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X
RAID AND REFORM
RAID AND REFORM
BY A PRETORIA PRISONER
ALFRED P. HILLIER, BA., M.D., CM.
AUTHOR OK " IN THE VELDT " UY HAKl.EV
'■ Let no one who begins an innovation in a State expect that he shall
stop it at his pleasure, or regulate it according to his intention."
Machiavelli.
WITH TWO ESSAYS ON THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
IN SOUTH AFRICA
ILontion
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1898
All rie'liis rcsctTcd
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
london and bungay.
DT
TO
MY MANY SOUTH AFRICAN FRIENDS
I DEDICATE
THIS LITTLE BOOK
13041S0
INTRODUCTION
In the history of the Transvaal several raids have
occurred. They have for the most part been made
by the Boers into the territories of their neighbours,
none of whom have entirely escaped these un-
welcome visits. To the south they invaded the
Free State, to the west Bechuanaland, to the east
Zululand, and to the north an expedition intended
for the territories of the Chartered Company was
only checked on the banks of the Limpopo, where
the Boer leader was arrested. These " incursions"
on the four points of the compass, of which no Select
Committee could hesitate to record "an absolute and
unqualified condemnation," although characterised
by a certain broad impartiality, were, fortunately
perhaps for the general welfare of South Africa,
only successful, and that in a small measure in one
instance, the invasion of Zululand.
In 1895 ^t was given to the Boers themselves to
sustain and repel an " incursion."
With the causes of unrest in this young country
viii INTRODUCTION
which have produced these disturbances, and the
history of the more important of them, the following
pages deal.
Of the events culminating in the crisis of
1895-96, the crisis itself, and some of the con-
sequences attendant thereon, I have written freely
and unreservedly. All trials, imprisonments and
inquiries being now at an end, there is no further
necessity for silence ; and what a participator may
feel disposed to say with reference to the motives
and actions of himself and others durino- the
occurrence of this now historic incident, may thus
find due expression, without prejudice to any one.
Of the Boers themselves I should like to say a
friendly word. During a residence, at one time
and another, of sixteen years in South Africa,
beginning with my boyhood, I have known many
of them, and count among their number not a few
friends. I have fought side by side with them
through a campaign on the Kaffir frontier of the
Cape Colony, in which many European lives,
including that of my brother, were lost. I have
hunted with them, travelled for weeks by waggon
with them, and lived amongst them, and I know
them to be possessed for the most part by kindly
if rugged natures. They have much in common,
bolli In lis virtues and defects, with the old
Puritan side of the English character, and they
INTRODUCTION ix
possess much of that grit which is inherent in
the British race. There is, I beHeve, no Euro-
pean race to-day more nearly allied to the British
in strong natural characteristics than the Dutch of
South Africa. But the isolation of two hundred
years has weaned a section of them from civilisation ;
and ignorance, and the prejudices arising from
ignorance, have been the chief cause of all our
troubles with them. Though, in fairness be it said,
for these troubles the vacillation of the Colonial Office
in bygone years has also been a good deal to blame.
Throughout the Reform movement in Johannes-
burg, from 1892 onwards, which was in effect for
equality of rights among the white men of the
country, the feeling was not one of hostility to the
Boers ; it was one on behalf of fairplay. And in
reform lay the true interests of Boer as well as
Uitlander.
I have briefly commented on the Proceedings of
the British South Africa Select Committee, and in
doing so I have been guided both by my personal
knowledge of "the Origin and Circumstances of
the Incursion " and also by my own observation as
a spectator during the greater portion of the inquiry
in the Committee Room at Westminster.
The first of the following essays, in the form of a
historical review, contains at its conclusion a state-
b
X . INTRODUCTION
ment of the position as it appeared to the writer in
Johannesburg in December 1895, which was pub-
Hshed in The Star at the time just before the crisis.
" The Origin and Circumstances of the Incursion "
and the period of imprisonment are then dealt with.
Of the last two essays on the Antiquity of man in
South Africa, there is little need be said in the shape
of preface. They are the result of some research
and reading in less troubled times than those recently
experienced in the Transvaal ; and on the advice of
some literary friends I have inserted them for the
perusal of such readers as may feel an interest in
the dawn of aboriginal native life in the country.
They formed the basis of a paper which I read
before the British and American Archaeological
Society in Rome last February, a prdcis of which
appeared in the Journal of the Society's proceedings.
ALFRED P. HILLIER.
30, WiMPOi.E Street, London, W.
December, 1897.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. The Transvaal and its Story. A Historical
Review down to 1894 i
II. The Origin and Circumstances of the Incursion
into the South African Republic of an Armed
Force, 1895-96 23
III. The Diary of a Political Prisoner in Pretoria,
April and May, 1896 82
IV. Appendix— Letter to the Secretary to the
British South Africa Select Committee . . 107
V. The Antiquity of Man in South Africa in
VI. Prehistoric Man, and the Parallelism in Develop-
ment between the Primitive Races of Europe and
the Native Races of Africa 142
RAID AND REFORM
THE TRANSVAAL AND ITS STORY
A Historical Review^ down to the Year i8g^
Young and growing countries have but little time
for the production of literature, and South Africa is
no exception to this rule. Nevertheless, South
Africa has produced a historian of talent, patriotism,
and industry in McColl Theal. In five goodly-
volumes Mr. Theal has recorded for the benefit of
his own and succeeding generations the history of
South Africa from its earliest times in the fifteenth
century down to the year 1872. It is a history full
of incident and interest, clearly and truthfully
written, and I can cordially recommend it to South
African readers. For the purpose of this Review,
however, I propose confining myself to that portion
of the work which deals with the history of the
emigrant farmers, who, leaving the Cape Colony in
1836 and 1837, gradually dispersed themselves over
B
2 RAID AND REFORM
the country to the north of the Orange River and in
Natal. Previous to this date, in the early thirties,
several English missionaries, traders, and hunters
had visited these territories, and were familiar with
the country as far north as the Limpopo. Among
them were the Rev, Dr. Moffat, David Hume from
Grahamstown, Captain Sutton, and Captain Corn-
wallis Harris, whose wonderfully illustrated work on
the fauna of South Africa is so well known to
naturalists and hunters. We find, however, that in
1837, Commandant Potgieter, at the head of a Boer
commando, after a successful encounter with Mose-
likatse, issued a proclamation formally annexing a
large tract of country including the present South
African Republic.
While the limits of a Review will not allow of
a full investigation of the causes which led to the
extreme friction between the trek Boers and the
British authorities, it is, I think, necessary to refer
to one of the most prominent of them, as it was not
only one of the original causes of the trek from the
Cape Colony, but has been a constant source of
irritation both north and south of the Orange River
since. This has been an excessive and frequently
misdirected zeal on the part of missionaries and
others on behalf of the native races. To South
African farmers — Dutch and English alike — who
are in daily contact with these races, and who have
THE TREK BOERS AND BRITISH AUTHORITIES 3
only too good reason to know what the real nature
of the South African savage is, it has been extremely
galling to have to hear from European missionaries
and others constant complaints and frequently ex-
aggerated charges made against farmers generally
to the authorities in Downing Street, who, in former
years, showed themselves only too ready to defer to
the demands of the Exeter Hall party. That these
same farmers, as a body, are nevertheless capable
of dealing with the natives in a firm and at the same
time considerate manner, is shown by the status of
the native in the Free State. Here the first of all
essentials in the treatment of natives is observed,
and drink is forbidden. Such a thinor as a drunken
native is almost unknown in the Free State ; their
locations are as a consequence cleanly and comfort-
able, and if these things be not Godliness, they are
with the savage the first true step towards it. The
pious horror of Exeter Hall has not succeeded in
stopping the native liquor traffic in British colonies.
After the first settlement in the Transvaal fresh
families continued to come in, and the districts of
Lydenburg, Potchefstroom, and Rustenburg were
formed, each with a separate commandant.
The district and township of Pretoria were founded
in 1855. These earlier years of this northern Re-
public were stormy times for the emigrant farmers ;
their hearts were great, their aspirations high, and
£ 2
4 RAID AND REFORM
in endeavouring to spread themselves over huge
tracts of country they met with terrible losses from
fever and from the numerous Kaffir tribes with
which they came into conflict. The tragedy of
Dingaan's Day, when Piet Retief and sixty-five
followers were treacherously massacred to a man
while on an expedition into Natal, will never be
forgotten while South Africa has a history. Nor
will the fate of that gallant little band of English-
men, seventeen in number, who with some fifteen
hundred native allies marched on the Zulu army
from Durban to avenge the fate of their Dutch
friends. Four of the Englishmen survived, the rest
lay dead on the field of battle. The Zulu force was
7,000 strong, but Theal says : "No lion at bay ever
created such havoc among hounds that worried him
as this little band caused among the warriors of
Dingaan before it perished."
The boundaries of the Transvaal Republic were
at length practically determined by the establish-
ment of the British in Natal and in the Orange
Sovereignty after the battle of Boomplaats, in which
Sir Harry Smith defeated the Boer force. The
subsequent withdrawal from the Orange Sovereignty
of the British Government against the wishes of
a large number of inhabitants brought into existence
the Orange Free State.
In 1844 a code of thirty-three articles was drawn
STEPHANUS JOHANNES PAULUS KRUGER 5
Up and adopted by the Volksraad at Potchefstroom,
and this was practically the Constitution in existence
in the Transvaal Republic till the year 1857. At
this date an event memorable in the history of the
Republic occurred, an event highly interesting from
a constitutional point of view, and of special interest
to those — not yet citizens of the State — resident in
Johannesburg. In 1857 the Republic north of the
Vaal attained its twentieth year. It had increased
in population, and had taken on to some extent the
habits and modes of life of a settled community.
Mr. Pretorius and his followers began to feel that
in the altered circumstances of the State the time
had arrived for a remodelling of the Constitution
Among these followers of Pretorius, these advocates
for reform, it is interesting to find, was Mr. Ste-
phanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, now President of
the Transvaal. Mr. Theal says : " During the
months of September and October, 1856, Com-
mandant-General W. M. Pretorius made a tour
through the districts of Rustenburg, Pretoria, and
Potchefstroom, and called public meetings at all the
centres of population. At these meetings there was
an expression of opinion by a large majority in
favour of an immediate adoption of a Constitution
which should provide for an efficient Government
and an independent Church." And again, later on,
we have, in the words of South Africa's historian.
6 RAID AND REFORM
the gist of the complaint against the then existing
state of things. " Thecommzcnity of Lydenburg was
accused of attempting to domineer over the whole
country, ivithout any other right to pre-eminence
than that of being composed of the earliest inhabitants,
a right which it had forfeited by its opposition to
the general weal.''
Such was the shocking state of things in this
country in 1856. It was a great deal too bad for
such champion reformers as Mr. Pretorius and his
lieutenant, Mr. S. J. P. Kruger, as we shall see
later on. Shortly after these meetings were held, a
Representative Assembly, consisting of twenty-four
members, one for each field-cornetcy, was elected,
for the special purpose of framing a Constitution and
installing the officials whom it should decide to
appoint. It had no other powers. The represen-
tatives met at Potchefstroom on the i6th December,
1856, and drafted a Constitution. I will not go
into the details of this Constitution, but will
merely remark with regard to it that all the people
of the State of European origin — and not a mere
section of them — were to elect the Volksraad, in
which was vested the legislative power.
On January 5th, 1857, the Representative
Assembly appointed Mr. Marthinus Wcssels Pre-
torius President, and also appointed members of an
Executive Council. In order to conciliate the
THE REBELS ^
people of Zoutpansberg, the Commandant of their
district, Mr. Stephanus Schoeman, was appointed
Commandant-General. They chose a flag — red,
white, blue and green. The oaths of office
were then taken, the President and executive
installed, and the flag hoisted.
When intelligence of these proceedings reached
Zoutpansberg and Lydenburg there was a violent
outburst of indignation. At a public meeting at
Zoutpansberg, the acts and resolutions of the Repre-
sentative Assembly at Potchefstroom were almost
unanimously repudiated. Mr. Schoeman declined
to accept office under Mr. Pretorius, and a Mani-
festo disowning the new Constitution and everything
connected with it was drawn up. The Government
then issued a proclamation deposing Commandant-
General Schoeman from all authority, declaring
Zoutpansberg in a state of blockade, and prohibiting
traders from supplying " the rebels " with ammuni-
tion or anything else.
This conduct on the part of the new Government
under Mr. Pretorius appears to me distinctly adroit.
Having taken upon themselves to remodel the
entire Constitution of the country, they turn round on
the adherents of the older Government, whom by
the bye, they had not thought it worth while to
consult, and promptly call them "rebels." And so
you have this striking political phenomenon of a
8 RAID AND REFORM
revolutionary party turning on the adherents of the
Government of the State and denouncing them,
forsooth, as "rebels."
What matter for the student of Democracy does
not this incident afford ? Here you have the demo-
cratic spirit carried to its extreme point, to its logical
conclusion. What did these hardy Republicans
think ? What did they say among themselves ?
They said, " We, the people of the country, are the
sovereign power of the country ; what the majority
of us determine on is what we have a right to
demand, is what we will have." By the people and
for the people was the instinct which dominated
them and guided all their movements. The old
Government no longer represented the majority of
the people, it must give way to the one that did.
There was but one appeal ; it was to the sovereign
power — the people themselves. They declared for
a new order of things, a new Government, and all
who resisted it became in their eyes rebels, even
though, as we have seen, they were loyal to the
original Government of the country. Loyalty ! there
was but one loyalty they knew, — loyalty to the
common weal, loyalty to the people of the country.
" The Volksraad under the old system of Govern-
ment was to have met at Lydenburg on December
17th, 1856. At the appointed time, however, no
members for the other districts appeared. What
INCURSION INTO THE FREE STATE 9
was transpiring at Pochefstroom was well known,
and a resolution was therefore adopted declaring
the district a Sovereign and Independent State
under the name of the ' Republic of Lydenburg.' "
And thus two Republics, two Volksraads, two
Governments, were formed and existed simul-
taneously in the Transvaal. And all this without a
shot being fired, each party finding sufficient relief
to their feelings by calling the other party " rebels."
In order to strengthen their position the party of
Pretorius now determined on a bold stroke. They
sent emissaries to endeavour to arrange for union
with the Free State. The Free State Government
rejected their overtures ; but Pretorius was led to
believe that so many of the Free State burghers
were anxious for this union that all that was
necessary for him to do in order to effect it was to
march in with an armed force. He therefore placed
himself at the head of a commando and crossed the
Vaal, where he was joined by a certain number of
Free State burghers. " When intelligence of this
invasion reached Bloemfontein, President Boshof
issued a proclamation declaring martial law in force
throughout the Free State, and calling out the
burghers for the defence of the country. It soon
appeared that the majority of the people were ready
to support the President, and from all quarters men
repaired to Kroonstad."
lo RAID AND REFORM
At this Stage the Free State President received
an offer of assistance from General Schoeman,
of Zoutpansberg, against Pretorius, in which
object he beHeved Lydenburg would also join.
What the precise political status of Zoutpansberg
may have been at this crisis I regret to say I have
been unable to discover ; but the fact of the matter
is, in the old days of the Transvaal they thought
nothing of an extra Government or two in the
country. As long as each individual white man was
represented somewhere and somehow he was ap-
proximately happy. The one thing he did abso-
lutely decline was being left out altogether, which
appears to be the position, by the bye to take a
modern example of the little community of some
hundred thousand Europeans living on the Rand
to-day. The old burgher felt his individuality and
respected it ; and while powder, shot, and shouting
were available to him, he asserted it. " On May 25th
the two commandos were drawn up facing each other
on opposite banks of the Rhenoster river, and
remained in that position for three hours."
Threatened from the north as well as from the
south, Pretorius felt his chance of success was
small, and he therefore sent out Commandant Paul
Kruger with a flag of truce to propose that a pacific
settlement should be made. I can quite believe
that in this graceful act Mr. Paul Kruger appeared
HIGH TREASON ii
to great advantage. The treaty arrived at was
practically an apology on the part of the South
African Republic. Many citizens of the Free State
who had joined the northern forces moved over the
Vaal after this event. Those who remained, and
those who had been previously arrested, were
brouofht to trial for hio^h treason. One man was
sentenced to death, but the sentence was mitigated
subsequently to a fine, others were fined. These
fines were again still further mitigated at the soli-
citation of Messrs. Paul Kruger and Steyn, until
it came to little more than ten pounds each. In
fact, I find there was a good deal of mitigation all
round at the conclusion of the various political
junketings which characterised the early history of
these Republics. Shortly after this event Zout-
pansberg was incorporated with the Republic, and
General Schoeman was appointed Commandant-
General of the country. The Republic of Lyden-
burg followed suit in i860, after considerable nego-
tiations on both sides. Pretoria was then chosen as
the seat of Government.
One might naturally suppose that after such a
series of political disturbances as has already been re-
corded, the new Government would now have a peace-
ful and assured future. It was united, and founded
on the will of the majority of the people. But the
spirit of unrest was upon them. One of the principal
12 RAID AND REFORM
causes of disturbance among the Boers was un-
doubtedly differences of opinion on ecclesiastical
matters. At this time, 1858, there came to the
country a clergyman named Portma, sent out by the
Separatist Church from Holland. The minister
settled at Rustenburg, and there founded the first
branch of what has since become a famous sect
among the Dutch, both in the Free State and Cape
Colony as well as the South African Republic, and
which is known in South Africa as the Dopper sect.
Their principal point of difference from the Reformed
Church, was an objection to singing of hymns as part
of the Church service. To this sect Mr. Kruger and
his immediate followers belong.
In i860, President Pretorius, then President of
the Transvaal, was elected President of the Free
State, whither, after obtaining six months' leave of
absence, he repaired, in the hope of bringing about
union between the two Republics. No sooner had
he departed than the old Lydenburg party showed
signs of disaffection, protesting that union would
confer much greater advantao^e on the Free State
than on them. Mr. Cornelius Potcfieter, Landdrost
of Lydenburg, then appeared in the Volksraad as
the leader of the disaffected party. They contended
that it was illegal for any one to be President of
the South African Republic and the Orange Free
State at the same time, and the upshot was that
TWO GOVERNMENTS IN THE S. A. REPUBLIC 13
Pretorius resigned. Mr. J. H. Grobbelaar, Acting
President, was requested by the Volksraad to remain
in office. The partisans of Mr. Pretorius hereupon
resolved to resist. A mass meeting was held at
Potchefstroom, and they resolved unanimously that
(a) The Volksraad no longer enjoyed its confidence,
and must be held as having ceased to exist, (d)
That Mr. Pretorius should remain President of the
South African Republic, and have a year's leave of
absence to bring about union with the Free State.
(c) That Mr. S. Schoeman should act as President
during the absence of Mr. Pretorius, and Mr. Grob-
belaar be dismissed, (d) That before the return of
Mr. Pretorius to resume his duties a new Volksraad
should be elected.
The complications that ensued on all this were
interminable, too complicated for us to follow in
detail, but suffice it to say some of the new party
were arraigned for treason and fined ^100 each —
another man ^15 — that after this for several months
there were once more two Acting Presidents and
two rival Governments in the South African Re-
public. Then Commandant Paul Kruger called out
the burghers of his district and determined to
establish a better order of thingrs.
Having driven Schoeman and his adherents
from Pretoria, Commandant Kruger then invested
Potchefstroom, which after a skirmish in which three
14 RAID AND REFORM
men were killed and seven wounded in all, fell into
his hands. He then pursued Schoeman, who fairly-
doubled on his opponent, and re-entered Potchef-
stroom. Commandant Kruger hastily returned, and
at this stage President Pretorius interposed. After
this followed elections and re-elections until
Commandant Jan Viljoen raised the now familiar
standard of revolt. He was engaged by Kruger's
force, and after a skirmish, in which Viljoen's forces
were defeated, Mr. Pretorius again intervened. A
conference lasting six days now finally settled
matters. Mr. Pretorius took the oaths of office.
The Volksraad met in May, 1864. "With this
ceremony the civil strife which had so long agitated
the Republic ceased. When, a little later on, it was
decided that all sentences of banishment, confiscation
of property and fines which had been passed for
political offences should be annulled, and that what-
ever had been seized should be restored to its
original owner, there was a general feeling of satis-
faction." These prolonged civic hostilities were over,
but they left their mark behind them. The Treasury-
was empty, salaries in arrear, and native taxes
uncollected. Moreover, the natural enemy of the
South African pioneer, whether Dutch or English,
the various Kaffir tribes both within and without the
Transvaal border, were menacing the Boers. On
the Zulu border for a considerable distance from
BRITISH ANNEXATION OF THE TRANSVAAL 15
the frontier the farmers went into laager. Cetewayo
was busy reviewing his troops, and in the Wakker-
stroon district a commando was assembled ready to
repel an invasion. In the early sixties both the
Free State and the South African Republic found
themselves involved in native wars. Basuto chief
Moshesh was the foe whom the Free State had to
contend with. Zoutpansberg was the -scene of the
Transvaal disturbances. In both instances the
Kaffirs belong to what Theal describes as the
mountain tribes of the Bantu family.
I have referred to the early history of this
Republic in some detail because I think it is new to
most of us, and because it is full of incident and
interest for all of us. What follows is better known
to the world. In 1877 the Transvaal was annexed
by the British Government, and was administered
first by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and secondly by
Sir Owen Lanyon. Some of the principal reasons
alleged for this annexation were : — " The increasing
weakness of the State as regards its relations with
neiofhbourino- native tribes, which invited attack
on the country and upon the adjoining British
possessions." " The state of anarchy and faction
that prevailed in the country." "The danger of
invasion by Sekukuni and Cetewayo." "The
paucity of public funds with which to cope with this
state of things." Of this period of the history of
i6 RAID AND REFORM
the country a good deal has been written in a book
called The History of the Transvaal by John Nixon.
The annexation at the outset appears to have been
received with mixed feelings. Some strongly ap-
proved, some sullenly acquiesced, while the Volks-
raad sent a deputation to protest in England.
