UNIVER OF CALDFORNIA S ANGELES THE GIFT OF MAY TREAT MORRISON IN MEMORY OF ALEXANDER F MORRISON The Story of South Africa AN ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE DARK CONTI- NENT BY THE EUROPEAN POWERS AND THE CULMI- NATING CONTEST BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC IN THE TRANSVAAL WAR JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL.D. .. . ' Author of "Cyclopaedia of Universal History," "Great Races of Mankind," "Lifie and Times of Gladstone," etc., etc. AND EDWARD S. ELLIS, A.M. Author of the "Standard History of the United States," etc., etc. " And they came to Opkir, and fetched from thence gold." — / Kittys, io-i8 (Topiousli? 3llu0trate^ WITH COLORED MAPS, HALK-TONK PORTRAITS, SKETCHES, SCENES AND WAR PICTURES, IN THK BEST STYLE OF REPRODUCTION C. W. STANTON COMPANY Chicago. COPYKIGHT, iSyg, BY A. K. KELLER. PUBLISHER'S PREFACE The recent startling events in Southern Africa have already evoked a number of publications, and it is certain that many others will soon appeal'. The history-making instinct finds expression in both deeds and books. Among civilized races the event is speedily fol- lowed by the written record. In proportion to the importance of the crisis is the eagerness of enlightened peoples to read in the delib- erate language of history the transcript of the latest episode in liuman progress. Truly, the xVfrican game is great. The players are the nations ; the stake is a continent. Strange that the historians and the pub- licists, the statesmen of Europe and America, have not foreseen the great crisis which has now broken into war between the most powerful empire in Christendom and the little republic of the Boers \ beyond the Vaal ! ^ Thus it is, however, that the endless chain of events lengthens - itself through the ages. History slowly prepares the antecedents of the greatest transformations and no man lays it to heart. Not ^ until the storm of revolution actually'- descends — not until the roar ^ of war is heard and the institutions of the i^ast begin to topple ^ down, are men able to perceive what is going on around them. "^ and to inquire into the causes of the catastrophe. >a In the case of Africa, centuries of time have been beating out the problem, the solution of which has now begun by the arbitra- >^ment of battle. It were not surprising if the historical interest of ^ the twentieth century should center in that continent which once had for its conspicuous actors the Egyptians and the Carthaginians, and which no\v has for its contestants the Briton on the one hand and the Boer on the other. 427693 PREFACE In a work of this nature the aim of the authors has been to do justice to l)oth sides in the conflict. One's sympathies may be with the Boers, tbn weaker party, for the world cannot fail to admire the heroism displayed by them, nor to do full justice to the civilized manner in Avhich they have conducted their warfare. No one has conceded this more willingly than the English forces arrayed against them. On the other hand, it would be equally unfair to represent this war as an act of wanton aggression on the part of Great Britain. It is the proud boast of that empire that she extends the fullest protection to her citizens, even to the remotest corners of the earth. She claims that such protection and such justice are denied her sub- jects in the Transvaal. The temperate views of one of her leading citizens are set forth in this work, in order that they may be fully considered by the reader. It would be idle for Great Britain to expect that which she has received — the ardent support of Canada, whose offers of volunteers were so eager that the mother country was obliged to decline some of them, and of Australia and her other colonies, unless the loyal and conscientious subjects in each and all believed that right and justice were on the side of the Empire. This record, therefore, aims to be fair to both parties to the war in the Transvaal, and to record the achievements of each without favor or prejudice. In this volume the effort has been made to present in outline the historical transformation of Africa during the last four centuries. To this subject, the first section of the work has been given. The narrative in this part extends to the year 1895, and to the event of Dr. Leauder S. Jameson's raid upon the Boer town of Johannes- burg. The second part of the work begins with that incident and follows the record from the progress of events, first to the outbreak of hostilities in October of 1899, and then through the vicissitudes of the war to the date of publication. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Portugal Colonizes the African Coast. Old Africa— Circumnavigation — Hamites First to Form Nation — Aryans— Alexander, the Great — Semites— Omar, the Great — Decline of Mohammedan Power— Medieval Africa — Early ^laps — Fifteenth Cen- tury Explorations — Portuguese First to Colonize— Storming of Ceuta — Raising of Flag — Prince Henry's Voyage — Discovery of Cape Verde Islands — Tangier— Find- ing of the Indies — Da Gama — Beginning of Slave Trade — Natives Deceived — San Salvador — Founding of St. Paul de Loanda — East Coast Annexed — Colonization Goes Forward— Cape of Good Hope Neglected 17 CHAPTER n The Portuguese Ascendency. Alfonso du Albuquerque — Commissioned Viceroy of India — Discovers All Water Route to Coast of Malabar — Goa Captured — Portugal Supreme in Sixteenth Century — Angola — Portuguese Discoveries — Portugal Forti- fies Arguin and Cape Verde Islands— Large Commerce Developed — Slave Trade — Patent of Charles V — Encourages Slavery — African Gold Found — Mines — Cupidity of Nations Aroused— English Fleet Fitted Out— Appears in Gulf of Guinea — Captain Windham — Capt. John Lok — Gold and Ivory Finds — English Driven Away — First African Company — Rising of Natives against Portuguese — Decline of Portuguese Power — John De Castro — English, Dutch and French Active— English Sack Faro— Portuguese Trade on West Coast Destroyed — Rem- nant of Possessions Saved — Treaty of Vienna — Stations Established Along the Zambesi — Present Portuguese Possessions 81 CHAPTER m The Dutch Enter Africa. Holland — Her Maritime Power— Rise of the Netherlands — Bold Navigators — Dutch Attack Portuguese Possessions— West Afric-a Bciomes Prey of Dutch— Purchase of the Island of Goree — They Fortify It — Dutch West India Company — Capture of El Mina— Axim Taken — Gold Coast Seized and Fortified— Opening of Dutch Trade — Dutch Take Up Slavery — Slave Monopolists — Netherlands and England Join Hands — Louis XIV of Franco — Compact Broken After Death of William HI— Holland Extends Her Influence— Dutch Establish CONTENTS Themeelves at Capo of Good Hope in 1652— Cape Town Settled— Hottentots— Natives Driven into Interior— East India Company— Dutch Desire to Be Let Alone -Taxation— Treatment of Natives— Hugenots of France Join Dutch— Boers Become Rostivo— Exactions of East India Company— Dutch Push Forward- Clash With Katlirs— Orange Free State— South African Republic— Great Britain Takes Possession of Cape— Treaty of Amiens— Cape Colony Given to Holland- British Again Take Possession— Congress of Vienna— Status of the Boers— Lose Their Statehood 47 CHAPTEK IV Great Britain Gains a Footing. English Colonization Interrupted— Charter of King Charles I— Trade in Gambia— Charles II — English Enterprise Revived— Great Britain Gets a Firm Hold— Trouble With the Natives— First KaflBr War— British at Algoa Bay— Grahamstown and Elizabeth Founded— Elizabeth Founded — Great Britain Abolishes Slavery — Boers Incensed — Great Financial Loss — Opening of the Breach — Boers Trek to Natal — Peter Retief — Failure to Escape English Domin- ation—English Invade Natal— Boers Resent Their Arrival — Petitions of English — Allegations of Dutch Injustice — British Authority Extended Over Natal— Rebel- lion — Sir Harry Smith— Boers Defeated at Boem Plaats— Spirit Unbroken — Trek Again to North — Pretorious— Retreat to the Vaal — English More Considerate — Dissatisfaction With Sir Harry Smith— Boers Obtain Control of Cape Colony- Founding of the Orange Free State— Convicts Sent to Africa — Colonists Protest — On Verge of Rebellion — Home Government Recedes — Strange Mania Among Kaffirs— Thousands Commit Suicide — Opening of British Kaffraria — First South African Railway — Public Improvements — Diamonds — Kimberley — Cecil Rhodes — His Ambition— Basutos— East Griqualand- Stanley and Livingstone — Philosophy of African Development 59 CHAPTEE V The Share and Sphere of Germany. Slow in Colonization — Geographical Conditions Opposed — France Far Ahead— Great Emigration— Insignificant Settlements in Seventeenth Century — Abortive Efforts of Germans to Invade British Territory — Formation of Societies— Exploration of Interior Africa— Vast Areas Penetrated — Bismarck's Plan— Great Dependency in Congo Valley — Colony Agitation — Germany Afraid of Special Privileges — German Fleets Sent Out— England and France Resist German}' — Settlements IMade in Liberia and Beuguela — German Factory on Bight of Benin — Treaty With Sultan of Zanzibar — West Coast Estab- lishments — Missionary Posts — Clash Between Great Britain and Germany — Better Understanding Brought About — Damaraland — Walfish Bay— Germany Asks Eng- land's Assistance — Augra Pequena— Germany Hoists Flag — England Warned Away — Development of German Southwest Africa — Germans on East Coast — Doctor Nachtigal— Germany Annexes the Cameroons and Tongaland — England Recognizes Germany's Claims 83 CONTENTS CHAPTEE VI France and Italy Claim Their Portions. Count De Brazza— His Explorations— M. Marche and Doctor Bailey -Settlement of Ogovo— Stanley and De Brazza Meet— De Brazza Makes Successful Treaties With Native Chiefs— Kintamo Founded by French— King of Belgium Enters the Field— Equal Rights for All— Belgium Sends Out an Expedition— Authentic Revelation as to the Interior— Berlin Con- ference Made Necessary— Portuguese Pretentions Ignored— French Pressure Narrows English Claims— French Get Possession of the Upper Niger— French Plans— Railway Schemes— Engineers Sent Out— Natives Attack Them— Tunis Seized by France — French Protectorate Declared— Bammako and Kita Taken by the French— Native Chiefs Conquered— Italian and French Achievements— Italy Given a Share of Africa by Berlin Conference— Italians Attempt to Take Island of Socotra — English Resist— Gets Footing in Bay of Assab— Italians Approach Massowah and Suakim— Clash With Abysinnians— War- Menelek— Conflicting Claims— European Sympathy— Erytrea Established— Controversy Between Italy and Great Britain — Jub Conceded to Italy 99 CHAPTER VII Congress of Berlin and the Congo State. Claims of Germany Make Congress Necessary — Jealousy of Nations — General Grab Made for African Territory— Portugal Makes First Appeal for a Conference— France Agrees— Bismarck Consents — Con- gress Organized at Berlin Nov. 15, 1884— Sittings Continued Until Jan. 30, 1885 — Document Called " General Act of the Conference of Berlin " — Results— Most of Great Nations Sign Document— Henry M. Stanley an Important Figure— Enthu- siasm at Congress — All Eyes on the Valley of the Congo — Commercial Vantage the Impelling Motive of Conference — " Open Door" Decided Upon— Neutrality of the Congo and the Niger — Agreements as to Trade — Vast Territory Thrown Open — What Constitutes Colonization — Congo Free State Formed — Protectorate of the King of the Belgians Declared— Recognition Given by the United States— Colonel Strauch — France's Claim Inadmissible —Leopold the Rightful Possessor— France and Belgium Strike an Agreement — Area of Congo Free State — White Elephant for Leopold— Large Expenditures Made Necessary — Parliament Helps Leopold — Arabs and Free State Forces Clash — Arabs Repelled — Negroes Refuse to Build Railroad— Chinese Imported — They Die— Belgium in Dire Straits — Tax on Liquors — Slave Troubles — Administration of Congo — Commercial Progress — Actual African Changes Ill CHAPTER Vin Minor Claimants and Remoter Influences. Influence of Egypt— Suez Canal — Interest of Great Britain — Turkey — English Investments — Great Improvement in Egypt — Country of the Pharoahs Begins to Pay — Agriculture Developed — jMahdist Insur- rection—England Seizes Suakim — Egyptian Railway Undertaken — Telegraph 6 CONTENTS Introduced— Thouflanda of Milefl of Wire Strung— General 8ir ITcrbert Kitchener— Effects of Gordon's Death— Dorvislics Lie Low for a While— Great Britain Creates au Army of Native Egyptians— Kipling's Poem Dervishes Arise— Defeated at Firkch— Dongola Captured— Hands of Kitchener and Cecil Rhodes Meet Across Africa— Tho Sudan— Meaning of the Word— The Aborigines— Territory of the Sudan— Doctor Schweinfurth's Explorations— Dr. M. Y. Dybowski— M. Maistre— Natal— Its Annexation— Territorial Limits of Natal— Internal Improvements — More About Griqualand East— Kaffraria- The Bechuanaland Protectorate— Ba?u- toland — British Ascendency— Zululand— British Protectorate — Character of the Natives— Diamond and Gold Industries 129 CHAPTER IX The Epoch the out bi-t>ak 22 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA of hostilities between the British and the Dutch in the South African Republic. In the age of discovery, that is, at the close of the fifteenth century, the European nations began to be once more deeply con- cerned about the character and possibilities of the African coast. Movements in this direction were made before the middle of the century of discovery and exploration. The first impact of modern European power on the shores of Africa occurred in the year 1415, when the siege of Cueta was brought to a successful conclusion by the Portuguese. Cueta stands on the African shore over against Gibraltar. For about six centuries the Moors had had possession of this coast, but now by the courage and warlike, abilities of King John of Portugal, assisted by Queen Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt of England, a successful siege was made. Cueta was stormed by the Portuguese soldiery led by Prince Henry, destined to be called the Navigator, and by his two brothers. The flag of Portugal was thus raised in Afi'ica. The conquerors heard of the countries as far south as Timbuctoo and Guinea. Prince Henry became acquainted with the character of the continent, and it cannot be doubted that from his early years he cherished the dream of circumnavigation. Thus would he reach the fabled Indies and grasp their treasures. The Prince accordingly became expert in the geography of the age; he was a disciple of the Arabian Idrisi, noted in the cosmography of the twelfth century. Up to this period in history, the commerce of Europe with Asia had been carried on by merchant ships in the Mediterranean. These discharged their cargoes on the shores of the Levant, and received in exchange the rich merchandise of the East. This was brought by caravan from various Oriental countries, and delivered to the PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST 23 merchants of the West. In the fifteenth century, the Venetians had a monopoly ot ti-ade. The Portuguese could hardly hope to supplant the fleets of Venice in the Mediterranean, but they might well dream of the possibility of diverting the commerce of India from caravans to ships, and of establishing an all-water route from the Oriental ports to the harbors of Portugal. It was this antecedent condition whicli inspired the Portuguese in their successful competition for the foremost place in the maritime and commercial enterprises of the fifteenth century. After the capture of Cueta, Prince Henry, in the year 1418, when he was twenty-four years of age, accomplished successfully his first enter- prise by sea. In command of an expedition, he doubled Cape Bojador, which he imagined to be the Cape of Storms. Sixteen years later this point was more completely rounded by Gil Eannes, who traced the coast southward, but without finding the end of the continent. Cape Blanco was doubled in 1442, and a slave-trade was established on this part of the coast. The country inland was penetrated to a great distance. In 1446, the Senegal was reached, and after two years Sierra Leone was discovered. To this period belongs also the discovery and colonization of the Cape Verde Islands. By this time, gold and ivory began to be gathered from Timbuctoo. Further and still further the western coast of Africa w^as traced, and at the date of Prince Henry's death, that is, in 1400, the shore was known for eighteen hundred miles southward from Cape Nun. Before the middle of the century, the Prince had built a fort on the Bay of Argnin, south of Cape Blanco. This fortress became the first headquarters and stronghold of Portuguese enterprise in West Africa, ^reanwhile, in U71, Portugal 24 TllK STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA had gained possession of Tangier, in Morocco. In recognition of such progress, the Pope conferred on John IT the title of "Lord of Guinea." Still more important was the establishment of a settle- ment, in 1482, at El Mina, which, as to priority among European colonies in Africa, holds the same relation as does the colony at St. Augustine in the history of the United States. The Portuguese fortress of El Mina stands to the present day. Thus began the acquisition of African territory by a European state. By the year 1484, a Portuguese expedition, commanded by Diego Cam, made its way southward to the Congo, and sailed up that river into the interior. Nor should failure be made to notice the presence of Martin Behaim, the German globe-maker, among the men of Cam's fleet. Now it was, in the year 1485, that Bartholomeu Diaz made his way to the extreme of the continent, and saw the Cape of Storms. The rest was easy. In 1487, Pero de Covilham succeeded in sailing down the Red Sea, out into the Indian Ocean, and thence to the Malabar coast. Vasco da Gama then appeared on the scene, and in 1497 set out on his famous voyage of successful circum- navigation. The Cape was doubled and the Indies were found. Thus did the western coast, the southern coast, and the eastern coast, from Lorenzo Marquez to Cape Guardafui, become the right and possession of Portugal. Before Magellan had succeeded in passing the southern extremity of South America, the claim of Portugal to the vast and indefinite coast of Africa on the west and south and east was established by her enterprise. The coincidence of this great work with the discovery of America by Columbus and his successors w^as of historical importance. The student of American history will readily recall the sad fate which soon overtook the inhabitants of the West Indies. They were HER MAIESTY THE QUEEN. COLONIAL MINISTER CHAMBERLAIN. PORTUGAL COLONIZES THE COAST 27 reduced to slavery, and were virtuully exterminated by the rapacious Spaniards. In a short time the rising industries in the islands, whether in field or in mine, were paralyzed and extinguished for the want of laborers. Then the Africans were substituted; for the Portuguese had found the Africans. Most unsuccessful and horrible was the collapse of the slave-system as applied to the native races of the West Indies and the American continent. But strangely enough, just at this juncture, Africa was made known with its millions of dark inhabitants, inured to the heats and fevers of the tropics. These millions, sad to relate, offered to the insatiable greed of the Europeans a prodigious store of slaves — a store which four centuries of mingled rapacity and progress have not exhausted. As for Da Gama, he passed leisurely up the eastern coast of Africa on his way to India. In December of 1497, he landed about the 30th parallel of south latitude, inspected the country, anil gave it the name of Natal {Terra Natalis). Further on he touched again, first at Sofala, then at Mozambique, then at Melinde, and then at Mombasa. All along this coast he found inhabitants, mostly Semitic Arabians, but in some places mixed Arabians and Hamites. The voyage and its results might well confirm the claim of the Portuguese to Africa, from the southern Cape to the (iulf of Aden. Great energy was at first displayed by the King of Portugal and his adventurous navigators. Colonization was contemplated and planned as a result of the new discoveries. Many parts of the African shores seemed to invite settlement and to promise the greatest rewards to enterprise. As early as USo, Diego Cam, returning to Lisbon from the country of the Congo, h:i7 a licet, commanded by Tristan da Cunlia, took possession of Socotra and Lamii. These places were fortified to become centers oi colonial 80 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA enterprise. About the same time, the tirst European fortress was built in Mozambique. In 1508, the Portuguese gained complete possession of Quiloa. The whole coast of Africa lying to the west, over against Madagascar, passed under the dominion of the Por- tuguese crown, the claim being confirmed by both discovery and colonization. The country was worth possessing. It was already held by populous communities. These were composed of Mohammedan Arabs. The native settlements were centralized. Each town had its sheik, or governor, whose authority was undisputed. Several sheiks were united, but not closely, under the authority of a sultan. The work of colonization by the Portuguese was prosecuted with so much zeal, that by the year 1520, when, as we have said, Ferdinand Magellan was still struggling hard to make his way through the channels that separate South America from the Land of Fire, the whole of the African coast, except that part which borders on the Mediterranean and on the Red Sea, had yielded to the sceptre of King Emanuel. It should be noted, however, as a historical fact of importance, that Portugal for some reason avoided, or at least did not seek, the Cape of Good Hope as one of the centers of her colonial empire. Though the opportunity lay open for a long time, no Portuguese colony was planted at or near the Cape. This part of the country remained an inviting field for the future rivalries and contests of nations, and they have not been slow to seek the vantage of such a seat of power. CHAPTER II THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY It is not our purpose to include in ttiis narrative the vicissitudes of Portuguese expansion in the East Indies. It is the African col- onization which we are to consider. The voyages of the Portuguese navigators, however, extended everywhere. The flag of King John and Emanuel was seen in India. Thither, in the beginning of the sixteenth century the imperial plan was stretched. In 1503, Alfonso du Albuquerque, surnamed the Portuguese Mars, was commissioned as Viceroy of India. In that capacity he sailed with a fleet of twenty ships and made his way by the recently discovered all- water route to the coast of Malabar. Albuquerque made a descent on the Indian city of Cloa. This important place he invested and captured from the native rulers. He carried with him a crew and a colony numbering twelve hundred men. A native prophecy had indicated a downfall of the city at this date, and Albuquerque was easily able to avail himself of the superstition and to make a triumphal entry. Goa soon became the emporium of India. Portuguese institutions were estal)lished, not only there, but on the whole of the Malabar coast — at Ormuz, in Ceylon, in the Sunda islands, and on the peninsula of Malacca. Prosperous commercial centers were soon developed under the patronage of the mother kingdom. For a while Portugal gave promise of becoming tlie great colonizing and governing state of the world. Her success at this epoch, in gaining for herself tlio greater and better part of South America, was as phenomenal as (31) 32 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA that on the western borders of India. There was a time in the sixteenth century when the Portuguese empire extended as an immense continental and insular dominion from the Malaccan peninsula to the head tributaries of the river Amazon. Only one thing the parent state seemed to lack, and that was the power of political organization. This she did not possess, at least in the measure that Great Britain has possessed it and demonstrated it in the history of the nineteenth century. Portugal permitted her colonial dependencies to remain isolated. Each dependent state pursued its own course, developing its resources without extraneous assistance, and flourishing by individual and local energy, rather than by a combination of powers working together for greatness. For this reason, among others, Lisbon did not become London. It suflBces to say that of all the states and kingdoms of Europe which sent out expeditions in the sixteenth century to discover new lands in distant parts of the world, and then sent other expeditions to colonize the favored regions, Portugal was easily the first in the extent and variety of her