race for shelter. Roused by the sight of the regulars in flight before the militia, the colonists flocked to arms. Within a month 20,000 colonial troops had gathered before the British camp in Boston. A body of them entrenched themselves on Bunker Hill, a position which dominated the British camp, and it became necessary to dislodge them. Twice the regulars, advancing to the attack, were repulsed by the steady and deadly fire poured in by the American militia. The third time, stripping off their equipments — a. hundred and twenty-five pounds a man was the fashion of the day — they again breasted the storm of shot, reached the hUl-top, and swept the Americans before them down the opposite slope. The Battle of Bunker Hill was accepted by the rebels in the light of an omen. It proved that, given the advantage of the ground, their untrained THE BRITISH IN AMKRtCA. 117 -y r THE AMERICAN COLONIES AT THt tNO or THC SEVEN YEARS WAR t*iff<. PUlf^ I ifx 118 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. troops might contend on terms approaching equaUty with the disciplined soldiery sent out by Britain. The course of the war hardly confirmed this view. Throughout each of its campaigns the Enghsh were almost uniformly victorious in the field. The disasters to the British arms which cost Britain her American colonies were due to grave faults on the part of her commanders, rather than to any lack of courage on the part of her troops. These events were followed by the Declaration of American Independence in 1776, in which the colonists proclaimed themselves independent of Britain imder the title of the United States of America. The War of American Independence. — The war that followed lasted through about seven years, during which period the position of the colonists was often desperate. The ^oops wanted for food and clothing, were insufficiently armed, <«id badly provided with ammunition. Perhaps the worst episode of that time was the winter spent by Washington at Valley Forge, during which his troops died by htmdreds from actual starvation, to say nothing of the lives which were lost through exposure to the winter cold. Such a time is an infallible test by which to distinguish the true from the false ; and few, to whom it has been appHed, have survived the ordeal better than the faithful band which braved, with "Washington, the rigours of that terrible winter. Two great reverses to the British arms brought the war to a close. The first was the surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, in 1777, which determined the French, to espouse the American cause and led them to form a treaty with the colonists, recognising their independence, and making common cause with them against Great Britain. The second was the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, in 1781, which convinced the British government of the impossibility of coercing the rebels into obedience ; and American Indepen- dence was acknowledged by the Treaty of Versailles, 1783. THK BRITISH IN' AMERICA. 119 The English and French In America. — Although she had been preceded in America by both Spain and England, Franc* had been by no means backward in exploring and settling the continent. In 1534, Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Law- rence, and, on his return to France, strenuously urged the desirability of colonising the country. In spite of his efforts, however, it remained undisturbed by Europeans for more than fifty years. Two names remain to mark his visit : the name of the country itself — Canada — which he, hearing the natives speak of their Ecutiatha, or villages, mistook for the name of the country ; and Montreal, which he dubbed Mont Eoyal. The country was, however, generally known as New France. In the year 1598 a party of convicts attempted to effect a permanent settlement in tlie country. The attempt failed after five years of terrible privation. One or two other efforts were made but without avail, untU, in 1603, the celebrated Samuel Champlain explored the St. Lawrence, and in the next year returned with a small colonising party. " All New France," quamtly remarks an old chronicler, " was contained in two small vessels." The tirst settlement was made in Nova Scotia, and thence exploring parties were sent throughout the country with the view of determining the best site for a station. Aiter four years of soarch, the choice fell upon Quebec, and Champlain, returning to France for stores, brought back with him two ship loads of new colonists. His careful rule gradually overcame all the difficulties which hampered the new colony, and the little settlement appeared upon the high road to success. Religious difficulties, however, came to check its progress. The early settlers had been largely Huguenots. In 1627, the manage- ment of the colony was entrusted to the Catholic Association of the Hundred Partners, through which the great Cardinal de RicheUeu attempted to secure, in the first place, the con- version of the North American Indians to Christianity ; and, in the second, to extend the commercial interests of France 120 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. and, in particular, to develop the fur trade. The early settlers now found themselves at variance with the authorities, and the governor, Champlain, was compelled to reorganise hia colony in accordance with the new conditions. Hence there arose considerable embarrassment, and the development of the colony was for a time slow. Greater embarrassment, however, was soon to arise. The English, who had hitherto confined their attention to the prosecution of the Newfoundland fisheries, saw with the greatest jealousy the encroachments of the French on a territory which they, in virtue of Cabot's discovery, had been wont to consider their own. In 1614, a force was sent from the Virginia Company's settlement at Jamestown against the little French colony at Port Royal in Nova Scotia, which it captured and annexed to the British territories. Nothing more was done at the time, but, in 1621, James I. made a royal grant of the whole of the peninsula to Sir William Alexander, who immediately proceeded to colonise it with Scotsmen. The colony now for the first time received its name — Nova Scotia — and, four years later, Charles I. created a distinct order of baronets, each of whom, in addition to his knighthood, received a grant of sixteen thousand acres Ho¥a Scotia. in the new country on condition of sending at least six men to settle there. Thus augmented, the colonists found themselves sufficiently strong numerically to invade the territories of their French neighbours, and a force under Kirke was despatched against Quebec. Champlain, called r.pon to surrender, heroically rephed that he was sure his adversaries would respect him more for not abandoning his charge without first making trial of the English guns and batteries, and that he would, therefore, await the attack. The attempt was fruitless, but, in the year 1629, the failure of supplies threw Quebec into the hands of the English, who held it for three years, until 1632, when, THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. 121 by the Treaty of St. Gerinains, Quebec and all the territory in dispute, sweeping from Cape Breton to the extreme west, was acknowledged to be French and Champlain, "the Father of the Colony," returned to taJie up its administration once more. Champlain died in iri35, and the territory he had opened up became the theatre of strife between the French and the English for the next hundred and thirty years. The colonising spirit, once aroused, became active among the French, and their colonies crept further and further towards the interior, and towards the south. With this came also a great develop- ment of tlie missionary spirit and Franciscans and Jesuits vied with each other in risking their lives to carry the gospel among the Indian tribes. These planted settlements along the lines of the great lakes, crept southward through Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois until in 1673, they reached the Mississippi, and floated down the great river in their canoes to a point below the junction of the Arkansas. Other adventurers, this time of a more mercenar3' type, followed their course and tracing the river to its mouth, planted their country's flag on the shores of the Mexican Gulf. Among the chief of these was La Salle, who, in 1682, explored the vast and fertile region which he named Louisiana in honour of the Grand Monarque, and who, sailing with a band of adventurous colonists, was shipwrecked on the coast of Texas, of which region, he, prompt to turn misfortvme to accovmt, took possession also. By the close of tlie century France held, in America, the whole of the coast from Hudson's Bay to Maine, the vast and undefined territory known as New France or Acadia, and now as Canada, besides large tracts in the Mississippi valley. Thirteen years later, the treaty of Utrecht saw the cession to Britain of Hudson Bay, Acadia and Newfoundland. France still, however, retained Canada and the settlements on the Mississippi. Here she more than held 122 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. her own, extending her borders along tlie AUeghanj' and the Ohio settling Indiana and founding the new state of Arkansas. As might have been anticipated, the rivalry between the French and the English was intense, and a guerilla warfare, in which both parties sought the aid of the savage Indian tribes was waged over aU the neutral ground between their settle- ments. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' "War, the English colonists combined for a grand attack upon the French. The results were at first hardly of an encouraging kind. A body of troops under Washington was defeated at Fort Duquesne and forced to capitulate, and the whole country west of the AUeghanies fell into the hands of the French. The situation was serious and General Braddock was sent over from England to save it. Courageous to a degree, he had no knowledge of the peculiar tactics of Indian warfare, and it was by means of Indian tactics that the contest was carried on. Braddock was readily entrapped into an ambush at Fort Duquesne in 1755, and utterly defeated with the loss of half his force. He was himself so severely wounded that he died four days after. In New Brunswick, the English arms were more successful, and in Nova Scotia, the French inhabitants to the number of about 18,000, rising in arms, in the hope of aiding their countrymen to reconquer the province, were forcibly expelled by the English authorities under circumstances of great hardship, for which, however, they or their leaders, must be alone held responsible. The expulsion of the Acadians has been pathetically told by Longfellow in his poem " Kvangeline," which, if it errs in concealing the offences which brought upon the settlers so terrible a retribution, by no means exaggerates their troubles or their homely worth. After the final transfer of the country to Britain in 17C0, they were per- mitted to return on condition of acknowledging themselves British subjects, and about a sixth availed themselves of the permission thus accorded. THK BRITISH IN AMKUICA. 123 The Conquest of Canada. — The dcfcal of Washuigton, and, later, of Bi-addock, at Fort Duquesne drew England's attention to the importance of the conflict, and Pitt, keenly desirous of extending our colonial empire, formulated a grand scheme for the conquest of Canada. He urgently appealed to the colonists to raise a sufficient body of troops, and Pitt's scheme promised to reimburse them for their expeiidi- ^ ' ture from the national exchequer, superseded the incapable English commanders, and, with a daring dis- regard of precedent, filled their places with younger men than as yet had ever been entrusted with important commands. Boscawen in command of the British fleet intercepted French re-inforccmonts, and in 1758, Louisberg was captured together with Cape Breton and Prince Edward Islands, while Forbes and "Washington succeeded in carrying Fort Duquesne, the name of which was now changed to Pittsburg, in honour of the great minister whose schemes promised so greatly for tlie future of the British Empire. Under the present plan. General Amherst was, with the main body of the British troops to attack Fort Ticouderoga, Prideaux with a force of colonists and Indians was to lay siege to Fort Niagara, and then press on to Montreal, while General Wolfe, who had just come from England with reinforcements was to sail up the St. Lawrence and effect a jtmction with the other two. Then the combined armies were to strike a decisive blow at the French power in its great stronghold of Quebec. The first part of the plan worked to admiration. Forts Ticonderoga and Niagara were captured, and the French driven from the coimtry lying between Pittsburg and Lake Eric. But here for the moment, the scheme was checked. The settlements on Lake Champlain opposed an unex- pectedly obstinate resistance to Amherst who was consequently delayed. Montreal too held out bravely against Jolinson, so that 124 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. when Wolfe, who had arrived as arranged, sailed up the St. Lawrence, he found himself on the Island of The Capture of Orleans, before Quebec, unsupported by the Quebec. colleagues from whom he had anticipated assistance and with no prospect of their speedy appearance. To add to his difficulties, Quebec was from its position practically impregnable. It stood on a tongue of elevated land, between the river St. Charles and the river St. Lawrence. On the water side, the cliffs sank sheer to the river, some three hundred feet below : on the land side the city was guarded by the Plains of Abraham. Wolfe, after a fruitless bombard- ment, crossed the river and attempted to carry the position by storm. The attempt was a failure. The Enghsh were, as might have been expected, repulsed with heavy loss. Every attempt to draw the wary Montcalm from his position of vantage was unavailing. For six weeks, Wolfe saw his men wasting away in sickness and inactivity, while he himself lay prostrate, ill alike in body and mind. The case seemed desperate, and Wolfe determined upon b desperate remedy. He determined to climb, under cover of night, the heights behind the town, heights reputed maccessible, and which therefore the enemy had taken no thought to guard. With muffled oars the boats crept up the river. Not a voice broke the stillness save that of the young general himself who repeated in low tones, to those who sat with him, Gray's " Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," then in the height of its fame. " Gentlemen," said he, as he finished the beautiful lines, " I had rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec." The landing was made, and the troops, animated by the spirit of their leader, swung themselves up the sloping cliff by the aid of the bushes and grass, until, when morning dawned, there appeared before the eyes of the astonished French general, the whole British army drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm had been taken THE BRITISH IN AMKRICA. 125 onawiueB. He hud beeu outmaiiceuvred, but he could still fight. He prepared at once for the attack. The advance was received in ominous silence by the British. Orders had been given that the English troops were not to fire till they could see the whites of the enemy's eyes. The men fell fast. The general himself had been twice wounded, before the French had reached the distance required. At last the word was given to fire, and the blow so long delayed fell with deadly elTect. The French line wavered. Then the order was given for the whole l2ngUsh army to advance. The charge broke through the French line, and the troops which composed it scattered in all directions. But Wolfe, who spite of his wounds had headed the charge, fell back in the moment of victory, a musket bullet in his breast. " They run, thcj' run," cried an ollicer, who had received him in his arms. " Who run ? " exclaimed the young general, rousing from his stupor. " The French," was the reply. " Then thank God, I die happy," he murmured. The victory was a decisive one. It was the death blow of the French hopes of an American dominion. The heroic Montcalm survived his defeat but one day, and the city capitulated five days after. On the battlefield, a column marks to posterity the spot where the gallant Wolfe fell, and in the governor's garden stands a stately monument to hie memory and to that of his chivalrous foe. Early in the following year, Montreal surrendered, and with its fall, the whole of New France passed into tLe posses- sion of Britain. The surrender was confirmed in the Treaty of Paris, 1763, which " ceded and guaranteed to his Britannic Majesty, in full right, Canada with all its dependencies," and provided England with another great group of American colonies to take, in time, the place of those she was destined to lose twoTity years Inte'-. Canada and the States. — The surrender of Canada to Great Britain did not end the troubles of that colony. The inhabi- 126 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. tants, some sixty thousand in number, were mainly French in origin, and their control was now vested in a few British officers and traders from the older settlement, who, in their endeavours to lay hold of the best portions of the conquered colony, vastly intensified the ill-feeling which existed between the conquerors and the conquered. The Quebec Act of 1774 attempted to obviate the evil by confirming the French in their possessions and civU rights on condition of their taldng the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, but the measure only succeeded in rousing the English population without pacifying the French. In the War of American Independence, which began with the battle of Lexington in 1775, the rebels against the Home Country looked for assistance from the conquered Canadians, and endeavoured, in attempting the subjugation of that country, to strengthen their own cause by the addition of & population inimical to Britain, while, at the same time, weaken- ing the latter by adding another to her list of foes. The attack was at first successful. General Montgomery succeeded in carrying Chambly, St. John and Montreal. But Arnold — afterwards to win notoriety for his treason — fared badly in his attack upon Quebec. Even when the victorious forces of Montgomery came to his assistance, the town still obstinately resisted. Montgomery, remembering Wolfe's ex- ploit, attempted to repeat it. The attempt failed, and the besiegers, struck with terror at the terrible slaughter among them, ignominiously retreated. The siege lingered on for some months, but nothing of moment was attempted, and at last the appearance of reinforcements from England sent the invaders home in hasty retreat. The fusion of the two races in Canada was soon seen to be a matter of the utmost difficulty. Apart from the difference of language, of manners and customs, it was impossible for two distinct races, brought together under circumstances so pro- THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. 127 vocative of hostility, to readily amalgamate, and it was but natural that the French Canadians should feel dissatisfied with their position in the colony. Of this dissatisfaction the United States of America again attempted to make use when, in 1812, war arose between them and England. " We can take the Canadas without soldiers," said the Secretary of War in Congress. " It is only necessary to send officers into the provmces smd the people disalTected towards their own government will rally romid their standard." The States were mistaken. Aggrieved as the Canadians were, they desired redress rather than revolt, and had no wish to exchange the government of England, whatever its faults, for the form of government offered by the States. Kegiments of Canadian militia were speedily raised to assist in repelling the expected invasion. Thrice the Americans crossed the frontier, but each time without success. Then, in 1818, the attack was renewed, Toronto was surprised, and for some months the invaders were masters of a great part of Upper Canada, but the autumn brought reverses which more than neutralised their former successes, and they were compelled to retire. In the next spring the attack was renewed with some success. But tliis was again transient, for the cessation of the great European war freed England's hands, a large armament was despatched, and the seat of war promptly transferred to the States. But Britain received as much injury as she inflicted, and peace was signed at Ghent on Christmas Eve, 1814. The English and French Canadians.— The war had the effect of temporarily uniting the French and English in Canada. It did more. It showed that only in a cordial imion might the colony hope to find security against future attacks from the States. Against this imion, various circumstanoes militated. The French were practically unrepresented in the government, which was carried on from homo by means of a 128 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. set of officials who were really ignorant of what the country needed and what it felt. The example of their American neighbour before them, the colonists determined upon an effort to shake off, at least some of the abuses under which they suffered. A manifesto to the government met with no re- sponse. Discontent spread. The Assembly refused to vote supplies. For four years no taxes were raised, the of&cials in the employ of the government received no wages, and the government itself came to a deadlock. Then, in 1837, the smouldering discontent broke out into open The Rebellion ^g^eUion. The revolt was easily sup- of 1837. pressed, but the event roused pubuc opmion at home on behalf of the colony, and in 1838 the Earl of Durham was sent to Canada to report on the measures necessary for the organisation of a satisfactory system of govern- ment. He reported in favour of a union of the two Canadas under a local government, responsible to the Assemblies and practi- cally independent of England, and, in 1840, this was carried into effect. Since that tune the career of the colony has been one of uninterrupted tranquillity and prosperity, and the French population, though still attached to its own manners and customs, has entered heartily into the arrangement by which it peacefully shares its political rights with the English. The governorship of Lord Elgin, 1847-1854, may be said to have organised Canada into a nation, so greatly did he reform the representation, improve the admiiiistration of the law and labour to convince the colonists that the independence granted them by the home government was no empty show but a real license to manage their own aOairs. British Columbia.— In 1856, the disoovery of large deposits of gold along the bed of the Fraser River and in Vancouver's Island brought about a large influx of prospectors and diggers. In accord* ance with the general rule these were followed by emigrants seeking other and more orderly methods of industry, the population rapidly THK BRITISH IN AMERICA. 129 increased, towns sprang up, and in 1871, the district was admitted into the Dominion of Canada. The Hudson's Bay Territory.— The Hudson's Bay Company was iucorporated under a ohiirter granted by Charles II. to Prince Rupert and seventeen other nobles and gentlemen, securing to them the monopoly of trade in the areas comprised by the basins of the rivers draining into Hudson Bay. The district was known at first as Prince Rupert's Land. At the time of the conquest of Canada it had only a few " forts " and some hundred and fifty servants. After 1763, fur traders flocked to the country, and a rival company— the North-West Fur Company of Blontreal — began a dang-ro'is rivalry. The contest ended, in 1821, by the amalgamation of the two com- panies. In 1859, the Government refused to renew the charter and the monopoly lax)sed, the district being now open to all. The original possessions of the company were transferred to the Government in 18G9, and, in the followinp: year, the district was incorporated in the Dominion of Canada, and the Corporation now trades as a private company. 130 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. SECTION II.