Grumbling soon began among the Boers, and
meetings were held.
In 1879 Sir Theophilus Shepstone, a South
African by birth, and one thoroughly in touch with
the Boers, was superseded by Sir Owen Lanyon.
Sir Theophilus was always ready to drink a cup
of coffee and talk matters over with any disaffected
Boer visitor. Sir Owen Lanyon was a stiff-necked
British soldier, full of fads and prejudices, and soon
felt that he was completely out of touch with the
Boer population. Had some constitutional assembly
been formed during Shepstone's rdgime, wherein
the Boers had full representation and control of
their own internal affairs, and Sir Theophilus been
retained in office, there are writers who think it
probable that peace would have been maintained.
But be that as it may, events took a different
course. In the meantime, it is worthy of notice
that the two great native enemies of the Transvaal,
Sekukuni within their borders, and Cetewayo in
Zululand, were both attacked and defeated, the
former by a force under Sir Garnet Wolseley, the
MR. GLADSTONE AND MAJUBA 17
latter after considerable losses by Lord Chelmsford
and Sir Evelyn Wood.
In the Zululand campaign Piet Uys and a small
body of Boers from the Republic did good service,
Piet Uys, a brave leader, losing his life, but the
large body of Boers held aloof. In 1880 affairs in
the Transvaal again reached a crisis. According
to Nixon, " the levying of taxes on the Boers by
an administration in which they were totally un-
represented " was the principal cause. Add to this the
attitude of Mr. Gladstone, who, while in opposition,
had condemned in unmeasured terms the annexation
of the Transvaal, and who had just now come into
power, and the case for the Transvaal is an in-
telligible one. What followed early in 1881 is too
well known to need repetition. The British forces
under Sir George Colley were hurried up to the
Natal frontier, and, without waiting for reinforce-
ments, engaged the Boers and were defeated. After
this the policy of retrocession was decided on by
the Gladstone Cabinet, and the independence of
the Republic recognised. Great Britain, in both the
Pretoria and London Conventions, retaining the
right to supervise treaties with foreign powers.
We have now to deal with another and important
phase of this State's progress and material develop-
ment. For some years previous to the date at
which we have now arrived in our historical review,
c
i8 RAID AND REFORM
gold had been discovered in the Lydenberg district,
and this was followed by still further discoveries in
1883, which led to the formation of Moodie's Com-
pany and the foundation of Barberton. As the
mineral resources of the country became known,
new comers poured in, and with their capital and
enterprise opened up the mines of that district.
Prospecting went on all over the country, and in
1886 gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand
district. What that discovery meant for the South
African Republic we now know. From being a
thinly-populated grazing country, with very little
in the way of funds in its State coffers, it has
become the wealthiest and most prominent State in
South Africa. Its population has been increased
four or five fold, and every farmer has been enriched
by getting a market in the country for his pro-
duce. Farms have risen in value throughout the
land ; and there is not a burgher to-day who in
his heart does not thank heaven for the prosperity
which the capital, the energy, and the enterprise of
the mining community in the country have brought
him.
And yet, what is the political status of the mining
men in tlic country? — the men who j)r()vide four-
fifths of the revenue, and who have j)oured wealth
alike into the coffers of the (jovennnenl and the
pockets of the farmers. Their position is that ihey
POLITICAL MONOPOLY 19
are allowed to have neither part nor lot in the
government of the country. In thus enriching the
country it is true this community has materially
enriched itself; but wealth is not everything, and
it is as demoralising for the Boers as it is for the
mining population that all political rights should be
withheld from the latter. Men amonofst us are
reproached for merely getting all the money they
can together and then leaving the country. In the
first place this is true of only a small minority, and
who can blame them for leaving? Entirely shut
out from public life, what has the country to offer
them to induce them to remain ? In any large com-
munity there are always a few men in whom the
instincts of public service are so strong as to inevit-
ably lead them to become public servants of that
community, — men who feel themselves capable and
anxious to serve the public, and who for the most
part, let the motive be what it will, serve them
faithfully and well. Year by year such men as these
are driven from this country by the existing state of
things.
There is a question which arises in one's mind
after this brief review of the history of the country
which I think one may fairly address to the Govern-
ment and burghers of this State : Are they to-day
meting out to us the political justice which they have
ever insisted upon from the State for .themselves ?
c 2
20 RAID AND REFORM
What induced them or their fathers to frame a new-
Constitution at Potchefstroom in 1857 ? The
feehng that the majority of the white inhabitants
were not properly represented in the Government
of the country ; the feeling that the community of
Lydenburg were attempting to domineer over the
whole country without other right to pre-eminence
than that of being the oldest inhabitant, a right
which it had forfeited by its opposition to the
general weal. What was one of the principal
causes which led them to throw off the British
yoke in 1881 ? The objection to being taxed by an
Administration in which they were unrepresented.
Are we not labouring under all these disabilities
to-day ? The one retort to this is that we are
Uitlanders. That is to say, that in a country not
yet sixty years old, in which the population has been
formed almost entirely by immigration, in which the
President himself is an immigrant, the mining com-
munity, who have been coming in for at least fifteen
years past, and have done more in developing the
material resources of the country in that time than
was ever conceived in the wildest dreams of the
earlier inhabitants, are foreigners. What proportion
of tlic burghers of this State were actually born in
the country ? — this State, which owes its prosperity
and its progress alike to the continuous stream of
immigration. The President at least was not born
THE PRETORIA OLIGARCHY 21
here. The fact is that what was originally a
Republic, and what we hope to see once more a
Republic in deed as well as in name, has, by con-
tinually tinkering with the franchise law, become
an oligarchy.
I have had some little difficulty in obtaining the
information with regard to the various alterations in
the franchise law, but I am indebted to Mr. Charles
Leonard for the following. I gather that originally
every white man had a vote. Subsequently every
white man not born in South Africa had to pay
^15 to get the vote. Later, in 1874, strangers who
had no land in the country had to live here one year
to get the vote. The acquisition of land qualified
them at once. Next, in 1882 burghership could
only be obtained after living in the country and
being registered on the field-cornets' books for
five years and paying £2^. In 1887 the law fixed
fifteen years and the payment of £2^.
In 1890 the Second Volksraad was established.
The inestimable boon of a vote for this body, whose
decisions are liable to revision by the First Raad, is
obtainable after being resident two years, taking the
oath and paying £^. At the same time the law was
altered to permit admission to the right to vote for
the First Raad after ten years, and to become a
member after fourteen years. In 1893, without
reference to the people, the law was altered so that
22 RAID AND REFORM
we are virtually excluded for ever. The law was
confirmed in 1S94, and there was added a clause by
which children born here cannot get the vote unless
their fathers have taken the oath, an oath which,
remember, deprives a man of the citizenship of the
country he came from, and offers him something" less
than half citizenship of this in return.
The tendency of this legislation is perfectly clear ;
it is from makinof the franchise difficult to makinor it
impossible for the inhabitants of the Rand. We
are growing old as the years go by, and if the Raad
wishes to be logical and consistent it will assuredly
next Session pass a Bill excluding the grandchildren
of Uitlanders. We have sketched the growth of this
State from its earliest days to the present time.
A^ofe. — The above paper was published in Johannesburg in the
Sfar in December, 1895, and contains at the conclusion a statement
of the position as it then appeared.
MACHIAVELLI 23
*'THE ORIGIN AND CIRCUMSTANCES
OF THE INCURSION INTO THE
SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC OF AN
ARMED FORCE"
" Let no one," says Machiavelli, " who begins an
innovation in a State, expect that he shall stop it
at his pleasure or regulate it according to his
intention."
And Machiavelli, who lived in the early days of
the small Republics of mediaeval Italy, and who had
witnessed their intrigues, their corruption, and their
decay, knew whereof he was writing.
There seems to be a Nemesis, some mad but
watchful Fury, that waits on political reform, that
sees with jealousy its every movement, and tarries
not in her pursuit.
To Englishmen of this generation, reared in the
free air of Anglo-Saxon liberty, she exists but as a
shadow — to Machiavelli, the child of political corrup-
tion, tyranny, and intrigue, she seemed as some dark
spirit of destiny brooding for ever over the freedom
24 RAID AND REFORM
of mankind. Have students of evolution, the phi-
losophy of history, all the science of the ages, dis-
covered any inexorable law of nature ? or must we
regard it as the irony of fate, whereby all small
Republics, as far as history knows them, beginning
with those of Greece and includinor those of
mediaeval Italy and of South America, inevitably
end either in perpetual faction strife, in oligarchy, or
in tyranny ? That which was founded on the in-
stincts of justice and freedom seems to engender
licence, and the greed and ambition of the few-
govern the destinies of the many. In South Africa
the Transvaal during the few decades of its exist-
ence has been no exception to the rule.
Despising Anglo-Saxon civilisation, yet with no
civilisation of their own to fall back upon, the Boers
have hovered between savagery and the civilisation
they have in vain endeavoured to forsake.
Having a language, a patois with "neither a
syntax nor a literature," the sons of the wealthy are
sent to English schools and universities, and English
books almost entirely fill the shelves of every library
in the country, thus showing that in their hearts
they appreciate the civilisation they affect to
despise.
Ten years ago the inllux of new comers began to
settle on the Rand. And as this inllux increased
and advanced with ever-gaining strides, the Boers
ANGLO-SAXON CIVILISATION 25
realised that the world and civilisation were once
more upon them. In spite of all the opposition that
patriarchal prejudice could muster, railways usurped
the place of the slow moving ox-waggon, and in
the heart of their solitude a city had arisen ; while
to the north and to the east between them and the
sea were drawn the thin red lines of British boun-
dary. The tide of Anglo-Saxon civilisation — that
strong ever-flowing current, on whose bosom all
barks are borne as freely as on the open sea — had
swept around and beyond them to the banks of the
Zambesi and to territories even further north in the
interior of a continent of whose existence they were
but dimly conscious. A primitive pastoral people,
they found themselves isolated, surrounded — " shut
in a kraal for ever," as Kruger is reported to have
said, — while the stranger was growing in wealth and
numbers within their gates. Expansion of territory,
once the dream of the Transvaal Boers, as their in-
cursions into Bechuanaland, into Zululand, and the
attempted trek into Rhodesia, all testify, was be-
coming daily less practicable. One thing remained,
— to accept their isolation and strengthen it.
Wealth, population, a position among the new
States of the world had been brought to them,
almost in spite of themselves, by the new comer,
the stranger, the Uitlander. What was to be the
attitude towards him politically ? Materially he had
26 RAID AND REFORM
made the State — he developed its resources, paid
nine-tenths of its revenue. W ould he be a strength
or a weakness as a citizen — as a member of the body
poHtic ?
Let us consider this new element in a new State
— how was it constituted, what were its component
parts ? Was it the right material for a new State to
assimilate ? Cosmopolitan to a degree — recruited
from all the corners of the earth — there was in it a
strong South African element, consisting of young
colonists from the Cape Colony and Natal — members
of families well known in South Africa — and many
of them old schoolfellows or in some other way
known to each other. Then the British contingent,
self-reliant, full of enterprise and energy —
Americans, for the most part skilled engineers,
miners and mechanics — French, Germans, and
Hollanders. A band of emigrants, of adventurers,
and constituted, as I think all emigrants are, of two
great classes — the one who, lacking neither ability
nor courage, are filled with an ambition, character-
istic particularly of the British race, to raise their
status in the world, who find the conditions of their
native environment too arduous, the competition too
keen, to offer them much prospect, and who seek a
new and more rapidly developing country elsewhere ;
and another, a smaller class, who sometimes
through misfortune, sometimes through their own
THE UITLANDERS 27
fault, or perhaps through both, have failed else-
where. Adventurers all, one must admit ; but it is
the adventurers of the world who have founded
States and Kingdoms. Such a class as this has
been assimilated by the United States and absorbed
into their huge fabric, of which to-day they form a
large and substantial portion. What should the
Transvaal Boers have done with this new element
so full of enterprise and vigour ? This had been for
the last ten years the great question for them to
solve. Have they desired merely a political mono-
poly for a passing generation of men from the very
nature of their lives and training but poorly qualified
for the sole control and conduct of the affairs of a
rapidly developing country — or have they desired to
lay the foundation of a permanent State, a true
Republic, that might be sustained and upheld by
those very principles of democracy which inspired
and guided the Boer voortrekkers in the State's
foundation? Hitherto they had steadily and with
ever-increasing determination sought only political
monopoly. Enfranchisement, participation in the
political life of the State by the Uitlander, — this
means, they said, a transference of all political power
from our hands to those of men whom we do not
trust. " I have taken a man into my coach," said
President Kruger, "and as a passenger he is wel-
come ; but now he says, Give me the reins ; and that
28 RAID AND REFORM
I cannot do, for I know not where he will drive me.
To the Boer it is all or nothing ; he knows no mean,
no compromise. Yet in that very mean lies the vital
spirit of republicanism. What is the position of the
Boers in the Cape Colony ? Are they without their
share, their influence, their Africander bond in the
political affairs of the country ? And so it is through-
out the world to-day, — in the United States, in
England, in France, in the British Colonies,
wherever the individual thrives and the State is
prosperous — the compromise of divided political
power among all classes, all factions, is the great
guarantee of their well being. To this end all
political evolution moves ; and whether it finds
expression in a Republic or in an ancient Monarchy,
"broad based upon the people's will" — will move
while civilisation continues.
So trite are these reflections that one almost
hesitates to record them ; and yet so many are the
admirers of the so-called sagacity of the Boer — so
many who take the "all or nothing view" — that a
restatement of them can do no harm.
That the enfranchisement of the Uitlander would
mean a complete transference of political power into
his hands involves two assumptions : the first is
that the Uitlanders would form a united body in
politics ; the second is that their representatives
would dominate the Volksraad. The most superficial
BOER UNREASON 29
acquaintance with the action of the inhabitants of
the Witwatersrand district on any public matter
will serve to refute the first of these, while it is a
well-recosTnised fact that there are amonofst the
Uitlanders — among the South Africans especially —
a large number of men whose sympathies with the
Boers on many matters would run directly counter
to what one might describe as those of the ultra-
English section.
The second of these assumptions — though it is
continually put forward — almost answers itself.
The number of representatives from the Uitlander
districts under any scheme of redistribution of seats
which the Boer could reasonably be expected to
make would fall considerably short of those returned
from the Boer constituencies.
Such was the attitude of the Boers on this vital
question which led to the Reform Movement of
1895 ; and I have stated what I believe to be the
injustice of it as regards the Uitlanders and the
unwisdom of it in the true interests of the Boers.
I shall now deal with the Reform Movement itself,
endeavouring to trace its real origin and object.
The movement ended in a drama which attracted
the attention of the world for more than a year, and
to the proper understanding of which the House of
Commons appointed a Select Committee of Enquiry.
Before the Committee facts have been laid bare.
30 RAID AND REFORM
misrepresentations and misconception, and in some
instances the injustice resulting from them, removed.
And the evidence recorded, together with the
reports thereon, fill 600 pages of a Parliamentary
Blue Book.
The Committee appointed was constituted as
follows : — The Attorney-General (Sir Richard
Webster), Mr. Bigham, Mr. Blake, Mr. Sydney
Buxton, Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, the
Colonial Secretary(Mr. Chamberlain), the Chancellor
of the Exchequer (Sir Michael Hicks Beach), Mr.
Cripps, Sir William Hart Dyke, Mr. John Ellis,
Sir William Harcourt, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Labouchere,
Mr. Wharton, and Mr. George Wyndham ; and
they formed a strong an able and a representative
Committee of the House of Commons.
It was to the circumstances, rather than to the
origin of the incursion, that the Committee devoted
its most assiduous attention ; and with reference to
them and the degrees of responsibility for different
actions attaching to different persons, its findings, the
result of exhaustive examination of witnesses, are
clearly and impartially stated in their Report.
The task was no ordinary one, and of the many
issues involved there were some on whicli the
Committee concentrated their attention. The
reputation of the Colonial Office had been impugned ;
ihc rcsp()nsil)ility of Mr. Rhodes had to be deter-
CABLES V. BOREDOM 31
mined ; were the Chartered Company Directors
impHcated, and if so to what extent ? A conspiracy
was to be unmasked, a mystery to be unravelled,
and to the questions which might involve this person
or that, punctilious points of immaculacy in a Duke
or a Colonial Office official, the Committee
addressed itself with zeal, and with some suspicion
of the relish which ladies bestow on a new-fledsfed
scandal. Moreover they had amongst them a
notorious gossip — Mr. Henry Labouchere.
They confessed Charles Leonard rather bored
them ; but the missing cables — Miss Flora Shaw, —
here is matter indeed, my masters !
They resolved at the outset to divide their labours
into two parts, and the first was, in the terms of the
Order from the House of Commons, to "inquire
into the origin and circumstances of the incursion
into the South African Republic of an armed
force." Within the "origin" of that incursion,
came the history of the Reform Movement in
the Transvaal ; and it must ever remain a matter
of some reproach to the Committee that while they
accorded to Mr. Schreiner, who probably has not
spent more than a month in his life within the
Transvaal, no less than nearly four sittings wherein
to record his political views and demonstrate his
ignorance of the true Uitlander position, they con-
fined Mr. Charles Leonard, and that imder distinct
32 RAID AND REFORM
pressure from the Chairman, to less than a single
sitting. He is a South African by birth, and has, no
less than Mr. Schreiner, both talent and patriotism.
To the question of reform in the Transvaal during a
residence of several years he has given unremitting
attention and conspicuous ability, and he was the
man of all others qualified to record in accurate detail
the history of the movement which was the principal
factor in the "origin of the incursion," and which
it was the function of the Committee clearly to
ascertain.
That the Committee did not deal as systematic-
ally with the " origin of the incursion " as was
desirable in the true interests of the inquiry was,
however, the fault of the Opposition rather than of
the Government members. The Government itself
being indirectly implicated through the charges made
against the Colonial Office, the Government mem-
bers, in their desire for the fullest inquiry, placed
no check on the cross-examinations of witnesses by
the Opposition members, and these form the bulk
of the evidence taken.
The Opposition members did not exhibit the
same impartial spirit when witnesses were being
examined on the history of the Reform Movement
in Johannesburg — and of this, their interruptions
during Mr. Leonard's evidence, which called forth a
remonstrance from Mr. Chamberlain, was a striking
THE SELECT COMMITTEE 33
instance. Mr. Labouchere's presence on the Com-
mittee, which at least in character should have been
a judicial one, was an anomaly at the outset ; and
his retention thereon after his retractation of, and
apology for, charges made under cover of privilege
in the House of Commons, seemed to the lay mind
unacquainted with the ways of Parliament and its
Committees, almost a scandal. The members of the
Committee who showed most regard for the terms
of the Order from the House of Commons were
Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Wyndham and Mr. Bigham.
But while one cannot help regretting that the
proportion of time allotted to Mr. Leonard in which
to give his evidence was not greater, one must
admit on perusing the official record of it that he
made the most of his opportunity. With quiet
persistence he told his story, adroitly evading the
irrelevant questions of the Opposition, and bringing
out with clearness and emphasis the main points of
the position which had culminated in the disaster of
December, 1895.
From the earliest settlement on the Rand down
to 1892 the Uitlander had continued to hope that
something like political equality on a fair basis
would be obtained. In 1892 the National Union
was formed, and at its meetings enthusiastic crowds
attended, while speakers from among the Pretoria
Dutch residents, notably Mr. Esselen, an ex-Judge
of the High Court, and Mr. Wessels, a well-known
D
34 RAID AND REFORM
Pretoria advocate, were among those who addressed
the meeting, expressing their sympathy for the
desire of the Uitlander to attain to citizen rank.
From 1892 to 1895 ^^^ history of the Reform
Movement in Johannesburg was practically the
work done by the National Union and its adherents
— unaided, and even be it said discouraged, by the
capitalists, who held aloof Petitions to the Govern-
ment were sent in year after year. Resolutions
calling for some amelioration in the conditions of the
franchise law, the dynamite trade, education, and
the courts of justice were passed both at the
National Union meetings and by other public bodies
— but all without avail. And not merely without
avail — matters did not even stand still : they went
steadily back. What had been possible when men
entered the country was made impossible to them a
few years later. And it was this retrogressive legis-
lation, this actual setti^ig back of the hatids of the
clock, that convinced men of the hopelessness of the
position, that exasperated them even to conspiracy.
Facts showing this retrogressive movement have
been set forth in Mr, Charles Leonard's printed
statement, and in some sense made public ; but op-
portunity was not given to put them clearly in
evidence before the Committee of Inquiry, and thus
points of the most vital importance to the subject
of the inquiry have been left out of that evidence,
and the actual retrogression in Boer Legislation
THE FRANCHISE 35
is not even referred to in the Committee's Report.
As the Franchise Law stood in 1882, to quote
from Mr. Leonard's printed statement, "it was
enacted that in order to become naturalised and
acquire full citizenship the new comer should have
resided in the country for a period of five years,
and should have been registered on the field-cornets'
list for that period, and should pay a sum of twenty-
five pounds." A provision, restrictive undoubtedly,
but not wholly unreasonable. But mark what
follows.
"In 1890 a new departure was made. A law
was passed in that year providing for the creation of
a Second Chamber, called the Second Volksraad, to
the powers and constitution of which further refer-
ence will be made hereafter. It was enacted that
aliens could acquire the right to vote for members
of the Second Chamber after having been registered
upon the field-cornets' list and having resided in the
country for a period of two years. They had to
renounce their allegiance to their own country, and
to take the oath of allegiance to the Transvaal, and
to pay the sum of five pounds for the privilege.
After having been eligible to vote for the Second
Chamber for a period of two years, the new-fledged
voter, or naturalised person, as he is called in the
Transvaal, became eligible for a seat in such
Chamber. It was further provided in the same year
D 2
36 RAID AND REFORM
that no person who had been so naturalised could
vote for a seat in the First Volksi'aad until the
lapse of a period of ten years after he had become
eligible for the Second Chamber.