discoveries. She was also first in the peaceful success of her settlements, and in the almost boundless colonial empire which she established. If, at the present day, her dependencies be shrunk to a handbreadth, it has been for the lack, not of the imperial spirit, but for want of imperial ability. Confining our attention, then, to the African dominion of Portu- gal in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we find the chief seats of her dependent empire to be on the west coast. There the colonial activity was greatest. The western colonies extended from the Gulf of Guinea to the Cape. But the most enterprising and progressive of these lay between the mouth of the Congo and the modern Demara- land. Of these dependencies, Angola may be regarded as the chief. THK FOI^TITIUESE ASCEXDEXrV :^8 From the coast, the dominion of the Europeans extended iuhmd to an indefinite distance. In the central region the Portuguese came into contact with fabulous native kingdoms. One of the most important of these was called the Empire of Monomotapa. The lines of interior progress were mostlj^ on the west coast in the valley of the Congo, and on the east coast in the valley of the Zambesi. Except in the center of the continent and at the southern extremity, the Portuguese authority was unquestioned and unques- tionable. As in our America of the sixteenth century, the issue was ever on between the Portuguese conquerors and the generally sub- missive natives. On the east coast there were already many opulent settlements and trading centers before the epoch of discovery. These nuclei of civilization were controlled by the Arabian and Indian mer- chants who conducted the commerce between Africa and the East. In a military way Portugal sought to fortify her authority by constructing defences at certain points on the African coast. One of these was at Arguin, the small littoral island lying in latitude twenty degrees twenty-five minutes north. The Cape Verde islands were also made defensible. At El Mina, already referred to, a more consider- able stronghold was established. It was the policy of the kingdom to open trade and develop the native resources of the country. To this end, factories were built on the banks of the Senegal ; also, on the Gambia, on the Rio Grande, on the Gold Coast, on the Gulf (or Bight) of Benin, and on the Congo. All of the shore islands, from the Canaries to the Cape, were possessed and settled by Portuguese colonists. From the various centers of manufacture and trade, an abundant commerce was developed by the mother country. Had the human- ities of enlightened enterprise been predominate over the avarice of 84 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA merchants and adventurers, a happier issue must have been reached in the commercial destinies of the kingdom. But all kinds of merchan- dise soon gave place to the merchandise in men. The Portuguese slave trade of the sixteenth century far exceeded in extent and pro- fitableness all other forms of commerce. From the very beginning of the colonial expansion of the kingdom, ships returned to the home harbors laden with slaves. A half century before the discovery of America and the circumnavigation of Africa, nearly a thousand kidnapped negroes had been marketed in Portugal. In 1517, a Flemish trader received a patent from Charles V openly authorizing him to import annually 4,000 negro slaves into the West Indies. This signified that all of the human merchandise must be purchased from, or taken in defiance of, the Portuguese traders on the African coast. A slave exchange was opened in Lisbon under authority of a bull from the Pope ! In that mart negroes might be purchased by the hundred and thousand. Thither came the exporters who shipped the slaves to the New World markets. The trade grew to enormous proportions. Before the middle of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese dealers sent out as many as 12,000 slaves annually to the West Indies. It was from this horrible origin that the black populations of Hayti, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Jamaica and Porto Rico have been derived. The commerce was lucrative in the highest degree. The slave hunters had only to penetrate the wild and capture their human game, driving great gangs of the blacks down to the coast, and sending them to their fate under the lashes and goads of the Spanish overseers on the plantations. Already African gold had been found in moderate abundance. The gold coast yielded a fair measure of "the precious metal and of ivory from the interior. The mines began to be worked, and African CoarlesT of The Christian Herald. PRESIDENT KRUGER PREACHING IN THE CHURCH AT PRETORIA. THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY 37 gold was once more seen in the markets and mints of Europe, as it had been a thousand years before the Christian era. The ancient dream of Ophir was not realized, however, and the gathering and exportation of gold yielded a more modest profit than did the com- merce in slaves. The gold trade declined, but the slave market was ever full. At length the cupidity of other kingdoms was inflamed by the commercial success of Portugal and her dependent colonies. The fleets of several nations began, in defiance of the rights of discovery and the bull of Pope Alexander, to make descents on the African coasts. The Portuguese, however, were able for a long time to beat off the intruders, and to monopolize all the advantages of prior occupation. The possessions of Portugal in West Africa were designated as "Barbary." The illicit trade with the country so-called, dangerous as it was, greatly increased. It was in this age, namely, in the year 1553 (that being the last year of the reign of Edward VT). tluit the first English fleet was fitted out for the West-African trade. This was done under the auspices of a club of the merchants of London. The leader of the expedition which they planned was Captain Wind- ham, who found the Portuguese to be greatly offended when he appeared in the (lulf of Guinea. The English were visited with threats and violence, but they nevertheless succeeded in reaching the Gold Coast, where Windham, according to his own story, secured a hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and canied it back safely to his patrons; but in a second adventure he came to grief at the liands of the enemy. The successor of Windham in the gold trade was Captain John Lok, who reached the African coast with a cargo of cloth, which he bartered for spices, ivory and gold. H«' i< ^:iid U 3 4^769." as THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA have exported four hundred pounds of the precious metal and two hundred and fifty elephant tusks, besides spices and gems. These dangerous intrusions of the English traders were kept up during the after half of the sixteenth century. Meanwhile, French merchant ships also were seen in the African waters, but they were easily beaten off by the Portuguese on land, and by the hardier English on the sea. In 1555, Captain William Towrson, of London, made a successful venture to the Portuguese settlements, not hesitating to visit El Mina. But he was at length attacked and driven away. The Portuguese were able to hold their commercial monopoly in South Africa by establishing fortresses at intervals along the coast. By this means they easily subdued the barbarous natives on the one hand, and warded off the encroachments of foreign adventurers on the other. The peculiarity of the epoch immediately succeeding the age of discovery was the fact that all the European nations except Portugal found their opportunity in the west. Spain, England, France, Holland, each and all, liberated their adventurers in the direction of the new world. Only the Portuguese turned system- atically to the south and the east. The signs of this division of enterprise were seen before the death of Columbus. The Pope, therefore, had substantial grounds for assigning the eastern half of tne globe to Portugal. The situation which followed w^as the historical result of these antecedents. It was not until the age of Elizabeth that the English seriously contemplated a disturbance of conditions in the colonial empire of Portugal. In the very year of the destruction of the Spanish Armada (1588) the English queen granted to certain of her noble subjects a charter for the creation of the first "African THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY 39 Company." It was the beginning of an age in which such charters and such companies abounded. By its constitution, the African Company was authorized to enter unoccupied regions on the coa.st, and to establish trade and settlements according to opportunity and promise of success. Already, before this movement was well under way, the natives of the Senegal Valley had risen against the Portuguese, seized their factories, and had virtually driven them from the country. On the river Gambia, however, the flag of Portugal was still upheld by vigor- ous hands, and strong efforts were made to prevent the English Africa n ComjDany from getting a foothold. It was only by beating up and down the coast that the fleet of England was able to open a pre- carious trade and to secure a valuable cargo of merchandise. The sequel showed that the French had already gained admit- tance to the country, and a measure of favor at the hands of the Portuguese. The latter could not be expected much longer to retain their unshaken hold on the continent ; for the mother country had by this time lost her independence. While the African, East Indian, and South American colonies of Portugal had waxed strong, the home kingdom had first entered a period of decline and had then reached a crisis of total absorption in the wider empire of Si)ain. As early as the reign of John 111, who succeeded Emanuel in 1521, the weakening of Portugal had begun. Her success in estab- lishing a great empire, south and east and west, had proved too much for the enfeebled virtue of both court and people. A few years after the date referred to, namely, in 1536, the Inquisition was introduced into Portugal, and while wealtli abounded in tlie palaces and streets of Lisbon, the old spirit of the people was awed into silence and inactivity by the "Tribunal of the Holy Office." 40 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA From this date, the East Indian empire of the Portuguese rapidly declined. In 1545, the fortunes of the kingdom in the east were revived somewhat by John de Castro, who was Viceroy at Groa. After his ascendency, the reaction against the Portuguese power in India continued unchecked. Meanwhile, in the home kingdom, in the year 1557, Don Sebastian, a child three years old, succeeded John III as king of Portugal. Under the reign of a minor and the regency of a queen and a cardinal, the affairs of the government went from bad to worse. In 1578, Sebastian, grown to manhood, was slain in a battle with the Moors, and Cardinal Henry, brother of John III, became Henry I. But the revolution in favor of Spain was now on in full force, and two years after the accession of Henry, the smaller kingdom was incorporated with the greater. Portugal was reduced to a province of Spain. It had not, however, been reserved for the Spanish monarchy to absorb the outlying colonies and dependencies of Portugal. Nor was the Spanish kingdom, now engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Netherlands, in a condition to assume the goverments of Western India, Southern Africa, and Brazil. So the Portuguese colonies remained in a semi-independent condition until the valor ot the Dutch gave them the mastery of the seas. The union of Portugal with Spain continued from 1580 to 1640. The Portuguese writers designate the period as the "sixty years' captivity." The other European nations — the English, the Dutch, the French — availed themselves of the political prostration of Portugal to assail her dependencies. It was at this time that Faro, the seaport of Algarve, was sacked by the English. The colonial possessions were nearly all invaded. The Portuguese East Indian empire melted away. In 1594-95, Pernambuco, the capital of the THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY 41 maritime state of the same name in Brazil, was ravaged. Fort Argiiin was taken in the same year, and the Azores in 15*.)6. The flourishing trade of the Portuguese on the west coast of Africa was ahnost destroyed. Even the Danes made their way to tlie African waters and established themselves at Tanquebar, where they )»iiilt a factory. At length in 1640, national independence was restored under the auspices of the House of Braganga. On the 13th of Decern l>er in that year, John IV was crowned as sovereign, and the Spaniards were expelled from the kingdom. The revolution came in time to prevent the total extinction of the colonial empire of Portugal ; indeed from the middle of the seventeenth century, the foreign interests of the mother state revived sufficiently to ensure the confirmation of Portuguese power at several places on the African coast. And it is out of these conditions that the territorial dominion of the mother country still holds a respectable place among the European provinces of the Dark Continent. When the territorial and political condition of modern Africa was determined by the treaty of Vienna, in LSI 5. the i'ortiiguese possessions in the South were recognized and guaranteed. Neither the French ascendency under Napoleon, nor the reaction against his empire sufficed to subvert an authority wliicli had l)een so well established two centuries before. At this time, namely in 1815. the Portuguese colonies were principally those having for their centers the mouth of the Congo on the west, and the city of Sofala on the east. The apposition of these two seats of influence, thougii so widely removed, was such as to warrant a vague claim on the part of Portugal to ihr irlio/c co/ifitinif /i/iti;/ Ixfirceu. But such claim was never recognized l)y the Kuroi)ean nations. 42 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA In the early part of the century, however, extensive explorations were made by the Portuguese into the interior from Angola on the western coast and Mozambique on the eastern. One or two expedi- tions traversed the continent from side to side. It is said that stations were established along the line of the Zambesi in the very heart of Africa. At any rate, the recent period was ushered in with the African possessions of Portugal as distinctly marked as those of any other European power. So that when the first great partition of modern Africa was undertaken by the powers at the Berlin conference of 1884, Portugal had to be recognized with a proportion of African territory wholly incommensurate with the insignificant size and fourth-rate rank of the mother kingdom. In the first place, the Azores and Madeira islands were conceded at the Berlin Conference. Then in the old Gambia region, at about ten degrees of north latitude, a portion of coast, with some of the littoral islands, was assigned to Portugal in recognition of her ancient claims. In the Gulf of Guinea, also, the islands of Prince and St. Thomas remained a Portuguese appanage. From the mouth of the Congo southward to Cape Frio, in latitude eighteen degrees south, the country of Angola was constituted, being the most important of all the African possessions of Portugal. From Cape Frio around the southern coast and northward along the eastern coast, as far as the twenty-seventh degree of south latitude, the territory was divided among the other European powers; but at the northern extremity of Tongaland the Portuguese authority w^as again recognized, and from that point northward to Cape Delgado, just below the tenth parallel, the maritime country of Mozambique was constituted as Portuguese East Africa. This territory still holds its rank and occupies a most important THE PORTUGUESE ASCENDENCY 43 relation to the conflict which has broken out in the South African Republic. The Maputa river traverses Portuguese East Africa at the south, and falls into Delagoa Bay. On the north of this water is situated the old Portuguese colonial town of Lorenzo Marquez. The Limpopo River, which constitutes a part of the northern boundary of the South African Republic, flows for more than two hundred miles through Portuguese East Africa before reaching the ocean. P'urther along the coast is the important town of Inhambane, and just below the twentieth parallel of south latitude is the ancient colonial seat of Sofala, with the nearby capital of Beira. From the latter point to the western boundary of the country, a railway has been com- pleted, and thence a line is under construction as far as Salislniry, in Rhodesia. Through a distance of about three hundred miles, Portuguese East Africa borders the South African Republic on the east, and thus separates that important country from the sea. Thus much then, remains to the present day, of the ancient Portuguese possessions in Africa: Angola and Portuguese East Africa. Notwithstanding the restriction of these possessions to the two coasts, east and west, it is nevertheless possible for travelers or merchants to make their way eastward from ]\lossamedes in Angola into the interior as far as the river Zambesi, one tributary of which borders Angola on the east. From that jxnnt it is j)ra('- ticable to descend the Zambesi across the continent l)y way of Victoria Falls to the western ])oundary of Portuguese East Africa at Zumbo, and thence with the expanding river to the great delta at its confluence with the Indian Oc(viii. al)oiit tlio eighteenth parallel south. Though at the present time the Portuguese })ossessioiis and 44 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA claims are not so much obtruded into the historical foreground as are the claims of some of the other powers, the former are never- theless of great importance as a part of those African territories, the possession of which is to be determined by the sword. CECIL RHODES. PRESIDENT AND MRS. PAUL KRUGER. CHAPTER III THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA Among modern maritime nations, Holland is second to one only, England. Her geographical position and the genius of her people have conspired to give her this enviable rank. Once and again the Dutch have been, not second, but first in the domination of the sea. This was in the seventeenth century, when the fleets of England herself, went back before the prowess of Van Trouip and De Ruyter. Time was in a still earlier age, when Dutch ships were second to none in their ocean flight to distant lands, whether to the Indies in the East, or to the frozen bay of Hudson, in North America. The rise of the Netherlands to influence at home and abroad dates from their great revolt against Spain in the year 1581. Long and dreadful was the contest which ensued. The Dutch were tried by lire and by water; for some perished in the flames of the Inquisition, while hundreds were drowned in their own North Sea, for the inrushing of which the patriot leaders had broken the dyke. For nearly seventy years the conflict of the Dutch rebels with their merciless adversaries continued. IJut they issued from their war of independence with hosannas and flying banners. Then their fearless spirit carried them forth to the ends of the earth. Long before the treaty of AVestphalia (1648), when the independence of tlie Dutch Netherlands was finally acknowledged and giiai-antoed, tlie mariners of Holland had become conspicuous for their ai»ilities as dis- coverers, explorers and colonizers. Nortli Anierica itM-oivo'l their (47) 48 TUK S'I'OlfV 01^' SOUTH AFRICA impress. The Indies, East and West, knew their forceful visitations, and Africa felt their tremendous impact. The revolt of the Netherlands occurred co'incidently with the absorption of Portugal by Spain. With this event all Portuguese interests, whetlier at home or abroad, became constructively the interests of the Spanish crown. In her long war with the armies of Philip 11, Holland might well attack the Portuguese possessions, since they were the dependencies of Spain. The situation as well as the spirit of the race brought the Dutch fleets to bear against the Portuguese, and made the colonial empire of the latter an easy spoil. Such was the condition which led inevitably to the over- throw of the East Indian dominion of Portugal, and the substitution therefor of the Oriental empire of the Netherlands. The same thing virtually occurred on the coasts of Africa. Here the Dutch became the aggressors and the conquerors. The first trad- ing expedition was sent out from the North Sea to Guinea in the year 1595. . The ships of the Portuguese and the Spaniards could not with- stand the onset of the hardy Dutch captains who assailed them. Neither could the French and English fleets bear the pressure of the new sea-power rising from the northern ocean. In a short time. West Africa became the prey of the Dutch. In the first place, tlie island of Goree, belonging to France, situated off the coast of Senagambia south of the Cape Verde group, was pur- chased, colonized, and fortified. In 1621, the Dutch West India Com- pany, successor of the Dutch East India Company, was chartered, and from that time forth the fleets of Holland made their way west, south and east. They came upon the Atlantic coast of Africa, and there wrought havoc with the settlements of other nations. In 1637, El Mina, the old stronghold of Portugal on the Gold THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA 49 Coast, was captured by the Dutch. Soon afterwards Axim was taken, and the other forts of the European colonists fell one bj^ one. Wherever the Dutch landed, they first subdued and then fortified. Their charter gave them the monopoly of trade from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope. They proceeded accordingly to make valid their claim l)y conquest. They built forts at intervals all the way from Arguin southward to the extremitj^ of the continent. The gold coast was, in particular, made secure against the onset of rivals and enemies. Between Cape Blanco and St. Paul de Loanda more than two score forts and stations had been established, and of these the Dutch gained possession of sixteen. Then followed the opening of trade, or, rather, the transfer of the trade which the Portuguese had already established to tlie merchant ships of Holland. '*' At first the commerce was mostly of gold and ivory and pepper. But it was not long until the Dutch merchants yielded to the same temptation, before which, they of Lisbon and London had sunk into utter depravity. The slave coast promised richer reward than did the coast of gold. The man-trade was more enticing than the trade in tusks and pepper-pods. This thing, indeed, had been contemplated from the very first ; for the company was chartered as the Dutch West India Company. Why West India? — why, but to hint at the slave trade as the principal business for which the company was licensed? For a long time, the merchant ships of Protestant Holland were laden to the water with their cargoes of human chattels. Great was the enmitv of England on tliis scoro. Fain would the * The commerce of the Portuguese, according to their own report, whs described us "a very great and advantageous inland trade for some hundreds of miles." Nearly all uf this, now went to the Dutch, and the saying got abroad, that the Portuguese were the "dogs which chased the game out of the jungle, in order that the Dutch might talce it " 50 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Mn^^disli .shii).s liave liad a sliare in the profitable man-trade. The Hritisli i)hiiit(M-s in the West Indies mouthed not a little because the Dutch slave-ships l)rought only the refuse of their traffic to them. They got only the poorer sort of slaves, vv^hile the better were sold ill Ihiyti and Cuba. The Dutch were monopolists in this traffic, and tli(« English traders believed in no monopoly save their own. How, hardly, would the latter consent to pay £20 per head for slaves, when witli an African port of free entry for their own ships, negroes could be l)ought or taken for fifty shillings each! Nor do the writings of the times indicate any sentiment respecting the nefarious merchan- dise other than the desire to make therefrom the greatest possible profit ! During the early part of the seventeenth century, the situation here described, continued to prevail in the Dutch-African dependen- cies. Frequently in this age, the European nations were so greatly complicated by war and intrigue, that their outlying possessions were neglected, if not forgotten, in the deadlier struggle of armies and navies close to the home kingdoms. Thus, for example ; in the Crom- wellian era, what could be expected but that the attention of Eng- land and the pi-oximate