— SINCE 1858. Between the union of Upper and Lower Canada, in 1840, and the American Civil War (1861-1864), there is little in Canadian history to record, except the commencement of the Grand Trunk Eailway and the signing of the Eeciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1854. Canada was at this time a house divided against itself. There were, indeed, two systems of cleavage. First, there were the united provinces of Upper and Elements Lower Canada with a single legislature, on the Disunion °^® hand ; and there were, on the other hand, the maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and Newfoundland. These maritime provinces enjoyed exceptional advantages with regard to European and oceanic trade, while (Upper and Lower) Canada was practically land-locked, not only by its distance from the sea, but from the fact that the St. Lawrence is closed every year during several months in winter. The former, therefore, {i.e., Canada proper) had to depend almost entirely on her trade with the United States. It was this which led to the Eeciprocity Treaty of 1854, under which both countries prospered remarkably. But the great Inland Canada, although united by Act of Parliament, was divided against itself. The Upper portion, with Toronto for its capital, was English and Protestant ; while the Lower country, with Montreal and Quebec for its chief towns, was French and Eoman Catholic. The Upper country, again, was rich, enterprising and progressive ; and, while contributing an ever-increasing population and revenue, complained that it was quite inadequatelj' represented in the common Legislature. The English element, too, (such as it was) in the Legislature, THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. l.'Jl tended to divide into two opposing parties, according to the traditional principle of English politics; while the French element, being without this tradition, and, therefore, being united, could hold the balance, and thus rule the situation in the Legislature. As Canada proper, moreover, was practically cut ofT from the ocean, so the Upper province (Ontario) was cut off even from the mouth of the St. Lawrence. It was such considerations as these that led Mr. Jackson Gait and others to advocate a federal union of all the Canadian Provinces. With this object a Conference, attended by delegates from the different piovinces, met at Quebec in 1864, and came to conclusions favourable to federation. There were difficulties with Nova Scotia, and also with England, which at first looked askance on the project ; but the majority of Canadians were in favour of the measure, and in March, 1867, the Imperial Parliament passed the British North American Act, pro- vidinfT for the voluntarv union cf British North America under the title of the " Dominion of Canada." By this Act, a Canadian Parliament was established, consisting of two Houses, viz., a Senate, whose members are appointed for life by the Crown, and a House of Commons, elected by the different Provinces for five years at the longest, each province sending a number of representatives according to its population. No property qualification is necessary. The House chooses its own Speaker. The Executive is in the hands of the King, delegated by him to the Governor- General assisted by a Privy Council. Besides this federal government each province has its Legislature to look after its own affairs. The Dominion, at first, consistea of the four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, alone. And even in one of these. Nova Scotia, there soon arose a violent agitation, under Joseph Howe, for repeal of the union, on the ground that her people had not been fully consulted 132 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. before the passing of the measure, and that the interests of the Province had been sacrificed. This danger was only averted after much negotiation, and a certain modification of the terms upon which Nova Scotia had entered the union. The other provinces joined the union later on, as follows : — The Hudson Bay Company sold its territories to the Dominion in 1870, and from part of these territories Manitoba was formed, and annexed to the Dominion in the same year. The half-breeds in that country, who were indeed very cavalierly treated, resisted annexation, and tried to organise a revolt under Louis Eiel. The rising (kno^\n as the Eed River Bebellion) was, however, easily crushed by Colonel Wolseley, and Eiel made his escape for the time being. It will be better to anticipate here the rest of Eiel's career. Besides Manitoba there remained the vast undefined region, known as the North West Territorv, to be dealt with. Louis Riel. In those regions the half-breeds had been dealt with even more unjustly than those in Manitoba; for while the latter received 240 acres of land a-piece as compensation for the loss of their previous rights, the former received nothing at all. There was talk about compensating them, and the Government was empowered by Act of Parliament to satisfy them. But nothing was done. Under these circumstances discontent ripened into resentment and exasperation. In the previous rising Eiel had been guilty of putting to death with great brutality a loyalist named Thomas Scott. For this murder, while a general amnesty was granted to the rest, Eiel and another were sentenced to five years' banishment, which period Eiel spent in Montana as an American citizen. In March, 1885, Eiel, who had received a deputation from the half-breeds of the Territories, returned and, placing himself at their head, proclaimed himself " President " of a Provincial Government. He then captured a Government post, and seized the stores. THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. 138 In a couple of months, however, he was clcfoatcd and capturcl, and being tried at Eegina, was found guilty of treason and hanged. British Columbia entered the Dominion in 1871, on condition that her seaboard on the Pacific should be connected by railway with the eastern railway system of Canada. Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion in 1873, and Alberta and Saskatchewan (formed out of the districts of Alberta, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Athabasca) in 19U5. Newfoundland — with its dependency Labrador — never joined tiie Union, and still remains independent of the Dominion. In federating her provinces, Canada had a choice of principles ; she might have adopted a " rigid constitution," defining sharply the powers to be wielded by the Central or Federal body, and giving all other powers, not so defined, to the local or provincial legislatures. This was the plan adopted by the United States, and afterwards by Australia. Or slie might have given the Local legislatures certain defined powers, and made the Central legislature the residuary legatee (so to speak) of all powers not included in such definition. Mindful of ihe trouble and difliculties which the United The Federal y^ates Congress had had with the local or Plan. ° minor state legislatures, which from time to time claimed large, undefined powers — sometimes entirely fatal to Federation — Canada chose the latter principle ; and defining rigidly the powers of the provincial legislatures, gave all the other undefined powers to the Central or Dominion legislature. By this means a great deal of trouble and danger has been avoided ; nevertheless forasmuch as the individual provinces bear a far larger proportion to the whole Dominion than the individual American States do to the United States Commonwealth, the tendency in Canada has been to allow a more and more liberal .interpretation of the 134 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. powers defined and assigned to the provincial governments. After the Union had been effected there were several problems of greater or less moment to be faced. One of the first was that of appellate jurisdiction. In the British Isles the House of Lords is the highest Court of Appeal for the three Kingdoms. It was felt in Canada too to be desirable that there should be a common central Court of Justice. Accordingly, a Supreme Court was established, like that in the United States, with appellate jurisdiction both in civil and criminal cases, for the whole Dominion. An appeal from this court lies to the Judicial Committee of the Privj^ Council at home, a feature necessary to render Canada judicially a portion of the British Empire (1876). Another task to be faced was that of the great Railways. Two systems had been contemplated as a condition of Federation ; one to unite the maritime provinces (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) with the upper St. Lawrence ; and secondly, the Canadian Pacific, to unite the Atlantic with the Pacific coast. The former of these was duly begun, and was completed in 1876. The latter was found to bristle with difficulties. At first it was intended to carry it out as a great public work ; but this being found impracticable, it was resolved to hand it over to a private company. But what with incompetent companies, want of money, alternative schemes, Mackenzie-Macdonald rivalry, changes of ministry, and royal commissions, the work — to the extreme dissatis- faction of British Columbia — continually hung fire, and it was not until 1885 that it was an accomplished fact. That success was finally achieved was due to the genius of Sir John Macdonald, Sir Charles Tupper, and Mr. Donald Smith (after, wards Lord Strathcona). The Canadian Grand Trunk Railway is now one of the largest and most important in the world. The Fisheries formed another question that had to be faced. By the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the United States THE BRITISH IN AMBRIOA. 185 had a right to fish in Canadian waters. This Treaty camo to an end in 1866, and negotiations for renewal failed. Yet the Americans continued to fish as before. This gave rise to seizures, confiscations and reprisals. At length a joint Commission met at Washington in 1871, and arranged terms by which the Americans should be allowed to fish in Canadian waters on paying Canada an indenmity, the amount of which was to be fixed later on. Another Commission accordingly met at Halifax in 1877, which to the great surprise and disappointment of the United States awarded Canada the sum of five and a half million dollars. The American Secretary of State, Mr. Evarts, sought to challenge the award ; but it was, with some reluctance, paid in the following year. A new treaty regulating the whole fishery question, agreed upon at Washington in 1888, was vetoed by the United States Senate, and since then fishing has been carried on by the Amerioans on a system by which the latter take out and pay for licenses. The Bering Sea seal fishery caused another difliculty later on, and several Canadian vessels in the Pacific were seized by the United States. In 1892, this matter was submitted to arbitration, and Canada was awarded damages to the amount of four hundred and sixty-four thousand dollars for the seizures. At the same time a satisfactory agreement was come to on the future conduct of the seal fishing. The San Juan boundary question constituted another difficulty of long standing. In 1846, the boundary between Oregon and Canada was settled, not without some danger of a rupture between Great Britain and the United States. Both countries had modified their claims, and the boundary was fixed so as to include the whole of Vancouver Island within Canadian Territory; but the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of Juan de Fuca, south of Vancouver, are full of islands, and the exact water boundary had never been agreed upon. The chief point in dispute was the position of the island of San Juan; 136 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. and the island was occapied by both powers in a joint military occupation. At length in 1872 the question was submitted by arbitration to the German Emperor, whose decision was in favour of the United States. But the subject of Foreign Trade constituted the most absorbing of all Canadian problems. Under the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 with the United States, Protection. ,nin, ■ -, ,^ ^ Canadian trade had been earned on smoothly and happily. If Upper and Lower Canada were partially at the mercy of the maritime provinces in the matter of Atlantic trade, they were in an admirable position for commercial intercourse with the northern portion of the United States. And this intercourse they enjoyed by the treaty already mentioned. After the American Civil War, however, the authorities at Washington, thinking that they had Canada in their power, resolved to utilise the opportunity so as to make annexation the only alternative. They therefore gave notice to abrogate the Treaty of 1854, which they accordingly did in 1866. Canada replied by pushing on the movement for Federation; which, being accomplished in 1867, consolidated Canada and placed all internal trade relations on an equal footing. New markets for Canadian trade were sought for in the West Indies, in Europe and elsewhere ; so that instead of languishing as was anticipated, Canadian trade nearly doubled itself in the years that followed the abrogation of the 1854 Treaty. After the seven years of plenty, however, there came a period of dearth and leanness such as had never before been experienced in Canada. A cry for the protection of native industries then arose, and the whole Dominion became divided into camps on this question. The elections of 1878 turned almost entu'ely on the question of Protection, and the Protectionists came in with a large majority. They then declared what was termed the ''National Policj'," which was " to prevent Canada from remaining a ' slaughter market ' THE BRITISH IN AMKRICA. 137 for American manufactures " ; and further, " to select for a high rate of duty, those articles which were manufacture 1 or could be manufactured in Canada, .and to leave without additional duties such articles as were neither made nor likely to bo made by home manufacturers." * ■ This became the stereotyped policy of the Dominion, and its adoption in 1878 seems to have saved the situation. It checked the stream of emigration of Canadians to the United States, weakened the voices of those who were already clamouring for commercial union with America, and initiated a new period of prospeiity. When Sir John Macdonald, the great exponent of the National Policy, issued his last election address (February, 1891) he reviewed the results of Protection in the following words : " When in 1878, we were called upon to administer the affairs of the Dominion, Canada occupied a position in the eyes of the world very different from that which she enjoys to-daj'. At that time a profound depression hung like a pall over the whole country, from the Atlantic ocean to the western limits of the Province of Ontario, beyond which to the Rocky Mountains stretched a vast and almost unknown wilderness. Trade loas depressed, manufactures languished, and — exposed to ruinous competition — Canadians were fast sinking into the position of being mere hewers of wood and drawers of water for the great nation dwelling to the south of us. We determined to change this unhajipy state of things. We felt that Canada, with its agricultural resources, rich in its fisheries, timber, and mineral wealth, was worthy of a nobler position than that of being a slaujhter market of the United States. We said to the American, ' We are perfectly willing to trade with you on equal terms. We are desirous of having a fair reciprocity treaty, but we will not consent to open our markets to you while yours remain closed to us.' So we inaugurated the National (TarilT Reform) policy. • Lue-$, Vol. T., p. 305. 138 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE S^AS. You all know what followed. Almost, as if by magic, tJie whole face of the country underwent a change. Stagnation and ajiathy and gloom— aye, a/nd want a/nd misery too — gave place to activity and enterprise and prosp)erity. The miners of Nova Scotia took courage ; the manufacturing industries in our great centres revived and multipUed ; the farmer found a market for his produce, the artisan and labourer employment at good wages, and all Canada rejoiced under the quickening impulse of a new-found life. The age of deficits was past, and an overflowing Treasury gave to the Government the means of carrying forward those great works nect>^;sary to the reali- sation of our purposes to make this country a homogeneous whole." There was still a Liberal Party however which advocated accommodation with the United States ; but that country had already adopted a high protective policy, and by the McKinley Tariff of the States large duties were placed upon Canadian raw products. The Canadian Liberal Party there- fore lost ground. But after the death of Sir John Macdonald (1891) a modification of the " National Policy " was advocated with some success ; and when Mr. Laurier, a " Moderate Protectionist " became Prime Minister, he was able to initiate a new departure. This was effected in 1897, the principal feature of the alteration being a preference of 12|- per cent. — rising in 1898 to 25 per cent, on British goods. In 1900, this preference was fm'ther raised to 33^ per cent, {i.e., below the duties imposed upon the goods of other nations). This Tariff was somewhat modified in 1907, but not to any material extent ; and its effect has been to checkthefallingoff of British exports to Canada, and also to stimulate greatly the Canadian trade with Great Britain. In the working out of the Dominion Constitution there has been (as observed above) some friction between the Central government sitting at the Federal Capital of Ottawa, and the TUK UIUTISH IN AMERICA. 13'J various local governments sittinj^ in the provincial capitals. This however could hardly be otlierwise, owing to the great ditiiculty in deiining "local interests," outside which the provincial chambers were not to legislate. On questions of the franchise, licensing, education, railways, national defence, etc., there has been a good deal of dilTereuce of opinion, and now and again something like a dead-lock has been threatened. But a modus vivendi has always been found at length, and on the whole the constitution has worked out with reasonable harmony. In Mr. (now Sir Wilfred) Laurier, Canada has found a most able and liberal-minded successor to Sir John Macdonald. One difficulty of international importance remains to be noticed — the settlement of the Alaska boundary. When Great Britain began pushing out her Canadian claims westwards, she found that Russia claimed Boundary. Alaska ; so, by a treaty between that country and Great Britain in 1825, a delimitation (though a rather vague one) was mapped out between Alaska and British North America. Prince of Wales's Island was assigned to Russia, and the Canadian boundary was to run from the south of that island through Portland Channel, and striking the Continent at 56° North Latitude, was to proceed northward parallel to the windings of the coast, but not more than ten marine leagues inland ; and Great Britain was to have the free navigation of the rivers flowing into the Paciiic. Futile attempts had been made to lay down a more exact boundary, but it was nit thouglit worth while to spend money on the subject, when in 1867 the United State-; purchased Alaska from Russia. The boundary question was still left in abeyance, until the discovery of gold in the Yukon district (August, 1896), when a great rush to Klondyke took place, and a more precise boundary definition became imperative. Negotiations still for some time proved abortive, and it was 140 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. 134- Alaska / Silka I A^ Land / The- ALASMx\ BOIWBAMT _...— ... TInihd Slah^ Clainv ■ Jiriiish Clainv — — — — asAu ■ardcd. Scale <>f Mil-es so Yukon Dislricl ' OhscrraloryTrdel QuecM Chartolle I'' \ THE BRITISH IN AMERICA. Ill not until 1903 that a joint Coiniaission was agreed to of three American and throe English and Canadian jurists. The chief questions were (1) What was the Portland Channel ? and (2) Was the inland limit to go round the estuaries of the rivers, or to cut across their mouths ? In the result the Commission decided on these points in favour of the States, the English representative (the Lord Chief Justice of England) voting with the three American against the two Canadian Commissioners. The verdict gave the United States control over the maritime approaches to the Klondyke goldfields, together with two islands situated near the proposed terminus of a projected Trans-Canadian railway. The issue Tvas received in the United States as a brilliant diplomatic victory, but it was regarded in Canada as a betrayal of her interests by the mother country. There are now about 23,000 miles of railways in Canada, and trade and commerce have progressed prodigiously in recent years. The total value of Canadian ^*'^®"* exports in 1904 was 213,000,000 dollars ; in Pro^rGSs 1908 it had risen to 280,000,000 dollars. The total value of imports during the same period rose from 251,000,000 to 358,000,000 dollars. The wheat exi^orted to Great Britain in 1905 was valued at ^62,000,000, and m 1908 at Je8,000,000. Education. — Each Province has its own university (or universities), thirteen in all; and the average attendance of students is about 20,000. 142 BKITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. CHAPTER V. o The British in the West Indies. o SECTION I.— BEFORE 1858. The important archipelago known as the West Indies received its name from Columbus when, in 1492, he sighted the little island of San Salvador and concluded that he had succeeded in his daring attempt to reach India. Together with all the mainland of America, the Spaniards laid claim to these islands. Here their earliest settlements had been made, and hence they drew their first cargoes of gold and sUver. But the mineral wealth of the islands was soon exhausted ; the mines of Peru proved far more attractive, the Spanish planters failed to recognise the inexhaustible source of riches that lay in the fertility of the soil, and the West Indies fell into neglect. Other nations with a keener eye to their advajitages soon showed themselves covetous of them, and, with the waning of Spain's power at sea, there came numerous attempts on the part of the other great colonising nations to wrest from her, possessions whose value she despised. The first of Englishmen to trade with the West Indies was Sir John Hawkins, who proceeded thither in 1562 with a cargo of slaves from the Guinea coast, and won for himself unenviable notoriety as the founder of the horrible traffic m flesh and blood which flourislied under the name of the " slave trade." Queen Ehzabeth, however, awarded him a baronetcy, TUK BRITISH IN THE WEST INDIES. 143 144 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. with the power to add " a negro in his proper colour, bound and captive " to his coat of arms. His last voyage was disastrous. He was utterly defeated in an unequal contest with the Spaniards, many of his men were slain, and others taken captive and sent into Spanish slavery. But the disaster served only to intensify that hatred of Spain which was rapidly growing among EngUsh seamen. Adven- turer after adventurer sought revenge and plunder from the Spaniard in the Spanish Main, and many small settlements were made on various islands in the West Indies by the buccaneers, who found them convenient for the purposes of refitting their ships when damaged by storm or by the shot ot an enemy. The Spanish Maia. — The Spanish Main was the name given to the northern coast of South America, from the mouth of the Orinoco to the Isthmus of Panama, and was sometimes extecdsd to include the chain of islands which, with this coast, forms tLe boundary of the Caribbean Sea. It is not infrequently applied to tlia sea itself. Barbadoes. — One of the first of the West Indian islands to be colonised was Barbadoes, first settled by a London merchant, Sir William Courteen, in 1605, and this island, hardly larger than the Isle of Wight, became during the whole of the seventeenth century our most important colony, save only the settlements on the mainland of America. Its fertility was immense, and rich cargoes of indigo, cotton, wool, tobacco and sugar were sent home every year from its plantations. To those plantations also were shipped thousands of slaves from the coast of Africa, and not a few white slaves — prisoners of war or debtors from the English jails. Thus, in 1657, some seven or eight thousand Scots, captured at the Battle of Worcester, were shipped to the Indies, the majority of whom found their way to the Barbadoes. Seven years later there began a new epoch in the history of the island, for in 1663 it, THE BRITISH IN THE WEST INDIES. 145 together witli the other Caribbean Islands, was taken out of the hands of the old proprietors and placed under the direct authority of the Crown. Jamaica, the chief of our West Indian possessions, is an island nearly forty times the size of Barbadoes, and is note- worthy as the place chosen by Columbus as a refuge when the ingratitude erf Ferdinand of Spain and the treachery of the agents of the Spanish court forced him to flee from Spain. Time after time the fertile island had been harried by the lawless buccaneers of the Spanish Main without any permanent settlement having been effected, or the original Spanish planters, now sunk in indolent ease and vice, being displaced. Indeed, the island remained the headquarters of the buccaneers long after it had been added to the British possessions by the force which Cromwell despatched to the Indies under the command of Admirals Penn and Venables, in 1655. The history of Jamaica has been, on the whole, a tragical one. On the 7th of June, 1692, without any previous warning, the whole island was desolated by an earthquake of the most appalling kind, by which chains of hills were riven asuruler, the river courses changed, and whole plantations trans- planted to other parts of the island or swallowed up by the immense fissures which opened in the ground, while the number of the dead was such that the putrefying corpses bred a pestilence which carried off three thousand of those who remained. The next year, when a new Port Royal was rising on the shores of the sea that had swallowed up the old, one of the hurricanes for which the island is famous, but one of exceptional violence even for Jamaica, swept over the island, carrying away the greater part of the houses that had been rebuilt. Nor does the tale of misery end here, for, in the following year, the ill-fated island was ravaged by a foe not less dcbtructive than the tempest. Du Casse, the French governor of Hayti, swooped down on its shores with a powerful fieet 146 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. and fifteen hundred troops, harried the south and east of the island, plundered and devastated a vast number of plantations, and, though ultimately defeated and compelled to retire, bore with him a great booty and some thirteen hundred slaves. There was yet another descent from Hayti during the "War of the Spanish Succession in 1702, in repulsing which the famous Benbow met his death, as so gallant a seaman must have wished to do, in the moment of victory. Ten years later another storm swept the island, desolating its eastern side. The history of Jamaica is indissolubly bound up with that of the nefarious traiEc in slaves. Between 1655, when the island came into English possession, and 1807, when the importation of slaves was prohibited, it is estimated that the number introduced was no less than 800,000. In the latter year the negro population numbered 360,000, and statistics show that from then to the final emanicipation of the slaves, in 1834, the number decreased at the rate of two thousand a year, in lieu of increasing by about three thousand, according to the ordinary laws of population. The same statistics prove, to the indelible disgrace of the planters, that the decrease was due to the annual loss of some three thousand slaves by ill-usage. Long, in bis " History of Jamaica," asserts that the early West Inriian planters " thought it no greater sin to kill a negro than to knock a monkey on the head," and summarises the law of the island on the subject as follows : " If a white man murders a white man, he ought to die for it; but if a white man murders a black- man, he ought to be acquitted," while no punishment, however atrocious in its details, seems to have been thought too terrible for a black who bo far forgot the inferiority of his race as to lift a hand against a white. At this time, too, the mountains and the thickest recesses of the woods were infested by runaway negroes or their descendants, who had originally been the slaves of the dispossessed Spanish planters. These "maroons" roamed the island in predatory bands, seeking occasions for robbery and violence, fomenting an insurrectionary spirit among the slaves engaged upon the plantationo, and, not infrequently, inciting them to open rebellion. THE BniTISH IN THE WEST INDIES. 