" No one could be a member of the Second
Chamber until he was thirty years of age, and it
will thus be seen that under no circumstances could
a man eet the riorht to vote for the First Chamber
until he was at least forty ; and during the interval
that had elapsed from the period of his naturalisation
he would be in the position of having renounced his
allegiance to the country of his origin and having
rendered himself liable to all the burdens of a
citizen, including military service, and that in the
meantime he would be deprived of the exercise
of the most important rights of citizenship. But
even then no one was of right entitled to the
franchise. He could only get citizenship after
fourteen years' residence and compliance with the
above provisions, if the First Volksraad passed a
resolution admitting him, and in ptwsuance of
regulations which have never been framed!'
" With regard to the Second Chamber it must be
pointed out that this body bears no such relation
to the First Volksraad as its name might at first
sight imply. Its powers of legislation are strictly
defined. It has no power to enforce its own acts,
and no control whatever over the First Chamber.
RETROGRESSION 37
All its acts and resolutions must be submitted to
the First Chamber, which has the right to veto
them ; and even if not so vetoed they do not acquire
the force of law until promulgated by the President,
who has the right to withhold such promulgation at
his discretion. It need scarcely be added that the
Second Chamber has no control whatever over the
finances. It cannot be wondered that even ardent
South African patriots like the late John Cilliers
should have described the Second Raad as a
mockery and a sham, and that the Uitlanders
decline to regard it as of any real benefit to them."
A sham and a mockery indeed, a withdrawal of
the substance and a substitution for ever by statute
of the shadow ! John Cilliers was not the only
Transvaal burgher and patriot who saw with indig-
nation and foreboding this retrogressive action.
Let us take the testimony of Mr. Esselen in 1892
on the platform of the National Union. Mr. Esselen
began his political career as a prominent member of
the Africander Bond in the Cape House of Assembly ;
he was then made a Judge of the High Court in
the Transvaal, and having resigned that position
took an active part in the politics of the country.
On the occasion referred to at a meeting in Johan-
nesburgf he said : "I agrree with this movement. I
may tell you I am in entire accord with the move-
ment of the National Union, and I am proud to be
38 RAID AND REFORM
asked to say a few words. I wish to ask you
whether you can give any credence to the state-
ment of a man (President Kruger), who says he is
going to unite two people, when the whole of his
acts for the last ten years show it is absolutely un-
true. I do not speak without knowing what I am
talking about — I say you have been kept out of
your political privileges, not because the people
have kept you out from fear that your being granted
these privileges would wreck or endanger the inde-
pendence of this country, but to enable a few, and a
greedy few, to rule the country for their ends."
Other matters there were innumerable that at-
tracted, nay, even demanded the attention of every
thoughtful man, Uitlander or burgher, in the country
during the years from 1890 to 1895. ^ have placed
the Franchise question first — and for assigning it
that position, there is, as we have seen, abundant
reason given from intelligent and patriotic burghers
themselves. The redress of all other evils was too
obviously dependent on the redress of this one, and
compared with it they became matters of secondary
importance. Among them, however, were matters
of such moment as an absence of municipal financial
control for municipal purposes ; the dynamite mono-
poly, an iniquitous tax on the great industry of the
country ; an education law, which, out of the
revenue furnished to the State by the Uitlander,
MENACING THE COURTS OF JUSTICE 39
provided in effect solely for the children of the
Dutch ; and anomalies with reference to the ad-
ministration of justice whereby in the first place all
juries were taken from the Dutch burghers, so that
an Englishman living in the midst of a large Eng-
lish speaking community was not even accorded a
jury of his fellow-citizens. And then, finally, a con-
tinual tampering with the Grondwet — the Constitu-
tion of the country — by resolutions hastily passed in
the Volksraad which not only kept in perpetual
uncertainty the position of every man in the State, but
even threatened, and that in no uncertain manner,
the independence and stability of that last refuge of
the Uitlander, the Courts of Justice themselves.
So menacing did the position of affairs appear —
even to the Chief Justice of the Republic — a man
who at the last Presidential election was supported
as a candidate for the Presidency — that in October.
1894, he felt it his duty to issue to the burghers, in
words which will remain memorable in the history
of the Republic, a solemn warning. The address
was delivered at Rustenburg, and from it we shall
do well to consider a few extracts : "No one who
for a moment considers the condition of things in
the State will deny that the country is at present
in a very critical position. The unmistakable signs
of an approaching change are apparent on every
side. It entirely depends upon the people whether
40 RAID AND REFORM
the impending change is to take place peaceably, or
to be accompanied with violence. Do not let us
close our eyes and ears to the truth. The people
should thoroughly understand the true position of
things. I repeat what I have just said, — the non-
observance of and departure from the Grondwet
menaces the independence of the State." " The
country has a Constitution, and must be governed
by its precepts, and in a statesmanlike manner.
Let me repeat here what I said in 1892." " How
frequently have we not seen that the Grondwet,
which as the Constitution ought to stand on an
entirely different footing from our ordinary law, has
nevertheless been varied and treated as such ?
Many a time has the Grondwet been altered by a
simple resolution of the Legislature. By this means
many a radical, and I am afraid often unwise change
has been brought about in the Constitution. This
objectionable and unstatesmanlike mode of pro-
cedure can no longer be followed without impairing
the progress and jeopardising the independence of
the State." " The trek spirit has well nigh become
extinct, the Republic has its beacons and bound-
aries which, with the exception of our Eastern
border, can no longer be extended. In the wise
dispensation of Providence everything has its
proper season. It is remarkable that, although our
mineral treasures have for ages existed in the
INFRINGEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION 41
country, they have only recently been discovered
and developed (by the Uitlander). It is equally
remarkable that soon after we had to experience a
movement (by Mr. Cecil Rhodes) which has defin-
itely fixed the Limpopo as our northern boundary.
These facts, together with the daily increasing popu-
lation and the many complications arising there-
from, indicate that we must more than ever devote
our attention upon our internal and domestic affairs.
There is but one safe course to follow in dealing
with public matters under the altered conditions,
— the country must be ruled in accordance with the
recoo^nised rules of Constitutional Government."
Further on in this same speech, the spirit in
which a Volksraad Committee appointed to revise
and piece together the Grondwet " devoted its at-
tention to these same internal and domestic affairs,"
is somewhat severely commented on by the Chief
Justice. Referring to their labours and the new
draft Grondwet submitted to the Volksraad by them,
he says it " contained such important radical and
dangerous provisions that, had they been adopted,
I do not hesitate to say the independence of the
country would have come to an end," " the Courts
of Justice from the lowest to the highest in the
land would have been so affected in the independent
exercise of their functions that it would simply have
been an impossibility to have dispensed justice
42 RAID AND REFORM
between man and man without fear or prejudice.
The altered provisions in question assign powers
and functions to the Executive and the Legislature
which at present belong exclusively to the Courts
of Justice. The very safe and constitutional rela-
tion which, according to the Grondwet, existed
between the three great powers" (Legislative, Exe-
cutive and Judicial), or " departments in the State
would have been so violated that the Courts of
Justice would have tottered to their deepest founda-
tions. The liberty, property, and other rights of
people would have been placed in the greatest
jeopardy, aye, the very independence of the Re-
public, which is so inseparably connected with the
independence of the Courts of Law, would thereby,
as I have already observed, have come to an end."
We had not been privileged to see this new
Grondwet ; and by some miracle we had hitherto
escaped its enforcement; the Volksraad was apparently
in a cautious mood, and "these dangerous changes,"
recommended to them by a Committee chosen to deal
with the subject, were rejected. The incident is,
however, sufficiently significant of the feeling of
unrest which the Volksraad was calculated to en-
gender among every section of the community.
It was in 1894 also that occurred the commandeer-
ing incident. Englishmen, although accorded no
civil rif^hts, were commandeered to serve in the
BRITISH SUBJECTS COMMANDEERED 43
Malaboch Campaign. Five of them in Pretoria
refusing to go were imprisoned ; they appealed
to the High Court, but their HabiHty to service was
upheld ; they were then taken under compulsion to
the front. This caused the greatest indignation
throughout the Uitlander community, and in-
duced even the British Government to take action.
Sir Henry Loch was despatched to Pretoria, and a
pledge was given that no further commandeering of
British subjects should occur. It was on this occa-
sion that Sir H, Loch is reputed to have asked how
many rifles the Uitlanders could muster.
Another and continual source of irritation not
only to the South Africans among the Uitlanders,
but even amongr the burghers themselves, was the
employment by the Executive of young freshly im-
ported Hollanders to fill so many of the lucrative
offices both hiorh and low in the State, to the ex-
elusion of South Africans, many of whom had
enjoyed the advantage of university education, who
were imbued with a genuine love for the country and
who naturally regarded the public offices arising out
of the development of South Africa as a heritage
for her sons. The Hollanders introduced by
the Government were more truly foreigners to the
burfjhers in lano^uaQ^e, in manner of life and in the
type of their civilisation than even the most lately
arrived Englishman. The educated South African
44 RAID AND REFORM
Dutchman is to all intents and purposes an English-
man : he reads English literature, English is his
daily language, and he has the English love of
athletics and field sports. To the Hollander neither
the cricket bat nor the polo stick is a joy, nor is his
literature that of Whyte-Melville or of Shakespeare.
Of the corruption and abuses in the public ad-
ministration I do not propose to burden this book
with details. Their record has been revealed often
enough ; they were, as the world well knows, one more
continual source of exasperation. In the Volksraad
itself it is only fair to say that there has always been a
small minority of some few men who held enlightened
views and a more far seeing patriotism. And among
them must be remembered by the Uitlanders with
some measure of gratitude such men as Mr. Carl
Jeppe, Mr. Loveday and Mr. Lucas Meyer.
Before concluding our brief review of events as
they occurred in the Transvaal in rapid and even
alarming succession between the years 1S90 and
1895, some reference to one of the most prominent,
energetic and public-spirited men among the
Uitlander community itself is necessary. Mr. Lionel
Phillips was the senior resident partner in the
wealthy house of Eckstein, and for four years
1892-95 was President of the Chamber of Mines. In
common with other capitalists he held aloof from the
political agitation which was proceeding under the
THE MONSTER PETITION 45
auspices of the National Union until towards the
end of 1895. Nevertheless, as President of the
Chamber of Mines, and as a private citizen he never
ceased pressing upon the Government the urgent
necessity for redress with regard to the material
burdens upon the industry; and as a member of the
Council of Education he assisted both with money
and personal supervision the furthering of its end.
In 1895 th^ monster petition praying in respectful
terms for admission to the Franchise, signed by
38,500 people, was presented to the Volksraad. It
was rejected with jeers and with insult. Such then
was the poition of affairs in the middle of 1895.
And looking back on it all, with its opposing forces
of stern unbending prejudice and ignorance on the
one hand, and of an outraged democracy demanding
the common rights of man on the other, it was, one
must admit, a scene not unfamiliar to the pages of
history. And it was a pretty quarrel as it stood.
At this time the sympathy of the Progressive party
among the Boers themselves, including, as we have
seen, that of the Chief Justice of the country, the
enlightened minority in the Volksraad, and many
educated burghers throughout the land, was with
the Uitlander cause. The irritation amongst the
Cape Colonists, English and Dutch alike, over the
recent question of the arbitrary closing of the Drifts
(Fords) on the main wagon roads between the Cape
46 RAID AND REFORM
Colony and the Transvaal, where they cross the
Vaal River, was profound, and, as we now know, far
reaching. So far had matters gone that towards the
end of the year an arrangement was come to between
the English and Cape Colonial Governments, where-
by, in the event of what was nothing less than an
ultimatum to the Boer Government not attaining its
end in compelling them to throw open the Drifts,
the two Governments undertook to share the
expenses of a joint military expedition to the
Transvaal.
The ultimatum did attain its end, and the Drifts
were thrown open ; but the incident was a significant
one, and will show how near England then was
to a policy of "an incursion into the South African
Republic of an armed force."
After the rejection of the monster petition of 1S95
the men of Johannesburg realised once and for all
that, whatever else might come, to look for redress
of their grievances by constitutional means was
about as hopeless as would be the prospects of a
syndicate which had for its object the pegging out
of another main reef on the surface of the moon.
In some sense the time seemed ripe for action, in
another and a very vital one it was not. Politically,
affairs had reached their nadir as far as one could
see, \)Ut financially they were far from it ; the mines
were in full work, the market was buoyant, and men
RHODES, JAMESON AND BEIT ,47
were earning good incomes and big wages. Suc-
cessful revolutions are usually accomplished on
empty stomachs, and this element was wanting.
Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who had practically fixed
the Limpopo as the northern boundary of the
Transvaal, while he had stretched that of the British
Empire to beyond the Zambesi ; accustomed as he
was to success, quick movement and rapid deve-
lopments, in his great career ; had, to his credit,
watched with impatient eyes the setting back of the
clock within the South African Republic. His chief
lieutenant, Dr. Jameson, who had shared with him the
labour of reclaiming from barbarism and developing
Rhodesia, and whose ambition was no less than his
superiors, discussed with him the desirability of
some active outside pressure ; and between them
was evolved what is known as the Jameson plan.
Mr. Beit, the capitalist, most largely interested in
the mines of the Rand, an old financial colleague of
Mr. Rhodes, both in the De Beers amalgamation
and in the establishment of the Chartered Company,
promised both his influence and his purse in support
of the plan. Overtures were then made to Mr.
Lionel Phillips, who was at the head of the Chamber
of Mines, and Mr. Charles Leonard, the Chairman
of the National Union ; and, as a review of the pre-
ceding events will show, they came to them in a
very tempting hour.
48 RAID AND REFORM
In the light of subsequent events it is not difficult
to be wise on this question ; it is a simple and indeed
an orthodox attitude to condemn both the tender
and the acceptance of these seductive proposals,
and to be impartial it is right we should consider
the views held by a few enlightened South Africans.
With the internal movement going on in the Trans-
vaal for the obtaining of reform, they said when the
Jameson plan first came to their notice in Johannes-
burg, the whole of South Africa and the world at
large have every sympathy. The enlightened
opinion among the Boers themselves is with you,
and for that matter even expects a disturbance,
possibly a rebellion, over the great question of the
Franchise. In such a quarrel with the Govern-
ment, it is doubtful if Kruger could get the
burghers to take action, so strong is the sense
among many of them of the anomalous position
of Johannesburg. In any case the position cannot
long remain unchanged, a solution must assuredly
come. And if you must take action, rely upon
yourselves, the justice of the cause, close down the
mines, let the men go to Pretoria in a body and
demand their rights. Any harsh measures under
these conditions will be resented by the British
Government, and the Boers know it ; but if you
accept foreign aid, if chartered troops enter the
country, the Boers will be welded as one man, all
THE JAMESON PLAN 49
political anomalies will be forgotten, they will see
only the independence of their country menaced, the
Englishmen again invading the Transvaal ; the
Free State will be with them ; your cause will be a
lost one. And these views were not without wis-
dom.
They were right in foreseeing the dangers and
impolicy of the Jameson plan ; they were wrong in
expecting any substantial redress from the Boer
Executive except under absolute compulsion. Both
Mr. Phillips and Mr. Leonard were aware, if any
men could be, of all the difficulties and the dangers
of the situation. Mr. Rhodes was at that time at
the very zenith of his power and of his reputation.
He had shown himself a master of statecraft and
diplomacy in dealing with men both in the English
political and financial worlds and in South Africa,
and any proposal emanating from him therefore
carried with it the prestige which only one of the
most able and most successful men of his generation
could give it. Moreover, what a tower of strength
his unique position made him, — Premier of the Cape
Colony, Managing Director of the British South
Africa Company, Chairman of De Beers : here was
an ally indeed ! The plan at this early stage was
presented in a very attractive form. A force under
Dr. Jameson was to be quietly gathered on the
border. The Johannesburg agitation, reinforced with
E
50 RAID AND REFORM
capitalist support, was to be steadily pushed forward.
Rifles and ammunition were to be smuggled into
Johannesburg. Both the High Commissioner and
the Colonial Office might be counted on, it was said,
to support a vigorous forward movement for reform.
Mr. Phillips and Mr. Leonard, sick and weary of
the hopelessness of unsupported constitutional
action, and of the continual set back in Boer
politics, already casting round in their minds for
some new departure, accepted and from that time
forth co-operated with Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Jame-
son in the development of the Jameson plan.
In October, 1895, ^ meeting took place at Groote
Schuur, Mr. Rhodes' residence near Cape Town, at
which were present, in addition to Mr. Cecil Rhodes,
Mr. Lionel Phillips, Mr. Hammond, Mr. Charles
Leonard, and Colonel Frank Rhodes. At this
meeting the plan was more fully discussed and
matured; and in November, 1895, when Dr. Jame-
son visited Johannesburg, the details were finally
settled. The letter of invitation was written, signed
and handed to Dr. Jameson, and the date of com-
bined action provisionally fixed for the end of
December. Dr. Jameson's force was to be about
1,000 strong, and the start to be made when final!)-
summoned by the signatories of the lctt(!r. In the
meantime the J()hann('sl)urg leaders were to have
sent in to them 4,500 rifles and 1,000,000 rounds of
LETTER TO JAMESON Sr
ammunition, and were, if possible, to arrange for an
attack on the Pretoria Arsenal simultaneously with
the move from outside.
With regard to the letter of invitation which was
subsequently used by Dr. Jameson as a justification
for his start, there has, unfortunately, been a good
deal of misunderstanding. It is now entirely a
matter which concerns Dr. Jameson and the signa-
tories of that letter which they gave him during the
final arrangement of the plan in November, and
without reference to others than themselves. But
as it has been the subject of very careful inquiry
on the part of the Select Committee, and as they
have recorded their finding thereon in the body of
their Report, it is only fair to the signatories of the
letter to refer to it.
The Select Committee's Report reads as follows —
"As soon as the preparations were well advanced
towards the latter end of November, 1895, Dr.
Jameson, who had been with Mr. Rhodes at Cape
Town, went to Johannesburg and procured a letter
signed by Mr. C. Leonard, Colonel Rhodes, Mr,
L. Phillips, Mr. J. H. Hammond, and Mr. G.
Farrar. Mr. Leonard has stated that he was very
reluctantly a party to giving this letter of invitation
to Dr. Jameson ; and he has said in effect that it was
given to afford a pretext which might justify Dr.
Jameson with the Directors of the Chartered Com-
E 2
52 RAID AND REFORM
pany, and induce the officers and men to join him
in the raid. This letter was shown to Mr. Rhodes
by Dr. Jameson on his return to Cape Town ; and
upon December 20th, 1895, ^^^- Rhodes asked to
be supplied with a copy. Mr. Leonard, Colonel
Rhodes, and Mr. Phillips have all distinctly stated
that this letter was never intended as an authority
to Dr. Jameson to enter the Transvaal, unless
and until he received a further summons from
them."
Such was in brief the history of the Jameson
plan as far as concerned Johannesburg". And it is
necessary here to refer to the position with regard
to it of the bulk of the men who subsequently
constituted the Reform Committee. They at this
time, with the exception of a few of their number,
of which I personally was one, were entirely ignor-
ant of what was going on. It was obvious that
in such a plan as this the utmost secrecy was
necessary ; and the Johannesburg leaders, relying
on the general sentiment of the community, assumed
the responsibility of arranging a basis of operations.
So that the plan when it was gradually revealed to
various men had either to be accepted by them in
its entirety or rejected. There was not much time
left for discussion and alteration of plans. Men
demanded and received assurance ihal the- move-
ment was to be a Republican one, and in no way to
ATTEMPT TO ARM JOHANNESBURG 53.
be an attempt on the independence of the country.
A sufficient number of rifles were also to be forth-
coming, and the High Commissioner was to be on
the spot to expedite the adjustment of matters
immediately disturbances arose.
There was nothing in Johannesburg itself at a
later juncture which caused so much dissatisfaction
as what was held to be the inadequate supply of
arms and ammunition. Many men held, and strongly
expressed the view, that at least 10,000 rifles and
an adequate amount of ammunition would be re-
quired wherewith to arm Johannesburg. But they
had to content themselves with a prospect of 4,500,
which later was cut down to 2,500, and another
1,000 which Dr. Jameson was to bring in with him.
True, more were to be obtained from the Pretoria
Arsenal, but this was rather a counting of chickens
still unhatched. It is of course easy enough to
criticise this, as it is many other details of the
scheme. It would have been a oreat thine no
doubt to have had, when the time arose, 20,000
rifles to distribute among the eager crowd, but it
is only fair to those concerned to consider the
difficulties of obtaining them. In the despatch
and the receipt of this contraband cargo the greatest
precaution had to be observed. Every additional
case or oil drum containing rifles added to the risk
of detection ; while, most exasperating of all (in
54 RAID AND REFORM
fact, there was one of our number who went so
far as to declare it constituted a fresh Uitlander
grievance), was the prolonged delay in their transit
over the Netherlands Railway.
During- the month of December was undertaken
the extremely difficult work of sounding some of the
leading men as to their readiness to support the
plan, and every effort consistent with a degree of
safety from detection was made at organisation.
During November and December there were de-
livered some memorable speeches, setting forth the
Uitlander position and denouncing the Government;
but no general public meeting was convened, it
being deemed too dangerous to risk a premature and
abortive explosion. On December 26th the Mani-
festo was published in The Star. It was a long
and exhaustive indictment, drawn up by Mr. C.
Leonard, showing the injustice of the Uitlander
position, and it concluded as follows : —
a. What do we want ?
b. How shall we get it ?
I have stated plainly what our grievances are, and I shall answer
with equal directness the question, "What do wc want?" We
want : —
1. The establishment of this Rcpuljlic as a true Republic.
2. A Grondwet or Constitution, which shall be framed by competent
persons selected by representatives of the whole people and framed
on lines laid down by them, a Constitution which shall be safeguarded
against hasty alteration.
3. An equitable Franchise Law and fair representation.
4. Equality of the Dutch and English languages.
THE MANIFESTO 55
5. Responsibility to the Legislature of the heads of the great
departments.