continental states should be absorbed in the vicissitudes of that momentous conflict? Soon afterwards, Holland and England were engaged in a death-grip on the sea. By a strange turn of events, however, when the Revolution of 1688 came, William the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, while retaining his continental rank, became King of England. The fleets of the kingdom and the republic were brought into union for fifteen years. For a consider- able period the two countries made common cause on both land and sea, contending in a masterful way against the inordinate ambitions of Louis XIV of France. Even on the African coast, the English and THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA 51 Dutch rivalries were abated, not to break out again until after the death of William HI. In the meantime, however, Holland had been keenly alert to extend her influence in South Africa. Having obtained possession of the Portuguese East Indian dominions, and having a secure hold on the west coast, she now sought to establish herself at the southern extremity of the continent. She was able to perceive that the Cape of Good Hope, would be, and remain the midway station between the Occident and the Orient. Accordingly, in 1652, the Dutch estab- lished themselves at the Cape. The advantages of the situation were at once perceived both by the colonists and the public men of Holland, who promoted the enterprise. The patronage of the Dutch government was freely extended to the new dependency ; immigration from the home kingdom was encouraged. Meanwhile the Dutch East India Company, directed by Jan Van Riebeeck, under whose immediate patronage the colony at the Cape had been planted, did little to promote, but much to restrict, the growth of the dependency. What the company desired was a trading station and not a new state. The settlement of the Dutch was made on the site of the present Cape Town, and the juris- diction extended only a few miles into the interior. Here it was that another point of contact was found l)y the Europeans with the native populations. The latter were blacks of the blackest type. The old name of the tribes occupying this part of the country was Qua-Qua, or Khoi-khoin, but for some reason this name was supplanted by that of Hottentots. The latter word seems to have been invented as an onomatopoetic imitation of the stam- mering cluck with which the native speech is pronounced. It was a language of hot-en-(and)-tot. The al)origines were one of the 52 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA throe lowest varieties of human beings; only the neighboring Hushmans and the natives of Australia could compete with them for the foot of the class. (iradually, but slowly, the Dutch extended their authority over the Cape country. The natives were driven into the interior, or were reduced to slavery. There was already at the Cape a thin distribution of Europeans, consisting of a melange of Portuguese, Flemings, Germans, and even Poles. But these were few in num- bers, and were generally a low kind, intermixed with the natives. They were unable to oppose the robust Dutch, but the latter were not sufficiently aggressive and enterprising to convert South Africa into a great commonwealth. As the event here refeiTed to, namely, the establishment of a permanent Dutch settlement at the Cape, was the beginning of that process of colonization which has given the Boer cast to large districts in the region under consideration, we may look at the characteristics of this peculiar race. They were from the first a resolute l)ut strongly conservative people. They had the agricul- tural instinct; they preferred the country life and production, to commerce and adventure. They desired to be let alone. They were annoyed with the restrictions which the East India Company imposed upon them. That company had a most tyrannical method which it applied in the government of all its posts and settle- ments. It did not hesitate to declare what kind of industries the colonists should follow. They should plant this crop, and should not plant the other. As for taxation, that was exorbitant. Hardly could the thrift of the Dutch farmers, handicraftsmen, and small traders, answer the demands of the despotic organization which controlled them. THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA 53 In order to meet the requirements of their condition, the Boers treated the natives ^Yith severity, and gradually took possession of a considerable district of the Hottentot country. Many of the blacks were reduced to slavery. The slave contingent was increased by the importation of both Malays and negroes. On the whole, while the local industry was sufficient, and while the contentment of the African Dutch was marked, the colony was not " progressive," and therefore it did not harmonize with the spirit and purpose of the English who came after them. Such were the conditions in the original settlement from which the Boer countries of South Africa have drawn, in large measure, their present character. The interval from 1652 to 1686 may be designated as the first period of the Dutch ascendency at the Cape. In the last named year, a new element was added to the population, very accordant withal with the spirit of the Dutch colonists. The Protestant Huguenots of France, escaping from the dreadful persecutions to which they were subjected after the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes, sought peace in the ends of the earth. One refuge was in America, and another was at the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch received them willingly, and a certain enthusiasm came with the importation of Gallic blood. The Boers, who may from this period be regarded as native and to the manner born in South Africa, became a separate people. They grew more and more restive under the exactions of the Dutch East India Company, to which corporation the home government gave the right of control, and at length, they rebelled against this state of affairs. They went so far as to adopt the policy of removing beyond the colonial borders in order to escape from the tyrannical rule to which they were subjected. 54 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA This policy of the Dutch, now becoming Boers, was first adopted before the close of the seventeenth century. Boer settlements began to be formed across the boundary. A movement took place among them in all respects analogous to that of the removal of the American colonists westward through the wilderness. It was this condition which in both South Africa and America has thrust the more liberty-loving people further and further into the interior. In all ages, human freedom has sought the frontier as a refuge from the despotism and mercenary control of the older communities. The policy, thus adopted by the Boers two centuries ago, has been pursued by them ever since. Their first escape was from the tyrannous rule of their own government. They first colonized an interior district called Graaf-Reinat, and whenever afterward the colonial government, either Dutch or British, has encroached upon the interior provinces, the Boer population has followed the policy of receding before the aggressive foreign powder, choosing indepen- dence rather than empire. During the early part of the eighteenth century, the Gamtoos River was adopted and held by the Dutch as the eastern limit of their territory. This stream had hitherto been accepted by the Hottentots and the KaflBrs as the boundary line between them. The Gamtoos, therefore, became the demarcation between the Dutch on the west, and the KaflBr nations on the east. This vent into new territory sufficed for colonial expansion until the year 1740, when the Boers crossed over the Gamtoos into the KaflBr territory, and began to make settlements in that country. A clash ensued, and the natives w^ere obliged to recede, though the Boers "did not try to oppress them. The country was wide and spai^ely inhabited, and thus gave opportunity for colonization by the European intruders. z o H u Ol, < u (if CO D O H Z u S < < o H Ui < u < z THE DUTCH ENTER AFRICA 57 The movement of the Dutch inland, from Cape Colony towards the Kaffir country and through it in the direction of the Orange River, thence to the Vaal and the Buffalo, and finally to the Limpopo, began before the middle of the eighteenth century and continued until the Orange Free State and South African Republic were con- stituted as the seats of the Boer concentration. By the year 1780, this progressive drift of population had extended to the Great Fish River, which was for a period the Boer frontier. Such was the situa- tion in 1795, when the colonists at the Cape, catching the fever of revolution from Western Europe, determined to free themselves from the dominion of the home kingdom. They revolted and declared independence. The Dutch authorities were at this time hard pressed by the continental revolution which had extended into the Netherlands. Hereupon Great Britain, seeing the inability of the Dutch to keep their grip on South Africa, and fearing that that country might be seized by the French, sent a fleet to the cape and took possession of the country in the name of the Prince of Orange. Without much disturbance to the colonists, British authority was established over them. A British governor was appointed, and peace was maintained until 1802, when, by the treaty of Amiens, Cape Colony was restored to Holland. Four years afterwards, the continental war broke out with more violence than ever, and the British, under Sir David liaird, again took possession in South Africa. This assumption w'as main- tained for nine years, when it was confirmed forever, at the Congress of Vienna. A new map of the world was there constructed. Ciumges were effected in all the continents and in most of the archipelagos. Cape Colony was ceded by the King of the Netherlands to Great r,H THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Hritain, together witli Ceylon, Dutch Cuiana, Mauritius, Tobago, Malta, and Helgohind. Tlie aggregate result was to make the future possessions of the Dutch in South Africa a?i inland dominion. Hritish Cape Colony was now made to extend from the mouth of tiic Orange River all the way around the southern bend of the con- tinent to the mouth of the Tugela. As for the Boers, they virtually lost their stafehood and became a people, without definite territorial demarcations. Such is the story of the Dutch in South Africa down to the Berlin Conference of 1884. After that date, a number of European states appeared on the map, the history of each of w^hich the Orange Free State and the South African Republic included, will be noted in subsequent chapters down to the time of the Jameson episode. CHAPTER IV GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING Little progress was made by England on the coast of Africa until after the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration of the Monarchy. We have narrated the desultory adventures of Windham, Lok, and Towrson, acting under the patent given, in 1588, by Eliza- beth to the first African company. Her successor, in 1G18, granted a charter to a second company ; but this enterprise also was com- paratively barren of results. The second company did indeed make its way to the west coast, and from thence the English strove to reach the gold and gem-bearing mines of Timbuctoo. It appears that the prevailing error in geography, which made the river Gambia, as well as the Senegal, to be a tributary of the Niger, prevented the expedition from reaching the goal. Other voy- ages and marches inland followed, but these also were attended with unsuccess. Meanwhile, the managers of the company became convinced that in the mixture of gold and fable with which they had been allured, the fable so outmeasured the gold as to suggest the abandonment of the enterprise. The charter issued by King Charles I, in 1631, was hardly more successful tlian its predecessors in promoting the project of African colonization. This third company directed a commercial fleet to the valley of the Gambia. Trade was opened with the natives of that region, but the project of colonizing hardly proceeded beyond t\w plan. In the meantime, the English monarchy was assailed by the (69) 6u THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA insurj^'ont pcopb, and foreij^n enterprises were swallowed up in the swirl of i-ovolutioM and civil war. Aftor the dcatii of tlio Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, the resi^MKition of liis son, and the recall, in 1660, of Charles II to the tlironn of his ancestors, the English monarchy settled. again into its accustomed habits, and enterprise abroad was slowly revived. In 1662, wfonrth English African Company was chartered by the king. A fleet was sent into the river Gambia, and on James Island, in that stream, the first British fort within the boundaries of the dark continent was built. This event was coincident with the planting of their first colony by the Dutch at the Cape of Good Hope. We have, in the preceding chapters, traced the vicissitudes of that settlement down to the time of its absorption by the British in the epoch of the Napoleonic wars. We have also seen a confir- mation of that conquest by the Congress of Vienna. By that body Cape Colony was recognized as a British dependency, and from this event dates the beginning of the ascendency of Great Britain in South Africa. Territorially, and in a general way, the country known as Cape Colony is that region at the southern extremity of the continent bounded by the ocean, and, on the north, by the south branch of the Oi'ange river. That river was contemplated, though not declared, as the northern limit by the ambassadors at Vienna in 1815. The map thus reconstructed, at the downfall of Napoleon, showed the unmis- takable signs of the oncoming supremacy of Great Britain by land and sea. It indicated that her political power and commercial leadership should not again be seriously disputed until some new order should come into the world in obedience to those general historical laws by whic.h the world is governed. Great Britain planted herself in GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING 61 her South African dependency, and looked complacent!)' across the illimitable sea — westward to South America, eastward to the Indies. She also began to look northward into the interior of the great continent upon which she had obtained so firm a footing. Four years before the Congress of Vienna, the first trouble between the British and Kaffirs occurred. Savage peoples do not yield their sovereignty simply because of an assertion of white superiority. The Kaffirs observed the march of British enterprise and domination with suspicion and ill-concealed dislike. Many hardy men had penetrated far into the unknown interior, and it was easy for them to see that great wealth awaited tkere for those who had the courage to attempt its development. The Kaffir was much in the position of the American Indian — both had long been in the posses- sion of an enticing portion of the earth's surface and both fiercely resented the invasion of the forces of civilization. The South Afri- can pioneers suffered much as the bold men who gave the great American West, with its agriculture, forests and mines, to the home- seekers and enterprise of the world. Several of these British explorers were killed by the Kaffirs. This was considered ample justification for punishing them. Then came their partial subjection. The first Kaffir war of 1811 was succeeded l)y another in 1819, and this was concluded by the extension of the British boundaries to the river Keiskamma. For a while this expansion sufficed. In the next year after the war, emigration from the home kingdom set in. Al)out five thousand British newcomers arrived at Algoa Bay on the southern coast. They spread around eastward and west- ward, and founded Grahamstown and Elizabeth. ' The site for the former city, which may be regarded as the metropolis of the eastern districts of Cape Colony, had already been selected as a headquarters 62 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA in 1812. (Inihanistown is sitiicated forty miles inland from the mouth of the Great Fish and Kowie rivers. Already, in 1819, the place had been attacked by the Kaffirs. Grahamstown was henceforth the center of what was called the "Albany Settlement." As the town developed it l)ecame, from its situation which is picturesque, from its style of buildings, and from the character of its inhabitants, the most English of all the South African towns. Elizabeth was founded on the west side of Algoa Bay, on the pro- jection called Point Elizabeth. This city, also, was destined in the course of the century to become a thriving seat of trade to which an extensive agricultural and pastoral region contributed many and val- uable products. The fourth decade of the nineteenth century is noted as the time at which slavery was abolished in the colonial dependencies of Great Britain. An agitation had come on in the home kingdom which not even Tory conservatism could longer resist. A measure was carried through Parliament to reduce West Indian slavery to a system of "apprenticeship," with compensation to the masters. In South Africa, the compensation was not necessary, since most of the slaveholders were not English but Boers. However just the action of Great Britain, it entailed great loss to the Boers. Slavery was not particularly advantageous to the British mer- chants and adventurers, governors and soldiers of the countries of the Cape, but it was the favorite institution of the Boers. The abolition fell upon them and for the time disrupted their system. The Hotten- tots and Negroes whom the Boers had held in bondage escaped from their control. As a matter of fact, this was the first great measure which opened a fissure in the social and civil purposes of the Boers on the one side and the British on the other. GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING 63 Already, as we have seen, the Boers had discovered the only feas- ible method of avoidance as it respected British aggression. This was to recede before the aggressors, and find new seats in the interior. The measure, however, was by no means agreeable to the governing class; for British policy does not ^villingly contemplate a reduced population. It is more profitable to harvest the resources of a thickly populated country than to gather commercial advantage from a sparcely settled or depopulated region. The Boers found the method of removal advantageous, both as an escape from conditions which they did not like and as a protest against British aggression. Accordingly, when they lost their slaves in 1834, they prepared for emigration. In the following two years they sold their farms, getting for them whatever they could (generally only a tithe of what they were worth), and began an exodus from Cape Col- ony across the Orange River. The enterprise was attended with the greatest hardships. It might almost suggest the removal of the Mor- mons from the Mississippi to Great Salt Lake — though the distance of the migration of the Boers was incomparable to the other. The latter had to penetrate wild countries, crossing rivers and mountains, and combating with the fierce KaflQrs before they secured a safe footing within the countiy now known as Natal. The leader of the Boers in this anabasis through the wilderness was Peter Retief. The course of the migration lay across the Drakens- berg range. Not only must the Boers contend with the Kaffirs for the new territory, but they were obliged to resist the Zulus on the other side. The Dutch farmers evidently supposed that this exodus and the establishment of a Republic in Natal would forever rid them of the domination of the British. But it was not to be so, as 64 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA tlicy had simply retreated into territory which Great Britain had more or less vaguely claimed as a part of her South African possessions. As early as 1842, the British power was felt in Natal. For six years, tlie Boer Republic maintained a quasi- independence; but British subjects entered the country, and then complained of the abuses to which they were subjected. Petitions were made to the authorities of Cape Colony in w^hich Natal was represented as being in a lawless condition. It was a,lleged that the foreign population could not have their rights in the Boer Republic. At this time Sir Harry Smith was Governor of Cape Colony, and to him the appeal of the British beyond the Orange was made. He accordingly declared that British sovereignty extended over Natal, and a military force was sent to make good the assumption. That part of the country which was occupied by the immigrant Boers w^as designated as the Orange River Sovereignty. The Dutch people thus found themselves in the same predic- ament as before. Such w^as the animosity against the administra- tion of Sir Harry Smith that the standard of rebellion was raised. The Boers now found a worthy leader in Andrew Pretorius, around whom the insurgents rallied, and them he lead with an increasing throng across the Drackensberg Mountains. On the western side, the Boers who had remained in Cape Colony, rallied in great numbers, and the rebellion for a season seemed to promise success. But the British governor at the head of a division of troops entered the disturbed district beyond the Orange, and met the Boers at a place called Boem Plaats. Here a battle was fought, and the Dutch were defeated. They were not, however, destroyed, nor was their spirit broken. On the contrary, they clung to their o h w < u H w w H CO O g < GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING 67 leader, and once more adopted the policy of receding before their enemies. They accordingly trekked before them to the north.