147 Under such conditions, it may be readily imagined that the slaves were constantly breaking into open revolt. As In such insurrections they were aided by their outlawed brethren from the hills, it is not to be wondered at that the risings were accompanied with the most revolting incidents of cruelty, the whites being commonly surprised while asleep, and butchered in tlie most savage manner with the accompaniment of all the horrors a barbarous invention could suggest. It is even more saddening to reflect that the punishment inflicted for such crimes was not inferior in horror. Even the most brutal of crimes committed by savages can hardly justify the barbarities inflicted in the name of justice. The treatment meted out to tlie negro population was such as to degrade them to the level of the brutes. In consequence, the efforts made to ameliorate their lot and to arouse a spirit of indepen- dence and manly dignity, succeeded only in rendering them more turbulent and unruly. Thus, in 1832, after some twenty years of such eflforts, there occurred the most terrible of all the insurrections among the slave population. For several days the rebels held the upper hand, giving way to every demon- stration of fury and lust, and the rebellion was not quelled until the whole island had been placed imder military law. Then the blacks submitted, under promise of pardon, and returned to their plantations, only to fiind that their owners were not in the least inclined to endorse the leniency of the military, and that a terrible retaliation was yet in store. Altogether about a dozen white men had been murdered, most of whom had earned an undesirable reputation for tlie cruel treatment of their slaves. In revenge for this, more than fifteen hundred negroes were executed, some after the merest semblance of a trial, while others without even a warning, were shot down where they stood. In a accrued from them. In 179"), two young oificers of the Reliance, Bass, a surgeon, and Flinders, a midshipman, determined upnn tiiat series of investigations which has placed their names on the roll of fame as the heroes of Australian discovery. In a boat, eight feet long, and appropriately named the Tom Thumb, tliey succeeded duruig the next two years in thoroughly explor- ing the coast round Sydney. Then the _ ,^ fame and value of their exploits led to Explorers. '■ their obtaining facilities for more ambitious efforts. In larger boats and over greater areas they pursued their work, exploring in 1708, the coast of Tasmania, until then deemed part of the continent. This was their last voyage together, for, in the same year, Bass, returning on a visit to England was lost at sea. Flinders continued his work, and in 1801 and 1802 saUed in the Invesfigator, round the southern coast to the Great Australian Bight, and then, retracing hia path, started in a fresh du-ection and with characteristic care mapped out the northern coast, spending a hundred and five days in surveying the shores of Carpentaria Bay. Oth< r expeditions followed, but the end was a traf,nc one. He set out for England with the charts of his discoveries, but, calling at Mauritius, was held prisoner by the French. Here his charts were taken from him and the credit for the discoveries mapped upon them, claimed for the French explorer, Captain Baudin. When he reached Englajid, he foimd it impossible to obtain credence for his exploits, and determined to gain justice by the pubhca- tion of his journals. He succeeded in arranging them for the press, but died on the very day which saw tlie completion of his task. In 1813, a pass was found across the Blue Mountains, hitherto deemed insurmountable, and journey. ing by this route, Governor Macquarie and his lady LiiJ the foundations of the town of P.alliurst. The road now forms the great western highway of the colony. From this time the work of exploration has proceeded apace, though with results hardly 160 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. eommensnrate with the eflforts of the explorers and the dangers braved bj' them. Among the chief of the gallant bands that have braved the perils of a desert land, where water was scarcely ever to be depended upon and nature afforded little for the sustenance of the travellers, are the names of Oxley, Eyre, Stm-t, Leiehhardt, and Sir George Grey, whose journeys, if devoid of striking incident, exhibit a patient endurance rarely equalled. Sturt showed conclusively that the interior did not, as had been imagined, consist of a vast inland lake, and discovered the river, which he named after the governor of New South Wales — the Darling — tracing its com-se to its confluence with the Murray. Mitchell discovered the area, now forming part of Victoria, which from its beauty and fertility he named Australia Felix, and to his surprise found it already settled by two groups of colonists from Tasmania, who had, in founding Port Phillip, laid the foundations of a colony afterwards to become one of the wealthiest of all the Australian settlements. Australian Exploration.— The history of Australian exploration has been a tragic one. Some few instances may afiord an idea of the perils to be braved in the land of " Spinifex and Sand." Eyre left Adelaide and a year later reached King George's Sound in Western Australia with a single native boy, the sole survivor of a numerous retinue. His provisions had given out, his horses died for want of water, his followers deserted or died from hunger or thirst. Sir George (then Lieutenant) Grey met with equal hardships and endured similar privations, while having to contend against con- tinual attacks on the part of the natives. Leiehhardt, who, in 1846, started with six white men, two natives, fifty bullocks, thirteeen mules, twelve horses, and two hundred and seventy goats, has never since been heard of. No traces even of his party have been found by the many expeditions which have gone in search of it, and its total disappearance forms one of the great mysteries of Australian exploration. Of Kennedy's party of twelve men three only survived the privations of the journey and tiie attacks of the natives. AUSTRALASIA. 161 One of the most ourioug of the discoveries oouuocted with the early settlement of Victoria was the discovery of an En ilihUman— William Buckley — a convict who had escaped from diiruncc and lived for thirty years among the aborigines, whose language be bad acquired and by whom he was treated with all the considerntion due to a chief of their own race. Indoe(\ when, lilce the remaui- ing colonies, it had to make choice of tlie form of government which it considered most suited to its needs, it became a separate colony, with houses of representatives and all the machinery of popular government. At the same time its name was changed to Tasmania, the old name having become nil popular from its association with the convicts who were its first settlers, and ^\ith whose crimes the name Van Dieman's Land was too reminiscent. New Zealand. — The history of New Zealand is closely connected with that of New South Wales. Tasman first dis- covered the group, and is responsible for its name. "William Dampier, one of the most famous of English explorers, who had begun life as a buccaneer in the Spanish Main, was the first Englishman to visit it. Nothing memorable, however, was done until the time of the famous Captam Cook, who, in his first find greatest voyage, in 1769, visited the islands and endeavoured, though fruitlessly, to establish friendly relations with the natives. His attempts, which were perhaps marked bj' too great rashness, combined with too great distrust of the natives, ended almost invariably in bloodshed. It is unfortimate that the first Englishman to have serious relations with the Maories" should have begun a strife between the two races which has continued till recent times, and pro- duced much misery and provoked much ill-feeling on both sides. The feeling of hatred to the whites was greatly intensified by the visit of De Surville, a French navigator, who reached New Zealand at the same time, and treated its natives with gross cruelty. Du Fresne, another Frenchman, further coaUi'uuted to the list of grievances treasui-ed up by the XIaoriea 170 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. against the whiles, by his dealings with them four years later. Subsequent navigators carried on an irregular intercourse, more or less friendly, but, generally speaking the relations between the Maories and their civUised visitors have been hostile, merging every now and then, into a war of externunation, waged with the utmost determination, and under circumstances of the greatest cruelty on both sides. Murder succeeded murder and massacre followed massacre, vpith the view, on the part of the EngHsh, of exterminating a race of cannibals unrivalled ia their ferocity ; and, on the part of the savages, with the desire of revenging the death of their friends, and the hope of obtain- ing by plmider those articles which tlieir intercourse with the whites had led them to covet. The credit for the amelioration of this state of affairs is largely due to Samuel Marsden, then a missionary at Port Jackson, where he had opportunities of becoming acquainted with such of the Maories as were induced from time to time to leave the island on a visit to that settlement. With these he established, by degrees, the most friendly relations, finding that the savages were as readily susceptible to kindness as they were resentful of injury. By his influence, the Church Missionary Society was led, in 1814, to organise a body of missionaries for the conversion of the Maories, attempting, at the same time, to introduce among them the arts of civilisation. Whaling vessels bouiid to the fishing grounds of the South Pacific estabUshed stations on the islands, various native chiefs visited the neighbouring Australian colonies, and one of the most important was even-brought to consent to a voyage to England. Europeans gradually settled on the sea-coasts, and their stations became centres of trade among the natives, who were brought more and more within European influence. Various settlements were formed, the chief being at Wellington, Auckland and Nelson. Until 1841, the New Zealand settlements were all subject to the govern- ment of New South Wales, but in that year the three islands AUSTRALASIA. 171 were I'ormed into a separate colony, with the growing town ot Auckland for its capital. The troubles with the natives, how- ever, still continued. Some of the more far-seeing, or perliaps the more ferocious, of their chiefs, proposed the extermination of all the settlers — missionaries, as well as traders — foreseeing that intercourse with the white man must necessarily end in the gradual decline of their race, already beginning, with fatal readiness, to adopt the worst vices of civilisation in addition to those characteristic of the savage state. It is more than probable that the merchiuits and traders engaged in the New Zealand trade, were not scrupulously honest in their dealings with the natives. Be that as it may, the trading was marked by constant disputes, and aroused the keenest ill-wUl between the parties engaged. In addition to this, the products brought into the country were Pahekas. often of such a nature as to tend to the demoralisation of the savages and the quarrels which broke out between the traders — the Pahekas, as they were called by the aborigines — and the native population are, at least, comprehensible. Among the worst features of the traflQc was the trade in rum, the taste for which spread among the natives with all the rapidity of an epidemic, and with all its disastrous effects. The introduction of fire arms too, gave a deadly impulse to the feuds perpetually raging among the native tribes, and lent an added danger to their intercourse with the whites. To such an extent did the vicious part of the tr.ading community minister to the evil passions of the people, that these were speedily inflamed to such a pitcli as bid fair, at no distant date, to lead to the total extinction of the aborigines, a prey to the unfettered license which prevailed. " The unfortunate natives of New Zealand, unless some dcoi:iiv« measures ol prevention be adopted, will, I fear, be shortly aJJcU lo the number of those barbarous tribes who, iu different parts of tb(> 172 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. globe, hare ial'en a sacrifice to their intercourse with civilised men who bear and disgrace the name of Christians. When, for mercenary purposes, the natives of Europe minister to the passions by which these savages are inflamed against each other and introduce them to the knowledge of the depraved acts and licentious gratifications of the most depraved inhabitants of our great cities, the inevitable conse- quence is a rapid decline of population, preceded by every variety of suffering." — Viscount Goderich (Colonial Secretary in 1831). One of the most deplorable of the practices which sprang up was the trafflo in heads. The New Zealanders had been in the habit of dyeing and preserving as trophies the heads of their enemies slain in battle. Some of these having come into the possession of a trader, were carried to Europe and were secured with such avidity by curiosity-hunters, that the trade in beads became a flourishing and lucrative branch of commerce. From its nature it was suscep- tible of the grossest abuses. The avaOable supply of heads ran short and every means, even to murder, was employed to obtain a fresh stock. It was possible to bargain for the head of a living man, and to find it delivered according to the terms of the agreement. Thus, imder the influence of the Pahekas and the mission- aries the Maories divided into two parties, both having cloaked their primitive barbarism with a veneer of EngUsh customs ; the one having imbibed the worst features of ci\'ilisation while the other had profited by the example of the missionaries' peaceable and useful lives. The latter portion of the native community has now become sufficiently civilised to take an intelligent share in the government of their country and their represen- tatives sit in the parliament of the islands, while the former is rapidly becoming extinct and now proves a source of dangei to the settler only in isolated districts. This state of quietude was not achieved without con- siderable trouble and much ill feeling Maori Wars ^^'Wch now and then culminated in open rupture. One deplorable instance occurred in 1843. Disputes were constantly arising with the native chiefs on the question of the ownership of the land. Colonel Wake- field, then in command, on one of these occasions determined AUSTRALASIA. 17y to force the chiefs into compliance with his desires and went to seek them with a band of armed followers, intending to capture them and bring them in irons to the capital. The invasion was naturally resented by the natives, and orders were given to fire upon them. The result was a war between the British authorities and a confederation of the Maori chiefs. The English were at first defeated, with great damage to their prestige and serious loss of life, the blame for which must be laid at the door of the English governor. As a result the English had practically to conquer the country. Tribes that had hitherto been submissive now took up arms, the outbreak spread and wag not put down until a vast amount of diuuage had been done. The moderation and tact of Sir George Grey, one of the greatest of its governors, gradually brought about a pacification, although some of the more warlike of the tribes fled to mountain fastnesses, where they secured themselves against attack and maintained a guerilla warfare for some five years after the outbreak. The peace then established was apparently final. The natives, where imder good influence, showed themselves intelligent, desirous of improvement anA apt to learn. The habits of civilisation seem, however, to enervate them and the life of cities graduaUy to sap the strength of a people fitted only for the free life of the woods, 80 that the Maori, who has profited by the lessons of civilisa- tion, bids fair to die out even uiore rapidly than his brotlier who has refused any dealings with either missionaries or traders, and preferred remaining in a state of savagery to accepting the benefits ofi'ered by the white man. The sovereignty of the islands passed into the hands of Great Britain by the treaty of Waltangl in 1840, the chiefs being secured in the possession of their lands and forests as long as they desired to retain them. 174 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. SECTION II.— SINCE 1858. Australia. — The history of the Australian Colonies for the last fifty years has been one of almost wholly domestic interest. Until we come to the Federation of Australia and the formation of the Commonwealth in 1900-1901, the problems and agitations have been of local, one might almost say of parochial, importance. They comprise such matters as the stoppage of convict transportation from England, the exploration of the continent, and the extension of the colonies, the flow of emigration, and the exploitation of mines, the rise of a labour party, and the consequent occurrence of strike contests, the building of railways, the formation of waterworks, state education, vote by ballot, protection of native industries, etc. Situated at the antipodes, and isolated from every other country, threatened and interfered with by no other people, (with the exception of some Chinese immigrants), Australia has had no need of a foreign ministry or a foreign poUcy, but has been left to pursue her own course and develop her own resources. Between 1855 and 1860, the Eastern States — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia — were accorded self-government ; while Western Australia received a constitution in 1890. The most important series of enactments have been those relating to the land, the object being to prevent absenteeism and the mere exploitation of the country by speculators. A whole crop of legislative measures, dealing with tillage and stock-rearing, have been passed within the last forty years. The object of the immigration laws has been to prevent aliens, especially the Chinese, from flooding the country or AUSTRALASIA. 175 establishing themselves on the gold-diggingB. In the 'sixtiee, the scare was such that it expressed itself in serious riots, and the Chinese were hunted out of New South Wales. The trouble has been, to a large extent, removed by the working out of the mines, and the "Yellow Peril" has now been reduced to a minimum. Still, in some of the states, there is a toll on Chinamen, and the number allowed to land each year is strictly limited. In Queensland, Kaniikas ("boys") have been introduced from the New Hebrides and other parts of Polynesia, for the purpose of working the sugar plantations within the tropics. At one time these Kanilkas were kidnapped by planters' agents, and a great deal of cruelty was employed ; and when, after three years, they returned to their native islands, they brought back with them all the vices and none of the virtues of civilisation. Strikes and labour troubles have also loomed largely in Australian life. Convict labour came into collision with that of the free immigrant; and there was yet "^^^ another class, the time-expired convicts, who laoA ' sought to identify themselves with the latter. In 1890, the labourers had so extensively organised themselves by means of trade unions that -they were able to bring about what is known as the Great Strike of Workmen v. Capitalists generally. Sydney was the head- quarters of the movement, and the disturbances were sulfioicntly formidable to necessitate the swearing-in, in large numbers, of special constables. In November of the same year the strike came to an end, the capitahsts gaining a decided victory over the labourers. One of the labour champions, William Lane by name, led a company of strikers to South America, and in Paraguay estabUshed a sort of socialist community (189.]). The venture, however, was hardly more successful than the Darien Scheme 176 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. of "William III.'s reisQ. The manasrement of this " New Australia " was far from being harnionious, and the contests and disputes proved as numerous and bitter as they had been in the parent colony. Many of the settlers returned to Australia, while others had to be assisted back. After the Great Strike, the labour party succeeded in getting itself represented in the New South Wales parhament, and soon afterwards in the other provincial parhaments ; but the whole party soon became divided on the question of protection, and the introduction of the Caucus system fm-ther reduced its numbers and unity. In the extension and development of Australia, the chief results have been the creation of Queensland, the exploration of the Northern territory (including the laying down of a trans- continental cable), and the colonisation of West Australia. Queensland was carved out of New South Wales, and proclaimed a separate colony in 1859. From this time onward, many exploring parties traversed the Queens an , „j,gg^^ island, some of them being misinformed 1859. & ' o and ill-judged, and ending m disaster. In 1860, for instance, O'Hara Burke, WUham John Wills and others, in response to a j62,000 prize offered by New South Wales, started off from Melbourne in that year to cross the continent. They succeeded to a certain extent; but, in retm-ning, their provisions gave out ; they suffered terrible hardships, and seven out of eight died of starvation. =*' A public funeral was all the recompense that the Colony could accord them (1863). Two years later, Stuart succeeded in crossing the continent from north to south, and his explorations led to a new * The difficulties of Australian travel may be judged from the fact that Captain Sturt four.d the thermometer rise to 127", upon which the mercury burst the glass. " Every screw came out of the boxes ; the horn handles of instruments and the combs split up into fine laminae ; the lead dropped out of the pencils ; the hair stopped growing, and the finger-nails became brittle as g^ass." AL'STUAf.XSIA. 177 distribution of tei'i-itory, and South Australia was extended 80 as to incluilo the wliole country as far as the northern coast. In 1870, a telegraph lino was laid down from soutli to north along the route opened up by Stuart, and, in 1872, the formidable work was finished. As a result of explorations made by Forrest, Giles, and others, a line was laid down between Adelaide and Albany in 1877, and West Australia was brought into touch with the more progressive colonic-;. The only great stretch of territory remaining unexplored was the country between West Australia and the centre of the continent, and this region was successfully crossed by Sir J. Forrest in 1874. "This was the crown and cul- mination of the history of discovery. . . . Oxley, Cunning! i am, Leichhardt, Mitchell, Start, Stuart, Gregory, and Forrest, did on land what Magellan, Mendana, Torres and Cook did on sea; and the landsmen's exploits were as useful, noble, and perilous as the sea-farers' exploits. Their work, which was to prepare the way for those who were to come after them, belonged to that class of work which, if well done, is never done again. It was finished in 1874; and from that date the book of heroes closes, and exploration ceases to be a motive force in history." Australian Federation. — This great measure, which became an accomplished fact in 1900, had been spoken of nearly fifty years before. There was nothing to prevent and everything to encourage an Australian union. There were no natural barriers to be overcome, such as those of blood, religion, geographical position, which, in the case of Canada, presented serious difficulties; and it was only the late development of the Australian states that pre- vented an earlier federation. Still, the scheme had been broached as far back as 1847, when Lord Grey sketched out a federal plan, which was, however, rejected by the Australian legislators. The withdrawal of the imperial 178 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. troops from Australia and New Zealand in 1870-1871 quickened the natural desire for a defensive union. Referenda were resorted to, and the result was in favour of combination. In the 'eighties, a federal council was formed, to which each of the colonies mi^ht send members or not, as it i^leased. This body, however, like Convocation in the mother-country, was only a debating society, and had no executive power and no financial standing. On the initiation of Sir Henry Parkes, a conference was held at Melbourne. Representatives from the Australian states drew up resolutions in favour of federation (1889 1. Two j'ears later, a national Convention was held at Sydney, which adopted the previous resolutions almost intact. These resolutions provided for free trade between the Australian states, and while handing over to a central federal government certain defined powers, made provision that each state should exercise all other powers not so surrendered. There was not, however, a sufficient momen- tum of public interest behind these proposals, and the resolutions fell still-born from the Convention. The move- meiit, however, did not expire, and though another attempt to discover a modus vivendi was wrecked by the opposition of New South AVales, the matter was brought to a happy" termination in 1900. A meeting of the premiers, held at Melbourne in 1899, managed to allay the misgivings of New South Wales; and, all the states being agreed, dele- gates were appointed to carry the draft Bill to.