6. Removal of religious disabilities.
7. Independence of the Courts of Justice, with adequate and secured
remuneration of the Judges.
8. Liberal and comprehensive education.
9. An efficient civil service, with adequate provision for pay and
pension.
10. Free trade in South African products.
This is what we want.
There now remains the question which is to be put before you
at the meeting of the 6th of January, viz., "How shall we get it?"
To this question I shall expect from you an answer in plain terms
according to your deliberate judgment.
(Signed) Charles Leonard,
Chairnian of the Transvaal National Union.
In the meantime the course of affairs at head
quarters was not running smoothly. The mihtary
department under Colonel Rhodes were chafing at
the tardy arrival of the arms and ammunition. The
men organising the surprise on the Arsenal at
Pretoria had reported that the scheme at that
moment was entirely impracticable ; and they were
confirmed in this opinion by an old and trusted
officer of Dr. Jameson's, who had distinguished
himself in the service of the Chartered Company,
and who had been specially sent to Johannesburg to
assist and advise in military matters. He stated
that to pro'ceed with this scheme at that time would
be nothing short of madness.
The Christmas Naachtmaal, a religious festival,
was being celebrated in Pretoria, and the town was
56 RAID AND REFORM
thronged with Boers. To crown all came the
flag incident, which was a misgiving on the part
of a large number of the revolutionary party as
to what was to be the true nature of the external
support. It had arisen out of messages brought
down from Cape Town, which implied that the
Jameson aid would be accorded only to a move in
favour of the Eno-lish flaof.
Affairs were in a critical position, and a meeting
was hurriedly summoned at Colonel Rhodes' house
on Christmas day of December, 1895. It was soon
obvious that postponement was an imperative
necessity ; only a portion of the small supply of
arms had arrived, the attempt on Pretoria Arsenal
was impracticable, and a large section of the Com-
mittee refused point blank to proceed any further
with the undertaking until positive assurances with
regard to the flag question had been received.
Under these circumstances Mr. C. Leonard and
Mr. Hamilton were despatched to Cape Town to
confer with Mr. Rhodes,
It has been suggested that the importance of the
flag incident was exaggerated ; but it must be borne
in mind that it was not merely a question of what
men felt on the subject of English or Republican
rule — it was a question of what they were pledged
to. The movement within the Transvaal had from
its outset been one in favour, not of a British
REPUBLIC versus UNION JACK 57
Colony, but of a sound Republic. It was the one
practicable basis on which it had been found
possible to secure some sort of political union
among a cosmopolitan community ; and on this
ground it had been adopted. Many Americans and
South Africans had accorded their support only on
this understanding, and it mattered not what a
man's affection for the Union Jack might be ; he
had accepted the National Union Manifesto, and he
was in honour bound to abide by it. No one will
accuse Colonel Rhodes of ultra- Republican views,
but in this instance he felt the obligation of his
position, and frankly said so. The ground on
which numbers of men had been induced to join
the movement could not be departed from. On
the following day Dr. Jameson duly received a
telegram from Johannesburg, advising him that it
was "absolutely necessary to postpone flotation."
As the Johannesburg postponement has been the
subject of a good deal of criticism, it will be of in-
terest, in conjunction with what has already been
said, to consider the finding of the Select Committee
in their Report. It reads as follows : " There is a
conflict of evidence as to what were the true
grounds which determined the revolutionary party
at Johannesburg on the 26th December to counter-
order the insurrection which had been fixed for the
28th, and to prohibit the invasion of the Transvaal
58 RAID AND REFORM
by Dr. Jameson, which had been settled for that
day. Colonel Rhodes states that it was ' because
they would hot rise before they got a distinct assur-
ance about the flag, and they only got that on
the Sunday morning. We were told in the telegram
we got from Cape Town from C. Leonard that an
entirely new departure had been decided on.' Dr.
Wolff attributes the failure to the fact that * being
unable to seize the Arsenal at Pretoria they were
quite unprepared.' Mr. C. Leonard gives the same
reasons, as well as the difficulty about the flag. Mr.
Phillips says they had not arms for the men."
It is difficult to understand what conflict there is
in this evidence ; it is true that some of the witnesses
did not assign all the reasons, but no single reason
given is in conflict with any other. Moreover, any
one of the reasons alleo^ed was enouoh to render
postponement expedient, and taken altogether they
rendered it imperative. But the crash was now
nigh at hand.
Dr. Jameson, instead of falling in with the Com-
mittee's instructions, and the new departure decided
on by Rhodes and Leonard, determined to march to
Johannesburg. To quote from the Select Committee's
Report: "When they (Mr. Leonard, Colonel
Rhodes, and Mr. Phillips) learnt that Dr. Jameson
was intending to start, so far from authorising liim
to come in, they used every measure in tlieir power
START OF THE JAMESON FORCE 59
by telegram and by messenger to prohibit and pre-
vent the Raid, With the full knowledfje of all these
circumstances, Dr. Jameson, being convinced that
no rising was about to take place at Johannesburg,
determined to bring matters to a head, and tele-
graphed to Mr. Rhodes : ' We will make our own
flotation, with help of letter which I shall publish.'
Immediately upon the Raid becoming known, this
letter, by the order of Mr, Rhodes, was cabled by
Dr, Harris to Miss Shaw for insertion in the Times
newspaper, with a date filled in which made it
appear that it had been sent as an urgent appeal
from Johannesburg just before the Raid." The
news of Dr. Jameson's actual start on Sunday even-
ing reached Johannesburg on the Monday afternoon
through the medium of the public press, the Boers
having been in possession of the intelligence some
hours previously.
The effect of this news on the Johannesburg
leaders and the few others who were cognisant of
the Jameson plan was one, to use no stronger
term, of astonishment. They saw their plans
blown to the winds — themselves discredited and
apparently distrusted by their ally — the worst
possible hour for action forced upon them ; and to
what end, for what reason ? Whether Dr. Jame-
son reached Johannesburg or not, would not this
premature movement prejudice the whole cause }
6o RAID AND REFORM
Would it not paralyse the High Commissioner's
hand ?
But if this was the effect on the minds of the
leaders, what was it — what was it bound to be ? — on
the great mass of people in Johannesburg, who, while
thoroughly in sympathy with the movement for
Reform, knew nothing of the Jameson plan ? What
did it mean ? As far as was possible explanations
were given. But it was difficult to make people
understand why a man, in the position of an ally,
had taken the step of marching into the country
because he had been requested not to do so. One
thing, however, they not unnaturally argued, and
that was that the Johannesburg leaders were entirely
in the dark. This, said a large number, is a move
quite independent of us. Rhodes has evidently sent
Jameson in with the full assurance that he will
be supported by the High Commissioner and the
British Government. Happy but brief delusion! On
the very following evening the High Commissioner's
proclamation was placed in their hands.
I am reluctant to be thought hypercritical, but in
view of the wholesale detraction and misrepresenta-
tion to which the Johannesburg leaders and their
followers have at one time and another been sub-
jected by a misinformed Press, some expression of
opinion, now that all the facts are known to the
w(jrld, may not unreasonably find utterance. The
THE STRONG IMPERIAL STATESMAN 6i
wide mental habit which some one in Mr, Rhodes'
case has described as that of " thinking in Con-
tinents," is doubtless in a great and strong imperial
statesman, as I hold Mr. Rhodes to be, an admirable
trait ; and in so far as it is the expression of a lofty
and generous ambition to further the spread of a
free and enlightened civilisation, and the interests
of that great nation in whose destinies he has such
an abiding faith, I render it every homage. But it
has its dangers ; the habit is somewhat infectious —
it is apt to extend itself to colleagues, and even
cable correspondents ; and if when carried into the
field of practical politics — it is allowed to engender
a certain scorn for prosaic details — its influence
may be productive of failure, and even disaster.
With regard to what followed, the story of Dr.
Jameson's march and battle need no repetition. The
news of Dr. Jameson's actual start filtered through
to head-quarters in Johannesburg<about 3 p.m. on
Monday ; and pocketing whatever feelings they
might have on the subject, the leaders at once
endeavoured to make every preparation in their
power. The arms that had arrived were unpacked,
and those that had not were sought for and found
by messengers sent down the railway line. These
messengers accomplished the delicate task of care-
fully piloting to Johannesburg the remainder of the
rifles, the bulk of the ammunition and three Maxim
62 RAID AND REFORM
guns, which, however, did not arrive until Tuesday
evening. The Reform Committee was then formed
and remained in perpetual session day and night
throughout the crisis. Whatever more this well-
abused Committee might have done, they at any rate
preserved perfect order among an excited community,
both white and black : they enrolled a police force
and closed the canteens ; they provided food and
shelter for numbers of men, women, and children
who flocked into the town from the outlying mines ;
and in common fairness to the members of the
Committee of whom not much that is generous has
been said, it may as well be recorded that many of
them were willing and eager to accompany whatever
force might be sent out to meet Dr. Jameson, and
would gladly have done so if the Executive of the
Committee, with whom the ultimate decision rested,
had not concluded that such a step was both im-
practicable and unnecessary. The responsibility for
this decision rests with the Committee, and more
especially its Executive — and not with the people
of Johannesburg as a whole. That the decision,
looking back to the whole circumstances of the
position, was a natural one I think must be admitted;
but as far as the people of Johannesburg, among
whom were campaigners from many a South African
battle-field, are concerned, il is only right to say
that those of them who had arms would cheerfull)
THE REFORM COMMITTEE 63
have gone on foot if necessary, to endeavour to
effect a junction with the Jameson column, had they
been asked or even permitted to do so.
What Johannesburg should have done at this
juncture has been the subject of more recrimination,
and more controversy than anything else connected
with the whole subject of the "Armed Incursion."
The Jameson force, which had fought, and fought
gallantly according to the testimony of those best
able to judge, the Boers who opposed them,
naturally had the sympathy of the world in the
hour of reverse. Should Johannesburg not have
made some effort to assist Dr. Jameson even with
the inadequate means at their command and in the
circumstances as they then stood ? On this question
Mr. Phillips writes in the Nineteenth Century as
follows : — " I think to-day, as I thought at the time,
that it would have been an act of grossest folly
to send out a force on foot to meet an ally whom
we had not the slig-htest o-round for believing- was
in any need of our aid, in direct opposition to the
commands of the High Commissioner, and more-
over as a declaration of hostilities against the
Government which we were unprepared to fight.
The mere fact of the invasion having occurred prior
to the internal rising put us hopelessly in the wrong.
" The British Government had declared itself in
definite terms from which they could not retreat,.
64 RAID AND REFORM
and we had the combined Transvaal and Oranore
Free State as opponents."
Dr. Jameson and his force, which in November
he had stated would be 800 strong, and not, as was
only known after the surrender, 500, had started not
only after receiving orders from the Johannesburg
leaders for postponement, but without advising
them of his start. Naturally he could not in these
circumstances expect aid, nor did he, as he frankly
admitted in his answer to question 5,720 before
the South Africa Committee. The Hio-h Com-
missioner's proclamation repudiating Dr. Jameson
and warning British subjects was issued in Johan-
nesburg on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, with that persistent bad luck w^hich
dogged every step of this expedition, a letter sent
by Col. Rhodes to Dr. Jameson appears to have
created a misunderstanding. Some of Dr. Jameson's
followers stated after the surrender that Col. Rhodes
had sent them a letter which reached them on the
march, containing a promise to send a column to
their assistance at Krugersdorp. Sir J. Willoughby
repeated this in his evidence before the Committee,
and in suj)p(jrt of his contention ])ul in llic fragment-
ary letter found on the batde-field with ihc missing
words filled in l)y himself and his Iricntls from
memory. Col. Rhodes filled in the missing words
in examin.'ition before the ConimiLtee, giving a dif-
COL. RHODES'S LETTER 65
ferent meaning to the letter ; and in reference to it
he said : " I know that some of Dr. Jameson's party
really believed that that note contained a distinct
promise to meet them at Krugersdorp. All I can
say most distinctly is, that it never was in my head
to do so ; all I meant to do was to send a few men
on the road to meet them and show them their
camp. Their camp was on the Krugersdorp side of
Johannesburg, and I meant to send, and in fact I
ordered the men to go out and show them directly
they got in sight of Johannesburg. But as for
sending a force to meet them, that was not in my
mind. If it had been I ought to have sent the men
off at the same time as this note left, because the
note only left on the Wednesday morning early,
and I fully expected them on the Wednesday
evening."
"Question 5405. Were you in a military position
to enable you to send out anything in the nature of
a force ? — If one had thought they were in difficul-
ties, of course one would have sent out a force. But
I do not think we were in a position to send them
anything that would have been of very much service
to them.
" Question 5406. And in your opinion I under-
stand you to say that you were clear in your mind
that Dr. Jameson would get in without any diffi-
culty.'* — Certainly, I always thought so."
F
66 RAID AND REFORM
Mr. Phillips, Mr. George Farrer, and Mr. S. W.
Jameson (Dr. Jameson's brother), read this letter
before its despatch, and they all assert most posi-
tively that it contained no suggestion of sending out
a force to Krugersdorp. In order to clear the
matter up, Mr. Phillips cabled out for a photograph
of the fragments found on the battle-field, which
had been pieced together by the Transvaal
authorities. On this photograph Mr. Gurrin, an
expert on handwriting, reported that the words
filled in by Sir John Willoughby and his
friends from memory were " not only inconsistent
with the amount of space available," but "did
not fit in with the letters and position of letters
visible."
The cyclists who took the letter and were cog-
nisant of its contents also confirm Col. Rhodes's
version.
This subject would not have called for such
lengthy treatment here if it had not been made
the cause of considerable, and, as I think must
now be admitted, unjustifiable reproach to Col.
Rhodes and the other Johannesburg leaders. Mr.
Cecil Rhodes, when asked for his opinion on this
matter, is reported by a correspondent of South
Africa to have replied as follows: "Oh," he said,
" it is a mistake. I know my brother is absolutely
truthful, and I have every reason to believe that Sir
LIONEL PHILLIPS 67
John Willoughby is also ; but at the same time, I
would rather trust my brother's recollection of what
he wrote than Sir John's of what he read."
The evidence of Mr. Lionel Phillips before the
Select Committee states that the nature of the
arrangement with Dr. Jameson was, what indeed
it was always understood to be by those in Johan-
nesburg who were privileged to know anything
about it, that when called upon he should come
to the aid of Johannesburg. That Johannesburg
would be called upon or expected to go to his aid,
had never been suggested or contemplated. We have
had Col. Rhodes's evidence on the resources at his
command, we have had Dr. Jameson's frank state-
ment that at any rate, previous to the start he never
anticipated the want of, nor expected, aid. Mr.
Phillips is even more emphatic in reply to question
6909, in which he was asked if the statement that
an arrangement existed with the leaders of the
Reform Committee that " Dr. Jameson should be
assisted by troops sent from Johannesburg to
Krugersdorp" was true, he said: "It is absolutely
untrue. We never made any such arrangement.
We never for a moment contemplated that Dr.
Jameson would need any assistance."
On Tuesday night, the 31st of December, two
delegates were sent to the Reform Committee from
the Transvaal Government. They said the Govern-
F 2
68 RAID AND REFORM
ment had instructed them to invite the Committee
to send a deputation that the matters in dispute
might be discussed, and if possible adjusted, in a
friendly spirit.
A deputation of four, including" Mr. Lionel
Phillips, was sent on the following morning to
Pretoria, and Mr. Phillips described in his evidence
what had occurred. He said : —
" We described the whole of the greivances. We
were perfectly frank ; we told the Commission
exactly the nature of our relations with Dr.
Jameson. We told them that by arrangement Dr.
Jameson was on the border, that he had certainly
left without our instructions. We did not know for
what reason he had left, but as we had made
arrangements with him we regarded him as one
with ourselves."
Later on the Commission handed to the deputa-
tion the decision of the Transvaal Executive, and it
was to the following effect : "Sir Hercules Robinson
has offered his services with a view to a peaceful
settlement. The Government of the Republic has
accepted his offer. Pending his arrival no hostile
step will be taken against Johannesburg, provided
that Johannesburg t^ikes no hostile action against
the Government. In terms of the proclamation
recently issued by the President the grievances will
be earnestly considered."
DEPUTATION TO PRETORIA • 69
In the meantime the Reform Committee, sitting
in Johannesburg, telegraphed to the deputation at
Pretoria as follows : — " Meeting has been held since
you started to consider telegram from British Agent,
and it was unanimously resolved to authorise you to
make following offer to Government : In order to
avert bloodshed on grounds of Dr. Jameson's action,
if Government will allow Dr. Jameson to come in
unmolested, the Committee will guarantee, with their
persons, if necessary, that he shall leave again peace-
fully within as little delay as possible."
The deputation then returned to Johannesburg
and reported to the Committee, from which time
they were free to take any course that seemed best.
The above negotiations are what have been de-
scribed as an armistice — though the term is obviously
an inaccurate one. The position was about as diffi-
cult as it could be ; and, at the risk of placing his
neck in jeopardy, Mr. Phillips took upon himself his
full share of responsibility for Dr. Jameson's action.
The High Commissioner had always been con-
sidered an essential factor to a satisfactory settle-
ment, and on him the leaders were now compelled
to rely. That he was in feeble health at the time
was no fault of his, but it undoubtedly constituted
one more of the unfortunate circumstances with
which this whole question was involved. Having
arranged for the handing over of Dr. Jameson and
70 RAID AND REFORM
his followers, he felt himself unable to do more, and
the srrievances and the Reform Committee were left
to their fate.
In dealinor with the actual facts I have thought it
wisest to take as far as possible the statements of
the principal actors themselves, wherever any con-
troversial point has come under consideration. With
regard to what followed the surrender of the Jame-
son force there is little that need be said here. Dr.
Jameson with his officers and men were, after an
imprisonment of some few weeks in Pretoria,
handed over to the High Commissioner and for-
warded to England, where the officers and Dr.
Jameson were tried and punished with imprisonment
under the Foreign Enlistment Act. The members
of the Reform Committee were arrested and tried
by the High Court at Pretoria on charges of high
treason, and subsequently imprisoned and fined,
althouofh not before the four leaders had been sub-
jected to sentence of death, afterwards commuted.
Punishment, however much or however little
merited, has therefore been freely meted out to all
concerned. But there are instances in which it fell
with undue and disproportionate weight, if, for the
sake of argument, one may adopt a scale relative to
the knowledge of and participation in, the whole
movement of different participators. It did so in
the case of a large number (not including myself)
DIFFERENT PARTICIPATORS li
of the Reform Committee, who knew nothing of
the Jameson plan until after Dr. Jameson had
started, and who joined the Reform Committee,
mainly because they did not care to appear back-
ward in supporting what they believed to be a just
cause at a critical moment. And these same men,
in the great majority of instances, quietly awaited
and accepted the consequences of their action
afterwards, though they smiled somewhat grimly
when in Pretoria prison they learnt that the whole
world was denouncing them for having urgently
called Dr. Jameson in by letter alleged to have
been received by him the day before the start, and
then refused to assist him. As, however, Dr. Jame-
son and his officers were awaiting trial they thought
it better to remain silent, and did so, to the great
edification of a large section of the Press, which con-
tinued to denounce them both in poetry and prose.
The consequences fell with undue weight also upon
the officers of the Jameson force, who, in addition
to suffering imprisonment, lost their commissions.
With the policy of starting when they did they had
nothing to do. They obeyed the commands of their
superior officer ; and the reasons adduced by him
supported by the belief that their action would not
be disapproved by the Imperial authorities, were
more than ample to determine them not to refuse to
follow their chief, which it is argued they should
72 RAID AND REFORM
have done. To retire on receipt of the High Com-
missioner's letters and proclamation, while their
chief proceeded, would have again placed them in a
most invidious position, to say the least of it. Under
the circumstances imprisonment was surely ample
punishment. If it was right to retain Mr. Cecil
Rhodes on Her Majesty's Privy Council, it was
wrong to deprive these men of Her Majesty's com-
missions. The British Government have decided,
wisely and rightly in public opinion, to retain Mr.
Rhodes ; and as trustees for the reputation of fair
play, which the English nation looks on as a herit-
age to be handed down untarnished to posterity, it
is their duty to deal in like spirit with the Jameson
officers.
With reference to Mr. Chas. Leonard a good
many hard things have been said, because he did
not return from Capetown after his interview with
Mr. Rhodes. The period of the " Armed Incur-
sion " was, it was felt, rather an unfortunate one for
the Chairman of the National Union to be absent ;
and in deference to Mr. Leonard it is only fair to
notice the explanation which he at least has been at
no great pains to make public. He had intended
to return with his colleague Mr. Hamilton, when he
received an urgent request from Mr. Rhodes to
remain and render him what assistance he could
with Mr. Hofmeyer and the Imperial authorities at
CHARLES LEONARD 73
Capetown. On this point Mr. Wyndham elicited
from Mr. Leonard before the South African Com-
mittee, that he had received a letter from Mr. Rhodes
from which the following was an extract : " I asked
you with Hamilton to stay and help me. You could
do no good in a train, you could do great good here.
I know you fought for going, but it was nonsense and
too late. Afterwards blame me, but I was thoroughly
right." It is thus clear that if Mr. Leonard has
erred, it was an error of judgment ; and personally
now that all the circumstances are known, I do
not consider him even to have erred in that. To
have returned at a later stage after the warrant
for his arrest was made public would not have
served any useful purpose ; whereas it is clear from
the unremitting attention which he devoted to the
matter in England that he used his liberty to
better purpose in the Uitlander cause than any
that could have been served by his imprisonment
at Pretoria.
The action of the Cape Government in first
arresting Messrs. Joel and Bettelheim and subse-
quently in endeavouring to arrest Mr. Charles
Leonard, pursuing him with that end to a Portu-
guese port, will ever remain a stain on this page
of the history of the Cape Colony. The arrest
of political refugees, one of them a British subject,
in a British colony, to be handed over to a foreign
74 RAID AND REFORM
State, is an act, the character of which might be
natural in Turkey, but which surely has never before
in history been perpetrated by a British Colonial
Government.