* The Boers had believed that when they had crossed the Orange they would be safe from pursuit in Natal. They now con- ceived the project of escaping finally from the influence of that power which hung upon their rear. No\v it was that under Pre- torius another migration was undertaken, and this time the fugitives fixed their eyes on the distant river Vaal. To cross the Vaal seemed to promise ultimate and unbroken safety. It was foreseen that Great Britain might claim sovereignty as far as that stream. The Vaal, with the Buffalo as its tributary, is the great northern branch of the Orange, flowing west across the continent, and constituting to this day, in the greater part of its course, the northern boundary of Cape Colony and the Orange State. The results of the movement of the Boers from Natal to the country beyond the Vaal, we shall reserve for consideration in the chapter devoted to the South African Republic. It should be noted here, however, that not all of the Boers, but only the unconquerable and irreconcilable part of the population, joined in the movement from the borders of Kaffraria toward the Vaal and beyond it. Great numbers remained in the broad territories between the two major branches of the Orange. These, however, did not cease to resent and resist the imposition of British authority. Tlieir attitude towards the master power was such that the Cape Government began to ♦The circumstances hero narrated led to a rurious bit of phraseolopry which has survived to the close of the century. Each withdrawn! of the IJoers was bitterly opposed t)y the poverning British class, ancl confis- cation and death were denounced against all who should attempt to o z d D _J D aa O f- Q < O of. _3 < ■D Z D » X h s 00 u u X H GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTINli 77 Thus, at the conclusion of the eighth decennium, British authority in South Africa had extended northward to the line of the Orange River, and on the east to the southern border of Natal. By this time the attention of all the enlightened nations had been turned more than hitherto to this, the least civilized of the continents, and they began to consider, first tacitly, and then in open confer- ence, the question, tvhat shall we do ivith it ? Several circumstances and conditions contributed at this epoch to revive the interest of mankind in Africa. In November of 1871, Henry M. Stanley found David Livingstone at Ujiji. It was the begin- ning, not indeed of modern exploration and discovery, but rather of a more accurate knowledge than had ever before been attained by white men respecting the African interior. David Livingstone had already been for more than twenty years an explorer in the Dark Continent. He had discovered Lake Ngami in 1849; Victoria Falls in 1855, Nyassa in 1859, Tanganyika in 1807, and Ujiji in 1869. One year and a half of life still remained to him after his rescue by Stanley. He died at Lake Bangweolo on the 3()tli of April, 1873; his body was transported to England for interment among the immortals of Westminster Abbey. After Livingstone, Stanley himself became the greatest of recent explorers. In 1874 he was sent by the New York Herald and the London Telegraph to make an expedition into Central Africa. In the following year, he circumnavigated the Victoria Nyanza. In the years 1876-77, he discovered Albert Edward Nyanza, and finding the headwaters of the Congo descended that river to its mouth. This was the solution of the great problem. The general nature of the interior of Africa was henceforth known. In 1879, Stanley was sent back under the patronage of the Inter- 78 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA national African Association to explore and colonize the valley of the Congo. For this great river he suggested the new name of Living- stone, and thcit name, at the present day, contends with Congo in geographical nomenclature. The indefatigable explorer was largely instrumental in founding the Congo Free State. Subsequently he participated in the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, which had been called to consider and solve, if practicable, the problem of Africa. Stanley's explorations and the books which he published, based as they were, partly on the preceding work of Livingstone, but more largely on the suggestions of his own adventurous genius, contributed greatly to the roused-up interest of the world in the African continent. We may here consider for a moment the mainsprings of motive in the activity of men and nations, respecting the development of Africa, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The question brings us to the bottom philosophy of human nature; also, to the nature of communities, of peoples, of states and kingdoms. It is the peculiarity of our kind that the moral sense of the race has risen to a higher level than its practical action. The race knows better than it acts. Conduct is discordant with conscience and the discernment of right. The inner sense of right, therefore, in the individual, in the community, in the state, forces the action to ascribe to itself a false motive as its origin. The action is shamed when con- fronted with the real motive, and hypocrisy comes to the rescue. A large part of the intellectual ingenuity of mankind in modern times has been expended in inventing respectable motives, and in bolstering them up with sophisms in order that they may masquerade in the procession of truth and righteousness. In the case before us. the parties principally concerned in the unfolding of Afi'ica have all the time claimed that they are inspired GREAT BRITAIN GAINS A FOOTING 79 by the philanthropic consideration of civilizing barbarous races and redeeming a continent from savagery. In point of fact, the move- ments of the various parties have nearly all been inspired by the hope of advantage to the men, the organizations, and the states, which have patronized the several enterprises. Perhaps this double-faced condition should not be too harshly judged. It is true that the higher forms of civilization do follow in the wake even of conquest. Progress is not caused by invasion, by subjugation, by the imposition of a higher race on the aborigines of a country; for that were impossible. Progress follows in spite of the evils done. That civilization should have this hard and criminal birth is one of the irreconcilable facts of our present fallible state. The suppression and extinction of the native races in a country by the incursion of the stronger nations can never be justified in the court of conscience, or at the bar of that immutable justice by which the world is said to be governed. All that can be said, therefore, is that Destiny (whatever Destiny may mean) seems to have adopted the destroying forces, cruel as they are, in order to make a way for the higher life of mankind. And all that may be said for the actors is that they freely participate in the immoral drama of their age, doing unjus- tifiable deeds, promoting cruelty and rapacious aggression, and at the same time inventing excuses that may seem to justify or warrant the things done. In this connection we should note also that the filling up of all the other continents had, at the epoch under consideration, suddenly brought the roving and adventurous part of mankind to a standstill. To this element of everlasting mutation and frontier battling, Africa offered a vent. There lay a vast continent into 80 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA uliicli < 2; THE SHAKE AND THE SPHERE OF UEKMANY 97 that Angra Pequena was now under the protection of the German Empire ! Then there was a brief period of dilly-dallying. Prince Bismarck, however, was now in a position to carry things with a high hand. He sent his son, Count Herbert, to London, and in June of 1S84, the British Cabinet formally recognized the German protectorate on the disputed coast. The ''disputed coast" had by this time extended itself for a great distance, even as far as the twenty-sixth parallel of south latitude. Soon afterwards the German warship Elizabeth, commanded by Captain Schering, was sent to Angra Pequena, aud the Imperial flag was raised symbolizing the suzerainty of Germany over the African coast from the parallel just mentioned, that is, the southern limit of Angola, southward to the mouth of the Orange River. Only the Walfish Bay station of Great Britain was excepted from this delimitation. German Southwest Africa thus became a fact in the map of the world. It was not as yet, however, a fact in the diplomacy of the nations. This point remained to be decided at the great con- ference held in Berlin in the autumn of 18S4. But before proceeding to narrate the work of that body it is desirable to point out the appearance of one or two other nations on the scene, and to define their respective parts in the great partition which was at hand. True it is, the influence of France and Italy has been felt almost wholly in the vast region north of the scene of tiie present contest in the southern part of the continent. Nevertheless, France has displayed her power on the West Coast below the equator, and her ascendency in Northern Africa is undisputed. We shall, in the following chapter, therefore, trace out with some care the evolution of French Africa, and note the present status of France among the contestants who claim as their right the partition of the continent. 6 CHAPTER VI FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS It cannot be said tliat in modern times France has been an indifferent spectator of the imperial ambitions of other nations. In the year 1875, the Count de Brazza appeared on the scene as a rival of Henry M. Stanley, in the exploration of Central Africa. The Count, though an Italian by birth, was a Frenchman by education and by service in the French navy. He had for his coadjutors M. Marche and Dr. Ballay. These three courageous explorers set out on an expedition to ascend the Ogove river, which flows into the South Atlantic just below the equatorial, line. The notion of the leaders was that they might follow up the course of the stream into the interior of the continent. The event did not justify the expectation. What with falls and rapids, and what with a diminishing volume of water, the expedition was soon obliged to al)andon the Ogove ; but De Brazza pressed on to the east until he passed the watershed and found the tributaries of the Alima flowing eastward. Stanley, however, had already solved the problem of these streams, and was al)le to announce that they were in reality tributaries of the Congo. None the less, De Brazza's expedition led to the planting on the lower Ogove of a settlement, at flrst designated as the Gaboon, but aft(M- 1891 by the official name of French Congo. At one time, namely in November of 18S(), when De lirazza was descending the Congo, he met Stanley on his way up the valley. The Frenchman was very successful in his relations witli (99) 100 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA the native chiefs. Being the representative of the International Association, he made haste to confirm a treaty witli a head chief in the Congo valley. The negro emperor placed himself under the protection of the French flag and acknowledged the suzerainty of the Republic. Two important stations in this part of the continent, still surviving, bear witness in their names to the events just narrated. These are the African town of Kintamo, which the French designate as Brazzaville, and the station on the Ogove, to which the explorer gave the name of Franceville. The importance of these prelim- inaries lay in the fact of the co'mcidence of the British and French flags in entering the equatorial region of Central Africa. Without, for iHtie present, tracing further the successful begin- nings of French Congo, we shall notice the appearance of still another claimant in this great and inviting region. The King of the Belgians had been aroused by the conference of international representatives which was held at his capital. While Stanley and De Brazza were trying each to circumvent the other and to establish priority of claims, a train of circumstances brought the new power into the field, threatening to supplant both empire-makers by the establishment of older rights on the African coast and to it. It will be remembered that Portugal had been first on the shores of West Africa. Although she had been thrust aside in the historical jostlings of the ages, she had never relinquished her original claims. According to her own interpretation, her rights in the sub-equatorial region, extending from about the fifth to the eighth parallel were not to be disputed by any other power. As far back as 1856, however, the Portuguese assumption had, as a matter of fact, been controverted by Great Britain ; but in 1882, FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS 101 the representative of Portugal at the court of St. James stoutly maintained the original claim. When the matter came to negotia- tion, Great Britain desired that equal privileges for all nations on the disputed coast should be granted without regard to the priority of Portugal. In all such cases, "equal privileges" signify, in the British diplomatic contention that all ports and trading centers should be open alike to all nations, special privileges being granted to none. Finally, however, in 1884, the Anglo-Portuguese treaty w^as con- cluded, in which the ancient dominion of Portugal was recognized as being in force. It appears that this assent of Great Britain to the revival of a territorial tradition was based on the fact of the expectation which Lord Granville entertained, that the King of the Belgians would soon make away with the Portuguese claims, and that he could be induced to transfer the same to the British crown. Meanwhile, however, the Belgian ruler, by his agent, Mr. Stanley, prosecuted his independent enterprise, until the explorer finally issued at the mouth of the Congo. He brought wath him the first authentic revelation of the actual character of the vast interior of the continent. This being done under the auspices of Belgium, gave to that power such precedence as completely to change the aspect of the whole question. Thus, from a personal, as well as from a Belgian, a British, or German source, the vast African question obtruded itself, calling loudly for a solution. The success of Stanley was, as we have seen, one of the powerful antecedents which made necessary the Berlin Conference of 1884. England and Germany were both borne forward and induced to take the position that the old Portuguese claims to the country of the Congo could be no 102 '■■■ . Vriiii STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA longer admitted.' It' was' a pretension which had been abolished by time, working in the service of history. France, in the meantime, went forward with more than her usual enthusiasm to make it impossible for Great Britain to get possession of the coast which she claimed for herself. The British posts at Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Lagos, were narrowed as much as possible by French pressure around them. The scheme of the Republic contemplated nothing less than securing the whole valley of the Niger for the establishment of a vast colonial dependency. This measure, however, Great Britain successfully resisted. A British protectorate was created on the Benue, which is the south branch of the Niger. The French gained possession of the upper or principal valley, but not without serious interference on the part of the Germans. The plan of the French at this juncture was ambitious. It was, in a word, to connect the new dependencies of France in Sene- gambia with her great Mediterranean province of Algeria, and to spread the one until it should join the other. Such an enterprise necessitated the construction of a railway across the Sahara fi'om the Upper Niger to the Algerian frontier. Nor shall we be blamed for anticipating the great success of this scheme, which flourished to such an extent that by the year 1895 the map of Africa showed in the northwest as French temtory the largest single European dominion in the whole continent! As early as 1881, the French Republic sent out her engineers to run trial lines across the desert and to report on the practica- bility of the railway scheme. Great difficulty, however, was encountered in the enterprise. The engineering corps had not proceeded far into the Sahara until the intrusion was resented by FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS 103 the native Tuaregs, who fell upon and destroyed the French party. The expedition was so ill-starred that French ambition was con- strained to find another vent. This, however, was easily done. For on the eastern frontier of Algeria lay the exposed kingdom of Tunis. Under the Turkish deys that country had sunk into an abject condition bordering on barbarism. Tunis in commerce was a semi-piratical state which the more civilized nations did not fail to contemn and punish. France resented the course and condition of Tunis to the extent of an invasion, which was undertaken successfully in 1881. On the 12th of May in that year a French protectorate was declared, and the Algerian dependency of France was thus extended on the east to include the vilayet of Tripoli. If, then, we contemplate the African map as a whole, tracing out the French possessions in the era just preceding the Berlin Conference of 1884 and the general partition of the continent, and if we look for the blue to indicate the territorial interests of France, we shall find on the north, Algeria, including Tunis; on the west, extending from Cape Blanco to Gambia and indefinitely up the Senegal to about the twelfth meridian west, the coast dependency of Senegal ; in the interior, the two stations of Kita and Bammako ; on the coast, the small settlement of Nunez; on the Gulf of Guinea, next to the Gold Coast, Bassam ; in the Cameroons, the station of Bantanga ; under the equator, the Gaboon ; on the Congo Coast, Mayumba and Loanga; on the east, off Madagascar, the three islands of St. Mary, Nosabe, and Mayotta; and in the Gulf of Aden, Obok Musha. Such were the African possessions for the preservation of which France was to go armed into the Berlin Conference. One other circumstance must be added, and that is the French 104 THE STOUY OF SOUTH AFRICA campaip^ns which were made into the desert region at the beginning of the ninth decennium. It was not to be supposed that the Sahara railway scheme would be abandoned. In 1880, an important expedition, in which military conquest, political expediency, and scientific discovery were all combined, was undertaken into the interior. It was thought that the Upper Niger might be connected by rail with far-off Medina. It was on this expedition that Bammako and Kita, in the Niger valley, far in the interior, were taken and garrisoned by the French. The commanders of the force engaged in this work were Colonel Desbordes and Captain Gallieni. The king of the Fulah "empire," covering this region, was Ahmadu, who first resisted and then tolerated the French, to the extent of making with them, in March of 1881, a significant treaty. By this the protectorate of France was acknowledged for the left bank of the Upper Niger. Here, however, for a period of four years, the progress of the French was stayed. Not until after the Berlin Conference of 1884 were hostilities renewed by the French under Colonel Frey, who invaded the country of King Samorry, whom he compelled to sign a favorable treaty. And here France made a pause. It is one of the marvels of modern history that Italy and the Italians have played so small a part in the game of "expansion." Why should ancient Italy and the Roman race have been able to dictate to the whole world for a thousand years what should and what should not be done, while the same territory and the descendants of the Romans have not been able to dictate to any part of the world for one day or one hour of time? The wonder is increased by the fact that the splendid enterprise and brilliant genius of individual Italians have, in the meantime, transformed the world. h 00 Ui z < aa ai D h w h 00 h FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS 107 Who first beheld the crescent of Venus and the moons of Jupiter? An Italian. Who converted Music from the whistle and screech and tom-tom booming and mere trumpet blare of the ancients, both civilized and savage, into the divine harmonies of the modern art? The Italians. Who found the New World ? An Italian adventurer. Who fastened the anchor of England off the eastern shore of North America? An Italian born. Who at the imperial fete in Paris tapped the Austrian ambassador on the shoulder and expressed his regret at the "altered relations" between his master and Napoleon III? The Italian diplomatist, Cavour — one of the greatest of modern statesmen. But the nation, as such, has been as sterile as an unblossoming rod. In the discovery of foreign lands she has been first, and in colonizing last. It was only after the deliberations at the Berlin Congress that an Italian share in Africa was recognized by the nations. Even this, perhaps, would not have been accomplished had it not been that Italy had become a member of the Dreibund, of which Germany was the unit, and Austria and Umberto's kingdom the two ciphers, making the important one hundred ! There had not been, however, a total failure of Italian enter- prise. In 1875 a fleet from Italy descended on the island of Socotra, lying eastward from Cape Gardafui. There was a manifest attempt to take possession of that point, whose inhabitants, being Christians of the Nestorian sect, might be supposed to harmonize peaceably, if not freely, with the South-European people. Italy would, indeed, have gained possession of the island but for the opposition of England. That power, already ascendant on tlie East Coast between the fifth degree south and Somoliland, would not brook the acquirement of Socotra by even so weak a state as Italy. 108 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA The latter was obliged, for the time, to content herself with a small footing in the Bay of Assab, near the southern extremit}' of the Red Sea. This she liad acquired in 1870. The spot had been chosen and purchased as a coaling station, but it was not formally recognized as an Italian basis until the year 1880. Wlion once well posted, however, the Italians began to ascend the lied Sea and to spread northward along the coast in the direction of Massowah and Suakim. They would have diffused themselves southward also but for the existence and opposition of the French establishment at Obok, just below the strait of Mandeb. The rather resolute clutch which Italy made at this coast did not create much interest among the European powers, but the Abyssinians were excited to active belligerency. We are here led by the nature of the facts to anticipate what occurred some time after the greater African questions had been settled by the Berlin Congress. For about fifteen years, the Italian coaling station of Assab was the only firm hold which Umberto had on the East Coast. But at length the opportunity came, not only for spreading northward, but for gaining still more advan- tageous stations on the Red Sea. About the middle of the ninth decennium, the broil of Egypt with the Mahdists of the Sudan became so heated that any movement which seemed to threaten the latter was looked upon most favorably by Great Britain, who viewed the whole matter through her Egyptian spectacles. Italy was therefore encouraged to seize Massowah, which was done; and further progress was made until the Italian coast was estimated to extend for a distance of six hundred and fifty miles; that is, from Obok to Cape Kasar. This was more than King John of Abyssinia could bear. War FRANCE AND ITALY CLAIM THEIR PORTIONS 109 broke out between the Italians and the Abyssinians, and in January of 1887, the former were virtually exterminated. King John had the satisfaction of driving the invaders to the coast. Tliis brave- monarch soon died, to be succeeded by his son Menelek, who fol- lowed the same policy as his father. After a year, however, a treaty was agreed to by him, and henceforth Italy claimed a pro- tectorate over Abyssinia. Menelek insisted, however, that he held a protectorate over the Italian coast ! Meanwhile the situation encouraged foreign intervention. France and her friend Russia sympathized with Abyssinia. The former shipped muskets, and the latter sent priests, to assist King Menelek. In course of time, a Russian fleet was seen hawking around the French station at Obok. Nevertheless, the Italian "sphere" was enlarged and confirmed; for Great Britain favored the "sphere." In the years 1890-91, the enterprise of Italian colon- ization was so greatly promoted that the dependency was con- verted into the colony of Erytrea. An autonomous government was instituted, and a local administration was established on a democratic basis. The project, however, cost Italy a large sum of money, and her only compensation was in seeing her African dependency enlarging itself, first from a coaling station in Assab Bay, to a district fifty-two thousand square miles in extent; then to a pro- tectorate holding an area of one hundred and ninety-five thousand square miles; and finally to a colonial state having a dominion of more than six hundred thousand square miles. In the meantime, a serious controversy arose between Italy and Great Britain. The dominion of the latter was said to extend northward beyond the river Jub, just below the equator, while the 110 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA claim of Italy extended southward to the same stream, thus pro- ducing' a dangerous overlap of British and Italian ground. Italy, however, was at this time peiforming so good a service by playing upon tlie hinderpai-t of Dervishdom that the British lion's features relaxed from a snarl into something resembling a smile. The Jub was accordingly conceded to Italy as her southern limit. These events conclude the episode of Italy in Africa down to the time when Dr. Jameson and his party reached Krugersdorp and thus marking an epoch. Nearly all of the movements discussed in the present chapter belong to the history of equatorial and North- eni Africa and to the period subsequent to the crisis of 1884. These events are therefore, only remotely or incidentally concerned with the transformation of the Southern part of the continent. In the following chapter we shall pass from the development of separate European colonial states in Africa to the more general international settlement of the questions involved by the Congress of Berlin. CHAPTER VII • CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE After the powerful interference of Germany in the affairs of Africa, and the successful establishment by her of a great depend- ency on the southwest coast, a settlement of all the questions arising from the movement, by an international conference, became an imperative necessity. All of the circumstances liitherto narrated were but antecedents of that Congress, and determinative of its actions. It is in the nature of such bodies to extort from the past the conditions for the government of the present and for the settlement of the exigency, whatever it may be. Very rarely does a diplomatical or ambassadorial meeting do more than declare what history has already accomplished. The more immediate cause of the Conference of Berlin was the course which Germany had sucessfully taken in suddenly acquiring a great dependency on the southwest coast of Africa. This success aroused all the other powers to the exercise of unwonted activity. There was a rush of them all — as if to gather as much as could be carried away of some immense spoil