- England, for the puriX)se of obtaining the necessary Imperial legisla- tion. The British government offered no opposition, and in 1900 an Imperial Act was passed, by virtue of which New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, West Australia and Tasmania were declared to be federated under the title of the " Commonwealth of Australia," on and afcer the 1st January, 1901. AUSTRALASIA. 179 The chief difficulty had been with regard to the riglit of appeal, and it was at length agreed that in all purely Australian matters the appeal should be to the High Court of Australia : while in non-Australian cases tlie appeal was still to be to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. By the original plan only ten or twelve subjects were surrendered to the federal government for legislation ; in the scheme as finally adopted this number has been increased to twenty-nine. There are two Houses in the Federal Parliament, a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate is made up of thirty-six members (six being elected by each of the original states — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania) ; and it sits for six years. The lower House is twice as large, and sits for three years. The Governor- General of course represents the Crown, and his salary is Jei0,000 a year. The executive power resides in the Governor and a Council of seven. Transportation to AustraUa had been abolished in 1868. In 1885, the Australian colonies proffered help to the mother country in the Soudan war, and in 1809 they sent con- tingents to South Africa to support the Imperial government in the Transvaal War. New Zealand. — It was the unscrupulous manner in which the New Zealand Company possessed themselves of the native lands that caused the Maories to rise against the colonists in the 'forties ; and it was mainly land disputes that gave rise to the subsequent Maori wars in the 'sixties and the 'seventies. The Maories had no central government, and they were not able to unite or organise themselves into a nation. Moreover, until their lands were sold to the colonists the Maories could 180 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. not take advantage of English law or politics at all : j'et after such bargain and sales their status was often no better. " Whenever land was bought, a re-grant of one-tenth of the sold land to trustees for the natives was promised ; but in 1862, 178 of these promises — many of them over ten years old — were outstanding." * In 1857, the Maories tried to unite their tribes by electing a " King " ; and a chief named Te Whero Whero was chosen in 1858 to wield the sovereign power. After Maori King. ° ^ his death in 1860, his son Tawhiao was ap- pointed to succeed. The spirit of unity, however, was not in the Maori nature, and the title and trappings of roj'alty could do nothing to bring about cohesion or solidarity. The monarch was ignored, and the tribal chiefs remained still the onlj' real power in the Islands. In the ten j-ears' war that began in 1860, many Maori chiefs — especially in the latter part of the war — fought on the side of the colonists. The northern, as well as the southei'n, portion of the northern Island was friendly : the hostile tribes occupied the central districts. Land was again at the bottom of the trouble. The first war lasted about a year, and was destitute of important events (1860-1861). In 1861, Sir George Grey became Governor, and immediateh' a period of native Maori Wars. amelioration commenced. Grey did everj'- thing in his power to conciliate the Maories, spending money on them, meeting them in friendly conference, promoting education, making roads through the island, tolerating their " King State," etc. Notwithstanding this, war broke out again in 1863 with the murdering of eight colonial officers and men. This war may be said to have ended with the battle of Orakau, and the occupation by the British of the " King State." In 1865, the fires of war were kindled again. The Christian Maories were expelled from the native districts, and a sect of * Rogers, Lucas, vol. VI., p. 212. AUSTRALASIA. Ihl heretics, nicknamed Hau-ilaus, caused fresh disturbances. These Maori fanatics preached a doctrine compounded of Judaism and Paganism : they believed themselves to be invincible, and they advanced against their enemies barking like dogs. Beheading their prisoners, moreover, they fixed the heads on staves, and having executed a dance before these gruesome objects, they sent them round the island. Tiie fanaticism thus excited, expressed itself in a further attack on the missionaries, wiien the Rev. 'Sir. Volkner was murdered, and his eyes eateu! (March, 1865). This savagery, however, failed of its object, for it caused many of the friendly Maories to rally to the side of the colonists. Thus the war was no longer national or racial, but civil ; or rather it became a rebellion, in which the best Maori chiefs fought alongside with the British, while some of the native clans also fought with each other. One of the friendly chiefs was a man named Te Kooti, whose loyalty, however, was not above suspicion. He had not, perhaps, been judiciously treated ; for, Te Kooti. , ' \ '■ -, , . , while he was arrested and kept m prison, he had been promised his liberty at the end of two years. Yet the two years passed, and he was not liberated. He then eflfected his escape, and, repairing to the east coast, he committed numerous murders, and attracted a number of desperadoes to his side. There was nothing national, or even patriotic, about his rising, and Ropata and several other clan chiefs sided with the colonials against him, while the " King " would not even grant him an interview. There were numer- ous fights and combats in the struggle, but the only one of real importance was that of Maraetahi. where, aided by clan chiefs and native levies, the colonials routed and dispersed Te Kooti's part}'. From this point may be dated the political union of the islands, and the beginning of their material prosperity. 182 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. "Those who prophesiecl a 'wa- of extermination' were mdaly wrong. In ten years, deaths directly caused by war were les3 than 3,000; in one year (ISiil) Maori deaths, directly due to measles, exceeded 4,000. In 1874, the Maories were 45,500, and in the 'forties possibly 105,000 ; but war had not made much difference. Thus, the Puhi clan of the far north had not been at war, and had more than halved, and those who quoted 105,000 as the figure for the early 'forties, quoted 50,000 as the figure for the late 'fifties. War proved less deadly than the poisoned cup of peace. Tragedy had slain its thousands, comedy its tens of thousiiuds."— Rooeks, Ibid, p. 220. In 1877, further land disputes occurred, and in the troubles that followed great influence was exercised by Te Whiti, an enthusiastic Christian Maori, who endeavoured Te Whiti. to carry the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount into public life. He supported the native claims, but at the same time enjoined honesty, peace, and industry, and he took as his motto, " Resist not evil." His teaching, with regard to land, was decidedly communistic, and multitudes flocked to hear him preach. Te Whiti was denounced by the colonials as a fanatic, the Maori land claims were rudely pushed aside, and Te Whiti and his friends were arrested for sedition. This high-handed conduct was condemned by many, but it proved to be the epilogue of the long war. Te Whiti even now counselled, not active but passive, resist- ance, and when, after about sixteen months' imprisonment, he was released, the danger of a rising had passed away. An amnesty was proclaimed, which included Te Kooti, who had an interview with Mr. Bryce, Colonial native minister (1883). In 1884, the Maori King paid a visit to London, and was feted by the Earl of Derby and others. He came to seek redress for breach of the treaty of Waitangi (1840), and to petition for native autonomj', native land and law courts, a native minister, and a more substantial Maori representation. Autonomy was refused, on the ground that colonial and Maori interests were mixed and blended in the Islands, and that the County Councils would answer all the purposes of autonomy. Certain concessions were subsequently made to AUSTRALASIA. 183 "Maoriland," and the King, being reconciled, sat in the Legislative Council. In 1893, Mr. Ballance, the Prime Minister, died, and was succeeded by the energetic and influential Richard J. Seddon. The capital of the Islands had been moved in 1865 from Auckland to Wellington. This had been done on thn advice of New South Wales ; and the Now Zealand government now further emulated Australian methods by making large loans for public works, emigration, railways, etc. There was, however, a good deal of trouble and litigation in the matter of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. Charges were freely proffered against the directors, the oflficials, and the New Zealand government, of bribery and corruption, issuing misleading balance sheets, etc. Under Mr. Seddon, New Zealand progressed in a remark- able way, and a large amount of legislation was initiated during his long premiership. In 1903, an Act was passed to provide ^40,000 annually as a contribution towards the maintenance of the Australian Squadron. Another Act was passed in the same year according preference to British goods. In 1904, Mr. Seddon's " Silver Jubilee " as Member of Parlia- ment was enthusiastically celebrated, by which time he had been fourteen years a minister, and twelve years Prime ISIinister. In the following year he pronounced New Zealand (reckoning the wealth per head of the population at .£308) to be the richest country in the world. GOVERNORS OF NEW ZEALAND. 1843. Admiral Fitzroy. 1845. Sir George Grey. 1854. Colonal Wynward. 1855. Governor Browne. 1861. Sir George Grev. 1867. Sir George F. Bowen. 1872. Sir James Ferguson. 1 875. Marquis of Normanby. 1879. ^ir Hercules Robinson. 1880. Sir Arthur H. Gordon. 1883. Sir William Jervois. 1888. Earl of Onslow. 1892. Earl of Glasgow. 1897. Earl of Ranfurly. 1904. Lord Plunkot. 184 BPJTISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS. Tasmania. — Tasmania had received representative govern- ment in 1853, in which year also the transportation of convicts to the Island was stopped. Resiponsible government was granted in 1856. The able-bodied inhabitants, both male and fern lie, had at this time nearly all left the Island for Victoria, in consequence of the discovery of gold in the latter colony in 1851, so that Tasmania was for a time "inhabited by greybeards and children." In the 'sixties, gold was found in Tasmania itself, and the out-put soon rose to sometliing considerable. Taking advantage of the contrariety of seasons, Tasmania now sup- plies Great Britain with apples in the spring, when that fruit is very scarce in the mother country. The climate of Tasmania is eminently healthy, the death rate being only about 14 per thousand. Tasmania became one of the States of the Australian Commonwealth in 1900. BRITISH RULK IN Al-RICA. 185 CHAPTER VII. British Rule in Africa. o SECTION I.-BEFORE 1858. The colonisation of the Cape was a natural consequence of the discovery, by Vasco de Gama, that the sea route to India lay round it. The Dutch were the first to utiHse its undoubted advantages as a place of call for ships on their way to the East Indies. Its advantages as a place of residence were first noted in 1648, when a Dutch vessel was wrecked upon its coast and the crew had perforce to reside there until picked up by a passing ship, an event which did not occur until some months had elapsed. The report they made on their return to Holland induced the Dutch East India Company to despatch thither a company of emigrants with the view of making it a place of call for vessels in the India trade, and in 1652, the colony was actually planted under Jan van Eiebeck. The native races, reluctant to see their land gradually passing into the possession of the strangers, were nevertheless at first friendly, but as the colony grew and they found themselves forced farther and farther inland, took, as some measure of retaliation, to stciUing the cattle of the settlers. This was, to the latter, a vastly di'tlerent matter from the forcible acquisition of land from the savages, and the incensed governor made war upon the natives with all the limited forces at his command. The contest proved the forerunner of many others, for from henceforth the Dutch and the natives were almost constantly at variance. Moreover, the colonists added to the grievances of the natives by hunting 186 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. them for the purpose of using them as slaves. As a natural result, the native races were driven further and further inland as the new colony increased in extent and in population. In 1795, the Cape Colony was assigned to England by the Dutch, the reasou being that Napoleon had invaded and conquered Holland, and the Prince of Orange was a refugee in London. The colonists lost no time in expressmg theix dissatisfaction ^vith this arrangement, and the relations between them and the English were soon those of open strife. In 1802, however, the Treaty of Amiens restored the colony to its original owners, but the European war havkig revived, it again passed into the possession of Britain, this time by conquest. Capo Town surrendered to Sir David Baird in 1806, and from that year until 1815, the country was under military law, as much to prevent the inroads of the warlike Kailir tribes of the inland districts, as to keep down the turbulent Boer population. The new government did not commend itself either to its Dutch or native subjects. In the first place, the law that no fresh slaves were to be made after 1808, brought it into direct conflict with the Boers, while the Kaffirs who had, with good cause, shown themselves the enemies of the Boers, were treated as though they were the enemies of England also. As a natural consequence, they speedily became so. In 1809, the Commissioner, Colonel Collins, recommended the expulsion of all the Kaffirs withm the border, and the hasty and imjust measure was duly carried out in ISU, innocent and guilty being confounded in one sweeping condemnation. The KalHr V/ars. — As a result of this measure South Africa has been from time to time devastated by Kaffir Wars, some of them on a considerable scale. The first of these occurred in 1811, when the Kat'lirs, who had been driven !»ack over the Great Fish River, broke over the boundary and carried their depredations throughout the farms which lay near it. They BUITISU ROLK IN AKUICA. 187 were, however, easily driven back by Colonel Graham. Tho next outbreak coiiie as a result of the porennial cattle-liftin,'^ of which the border KalUrs were guilty. Restitution was enforced and this led to a border war, the Kaflirs rallying in great force and pourijig into the colony in the early part of 1819, carrymg everything before their impetuous rush. In the end, however, they were defeated witli great slaughter, and British troops to the number of four thousand advanced and took possession of the country lying between Koonap Kat and the Great Fish River, which was added to British territory, while the district between its northern border and the Keishamma was declared neutral territory. Later, in 1835, under the governorship of Sir Benjamin Durban, tlic whole of this tract was annexed in retaliation for another raid, in which, stmig by the death of one of their chiefs who was killed in a border skirmish, 10,000 Kaffirs swept across the frontier, pillaging the homesteads and murdering all who dared resist. This was the greatest of the Kafl&r Wars of the first pai-t of the century, and nine months' fighting was needed to reduce the country to quietude. The measures of reprisal taken by the troops, under the command of Colonel Smith, were so severe as to gain the condemnation of the home government, at this time bent upon measures of conciliation, a policy which was distasteful to the majority of the colonists, though laudable endeavours seem to have been made to carry it out. Thus, as a result of the attitude taken by Lord Glenelg, then Secretary of the Colonics, the land seized in 1836 was restored to the natives, and our relations with them placed upon a somewhat better footing. Treaties were made with the principal chiefs, trade was encoiuraged and their territories secured. In 1846 there was, however, another outbreak. The authorities had arbitrarily revoked certain of the treaties, and cattle-Hfting and border-raiding rapidly assumed their old proportions. Tiie usual invasion of the Kaffir territory followed 188 BRiriSH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. and the struggle that ensued was maintained fitfully until 1853, forming what are known as the fourth and fifth Kaffir Wars. Fortune at first lay with the Kaffirs, various smaJl bodies of British troops being cut off and defeated with serious loss. The rismg was reduced by the efforts of Sir Harry Smith and General Cathcart, and the district placed under martial law. On March 23rd, 1853, the military law was revoked, and shortly after Kaflxaria was made a Crown Colony under the title of British Kaffraria. In the year 1820 there arrived at Algoa Bay some five thousand settlers from Britain, and the foimdation of the eastern settlements was laid. The Great Trek. — The Boers, the descendants of the original Dutch colonists, had, ever since the country fell into British hands, been profoundly dissatisfied with the rule of their new masters. The nature of their occupation, no less than their objection to British rule led them not infrequently to " trek " farther and farther inland in search of fresh pastures and greater freedom. It was, indeed, by this means that the colony had grown, and the authorities been brought into conflict with the natives. In 1834, the act for the emancipation of slaves came into force throughout the British dominions. This entailed a very considerable loss to the Boers, the sum — £1,200,000 — granted the colony in compensation, and of which barely a tithe is said to have reaiched the owners of the slaves, being regarded as absurdly inadequate. The result was the "Great Trek," of 1835 — 6. More than ten thousand of the Boers migrated with the whole of their belongings to the district north of the Orange River, and there founded two republics, which, as the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, claimed complete independence of Britain. The claim was long disputed, but was finally conceded in 1854. A part of the number crossed the Dx'akenberg Mountains, and took possession IIUITISU UULE IN Al-UICA. IH'J of the district of Xatal, where they maintained a prccariou* resistance against the formidable Kallh- tribes of the south-east. After many fierce contests with the Amazulu, they wert, however, compelled in 1842, to seek aid from the Cape Govern- ment. Troops were sent and the Zulus defeated. Now, how- ever, the Dutch who greatly outnumbered the British popula- tion, dctennincd to throw o£f the British supremacy and found a Dutch RepubHc on similar lines to that of the Orange IVee State. Troops were sent to quell the risuig, and Ln tlie end, in 1843, Natal was formally annexed to Great Britain. The Convict Agitation. — After public opinion in Australia had compelled the British Government to discontinue the sending of convicts there, the attention of the authorities, who had an unusaally large number of prisoners on their hands ic consequence of the troubles in Ireland, was strongly directed to the advisability of founding fresh penal settlements abroad. It was determined to ascertain the feelings of the colonists at the Cape with regard to the reception of a certain class of convicts. Before this had been done, however, a shipload, by some error, had been despatched. On their arrival in Table Bay, the popiilace rose in a mass and sought by acts of outrageous violence to show their disapprobation of the measure, and thei? determination not to submit to the introduction of convicts The governor, compelled by the force of popular opinion, agreed not to land the consignment. But this concession, apparently satisfactory as it was, proved insufficient for the more violent spirits, who now determined to prevent the ship from obtaining supphes. Finally the difficulty was solved by despatching the vessel with her cargo of convicts to Van Dieman's Land. The agitation is, however, worthy of note since it led to ths inception of a movement to obtain a free rcpresentati\ o govern- ment for the colony. The movement bore fruit, when in 185o, a constitution was established much on the Unes of thoae 190 BRITISH DOJIIXIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. gi'anted to the Australian colonies, and the colony becams virtually self-governing. Natal. — Port Natal was entered by Vasco da Gama on Christmo.s Day, 1498. Nearly two hundred years elapsed before it was thought of as a site for a settlement. Then the Duteh of Cape Colony sent an agent, who succeeded iu purchasing the Bay and the land in its vicinity from its Zulu owners for merchandise — copper, cutlery and beads — to the value of 29,000 guilders. Even then the Dutch made no use of their purchase, and for another hundred years the natives were undisturbed. In 1823, Lieutenant Fairwell succeeded in winning the regard of Tchaka, the Zulu chieftain, and gained from him the permission to make a settlement. Three thousand square miles of land were granted him together with several heads of cattle. Four years later Tchaka was assassinated by his brother Dingaan, in whose eyes the gro-ndng prosperity of the little colony furnished grounds for serious apprehension. Fairwell and some of his followers were assassinated while on a journey, the settlement raided, many of its inhabitants slain and the remainder compelled to seek safety in flight. In 1835, another English officer, Captain Gardner, gained permission from the tyrant to found another settlement at Durban. In 1839, the Boer "trekkers" under Retief, obtained from Dingaan the cession of the whole territory of Natal. No sooner was the treaty signed, than a treacherous attempt waa made, by the Zulu chief, to extirpate the Dutch settlers throughout the length and breadth of the land. The latter, however, 'with the assistance of a rebel Zulu chief, Mpanda, the brother of Dingaan, proved more than a match for their assailants. In 1843, however, the colony was ceded to Britain, a result largely due to the security to be attained under the British flag, and since then, wi h but few interruptions, its career has been one of prosperity. In 1856, it was created into a separate colony with representative institutions. BRITISH KOLE IN Al'UICA. i91 The West Afrioan Colonies. — These consist of llie four colonies of Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Lagos, afl situated on the coast of North-West Africa between the mouths of the rivers Senegal and Niger. They were originally trading settlements, and include some of the earliest extensions of the Empire. The Colony op Qamvia was tounded as early as IGI8, bnt its early career was one of viiissitude owing largely to the competitiou of European rivals. It was not formally recognised as British until the Treaty of VersaDles in 1783, and was given no political institu- tions until 1^07. In 1841 it was formally annexed to Sierra Leone. The PhNiNSULA of Siekra Leone was acquired, in 1787, l>y treaty with the native chiefs. It was originally intended as a refuge for liberated negroes from North America and the West Indies. It is thus a colony in reality, while the others are but trading settlements. The harbour of Freetown, its capital, is the best in West Africa, a fact which makes the colony a valuable place of cull and coalini; station on the Cape route to India and the Kast. Lagos, formerly one of the great ceutres of the African ^lave trade, was captured by the English in Ibul, but was not formally annexed to Britain until 18G1. In 1876 it was incorporated with the Gold Coast Colony, but was formed into a separate Crown colony in 1886. The Gold Coast.— This stretches along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea for about 290 miles, extending inland about 300 miles. The earliest settlement was made by English traders in 1618. In 1G62 a company was chartered to trade thither, which, in 1672, was in- corporated with the Eoyal African Company. The settlement was, in 1821, transferred to the Crown, and placed under the government of Sierra Leone, from which it was not finally sepa ated till 1874. 192 BRITISH DOMIXIONS HKYOND THE SKA3. SECTION II.— SINCE 1858. Cape Colony. — There had been some friction between the government of Cape Colony and tke Imperial government. We have seen that in 1848-1849, both the Dutch and the English colonists, 3'oung and old, and of all ranks, trades and per- suasions, had united against the introduction of convict labour into the colony, and had carried their point. Again, in 1865, the annexation of British Kaffraria under strong pressure from the mother country, led the colonists to think of demanding more extended powers than those conferred on them in 1853. In other words, a movement for responsible self-government was set on foot, and, in 1872, it became an accomplished fact, when the colonists " took up in the fullest sense the duties ajid the privileges of a self-governing people."