To Mr. Leonard it was left to find on the shores
of England that protection which even a Portuguese
port would not withhold from him, but which was
denied him in the land of his birth, a British colony.
Well might he exclaim in the bitterness of his heart
that Cape politicians, during this crisis in South
Africa, thought of nothing but " crawling on their
stomachs before the Boers."
Among those who have suffered heavily the con-
sequences of the Incursion is assuredly Dr. Jameson.
In dealing with his action I have taken recorded
fact, and I should be sorry indeed if I felt that I had
done him the least injustice. He came to the con-
clusion that expediency demanded a bold forward
movement, and, contrary instructions notwithstanding,
he endeavoured to carry it out. Mr. Rhodes, it has
been shown, although a party to and a principal in the
Jameson plan, was not a party to the actual start of
Dr. Jameson's force. Moreover, the apparent readi-
ness with which he agreed to a new departure, after
the interview with Messrs. Hamilton and Leonard,
and also with which he offered to keep Dr. Jameson
on the border for "six or nine months if necessary,"
clearly shows his appreciation of their reasons for
PRECIPITATE ACTION 7$
preventing precipitate action. Mr. Rhodes's name
has come continually before us ; and whatever errors,
ethical or political, he may or may not have com-
mitted, one thing at least has been made clear to
any impartial man, and that is that he was inspired
in his actions by public spirit and an honourable
ambition to further the cause of civilisation in South
Africa. In his successful career it has not often
occurred to him to have to exclaim with Voltaire :
Nous tromper dans nos entreprises,
C'est h quoi nous sommes sujets.
But we have been brought face to face with
political disaster ; and now that the episode is past
and the tale told, with a fulness which in the
world's history no such tale has ever been told
before, it is not unreasonable to speculate on what
were the causes of failure, and what under different
circumstances might have been the prospects of
success. And at the outset of the consideration of
the problem the question which forces itself upon
one is, whether there was not too much lofty con-
templation of the end and an insufficient consider-
ation of the means on the part of all the originators
of the Jameson plan. Was not a federated South
Africa — the avowed object of at least some of the
originators — a too distant object, a matter too
remote to the immediate business in hand ? Was it
not allowed to obscure the real and immediate issue.
76 RAID AND REFORM
and that in a disastrous manner, for instance, when
at the eleventh hour it appears to have inspired an
attempt to force the British flag on the internal
movement at Johannesburg, which was avowedly
and irretrievably republican in its object ? Federation
must bide its time ; and when it comes — if it come
at all — it can only come as the spontaneous wish of
the various States and Colonies of South Africa ;
attempts to force it drive it further away.
It has been contended, and not without reason, that
the Jameson plan was never put into execution, and
therefore never had a trial. Dr. Jameson, impatient
at delay, determined on an immediate movement,
which inevitably alienated the support of the British
Government and the aid of the High Commissioner,
both deemed indispensable to the original plan. In
fact they were the vital essence of the original plan ;
it was never supposed that the Jameson force plus
the men to be hurriedly armed in Johannesburg
could defeat the burgher army ; it was expected that
they would be able to hold Johannesburg until they
received the moral support of the High Commissioner
and if necessary the physical support of the British
Government. But if, as Mr. Charles Leonard says in
his evidence, things were "misfitting" in Johannes-
burg, they " misfitted " a good deal worse between
Capetown and the Colonial Office. Of any know-
ledge of the "Jameson plan" the Colonial Office
VITAL ESSENCE OF THE JAMESON PLAN 77
have been, and in the Hght of the evidence must be,
acquitted. Moreover, Mr. Chamberlain's immediate
repudiation of Dr. Jameson's move was in itself con-
clusive. Of charges of Colonial Office complicity
the world is heartily sick. As Sir William Harcourt
said in the South African debate on the Committee's
Report : " Men have gone muttering about the world
and they are muttering still ; " but what particle of
proof has been forthcoming to justify all the head
shaking and inuendo ? Where then was this moral
support to come from ?
The fact is Mr. Rhodes was either deceived by
the sensational telegrams of his cable correspondents,
or he was mistaken in his estimate of the Colonial
Office mind.
He probably was both.
The latter he might not unnaturally to some
extent have been, by the policy which had induced
the Colonial Office to arrange for a joint expedition
with the Cape Goverment against the Transvaal
in case the ultimatum on the Drifts question was
not complied with ; as to the former, their ambiguous
language speaks for itself.
To be wise after the event is a privilege accorded
to Courts of Inquiry and even to writers ; and one
important question remains : Given the position of
the Uitlander in the Transvaal in 1895, was revo-
lution of any sort or kind a wise or expedient
78 RAID AND REFORM
policy ? That it was justifiable, looking to the
aggravation of the position, I believe ; that is, if any
revolution or rebellion in the whole course of history
— and in the Transvaal there have been several — ever
was justifiable. Failure was its worst condemnation.
But was it in any shape or form expedient ?
Against the solid wall of Boer prejudice and
ignorance was it the most effective weapon ?
In the light of subsequent events it is probable
that any scheme involving the use by invasion of a
foreign force not directly under Imperial control
would have been doomed to failure. The arrival of
such a force at Johannesburg might have postponed
the catastrophe — it would not have averted it —
much less would it have achieved the object of a
revolution. On the other hand it is possible that
a movement purely internal, which would not have
alienated and wounded the Progressive Burgher
sentiment, and which would not have precluded
the possibility of some measure of Imperial sup-
port, might at least have obtained a liberal instalment
of reform.
But there is another alternative course which
might have been adopted. There was the alternative
of a firm but patient policy, carried on both internally
and externally within constitutional lines in the open
light of day. This statement would sound some-
what trite if it were not for the fact that at the time
ALTERNATE POLICIES 79
we are reviewing new factors had been imported
into the problem which had not yet been taken into
the calculation, new elements had been introduced
into the position which were only beginning to make
their presence felt.
The true attitude of the British Government on
the question of the Drifts towards the end of 1895,
although known to Mr. Rhodes and other members
of the Cape Government, came as a revelation to the
world generally long after the Jameson Raid. The
British Government and the Government of the
Cape Colony pledged under certain conditions to
co-operate in coercing the Transvaal. Here was
an alliance, here was a menace which even the
Boer Executive could ^not have realised without
alarm. Unrest within, profound irritation without,
the British and Cape Colonial Government united,
some of the grievances of the Uitlander held to con-
stitute breaches of the Convention, a strong Conserva-
tive Government in office in England — was there
not material here for a statesman to manipulate ?
Would not co-operation with the Imperial authorities
at this juncture have been a better policy than any
policy of isolation ? But the incident is over, the
day has passed ; the great Proconsul, at least for a
time, is out of power, and the curtain has risen on a
new act in the South African political drama, which
it is not our object here to consider.
8o RAID AND REFORM
The whole episode has not been the first, nor I
fear will it be the last blunder, committed on the
confines of a world-wide Empire. Every step has
been revealed for the edification and sometimes the
amusement of an eager public ; every mistake has
been duly censured, and every action which has
fallen below the ethical standard of public morality
been severely condemned. Fortunately, perhaps,
for the happiness of mankind, it is not given to
many persons to have either their public or their
private conduct laid so absolutely bare. The ver-
dict of posterity ^has been variously estimated ; but
as posterity will see things in perspective, that
portion of it which regards South African history
will find a bigger blunder looming larger on their
view on which to visit their condemnation.
They will look to 1881, and they will see a
British Colony, the Transvaal, with one section of
its inhabitants in rebellion ; they will see English
soldiers hurrying to the support of their defeated
and overpowered comrades countermanded ; their
fellow countrymen, loyal colonists, stoutly holding-
Pretoria and other towns, deserted and betrayed ;
concessions refused in the day of England's power,
granted under pressure of temporary defeat ; and
English prestige so shattered and pitiful a thing as
within the confines of South Africa to threaten the
very foundation of Empire.
THE VERDICT OF POSTERITY 8l
In this they will recognise so many mistakes, so
many lapses from public virtue, so much of political
poltroonery, that beside it the Jameson Raid will
sink into insignificance.
They will observe, moreover, with something
akin to indignation, that the Ministers responsible
for this policy in 1881 were neither imprisoned,
fined, nor deprived of their commissions, and that
the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone was not even
threatened with dismissal from Her Majesty's Privy
Council.
82 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER IN
PRETORIA
Note. — The sentences under which the sixty-
three Reform prisoners were sent from the High
Court of the Transvaal to Pretoria prison on
April 28th, 1895, were as follows : —
The four leaders were sentenced to death, which
sentence on the following day was commuted to
fifteen years' imprisonment.
The fifty-nine remaining Reformers were sen-
tenced to
Two years' imprisonment.
;^2,ooo fine, or another year.
Three years' banishment.
Previous to the imprisonment under sentence
was the imprisonment after arrest in January, ex-
tending over a fortnight, but of this I kept no note
at the time.
The diary was written in [)rison at intervals
during the term of our imprisonment. It is not a
AT PRETORIA 83
daily record, nor does it do more than describe some
of the details of the life there. A few portions of
no general interest are omitted.
It was written with a view more to filling up the
time then than to publication afterwards. I have
since added a few notes, which make the picture a
little more complete.
One of the first matters that came up for our
consideration was the question of whether we were
to be treated under ordinary gaol regulations, or
whether we were to have such treatment as political
prisoners or first-class misdemeanants would be
entitled to in most civilised countries. In this
question were involved such points as clothing,
food, correspondence, and the right to see friends.
Our accommodation was as vile as it could be ; the
prison food, which we had tried for some days, con-
sisted of mealie meal porridge at 7 a.m. with salt.
At noon, thin soup, coarse meat and bread. At
4 p.m. mealie meal with salt, water ad lib. and no
other liquid.
To many men the porridge and salt were uneat-
able, and at the end of a few days there were men
weak and ill from hunger. It was therefore obvious
that a continuance of this food must mean illness to
a certain number.
At this juncture we were informed that if we
applied for privileges as political prisoners, they
G 2
84 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
would be granted ; failing an application we were to
don prison clothes on the following day and continue
prison food. The men who objected to signing this
application urged that it would be better to come
under gaol regulations, wear prison clothes, &c.,
than ask for any privileges. As against this it was
urged that we were only asking for what we were
entitled to in the way of treatment ; and the request,
partially signed, was eventually sent in, with the
result that some modification of the regulations was
allowed.
Pretoria Prison,
May, 1895.
Our daily life here is somewhat monotonous.
We rise about seven, and take a walk in the
yard. We then wash in the muddy stream which
runs through the yard, {Note : — When it was not
occupied by native prisoners washing their clothes,)
and have breakfast. After breakfast beds, consist-
ing of straw mattresses on the floor, have to be
taken out, and the cells are swept by native prison-
ers. Men spend the morning according to their
different tastes — walking, talking, loafing, or reading
and writing. The difficulty of both the latter is to
find a spot which is quiet and shaded. I am now
writing among the trunks in the cell used for our
luggage. It is the best spot I know. The great-
est drawback to our life is the tlirong : there are
PRISON LIFE 85:
sixty-three of us all crowded together, and anything
like even momentary seclusion is almost impossible.
In the cells or rooms themselves there is always
inevitably noise and movement. In our cell there
are, or rather originally were, thirty-five men. It is a
small low structure, of galvanised iron sheeting, 22 feet
long by 14 feet 6 inches across, and about 9 feet high.
{Note ."—The inner, or back wall of our cell, which
is described in the diary, was only the thickness of
a sheet of corrugated iron, and was one common to
ourselves and the inmates of a similar cell on the
other side of it, who were a lot of native prisoners.
We heard their every word and movement ; and
through the greater portion of one night the short
gasping respiration of a poor Kaffir dying from
pneumonia. Our mattresses, which were small,
covered the whole of the floor, with the exception of
a narrow gangway down the middle. We were
thus for sleeping purposes packed something like
sardines.)
The floor of our cell is boarded, but not the walls.
It is villainously ventilated, with small holes cut in
the corrugated iron wall. These holes are situated
near the roof, and are about one foot long and six
inches deep. It is naturally hot by day and cold by
night. The yard of bare gravel into which our cell
opens is the best feature about the prison. In this
we can get fresh open air, and as it is about 50
86 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
yards square, a fair stretch for exercise. {Note: —
The yard was the one used by all the native
prisoners as well as ourselves.)
Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain) visited us yesterday,
and gave us a bright hour of his conversation. He
is a man of somewhat delicate physique, but with a
fine head, shaggy eyebrows, a shock of strong grey
hair, and a long eye which nearly closes when he
laughs. He speaks in the slow American staccato
manner, and has an easy and graceful command of
language. He spoke of prison life as in many
respects an ideal existence, the one he had ever
sought, and never found — healthy, undisturbed,
plenty of repose, no fatigue, no distraction — such a
life as enabled Bunyan to write the Pilgri77ts
Progress, and Cervantes Don Quixote. Bunyan
while in prison had for companions " angels, devils,
and other scarecrows," and he enjoyed many hand-
some adventures and interesting travels without un-
due risk and with no more concern than was involved
in their superintendence on paper. The body of
Cervantes may have been enclosed in four walls ; but
his spirit roamed at large, and he had for his friends
two such splendid fellows as Don Quixote and
Sancho Panza. Thus two great works classic for
all time would probably never have seen the light
had it not been for the imprisonment of these two
men. For himself, Mark Twain continued, he could
MARK TWAIN CALLS S7
conceive of nothing better than such a life ; he
"Would willingly change places with any one of us,
ar.d, with such an opportunity as had never yet
been offered him before, would write a book — the
bock of his life. Of course some of us failed to look
at It in this philosophic light, and he admitted that it
was not always easy to discover the concealed com-
pensation which invariably existed under apparently
adverse circumstances. Still, this was such a clear
case that he would assuredly, in the interview which
he WIS to have with the President on the followino-
day, endeavour to get our sentences extended. For
Clement — one of the prisoners who improperly spelt
his name with a " t " — descended like himself on the
left-hand side from a long papal ancestry, he would
endeavour to get thirty years.
There is a run on the luggage room this morning,
and I have had to move on to the yard, where I
am now lying on my bed, trying to write legibly.
At noon I generally take some of the prison soup
and bread. At 5 p.m. we have dinner ; and this, as
well as breakfast, is now sent in from outside. We
have formed into different messes, and two members
of each mess are appointed daily to superintend
operations. As we have neither chairs nor tables,
these operations are somewhat intricate. Planks are
raised on boxes, newspapers spread on the planks ;
and the meal, with such plates, cups, knives, forks.
88 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
&c,, as we are able to muster placed on them.
Baskets and small boxes serve as seats. Visitors
are allowed in daily, for ten minutes each, from ten
to twelve and two to four, except on Sundays,
Saturdays and public holidays. For the first ttree
weeks we slept with mattresses on the floor ; but
since Hull and King, two of our number, have been
liberated, they have used their influence in our
behalf and have procured stretchers ; these are aa im-
provement, as it is trying work to be always stting
or lying on the ground. Perhaps our best tine is
after dinner in the evenings. When we first came
in we were locked up at 5.30 p.m., and lights liad to
be extinguished shortly afterwards ; these rules were
gradually relaxed, and now lights are allowed to any
reasonable hour, and doors remain open till 8 30 p.m.
A new moon rose shortly after our imprisonment,
and now is making to the full. Nightly we see her
in our after-dinner stroll — white and splendid in the
still deep tropic sky. Inside scratch games of whist
and poker are being played ; and in the little inner
yard, outside Jim Leonards' cell — the piazza, as we
call it — Muggins Williams sings, in a fair tenor
voice, a host of ballads, operettas, and songs, of
which he remembers with wonderful facility both the
melody and the words. It is a poor heart that never
rejoices ; and as the last candle is blown out the
snoring brigade, of which we have a large con-
FELLOW PRISONERS 89
tingent in our cell, take up the running, happy them-
selves and " innocent of hostile intent," but adding
one more to the cares that produce insomnia in
their less fortunate friends.
Amongst us are men of all nationalities — men of
all creeds and no creeds — of every shade of opinion
— political, ethical, or religious — British, English
South African, and Dutch South African, Americans,
Hollander, Swiss, Germans, a Turkish Effendi and
a Scotch baronet.^ Barristers, lawyers, doctors,
mining men, speculators, commercial men — all are
represented. Men of great wealth and men of
poverty — luxurious effeminate men and hardy
pioneers — lie side by side on the prison floor, and
whistle or sigh as the spirit moves them to the
morning star shining clear through the narrow
window. For if, as Bacon says, " adversity doth
best discover virtue," it also "makes strange bed-
fellows." Of raconteurs we have our share ; and
none of us will ever forget the pithy yarns of those
astute old Americans, Mein and Lingham. Their
supply would, if necessary, last out the two years.
They never tell the same yarn twice, and never tell a
flat one. There are among us men who are staunch
^ The Reform Committee, of which only sixty-three were arrested
or voluntarily surrendered themselves, actually consisted of thirty-
four men of British nationality, seventeen South Africans, eight
Americans, two Germans, one Australian, one Swiss, one Hollander,
one Turk, and one Transvaal burgher.
90 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
champions and pillars of the Y.M.C.A., and men
whose language is shockingly frequent and free.
One is a vegetarian and has conscientious objections
to penny points at whist ; others of our number
have in their time lost and won thousands at
poker.
Literature in prison. — My two books since I
have been here have been Macaulay's Essays and
Plutarch's Lives. Of the former I have been read-
ing again the essay on Bacon. Bacon's career as
Attorney-General and Judge is interesting politically,
as throwing a lurid light on the influence exercised
by the Crown on the courts of justice in England in
the days of James I. To this practice Bacon lent
himself an only too willing instrument, and in this
matter he covered an illustrious name with ignominy.
He was an opportunist, and a somewhat sordid one.
As a philosopher he has conferred a great debt on
mankind. He saw the barrenness of the specula-
tions of the Platonists and the Schoolmen, and
became the founder of the Philosophy of Fruit, as he
called it. In his De Augyneyitis and Novum Organum
he set forth in most brilliant manner the claims of
experiment and research in every department of
nature, the sciences and arts. Experimental philo-
sophy, not metaphysics, was his doctrine ; and the
exposition of this, along with his Lnductive Logic,
seem to have constituted his great life work.
LITERATURE IN PRISON 91
I have read several of Plutarch's lives. His
favourite method appears to be to take a famous
Greek and a famous Roman, and, after giving the
life and history of both in separate essays, to
compare the two. The parallel is generally a
striking one, and serves to illustrate more than
anything else how Greek civilisation, with its philo-
sophy, art, and political institutions, impressed itself
upon Rome. The writing is concise and condensed,
and the comparison is made in an epitome of both
lives in a short essay by itself — to epitomise all
this again is difficult. In vol. ii. the essays on
Alcibiades and Cams Marcius Coriolanus are most
interesting. Alcibiades, in whom the pursuit of
pleasure was as strong a passion as ambition, has
been for ages the ideal of numbers of men of the
Bulwer Lytton type. His liberality, eloquence,
beauty, bravery, and personal strength all won the
hearts of the Athenians.
Coriolanus, who was exiled, returned at the head
of an armed force of Volscians against Rome. The
appeals of ambassadors and priests were disregarded
by him ; but he gave way to the appeal of his
mother and wife, who prostrated themselves before
him, begging that Rome might be spared. His
leniency cost him his life, for he was slain by
the indignant Volscians on his return to Antrium.
These notes are written a week or two after
92 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
reading the essays ; and the conditions for reading"
in the midst of the sixty-three Reform prisoners
have been so bad that my recollection of details is
uncertain. At present, after a month in a cell with
thirty-four others, I am sharing a small room with
Bettelheim, which gives one more quiet.
The extremes of virtue and vice, crime and
high nobility of character, in these old Greeks and
Romans are astounding — heights high as heaven
and depths deep as hell, as Ouida puts it in re-
ference to some of her heroes. The two extremes
occasionally, though rarely, occur in the same
individual.
Among the moralists Aristides and Cato the
Censor are the most interesting ; and I think
Plutarch's essay on the last is the best of his I have
read. Cato was parsimonious, industrious, and
severe. The position of censor was the highest
dignity in the Roman Republic. " For, beside
the power and authority that attended this office,
it gave the magistrate a right of inquiry into the
lives and manners of the citizens. The Romans
did not think it proper that any one should be
left to follow his own inclinations without inspection
or control, cither in marriage, in the procreation
of children, in his tabic, or in the company he
kept."i
* Aristides and Cato compared, see p. 340
MESS 93
Yesterday Bettelheim and I moved into a little
room with earth floor opening on the main yard.
This gives one some quiet and peace for reading
or writing. Our furniture is of course confined to
the stretchers and blankets, it still being apparently
impossible to get in tables or chairs. For the last
few evenings I have been learning poker.
New building is going up apace, yet benevolent
rumours about further mitigation amounting to
immediate release keep coming in. Jim is more
sanguine than ever.
I have succeeded in getting off Bettington and
Clement, both of whom have been ill, to hospital in
the last few days — previously Joel, Buckland, and
Lingham had gone up there. Hammond is the
only American left in now. The question of appeal
for mitigation of the sentence to the Executive of
the Government has caused much discussion among
us. As usual, all shades of view. Our demand is
simply for justice. South Africa denounces the
sentence.
For feeding purposes we are divided up into
messes. My first mess included Fritz Mosen-
thal, Buckland, and Brodie ; but as all these were
on the free list, as the list of those first liberated
is called, their departure necessitated new arrange-
ments ; so I have since cut in with St. John Carr,
H. A. Rogers, Dr. Mitchell, Van Hulsteyn,
94 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
Hosken, and Clement. Two of us are on duty
daily.
Number two mess have obtained — fairly or not I
don't know — the reputation of jumping everything
worth having in the way of boxes, planks, milk,
knives, forks, &c., that are to be found ; so Sandy
last night, when the mess was decorously asleep,
inscribed their walls in large letters with the legend
" Beware of pickpockets."