poured from the horn of destiny. Great Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, were all frightened, each in its kind, at the prospect of getting less than the lion's share of the treasure. The Congo region had been suddenly opened up. All the way around the coast from Liberia to Bab-el-Mandeb there was disturb- ance, jealousy, scheming to get the better part. The stronger nations might have been willing to trust to force, but the weaker (111) 112 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. appealed to diplomacy. The weaker nation is, indeed, always ready to arbitrate. The stronger nation decides that there are always certai7i questions which must be decided by its own judgment alone. Nations, like individuals, often consider that the end justifies the means, and history alone must write the verdict. In the case of the African imbroglio, it remained for Portugal to ask for an umpire. Her appeal was made to France first, and France assented. This much gained, the proposition was carried to Germany, and Prince Bismarck gave his approval also. Thus strengthened, the movement reached England, and in June of 1884, Lord Granville, acting for the Ministry, announced the favorable decision of Great Britain. The conference was accordingly convened to meet in the city of Berlin, in November of 1884. For the most part, the ambassadors of the leading states of Christendom, who were then resident at the German court, were empowered to act as representatives of their respective governments, in the work of the Congress. Every considerable power in Europe, with the single exception of Switzerland, participated in the pro- ceedings. The government of the United States was represented by the Minister Plenipotentiary accredited to the German Empire. Accordingly, on the 15th of November, the Congress was organized. The sittings continued until the 30th of January, 1885. The results were made up in a document entitled the "General Act of the Conference of Berlin." To this, the representatives of the various nations aflQxed their signatures on the 24th of February 1885. All the leading states of Europe, except Switzerland (not represented) and the United States of America, became powers signatory to the document which embodied the results of the conference. Nor may we pass from the event without noting the CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 113 presence and membership of Henry M. Stanley in the Congress, and the double relation which he held before that body. In one character he. was a representative of the United States, in the capacity of a geographical expert. But in his other character, and more properly, he represented the interests of his friend and patron, King Leopold of Belgium. The proceedings of the Berlin Congress were full of interest and enthusiasm. The nations seemed to have suddenly awaked to the overwhelming importance of possessing and developing the remain- ing one of the four major continents of the world. The attention of the delegates was fixed in particular upon the valley of the Congo. The impelling motive was commercial rather than political. If the nations strove with each other for the new field of oppor- tunity, it was because it offered the tremendous rewards of trada The question was therefore on, in full tide, from the beginning. What kind of trade shall it be? It was here that the great modern proposition of the so-called "open door" began to be firmly advanced and defended. It soon appeared in the deliberations that it was not so much a question as to what power should be in the ascendant in the Congo valley, as it was the question whether all trade therewith should be free. In a short time this inquiry was decided in the affirmative. As to the issue of a protectorate, that lay for the most part between Belgium and France, with the advantages in favor of the former. Stanley had done the work for Leopold, who had given him his patronage. More and more the deliberations turned to the establishment of a great interior state under the suzerainty of the king of the Belgians. As to the commercial question, the discussions went strongly and altogether towards the opening and neutrality of both the Congo nnd the Niger, 114 THE STOliY OF SOUTJI AFRICA 'rii(>. debates next veered from the bottom issue to the determina- lioii of ilir limits of the sphere of free trade. Finally, a trans-con- tiii('iit;il lino \\as drawn, as if to circumscribe an inchoate empire. II, \v:is determined in such manner as to include the larger part of Centnil Africa, with a sufficient extent of coast, east and west, to ensure free gateways for all the ships of the world. On the Atlantic side, the coast was made commercially free from two degrees and thirty minutes, south latitude, that is from about the middle of French Congo, to a point inclusive of the upper section of Angola. From about the center of French Congo the line was drawn to the north, far up through the Cameroons, and thence eastward wdth the watershed between the tributaries of the Benue (South Niger) and those of the Congo. Afterwards the line left the streams flowing into Lake Chad on the north until the fountains of the Nile were reached at the fifth parallel of north latitude. The line then proceeded due east to the further coast of Somoliland. On the south the boundary was begun at the mouth of the Zambesi, and was traced onward to the w^est of Lake Nyassa ; thence w^est- ward in a somewdiat zigzag course to the boundary of Angola; and thence in a circular direction to its exit at Ambriz, on the coast. Thus was secured by the edict of the nations a region, not dissimilar in shape to the United States of America, and of com- paratively as great a geographical area, dedicated forever to free- dom of commerce among all nations. A provision was enacted that the assent of the sovereign states lying within the delimita- tion should be given. Trade, whether interior traflBc or coast line commerce, should henceforth be subject only to such charges as were necessary to support it, and to such restrictions as were expedient for its protection. h O X ai O < < bd D D i»>w«t o z id 2 Q i^ _j CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 117 The assembled representatives next went forward to consider the opening and neutralization of the Niger. This river was also declared to be free to international trade. The conditions were almost as favorable as those which were declared for the Congo Valley. In order to carry out the edicts of the Congress, an Inter- national Commission to superintend the development of the Congo Basin was appointed; but in the case of the valley of the Niger, the settlement of everything was left to the conjoint action of France and Great Britain only. The next great question under consideration was the enactment of a rule to be followed in the future occupation of territory not already preempted on the African coast. After discussion it was decided that the same principle which, in time of war, governs the action of nations in establishing blockades, should hold in the peaceable occupation of coast territories ; that is, such occupation in order to be binding must be effective. There must be an actual display of ships and men and colonists ; veritable settlements ; real debarkation and building and trade, before preemption should be acknowledged by other nations as rightful and binding. There must be on the part of the parent state a manifest purpose to hold and defend the given territory before the occupation should be acknowledged. Very important also was the question of constituting a great civil and commercial dominion in the Congo Valley. This was, in the next place, undertaken by the Congress, and was successfully accomplished. The Congo Free State began to be. A geographi- cal foundation was assumed as the result of the w^ork of Henry M. Stanley. In the years 1874-77, that explorer had traced, not only the southern tributanes of the Congo, but also the western sources of 7 118 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA thu Victoria Nyanza. After that he descended the Lualaba until the great stream became the Congo itself — just as an early explorer in our own (Jreat West might have identified the Missouri with the Mississippi. Moved by this astonishing result, Leopold, King of the Belgians, had taken Stanley under his patronage with orders to complete his explorations between the Lualaba and the Lower Congo, and thus, as it were, to preempt a territory which, as the event showed, approximated one million square miles. Beginning from this result, the Berlin Congress proceeded to define the limits and to establish a system of government for the Congo P'ree State. The protectorate of the King of the Belgians was declared. Otherwise the new empire was to be, as its name implies, free from foreign domination. Already, before the conven- tion was held, the movement for autonomy in Congo had proceeded so far as to obtain recognition from the United States. The International Congo Association had adopted as the symbol of its tlominion a blue flag with a golden star, and this was saluted by the republic as early as the 22d of April, 1884. The same banner was also welcomed by Germany one week before the assembling of the Congress of Berlin. In the Congo emblem, however, there was a suggestion of controversy; for who should claim the protectorate? France desired that her Congo should include the new sovereignty. But the claim of Leopold had a more solid basis. Colonel Strauch, President of the Congo Association, under whose auspices the country was proceeding so rapidly toward statehood, at length notified the government of France that her claim of dominion was inadmissible; the rightful possessor was Leopold of Belgium, and the latter, should he be disturbed, would bequeath his rights to the kingdom of which he was the ruler. CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 119 Sharp words followed, and the controversy threatened serious results until a settlement was reached between France and Belgium, in February of 1895, by which it was agreed that the latter should become the heir, so to speak, of Leopold to the Congo Free State. The compact was as follows: Article 1. — The Belgian Government recognizes that France has a right of preemption over its possessions on the Congo in case of their alienation by sale or exchange in whole or in part. Any exchange of territory with a foreign power, any placing of the said territories, in whole or in part, in the hands of a foreign state or of a foreign company invested with rights of sovereignty, will also give occasion to France's right of preemption, and will become, therefore, the object of a preliminary negotiation between the Government of the French Republic and the Belgian Government. Article 2. — The Belgian Government declares that there shall never be gratuitous cession of all or a portion of the said possessions. Article 3. — The arrangements contemplated in tlie above articles apply to the whole of the territories of Belgian Congo. By this agreement it might be said that a line of succession was established whereby the future protectorate of the Congo Free State should descend — as long as a protectorate might exist — first, from Leopold to his kingdom, and after that, (if ever) to France. As first constituted, the great Congo Free State was wholly a dominion of the interior. In a short time, however, an exit was secured by the consent of Foi*tugal through the northwest angle of her Angola ; and thus on the south side of the Congo Delta a bit of sea coast was added to the Free State, sufficient for a 120 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA lii^'liwiiy to the Atlantic. The general boundaries determined upon by the Congress were liberal. The line on the west extended on the left bank of the Congo from the northern line of Angola to the equator. Tlience the limit lay along the eastern boundary of French Congo to the northeast angle of that province, and thence due north to the parallel of four degrees north latitude. Thence that parallel was followed to the thirtieth meridian east; thence with the meridian just named to the northern extremity of Lake Tanganyika; thence with the Lake and the fourth parallel westward to the Lualaba; thence southward with that stream to the sixth parallel, and thence westward to the mouth of the Congo.* The area of the Congo Free State is, as already said, approx- imately nine hundred thousand square miles, and the native population is reckoned at about fourteen million souls. Thus out of the whole basin of the Congo, with its estimated area of one million six hundred thousand square miles (ranking as it does next to the valley of the Amazon, which exceeds it by only two hundred thousand square miles) the Congo Free State embraces at least nine sixteenths of the whole. We need not here follow the work of the Berlin Congress into the remoter results which flowed therefrom. King Leopold found himself in the condition of a flourishing American farmer, to whom, say in 1870, the government of the United States should have sent a deed to the territory of Colorado! The King had the largest farm in Christendom. Out of it, ten American States of first-class proportions might be carved. Nor was any part of the vast region •The final determination of the boundaries of ConKO was not eflfected until the 12th of May, 1894, wheu King Leopold and the representative of Great Britain reached an amicable conclusion on the last particulars of the scheme. CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 121 lacking in all the suggestions of abundant wealth and exuberant industrial development; but to do the work, ah, there was the rub. As soon as the Belgian Parliament was convened, two months after the adjournment of the Congress at Berlin, the work of that body was approved as it related to the kingdom and the king. The Parliament passed a resolution declaring, "the union between Belgium and the New State will be exclusively personal." The act ratified the course of the sovereign — no more. About a month afterwards the king sent notes to all the powers signatory to the "General Act of the Conference," to the effect that the territorial possessions hitherto controlled by the International Congo Association had become, under his own suzerainty, the Congo Free State. Over that state, as over the home kingdom, he would exercise the powers of a sovereign. In the years immediately following the Congress the King of the Belgians was obliged to make great expenditures in support of his dependent realm. He manfully met the requirements, but they were such as to deplete the royal treasury. At length, in 1889, he made his will, and in it bequeathed his rights and interests in the Congo Free State to the kingdom of Belgium, which he named his heir. This step was taken, in part, because of the heavy expenditures he had made in the interest of Congo. In July of the following year, the king appealed to the Par- liament for help. That body received his petition with favor, and voted to Leopold a loan (without interest) of twenty-five million francs. The advance was made for a period of ten years, with the condition that Belgium should have the right, within six months thereafter, of annexing the Free State to the home Kingdom. Should this overture be declined, the loan should be continued for 122 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA ten years longer, and nhould then be repaid by the representatives of the sovereign. In view of this arrangement, the king deemed it expedient to obviate as far as practical that part of the standing agreement v^^ith France by which that republic might, in a certain contingency, assume the suzerainty of Congo. To bar this possibility, Leopold, on the 21st of July, 1890, added a codicil to the effect that the Free State should never be alienated from the Belgian crown. In this attitude stood the affairs of Congo from 1890 to 1895. Meanwhile, certain advantageous changes had been made in the boundaries of the State. Great Britain consented to two modifica- tions ; one on the west of Lake Tanganyika, and the other on the side of the Sudan — this in 1894. In the way of local affairs, one short railway was completed. In the years 1892-93, serious hostil- ities broke out between the military forces of the Free State and the Arab slave-merchants on the middle and upper Congo. The latter were unwilling that their business should be abolished, as the Congress of Berlin had decreed. The Arabs stood stoutly for what they considered their immemorial rights. At first they were able to resist the repressive efforts of the Belgian forces acting under the inspiration of the Anti-Slavery Society. Afterwards the Arabs were repelled ; during the year 1893, they were driven back to Lake Tanganyika, and their principal seats were taken by the Europeans. At the very time of this Arab insurrection, namely, in the latter part of 1892, the Chartered Company, to which the manage- ment of the industrial affairs of Congo had been intrusted, found itself unable to procure free laborers for the construction of the railway referred to in the preceding paragraph. The natives were CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 12iJ indolent and inefficient in tlie performance of the heavy and constant labor which was demanded of them. What, therefore, should the Chartered Company do, but import a colony of more than six hundred coolies from China ? This proceeding was the introduction of a modified slavery which differed from that of the Arabs in the fact that it was a Christian enterprise, while theirs was strictly a Mohammedan business. The event, however, showed the futility of the coolie importation. The Chinese could not endure the intolerable steam-bath and fever-fume of Equatorial Africa. In a short time, five out of every six of the coolies died; the remainder straggled off into the interior in the hope of reach- ing China on foot! In a comparatively short time after the Berlin Conference the Congo Free State, which had been undertaken as a broad interna- tional enterprise, became to all intents and purposes a Belgian colonial dependency. Gradually the agents of the other powers withdrew from the country and Belgian officers were put in their places. Neither could the broad provisions which had been declared as to the freedom of commerce and the suppression of the slave-trade be successfully enforced. The resources of King Leopold ran low and the administrative expenses of Congo had to be met by the institution of a system of imposts. Fortunately, the government adopted the expedient of laying the duty almost exclusively on spirituous liquors. Great Britain protested that this was not free trade; Belgium was obliged to reply that, though it was not free trade, it was necessai-y. As to the suppression of the slave-trade and the illicit traflic in ivory, these matters were peculiarly hard to control. It was thought that after tiie Conference of 1SS4 the multiplication of 124 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Kuropoaii dependencies on the African coasts would virtually preclude the Arab slave-traders from an exit. It vs^as supposed that the man-hunters would cease their operations as soon as they could no longer safely export their chattels. The arrangement of the wap by the supervising cartographers in the Congress of Berlin proved to be a very different matter from the actual revision of the continent. Nothing, indeed, spurns geography more than Mother Earth. When a new map is made it is difficult to lay it on! The map is eight inches by twelve inches, while the continent is more than four thousand miles in length and quite as great in breadth! How shall the one be stretched to cover the other?* As to the work of administration in Congo, that was regularly organized. The vice in the situation was, and is, that the " govern- ment " remained in Brussels instead of being erected on the middle Congo. How can one place govern another place ? That work has never been successfully accomplished in the history of the world. Successful governments have been inaugurated in distant dependent territories, but never for them outside of them. In the course of tiuie, the Congo administration will no doubt be localized where it belongs, and when that is done, the actual political existence of the new state will begin. For administrative purposes the whole of Congo was divided into twelve districts or provinces, each under the control of a •Some of the striking facts about the position and extent of Africa seem never to have been pointed out. The geographical emplacement and contour are sufficient to make a cartographer superstitious. In the first place, the continent is Just seventy degrees in extent from north to south, and it is just seventy degrees in extent from east to west. The breadth of it and the length of it are the same. Again, the continent exactly balances north and south on the equatorial line; it has thirty-five degrees of north latitude and thirty-five degrees of south latitude. Finally the balancing meridian, dividing the continent into an eastern and western half, is likewise peculiar. If such meridian be drawn from the heel of Italy through the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, it will leave thirty-five degrees of longitude on the west, and also thirty-five degrees on the oast. The Congo Free State lies almost wholly ou the eastern and about one-half in the southern division of the continent as here indicated. The point of intersection of the two dividing lines is on the Congo at the point where the great tributaries of the Interior have their confluence, precisely under the equator. NATIVE ORNAMENTS AND UTENSILS. CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND THE CONGO STATE 127 Governor-General and a Commissary, who is the Lieutenant-Governor. The whole corps of officials, with the king and three ministers at the head, numbers about eighty. A department of justice was instituted with superior and inferior courts. The judicial adminis- tration was extended as far as the Middle Congo, but the upper valley was allowed to remain under military rule. In the meantime, commercial enterprise made its way far up the river, and stations to the number of about forty were established. The missionary societies of several nations have also been on the alert to penetrate, if not to occupy, the vast equatorial region. Individual adventurers and travelers of the second-class have con- tinued to follow up and complete the work which they of the first-class outlined so marvelously in the eighth and ninth decades. All such work, however, is slow. Progress is embarrassed by the fact that it has passed from the sensational into the practical stage;— from oratory to fact. The Arab slave-traders have been checked somewhat, but not suppressed. It is claimed that can- nibalism is still practiced in many parts of the interior. Nor should we pass from the subject without remarking that the whole discus- sion of European accomplishment, as outlined in this and in the preceding chapter is well calculated to leave an erroneous impres- sion on the reader's mind with respect to fhe actual changes effected thereby in Africa. The actual changes have not been great. This fact will be at once perceived when the inquirer is reminded that the extension of a European protectorate over a region of new country is a political expedient, and that geographical, industrial, social and racial conditions are but slightly effected thereby. The real history of Africa, therefore, in the period under consideration, lies deep down, 128 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA liko ii great geological stratum, under the thin layer of diplomatical drift that covers it from sight. The stratum is thick and hard as the rocks; the drift is only an epidermis. In all the international proceedings, which began in the Brussels Conference of 1876 and reached a climax in the Berlin Congress of 1884, how much was done for the benefit of the one hundred and twenty millions of native Africans? What did the representatives of the great powers of Christendom, in convention assembled, decree that has been unselfishly applied to the enlightenment of the prodigious volume of barbarism in the Dark Continent? As much, we doubt not, as civilization in the West has done in an altruistic way to promote the interests and protect the rights of the American Aborigines — that is, nothing! CHAPTER VTII MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES In an inquiry which is essentially preliminary to the history of the Boer-British war of 1899, many facts belonging to the African transformation bear only indirectly on the conflict in the South. Several countries of the continent, remote from the scene, are not so much concerned as are those which are contiguous to the field