* For some years after this, the history of Cape Colony is a record of territoral expansion, and of industrial development, of the discovery of gold and diamond fields, the construction of railroads and telegraph systems, and the establishment of steamer lines between England and the Cape. In 1865, British Kaffraria was annexed. In 1871, Griqualand West was annexed. In 1868, Basutoland was annexed. In 1874-5, Southern and Northern Kaffraria and Griqualand East were added. In 1871, the discovery of the Diamond Mines of Kimberley and De Beers promised to alter the whole character and condition of the colony by enormously stimulating emigration and raising in like proportion the demand for land in the northern districts. Lord Carnarvon, who in 1875 was Colonial Secretary, was bent on federalising South Africa on Canadian lines, and proposed the measure in a despatch to Sir Henry Barkly, * Lucas. BRITlbU UULE IN AlUICA. 193 Governor of Cape Colony, while at the same time he sent Mr. Froude to itinerate the country and promote the scheme. The Cape government, however, standing on its lately acquired constitutional dignity, declared that any such scheme must originate within the colony itself. In 1876, Carnarvon, still full of his federal projects, appointed Sir Bartle Frere Governor of Cape Colony. Sir Bartle became involved in two or three native frontier wars ; and before these were settled Carnarvon had resigned, and the federal policy expired. Sir Bartle Frere, who was also a High Commissioner for South Africa, showed great vigour and high statesmanlike qualities, and during his administration the Transkei, Basutoland and other territories were annexed. During his regime, too, the Transvaal was annexed (1877). In 1880, Frere was succeeded by Sir Hercules Robinson, under whom Griqualand West was incorporated with Cape Colony. After the Boer War of 1881, the The Bund. -, ^ -, i ■ ^- c Africander Bund (a league or association of the Cape Dutch to promote their own interests) received a great acquisition of strength, and became very influential, =•= and regular congresses began to be held. The object of the Bund was to promote enthusiasm for Dutch nationality, until the time should be ripe to get rid of the British flag, and establish South African independence on Dutch lines. It thus stood to the British government in South Africa some- what as the Home Rule party in Ireland stand to the Imperial parliament in England, or the Magyars in Hungary to the Austrian government in Vienna. The Bund (playing the pai-t of the Ostrogoths in Italy towards Belisarius, the Byzantine general) actually oflered to take Mr. Cecil Rhodes for their leader ; but Mr. Rhodes (re-enacting the part played by the great Belisarius) rcpUed that they "took him either for a rogue or a fool." * In 1902, the title of the league was changed to " South African Association." N 194 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. The Bund at this time was powerful enough to set up and pull down ministries. Its leader was Mr. J. H. Hofmeyer, who represented Stellenbosch in the House of Assembly, and edited the Volksteln newspaper. At first a friend of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, he broke with that statesman after the Jameson raid. He was a man of unquestionable talent, and his influence over his Dutch countrymen was supreme. At first, he advocated total separation from England, but later on he became mediator between the Boers and the Cape government, and it was through his influence that a peace- ful solution was arrived at on the Swaziland question. Obstinately refusing to take office, he preferred to work by influencing other members of the Assembly ; and hence he obtained the nickname of the " Mole." Directly or indirectly, however, from 1881 to 1898, he ruled the Bund caucus. The leading representative of British opinion in South Africa in the same period was undoubtedly Mr. Cecil John Rho:les, to whom reference has alreadv been Cecil Rhodes. . i , " ,r made. In a comparatively short career, Mr. Rhodes developed the highest statesmanlike qualities, and he stands to South Africa somewhat as Warren Hastings stands to India. Entering the Assembly in 1880, he first took office in 1884 as Treasurer-General. In 1890, he became Prime Minister, and held the Premiership till 1896. It was through his influence that a British protectorate was pro- claimed over a large portion of Bechuanaland, by which Mr. Kruger's designs on that part of Africa were check- mated. Through Mr. Rhodes's influence, too, numerous small diamond companies at Kimberley were amalgamated, from henceforward being known as the De Beers Consolidated Mines. A Customs Union for South Africa had been already formed — a first step towards federation ; the union was joined by the Orange Free State, and soon afterwards by British Bechuanaland and Basutoland. Through Mr. Rhodes's in- BRITISH 1«JLK IN AFRICA. 195 fluoncc, the Glen Grey Act was passed, the principle of which way to safeguard the rights and privileges of coloured people in the native reserves, and to levy upon every able-bodied labourer a tax of ten shillings a year, unless he could show that lie had been in service for a certain portion of the year — "Innixny respects the most statesmanlike Act dealing with the natives on the Statute Book."* Tlic discovery of the Gold and the Diamond mines in the north had given a great impetus to railway development. Mr. Kruger (or his government), intent on encouraging the Delagoa route to the Transvaal, quadrapled the traffic rates north of the Vaal River ; and, when the Cape merchants endeavoured to forward their goods by waggon from the Vaal northwards, he closed the fords (" drifts ") on the river (1895). This arbitrary action led to such a vigorous protest by the home government that the fords were reopened. In 1896, the revelation of Mr. Rhodes's complicity in the Jamescn Raid raised sucli a storm of surprise and indignation in the colony that he resigned the Premiership. Another result of the Raid had been a frosh Matabele rising, and during the hostilities which ensued, Mr. Rhodes went, alone and entirely unarmed, into tlic very heart of Matabeleland, and, trusting to his own personal influence, he met the chiefs in conference in their stronghold in the Matoppo hills. This sublime bravery and confidence, both in the natives and himself, was fully justified; for the chiefs eventually surrendered unconditionally, and t!ie rebellion was at an end. By this " master-stroke of diplomacy and courage " Mr. Rhodes bought " golden opinions from all sorts of people," and both Dutch and English colonists united to give him an enthusiastic reception on bis return to Cape Town. In 1898, Natal entered the Customs Union — another mile- stone on the road to federation. * I'be labour clauses o( this Act were repealed in 19'J5. 193 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. During the South African war, there was a good deal of friction and excitement in Cape Colony, especially during the Premiership of Mr. Schreiner, the leader of the Bund party and a friend of the Boers ; and between him and Sir Alfred Milner, the new Governor of the Colonj', there was a good deal of scantUy-veUed hostility. The initial engagements of the war, which were nearly all British reverses, took place within Colonial territory, and had the effect of encouraging many of the Dutch colonists of the Cape to join their fellow-countrymen across the Vaal. On the other hand, the loyal colonists were, after the arrival of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, recruited in large numbers for the Imperial troops. The story of Mafeking and Kimberley (where Mr. Rhodes was imprisoned during the whole of the siege) will be told under the history of the Transvaal. A Disfranchisement Bill was passed under the Premiership of Sir Gordon Sprigg — who had succeeded Mr. Schreiner — to punish the Cape rebels who had joined the Boers (1900). Martial law, which had been proclaimed in Cape Colony in the previous year, was repealed in 1902. In 1903, Mr. Chamberlain visited Cape Town, and had an enthusiastic reception. His public speeches were directed towards healing the racial wounds that still remained. At a farewell banquet at Cape Town, he declared that " all the divergent races which went to make up the British Empire had as their motto — " One life, one flag, one fleet, one empire." Since the conclusion of the Boer War, the South African colonies have made such tangible progress in Federalisation, ^^^ matter of fede«-alisation that the Kmg's 1910. speech at the opening of Parliament in 1910 (February 21st) contained the following paragraph : — " The establishment of the Union of South Africa has been fixed at the end of May, when its new Government will be constituted, and soon afterwards the first Parliament, representing the consolidated electorate, will be ready to assemble for its important deliberations."* * For further particulars as to federation, see under Natal, EraTISII R'JLE IN ArUICA. 197 Rhodesia. — Rhodesia, or, as it has been called, " Charter- land,'' is divided into North and South Rhodesia, and comprises vast stretches of country, the former principally north and the latter south of the River Zambesi. North Rhodesia is sub-divided into North-Eastern and North- Western Rhodesia; it is, as yet, an ill-defined and undeveloped country; it is bounded by Lake Nyassa on the east and the Orange Free State on the west. Southern Rhodesia includes Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Barotseland, etc. These countries were man- aged, till 1898, by the British South Africa Company, and townships have been founded at Salisbury, Victoria, Bulawayo, €tc., the first-named being the capital. The country is still governed, for the most part, according to the terms of the charter granted in 1889 to the British South A'i-ica Company; but, in 1898, the charter was amended by Orders in Council, with an administrator, nominated by the Secretary of State, and executive and legislative councils were entrusted with the government of the colony. Probably, a great future awaits this country, but at present there are not more than 14,000 white inhabitants in it. Bulawayo and Salisbury both enjoy municipal self-government. Other colonies and protectorates similarly awaiting develop- ment are British Bechuanaland, Bechuanaland Protectorate and Basutoland. Natal.— In 1879, trouble arose with Cetywayo, King of the Zulus, who had organised his army into a great " Celibate, man-slaying war machine," and by his opposi- Zulu War, ^:^ ^ missionaries, his plundering raids and 1879. murders, had become a terror to Natal. After futile negotiations, British troops entered Zululand in January of that year. At Isandlwana, however, Colonels Durnford and Pulleine, together with other officers and many men, were surprised and killed by about 15.000 Zulus. At Rorke's Drift, 198 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS. on the other hand, Lieutenants Ch ird and Bronahead success- fully resisted an overwhelming force of the enemy. In June, a reconnoitring party under Prince Louis Napoleon (the Prince Imperial) was surprised at Imbalani, and the Prince was killed. In July, Cetj'wayo was completely defeated by Lord Chelmsford at Ulundi, after which the Zulus agreed to a treaty by which their military sj'stem was to be abolished, and the country divided into districts, under native chiefs, with a British resident in each. In 18S'2, Cetywayo came to England, and was permitted to visit Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, and Mr. Gladstone. After his restoration, Cetywayo was attacked by powerful native chiefs, and civil war raged throughout Zululand. In 1884, Cetywayo died, and was succeeded by his son, Dinizulu. In 1886, a large portion of Western Zululand, which had been overrun by the Boers, and called by them the "New Republic," was annexed to the Transvaal. In 1887, Zululand was annexed as a British possession, and in 1903, the northern districts, and other large territories, were taken over by Natal. The retrocession of the Transvaal Independence in 1831 had always been viewed with great dissatisfaction in Natal, and at a public meeting at Durban, presided over by the Mayor, a resolution was passed and telegraphed to members of the Imperial Parliament as follows: "Utter disgust with settle- ment. British prestige with our natives entirely forfeited. No consideration for loyal Boers or British residents. Terms of peace simply mean greater bloodshed at no distant date." In 1881:-1885, the great gold discoveries in the Transvaal produced immense excitement in Natal, and not excitement only, but activity', speculation, emigration, waggon-work, railway construction, and so forth. In fact, Durban and Pietermaritzburg became like Genoa and Venice in the time of the Crusades, and many of the Natal colonists became mine proprietors on a large scale. isurrisu RULK in afuica. 199 In 1893, responsible self-government was accorded to Natal. In 1898 (as has been said), Natal entered the South Africa Customs Union. Political predictions are usually falsified (often ludicrously) by the event ; but that contained in the Durban telegram mentioned above was destined to be verified with a vengeance, and Natal herself was fated to bear the initial brunt of the " greater bloodshed." In 1899, tlie Boers burst into north- west Natal, and the following engagements were decided in quick succession on Natal territory : — Talana Hill, won by General Symons (who was himself killed) ; Elandslaagte, victory for Sir George White ; Nicholson's Nek, British reverse (surrender of Colonel Carleton) ; Siege of Ladysmith (with General BuUer's campaigns, and, eventually, relief of the town). The relief of Ladysmith was followed by the evacuation of Natal by the Boers. In this war the Natal Volunteers aided the mother country materiall}-. Federation. — By the South Africa Bill of September, 1909 Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Iliver Colony are to be federated within twelve months {i.e., by September, 1910). The seat of government is to be at Pretoria, and that of the legislature at Cape Colony. East Africa Protectorates. — In the scramble for Africa, many Crown colonies and protectorates have been proclaimed by Great Britain, e.g. : — Zululand {see under Natal). Basutoland. — The Basuto power was founded by Moshesh, a chief of remarkable ambition, courage, foresight and cunning. The Basutos were engaged in frequent feuds and fightings with the Boers, and were also a danger to Natal. Moshesh died in 1870, and, in 1871, Basutoland was annexed to Cape Colony. The task of looking after such a w ild people proved. 200 BRiriSU DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. however, more than the Cape government had bargained for ; and, in 1884, the latter resigned her share of the honour, and gave Basutoland back to the mother country. Since then Basutoland has been treated as a crown colony, and it promises to be a real success in the near future. North of Natal, Great Britain possesses in East Africa no colonies, only protectorates, or crown colonies, administered by the Colonial Office or the Foreign Office. These consist of Uganda, Nyassaland, Zanzibar and Pemba. The difficulty and expense of administering these countries is sometimes great. Until 1895, Zanzibar was governed by the Imperial British East Africa Company, which had been chartered in 1888, and which, in 1895, surrendered its rights to the Imperial government. The Germans had declared a protectorate over Witu, but, in 1890, they withdrew this protectorate in favour of Great Britain. The annexations by Germany on the east coast had made Great Britain uneasy for the horizon enjoyed by Aden. In 1885, therefore, the government proclaimed Somaliland — the African territory opposite Aden — a British protectorate, and stationed a few soldiers at Berbera, on the coast. This, it was thought, would effectually safeguard Aden's " ancient lights." By the year 1910, however, the difficulty — not to say absurdity — of assuming to " protect " a country four hundred miles long and about a hundred and sixty miles broad (or twice the size of Ireland) by means of a single regiment was sufficiently appreciated ; and the home government has now entirely abandoned the interior, and determined to ' concentrate its protective attentions on one or two places on the coast. West African Protectorates, etc. — On the Gold Coast the Dutch and the English both nad settlements of long standing. These settlements were nob colonies, but protectorates ; rent [To face p. WO. BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA. 201 was paid to native chiefs for the forts and factories occupied ; trade alone was the raison d'etre of these settlements, and there was no sovereignty or ownership in the European communities there. The English and the Dutch settlements were so mixed up that no line of demarcation or frontiers marking spheres of influence could possibly be drawn. The English had their headquarters at Cape Coast Castle, and the Dutch had theirs at St. George D'Elmina, only a few miles away. The Dutch settlements we.re not a success, and they cost Holland some ^11,000 yearly. British trade, too, suffered under such circumstance^, so that both countries were anxious to make some readjustment. In 1867, therefore, an Anglo-Dutch Convention was signed, by which Holland ceded to England all her settlements on the eastern half of the Gold Coast, and England °"''^*^ ceded to Holland all hers on the western half. Cessions. . ,. , , mi i.- The results were not satisfactory. The natives would not recognise the transference of protection, and the Dutch had to defend themselves from the attacks of the Fantees, and other tribes. In 1871, therefore, Holland made another Convention with Great Britain, by which she sold her stores and other assets to England at a valuation, and with- drew entirely from this Gold Coast, where she had been settled for 235 years. This c ssion of the Dutch settlements, however, involved England in unforeseen trouble. The Idnterland was occupied by some powerful kings, who were not only AshantiWar, frequently at war with each other, but who ^"*' resented the transfer of Elmina to a protector strong enough, should it choose, to discontinue paying the "ground rent," and to prevent access from the sea to the interior via Elmina. The Ashanti king seized some Europeans and imprisoned them at Kumasi, and refused to give them up. War therefore broke out. In January, 187-i, 20"2 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Sir Garnet Wolseley invaded Ashanti territory, aoid after twice defejiting the enemy, entered Kumasi, and burned the town, from which the king had fled. A treaty was then concluded, by which the Ashantis renounced all claims on the Pro- tectorate, and agreed to pay an indemnity, and put a stop to human sacrifices. This breaking up of the power of Ashanti was all important for the safety of the British Protectorate ; but the Treaty of 1874 was not carried out by the Ashantis, and the hinterland remained a terror to the British traders. Wars and murders continued, and the Ashanti king, Prempeh, refused to recognise the authority of the governor of the Gold Coast. In 1895, therefore, another expedition was organised and sent against Ashanti under Sir Francis Scott. In January, 1896, Kumasi was again occupied, and the king being captured was taken as a prisoner and lodged in Elmiua jail. In was in this expedition that Prince Henry of Battenberg lost his life through fever. Refractory and rebellious conduct on the part of the Ashantis necessitated another expedition in 1900. Colonel Willcocks was sent to relieve some missionaries and other Europeans who were beleagured in the fort of Kumasi. After accomplishing his object with complete success Colonel Willcocks further quelled the insurgent spirit throughout the country, and in 1901 peace was once more restored. In September of that year Ashanti was annexed bj- Great Britain. There was something comical about the scramble for Africa, which began in the 'eighties ; for from that time chartered companies were formed, there was a rush to make treaties with the natives, and " spheres of influence " were being announced, protectorates proclaimed, and annexations declared, by most of the great colonising powers of Europe. Lagos had been acqvdred by Great Britain as far back as 1861, and things jogged along quietly enough for about a quarter of a century. But when France began exploring the Sahara, and claiming BRITISU KULK I.V AFIIICA. 203 to " protect " Western Africa from tlie MeJiterraneau to Timbuctoo, and from Timbuctoo to Dahomey on the west of Lagos, aud when, in addition, the Germans seized the Caincroons on the east, Great Britain replied by declaring a Protectorate over the Lower Niger. Prolonged and trouble- some negotiations with France aud Germany ensued, but at length the boundaries were satisfactorily settled — with Germany by the treaties of 1885 and 1898, and with France by agreements of 1890 and 1898. The National Africa Company which had been founded in 1879 x*eceived a charter in 1886^ and then became known as the Royal Niger Company. On January 1, 1900, the Crown took over the territor.es of the Company, and Nigeria is now administered by tlie Colonial Office, being divided into Upper Nigeria and Loiver Nigeria, with a High Commissioner over each. The Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. — After the Great Trek of 1836, and the foundation of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic (already mentioned), there was practically no central government in those States. Both States were extremely democratic in their organisation — if such a word as organisation can be applied to them at all. Indeed, in the Orange Free State, every man did as seemed right in his own eyes. Whether these colonists could shake off their British allegiance, possess themselves of the liintei land, and establish independent republics, was a very moot question of constitutional law. So dangerous and intolerable was the situation, indeed, that, in 1818, a British garrison was placed in Bloemfontein, and the country was declared annexed by England. However, by the Sand River Convention in 1852, the independence of tlio Transvaal was recognised ; the garrison was then withdrawn from the Orange Free State, and the independence of that country also was recognised (1854j. The practical legalisation of slavery, and the conse- 204 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. quent irritation of and hostilities with the natives, was the chief cause of the trouble between the Boers and Great Britain, which the followhig years developeJ. In 1856, something in the shape of a constitution was framed in the Transvaal, providing for a triennial Volksraad (or parliament), together with a president and a council. The first president was Commandant-General M. W. Pretorius. But not all the petty district states, into which the country had hitherto been divided, would recognise the new Constitu- ■tion. Both Zoutspansberg and Lydenburg repudiated it entirely, and the Transvaal was threatened with a civil war. The situation was complicated by an effort, at first friendly, and then forcible, to effect a union with the Orange Free State; and it was not until 1860 that Zoutspansberg and Lydenburg gave in their submission to the majority, and became incorporated with the Transvaal. Pretoria was now made the capital of the Eepublic and the seat of govern- ment. The seventeen years which followed this consummation, however, were far from happy or reassuring. Native risings and Kaffir wars, consequent on the continuance of slavery and a slave trade, as well as repeated efforts to appropriate Iresh territory beyond the frontiers, alternated with intestine quarrels and civil war. The education of children was neglected, missionary work was much restricted, the treasury was empty, the introduction of paper money did not save the situat'on, and the public credit sank very low. On the north the Kaffirs were threatening, and on the east the Zulus. The discovery of gold and diamonds on the western frontiers caused further boundary disputes in 1867. A three-cornered claim upon a diamond mine near what is now called Barkly West, on the banks of the Vaal, culminated in an arbitration, which found in the favour of the Griquas, a race of half- castes, to whom the strip of territory was accordingly handed LKITISU RULE IN AFUICA. 205 over. This was known as the " Keate Award," from the name of the referee, Lieutenant-Governor Keate of Natal. This award was followed by the voluntary submission of Griqualaud West, so-called to distinguish it from Griqualand East, which lies south-west of Natal. This award, with its sequel, was far from being acceptable to the Boers. In 1872, Pretorius resigned, and the Rev. T. F. Burgers, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, was elected President. Burgers was an active and well-intentioned man, but with somewhat romantic ideas. The old troubles con- tinued — border wars with the natives, slavery cruelties, want of funds, and loss of public credit. Tlie paper money had become so depreciated that the one-pound notes were worth no more than a shilling. Burgers himself was in despair, and so bitterly disappointed with the crooked and refractory character of the people who had chosen him as their President, that in the Volksraad (in March, 1877) he indulged in some very plain language to his countrymen : " I would rather," he declared, "be a policeman under a strong government than the President of such a State. It is you — you members of the Raad and Boers — who have lost the country, who have sold your independence for a drink. You have iil-trcated the natives, you have shot them down, you have sold them into slavery, and now you have to pay the penalty. . . . We should delude ourselves by entertaining the hope that matters would mend by-and-by." The penalty here spoken of referred to the approaching annexation of the Transvaal by Great Britain ; for the danger and disorganisation seemed to the British Annexation of , i. .1 - •. . - c-- government so great, that it sent out bu- Theophilus Shcpstone to enquire into the feasibility of annexation. In April, 1877, Shcpstone issued a proclamation declaring the Transvaal annexed. The whole question bristled with difficulties, and it seems clear now that 206 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Shepstone was misled into believing that the majority of the Boers were in favour of annexation. Some 33 per cent, of the adult male population did indeed petition for annexation, but nearly twice that proportion was against the measure, most of them, probably, most violently opposed to it. The action of the British government was no doubt hastened by rumours of a Transvaal-German alliance, or of intervention on the part of Germany. In 1879, Sir Owen Lanyon was sent out as Governor of the Transvaal. This selection was not a happy one. Lanfon was quite ignorant of the Boers and their language, and seemed unable to accommodate himself to the r ultra- democratic ways. As governor, he received .