Du Plessis, the gaoler, is a typical Boer. He is an
intimate friend of the President and an old one ; and
although a rough old wolf, is not without intelligence.
(Note : — He had a keen nose for contraband articles,
such as cigars in the provision baskets sent in.)
It has been announced that the banishment part
of our sentence, which was subject to the confirma-
tion of the Executive, has now been confirmed by
them ; this, it was explained by our legal Reform
colleagues, including the Q.C., was probably only
done as a matter of form and out of courtesy to
the Judge ; nevertheless, when daily led by all our
Pretoria attorneys to expect an early mitigation, it
came as rather an unpleasant surprise — to Grey
it was a cause of great consternation — confirming
his worst fears that the whole sentence was to be
carried out in its entirety, and that all the outside
rumours that reached us were simply intended to
lull us into a fool's paradise. I had a talk with him
DEATH OF FRED GREY 95
on the whole question on Friday, and took the best
view I could of the situation. I assured him that
there was no need for despondency, and that the
matter would be favourably settled within a few
days. The following night he professed to have
slept well, but on Saturday morning after taking a
walk and talking apparently cheerfully with Duirs,
he slipped away and ended his own life. I was
on the spot before he actually died ; but it was
the most determined case of suicide I have ever
seen, and on the Diamond Fields and Gold Fields
I have seen a good many. He was dead within
a minute of the occurrence.
The funeral was arranged for outside. We drew
up behind the hearse sent to fetch the body, and
with bare heads followed it across the yard to the
prison gates, where our procession ended.
It was a sad day for us all, and one we are not
likely ever to forget. His poor distracted wife had
been in daily to see and comfort him, spending the
brief ten minutes allowed her by the authorities
with him in the open yard — their only meeting
place. She knew of his constitutional nervous
weakness, and dreaded the worst. It was of her
and of our own anxious harassed wives we thought,
when poor Grey's end came.
This event has naturally cast a gloom over us
all, and made a tremendous impression in Pretoria
96 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
and throughout South Africa. The suspense lasting
over three weeks has been trying, and its effect has
been very much heightened by the assurances of
well-meaning but ill-informed friends, who, visiting
us daily, have kept reiterating from the very first
day of our incarceration that the sentences would
be forthwith considered — considered so favourably
that the imprisonment in probably all the cases of
the fifty-nine would be entirely remitted. This had
gone on day after day, and it was but small wonder
that one or two per cent, of mankind should be
mentally worn out and affected by it. As a matter
of fact, with very few exceptions up to the time of
Grey's death, men had taken it philosophically and
well. The "to-morrow" of the optimists became a
standing joke, and many an evening the cells rang
with laughter over the yarns of Yankee diggers and
South African pioneers.
It is the custom every Sunday for one or two
clergymen of different denominations to obtain leave
of admission and hold service among us. These
services, generally held in cells two and three, were
fairly attended and appreciated by many of the
Reformers.
On Monday evening — to have been the evening
of our release — we were slill in, but licard that a
decision h;i(i been come to ; later on that night we
leariU that it was unfavourable.
AT THE KING'S PLEASURE 97
At eleven the next morning our sanguine, devoted
and never-deterred Pretoria attorneys arrived with
long lists in their hands. Eight of the fifty-nine
were to be released forthwith ; twenty-three, myself
amongst them, had our sentences reduced to three
months ; some were to be considered again in five
months, and four in twelve months. The four
leaders were still under fifteen years* sentence, and
had not yet been considered.
Only in the case of the three months' men was
the commutation absolute ; in the cases of the five
and twelve months' men, whose sentences were to
be reconsidered at the expiration of these periods,
the pretence at commutation was a farce.
Thus, what the prosecution, after months of
collecting, sifting, and weighing evidence, did not
deem it its duty to do ; what the Judge, whose func-
tion it was above all others to perform, apparently
felt himself unable or unjustified to attempt ; the
Executive did. They endeavoured to discriminate
between fifty-nine men, all of whom had pleaded
guilty to the same offence.
This action was not merely unwise, it was as an
act of clemency or even justice ridiculous. It was
the first false step the Boer Government had taken
throughout the course of the whole movement ; it
did not bear on its face the Kruger hall mark, and,
as we are informed, it was taken in the teeth of
H
98 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
Kruger's strong opposition. Underlying it was
palpably the idea of holding a number of men
prisoners, practically "at the King's pleasure" as
political pawns.
Following this decision in a few days came the
erection of a new iron building opposite cell No. 3
in the prison yard — for our better accommodation ;
and the information from Du Plessis that inquiries
were being made from the State Prosecutor's office
as to the accommodation at the various prisons
throughout the country, viler hells possibly even
than the one at Pretoria. Du Plessis, however,
told us that this splitting up throughout the country
would not be carried out if we were content with
our accommodation — a hint not to grumble further.
July 20th, 1896, finds me, thank God, with all
my family aboard the good ship " Norman " in mid-
Atlantic bound for Southampton. As my prison
diary still wants completing, I take this the first
opportunity of leisure since our release to finish it.
The mitigation to the shorter periods of sentence,
while it gave some relief to the three months men,
was felt to be most unsatisfactory as regards all the
others, not only in the prison itself, but throughout
South Africa. Fresh petitions, got up in some
instances, I believe, at Kruger's instigation, kept
coming in ; delegates were sent up from the Free
State and from nearly every town in the Cape
THE FOUR LEADERS 99
Colony and Natal ; and we soon learnt that in all
probability the sentences would again be considered
by the Executive. On May 30th their further
decision was announced. All, with the exception
of six, were released on payment of the fines, ^2,000
each and the signature of the bond to take no active
part in Transvaal politics for three years from the
date of release, which was substituted in lieu of
banishment for that period.
We reached Johannesburg on the evening of May
30th. We were cheered by sympathetic friends as
the train passed the different mines along the reef,
and at Park Station we got a hearty reception.
Note. — A few weeks after the release of the fifty-
six prisoners, the four leaders were released on
payment of ^25,000 each and a signature of a
bond to take no further part in the politics of the
Transvaal. This last was signed by all but Col.
Frank Rhodes, w^ho in place of it incurred the
penalty of banishment. Messrs. Karri Davis and
Sampson, the two irreconcilables, refusing to make
any request whatever of the Government, were left
in prison. Inasmuch as there was no special
purpose to be served by this action or rather inaction
on their part it has been described as unreasonable
and quixotic. Quixotic it may have been, but
courageous it undoubtedly was ; and one cannot deny
that in making any request whatever of the Boer
H 2
loo THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
Executive, there was a sense of humiliatian. Eng-
land will not regret that two of her sons declined to
suffer it, while History will award them the honour
due to their pride and their fortitude.
They remained in prison, as all the world knows,
for fifteen months, and were then released by the
Transvaal Government on the occasion of Her
Majesty's Jubilee.
With regard to the four leaders, Mr. Lionel
Phillips, Colonel Rhodes, Mr. George Farrer, and
Mr. Hammond, it is due to them to say that they
bore the death sentence, as well as the tremendous
strain caused by the uncertainty as to their fate, from
the time of their arrest to the time of their release,
a period of five months, with undaunted courage.
Some incidents occurred during our imprisonment
in Pretoria of which I made no note in my diary,
but which I think are worth recording. The day
after our arrival I visited the small collection of cells
opening off an inner yard, which passes for the
hospital in Pretoria prison. I found a hospital
orderly in charge, and as I entered he greeted me
by name. I looked at the man, but failed to re-
cognise him. I then asked him how he came to
know me, and he replied that he remembered me
well on the Diamond Fields, seven years before,
when Dr. Jameson and I were practising in partner-
ship. During his incarceration — such arc " the slings
DOUBLE OR QUITS loi
and arrows of outrageous fortune "—both members
of that once reputable firm had been prisoners in
Pretoria prison.
Tasked him what his offence had been, and he
told me that finding himself destitute, he and some
others had robbed a safe, belonging, if I re-
member rightly, to some Dutch church. I then
asked him what his sentence was ; and he
replied, with a grim smile on his face which I
shall never forget, "Only a quarter of a century."
" What ! " I rejoined, " twenty-five years ? " " Yes,
sir ; you see " — the man was an Irishman — " the
Judge had no taste for gambling ; he sentenced me
for twenty years. ' Twenty years ! ' said I ; ' you
don't mean that. I'll toss you double or quits.' And
he gave me another five for contempt of court ; so
I'm in for a quarter of a century."
Among other relics of a bygone and more bar-
barous age which still linger about Pretoria prison
is that ancient instrument of mild torture, the stocks.
And the sight of some unfortunate native sitting
sullen and morose with his feet securely locked
therein became a common and familiar one to us.
But one morning the scene was slightly changed.
The stocks had been moved to a position imme-
diately facing our cells, and as we came out about
sunrise we were astonished to see seated in it the
figure of a white man, and an Englishman. He
I02 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
was an old man with grey hair and beard, wear-
ing an old tweed suit, and on his head a battered
white top hat. He sat up — as well as might be —
with his hands outstretched behind him, supporting
himself in his uncomfortable and cramped position.
The sight of this quaint woebegone figure would
have made a subject for a picture in the last century.
The effect at first was almost ludicrous, but the
pathos of it was too great for this sensation to be
more than momentary. As far as I can recall his
history, he had been a tutor with a Boer family.
During the Crisis a political discussion had arisen
between the Dominie and the Laird — which became
so warm that it ended in general riot, and a breaking
of windows. The poor Dominie being hauled
before a stern Boer magistrate was fined, bound
over to keep the peace, and called upon to find a
surety for ^50. Not having 50i-. the delinquent
was marched off to Pretoria prison. Here he had
been guilty of some breach of prison discipline,
which resulted in the stocks. That day one of our
number instructed his agent to pay the fine and
lodge the necessary security, and we had the satis-
faction a day or two afterwards of seeing our friend,
after carefully adjusting his hat, pulling on a well-
worn pair of gloves, and bidding us a hurried adieu,
depart from Pretoria prison with the dignity of the
Dominie somewhat restored.
IN THE STOCKS 103
On another occasion a particularly recalcitrant
Kaffir of herculean proportions had been placed in
these same stocks — which, like the Dominie's hat,
were themselves rather old and worse for wear. As
he sat there dogged and silent resting on his hands
stretched out behind him, a constable came up and
ordered him to raise his hands from the ground.
Now as the stocks had no lateral posts to hold on
by, and a man placed in them had his feet raised in
front of him, to sit up without the support of his
hands stretched to the ground behind for more
than a few minutes at a time, was a physical im-
possibility.
The Kaffir either did not understand or would
not comply with the constable's request, and the
constable kicked one of his hands from beneath
him. This act so incensed one of our number,
Mr. " Bill Goddard," who happened to be by at the
moment, that he roundly abused the constable. In
the meantime the Kaffir, who was nothing less than
a giant in strength, made one prodigious effort and
broke the stocks. Springing to his feet he seized a
splinter of wood with which he would assuredly have
brained the constable, if he had not fled for his life
to the nearest shelter.
Next morning the Kaffir appeared in heavy
chains.
Among the visitors who came to see us most
I04 THE DIARY OF A POLITICAL PRISONER
frequently while in Pretoria Prison was the late
Mr. B. I. Barnato, or Barney, as he was more
familiarly known. He took the keenest interest in
our welfare, and undoubtedly used every influence
he possessed to expedite our release. But when
once inside the gates of the prison the life-long
habit of banter almost invariably came over him,
and many were the little jokes he scored at our
expense, and many the stories he told.
On one occasion, when making somewhat caustic
reference to the whole movement which had placed
us there, and including Rhodes, Jameson, Reform
Committee, and every one else connected with the
movement in his strictures, he remarked that we had
all tried to play a game of poker with the Transvaal
Government on a " Colley Thumper " hand. The
term was a new one, and we asked him what he
meant by a " Colley Thumper."
In explanation he told the following story : An
English traveller with a not very extensive know-
ledge of poker, found himself on one occasion
engaged in a game with an astute old Yankee on
board an American steamer. Playing cautiously
the Englishman did pretty well, until he suddenly
found himself, to his great satisfaction, in possession
of a full hand.
The players alternately doubled the stakes until
they were raised to /^loo. The Englishman then
BARNATO ON POLITICAL POKER 105
called the American's hand, and the American
deliberately put down a pair of deuces, a four, a
seven, and a nine. The Englishman with a
triumphant smile put down his full hand, and pro-
ceeded to gather up the stakes. " Stop," said the
Yankee ; " the stakes are mine ; yours is only a
full hand, mine is a ' Colley Thumper ' ; it beats
everything." The Englishman had never heard
of such a hand before, but he determined not to
show his ignorance, and reluctantly relinquished the
stakes. The game then proceeded until at length
the Englishman found himself in possession of a
pair of deuces, a four, a seven, and a nine. Betting
went on freely until the stakes were raised to ;!^5oo.
The Englishman again called, and the Yankee put
down a straight. "Ah," said the joyful English-
man, " Mine is a ' Colley Thumper.' " " True,"
said the American ; " but you forget the rules.
It only counts once in an evening."
APPENDIX
Letter to the Secretary British South Africa
Select Committee appointed by the House of
Commons.
40 Weymouth Street,
Portland Place, W.,
March 2,0th, 1897.
Dear Sir, — In reply to your request that I should give
some account of my connection with the Reform Move-
ment in Johannesburg, I may state that I became a mem-
ber of the Reform Committee at the end of last year, and
was subsequently imprisoned and jfined with the rest of that
body in Pretoria. .
I was actuated in joining the movement — not so much
from a sense of the burdens placed upon the gold mining
industry by the Government as by a desire to obtain some
liberal instalment of reform, and if possible a remodelling
of the constitution of the country — especially dealing with
the Franchise, Education, and the Courts of Justice.
I was for some years in medical practice in Johannesburg
with no special desire nor leisure for public work ; but I
was placed upon the Council of Education and other
public committees, and thus came gradually to realise the
io8 APPENDIX
hopelessness, by simply constitutional means, of obtaining
redress from the Government.
Resolutions at public meetings embodying civil requests
to the Government were not even vouchsafed an answer,
e.g. the combined meeting of the Chambers of Commerce
and of Mines in September, 1895.
Petitions were jeered at and deputations insulted.
Under these circumstances I with many others felt some
action to be a public duty, and on this ground we joined
the Reform Movement.
Should the British South Africa Committee desire to
hear my evidence, I will submit a precis of such evidence
at the earliest opportunity.
I am, Sir,
Yours very truly,
Alfred P. Hillier, B.A., M.D.
TWO ESSAYS ON THE ANTIQUITY
OF MAN IN SOUTH AFRICA
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN SOUTH
AFRICA, AND EVOLUTION.
"While we have been straining our eyes to the
East, and eagerly watching excavations in Egypt
and Assyria, suddenly a new light has arisen in the
midst of us ; and the oldest relics of man yet dis-
covered have occurred, not among the ruins of
Nineveh or Heliopolis, not on the sandy plains of
the Nile, or the Euphrates ; but in the pleasant
valleys of England and France, along the banks
of the Seine and the Somme, the Thames and the
Waveney." Thus wrote Sir John Lubbock in his
Prehistoric Tii7ies twenty years ago. The
" new light," a very dim and flickering flame
at first, was kept burning for several years almost
entirely by the zeal and determination of one man,
M. Boucher de Perthes. In 1841, this discoverer,
at Menchecourt near Abbeville, first found a rudely-
fashioned flint buried in some sand. The flint, so
he surmised, had been intended for a cutting
instrument. For some years in the same neigh-
112 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
bourhood he continued searching, and found at
intervals several other similar weapons and several
so called stone hatchets. At length, in 1846, he
published his first work on the subject. In this he
announced that he had found human implements
in beds unmistakably belonging to the age of the
Drift. On the strength of the discovery he con-
tended that man had existed on the earth contem-
poraneously with many now extinct mammals whose
remains are found in the drift, and that the period
of man's existence upon the earth must be pushed
back far beyond the limits hitherto assigned to it by
antiquaries. His astonished readers, with that
hostile incredulity which in all times has assailed
new truths, regarded him as a rash enthusiast, if not
indeed a madman. For many years he made few
converts. At length some of the less sceptical men
in the scientific world began to investigate the
matter for themselves. In their wake followed
many others ; until at length the verdict, an almost
unanimous one, was given. The implements, rude
though they seemed, were recognised as of human
origin : no process in nature could account for them.
Rough and ill shapen they were, but nevertheless
unmistakable were the indications of the skill
of man.
The co-existence of the makers of these imple-
ments with extinct mammals, and the antiquity of
IN SOUTH AFRICA 113
the beds in which the implements were found, still
remained, however, to some extent open questions.
To these questions — questions of the very deepest
interest to the theological, scientific and thinking
world generally — geological experts, notably Sir
Charles Lyell, now turned their attention. In his
work on the " Antiquity of Man " Sir Charles Lyell,
in a clear, comprehensive and impartial style, lays
before his readers the mass of evidence he has to
adduce on this subject. His conclusions, supported
as they are by the researches of experts of all
nationalities, are to any unbiassed mind convincing.
Man's co-existence in Europe with species of large
pachydermatous mammals long since extinct, and at
a time when the climate in what are now temperate
latitudes was as severe as in Northern Russia to-
day, has gradually come to be regarded as a
scientific fact. Man's appearance upon the earth
would seem to have occurred, not as was generally
supposed a few odd thousand years ago, but at a
far more remote period amongst those aeons of time,
the vastness of which the science of geology has
revealed. Prior to the discoveries of M. Boucher
de Perthes it is only fair to say that one or two
other discoverers had called attention to similar
stone implements, but without avail. M. de Perthes
was the first to secure public attention and scientific
conviction. After him followed others ; and stone
I
114 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
implements were discovered in several parts of
the world.
The age in which stone implements were used
by man is that known as the Stone Age, and is
divided roughly into two periods, though in some
parts of the world the distinction between the two
is very uncertain, the one merging imperceptibly into
the other. The two periods are: (i) Palaeolithic
or age of the Drift, " when man shared the
possession of Europe with the mammoth, the cave-
bear and other extinct mammals." (2.) The later
or polished Stone Age ; a period characterised by
beautiful weapons and instruments made of flint
and other kinds of stone ; in which, however, we
find no trace of the knowledge of any metal,
excepting gold, which seems to have been some-
times used for ornaments. This is called the
Neolithic Period. It is with the former of these two
periods, and with what we believe corresponds with
this period in South Africa, that I purpose chiefly
to deal in this paper. To this period it is that
M. de Perthes' implements from the valley of the
Somme belong. As the river drift or alluvium of
the Somme valley is peculiarly rich in implements
of an antique type, and as in its general ap[)earance
and structure it closely resembles numbers of other
river valleys in England and France, a brief descrip-
tion of it and its implements culled from the pages
IN SOUTH AFRICA 115
of Lyell and Lubbock will perhaps enable us the
better to appreciate the sort of evidence adduced on
this subject. The prevailing forms of these imple-
ments are : firstly, those of spear-headed form, from
6 to 8 inches in length ; secondly, those of oval
form, not unlike some stone implements used to this
day as hatchets and tomahawks by the Australian
natives, but with this difference, that the edge in
the Australian weapons, as in the case of those so
called "celts" in Europe, has been produced by
friction ; whereas the cutting edge in the old tools of
the valley of the Somme was always gained by the
simple fracture of the flint, and by the repetition of
many dexterous blows. Some of these tools were
probably used as weapons both of war and of the
chase, others to grub up roots, cut down trees, and
scoop out canoes. Between the spear-head and
oval shapes there are various intermediate grada-
tions, and there are also a vast variety of very rude
implements, many of which may have been rejected
as failures, and others struck off as chips in the
course of manufacturing the more perfect ones. To
describe without the aid of diagrams the structure
of the alluvial deposits in the valley of the Somme,
in which these implements are found, is not so
simple a task as to describe the implements them-
selves. I will, however, briefly endeavour to make
clear the main features. The chalk hills which
I 2
ii6 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
bound the valley are 200 or 300 feet in height.
The masses of drift or alluvium lie in the bottom of
the valley, and on the sides of the hills. For the
sake of proceeding from the known to the less
known, Lyell makes his survey of these deposits
retrospective, and beginning with the most recent,
proceeds backwards to the more ancient. Of all
these geological monuments, the most recent is the
peat. This substance occupies the bottom of the
valley from some miles inward to the sea. It is in
places 30 feet thick. All the embedded mam-
malia and shells are recent and belong to species
now inhabiting Europe. Gallo-Roman works of
art are found in the peat near the surface, and, at
a greater depth, Celtic weapons. But the depth at
which Roman works of art occur varies in different
places, and is no sure test of age ; because in
some parts the peat being fluid, heavy substances
sink in it from their own gravity. In one case
M. de Perthes found several large flat dishes of
Roman pottery, which, lying in a horizontal position,
were prevented from sinking through the under-
lying peat. Allowing about fourteen centuries for
growth of the superincumbent matter, he calculated
that the thickness gained in a hundred years would
be no more than three French centimetres. This
rate of increase, if one could fairly adopt such a
chronometric scale, would demand many thousands
IN SOUTH AFRICA 117
of years for the formation of 30 feet. " Small as is
the progress hitherto made in interpreting the pages
of the peaty record, their importance in the valley
of the Somme is enhanced by the reflection that
whatever be the number of centuries to which they
relate, they belong to times posterior to the ancient
implement-bearing beds which we are next to con-
sider, and are even separated from them, as we shall
see, by an interval far greater than that which divides
the earliest strata of the peat from the latest." Im-
mediately underlying the peat in the bottom of the
valley and recumbent on the chalk is a gravel bed,
believed to be the most recent of the gravel de-
posits, formed from the wreck of older gravels to be
described presently, and formed during the last hol-
lowing-out and deepening of the valley immediately
before the commencement of the growth of peat.