of action. But the whole of the African states are, in a sense, connected and interdependent; none, therefore, can be properly excluded from the inquiry. If, for example, Egypt be far away from the central area of disturbance, that country is none the less the most important " pro- tected " African territory of one of the combatants. Or, again, how can the German, French, and Portuguese dependencies be indifferent to the result of a conflict, which, if it end one way, will threaten their own security, and if it end the other way will give them further opportunity of expansion? In the current chapter we shall consider briefly some of the remoter influences which bear upon the contest in South Africa — a contest which may have only the significance of a passing revolt, or, on the other hand, become the world-involving tempest of Armageddon. In the first place, then, as to Egypt. That country became a vir- tual dependency of Great Britain in 1882. The Suez Canal had been opened, thus furnishing an all-water route, via the Mediterranean, to British India and all the East. Henceforth, it was no longer necessary to double the Cape. The intervention of (Jreat Britain (129) 130 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA camo in tlio year just named, when the military revolt headed by Arabi Pasha threatened to subvert the suzerainty of Turkey, and if that, to invite, as British statesmen declared, an occupation of Egypt by some other power inimical to the interests of Great Britain in Asia. Hence the occupation of the country and the institution of a new order in the valley of the Nile. Great Britain having put money into the country, her next requirement was to get money out of it. This brought a wholesale agricultural development; for otherwise, Egypt could not pay the taxes imposed upon her. The ground products in the course of nine years rose to an annual export value of sixty-five million dollars. On the southern frontier, the Mahdist insurrection kept rumbling and shooting out forked tongues of fire. The African Mohammedans, who might press upon the Sudan northward and upon the Red Sea eastward, were estimated at forty million souls. In 1883, England deemed it expedient to seize Suakim. An Egyptian railway to Berber, following the pathway of Chinese Gordon, was undertaken in the following year. Other lines were developed, amounting to one thousand two hundred miles of track. The telegraph was introduced, and five thousand four hundred and thirty miles of wire was stretched from point to point, mostly in Lower Egypt. The British army of occupation, numbering about fifteen thousand men, was placed under command of General Sir Herbert Kitchener, to whom the Egyptian title of Sirdar was given. After the death of Gordon at Khartoum, and the subsequent overthrow of the Mahdists, the latter lay low in the deserts for several years. But in 1896, Egypt was again threatened by the MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 131 Dervishes. In the interval, Great Britain had adopted the policy of creating an army of native Egyptians. "Said England unto Pharoah, * I must make a man of you, That will stand upon his feet and play the game ; That will Maxim his oppressor, as a Christian ought to do." And she sent old Pharoah, Sergeant Whatisname. It was not a Duke nor Earl, nor yet a Viscount, It was not a big brass General that came, But a man in khaki kit who could handle men a bit, With his bedding labeled Sergeant Whatisname. There were years that no one talked of : there were times of horrid doubt ; There was faith and hope and whacking and despair ; While the Sergeant gave the Cautions, and he combed old Pharoah out, And England did n't look to know nor care. ******* But he did it on the cheap and on the quiet. And he's not allowed to forward any claim — Though he drilled a black man white, though he made a mummy fight. He will still continue Sergeant Whatisname." The success of this vv^ork, so graphically described by Kipling, was extraordinary. In a short time "Old Pharoah fought like Sergeant Whatisname." The native British contingent in the Sirdar's army was diminished, while the Egyptian contingent was correspond- ingly increased. In the spring of 1896, Kitchener advanced up the Nile. At Firkeh, the Dervishes were defeated. In September, Don- gola was finally reached and occupied. This feat concluded the work of the expedition, but it was in reality only the opening suggestion of the re-occupation of Khartoum and Omdurman. When this was done a position far to the south was gained from which the Anglo-Egyptian hand might be stretched — as indeed it has already been stretched — to the south as if to clutch the hand, let 132 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA us say, the hand of Cecil Rliodes reaching from Cape Colony and Rhodesia with his Cape and Cairo Railway lying in the palm. It is from this point of view that the Egyptian question in the northeast touches the South African question on the battleground in the upper valleys of the Orange River. In the next place, as to the Sudan. This is the name given by the Arabs to the great region south of the Sahara. More exactly it is B'ddad-es-Sudan; that is Land of the Blacks. Such nomen- clature, however, is by no means exact, for the Sudanese popula- tion include at least three general ethnic divisions of mankind. First, we may enumerate the Semitic Arabs themselves. Secondly, the Hamites; some of whom are still comparatively pure in descent from the ancients, but most of whom are mixed with native races, thus becoming the Tibus, the Tuaregs, and the Fulahs; and thirdly, the Negroes of the Bantu stock, pure and mixed. The latter are the true aborigines, and, numerically, are still vastly in excess of the other ethnic divisions. Territorially the country under consideration may be spoken of, first as the Egyptian Sudan, reaching from Upper Egypt four hundred miles southward to Lake Albert Nyanza, a territory estimated to contain about one million square miles, with a pop- ulation supposed to number fully ten million souls. The second division may be properly designated as French Sudan, having its seat in the basin of the Niger and extending northward to the borders of Algeria. The third region is known as West or Central Sudan. This is a British overlap, embracing an aggregate of five hundred and sixty-eight thousand square miles. This includes Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast with Ashanti, Lagos with Yorubaland, and Niger-Benue wdth the Oil River country. In the MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 133 fourth place Germany has gained possession of a small fragment of the Sudan lying on the Slave coast between Ashanti and Dahomey, and to this is given the name of West Tongaland. Portugal also has an insignificant Sudanese possession. It was in the East Sudan that Dr. Schweinfurth, in 1870-72, conducted his successful explorations, completing a geographical knowledge of the Nile and the Congo systems of rivers. Ten years afterwards, two emi- nent explorers, Dr. M. Y. Dybowski and M. Maistre, were sent by France into the Lake Chad Basin. By them some of the remaining problems of African geography were solved. Up to the close of the century, the Sudan as a whole was a kind of subjective region, invit- ing penetration and conquest, but exerting no active historical influence on the progress of the age. In the third place, as to Natal. This, as we have formerly explained, was at first a part of the Cape territories. At least, it was claimed to be such by the British. As early as 1824, Lieutenant Farewell made his way with twenty companions from Ciipe Town into the country of the lower Tugela and undertook to plant a colony there. To this end he made a treaty with Chaka the native king. But Chaka was presently killed, and the enterprise of British settlement was postponed. We have seen also how the Boers first trekked into this region, and then, in 1833-34, made the so-called "Great Trek," and with- drew into what was to become the Orange Free State. British influence and, in a measure, British settlement followed in the wake of the Great Trek, and Natal was colonized. It is the peculiarity of all such situations that the British element in a given population speedily becomes the governing element. The political skill of the English race and the inborn purpose to master 184 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA all things combine to give the lead to the British part of a popu- lation, even when that part is sparsely distributed. Tt must be o'oserved that the commercial instinct leads to this feature of history. Political organization is the v^agon in vv^hich commerce goes to market. Therefore, the Briton organizes effect- ively, strongly. He wishes to make a way for trade. Trade requires protection, and protection signifies a military force for defense. The military force demands political authority behind it. Therefore, says the theorem, organize and govern, if you would have a market. Thus it was in Natal. By the summer of 1845, the business had proceeded sufficiently far to warrant the annexation of the territory to Cape Colony. Then, in the same year, a local govern- ment was organized, and a Lieutenant-Governor was sent out from Cape Town. He was given a Council of four members, and a legislative Assembly to assist in law-making and administration. This form of dependency on the parent colony was retained in Natal for eleven years. But in 1856, the province became independent of the Cape government; the legislative body was enlarged to sixteen members, and relations were established directly with the Colonial office in London. After this the governmental evolution proceeded in the usual way. The beginnings of a ministry were made in 1869. The governor claimed and exercised the right to nominate a certain number of the representatives. This implied their responsibility to him. The head of the colony, how- ever, continued to be designated as Lieutenant-Governor until the year 1882. After that a Governor-General was appointed by the Colonial office of the empire. At first the territorial limits of Natal were not clearly defined. h X bu O O S h 3 CO o Q Z < r > h < MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES L37 On the east the country was bounded by the ocean ; on the south by Fondoland; on the west, by East Griqualand and Basutoland, the Drackensburg Range, and the Orange Free State; on the noilh, by the Buffalo River and the Transvaal. The area thus included in Natal is 20,460 square miles. The coast line is 200 miles in extent. Centrally situated on the coast are the port (Port Natal) and town of Durban. To anticii^ate the narrative which is to follow, we should here point out also the position of Pietermaritzburg, Colenso, Ladysmith, Glencoe, Dundee and, indeed, all of the other important places which became known to the world as Natalese towns in the first acts of the Boer-British war. The first contention in that struggle in a military and strate- gical sense was for the possession of Natal. That province, being a British protectorate, constituted the most practicable approach for the British forces into the territories of the Two Republics. Already, before the discovery of the great gold deposits at Johannesburg and the diamond fields at Kimberley, the Natal colony began to flourish. A considerable commerce found its exit through the port of Durban. Nearly four centuries had now elapsed since Vasco da Gama, on Christmas Day, in 1497, had entered that harbor and named the country Terra Nafalis, Land of the Nativity. How slowly germinate the seeds of the successive orders and epochs in the civilized life of man! It was in the period referred to that internal improvements began to be promoted. Within the limits of the colony about four hundred miles of railway were constructed. The principal line extends from Durban into the Transvaal, the southern boundary of which is distant from the port three hundred and six miles. By the beginning of the tenth decennium, the population had increased i:j8 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA ho fivo hundred and forty-four thousand souls. Since that period, Natal has beconae still more closely identified with the parent colony at the Cape. The British ascendency was strengthened from year to year, so that by the outbreak of the Transvaal war, there was as much opposition to the British purpose in Cape Colony itself as in the province of Natal. As the war developed, however, Great Britain put forth strenuous efforts to maintain the loyalty of her South African colonies. Three territories lying contiguous to Natal may be mentioned in connection therewith. Both are within the storm center of the war of 1899. Griqualand East and Basutoland lie at the eastern and northeastern extremity of Cape Colony. The former, according to current geography, is the northern part of Kaffraria, bounded by the Umzimkube, which discharges at Port Shepstone. Griqualand East has for its principal stream the St. John's River, and for its chief towns, Kokstad, Mount Frere, and Omtatta. The coast reaches down to where the British grip on the continent begins to be better defined, at the Great Kei River. Griqualand East, lying in the situation indicated, and Griqualand West, which has now been absorbed in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, formerly extended from the coast on the southeast to the upper branch of the Orange River on the northwest where Griquatown is situated, and where the Kimberley diamond fields lie spread with their sparkling treasures. Basutoland is held on the north by the Orange Free State, and on the east by Natal. This region, more than Natal, is peopled by the natives who are a branch of those warlike KaflBrs with whom both the British and the Dutch have had to contend time and again for the mastery. The country is a rugged, almost moun- MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 139 taiuous, highland. It is a grazing region, well adapted to the production of cattle, of which the Basutos have great herds. The British ascendency began here with the annexation of the countr}^ to Cape Colony, in August of 1871. At first there was no separate government, but only a provincial dependency deriving its authority from that of the Cape. In 1884, however, a resident commissioner was sent out from the Colonial office of the empire, and Basutoland was governed thereafter as a separate district. In no other part of the British South African dependencies is the disproportion between the native and the foreign population greater than in Basutoland, amounting according to the census of 1891, to three hundred and seventy -two Basutos to every European! This fact complicated the military problem not a little at the beginning of the Transvaal war — this for the reason that the attitude of the Basutos, as to their loyalty or disloyalty to the British authorities, could not well be known. Their disposition and war- like character were such as to make them a dangerous element in the conflict. The Basuto territory, as at present constituted, is estimated at ten thousand two hundred and ninety-three square miles. Zululand is another dependency proximate to the scene of the Transvaal conflict. This district is what remains of the formerly extensive country of the warlike Zulu-Kaffirs. The fierce conflict of the British with these people, which occurred between January and August of 1879, will be readily recalled. Zululand was invaded by a British army, in which the Prince Imperial of France was a volunteer subordinate officer. At this time the Zulus were ground between the Boer millstone on the north and the British nether- stone on the south. They were pressed into submission. Tlie 140 THE STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA couiilry \v;is (lividud iiinoiig eleven of the principal chiefs. A civil war came afterward, lasting, with successive outbreaks, until 1884, when Zululand, narrowed to its present proportions of four thousand five hundred and twelve square miles, was forced into a state of ([uietude. (iood government was difficult under native auspices, and in 1887, a British protectorate was established in Zululand. In 1895, the protectorate was extended over Tongaland to the southern boundary of Portuguese East Africa, Bordering on the latter country, and between it and the South African Republic, lies the little dependency of Swaziland, extending from the Lebombo range to the Drackensberg. In the fifth place, as to Bechuanaland. No other region per- haps in South Africa has, in recent years, attracted a larger amount of interested attention than has Bechuanaland. This also has become a dependency of the British government under the title of " Bechuanaland Protectorate." The country lies between the Molopo and the Zambesi. On the east it is bordered by Matebeland and the South African Republic. On the west, it extends to German Southwest Africa. The dominion, once only a small district, now includes three hundred and eighty-six thousand square miles. This region was, from of old, the land of the Bechuanas. The latter appear to be a subordinate division of the KaflBr race. They are above the average of Africans in stature, figure, and bearing. The complexion of the people is an amber brown, tinged with yellow or red. They are warlike and predatory, and their numbers are so great that no adequate census has ever been prepared. It was not until the year 1890, that Bechuanaland was placed under jurisdiction of a British governor. This scheme continued MINOR CLAIMANTS AND REMOTER INFLUENCES 141 in force for five years when the country was annexed to Cape Colony. A new arrangement was then made for the administration. Old Bechuanaland, around which the wider dominion of the pro- tectorate was extended so greatly, had possessed an area of scarcely sixty thousand square miles. The dominion of the Protectorate became more than six times as great. But even this vast terri- torial expansion did not by any means equal the increased impor- tance of Bechuanaland on the score of the incalculable wealth which was discovered in the soil. Within this region lie the diamond fields of Kimberley. The towns of Mafeking and Vryburg, the names of which suggest the important mineral wealth which they contain, are Bechuana centers. The old industries, wiiich already supplied a great export trade of corn and wool and hides, have been supplanted in this famous region by a wealth of precious metals and still more precious stones, the like of which has hardly been equalled in the history of mankind. The discovery of this mineral treasure has added incalculably to the wealth of the world and as yet the ground has hardly been touched. Millions of dollars of European capital have been invested in the mining properties and the interruption of these activities made itself seriously felt in the world's financial centers. CHAPTER IX THE EPOCH OF PARTITION Before proceeding with an outline of the history of the two Dutch Republics of South Africa, it is desirable to take a survey of the whole field of transformation during the last twenty-five years of the century. In the first place, we may refer seriatim to the several international conferences which have been held, by the actions of which the present map of Africa, with all of its startling features, has been produced. The first of these conferences, of which we have hitherto given no account, was the Conference of Brussels, held in September of 1876. The primary motives, by which the calling of this body and its actions were inspired, were the contemplated explorations of Africa and the hoped-for civilization of the continent by European agencies. This, of course, involved the discussion of the means by which the interior of the continent should be reached and its treasures be made accessible to the world. Of all the royal and princely personages who, in our age, have given their favor to the enterprise of Europeanizing Africa, Leopold, King of the Belgians, has been easily first. This monarch is a man of genius and ambition. He found himself, in middle life, pent in a narrow kingdom, and he could discover no field for adequate expan- sion except in Africa or the Oriental islands. His resources were not great, but he made up for the deficiency by such activity and skillful arrangement of forces as to make him, in some sense, the first royal personage of the age. The single fact that he was aide (143) 1 1 i THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA to tako Honry iM. Stanley iroiri the other patrons whom he held in re or in posse was a suflicient proof of the adroitness and enterprise which Leopold displayed in the whole African business, to which he has given the better part of his life and fortune. In the year 1876, the King of the Belgians invited to his capital a number of international publicists to consider with him the plans which he had evolved. He thought it well to undertake the civiliza- tion of a continent. He would bring that continent into the general circle of commerce and enlightenment. He would bring to bear all the agencies of Europe for the extinguishment of the slave-trade and slavery itself. The conference which the king called was the opening act in that drama of transformation which has extended itself to the present day. Leopold was watching with profound interest the movements of Stanley. At this time, the explorer was in the darkest maze and tangle of his work. He was marching from Lake Tanganyika to Nyangwe. He had not yet found the Lualaba, and much less had he demonstrated the identity of that river with the Congo. To adopt his own story, he had not yet, in banter with one of his leaders, cast up the penny on the fall of which he was to decide whether he would follow the Lualaba or take another branch which would have led him into chaos. The penny indeed said that he should take the other branch. But with the perversity and audacity of inspiration, he renounced the decision of the penny, and took the Lualaba; hence the Congo and the sea! Of this great matter in the far interior of Africa, Leopold had no knowledge when the Conference of 1876 was convened. He had only a vague dream that he should ever be able to secure the services of Stanley in the interest of himself and Belgium. Meanwhile ho THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 147 dreamed of other things. At one time he formed a plan for the acquisition of a part of Borneo, or, missing that, some other island in the tropical Pacific. On the 12th of September, 1876, the Conference of Brussels convened. Representatives were present from Great Britain, Austria- Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. They were not sent thither by the governments of the countries named, but rather by the geographical societies and other progressive organizations in the various countries. Of these bodies most of the representatives were presidents or secretaries. The king of the Belgians himself appeared in the conference in his private capacity ; he acted per- sonally and not as the crown. The sessions of the conference were brief; only three days were consumed in the meetings. The principal, and, indeed, the only important action taken, was the institution of the International African Society, to the work of which we have so many times referred. This important body was organized, and its seat was fixed in Brussels. The plan contemplated the appointment of sub- committees to have their headquarters in the principal capitals of Europe. Such committees should be contributory to the main society, the purpose of which was declared to be the promotion of exploring enterprises and civilizing movements in Central Africa. As soon as this important meeting had adjourned, the question was taken up in London. The Royal Geographical Society laid its hand on the helm, but it was not the Brussels helm. Indeed it could hardly be expected that the British would long follow the lead of Leopold. The Royal Geographical Society, therefore, instead of sending a commission to Brussels, organized an independent African Exploration Fund. This was in March of 1S77. Divers 148 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA African explorations were planned, the principal one of which was entrusted to the management of the young explorer, Joseph Thom- son, who was authorized to proceed as the representative of British interests only. In other countries, however, such as Germany, Austria-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, and the United States, branches of the International African Asso- ciation were formed, and in June of 1877, a meeting of the Central Committee was held in Brussels. A considerable fund had already been subscribed, and before the end of the year an expedition was dispatched to determine the character of the country between Lake Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean. This expedition struck inland from Zanzibar in the year following its appointment, and made its way to the east shore of Tanganyika, where the German trading station and settlement called Karema was founded. The movement thus begun, however, did not proceed very far until history, whicli may, in Shakespeare's phrase, be regarded as the one "unquestionable spirit" of the world, took its own course and left all man-plans go awry. For one thing, Henry M. Stanley, who had gone over to the service of the King of the Belgians, having now made his way down the Congo, arrived at Marseilles in January of 1878. He brought with him the greatest single con- tribution to geographical knowledge ever made by man. Already he had sent before him certain letters which had awaked the interest of all Christendom in the conditions and prospects of Central Africa. It is not our purpose, however, in this connection to follow the subordinate lines of the great story. We are to speak only of the successive Congresses that were the evolved and evolving agencies of THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 149 the forward march. The second of these was, as we have seen, the great Conference of Berlin, held in the 5'ear 1884. To this meeting and its work we have already devoted a chapter. We have seen how, under its auspices, the map of Africa began to be greatly modified. Events moved forward, for about five years, on the lines which took their origin from the Berlin Congress. At length, however, the affairs of the Dark Continent got into such com- plexity as to demand another discussion, at least on the part of two of the principal nations. These two nations were Germany and Great Britain. The enlargement of the " sphere '' of the former power in East Africa had continued until the dominion of the Sultan of Zanzibar was about to be included in Germany! But the British sphere also enlarged itself, and the French sphere likewise, until before the end of 1885, a commissioner had to be appointed by the three governments to decide how much of the temtorial spoil each should have. At this time, Emin Pasha was at work in the Equatorial region, and was tliought to be surrounded by the Mahdists at Wadelai, on the Upper Nile. To rescue him — albeit, the result showed that he did not greatly need or appreciate a rescue — Stanley set out up the Congo in the beginning of 1877. In the meantime, Dr. Karl Peters, founder of the German Colonization Society and head of the Ger- man East Africa Company, had undertaken a second exploring expedition in the eastern part of the continent, which resulted after two or three years in his being appointed Imperial Commissioner of the German Protectorate. It thus happened that while Stanley was in the interior, and Peters was exploring in the same region, the two expeditions, in the language of Keltie, "played at \:a) the story of south AFRICA hide-and-seek with each other for some time, but never met.''