£300 a year " cofifee money," for which he was expected to drink coffee occasionally with the people. This, however, he did not do. And this ignoring of national customs, this nonconformit}' on the part of the governor, bred fresh discontent among the people, and petitions for independence were got up, and a deputation was sent to England with the same object. Meanwhile, the Zulus, after inflicting a disastrous blow upon the British armies at Isandhlwana, were defeate:!, and their power broken by Lord Chelmsford at Ulundi, while another great menace of the Transvaal, Secocoeni, was routed by Sir Garnet Wolesley, and his army dispersed. This British intervention and annexation was prompted by a desire for OKder and peace, and not from any particularly selfish motive ; for as yet the great gold mines had not been discovered, and the Transvaal presented no particular attraction to the enaigrant. Disraeli's parliament was drawing to a close, and Mr. Gladstone's election speeches implied th-reats that, if success- ful at the polls, he would rescind the annexation proclamation. The spirit of our Constitution, however, strongly discourages the reversal by one ministry of the acts of its predecessors ; BRITISH KULK IN AFRICA. 207 and the reactionary threats of an opposition statesman are thus bound to be largely modified after his accession to office. The Boer appeals to Mr. Gladstone to fulfil his Midlothian pledges and cancel the annexation, were replied to by him to ths effect that the freedom desired by the Boers might be " most easily and promptly conceded to the Trans- vaal as a member of a South African Federation." This was far from satisfj'ing the agitators, and the independence movc«>ient in the Transvaal grew daily in extent and intensity. The A'igour with which Sir Owen Lanyon enforced the payment of taxes, including the seizure of the property of those who were in arrear, did not ease the BoGF Wai* of .„o- situation, and the smouldering fire broke out 1880. ° into rebellion in the same year (1880). Then followed, in rapid succession, a series of skinuislies and combats wholly disastrous to the British arms. At Bronkhorst Spruit a British detachment was surprised and cut up, about half being killed and the rest made prisoner-. At Lang's Nek, in Natal, a hill which the Boers had occupied, Sir George Collej' was defeated in an attempt to dislodge the enemy. He then occupied Majuba Hill, which commanded the camp of the Boers. Here he was attacked, on February 27th, and lost nearly half his force in killed and wounded, and was himself among the slain. After Colley's death. General Sir Evelyn Wood succeeded to the command, but, to the surprise of everybody, a treaty was almost at once concluded with the Boers, Retrocession ^y which the latter were to enjoy all the of Transvaal, . , ^ jggj n:dcpendence that was compatible with British suzerainty and a British resident at Pretoria. In May, 1881, this treaty was matured into the Convention of Pretoria. By this Convention (which consisted of 33 articles), "the control of the external relations of the said State, including the conclusion of treaties and the conduct 208 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS. of diplomatic intercourse with foreign powers," and tlie right to march troops, if necessary, through the territories of the Transvaal, were retained by Great Britain. Mr. Kruger was now President, and remained President for eighteen years. The Boers began at once to use their independence in a peculiar waj' ; they adopted the monopoly system, which had been the cause of such trouble between our own sovereigns and the nation in the time of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, and which had been abolished by the Long Parliament. Thus, the Transvaal government granted concessions or monopolies to private persons, of such things as alcohol, dynamite, jam, bricks, wool, paper, etc. Frontier quarrels, too, revived. The Boers of the south- western district burst across the border, drove back the natives, and set up the " Eepublics " of Stellaland and Goshen, situated in what is now British Bechuanaland. The colonials pro- tested, but the Boers continued their operations ; and, further, began raiding into Zululand on the east, and into the Chartered Company's territory on the north. To check these raids, it was found necessary to send out a force, under Sir Charles Warren, and to organise a frontier police force to provide against future contingencies. Sir Charles AVarren succeeded in exterminating the two republics, and occupying that part of Bechuanaland without any fighting. Mr. Kruger, at the same time, headed a deputation to London, to interview the Colonial Secretary, with a \'iew to modifying the Convention of Pretoria in the direction of according the Boers more freedom in their foreign relations, and, if possible, to dispensing with the objectionable word " suzerainty." The deputation was so far successful that the Pretoria Convention of 1881 was superseded by the London Convention of 1884. By this latter Convention, the Transvaal boundaries were once more defined, the title of the Boer State was changed to the " South African Piepublic," a veto over BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA. 209 the foreign politics of the Kepublic was still reserved to the British government, and though the word " suzerainty " was not used, it was claimed by Lord Derby (the Colonial Secretary) that the thing was not relinquished. Following on this convention, in 1885, the Boers entered Zululand, and, by intrigue or negotiation, claimed a large amount of teiTitory, and called it the " New Republic " ; which annexation, though in considerably reduced dimensions, was recognised by Great Britain in 1886, and was incorporated in the Trans- vaal in 1888. In 1886, came the great crisis in the history of the Republic. Gold had been found there before this time, but it was in 1886 that the Rand Gold Fields were discovered, Johannesburg. which soon turned out to be perhaps the greatest in the world. Tlieir value has been estimated at ^700,000,000. The whole country, and with it the political situation, was at once transformed. A rush from almost every European country-, as well as from America, took place. The land increased in value by leaps and bounds. Villages and hamlets swelled into towns, and the city of Johannesburg sprang into existence. Soon the Boers had sold about one-third of their land to the immigrants — or " Uitlanders," as the settlers came to be called. This influx of foreigners travelled chiefly by way of Natal, and gave that country, and to its cities Durban and Pietermaritzburg, an enormous stimulus. Owing to the elaborate and expensive machinery required to work the deep Transvaal mines, the miners were not exactly oi jhe same character as those of California, Australia and Klond^^kc ; they were to a considerable extent men of substance with loner pockets; and though bogus companies were started, the number of needy exploiters, unscrupulous adventui-ers and other undesirables was not large. This industrial " boom " brought about also a financial revolution, for the national revenue increased with unprecedented rapidity. In 1882, the revenue 210 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. was ^177,000: in 1887, it was ^1,500.000, while in 1899 it was ^4,000,000. And now began that great struggle between the Transvaal government and the Uitlanders, which resulted first in the Jameson Raid, and secondly in the war of The Uitlanders. -, , r. , ■■ , • <• 1899 and the final conquest and annexation of the country by Great Britain. If the Uitlanders were not the usual riff-raff of fortune-seekers, their ways and manners were not exactly those of the Boers ; and it must be confessed that by introducing into the country many of the vices without any of the virtues of civilisation, they gave the Dutch rustics cause for a great deal of well-founded and natural irritation. Many of the Boer farmers were simple, unsophisticated men, religious, Bible-reading folk, desiring to live quiet lives, with traditions of Brille and Ley den circulating in their system ; it is not to be wondered at that they should be scandalised at seeing a great city rise up suddenly in their midst, filled with drinking- shops and gambhng-dens, and patronising horse-racing, betting and Sunday theatres. The indefinite growth and permanent domicile in their midst of this pattern of civilisation was naturally most repulsive to all quiet, homely and morally-given minds ; and it is only by surrendering one's self to a blind and bigoted partisanship that we can ascribe to one side alone all the blame and responsibility in the struggle that followed. At all events, every impartial person will allow that the Boers had something more than a pretext for the revenge which they proceeded to take on the foreigners of Johannesburg. Seeing Johannesburg assuming alarming proportions in population as well as " civilisation," the government at Pretoria proceeded to crush the life out of the alien community by a long series of oppressive enactments. Though paying seven-eighths of the revenue, these Uitlanders were deprived of the franchise, neither had they any voice in BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA. 211 the choice of State officials, whose salaries, at the same time, rose prodigiously. In 1886, those salaries totalled only ^51,000 a year; in 1899, they amounted to Penal Laws. ., , ., *1, 200,000, while briber j', shameless and corrupt, was carried on at Pretoria. Nor was the situation eased as time went on. The residential qualification for the franchise when granted, was raised from five years to ten, and from ten to fourteen. On the education of the children of the Uitlanders d£650 was spent yearly ; on the children of the Boers the yearly sum expended was jG63,000. The municipal government of Johannesburg was out of date as well as corrupt. Sanitary science was a thing unknown. There was no proper drainage system and no adequate water supply. The impartiality of the police could not be depended on, and justice was tainted by national prejudice. The Uitlanders could not sit on a jury. The mining interests were being constantly hampered by fresh restrictions. The railways were owned by the state, and the rates and fares charged were exorbitant. The numerous duties and tolls paid by the residents of Johannesburg were not expended for the benefit of the town, but were pocketed by the government at Pretoria. Add to this that the Uitlanders were actually commandeered for compulsory miUtary service, and perhaps the limit of the unreasonable was reached, though the cup was not yet full. It is not to be wondered at that under these circumstances petitions were addressed first to the government at Pretoria without effect, and then to the government of Queen Victoria, and that threats of intervention had to be resorted to before a few of the worst grievances were mitigated. As the British government did not see its way to intervene or put further pressure on the government at Pretoria, it is hardly to be wondered at that, amongst British sympathisers 212 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. in adjacent territory, some unofficial attempt should have been made to compel the Boer government to redress the grievances of the Uitlanders. On November 15th, 1895, the British Bechuanaland Police were disbanded, but, being allowed to join the Chartered Company, many of them did so. Drilling and Jameson Raid. ,, „ i • recrmting was earned on at Maiekmg and Pitsani, in British Bechuanaland, near the Transvaal frontier. Between these places and Johannesburg relays of horses, stores and provisions were established, and other preparations made for a military expedition. The " Raid " was engineered by Dr. Jameson, Administrator of the British South Africa Company, and with him were associated many other officers. On the expedition bemg announced to the men, however, some of them demurred, and demanded to know if they were marching under the Queen's orders, or under those of the Company. The officers rephed that they were going to fight for the supremacy of the British flag in South Africa, that there would probably be no fighting, but that they would be ready if attacked. Eumours o* the Eaid having reached head- quarters, letters and telegrams were sent after Dr. Jameson by the Governor of Cape Colony, Sir Hercules Robinson, commanding the expedition to return at once, and stating that Her Majesty's government repudiated the whole pro- ceeding. The expedition, nevertheless, proceeded into the Transvaal. But, on January Ist and 2nd, 1896, they were attacked by the Boers, and overpowered ; and after some fighting and loss of life, the expedition surrendered. On being tried at Pretoria, four of the leaders were condemned to death. On this occasion the Boer government sent to Cook House Drift for a beam upon which, in 1816, five Boors had been hanged by the Cape Town authorities for a rising in con- nection with some slavery outrages. That severity-, though eighty years old, had not been forgotten. The vengeance of BKITISII UULK IN AFUICA. '213 the battle-field, as Sir Conan Doyle remarks, may be forgiverii but not that of the gallows. The sentence on the Jameson raiders, however, was not carried out ; it was commuted to a fine of .£25,000 each inliicted on the leaders, while the rest of the officers were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and jE2,000 fine each. This sentence was, after a short imprisonment, commuted. This treatment, it must be owned, was, on the whole, not only unrevengeful, but generous. A bill was subsequently sent in to the British government by the Pretoria authorities, amounting to jG 1,677,938 3s. 3d. This, however, has not yet been paid, not even the 3s. 3d. ! Further Boer Commissions were appointed to enquire into the grievances of the Uitlanders, and Reports were duly issued advocating reforms ; but the Reports, as before, were ignored, and the tyranny continued, and was, indeed, augmented. The Uitlanders then in despair sent a petition direct to Queen Victoria (1899) signed by 21,000 persons, enumerating their grievances, and praying for intervention. In consequence of this petition, negotiations followed at Bloemfontein between Sir Alfred Milner and President Kruger. But it was impossible to obtain any reasonable redress from the latter. The negotia- tions dragged on without any progress being made, while the British government massed troops on the Natal frontier of the Transvaal, and sent out reinforcements. The crisis grew darker and more threatening every day. The Boer government now repudiated the British suzerainty altogether, on the ground that it had not been mentioned in the Treaty of London of 1881, which amended the Pretoria Convention of 1881. Mr. Chamberlain pointed out that if everything in the earlier convention was to be taken as cancelled because it was not mentioned in the later treaty, this cancelling would include the grant of self-government to the Transvaal. The Boers offered to submit the whole dispute to arbitration, but such a course could not be adopted by Great Britain, unless she was 214: BillTISH DOillNION.-i BKYUXD THE SEAS. pre^jared to recoguise the South African Republic as ou an equahty with herself. At last the Boer government, on October yth, sent in an ultimatum demanding that the troops on the Natal frontier, and also the reinforcements sent to British South Africa since January 1st, 1899, should be withdrawn, that those on their way out be sent back without landing, and that all out- standing disputes should be submitted to arbitration. A reply was required within forty-eight hours. The British govern ment replied that it was impossible to discuss such terms at all. On Wednesday, therefore, October 11th, 1899, war broke out between England and the South African Republic ; the Orange Free State joined the Republic, and thus became involved in the war. It is evident now that both the belligerents in this war belittled their opponents unworthily. The Boers, after witnessing Lang's Nek, Ingogo, and Majuba South African g-iH, and more recently, the Jameson Raid, War 1899-1902. viewed with supreme contempt the capabilities of the British Army ; and the English people, or a considerable majority of them, looked upon these bandoliered farmers as beneath contempt ; and burning to wipe out the many rebuffs their troops had suffered, and to avenge the Uitlanders for the long and systematic tyi-anny they had endured, believed that the British army " would move like a steam-roller from Cape Town to Pretoria," crushincf all opposition and annihilating it once for all. The Boers began by invading Natal, and advancing towards Cape Colony, and it was with no less surprise than chagrin that the English public read shortly afterwards of four British forces being shut up or paralysed by the Boers — at Kimberley, Mafeking, Magersfontein and Ladysraith, The first part of the war consisted in the struggles of the British lion to extricate himself from these spring-traps in which his paws were held BRITISH RULli IN AFRICA. 215 fast. Lord Methuen failed to relieve Kiinberley, and was rudely checked at Magersfontein where General Wauchope was killed and nearly 1,000 officers and men lost. General Gatacre, in attacking the Boer position at Stormberg about the same time, was badly beaten, and lost over 700 killed and wounded. Sir Rcdvers Buller, who had arrived as Commander-in-Chief, could do no better. His efforts to relieve Ladysmith were a disastrous failure. The Boers under General Botha had fortified themselves on the north bank of the Tugela River, and General Buller's assault on their position was repulsed with the loss of 1,100 men and ten guns 1 Lord Eoberts was then appointed Commander-in-Chief, with Lord Kitchener as his Chief of the Staff. The Boers, anxious to reduce Ladysmith before Lord Lord Roberts. -, , , -i, Roberts arrived, made a desperate assault upon the town, but they were repulsed with severe loss (January 6th, 1900). General Buller then made another attempt to reach Ladysmith by crossing the Tugela and turning the enemies' left wing. This attempt, known as the Battle of Spion Kop, was more disastrous than the previous one, and General Buller had to recross the Tugela with the loss of 1,700 men (January 24th). A third attempt at relief made on February 5th, fared no better. The deadlock continued, Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith being invested by the Boers, and the British forces locked up in those towns being able to do nothing but hold their own. Lord Roberts, however, had arrived and already organised a force, with which he proceeded to the Moddcr River on the western border of the Orange Free State. General French was sent immediately to the relief of Kimberley, which he effected in dashing style at the head of his cavalry. The Boer General, Cronje, retreated to Paardeberg where he was forthwith hemmed in by Lord Kitchener and General French, and obliged to capitulate with 216 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. 4,000 of his men. This success, which was only gained, however, at considerable loss to the British, took place on February 27th, the anniversary of Majuba Hill. On the following day. General Buller had succeeded, after another ten days' struggle, in reheving Ladysmith, Lord Dundonald and the Natal Carabineers entering the town on February 28th. General Buller's four efforts had cost the army 5,000 men in all. Lord Eoberts then occupied Bloemfontein, the Orange Free State capital; and a fortnight later Piet Joubert, the Boer Commandant General, died at Pretoria. Lord Eoberts' army was not able to advance from Bloemfontein for another six weeks. Mafeking, which had been gallantly defended by Colonel Baden-Powell and his garrison since October 13th, 1899, was relieved by a flying column under Mahon (Maj' 17th, 1900). The Orange Free State was formally annexed by Lord Eoberts, who then pushed on to the Transvaal, entering Johannesburg (May 31st), and Pretoria (June 5th), and released some 3,000 British prisoners of war. President Kruger had already fled from his capital, carrying the State archives and the exchequer with him. Later in the year he abandoned his countrymen, and took refuge in Portuguese territory, whence he sailed soon afterwards for Europe (October, 1900). On September 1st, 1900, the Transvaal was declared annexed by Great Britain. As with the occupation of the two capitals the war seemed over, Lord Eoberts left for England in December, and' handed over the supreme command to Lord Kitchener. The very long lines of communication, however, between the British army an 1 Durban, on the one hand, and Cape Town on the other, presented many weak points, and offered an excellent opening for guerilla operations, which the Boers were not slow to take advantage of. In these tactics the Boers proved themselves experts of the first class, and BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA. 217 there followed eighteen months of dreary invertebrate warfare, in which the Boers often succeeded in cutting the railways and telegraph lines, capturing isolated outposts, ambushing convoys and doing all sorts of miscellaneous damage. They never concentrated for a battle, and being mounted they were almost invariably able to escape on the approach of an organised army. De Wet attempted an invasion of Cape Colony (February, 1901), but being defeated at Philipstown and elsewhere, he had to retreat with the loss of several guns and many prisoners. Botha in like manner attempted to invade Natal, but met with a similar disaster. Nevertheless, the galling guerilla tactics lasted a year and a half, and it was not until Lord Kitchener had established concentration camps and a block-house system to protect the railways, and out- manoeuvred the enemy by a series of " drives," that the Boers gave up the game. In May, 1902, Generals De Wet, Botha, De la Rey and others, at Vereeniging, opened negotiations with Lords Milner and Kitchener at Pretoria; and peace was Peace of signed on the 31st of the same month. By Yereeniging, ^^.^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Boers were to surrender un- conditionally, and become subjects of Kmg Edward VII. The property of the Boers was to be restored to them, and an amnesty granted to all who had been engaged in " legitimate acts of war." ^63,000,000 was to be given as compensation to those Boers whose farms had been sacrificed for the purpose of the concentration camps. The Dutch language was to be used in the schools and in the law courts where necessary, and self-government was to be introduced as soon as the country was sufficiently settled. The British losses were about 5.700 killed, and nearly 23,000 wounded; while the Boers lost nearly 4,000 killed, and nearly 40,000 prisoners, out of a total force of some 65,000. 218 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. In December, 1906, the Transvaal was granted a Constitution and self-government, in the form of a Legislative Council of fifteen members elected by the Governor, and a Legislative A ssemblv of sixty- GoYernment. . j j nine members elected by all white male British subjects over twenty-one years of age. The Legislature is elected for five years at a time, but may be dismissed by the Governor. The Executive resides in the minsters, who are appointed by the Governor. The population of the Transvaal was, at the Census of 1904, about IJ millions, 300,000 of whom were whites, the rest being Kaffirs and other natives. The Orange Eiver Colony (the new title of Orange Free State) received a somewhat similar constitution in 1907, the Legislative Assembly consisting of thirty-eight members, and the Legislative Council of eleven. MISCELLANEOUS ACQUISiriON3. 219 CHAPTER VIII. Miscellaneous Acquisitions. Sarawak and British Borneo.— The Dutch, since the bep;in- )iing of the seventeenth century, had trading stations in Borneo, which they abandoned and retook agam from time to time. In 1841, Shr James Brooke, who had settled in the island of Labuan and at Sarawak in West Borneo, was by the Sultan appointed Rajah, and Sarawak was incorporated with the British Empire. By various treaties with the Sultan of Brunei (North Borneo), Rajah Brooke's territory was greatly enlarged, until it amounted to about 50,000 square miles. Eajah Brooke had much trouble with pu-ates and freebooters, but he held his own and managed his territory admirably until 1868, when he died, and was succeeded by his nephew, Charles Johnson Brooke (the present Rajah). In 1881, the British North Borneo Company was formed and chartered. It claims jurisdiction over about 31,000 square miles in the north of the island. In 1885, North Borneo, together with Sarawak, was pro- claimed a British protectorate. Cyprus.— After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, an Anglo-Turkish agreement was made (June 4th, 1878), by which England undertook to protect Asiatic Turkey agamst any future encroachments by Russia, and Cypras was assigned to England, " to enable her to make necessary provision for 220 BRITISH DOMIXIOXS BEYOXD THE SEAS. MISCELLANEOUS ACQUISITIONS. 