We come now to the implement-bearing deposits,
the older gravels formed on the sides of the hills
bounding the valley at different heights. The first
series of these is found at levels slightly elevated
above the present river. The lowest bed of this
series in which the implements are found consists of
gravel mixed with marl and sand, and contains
fresh water, land, and in some of the lower sands
marine shells, showing that the river at this part
was sometimes gained upon by the sea. This bed
is about 12 feet in thickness. Overlying this is
ii8 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
about 15 feet of loam, containing fresh-water and
land shells, and the bones of elephants. Of the
shells found in this series a small proportion are of
extinct species. The species of gravels next de-
scribed, and the oldest in which flint implements
are found, is a series similar in structure to the
above, and found at a height one kmidred feet above
the present level of the river. In the fluviatile
deposits overlying both these gravel beds remains
of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and reindeer are found.
The age of these implements found in the second or
oldest series of gravel is represented by the time
which it has taken the river to cut out its channel to
the depth of 100 feet, added to the time necessary
for the formation of the peat, the age of which has
already been alluded to. One striking feature in com-
paring the relative ages of the peat and the older
gravels is, that whereas in the very deepest layers
of the former not one single specimen of any extinct
species has been found, in the latter a number of
extinct species both of shells and of mammals have
been discovered. The above is a condensed and
brief sketch of this branch of archaeology as given by
Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock.
In South Africa, as we press northwards among
the primitive Bushmen tribes, we find the Stone Age
in some measure still existing, though even amongst
the wildest tribes it is dying a sure but a lingering
IN SOUTH AFRICA 119
death. Throughout the whole of the Cape Colony,
wherever the observant traveller has set foot, stone
implements have been found. Some of them,
notably those from the Cape flats, the more perfect
in form and finish, lie in recent deposits round
existing vleys, or lightly buried in sand, probably
the products of an age in the immediate past.
Others again of more antique and ruder mould are
found in deposits, at least in one instance with
which we shall shortly deal, as ancient as those
which they so much resemble, found on the banks
of European rivers. Compared with the carefully
accumulated mass of evidence collected in Europe,
our stock of evidence is necessarily slight — never-
theless, such as it is, so nearly does it coincide with
that more carefully collected evidence in Europe,
that we may fairly offer at least a probable inter-
pretation. That interpretation, which we have
already somewhat anticipated, may be thus broadly
stated. What evidence we have oa the subject
distinctly goes to show that a Stone Age has existed
in South Africa from a period in all human proba-
bility as remote, or approximately so, as that from
which it existed in Europe ; that for ages men in
Europe and in South Africa co-existed, using almost
identically the same weapons, following closely the
same mode of life ; finally, that centuries after the
genius of the hardy northern tribes, developing
I20 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
slowly at first, but afterwards more rapidly, had
swept away the stony relics of a barbarous age, and
placed those tribes on the paths of civilisation and
progress, the Stone Age in this southern land
continued to exist, and to this day still lingers,
dying a hard death in the deserts of the interior.
Having thus ventured, in the hope of more surely
enlisting your interest, to offer at the outset the
interpretation of what phenomena, what evidence
we have to hand, let us turn to the evidence itself.
On the Cape flats, at Kimberley, on Modder River,
in the Peddie and East London districts, and
doubtless in many other parts of the country, stone
implements have been found, resembling generally
the two leading types from the valley of the Somme,
viz., that of the spear-head and oval shape. For
directing^ attention to and collectintr these stone
implements so abundant in South Africa, we have,
as far as I have been able to gather, been princi-
pally indebted to Colonel Bowker, Mr. E. J. Dunn,
Mr. Mackay of East London, and Sir Langham Dale
of Capetown. These implements have been found
not merely by twos and threes and as rarities, but
in many sites they have been found in abundance.
Here, as in Europe, it is usual to find, in addition to
more or less well-formed implements of the shapes
above described, numerous fragments and abortions
— failures we might call them. Stone was plentiful
IN SOUTH AFRICA 121
and ready to hand ; a bad instrument could always
be thrown aside without much loss. The mode of
forming these implements is pretty obvious. The
surface of some hard stone or rock, specially selected
for the purpose, had flakes chipped off it by blows
probably given by a rounded pebble. In many
cases "cores" of hard stone from which flakes have
been chipped ofl^ are found lying near a collection of
implements and fragments. The best formed and
probably one of the most modern implements which I
have seen, and which is at present in my possession, is
one of the spear-headed type found on the Cape flats
by Sir Langham Dale. It bears the marks on its
surface of numerous successive chippings, and has
been shaped with considerably more skill than the
ruder weapons of greater antiquity found in old
deposits. A very good collection of implements of
different shapes and sizes, and from different parts
of the colony, may be seen in the Albany Museum
at Grahamstown. The interest of stone implements
from an archaeological point of view, depends,
however, more upon the geological evidence in
reference to the deposits in which they are found,
than upon anything else, as it is by this we are
principally enabled to form a probable estimate of
their antiquity. With this object, I will now deal
with those implements, which, thanks principally to
the guidance of one of our silent workers, Mr.
122 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
Mackay of East London, I have been enabled to
collect myself. Never was there a site better adapted
to the wants of primitive man than the mouth of the
Buffalo River and its neighbourhood. It is there-
fore not strange that in this locality abundant
evidence of its having been the abode of man from
a remote period of time is to be found. A very
interesting and carefully constructed map of the
locality round the mouth of the river has been
prepared by Mr. Mackay, showing the sites of
numerous " kitchen-middens," or shell mounds,
exactly resembling those " Kjokkenmodding " or
ancient kitchen refuse heaps, described by Sir
Charles Lyell as relics of the prehistoric age on the
shores of Denmark ; and further, showing the
probable sites of still more ancient habitations in the
Stone Age, those spots in fact where stone imple-
ments have been found in such abundance as to
justify the presumption of the existence of habita-
tions. With reference to the shell mounds so freely
scattered round the mouth of the river, I will here
merely say that they bear evidence of considerable
age; they are buried in many instances under sand
and vesretable mould, and are in some cases over-
grown with thick bush, only having been dis-
covered by cuttings for railway and other purposes.
Nevertheless, whatever the antiquity of these shell
mounds, and in some cases it is considerable, we shall
IN SOUTH AFRICA 123
presently see that they came into existence ages after
stone implements were first used in this locality.
Turning now to the stone implements themselves,
we find that those the antiquity of which, from their
position, we are best able to estimate, are found in a
well-marked gravel deposit on the western bank of
the Buffalo. It lies about half way between Fort
Glamorgan and the Post Office, and runs in a well-
marked line about 70 feet above the present level of
the river and parallel to the present course. It has
been exposed in several places by cuttings for roads
and by quarryings for building-stone, road-mending,
and other purposes. It lies buried under a well-
defined layer of black river mud, this being again
covered with sand of wind-drifted origin, which in
its turn is in places covered by a layer of vegetable
mould on which grass and bush were at one time
growing. The implements found in this gravel are
the types found in the valley of the Somme. They
are not, however, made of flint, which substance is
nowhere to be found in this district, but of a hard
sub-crystalline rock, found in the immediate vicinity
of the greenstone dykes so numerous in South
Africa. One of these dykes, half a mile in width,
which crosses the river obliquely, is traversed by
the Buffalo from the " ebb and flow " to the second
creek, a distance of about 2 miles. From the
second creek the edge of this dyke passes Fort
124 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
Glamorgan to Point Hood, so that abundance of
this stone is obtainable in the immediate neighbour-
hood. Several of the implements taken from this
gravel have been sent to the Jermyn Street and
British Museums ; and their genuineness has been
recognised by Sir Roderick Murchison and Sir J.
Lubbock, The rock from which these implements
have been flaked off is not only extremely hard, a
property which gives to the implements their sharp
cutting edges, but is tough and durable ; and for
these qualities it was selected by the troops as
material for buildingr Fort Glamororan and the
Commissariat Stores. These buildings have now
been in existence forty years. The weather-exposed
surface on the stones in these buildings is as fresh
in colour, the merest scratch with the chisel as clear,
and every edge as sharp, as if the buildings had
been completed yesterday. The implements made
of this same stone have lost all semblance of their
original colour, their edges are blunted, they have
an outer decomposed crust one-sixth of an inch in
thickness. The implements are found scattered
throu<):hout the whole line of orravel whenever it is
exposed. At the time when this line was the river's
edge, as we shall presently see we have good reason
to believe it once was, these implements were probably
dropped on or near the bank, and were subsequently
washed and rolled into their present position along
IN SOUTH AFRICA 125
with the surroundinor aravel. In some instances
they have evidently been manufactured and left on
the very spot where they are now found. " Cores "
of blocks from which weapons have been flaked off
have in several cases both by Mr. Mackay and
myself been found surrounded, not indeed by well-
formed implements which would naturally be carried
off by the maker, but by numerous fragments and
ill-formed weapons which were probably thrown
aside as useless. It is not irrational to suppose
that the water's edge with its open stony margin
would afford a convenient site to which the savage
hunter mig-ht bring" his block, and hammer off with
the aid of stones and pebbles his uncouth weapons.
But, however that may be, whether dropped by
accident or left by design, there in their gravel bed
they lay, until in due course a black muddy deposit,
of from I to 3 feet in thickness, covered them in.
That this gravel line, now so far above the river,
was once the river's edge, is, from its nature,
position, and appearance, as well as from the history
of similar old gravel deposits on the banks of
carefully explored European rivers, almost a matter
of certainty. But for further evidence bearing on
this subject let us turn to the configuration of the
sea coast near the river's mouth. Assuming that
then as now the river was tidal at this point, and
that this gravel line, now so far above the tidal level,
126 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
was then the river's edge, we are left to the con-
clusion, either that the coast has been raised or that
the sea has receded. The evidence afforded by a
study of the coast itself affirms this conclusion. To
the south-western side of the mouth of the river the
land runs out into a rocky low-lying promontory, the
termination of the large ironstone dyke already
alluded to, and known as Point Hood. High- water
level all round this point is at present marked by a
line of huge rounded boulders, and rising above this
line are no less than three other well-marked lines
of similar boulders, each line undoubtedly showing
the level at which the sea once stood. The highest
of these tiers of boulders lies about 30 feet above the
present sea level. Following round the coast in this
direction, immediately beyond Point Hood, stretches
a wide open vale some 20 feet above sea level. All
over the surface of this vale marine shells are found,
and there can be little doubt that it is the site of an
ancient bay. Assuming that the sea once stood at
the level of the highest tier of boulders on the Point,
this vale, now divided from the beach by a series of
low wind-drifted sandhills, would have been sub-
merged. The marine shells found on its surface,
taken together with the fact that the low sand-hills
which now divide it from the beach are of more
recent date than those larger masses which line the
coast beyond, justify the conclusion that it was so.
IN SOUTH AFRICA 127
Clear and distinct evidence that the sea has at one
time stood some 30 feet above its present level is
thus to be found by the most superficial observer.
But as the gravel line representing the river's
ancient edge near its present mouth is 70 feet above
that level, a somewhat interesting geological question
arises : Was this portion of the river at the time
when it stood at this high level tidal, or was it not
possibly a land-locked reach of the river, with the
river's mouth lying some distance further out than it
now does ? Either of these conditions would
account for the gravel bed, and its superincumbent
layer of mud ; but, as I have above stated, such
indications as we have been enabled to find incline
me to take the former view, viz., that then as now
the river was tidal at this point. It is true that
above the 2)0 feet level of boulders at Point Hood
there is no such clear evidence of the sea's former
presence, but some is nevertheless to be found.
The topmost tier of boulders is already partially
buried in sand and soil, and from this point the land
rises more gradually. In an artificial cutting made
some few hundred yards from the beach, and
standing some 70 feet above the present sea level,
distinct traces of a buried layer of rounded boulders
are to be found, boulders in all respects resembling
those on the beach.
Still, whichever view be the correct one, a point
128 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
which further investigation may yet decide, the
broad fact remains, that from the time when the
river stood at the height of this gravel Hne it has
gradually worn away the present channel. To
accomplish this has been no slight, nor short-lived
task, for we have already seen that for two miles
the tidal portion of the river runs through a large
greenstone dyke. This igneous greenstone rock is
one of the hardest in existence ; nevertheless, since
the time when the river stood at the old gravel line
it has worn away its channel through this rock to
the depth of 70 feet. To sum up a tolerably clear
case. The age of the stone implements found in
this gravel bed may fairly be computed to be that
period of time which has elapsed since this bed was
the river's edge, a period which has consisted of the
time necessary to allow the river through 70 feet of
solid greenstone rock slowly to wear away for itself
its present channel. To estimate the period of time
necessary for such a change as this is as difficult as to
estimate the time which has elapsed since man shared
a half-frozen Europe with the woolly-haired rhino-
ceros and the mammoth. Taken in connection with
the geological evidence, however, there is one other
point which is of great interest in assisting us to form
some rough idea of the great antiquity of these
implements.
The shell mounds found round the moulh of the
IN SOUTH AFRICA 129
Buffalo are in many instances situated close to the
river banks. Sections of some of these mounds
have been made in cuttings for roads and for the
railway, thus exposing their structure, and affording
every facility for their investigation. They consist
of sand, shells, and bones of animals, while
scattered through them are found rude pieces of
pottery. Large hearth-stones surrounded by ashes
have been found in one or two instances. The
largest of these mounds, situated on the eastern
bank of the river, is of considerable magnitude. It
has been cut completely through, and amidst the
ddbris a human skull was found, and subsequently
given to me by Mr. Mackay. It is a small round
skull, with a low contracted brow, and is of great
thickness. It is like the skull of a Bushman or
Hottentot, and in all probability is the skull of an
individual of one of these races, or of some race
very nearly allied to them. These shell mounds
very closely resemble the shell mounds, " Kjokken-
moddings," or kitchen refuse heaps, found on the
shores of Denmark, but they differ in one important
particular. The shell mounds in Denmark contain
a considerable number of polished stone-cutting
implements ; the mounds round the ■ mouth of the
Buffalo have, although carefully explored, yielded
nothing but bone implements, no cutting-stone
weapons of any sort having been discovered. The
K
I30 THE ANTIQUITY OF UAN
mounds differ considerably in size, and although
similar in structure some are evidently more recent
than others. The largest, and in all probability the
oldest, is the large mound on the eastern bank,
from which the skull was taken. As this mound
shows a vertical section throughout its entire depth,
and as it possesses several features of interest, we
will briefly consider it. It originally formed a
mound some 300 feet long and 25 feet high,
standing on the slope which runs down from the
signal hill to the river. Quarrying in connection
with the harbour works was the original cause of its
being cut through. The portion nearest the river
was entirely removed. The inner portion is still
remaining, and shows the vertical section above
alluded to. The topmost layer consists of shells,
bones, ashes, etc. A layer some two or three feet
in thickness is covered by three feet of sand and
vegetable earth, on which thick bush is now
growing. In fact the whole of the mound was
completely covered with thick bush, there being no
sisfn of its existence until the cutting^ was made.
Besides shells, hearth-stones, ashes and bits of
pottery, bones of the elephant and hippopotamus,
as well as those of smaller animals and fish, have
been found. Most of the larger bones have been
split open, probably for the sake of their marrow.
Below the topmost layer of shells another layer of
IN SOUTH AFRICA 131
sand some two feet in thickness exists, separating
the top layer from the shells immediately below.
After the second layer, although in places there
seems to be an interstratification of sand, the
separation of the layer of shells is not so distinctly
marked, and towards the centre they all seem to
form one block. In this mound a very well-formed
bone implement, some four inches in length, was
found. It is spindle-shaped, with a point at one end
and a blunt square termination at the other. It
might have been used as the head of a small spear.
Besides the hearth-stones and some large shapeless
stones with fire marks in their immediate neigh-
bourhood, there is one other kind of stone found,
and one which has evidently been artificially shaped.
It is like the half of a rounded pebble. The flat
or rather slightly concave surface is perfectly
smooth, and has obviously been brought into this
condition by friction. Mr. Mackay is of opinion
that these stones were used for dressing skins of
animals with. In accordance with this interpre-
tation we may call the one stone implement hitherto
found in these mounds the "rubbing stone." The
evidence as to the age of this mound all points to
its being considerable. No one can stand opposite
the vertical section, and note the accumulation of
sand and vegetable earth, with thick bush ten feet
high growing on its surface, without this idea forcing
K 2
132 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
itself upon him. Yet before the bush could have
begun to grow, sand and earth drifted by the wind
had covered in the abandoned mound to the depth
of several feet. Grass and bush have crept over its
surface and the whole mound has thus been com-
pletely buried and hidden for how many years no
one can say. Moreover, the accumulation of this
mass of debris 300 feet long and 25 feet high was
in itself the work of no brief space of time. The
outer marofin of the mound at its base was within a
few feet of the river's edge before this portion of it
was removed ; so that when the original founders
first made their homes upon this spot the river
cannot have stood at any appreciably higher level
than it does now ; hence, whatever the age of this
mound, and no unprejudiced observer will deny that
it is considerable, it is but a thing of yesterday
compared to the antiquity of those implements left
on the water's edge when the river stood 70 feet
higher than it now does, or than it did when the
foundation shell of this huge mound was laid.
It is not on an isolated case of this sort, but on a
collection of such cases more or less similar from
different parts of the world, that the claim to the
high antiquity of man upon the earth is made by
scientific men. To state the actual age of the old
implciiKiU hearing bed on the bank of the Buffalo
is bcNond our power. But while on this point I
IN SOUTH AFRICA 133
cannot refrain from quoting Sir Charles Lyell on
the probable age of the oldest implement-bearing
gravel of the Somme. In doing so I do not wish
to claim for the opinion, any more than the author
would himself, anything but a certain speculative
value. Yet from the most brilliant geologist the
world has yet known, even a speculative opinion of
this sort must have some weight. Sir Charles Lyell,
on data which we have not here space to discuss,
estimated the age of the Mississippi Delta as being
about 100,000 years ; and he considered that " the
alluvium of the Somme containing flint implements
and the remains of the mammoth and hyasna " was
no less ancient. Whatever the antiquity of the
oldest Somme implements may be, there can be
little doubt that those forming the oldest implement-
bearing beds of the Buffalo are fully as old, if
indeed, as there are good reasons for believing, they
are not considerably older. For while the Somme,
a large constantly flowing river, has had a chalk
formation through which to cut its bed, the Buffalo,
with a stream not one-twentieth part its volume, has
had to wear its way through two miles of solid
greenstone rock. To cut a channel to the depth of
70 feet under the latter set of circumstances is on
the face of it a far greater task than to cut one to
the depth of 100 feet under the former.
Such then is the history of these implements as
134 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
far as I have been able to interpret it. For such
opinions as I have offered I have endeavoured as
clearly as possible to furnish full data, while my
motive throughout has been a desire to arrive at a
true understanding of the question, rather than to
support any particular theory. But, looking to the
laborious researches of scientific men in Europe on
this question, to the lucid exposition^of the subject
by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John Lubbock, and
lastly to the startling parallel between the position
of the South African implements and those found
in the ancient gravels of the Somme, two broad
conclusions with reference to them are forced upon
us : firstly, that they are undoubtedly the handi-
work of man ; secondly, that they belong to an age
of high and remote antiquity. Admitting then the
high antiquity of man upon the earth, in what way
does it affect that vast problem of evolution as
applied to the origin of man ? To this question
Darwin himself makes answer. He says in his
introduction to The Descent of Man : — " The high
antiquity of man has recently been demonstrated by
the labours of a lot of eminent men, beginning with
M. Boucher de Perthes, and this is the indis-
pensable basis for understanding his origin." The
crudeness of design and rudeness of execution of
the older stone implements often excites the ridi-
cule of the curiosity critic. But what degree of
IN SOUTH AFRICA 135
skill would he be inclined to attribute to the fore-
fathers of the Bushmen or Australian aboricrines
20,000 years ago? Prof. Huxley, one of the
greatest authorities on Biology, has expressed it as
his opinion that the remains of the immediate
progenitors of man will eventually be found in the
pliocene or even in the miocene strata. In several
parts of the world by different geologists the
post-pliocene formations have been estimated to be
considerably over 200,000 years old. Taking these
opinions, then, with, as far as it goes, the con-
firmatory evidence of the Stone Age, we may fairly
assume that in all probability man's immediate
progenitors existed upon the earth considerably over
200,000 years ago. Amongst Englishmen, the
third generation of descendants from any son of
the soil is considered capable of producing under
favourable circumstances the most polished courtier.
I therefore trust that 200,000 years will be sufficient
to remove the prejudices of the most fastidious as
to their ancestors at that period.
Some time ago an interesting paper on the
" Races of South Africa and the Question of
Evolution " was read to the Eastern Province
Literary and Scientific Society by the Bishop of
Grahamstown, and was subsequently published in
the Grahamstown JotLvnal. The question of how
far the facts, adduced in reference to these races,
136 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
bear upon the question of evolution, is treated by
the Bishop in a spirit of fairness and moderation. In
fact, on this great problem he expresses himself as
in accord with the Duke of Argyll when he says
*' that the difficulties involved by evolution are more
scientific than theological." With this liberal
avowal the Bishop proceeds to deal with the
question in a critical manner. In reference to these
races he says : " Two answers may clearly be given
when we are asked how we account for the South
African races as they meet us here. First, we may
say that they have been developed from beneath,
having been during all their period of humanity
from the beginning utter savages, with a suspicion
that in some types we may alight upon specimens not
far removed from the " missing link" ; or, secondly,
we may reply that we have good ground for the
conclusion that they have been evolved by degrada-
tion and deo^eneration from a hioher estate in the
scale of humanity." The Bishop then states that
his observation has led him to favour the latter
hypothesis. To my mind neither of these answers
fully meets the case ; while the rejection of the one
surely does not, as the Bishop would apparently
imply, involve the acceptance of the other. There
is probably a measure of truth in both. The
answer I should make would be that the evidence
hitherto collected on the subject seems to point to
IN SOUTH AFRICA 137
the conclusion that the Bushmen are the true
aboriorinal inhabitants of Central and Southern
Africa, while the numerous Kaffir races have
migrated from more northern latitudes, destroying
and driving before them the feebler aboriginal
tribes. A considerable portion of the paper is
devoted to showing that numerous Kaffir races have
probably come in successive tides of migration from
some more northern part of the continent, probably
from the north-east. That tides of migration
have swept southwards across the continent, at any
rate, during the last lOO years is almost a matter of
history ; and there is doubtless evidence of this
movement having gone on for some time previous
to that. The Arab strain in some of the Kaffirs
seems strongly marked. That these races may also
to some extent have degenerated, looking to
numerous similar instances in history, is possible ;
though the evidence in favour of this view adduced
by the Bishop, even if it had all the significance
which he attaches to it, would only point to a
position but slightly inferior to their present one.