* This condition of affairs led to what is called the Anglo-German agreement of 1890, which was the third African international compact of the epoch. When Stanley, on the South shore of Victoria Nyauza, found Emin Pasha, the necessity for "relieving" that diligent but eccentric explorer had passed ; for an agreement had already been reached between the two governments concerned, and the "sphere" of each had been so determined that Emin Pasha's further efforts to extend the dominion of his country were useless. A line of demarcation between the British assumption and that of Germany had been declared. By this compact, Germany retired to the north of the boundary which was drawm from the Umba to the eastern shore of the lake. Great Britain was left to claim all the coast country north of the river Jub. This region had already been declared by the British East Africa Company to be a protectorate. The boundary line was extended across Victoria Nyanza, and thence westward to the eastern boundary of the Congo Free State. On this basis, the adjustment was confirmed as to the two nations concerned, and was accepted by the others. Already, however, a more formal and important conference was on at Brussels. Nearly two years previously, namely, in Sep- tember of 1888, the Marquis of Salisbury had sent a dispatch to the British representative at the Belgian capital, suggesting that the king should call a conference of the Powers to contrive meas- ures for the more effectual suppression of the slave-trade. This meeting, which w^as the fourth of the series, was accordingly desig- nated as the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference. The ooay assembled • "The Partition of Africa," by J. S. Keltie. pape 354. THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 151 in November of 1889, and the sittings were continued until July of the following year, when the proceedings were brought to a close. The results were recorded in an agreement, the substance of which, as summarized by McDermot in his work entitled British East Africa, was as follows: 1. Progressive organization of the administrative, judicial, religious and military services in the African territories placed under the sovereignty or protectorate of civilized nations. 2. The gradual establishment in the interior, by the Powers to which the territories are subject, of strongly occupied stations in such a w^ay as to make their protective or repressive action effectively felt in the territories devastated by slave-hunting. 3. The construction of roads, and in particular of railways, connecting the advanced stations with the coast, and permitting easy access to the inland waters, and to such of the upper courses of the rivers and streams as are broken by rapids and cataracts, in view of substituting economical and rapid means of transport for the present means of carriage by men. 4. Establishment of steamboats on the inland navigable waters and on the lakes, supported by fortified posts established on the banks. 5. Establishment of telegraphic lines, ensuring the communi- cation of the posts and stations with the coast and with the admin- istrative centers. fi. Organization of expeditions and flying columns to keep up the communication of the stations with each other and with the coast, to support repressive action, and to ensure the securit}'^ of high-roads. 7. Restriction of the importation of fire-arms, at least of ir,2 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA modern pattern, and of ammunition, throughout the entire extent of the territories infected by the slave-trade. It will be noted from the tenor and subject-matter of the foregoing clauses, that the Brussels Conference of 1890 was concerned more about the social and industrial possibilities of Central Africa than it was about the political divisions thereof. But the partition of the continent had, in the meantime, gone steadily forward, as if the process were enlivened by its own principles and momentum, as indeed it was. By the date of the close of the Brussels Conference of 1890, a new map of Africa had, as it were, presented itself for the accept- ance of the world. Its principal features of change are as follows: German Southwest Africa had extended itself far into the interior, until with a narrow frontier it touched the headwaters of the Zambesi. The Congo Free State had enlarged itself on the south- east by dropping down until, in the very center of South Africa, it lay against the borders of the British protectorate. German East Africa had taken for its permanent eastern boundary the ocean from Cape Delgado to Pongwe, about three degrees north of the island of Zanzibar. From that point the boundary lay to the northwest to its intersection with the east shore of Victoria Nyanza. From this line northward to Abyssinia and westward to the headwaters of the Congo, that is, to the watershed between those waters and those which flow into the Nile, was constructed the vast territory called Imperial British East Africa. The Portuguese coast \vas confirmed from Cape Delgado south- waid to Tongaland. Cape Colony had enlarged itself in an imperial way to the north. Basutoland and Natal were included on the east. Part of Bechuaualand became a crown colony and the vast THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 153 remainder a British protectorate. From the parallel of twenty-two south latitude, measuring northward, began the immense region known as British South Africa, which extends northward to the Congo Free State and German East Africa, and on the east to Lake Nyassa and the Portuguese possessions. Many other changes had also taken place in the five-year period preceding 1890. The various British possessions lying between the Cameroons and French Senegal had been enlarged and defined. It appeared at this time that the contention of Great Britain for the possession of the valley of the Niger would be determined in her favor. The Royal Niger Chartered Company had laid its claim between the German Cameroons and the French Colony of Benin, and had extended the same far up the river to about the four- teenth parallel of north latitude. The Spanish protectorate, reaching from Cape Blanco to Cape Juby, opposite the Canaries, had been recognized and confirmed. Vast regions in the interior, how^ever, still remained to be appropriated at the beginning of the tenth decennium, and it is the after part of the scramble which has given character to history in this quarter of the globe at the close of the century. This struggle has gone on with such rapidity, so many threaten- ings and reconciliations, and such astonishing results, that on the whole the partition of Africa, which has now been virtually com- pleted, presents the most marvelous geographical and political transformation which has ever been witnessed in human progress in a like period of time. Let us, then, briefly contemplate the African map as it presented itself in the year 1895. By this time not a single district on the coast of the continent, except the Sultanate of Morocco on the noitli- 154 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA west, and the vilayet of Tripoli on the north, reaching from Tunis to the borders of Kgypt, had escaped the foreign domination. Per- haps the little republic of Liberia ought also to be excepted, as that is virtually a native state. In the case of Egypt likewise, the question of dependency may be raised, for that is still nominally a Turkish tributary. The Nubian desert, as well, from the southern boundary of Egypt to the northeastern angle of the Italian protectorate, where the same touches the Red Sea, about one hundred miles south of Suakim, may be considered as African rather than European territory. As to the interior, south of the Negro Sultanate of Wadi, which has its limit about the eighth parallel of north latitude, not a single scrap of Africa, except the small region between Angola and the British Central Protectorate, reinains under native control. All of the rest of the continent, which measures 11,621,530 square miles, and bears a total population of (approximately) 140,000,000 souls, has passed under the dominion of the European nations. For better or for w^orse, this result has come to pass. It is a historical fact with which, independently of its antecedents, the present and the future must deal according to the wisdom that is in the nations. If the ancient virus of selfishness in the race could be neutralized with some benevolent antidote, and if the brutal law of competition should cease to be the prevailing force with men and nations, then the work of regenerating Africa would cer- tainly afford the most beautiful and salubrious field for human exertion to be found in all the earth. Dropping the forecast, however, let us look attentively at what is. On the northwest, the French Protectorate has spread south- ward to include the country to about the fifteenth parallel of 'J £ CO < Q Z o < 5 Q z o < 3 z o r* U4 THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 157 north latitude, where it reaches the territory of the Ro5'al Niger Company of Great Britain. Thence the French sphere spreads westward and southward to the ivory coast of Guinea and to the Atlantic shores from Cape Blanco to Gambia. As we have said, the French sphere is, territorially considered, the greatest of all the European dependencies in Africa. Between the years 1890 and 1895, the Spanish Protectorate carried its boun- daries into the interior until a large, though not very promising, province was established — this on the northwest border of the continent. On the whole, by the date just named, the red of Great Britain had diffused itself more and more over the map, particu- larly in the south. The Imperial dominions at this juncture extended centrally from the eighth to the thirty-fifth parallel of south latitude, a distance of more than two thousand miles. Strangely enough, the British expansion was, in this instance, altogether towards the interior and not maritime. On the west, from the equator to the mouth of the Orange River, the country was wholly occupied by the great dependencies of France, Portugal and Germany. In the interior, the Congo Free State had been allowed to enlarge itself, mostly by the suggestion of the rivers and the mountains, to French Ubangi on the north ; to British East Africa and German East Africa on the east; to British Central Africa and Angola on the south. The outlines of German East Africa we have already traced in a preceding paragraph.* By the year under consideration (1895), the eastern, half-peninsular projection of the continent had passed almost wholly to the dominion of Italy, whose protectorate, as we have seen, extended from a short distance south of Suakim to the * See page 153. 158 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA equatorial line. Within this region, however^ on the gulf of Aden and looking to the north, lies the little Somaliland protectorate of Great Britain. Out of this general view we have left for special notice in the following two chapters the South African Republics of the Dutch; that is, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal or South African Republic. For the present chapter, we conclude the discussion of the political aspect with the following summary of relative areas, popula- tions, and averages to the square mile, of the various European dependencies in the Dark Continent, and also the native remainder. It will be seen, as a general result, that more than 9.000,000 square miles out of a total of a little more than 11,500,000 square miles have passed from native to foreign control, and this does not include among the foreign dependencies Egj^pt or Liberia. SUMMARY OF AFRICAN STATISTICS, 1895 .* NAME OF PARENT STATE. AREA SQUARE MILES. POPULATION. INHABITANTS TO THE SQUARE MILE. French Africa 3,326,790 2,194,880 905,090 884,810 826,730 548,880 177,750 153,834 9,018,760 2,602,770 11,621,530 30,089,000 43,227,700 16,300,000 8,370,000 5,472,000 5,150,000 764,000 443,000 112,545,700 16,990,000 139,535,700 9.6 British Africa 20. Belgian Africa (Congo) German Africa 18. 9.4 Portuguese Africa 6.6 Italian Africa 8. Dutch Africa (Republics) .... Spanish Africa 4. 3. Total European Africa Native Africa 12. 6 5 All Africa 12. Concerning this summary of areas, populations, etc., we should remark that under the head of population, the native races living • Deduced from Keltie'B "Partiiicm cf Africa," pp. B19 521. THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 159 within the European dependencies are, of course, included with the small sprinkling of Europeans proper. The real white population of these vast areas is small. Indeed the whites could not be reckoned in the aggregate of Africa but for their governing control, and for the fact that they are supported with adequate military forces from the European centers of power. To the foregoing statistical facts certain social and anthropo- logical considerations of great importance must be added. Africa ought to be viewed as a whole with respect to its receptivitij of civilization; that is, civilization according to the European standards. Of what use can the continent be made to the high contracting powers that possess it and struggle for it, unless there be a potency of something to be gained by the tremendous movement? Let us, then, note a few of the still more general features which suggest or contradict the partition of Africa with a view to Europeanizing the continent. Within the more than eleven and a half million square miles of African temtory exist nearly all the ultimate resources of human progress ; but they exist under conditions which will make them diffi- cultly obtainable by the possessors. It is one thing, for instance, to possess a fertile territory, and it is another thing that the fecundity of that territory shall offer itself freely to human exertion. Certainly not all of the natural elements of wealth are to be found in the African receptacle. For example, all of those resources which are peculiar to the borderland of snow must be omitted from the count. This will include the hardier and more enduring forms of timber, the fur-bearing animals, etc. It will also exclude certain important cereals and root products, the cultivation of which follows the fluctuations of temperature and season. For the 160 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA rest, Africa possesses all ; and it might almost be said that she offers nothing. Like the Klondike deposits of gold, lying under fifteen or twenty feet of impenetrable ice, the natural wealth of Africa, though with conditions totally reversed, is nearly all protected by tropical heats, blankets of malaria, and ferocious aspects of nature which repel all but the most courageous of men. Over and above this there is a still larger consideration. Africa, more than any other continent, repels commerce. The sea- coast line of the continent, measuring around from the Delta of Egypt to the Delta again, is about fifteen thousand miles in extent. It is, throughout, the smoothest coast line in the world. One has only to glance at the outline to see its bayless and harborless character. Notwithstanding the great size of the continent, the shoreline circumference is fully four thousand miles less than that of Europe, which continent is only one- third the area of Africa! The European coast is eaten in everywhere with bays, inlets and harbors innumerable; but the coast of Africa from beginning to end has not one important indentation! How can such a continent yield itself freely to the demands of the commercial world? To this great defect, however, there is some compensation. A large number of great rivers flow with tremendous volume from the far interior of Africa, thus opening water channels for the admission of ships. Of this kind is the immemorial Nile; also the Niger; and perhaps most resourceful of all, the Congo. In South Africa, the Orange and the Zambesi have their tributaries in the same interior. Towards the center of the continent lie the great lakes — the Victoria Nyanza, Nyassa, Tanganyika, the two Alberts, Lake Chad and several others, each with its own extensive water drainage and system of streams. To the extent here indicated, THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 161 Africa is penetrable, and the commercial resources of the interior may be got to the borderland of ocean. For the rest, the coast seems to forbid the approach of ships more than does the shore of any other major division of the earth. Still another question arises — that of temperature. Africa is tropical. It is the most tropical of all the countries of the globe, and therefore has the greatest zone of heat. Hence the human frame and faculties are exhausted from relaxation. Only South America is comparable in position with the African continent. But South America is climatically ameliorated by many conditions which make even her tropical belt both delightful and salubrious, as well as productive. On the west, the great Andes rise, making residence desirable for Europeans and Americans, even under the equatorial line. North of that line, South America has but little more than ten degrees of territory. The high interior of Brazil, drained by the tributaries of the Amazon, is habitable by men of all races. The climate is by no means intolerable at any point on the eastern coast of South America. The most insalubrious part is the district lying between the delta of the Orinoco and the mouth of the Amazon. In Africa, the mollifying conditions do not exist; or they exist to such a limited extent, chiefly in the southern and eastern part of the continent, that at no place within the tropics is there a really healthful and nerve-building environment for people of the Aryan race. And of this character of physical and mental discouragement is nearly the whole of the continent. Africa, as we have said, is the tropical country par excellence. Noi-th of the tropic of Cancer, between that line and the Mediter- 162 TllK STOKY OF SOUTH AFRICA nuieiin, only iibout three million square miles of the whole area are incliulod. At the other end of the continent, the region between tlio troi)ic of Capricorn and the sea has an area of less than one million square miles. All of the remainder, amounting to more than seven million six hundred thousand square miles, is within the tropics, and the torridity is appalling. Over the vast region the sun swings north and south, looking down vertically on desert and forest and interminable morass, heating the whole as if with tire and furnace steam, until it challenges the hardy races to enter or approach at the peril of their lives. The emplacement of Africa in the vastness of the seas puts the continent under interdict as to those cheering vicissitudes of climate which seem to be so essential to the physical and mental vigor of mankind. Looking out from Africa in all directions, except to the north, there is nothing but a world of waters — of warm waters — which lave the shores from century to century, for- bidding any material change of season or atmospheric condition. The ocean currents that reach the coast from distant seas, born, as they are, of the rotation of the earth and the pulsations of the deep, are all salt rivers of steam. The only exception is the cooler current which sweeps up the west shore from Benguela to the Congo delta. There is also a phenomenon of this kind off the coast of Spanish Africa, modifying favorably the temperature of that country. It would appear, then, that on the whole, the common and traditional belief of mankind relative to the inhabitability of Africa by people of the Aryan stock is warranted by the facts as they are written eternally in the conditions of nature. The one race of men which seems to be invincible in the tropical parts of THE EPOCH OF PARTITION 163 the continent is the Nigritian race, whose millions sweat in naked- ness and flourish in the mephitic atmosphere, unhurt by their environment. How, indeed, should it be otherwise, since the blacks are the survivors of an ethnic evolution which has destroyed all the rest? After the negroes come the Hamites, who are the preponderat- ing people in the country of the central lakes. After these are the Semitic Arabs, and the mixed breeds in which a percentage of white blood flows safely in the channels of the black. Finally come the intruding, conquering, masterful Europeans, whose mis- sion, if we look no further than the morality of nature, seems to be the control, direction, use and abuse, of the vast native mass, in carrying out the blind purposes of human destiny. In spite of all this, however, the economic nature-maps of Africa give evidences of vast and varied promises. Thus, for example, the Orographical Map, exhibiting the elevation of the different parts of the continent above the level of the sea, shows larger and still larger areas of high-up country that, under the dominion of civiliza- tion, must prove to be residence areas for large masses of pro- gressive men. In Abyssinia, the mountain ranges rise easily above the level of ten thousand feet. There are spots under the very equator, between Victoria Nyanza and the sea, which ascend to the same great altitude. There are other and still greater regions, namely, in Abyssinia, surrounding the great lakes, around the South African coast, inland from Walfish Bay and Benguela, in Darfur, and in the mountainous region of Marocco, in which the highlands rise to the salubrious and nerve-making range of elevation between five thousand and ten thousand feet. The greater part of Africa, below the tifth parallel of south latitude, has an elevation of from 164 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA two thousand to five thousand feet above the sea. Other vast areas vary from five hundred to two thousand feet; and the