221 executing her engagement." Cyprus still forms part of the Ottoman Empire, and it must be restored by England if ever Russia should restore Batoum and Kars to Turkey (I). Burma. — By the Treaty of Yandabu (1826), after the first Burmese War, Burma ceded to England Assam, Tenasserim, and part of Aracan, and agreed to receive a British resident. In 1851, the violence of the native governor of Rangoon provoked another war w^ith the British, after which Pegu was annexed. This war did not terminate until 1853, when the King of Ava submitted, and threw open the navigation of the Irawadi. In 1862, British Burma (Lower Burma) was formed into a British province. The relations between the native and the British govern- ments were strained for some time. In 18T8, King Thebaw succeeded King Mindon. He was an almost irreclaimable savage, and inaugurated his reign by massacring a large number of his own relatives. The British resident withdrew, his life being in danger, and diplomatic relations became more strained than ever. The government of the country went from bad to worse, and soon the outlying districts were beyond control, full of lawlessness and violence, and a standing danger to the British provinces. The Anglo-Burmese treaties were broken by King Thebaw, who dealt in monopo- lies, and thereby demoraUsed trade. Not only was the Indian government unrepresented in Burma, but French and Italian representatives were encouraged and treated with. There was further trouble over the Bombay-Burma Trading Company, which Thebaw threatened with fines and confiscations. In 1885, therefore, an ultimatum was sent to the King, and, an unsatisfactory reply being given. General Prendergast was sent into the country with British forces. The Burmese were taken entirely by surprise. The British army entered Mandalay, and Thebaw, being captured, was deposed and '^■?-2 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. BOR^'EO ( Jiriiish sliadrd ) Scale of Miles 200 oo MISCELLANEOUS ACQUISITIONS. 223 deported to India. Upper Burma was then annexed (1886). The country was still full of disbanded native soldiers and deserters, who roamed about, plundering and murdering every- where. The suppression of these Dacoits necessitated several further expeditions, and it was several years before peace and order were restored. New Guinea. — Papua, or New Guinea, was visited by Alfred Russell Wallace in 1858. Later on, Captam Moresby explored portions of the country (1874), and his name is perpetuated in the chief town, Port Moresby. The Dutch had ancient clauns on New Guinea, and the Germans were beginning to settle in the island; so that (as in the case of Aden and Somaliland), the Australian authorities became troubled as to the future of the great island dominating their northern coast and of the fine water-way called Torres Strait. Queensland therefore, in 1883, declared the eastern part of New Guinea annexed. This annexation was disallowed by the British government. In the following year, however. Great Britain declared a protectorate over New Guinea east of longitude 141°, including the islands. In 1884, Germany set up a trading company on the north-east coast, and soon afterwards annexed the same. Great Britain and Germany then agreed to partition the eastern half of the island, the northern moiety (called Wilhelm Kaiser's Land) being taken by Germany, and the southern being retained by England. The western half of the island was left to the Dutch, who had had interests there of long standing. British New Guinea comprises about 90,000 square miles, with a population of less than half a million, which includes a mere handful of Europeans. In 1895, the Anglo-Dutch boundaries were settled by treaty, but the Dutch occupation is hardly yet an effective one. English, Dutch, and German roissionaries have long been labouring, and with some success, to undermine the savagery of the natives and supersede it by Christian influences. 224 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Fiji. — The Fiji Islands were discovered by the Dutch navigator Tasman in the seventeenth century. In 1859, the King and his chiefs oll'ered themselves and the islands to the British government, but the offer was not accepted. Thanks to the missionaries, however, the savagery of the natives was being rapidly exterminated, and, with a luxuriant soil, fertile country, and friendly islanders, British emigration thither began to flow in a steady stream; wh3n, therefore, in 1874, another and unconditional cession of the islands was made to Great Britain, the offer was accepted. When Queen Victoria ascended the throne there was not a Christian in Fiji ; when she died there was not a pagan there. Weihaiwei. — In consequence of Chinese fanaticism, result- ing in the murder of European missionaries in 1897, several European nations, including France, Russia, and Germany, secured leases of Chinese ports for ninety-nine years. Great Britain, at the same time, obtained a ninety -nine years' lease of Weihaiwei, on the coast of Shantung, nearly opposite Port Arthur. About the same time, a portion of the mainland of China, opposite the north coast of Hong Kong (together with a number of islands in the vicinity) -was ceded to Great Britain, to be administered by the authorities of Hong Kong. Heligoland, which was taken by the British from the Danes in 1807, was, in 1888, handed over by Great Britain to Germany (in exchange for certain rights in Zanzibar), and, in 1890, it was incorporated in the German Empire. APPENDIX I. Biographical. Baker, Sir Samuel White (1821-1893), was a native of Worcestershire. After much travelliiii:; aiij exploration in Asia (especially in Ceylon), he set out for Africa, ani, after navigating a large portion of the Nile, he succeeded, in 18G-1, in discovering the Albert Nyanza. He published several books on his Cingalese and his African explorations. Brooke, Sir James— "Rajah Brooke"— (1803-1838), was a native of Bath. Entering the service of the East India Company, he fought in the first Burmese war (1823). In 183S, he visited China, and cherishing the project of clearing the Malay Archipelago of pirates, he went to Borneo, and helped the Sultan to subdue the freebioters of Sarawak. For this service it was that he was made Rajah of Sarawak, in 18U. He accomplished great t!uugs (with the help of other officers) in exterminating piracy and violence in those waters. In 1817, he returned to England, and was highly honoured, and made Governor of the Island of Labuan, which had been bought from the Sultan. Excessive severities in the further suppression of piracy caused the home government to deprive him of his governorship. He died in Devonshire, at Burrator, on an estate presented to him by public subscription. Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of (1708-1778).— William Pitt, the elder, ranks among the greatest of British orators and statesmen. On leaving Oxford he entered the army, and it was as a cornet of the Blues that he first entered Parliament as member for Old Sarum. The part he played in opposing Walpole led to the loss of his commission. After this he became one of the most active ot that minister's opponents, leading the younger part of the Opposition — "The Boys" — with such spirit and effect as to earn for himself a great reputation as a Parliamentary debater. In IT-lfi, he became one of the vice-treasurers for Ireland, and was subsequently appointed Paymaster-General. In 175-1, he became chief minister, but was soon ousted by his great rival Pox. In 1756, however, the King had to yield to the popular acclaim, and Pitt again became chief minister, only to resign his post when the King arbitrarily dismissed his friend and relation. Lord Temple, from his post of First Lord of the Admiralty. For two and a half months the country x-emained without a Ministry, and at the expiration of that time, the King was forced again to send for Pitt, under whose able rule the reign of George II. closed in a blaze of glory, in striking contrast to the bitter humiliation of the period which immediately preceded it. The accession of George III., however, brought Lord Bute into power, and Pitt again resigned. Once more the voice of the nation recalled him, in 170(), and he again took office, accepting, at the same time, the title of Earl of Chatham. Ill-health caused him to withdraw from all active participation in the government, and it is during this period that, under his lieutenant, Townshend, those measures were passed which led to the separation of the American colonies. In 1770, be returned to active life, speaking as before, but with little of his 226 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. old power. In 1773, the excitement of a speech against the recognition of the independence of the American colonies proved too great for him. He fell in a fit on the floor of the House, and died about a month afterwards. Clive, Robert, Baron Clive of Plassey (172S-1774), was the foremost of those great "soldier-politicals " who won England her Indian Empire. Enlisting as a clerk in the East India Company's service, he was sent to Madras at the time when the tension between the English and French in the KaruAtik was at its height. He sprang into sudden fame by his daring capture and glorious defence of Arcot. Olive's work in India falls into three periods : the Conquest of the Karn&tik, beginning with the Siege of Arcot; the Subjugation of Bengal, beginning with the Battle of Plassey; and the Reorganisation of the civil and military administration of India, which followed his return from England in 1765, as Governor of Bengal. The latter part of his career earned him bitter enemies, and, largely as a result of their machinations, he was, on his final return to England in 1767, charged in Parliament with peculation and fraud. The House of Commons refused to pronounce him guilty, but the strain brought on a state of melancholia, in which he died by his own hand. Cook, Captain James (17^8-1779), was born in Yorkshire. He entered the Navy, and served under Wolfe at the taking of Quebec in 1759. He was made lieutenant in due course, and began his famous voyages in 1708, visiting Australia, and returning to England in 1771. His second voyage was to New Zealand. In a third voyage he discovered the Sandwich Islands, 1776 ; and explored the western coasts of North America. At Owhyhee he was murdered by the natives before he could reach his boat. Starting life with a poor education, he finished by being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Cromwell, OliYer (Lord Protector) (1593-1658), ranks among the greatest of Englishmen, as a general, a statesman, a diplomatist and a ruler. He not only took a prominent part in the defeat of the Roy.alist party, but succeeded in overawing the Parliament and establishing a military oligarchy. His foreign policy aided greatly in the foundation of the British Empire abroad. He was the first to take advantage of Britain's maritime power to attack an enemy in her colonies, and the policy thus inaugurated did more than add Jamaica to the British Crown; it was the beginning of the development of the British Empire. Indirectly, too, his policy, as embodied in the Navigation Act, for the extension of British commerce, tended in the same direction since it transferred much of the great Dutch carrying trade to England, and thus sent her ships into every sea. Drake, Sir Francis (1515-1595S was the chief of those Elizabethan seamen who laid the foiindation of English maritime greatness. His early life was spent under the tutelage of that other famous seaman — his kinsman. Sir John Hawkins, with whom he made various voyages to the Spanish Americas. In 1570, he, as a privateer, captured Nombre de Dios, and crossing the Isthmus of Panama, gained his first glimpse of the Pacific, and vowed that he would never rest until he had, God willing, " sailed an Bn-lish ship in those seas." In 1577, he sailed through the Straits of Magellan— ilundered the Spanish forts on the Pacific coasts, and captured BIOGRAPHICAL. 227 galleon after galleon, and then sailing westward, completed the circum- navigation of the globe — an exploit for which Klizabeth knighted him and later niiide him Vice-Admiral of England. In the latter cai)acity, he rendered signal service against the Armada. The Spaniards held hia name in the greatest dread, ijunningly dubbing him El DraeonU (the dragon). He died at sea, in 1595, and was buried off Porto Bello. Prere, Sir Henry Bartle (1815-84), entered the service of the East India Company, lH:t3. He filled several posts in India, and succeeded Sir Charles Napier as Chief Commissioner of Sindh. He did valuable service in the Mutiny by his influence over the natives. From 1862 to lb07 he was Governor of Bombay, and further distinguished himself as an administrator. He returned to England, and in 1872, he went to Zanzibar, and succeeded in mitigating the slave trade in those parts. In 1877, he was made Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa. Under his n't/i'mc took place the Kaflflr and Zulu wars. His policy towards the Zulus, however, did not add to his reputation. One object for which he had been sent to Africa— the federation of the South African Colonies- failed, and Sir Bartle was recalled in 1880. Froblsher, Martin (d. 1594), was the first Englishman to attempt the discovery "or a North-West passage to China (Cathay). He organised three voyages in all, but with little practical result. He believed that he had found valuable deposits of gold in Northern Labrador, and hoped to found a settlement there— a hope which, like that of discovering the North-West passage, was doomed to disappointment. He was knighted for the signal services he rendered in the defeat of the Armada. In 1091, he led a naval expedition to Brittany in aid of Henry IV. of France, and was there wounded. He died on board his ship, in Plymouth Sound. Hastings, Warren (1732-1818), was perhaps the most famous of the many great Govcrnors-Gpneral of India. His early career was spent in the service of "John Company," where he speedily rose to distinction, be- coming, in 1757, resident at Murshidabad. He retired to England in 1764, on a pension, but through losses was compelled to apply to the Company for a i)Ost— a request readily granted. He returned to India in 1769 as Resident at Madras, and on the passing of the Regulating Act of 1773, became the first Governor-General of India. His career was a brilliant one, his rule successful, and he may be held to have established the dominion of the Company on a firm and enduring basis. Certain of the measures to which he was compelled to resort, through inadequate support, were highly reprehensible, and on his return to England he was impeached before the Lords. A trial, extending over seven years, ended in the refusal of the House to convict him, but cost him his whole fortune. The Company, mindful of his gi-eat services, came to his assistance again and again. In his old age a peerage was ofTprod him. He refused to accept it unless it was coupled with a public reparation, which was, however, denied. While the charges brought against him were, in the main, verified, it must be remembered that the course he adopted saved the English power in India, that his accusers were largely actuated by spite, •Tnd that his personal integrity was never in question. Havelock, Sir Henry (1795-1857), was one of the most illustrious of the great soldiers, to whose bravery and devotion the British Empire in India is due. Proceeding to India in 1823, he won golden opinions by his courage 228 BRITIriH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. and skill during the troublous psriod of settlement which preceded the Mutiny. His power as a linguist, too, was remarkable, and he proved himself in addition a military historian of no mean merit with his " History of the Ava Campaigns " and " Narrative of the Afgh in Cami^aign," through- out both of which he served, as he did also through the Sikh war of 1845. His name is, however, chiefly associated with the relief and subsequent defence of Lucknow during the Mutiny. With some 2,000 men he marched day after day under the burning Indian sun, defeated the rebels in eight pitched battles, captured 209 pieces of cannon, re-took Cawnpore, and finally threw himself into Lucknow, relieved the little garrison and held the place until Sir Colin Campbell was able to finally defeat the mutinous Sepoys. He died of dysentery a few days after his work was completed. Hawkins, Sir John (1520-1395), was one of the foremost of the adventurers and merchant mariners of Elizabethan times. JHe made many voyatjes to Africa and to the West Indies, was appointed Treasurer of the Navy and served as Rear-Admiral, with brilliant success, a.'ainst the Armada. To him belongs the infamy of being the first to engage in the " slave trade'' between Africa and America, by purchasing negroes in Guinea and selling them in Hispaniola. His last expedition was undertaken to rescue his sou Richard, a captive among the Spaniards in the West Indie . Its failure left him broken-hearted, and he died off Porto Rico in 1595. Kruger, Stephanus J Paul (1825-1904), was born at Rastenburg, and went with the great Trek to the Transvaal in 1835. He began life as a farmer, went in for politics, 1872, under President Burgers, and visited England in 1877 and 1878, to protest against annexation. He became President of the Transvaal 1882, but abandoned his country during the war of 1899-1902, and died in Switzerland. Livingstone, David (1813-1873) began life in a factory in Glasgow, where he managed to study medicine and theology at the same time. In 1840, he went as a missionary to Africa, and laboured amongst the Bechuanas. In 1819, he began his exploring expeditions, and succeeded in verifying the existence of Lake Ngami. During the next six years he explored a great deal of South Africa, and returning to England, he published a narrative of his missionary travels. Setting out again in 1858, he explored a great part of the Zambesi country, and visited Lake Nyassa. In 1865, he undertook another expedition to explore Lake Tanganyika. Here he was lost sight of for two years, but was found by Stanley at Ujiji, November, 1871. He was in a deplorable condition, having been robbed and deserted by his attendants. In his letters home, Livingstone spoke of the source of the Nile as being about GOO miles south of Victoria Nyanza. In 1873, this illustrious explorer and evangelist died of dysentery at Ilala, in Central Africa. His remains were taken to England and buried in Westminster Abljey. Macdonald, Sir John Alexander (1813-1891), son of Hugh Macdonald, of Kingston, Canada. He became a lawyer, and practised at the bar of Upper Canada in 1835. In 1841, he became a Member of the Canadian ParUament, representing Kingston from that year until 1878. In 1854, he became Attorney General for Upper Canada, and in 1862, he became Prime Minister. He was a strong advocate of the union of British North America, and when the Dominion became an accomplished fact. Sir John was made the first Doraiiiion Premier. In 1871, he took part in the negotiations UIOGRAPIIICAL. 229 with the Unitiil States on the sulijcct of the Alaljiiina cliiinis. He had much to do witli the eoiistruction of tlie Canadian Pacific itailway, and Canada owes a large a^lo^nt of lier success to his great administrative talents. Mackay, Alexander M. (1849-1890).— The story of Mackay is one of the most remarkable of ChriBtian romances. A young Scotsman of very good education and remarkable talents, he gave up the prospect of a brilliant career as a mechanical engineer, and offered himself for missionary work. In 1875 appeared Stanley's letter in The Dailij Telegraph (xee Stanley) describing Uganda and its king, and calling upon Christian England to send missionaries to that attractive and promising country. It was in response to this appeal that Mackay went out, in company with several others, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society, in 1876. Various calamities robbed Mackay of his colleagues, and finally he was left alone in Uganda. There, besides preaching the Gospel and civilising large numbers of natives, he taught the people to carpenter, print, build, and do all sorts of mechanical work ; by which he won, first, their confidence, and then their admiration, and, finally, their affection. The king, Mtesa, was, however, with many good qualities, a treacherous character; the Mohammedan slave dealers were active ; persecutions were set on foot; many of Mackay's converts were murdered, and his own life was frequently in danger. Stanley, on his Emin Uelief Expedition, visited Uganda in 1889, and paid a high tribute to Mackay's heroism, and pressed the young Scotsman to return to England with. him. Mackay, however, preferred to remain at his post, and a few months later he fell a victim to zeal, self-sacrifice and duty. HofTat, Robert (179S-1883», was born at Inverkeithing, and laboured as a missionary, first at Erromanga, Namaqualand, and Bechuanaland, translating the whole Bible into Bechnana. His daughter married Livingstone, with whom, in his travels, she encountered great dangers and suffered many hardships. Moffat did great things in opening up and Cliristianising large portions of South Africa. Nelson, Horatio, Viscount (17S8-180S), one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of English seamen, did much, by his triumphs over the French and Spanish fleets, to break the schemes of France and frustrate her hopes of regaining that position in the East from which the genius of C'live and Warren Hastings had ousted her. He early distinguished himself in the Mediterranean under Jervis, and was made Rear-Admiral for his signal services in the battle of Cape St. Vincent. His greatest victories were those of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. The first of these frus- trated Napoleon's plans against India, the second prevented a maritime alliance of the Northern Powers against England, and the last destroyed the French and Spanish fleets, broke their power on the sea and rid England of the fear of the threatened French invasion. Ti-afalgar, however, cost England her hero, who died in the moment of victory. Park, Mungo (1771-1£06', hailed from near Selkirk in Scotland. His first calling was that of a ship's surgeon, which brought him to the East Indies. Then he was employed by the African Society to explore th'j Nicer ; but having reached that river, and explored it for a considerable distance, he was obliged to retrace his steps, owing to dangers and privations (1796). Later on, he took charge of another expedition to the same region, but, no news having been heard of him for a long time, a rescue party was sent 230 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. after him, only to find that Park and his party had been murdered by the natives at Boussa. Raleigh, Sir Walter (1552-1618(, achieved fame alike as soldier, courtier, historian, poet and adventurer. He served with high distinction in Ireland, and against the Armada, but it is as adventurer and settler that he is chiefly famous. He shared his half-brother's — Sir Humphry Gilbert — search for the North-West passage, and succeeded him in his endeavour to colonise the coasts of North America, and finally made various attempts to found a settlement in the Virginias, attempts which were at last crowned by success. In 1595, he sailed to Guiana in search of El Dorado (the "Golden City"). At the accession of James I., he fell into disfavour, was imx^risoned for participation in the Main jilot, and only released to undertake the search of gold, deposits of which he stated he knew of in Guiana. The quest was unsuccessful, the party came into conflict with the Spaniards, and Raleigh, on his return, was executed, to appease the wrath of the Spanish Ambassador. Rhodes, Rt. Hon, Cecil John il853-1902i, was the son of a Hertfordshire vicar, and was born in 1853. Being threatened with consumption while young, he was, on the advice of a physician, sent to South Africa. Returning to England in a couple of years, he visited his physician again. The doctor had forgotten all about his case; on turning up his books, he said, '-Why, you ought to have been dead two years ago ! " Mr. Rhodes matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, but lung trouble again drove him to South Africa, and settling with his brother at Kimberley, he went in for diamond speculations, invested in mines, and succeeded in amassing a large fortune. Having taken his degree at Oxford, and further entered as a Law student in the Inner Temple, he again returned to South Africa, and began to mature vast schemes for the expansion of the British possessions in that country. Entering the Cape Parliament as member for Barkly West, he was sent soon afterwards to arrange the delimitation of Griqualand West, when he obtained the cession of a large section of Bechuanaland ; and as the government at the Cape refused to take this territory over, Mr. Rhodes induced the home government to establish a protectorate over the same (1884). A sort of duel now began b tween Mr. Rhodes and President Kruger, who had similar expansion schemes in view for his Transvaal Republic ; and Mr. Rhodes, being appointed Deputy Commissioner for Bechuanaland, succeeded in frustrating Mr. Kruger's ambitions in that part of South Africa. The amalgamation of the various diamond mine comijanies into the De Beers Consolidated Mines has already been mentioned as the work of Mr. Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes's real ambition was to see the whole of Africa south of the Zambesi brought under British rule, but as he could not get either the Cape administration or the home government to follow him in his plans, he determined to form a company and obtain a charter which could deal with whatever territory it might be able to secure. Having accomplished this, he was instrumental in concluding with the Matabele King, Lobengula, the Mofifat Treaty, which practically secured to the British Government the "first refusal" or pre-emption over Matabeleland territories. Thus arose the Chartered Company, which soon began to administer nearly a million square miles, and included Rhodesia {i.e., Mashonaland and Matabeleland), Bechuanaland, and British Central Africa. BIOGKAPHICAL. 