The evidence on this point which he considers of
the greatest value is that afforded by their language.
He says : " Instead of the languages of these
uncivilised races being in a state of development
towards fulness and complexity, we find the
tendency of the language is to degenerate, to get
138 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
worn down, simplifying conjugations and losing
inflexions." Surely the inflexional decay of a
language, a stage through which all languages pass
to a greater or less extent, is no sign of the
degeneration of that language. It is, as I under-
stand, the science of language, a stage in develop-
ment rather than in degeneration. On Darwin's
speculations as to the probable origin of language
the Bishop is somewhat severe. After quoting a
few extracts from Darwin's speculation on this
subject, he says : "It is curious to quote the very
hypothetical tone of this enunciation of his theory,
'probably,' 'might have,' 'does not appear alto-
gether incredible.' We search in vain for data in
support of it. Dr. Darimn gives us none.'' As
the most distinguishing quality of Darwin's vast
luminous mind is his careful impartiality and
studious avoidance of overstating anything, his
hypothetical tone on this question is not to be
wondered at. The data in support of Darwin's
views as to the probable origin of language are
given in his third chapter of the Descent of Man.
But returning to the wider question of evolution,
let us admit for the sake of argument, not only that
the orreat mass of Kaffir races have come from some
centre in the northern portion of Africa, but that
they have in some measure degenerated. How
does this fact bear upon evolution ? As far as I
IN SOUTH AFRICA 139
can see it has little or nothing to do with it. The
whole history of the human race has been one of
migrations ; and instances of retrogression have not
been wanting. Still, looking to the great mass of
mankind, as far as we know its history from the
earliest times, the broad tendency has been to
travel forward like a rising tide, on the wide paths
of development and progress. The case of the
Bushmen still remains to be considered. That they
are the descendants of any really higher race is a
hypothesis with absolutely nothing to support it.
According to Theal their condition when the Dutch
first came to the country 200 years ago was very
much what it is to-day, certainly no better.
Without stock of any kind, without agriculture,
dependent on their knowledge of roots and herbs,
which like that of monkeys is considerable, and on
what carrion they can find or what animals they can
kill, they eke out a miserable existence. The
words of ^schylus in writing of primitive man
seem most applicable : —
But first, though seeing, they did not perceive,
And hearing heard not rightly. But like forms
Of phantom dreams throughout their life's whole length,
They muddled all at random ; did not know
Houses of brick that catch the sunlight's warmth,
Nor yet the worth of carpentry. They dwelt
In hollowed holes like swarms of tiny ants.
In sunless depths of caverns.
Their knowledge of painting is certainly a curious
140 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN
and in some respects a redeeming trait in their
character ; but that it is evidence of any previous
higher condition I cannot see. Without cattle,
crops, or even houses, it would be curious indeed if,
possessed of any human intelligence at all, it should
not find expression in something. Regarding the
Bushmen, and probably also the Hottentots, as the
aborigines of the country, it is not unreasonable,
taken with the discovery of the skull in the East
London shell mound, to regard them as the lineal
descendants of the men of the Shell Mound Age in
this country ; very probably also of the older Stone
Age. The pigmy races of Africa, of which the
Bushmen are a branch, are at the present moment
attracting a good deal of attention. Stanley's
description of the numbers which inhabit the great
forest show them to be very widespread in the
interior. There can be little doubt, moreover, that
these same pigmy races were known both to the
ancient Greeks and Romans. Still, whatever the
origin and history of the pigmy races may be, no
rational student of evolution would contend that the
difference between the highest ape and lowest
Bushman is, scientifically speaking, a slight one.
The evidences of the existence of the progenitors
of man on the earth, as I have endeavoured to
point out, are not to be looked for a few hundred
years back, but hundreds of thousands of years ago.
IN SOUTH AFRICA 141
Evidence of the remote antiquity of man in this
country we have fully discussed. We have seen
that it points to his existence here many thousand
years ago, when his implements were ruder than the
lowest Bushman uses now ; for the only stone
implement of the Bushman of to-day of which I
can find any authoritative record, is the rounded
digging stone with a hole in the centre, used for
weighting sticks with in digging up roots. Living-
stone in his Last Journals, after making special
enquiry as to the use of the implements, only
mentions the " digging-stone " among the Bushmen,
and stones used as sledge hammers and anvils in
the forging- of iron among-st other tribes. I have
also consulted such works on African travel as I
have been able to obtain by Stanley, Cameron,
Pinto, Grant, Schweinfurth, and Du Chaillu on this
point, but can find no record of stone hatchets being
in use now. The lowest Bushman is thus in
all probability in a stage of development consider-
ably beyond that of the men of the old Stone Age.
For how long even before the old Stone Age period
man in some type may have existed no one can say.
But to put the most moderate construction on this
evidence as to man's high antiquity upon the earth,
it is just what we should expect to find were the
evolution theory as to his origin the true one, and
as far as it goes it is confirmatory of that theory.
PRE-HISTORIC MAN
AND THE
PARALLELISM IN DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN THE
PRIMITIVE RACES OF EUROPE AND THE
NATIVE RACES OF AFRICA
The knowledge of pre-historic man has been
greatly increased and almost revolutionised during
the last fifty years by the aid of the comparatively
young science, Geology. What is known is indeed
little enough, but it at least establishes man's con-
temporaneous existence with many now extinct
animals, and at a time when the geography and
climate of Europe were very different from what
they are to-day ; when the silver streak had not
crept in between England and France, which in
historic times has played such an important part in
the history of the British race. Geology has also
shown that through the long pre-historic ages of
man's existence on the earth his condition was
always gradually changing, in Europe through stone,
bronze and iron ages, and in nearly all other explored
PRE-HISTORIC MAN 143
parts of the world, at least through stone and iron
ages. These changes are slow indeed compared to
the march of intellect through historic times, but
very appreciable from a geological and archaeological
standpoint. Let us then for a short time consider
the history of this new science Geology, imperfect
and crude though it still be, which has wrought so
momentous a change in the general ideas of human
origin on the earth, and of the whole history of
human thought.
Who shall tell what did befall,
Far away in time when once
Over the lifeless ball
Hung idle stars and suns ?
What god the element obeyed ?
Wings of what wind the lichen bore,
Wafting the puny seeds of power.
Which, lodged in rocks, the rocks abrade.
— Emerson.
In the middle of the last century, curiously enough,
we find Voltaire, in his hostility to revealed religions,
scornfully ridiculing all that was then known of
fossils, because they were regarded as evidence of
the deluge. " Are we sure," he enquired, " that the
soil of the earth can produce fossils ? " " One never,"
he says elsewhere, "sees among them true marine
substances." And more in this strain. But not so
long afterwards the great German poet and thinker,
Goethe, with a deeper insight than Voltaire, felt that
these fossils were records of the history of the past
144 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
not to be liorhtlv cast aside. Writino- in his auto-
biography of Voltaire, he says : " When I now
learned that to weaken the tradition of a delude he
had denied all petrified shells, and only admitted
them as ' lusus naturae,' he entirely lost my con-
fidence, for my own eyes had on the Baschberg
plainly enough shown me that I stood on the bottom
of an old dried up sea, among the exuviae of its
ancient inhabitants. These mountains had certainly
once been covered with waves, whether before or
during the deluge did not concern me ; it was
enough that the Valley of the Rhine had been a
monstrous lake, a bay extending beyond the reach
of eyesight ; out of this I was 7iot to be talked, I
thought much more of advancing in the knowledge
of lands and mountains, let what would be the result."
Coming from a man in the eighteenth century,
these words are of great interest. They seem to
breathe the very spirit of modern science. Since,
these words were written, the knowledge of lands
and mountains, and the buried history they contain,
have advanced with rapid strides.
To attempt in ever so brief a manner to give a
sketch of the revelations of geology would be beyond
our scope. We will merely take some of the leading
truths which have been brought to light, and note
the wide effect they have had on the thought and
culture of their day. Geology, if such knowledge of
IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 145
the subject as existed a little over a hundred years
ago is worthy of the name, from having in those
days been adduced as evidence of a universal deluge,
has come in later days to be taken as overwhelming
testimony to the fact that no such tmiversal deluge
ever occurred. Forty years ago that doughty
Scotch Free Churchman, Hugh Miller, while being
a; staunch supporter of his religion and of his church,
maintained that the idea of a universal deluge, and
of a creation which lasted six days of twenty-four
hours each, could, in the face of the revelations of
geology, no longer be maintained. The six days he
maintained were periods extending over ages, the
deluge and the consequent destruction of animal
life were both of a local character. In fact, he oroes
so far as to attempt to show how, in a portion of
Asia, by what he terms an "economy of miracle,"
this deluge might have been brought about.
The evolution theory deals with the origin and
course of existence of vegetable and animal life upon
the globe ; but, before we give any attention to this
or any other theory, let us endeavour, as far as we
can, briefly to enumerate what leading facts with
regard to the existence of living forms upon the
earth the science of geology has brought to light.
From the most remote ages, in fact in the very
earliest stratified or sedimentary rocks, remains of
low organic life, both vegetable and animal, are
L
146 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
found thus establishing the antiquity of organic life
upon the globe. Ascending in the series of stratified
deposits, higher forms of life, both vegetable and
animal, are discovered, until fish, reptiles, birds and
mammals, are all found co-existing. The most
striking feature in fossil remains, perhaps, is the
change in the species which is found in successive
formations. While some few species, especially
among the shells, remain unchanged from remote
down to present times, the great majority of species
exist through a few formations and then die out,
being replaced by other closely allied species. So
widely indeed is this fact recognised that in the
popular mind the one epithet which can safely be
applied to a fossil is the word " extinct."
Of all the records of her past which the earth has
to reveal to the patient student of nature, none
are more enduring, none more vast, none more
profoundly interesting than this imperishable history
of the myriads of living forms which have had their
brief day in the ages that are gone. On the weather-
beaten cliff, on the rocks worn by the endless turmoil
of the sea, or where " the wild water" of an inland
lake "laps upon the crag," there to him who seeks
will some fragment of this history appear.
And well the primal pioneer
Knew the strong task to it assigned,
Patient through Heaven's enormous year
To build in matter home for mind.
IN EURORE AND AFRICA 147
Towards the close of the series of these vast silent
records, graven in stone for all time, we come on the
first traces of man. To better comprehend what
these series of records are, we may consider them as
being roughly divided into those of three phases of
life upon the earth.
The first, or Prmiary, in which are found fishes,
amphibians, and towards the top of the series some
few reptiles.
The Secondary Age, in which reptiles had the
mastery, walking on the land as great flesh and
vegetable feeders, flying in the air as huge reptilian
bats, and swimming in the sea and rivers in various
forms. Also reptilian birds with teeth in their
beaks. This age is of special interest to us, inas-
much as the greater portion of the sedimentary rocks
of South Africa belong to it, and have furnished
many hitherto unknown species of huge, as well as
of smaller, reptilian forms.
The third, or Tertiary Age. — In this age the
mammalia first appear gradually taking their place
as masters on land and sea, displacing the reptiles.
The birds lose their reptilian characters.
Of these phases of life Boyd-Dawkins, in his work
on Early Man in Britain, very truly says : " The
succession of living forms has been uninterrupted,
although from errors of observation, as well as from
the fragmentary nature of the evidence, it appears
L 2
148 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
to be broken. Each break may be likened to places
from which pages, or chapters, or whole volumes, as
the case may be, have been torn out from the
record by the hand of time, or not yet discovered
by man."
The Tertiary Period is the one which most nearly
interests us, and it has been divided into the follow-
ing- six stages : —
/. Eocene, or that in which the mammalia now
on the earth were represented by allied forms
of species extinct but belonging to existing
orders and families.
//. Meiocene, in which the alliance between the
living and fossil mammals is more close than
before.
///. Pleiocene, in which the living species of mam-
mals begin to appear.
IV. Pleistocene, in which the living species are
more abundant than the extinct. Man
appears.
V. Pre-historic, in which domestic animals and
cultivated fruits appear, and man has multi-
plied exceedingly upon the earth.
VI. Historic, in which events are recorded in
history.
The point of peculiar interest in ihis table, in
regard to the origin of man upon the earth, is, that
IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 149
in the stage preceding the one in which man appears,
namely, the Pleiocene, existing species of other mam-
mals are rare in comparison with the number of ex-
tinct forms, and only, as it were, begin to show
themselves.
In the Pleistocene, where man appears, while the
number of extinct species is still large, living species
become more numerous, and even exceed the ex-
tinct species. In the two succeeding ages, with
a few exceptions, all the species found are still
livinor.
It will thus be seen that traces of man are found,
in the first instance, in precisely the position, from a
palseontological point of view, which on the doctrine
of evolution he would be expected to occupy. He
appears, that is for the first time, contemporaneously
with several of the higher species of existing mam-
mals. Of the nature of the evidence in the shape
of stone implements, which is found in the Pleisto-
cene age in Europe, I dealt at some length in the
foregoing paper entitled The Antiquity of Man in
South Africa and Evolution. In this paper, before
going on to consider the social condition of man in
pre-historic times, and the overlap of history, I
should like briefly to refer to some human bones
found in relation with some of the stone weapons.
" In 1869 a portion of a skull was found at
Eginsheim, near Colmar, by M. Faudel, along with
I50 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
mammoth and other animals, in the loam, proving
that the paleolithic hunter in the upper Rhine pos-
sessed a skull of the long type. In the following
year in the valley of the Seine, a human skull and
bones were obtained by M. Eugene Bertrand from
a gravel pit, underneath undisturbed strata of loam,
sand, and gravel, at a depth of 5 '45 metres, along
with the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, ox, and
stag."
The men of the Stone Age in Europe have been
divided into " Men of the River Drift," and " Men
of the Caves."
Man of the River Drift was a poor nomad
hunter, poorly equipped for the struggle of life, with
no knowledge of metals, or even of grinding his
stone weapons.
Boyd- Dawkins describes some interesting deposits
in the old gravels of the river Wily, in Wiltshire,
near Salisbury, 100 feet above the river's present
bed, where, with the rudest forms of stone weapons,
are found many bones of mammalia.
He says :
" In the spring, summer, and autumn, there were
stags, bisons, uri, horses, pouched marmosets, woolly
rhinoceroses, and mammoths, and in the depth of
winter, lemmings, reindeer, and musk sheep. Wild
boars were in the woodlands and hares in the glades.
The hunter had, however, formidable beasts of prey,
IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 151
the lion and the spotted hysena, as his competitors
in the chase."
Traces of man in this stage with only the very
rudest implements have, as I pointed out in my last
paper, been found in great abundance in South
Africa. Indeed, man in this stage was spread over
vast portions of the globe, and existed in this con-
dition for a very great length of time, a greater
length of time probably than all the subsequent
stages of his existence put together. We are un-
able to refer the men of this time to any branch of
the human race now living, and they are as extinct
in Asia as in Europe, as extinct as their contem-
porary, the woolly-haired rhinoceros.
The Cave Men, found in old buried rock shelters
throughout Europe, used stone implements of a
more advanced type than the old hunters of the
river drift. These caves and shelters in the rocks
were probably places of periodic resort, similar to
certain resorts used by the Eskimos in certain
seasons of the year at the present day.
Many of the Bushmen caves of this country are
splendid examples of what, with a few trifling modi-
fications, the caves of the ancient cave-dwellers were
like ; and from these Bushmen caves some good
specimens of the higher types of stone weapons
have been obtained. Dr. Kannemeyer, of Burghers-
dorp, has an excellent collection. Some striking
152 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
carvings on bones and ivory have been obtained
from the old European caves, and we all know the
Bushman's passion for drawing and even painting
on the rocks the various animals with which he was
surrounded. At Klipfontein, a farm owned by the
Hon. William Ross on the Vaal River, are some
wonderful carvings on the rocks round the fountain.
o
I was able readily to recognise the elephant, ostrich,
giraffe, wildebeeste, hartebeeste, blesbok and koodoo,
all cut out on the solid rock.
From the River Drift and Cave Men we pass on
to the men of the Neolithic Age ; that is, men using
highly polished stone weapons, appearing after
Britain was separated from the Continent, and bring-
ing with them some live stock and some knowledge
of cultivation. In this age, also, we find the shell
mounds in Denmark, and the lake dwellings in
Switzerland, both phases of life represented in
Africa. Round the coast of South Africa we have
numerous shell mounds, partially buried, and un-
doubtedly old habitations, containing, at any rate
in some cases which I carefully explored, and de-
scribed in my last paper, polished stones used in
dressing skins, ashes, split bones, and other unmis-
takable evidence of human origin. Again, in some
of the lake regions of the interior of Africa are
found tribes living in lake dwellings, constructed on
piles driven into the lake bottom, almost identical
IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 153
with the ancient lake dwellings of Switzerland. In
the Neolithic Age in Britain, and on the Continent,
men first adopted the custom of burying their dead,
and from the old barrows or tombs of that age
human skeletons of a distinct type and in consider-
able numbers are found. They are skeletons of men
of sm.all stature, averaging about five feet three inches
in height, with long, or what is known as the " doli-
cocephalic," type of skull. Numbers of these skele-
tons have been investigated by Thurnam, Huxley,
Burk, Virchow, and others, and they have come to
the conclusion that the race to which they belong is
still to be numbered among the living races of
Europe. There can be little doubt from examina-
tion of numbers of skeletons from Basque cemeteries
that they are identical with the Iberian race of
history, — a race most nearly represented to-day by
the Basque tribes dwelling in and near the Pyrenees.
This identification by Huxley and others of the neo-
lithic with the Basque races has received most inter-
esting and unexpected support from the philological
researches of the Abbe Inchauspe into the dialects
of the Pyrenees. He points out that the Basque
names for cutting tools are as follows : —
Axe is aizcora ; composed of aitz-aitza, a stone ;
gora, high, lifted up ; pick is aizurra, aitz, and urra to
tear in sunder, that is, a stone to tear in sunder the
earth; knife is aizttoa — aitz, and ttoa little, little stone.
154 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
Thus, where the anatomical evidence as to the
identity of the race is strongest, or where the abori-
ginal population is presumably in its greatest purity,
distinct traces of the Stone Age are found in the
language.
After the Iberic came the Celtic race, and with
the Celtic race came the bronze weapons, the Celts
driving out or subduing the old Iberic races in Gaul,
Spain, and, finally, in Britain. In all these countries
weapons of the Bronze Age, a comparatively short
era, are found. The typical weapon of the Bronze
Age is the axe. During this age the axe, so im-
portant in the dawn of civilisation, went through
three stages. The first was that in which the axe
was simply let as a wedge into the handle. Of this
type we have a splendid example in the iron axes
used by the Mashonas to-day. In the second stage,
a flange was fashioned on the axe to minimise the
splitting effect on the handle. The third stage is
that where the handle is let into the head as in the
modern axe. This was developed in the Iron Age
in Europe.
To the Bronze Age belong the circular stone
temples found at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, and
scattered over Europe and Asia. After the Bronze
came the Iron Age, extending over the later portion
of pre-historic and the whole of historic times.
During the heroic age in Greece iron was still
IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 155
a rare metal, and Homer describes his heroes as
fighting with weapons of bronze. In the time of
Hesiod, who lived 850 B.C., iron had superseded
bronze, though bronze long remained in use for
helmets and shields, and remains to-day for orna-
mental purposes. Overlapping the pre-historic ages
in Northern Europe were the ancient civilisations of
Egypt, Assyria, Etruria, Phoenicia and Greece. How
ancient these civilisations are we sometimes overlook.
The history of Egypt begins with the reign of Menes
about 4,000 B.C., and is thus more than three times
as old as that of Britain. The modernness of the
dominant races of the earth to-day is ably described
by Boyd-Dawkins, who says: "When we reflect
that the history of Gaul begins in the seventh, and
that of Britain in the first century before Christ, and
when we consider further that the civilisation of
Egypt dates back to more than 4,000 B.C., it must
appear obvious that the historical overlap is very
great. It is very probable that a large portion of
northern Europe was in the Neolithic Age, while
the scribes were compiling their records in the great
cities on the banks of the Nile, and that the neoli-
thic civilisation lingered in remote regions while the
voice of Pericles was heard in Athens, or the name
of Hannibal was a terror in Italy."
It is of great interest that the latest ruins dis-
covered in South Africa, namely, those of Zimbabye,
156 PRE-HISTORIC MAN
recently explored by Mr. Bent, are believed to
belong to one of these ancient civilisations, probably
the Assyrian or Phoenician, and the fact goes far to
establish the theory that in Mashonaland we have
the Ophir of the Old Testament.
The whole continent of Africa undoubtedly pos-
sesses the most interesting . facts in connection with
the study of the origin and history of man's exist-
ence on the earth, and illustrates most strikingly the
parallelism of the lines of development in the early
stages of his existence. There are traces of men
of the River Drift Age, Cave-dwellers and Lake-
dwellers, the Shell Mound, and early Iron Ages, all
to be found in Africa. And indeed there are still
races living who to-day are cave-dwellers, as some
of the Bushmen ; certain central African tribes who
are lake-dwellers — and the interior Bantu tribes who
are in the early Iron Age. The historical overlap
in Africa is greater than anywhere else, for, while it
possesses the oldest civilisation and history in
Egypt, there still linger in the south and central
regions those pigmy races, the lowest known type of
humanity, only just emerging from the Stone Age.
KICHAKU (.LAV AND SONS, tlMlTEl), LONDON ANU BUNCAV.
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