281 In 1890, Mr. Rhodes became Prime Minister in the Cape government, but in 1893 lie had to deal with Matabolu disturbances, and some IlKhting occurred before peace was restored liy tha death of Ijobengula, in 1894. In 1894, Mr. Rhodes was made a Privy Councillor, and laboured hard for a general federation of British South Africa. His connection with the Jameson Raid caused him to resign the Premiership, as well as liis directorate of the Chartered Company. Loss of British prestige, in eon- sequenee of the Raid, caused another Matabele rising, and numbers of the native police joined the rebels, and carried their arms with them. Mr. Rhodes organised a military force at Salisbury, which defeated the Matabeles at Gwelo. It was after this (in 1890) that Mr, Rhodes paid his famous visit to the native chiefs in the MiUoppo Hills. Mr. Rhodes was severely censured by the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the Jameson Raid for his conduct in regard to the same, which (said the Report) "involved him in grave breaches of duty to those to whom he owed allegiance." In the discussions over this Report, however, Mr. Chamberlain said, "Although Mr. Rhodes had committed as great a fault as a statesman could commit, nothing had been proven, and there existed nothing against his personal character as a man of honour." Mr. Rhodes sat again in the Cape Parliament, and, heading the Progressive party, advocated, more or less, a policy of Free Trade, c >m- pulsory education, railway extension, and the restricted sale of alcohol to the natives, not forgetting the federal policy — which has since been consummated. In 1898, Mr. Rhodes was unanimously re-elected a director of the Chartered Company, and from thenceforth he devoted his energies to the development of Rhodesia. One of his great schemes was the construction of a railway from the Cape to Cairo, iu the interests of which he had two interviews with the German Emperor. In 1899, Oxford University conferred the honorary degree of D.C.L. upon Mr. Rhodes, on which occasion he received an enthusiastic ovation. During the South African War, Mr. Rhodes was shut up in Kimberley, and sustained the tension of the siege. After the raising of the siege by General French, Mr. Rhodes repaired to Cape Town. He survived to see tlie practical destruction of the South African Republic, and its annexation by Great Britain, but his health was broken, and he died on March 2Gth, 1902. He was buried, according to his own directions, in the Matabele stronghold, in the heart of the Matoppo Hills. His will was a remarkab'e one. He was never married, and he left most of his enormous fortune for the foundation of scholarships at Oxford, for students from the British colonies, and from the United States of America; his object being expressed to be the unification, not only of the British Empire, but of English-speaking people throughout the world. A codicil to the will extended a number of scholarships to German students. Mr. Rhodes was, without doubt, one of the greatest of Empire-builders, a man who "thought imperially," and whose name will for ever be associated with the expansion of the British Kmpirc, the devotion to wliich was his passion and his pride. Bpeke, John Hanning (1827-1861), came from Somersetshire. He served under Sir Colin Campbell in India, and endeavoured to explore the Hiinalavas and Tibet. Afterwards he visited Africa, in company with Captain Burton, and, in 1858, discovered the Victoria Nyanza. In 1800, he went (accom- panied by Grant) to ascertain the source of tlie Nile ; and, practically succeeding ia his object, his name became famous. Ho met his death by accident at Bath, being shot by his own gun. 232 BUITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Stanley, Sir Henry Morton (1841-1904).— John Rowlands spent ten years of Ills childhootl in the Poor-house of St. Asaph. At the age of fiitcen he sailed, as a cabin boy, to New Orleans. He was there adopted by a merchant named Stanley, whose names he took instead of his own. After taking part in the American Civil War, he was sent, in 1857, to Abyssinia with the British army as correspondent of The New York Herald. In 1870, he was sent by the proprietor of the same paper to find Livingstone, which he succeeded in doing, in November, 1871, and, in 1872, he returned .to England with Livingstone's diary. He was everywhere received with acclamations, and honours and rewards were showered upon him. In 1871, he was again sent to Africa, and explored the Victoria Nyanza. This lake, which it took him eight days to circumnavigate, and whose area he found to be 40,000 square miles, he ascertained to be the chief source of the Nile. He further explored the Albert Nyanza and the country of Uganda, and it was a letter from Stanley to Tlie Daihj Telegraph that led to the sending, by the Church Missionary Society, of the mission to that cou:itry, which eventually led to the proclamation of the British protectorate of Uganda, He further explored the Congo, and returned via St. Paul de Loanda. Stanley conducted other exjjloring expeditio)is through Africa in 1879, 1882, and 1S87, when he relieved Emin Pasha, the Governor of Equatorial Africa, whom, with his followers, he brought safely to Egypt. On this Journey Stanley discovered Mount Ruwenzori and Lake Albert Edward, the latter being proved to be the source of the White Nile. Stanley published many accounts of his travels, e.g., " How I Found Livingstone," "Through the Dark Continent," "In Darkest Africa," etc. Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of (1759-1832), was the great rival of Napoleon, whose schemes on land he foiled as completely as Nelson had done at sea. The earlier part of his career as a military commander was spent in India, where his brother — the Marquis Wellesley — was Governor- General. He played a prominent part in all the operations which led to the reduction of Mysore, and led the war against Sindhia, capturing Ahmednagar, and then totally defeating 50,000 MarAth4 troops in the famous battle of Assaye, in which he had, in his command, but 3,500 foot and 2,000 horse. A second great victory at Argaum scattered the Mardthas and led to the cession of a large territory to the East India Company. His chief fame, however, rests on his marvellous campaigns in the Peninsula, and the crowning victory of Waterloo, which shattered Napoleon's hopes and sent him a prisoner to St. Helena. During his later life, he was a great figur? in the political world, where, however, he was far less suc- cessful than in the field. Wolfe, James (1727-1759), was one of the youngest of those leaders, whom Pitt's instinctive knowledge of men led him to select for the control of the Briti^-h operations in the colonies. He first won fame in the colonies by his success in the expedition against Cape Breton, where the honours of the siege of Louisbourg, fell to his share. In 1759, he led the famous expedition against Quebec, then the keystone of French power in Canada, ■where his daring in scaling the reputed inaccessible Heights of Abraham, together with his skill as a commander, led to a complete victory. Wolfe died on the field, but five days later Quebec surrendered, and with it Canada passed into the'possession of Britain. APPE^4DIX II. o Epochs of Expansion. o 1888. The Defeat of the Armada —This broke the Spanish supremacy upon the seas, and led England to endeavour to succeed her l.oth in com- merce and colonisation. The movenunt in this direction was, however, checked by the Stuarts, who had little sympathy with schemes for the development of Greater Britain, and were, moreover, allied, more or less closely, with France -England's great rival in this attempt. 1607-1620. The Settlement of America.— With the settlement of Virginia by Sir Walter Ualei-h and of the New England States by the Pilgrim Fathers and those who followed them. Greater Britain— that is, the British Empire beyond seas— came into existence. 1653. The Conquest of Jamaica.— This marked Cromwell's return to the policy of Elizabethan times. He saw the advantage of attacking Britain's enemies in their colonies, and possessed for the first time in the country's history a fleet capable of carrying his policy into execution. The navy, organised by Sir Harry Vane and Bla'.ie for the defence of the country against attacks by sea, became a potent factor in the extension of the Empire. - The capture of Jamaica was the first fruits of the policy. 1651, The Navigation Act.— This measure was the outcome of Cromwell's desire to secure for England that position in the world's commerce which her insular character, her powerful navy, and the repute of her seamen demanded. It led to a long sea-duel with Holland, which ended in transferring the Dutch carryin.,' trade to England and made English merchants the most formidable rivals of the Dutch in the East. 1688. The Revolution.— The Revolution of lGS-3 marks the beginning of a century of close alliance with Holland against France. Louis XIV. determined to secure for France the commercial supremacy which England had all but wrested from the Dutch. In consequence of the attitude of the home governments the relation between the traders of the two nations in India and America became biferly hostile. 1713. The Treaty of Utrecht.— This practically gave England the commercial and maritime supremacy of the world. The Armada saw her enter the competition, the Treaty of Utrecht saw her win it. Up to the defeat of the Armada Spain had been the first state in the world; from that time her power declined. At the time of the Commonwealth Holland was the wealthiest country of the world. From 1060 to 170.), Prance bad held the first place. The Treaty of Uti e^ht g.ave it to England. England gained Acadia (Nova Scotia), one of France's three great settlements (Acadia, Canada and Louisiana) in North America, to- gether with Newfoundland and Hudson Bay Territory ; Spain by the Assiento Contract was compelled to break the monopoly by which she had cioted Central and South America to the trade of the world. 1763. The Treaty of Paris.— The Treaty of Paris marked the culmination of English power in the eighteenth century. The whole of North America was secured to her by the cession of Canada, while Clive's victories 234 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. in India had practically crushed French hopes of Empire there, and had established the firm foundations of British rule. The Empire thus swayed by Britain, if smaller in extent than that of Spain, was vastly suxaerior in importance. 1766. The Fall of the. Mogul Empire.— This throw India into a state of anarchy. The Imi^erial sway hitherto held by the Moguls having lost its power, the minor princes took up arms one against the other. The result was a condition of affairs highly favourable to the rise of new powers. The conquest of India was due to the confusion and anarchy caused by the fall of the Moguls, the discovery of Dupleix — afterwards utilised by Clive — that the natives could be disciplined in the European fashion and were willing to place themselves under European officers. Thus the material for the Company's army lay ready to hand ; the cost was met by the riches captured. In this way India was made to supply the troops and defray the expense of its own conquest. 1775. The American War of Independence.— The thirteen states which seceded to form the United States of America, were by far the greatest and most important part of Greater Britain. Moreover, their secession demonstrated the impossibility of forming an Empire on the lines hitherto accepted. It was argued that as soon as a colony had arrived at a certain pitch of development it would infallibly shake itself free from the mother country. The inference was justified while the colonies remained under the old system. The growth of the new Greater Britain has shown it to be false as regards the new colonial system. By the rupture with her American colonies England lost her first Colonial Empire. 1815. The Battle of Waterloo The result of Waterloo was to free England from all danger of attack by Nax^oleon, whose schemes included the overthrow of British power in the East, the establishment in India of the French Empire dreamed of by Dux)!eix, and the wresting from England of the commercial supremacy she had held since the Peace of Utrecht. 1857. The Indian Mutiny.— This led to the final downfall of the power of the East India Company, which, in fact, may be really said to have ceased to exist when its monoi^oly of trade was withdrawn at the granting of its last charter in 1833. In the year following the Mutiny, the Company was abolished by Act of Parliament, after an existence of some two hundred and fifty years, and British India was formally annexed to the British Crown. 1884. Discovery of African Diamond and Gold Fields.— The explorations of Baker, Burton, Speke, Park, Livingstone, Moffatt and Stanley led Europeans and Americans to take a strong negative interest in Africa. The discovery of the diamond fields of Griqualand West, etc., and, above all, of the Transvaal gold fields in 1884, caused Americans and Europeans to take a strong active interest in the " Dark Continent" ; and very soon England, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Belgium were hurrying to "peg out" Africa; so that in about ten years after 1884 there was very little of the continent left unax^propriated by European nations. In that decade Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Zulu- land, Rhodesia, British Central Africa, Nigeria, Zanzibar, Uganda, Somaliland and British East Africa were added to the British Empire. APPENDIX III. Glossary of Colonial Terms. Acadia. — The name applied to the fir.st French settlements in North America. It comprised, at lirst, Nova Scotia, and then appears to have included oilier districts occupied by the French. Afrikander. — A native of Capo Colony or of the neighbouring districts, born of white parents. A descendant of European settlers in South Africa. Boer. — A descendant of tlie Dutch settlers in South Africa. (D., Boer — a farmer, a peasant.) Buccaneers. — The name given to those piratical adventurers who combined to attack the Spanish possessions in America, diuinsj the latter half of the seventeenth century. Bund or Bond. — Union of Dutch settlers in South Africa. Bushranger.^An Australian criminal, generally an escaped convict, who, taking to the woods, there led a iircdatory life. Cathay. — The name by which the Chinese Empire was known to mediteval Europe. Colony. — A district inhabited by a number of people who have eraigr.ateJ thither from their native land, and who remain subject to the home government. The earliest colonies were probably founded by the Phoenicians on the islands or along the southern coasts of the Mediterranean, of which Carthage was the chief. Coolie. — The name given by Europeans in India to native labourers engaged in menial occupations, and in Africa, the West Indies, South America and other places to an East Indian or Chinese labourer emi)loyedi under contract, in plantation or other work. Creole. — A native of the West Indies or Spanish America descended from European ancestors — a person born in these countries but of a race not indigenous to them. Crown Colony.— A colony in which the Crovn has entire control of the legislation, while the administration is carried on by officers under the control of the home government. Dependency.— A territory subject to the control of Great Britain, although not forming an integral part of the Empire. Drift — Boer word for forJ. El Dorado. — A country rich beyond all others, which the Spaniards believed to exist in the New World. Orellana averred that he had found it on his voyage down the Amazon, 1540-1541. Entrepdt. — A. place used as a mart, to which goods are sent to be distributed over a country, or where goods are collected for export. E.g., Hong Kong is the great entrepfit for China. Eurasian. — A European and Asiatic half-breed. Factory. — An establishment of merchants (or factors) in a foreign i)lace, formed for mutual i)rotection and advantage and occupying special posts or dtp6ts (also termed factories) often strongly fortified. The factories ot the Hudson's Bay Company wei-e known as forts. 236 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS. Galleon. — A large armed ship of burden. The name usually applied to the hu^e unwieldy vessels used by the Spaniards for the transpo-t of treasure or troops. Gurkhas. — The dominant race in the Hindu kingdom of Nepal. Hinterland. — The inland country behind a coastal settlement or possession. Hottentots. — A South African race, difleriug from the others in that its members are of a yellowish-brown complexion, of smaller stature, of ungainly build and of inferior mental powers. The name is imitatively descriptive of their speech, which contains a number of clucks, and so resembles stammering. Ka£firs.— A South African race originally inhabiting Cape Colony, Natal, or the neighbouring districts. The name KafBr (or Kafir) means unbeliever, and was applied to these races by the Mohammedans of Eastern Africa because of their refusal to accept Mohammedanism {cf. Turkish Giaotir.) Maories or Maoris. — The aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand. The word Maori means native or indigenous. Mardthas. — A race of Western and Central India, which having conquered many states, formed themselves into a confederation to resist the power of the Moguls. North- West Passage. — A route to China, India and the East, which early uavigitors believed to exist round the northern coasts of America. The efforts to discover the North-West passage, though unsuccessful, gave a vast impulse to maritime enterprise. Pahekas.— The name applied by the Maories to the white traders who visited the islands. Penal Settlement. — A settlement beyond seas, to which convicted prisoners are transported for punishment. Port Jackson was such a settlement. Plantation. — A settlement in a new country, where (arming operations were carried on by white settlers, the labour being furnished by the natives of the country or by convicts and prisoners exported from the home country. Privateer. — An armed vessel, fitted out by private persons but acting on a Government commission > letter of marque) to prey upon the commerce of a nation with which it is at war. Prospector. — One who explores or ssarches for valuable minerals as a preliminary to commencing mining operations. Sepoy. — A native sol lier serving in the Indian Army under the British Government. (The word sipahl means a horseman — a soldier.) Sikhs. — A great religious sect of the Punjab, which organised itself into a pov/erful military force — the Khalsa. The word Sikh means a disciple. The sect was founded by Nanak Shah about 1500 a.d. Their religion Ij?. takes both of Hinduism and of Islam. Spheres of Influence. — Those parts (chiefly of Africa) which are the scenes of trading or civilising activity on tlie part of the great European powers. Squatter. — One who (a) settles on new land without a title ; (6) (Australia) obtains from the government the right of pasturage on moderate or nominal terms. The name is now extended to include all stock-owners. Trek. — Originally to travel by ox-waggon. The name is now usually applied to a migration such as that in which the Boers left Cape Colony to found the Transvaal (The Great Trek, 1835-1S3G). Uitlander. — Foreigner, Foreign settler in the Transvaal. Yeid.— In Africa, a plain covered with very short grass. INDEX. PAGE Abolition of Slavery, Effact of 148 Acadia Acadians, Expulsion of Afghan imbroglio Africa, lliitisli Rule in Agitation, the Convict, in Capo Colony .. Alambagh, The Alaska Boundary Allahabad, Treaty of Aiuboyna, Massacre o' America, British in American Colonics, Britain and the ■•• American Independence, de- claration of ••• American Independence, War of Ancient Colonies :•• Anglo - French Struggle m Karnalik : — Fu'si Phase Second Phase Third Phase Fourth Phase Antigua Arcot, Clive at ,, Siege of Ashanti War Australasia Austraha, Gre it Strike in , South „ Discovery of Copper m ,, Western Australian Colonies Act ... „ Federation ... Award, Keate, The 121 123 93 185 189 86 139 71 53 108 111 118 113 13 60 61 66 73 148 63 64 201 154 175 161 165 liJ7 ... 163 25, 177 ... 205 PAGE. b2 Barbadoes Basutolaiid ••• Bentiiick— Governor-General of India Bermudas Boer War Borneo, British Botany Bay Bristol Merchants, The ... Buccaneers, The ,, in Jaraa.ca Bund, The Bunker Hill, Battle of Burma 144 199 81 U'J 207 219 155 33 44 46 193 116 221 Burmese War, First „ Second Cabot, John „ Sebistian Calcutta, Black Hole of Canada, Conquest of „ Federalisation ,, and tho States „ Rebellion in „ The Federal Plan Canadians, English and French Canning, Lord Cape Colony... „ „ Capture of Cawnpore, Massacre of Cetywayo . ■•• Clive, Administration m Bengal „ at Arcot ,, at Plas^ey „ Trial of Colonies, Agricultural and Plan- tation ,, Ancient ,, Anglo-Saxon, Charac- ter of ,, British, Future of ... ,, British, Value of „ Plantation „ West African Colonisation, Growth of „ ISlodern „ Reasons for „ System of. Exclusive ,, WakelieUVs System in Australia Columbia, British. " Company, John" Couip uiy, The East India ... Coiripany, The East India and the Government Company, The East In lia. Mono- poly of Trade withdrawn ... Cook, Captain, in Australia Cur/on, Lord Cyprus Dalhousie, Lord Davis, John Declaration of Independence, American 34 .<}6 67 121 131 1-25 l-iS i;jj 1-27 82 192 186 85 197 71 63 69 72 15 13 18 24 22 15 191 20 14 15 20 KM 128, i:w ... 55 52 75 81 155 96 219 82 43 118 The 238 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THii SEAS. Delhi, Siege of Diamond Mines of Kimberley Dominion of Canaila Dupleix in the Karnatik... PAGE. .. 88 .. 192 .. 131 .. 61 East India Company 51 Elgin, Lord 89. 95, 128 Elizabethan Seamen, The ... 38 Emigration 21 Empire, The Mogul ... '... 57 Empire's Growth, Phases of ... 28 England and France ... 31, 56 ., „ Holland 30 ,, „ Spain 29 English and Dutch at Sea ... 56 English and Dutch in East Indies 52 English and French in America 119 Exploration, Australian 160 Explorers, Australian 159 Federation, Australian 25, 177 Pederalisation, South African ... 196 ,, in Canada ... 131 Fiji 224 French Designs in India 61 French, The, in America ... 119 „ ,, in the Karnatik ... 60 Frere, Sir Bartle 193 Gambia Georgia, Foundation of Gilbert, Sir Humphry Gold, Discovery of, in Australia Gold Coast Settlements Gold Fever Gough, General, in the Sikh Wars Grey, Sir George Growth of Colonisation Growth of the Empire, Phases of the Guiana, British Guinea, New Haidar All Hastings, Warren ,, ,, Extortions of ,, Trial of Hawkins, Sir John Heligoland Honduras Hudson's Bay Company India, British Rule in ,, Governors-General of ... ,, Transference to Crown... Indian Unrest Isandlwana ... 191 110 37 161 191 161 81 181 20 28 150 223 74 75 76 77 49 224 151 129 31 107 88 100 197 Jackson, Port, Settlement at 158 Jamaica 145,1.52 ,, Capture of 145 Slave Trade in 146 Jameson Raid, Johannesburg The .. 212 .. 209 Kaffir Wars 186 Kaffraria, British 192 Karnatik, French in the 60 Keate Award, The 205 Kruger, President of Transvaal 208 Lagos 191,202 Lansdowne, Lord 95 Laurier, Sir Wilfred 138 Lawrence, Sir John 90 Lexington 116 Loan, The Pepper 54 Lucknow, The Siege cf 86 Relief of 85 Lytton, Lord 93 Macdonald, Sir John 137 Main, The Spanish 144 Maiwand 94 Majuba Hill 207 Manitoba 132 Maories, Degeneration of ... 170 Maori King 180 ,, Wars 172, 180 Maraetahi, Battle of 181 Mar4thiis, The 80 Marath^ Wars 79 Maroons, The 146 Maryland, Foundation of ... 110 Massacre of Amboyna 53 „ Cawnpore 85 ,, Patna 70 Mayflower, Voyage of The ... 110 Mayo, Lord 91 Meerut, Outbreak at 83 Merchants, Bristol, The 33 Minto, Lord 100 Modei-n Civilisation 14 Morgan, Sir Henry 46 Mutiny, The Indian 82 Mysore Wars, The ... 74, 78 Nana Sahib Natal ,, Annexation of New Guinea New Spain New Zealand ,, ,, Governors of Northbrook, Lord North-West Passage Nova Scotia Navigators, The Early ... ISO, 84 197 189 ... 223 ... 16 169, 179 ... 183 ... 93 ... 42 ... 120 ... 33 Orange Free State Oudah, Annexation of ,, The Begams of Pahekas, The Patna, Massacre of Pitt and Canada, Scheme of Con- quest 188 82 77 171 70 123 INDEX. 239 PAOE. Plantations, Tlio 47 Plassey, Battle of 69 Plymouth Ailventuiers, The ... 109 Protection in Ciuiiida 1H6 Protectorates, East Africa ... 109 West Africa ... 20J Quebec, Capture of 124 Sick'c of, by Kirke ... 120 Quebec Act (1774) 126 Queensland 176 Raid, The Jameson 212 Kami C.oia FicUU liOO Raleigh, Sir Walter, in America lOi) Reasons for Colonisation ... 15 Reciprocity Treaty, The (1854)... 134 Reil, Louis 132 Rhoacs, Cecil 194 Rhotlesia 197 Ripen, Lord 97 Roberts, Lord, in South Africa 215 San Juan Boundary Dispute... 135 Sarawak 219 "SeailoKS, The" 38 Seddon, Richard J. 183 Siege of Arcot, The 64 Sierra Leone 191 Sikh War, First 81 „ ,, Second 82 Slave Trade, The 49 Slavery, Abolition of, in Indies 148 Soraaliland 200 South African Federalisation 196, 199 War 214 South .Australia 164 Spain, New 16 Squatters, The l.'>7 Stamp Act, The 114 System, The Exclusive '20 I>Af!K. Tasmania 168, 184 Tea, The Detestable 115 Te Kooti 181 Territory, Hudson Bay, The ... 129 Te Whiti 182 Tibet, Expedition to 97 Trade, The Slave, in America ... 49 Transvaal and Orange River Colony 203 ,, Annexation of ... 205 „ Responsible Govern- ment 218 ,, Retrocession of ... 207 Treaty, Reciprocity (1854) ... 134 Trek, The Great 1^8 Trinidad 150 Uitlanders, The 210 Ulundi, Battle of 19S Union of the American Colonies 118 Unrest, Indian 100 Value of Colonies 22 Venezuelan Boundaries Dispute 151 VereeniginfT, Peace of 217 Victoria, Di.scovery of Gold in ... 161 Victoria, Empress of India ... 93 Virginia, Settlement of 109 " Wahabees," The 89 Waitaniji, Treaty of 173 Weihaiwei 224 West Indies, British in 142 West African Colonies 191 Willoughby, Sir John 43 Wool, Australian, Trade in ... 158 169, 179 ... IS) ... 197 Zealand, New Zulii'War Governors of Printed by Henry Palmer & Co., London. :5' UNIVEKSITY OF VLIF fqRNIA LIBRARY o« A ngelfc es date stamped below. 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