remainder has an elevation of less than five hundred feet. Yet again we may look with interest at the map which shows the range of navigable waters in Africa. This includes, first of all, a sea coast of fifteen thousand miles. On the west coast it includes the rivers Senegal, Gambia and Grande. It includes, in the next place, the tremendous Niger with its southern tributary; also the small rivers Gross, Mimi and Ogove. Of the navigability of the Congo we have already spoken; but the ascent of this great stream is broken for a considerable distance in the region of the falls and rapids. Above Stanley Pool, the stream again, together with no few^er than twelve of its tributaries, becomes navigable for river steamers of large capacity. At St. Paul de Loanda, the Coanza may be ascended for more than one hundred miles. On the east coast, the Limpopo, the Pungue, the Zambesi and the Shire, are reckoned as navigable streams. All of the great lakes of the interior are as navigable as our own. Finally, the Nile with its tributaries, except in the regions of the Falls and Cata- racts, is navigable from about the fifth parallel of north latitude to the Mediterranean. All these conditions are favorable to the spread of European civilization, and are included among the com- mercial possibilities of Africa. We thus conclude our survey of the continent as a whole, reserving the following chapters for the special consideration of the Dutch Republics in the south. ■ £3J < m Si < CHAPTER X THE TWO REPUBLICS In the preceding pages we have followed in outline the devel- opment of the various European dependencies in Africa. Besides these there are two independent States^ which, having a European origin, have grown up on African soil, becoming commonwealths in the proper sense of the word. These are the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. Both of these commonwealths have been derived from European planting; but have been, for the most part, free from European patronage. They are, therefore, independent states. The}^ are in exact analogy with the Old Thirteen Colonies of the United States before the Revolution. We shall now narrate the origin and devel- opment of these two singular democracies, standing alone, as they do, in a vast continent, having no foreign power behind them and nothing within them but their own rugged vitality. There are, however, in Africa, two other divisions which are, in some measure, in the same category with the two republics of the Dutch. The other two are Liberia and the great Algerian dependency of France. The former is the unsatisfying result of an attempt to create a native republic, and the latter, though a colony, is in touch with the Republic of France, and is a derivative there- from. French Congo also has this character. But for the rest, all of Africa has passed under the control of the European monarchies, insomuch that the Africa of to-day may be regarded as an appan- age of the crowns of Europe. (16-) 168 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Two groups of tliese immense dependencies, namely, those of Great, Britain (the British group of provinces numbers ten) and those of Germany (the German group numbers three) are imperial in their derivation and development. Angola, the Congo Free State, Portuguese East Africa, the Italian protectorate, and the Spanish protectorate, are monarchial ; that is, they are dependencies of monarchy. Since, however, they are not and cannot become integral parts of the monarchies to which they belong, these also assume the imperial character; for these colonial states, with the populations which they contain, are not homogeneous with the home government, but heterogeneous and detached parts thereof. Africa, therefore, as a whole, has become Imperial Africa. That is the aspect of the larger question. That is the significance of the division of the continent among the powers. The dependencies of France, even, give to the mother republic, or tend to give, the character of an empire ; in so much that France is no longer simply a republic, but rather an Imperial Republic, spreading in the manner of her prototype. Imperial Rome, before the empire of Rome was declared. To all this, then, the two Dutch republics are distinctly excep- tional. They are not as yet parts of the imperial scheme. They do not surrender their democratic independence for the elusive advantages of an imperial connection. The significance of the conflict with which the century closes relates emphatically to this exceptional standing and character of the 7'emaini7ig tivo free countries in South Africa. The Orange Free State, known originally as the Orange River Sovereignty, and afterwards as the Orange River Free State, had its origin, as we have seen in a former chapter, in an exodus of THE TWO REPUBLICS 169 the Dutch Boers out of Natal and Cape Colony across the south branch of the Orange River called the Caledon. The territory is bounded on the south by this stream through nearly its whole extent. On the east, the principal boundary is the Drakensburg range of mountains. On the north, the limit is the river Vaal and the river Buffalo, which is the tributary of the Tugela. On the west, the boundary is artificial, dividing, as it does, the Free State from Griqualand West. The shape and delimitation of the country show clearly enough that it was occupied in the first place and determined in its boundaries, not by surveyors with theodolites and diplomatical agents with note-books, but by folks seeking a home. Such irregularity of geographical outline may be noticed (and for the same reason) in all the older states of the American Union. The settlement of the Orange Free State carries us far back towards the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first per- manent colonization was effected by the Dutch in 1652. The country had been previously explored in a random way by a company of shipwrecked sailors whom a stranded Dutch vessel had cast ashore at Table Bay. No sooner had a settlement been made, than the first incoming ship from Holland bi-onght recruits. Then it was, in 1654, that that peculiar breed of men, the Dutch Boer farmers, was established in the valley of the Orange. They were the sons and grandsons of the men who had fought Philip of Spain. They went to South Africa to seek a home, just as our forefathers came to New England and Virginia. They were descendents of the Dutch patriots who had won the freedom and independence of their country in the Lowlands of Euro])o. They were soon joined by refugees and exiles from several of the opi)ressed districts of the parent continent. 170 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Thus, ill the Latter part of the century, came a band of French Huguenots into South Africa. Thus also, out of the Alpine valleys of Switzerland, came the Waldensians, and the Protestant Pied- raontese. These brought with them the products and industrial methods of the home countries. They planted the vine in Boer- land. They added greatly to the prosperity of the Dutch colonists, with whom they easily combined and melted into a common type. It were hard to say whether the Dutch element or the refugee element predominated in the communities at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The non-Dutch contributions were so considerable that the language was infected and the institutions of the country modified. In 1724, the authorities decreed that the Dutch be the official language ; French and other dialects were excluded from the schools and courts. The climate of the region to which destiny had led the emigrant Boers, is rather dry, but especially healthful. The forests, of sub- tropical character, in some districts are fine. At the time of the Great Trek, many of the tropical animals, including the lion, the rhinoceros, the elephant, and the giraffe, were found, but all of these have disappeared; they too have trekked far into the safer interior! To the present day an occasional herd of antelope may be seen in the hill country. The soil is for the most part fertile, suggesting agricultural products, or, missing that, the pastoral life. The Boers, once settled in their new homes, took naturally to their original manner of life, subject only to such modification as the environment made necessary. More than hitherto they became the breeders of cattle, horses, goats, sheep and ostriches. As for the mineral wealth, they gave not much heed, except to those resources which were immediately serviceable, such as coal and iron. For THE TWO REPUBLICS 171 the rest the country was laid out in farms. Orchards and vineyards were planted, and the Free State became an agricultural common- wealth. An export trade was established, the staple articles being wool, skins, ostrich feathers, and diamonds. For these an exit to foreign markets was found at Durban and Cape Town. The autocracy of the Dutch leaders in the newly founded State became pronounced. Their relations with the natives were severe and at times oppressive. They took possession of the lands with the original inhabitants included, and the latter became virtually slaves. Though the Dutch were themselves farmers and artisans, they compelled the native serfs to perform the hand-labor requisite to the development of the country. A social condition supervened, not dissimilar to that in the old slave-holding colonies of the United States. Perhaps the strongest hold for animadversion which the enemies of the Boers have in recent times, is their slaveholding propensity and habit. The word slave has a hard sound in the ear of civiliza- tion, and the leaders of affairs in all civilized countries avail them- selves of the ignominious word in order to put opprobrium on all the slaveholding kind. At the same time, they who do this, while avoiding for themselves the odium attaching to downright chattel servitude, beat about and introduce social conditions which are virtually as servile and unequal and wretched as are found in out- right slavery. The most progressive nations of the world have, in the present age, adopted the role of getting as near to the margin of chattel slavery as may be done without subjecting themselves thereby to the hostility of mankind. Thus have arisen the various "labor systems" of modern times. The Boers have been sufficiently culpable on the score of slaveholding, and it will be well if the 17l» the story of south AFRICA. present crisis in South Africa shall teach them to abandon the system forever. The master class in the Orange State did not content itself with the reduction of the Kaffirs and the Hottentots. The latter were a rude and pastoral race who did not yield their energies readily to the heavy toil of field and garden. They were clever in the care of flocks, but not capable as diggers. So the Boers looked abroad for slaves more serviceable. Many Negroes w^ere brought from the interior, and also gangs of Bantus, who submitted to the required tasks. As in the case of our Old South, the slave class soon came to outnumber the whites. It appears, however, that the tendencies of slave-making were at length checked and reversed in the Orange River Sovereignty, and that by the time of the aboli- tion in Cape Colony, namely in 1834, the whites had gained upon the slaves, who, in the open regions below the Orange River, numbered about twenty-five thousand. It was at this juncture that the effort of the British authorities was made to prevent, rather than encourage, territorial expansion from the Cape. The Dutch settlement there, which had become an English possession, was regarded as a trading-station which ought to be fortified and strengthened; but no thought was as yet entertained of creating a broad colonial dependency. Therefore the spread of the colony was deprecated. It has been said that the abolition of slavery was the cause of the Dutch migration into the interior. That movement, undertaken in 1824, had, however, a larger reason and motive. True, the agricul- tural system of the Dutch was undone by the act of emancipation, and that work gi'eatly disturbed them. Nothing distresses a people more than the upheaval of the industrial system, whatever that THE TWO REPUBLICS 173 may be. Nothing will make a man fight more savagely than to disturb his farm. This of itself was no doubt sufficient to suggest the trekking of the Boers ; l)ut the larger reason was the impos- sibility of the co-dwelling of two master races in the same country. The Boers were a master race, and so were the English. They disagreed on many things, and particularly on the question of whicli should master the other. This was the most powerful motive prevailing in the epoch of the trek. The movement under consideration could not be resisted. A system of migratory farming was adopted by the Boers, who would dwell for a season in one place, and for the next season in another. At each removal they laid out and planted fields and gathered a crop. Then the trek would be resumed. It was this process which carried the Boer population of the Cape northward and eastward, and diffused it through Natal, the Orange River Free State, and the Transvaal. No certain statistics exist of the various populations of South Africa in the first quarter of the present century. It is thought that about the time of the beginning of the British ascendency, that is, in 1806, the inhabitants of the Cape countries numbered about seventy- five thousand. Of these, one-third were Boer farmers, one-third were Hottentots, pure and mixed, who held a subject and servile relation to the Dutch ; and the remaining third were imported black slaves. When British authority was established, Dutch authority receded from it. The fact that it receded into the interior — to be followed thither by the British — accounts for the anomalous character of the present map of South Africa, which shows the British protec- torates, not on the coast, but rather precluded from the coast by the dependencies of other nations — this in the face of the fact 174 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA that Great Britain is the most singularly maritime power in the world. Crossing the Orange River the trekkers settled in the country which, with the natural boundaries already stated, includes about forty-one thousand five hundred square miles. Here a republican government was organized, having the aristocratical characteristics much the same as did the old State governments in the slaveholding quarter of our republic. The Boers transported their institutions froin the Cape and reestablished them in a land where they believed themselves to be safe from further interruption. The double trek had carried them first into Natal, and thence into the present Free State territory. Here the dominant class organized their govern- ment in a way to exclude from the franchise, land ownership, and the right to bear arms, the servile class of the population. The capital of the country was established at Bloemfontein. The city is on the Modder River, two hundred miles to the north- west of Durban. The latitude is twenty-nine degrees eight minutes south, and the longitude is twenty-six degrees and forty minutes east. The town is pleasantly situated. The public buildings are worthy of the country and people. There is an unpretending Capitol, where the Volksraad or Popular Assembly holds its meet- ings, and where the high court sits ; also a hall for the meetings of the municipal council of Burghers. Before the discovery of gold in the Dutch States, Bloemfontein was no more than a small country town, but it was central to a large and productive district of country. By the year 1890, the population had increased to three thousand five hundred. The railroad northward from Elizabeth passes through Bloemfontein on its way to Johannesburg and Pretoria. In recent times telegraphic ¥^^~" X"^ Ui u 03 S 2 I u Z Q Z o < 5 i THE TWO REPUBLICS 177 communication has been opened from the city to Natal on the east, and to the more distant Cape Town on the southwest. Other places of considerable importance have sprung up, of which the principal are Fauresmith, Edenburg, Philippolis, Jacobsdal, BoshofF, Winburg, Hoopstad, Kronstad, Heilbron, Frankfoi-t, Harrismith, Ladybrand, Ficksburg, Bethulie, Bethlehem, Smithheld, Rouxville, and Wepener. Resuming the historical thread, we note the early conflict between the Dutch Boer immigrants with the natives north of the Orange. The aborigines of this region were the Griquas, who, find- ing themselves about to be included in a foreign dominion, appealed to the British authorities at Cape Colony for protection. The Griquas, supported by the influence of the Colony, went to war. Sir Philip Maitland, Governor of Cape Colony, sent a body of British troops to the aid of the natives, and the Dutch were defeated at the battle of Zwart Koppeis, in 1845. This gave excuse for the establishment of a British residency north of the Orange River. That event was the opening wedge for still further assumption, and in 1848, Sir Harry Smith, who had succeeded Maitland as governor at the Cape, made a. personal journey into the troubled region, and concluded from his observations that the best way j:o secure peace was to make a new dependency under British protection. Thus came the Orange River Sovereignty. Against this movement the Boers arose. Then, as already naiTated, another fight occurred at Boomplaats, and a second time the Boers were worsted. The Basuto war occurred in 1852. Governor Cathcart, of Cape Colony, sent an expedition against King Moshesh and his army of Basutos, who were defeated by the British in the battle of Berea. 17S THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA Having' ^MiiuMl thus much, the victorious British concluded to con- cede political autonomy to the Boer state; and this was done in February of 1854. Such action to the people of the Free State was the uchiovement of the independence which they so greatly coveted. The date of this agreement made with the Boers by Sir George Clerk, special commissioner of Great Britain, was February 23, 1854. By the terms of the compact the Boers were released from all alle- giance to the British crown, and were permitted to organize independ- ently on a Republican basis. This they did, giving to their country the name of the Orange River Free State. The constitution which they adopted placed the executive power in the hands of a President. To him was given an Administrative Council. The legislative depart- ment was assigned to a Volksraad, or Congress, elected by the people. The judiciary was organized, and the new State entered upon a pros- perous career which was not seriously disturbed until the gold fields were discovered at Johannesburg and Witwatersrand ; that is, until the richness of these deposits was made known. Another great find was made at Barburton, the center of the Kopp region, neai- the fron- tier of Portuguese East Africa. In this attitude, then, the people of the Orange Free State were placed when the suzerainty of Great Britain was declared, in a prelim- inary way, in 1877, to be relaxed, as the result of the war of 1880-81. That war reached its climax in the rout of the British at Majuba Hill. After that, British suzerainty was acknowledged in the convention of August in the year just named. The circumstances of the colonization by the Dutch of the country north of the Vaal and south of the Limpopo, have been already indicated in the chapters on Cape Colony and the Orange Free State. The original rights of the Dutch at the Cape were THE TWO REPUBLICS • 179 supplanted by the imposition of British authority early in the cen- tury as a result of the Napoleonic wars. That result was confirmed in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna. Then followed the period of British colonization, which was superimposed on the settlements of the Dutch. Then, in 1834, came the abolition of slavery in the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, and the beginning of the migration of the Boers into the interior. The fretting of the two races — the aggression of the one and the resistance of the other — next led to the colonization of Natal. From this region the Boers were at length obliged to recede, and the Orange River Sovereignty was con- stituted as the refuge of the trekkers. This did not suffice, and Pretorius and his followers made their way across the Vaal. Here they found themselves among the aborigines, who were the Zulu- Kaffirs, Hottentots, and mixed races, who held the territory in the rude manner of barbarians. The trekkers did not attempt to expel the native inhabitants, but established themselves as the master race. Tn 1840, they organized the Republic, which, after nearly sixty years duration has been thrust, under the name of the South Afiican Republic, into the foreground of history. The great leaders of the Boers were Andrew Pretorius, Pieter Maritz, and \iin Potgieter. These were the rough, but courageous, organizers of the sturdy government which took its seat at the new town named in honor of Pretorius. For twelve years the colony grew l)y accretions of Boer iinniigrants. and in January of IS-VJ, the republic was recognized hy Great Britain as an independent state. This was done at a convention held on Sand Ivivor. On the 12th of April, 1877, the Transvaal Republic was declared to be "annexed" to Cape Colony. ISO THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA In 18S3 Paul Kriiger, already approaching his sixtieth year, was elected President of the South African Republic. His first term extended from 1SS3 to 1S8S. His abilities were great and his courage unquestionable. As a boy of ten. he had accompanied his parents on .the Great Trek into the Kaffir wilderness. In his youth he was a lion-killer. In 1S37. he stood in the line and looked into the muzzles of the Zulu guns as they blazed into the faces of his countrymen on Battle Hill. After tlie victory, he sang Dutch psalms with the rest. At the age of twenty, he went on the expedition against Durban, at which time the Boers sought *to regain their old seaport. He first met the British at the Sand River Convention in 1852. His accession to the Presidency came two years after the disagreeable agreement of ISSl. in which the suzerainty of Great Britain over the foreign affairs of the repul^lic was recognized quo ad hoc. Then came his visitations at the capitals of Europe, and the revised compact of 1S84. The inrush to the Transvaal gold fields began after the Con- vention of 1S84. The authorities of the Republic therefore claimed exclusive prerogatives in determining the rights and relations of the incoming populations. The Volksraad proceeded to establish harsh conditions of citizenship and regulations for the control of the mining districts. But at this juncture, British authority raised its hand. British authority set up the claim that the suzerainty of the ^ Empire extended over the Transvaal, and that, therefore, such ques- tions as citizenship and mining rights were determinable only by the consent and under the influence of the Imperial government. The paiiies to the contention were, on the one side, the author- ities of the Boer Republic and all the Boers supporting their Presi- dent and the Raad. The other party was composed of the Briti.sh, THE TWO REPUBLICS 181 French and other foreigners. The latter were designated by the Dutch as Uitlanders; that is, Outlanders or foreigners. The antagonism of Boer and foreigner, however, was by no means limited to the South African Republic. The two classes. extended into the Orange Free State, and Natal, and Cape Colony' itself. It was this fact that, in the speech of the day, gave rise to the term Afrikander, by which the Dutch proudly designated every white man who was born on African soil. The name was applied particu- larly to all white men of Dutch descent. These were of course dis- tributed throughout all Afi'ica south of the Limpopo and the lower Orange. In Cape Colony, the Afi'ikanders were in a majority at the date of the conventions of 1881 and 1884. They have continued in the majority to the present day.* They were in a great majority in the Orange Free State, and, before the gold-rush, in a majority in the Transvaal; but they are now decidedly in the minority. Throughout South Africa, wherever an Afi-ikander was found, a man was found who was in an antagonistic attitude to the Outlander. The Afrikander belonged to one party, and the Outlander to another party. Out of this situation sprang the Reform Party in the South African Republic. Out of the same conditions also sprang, in the year 1879, the Afrikander Bund, or, as we should say, the African Bond. This organization was composed exclusively of Afi'ikanders. It had in it something of the strict construction and intense purpose which characterized the "American Party" which flourished somewhat in the United States from 1852 to 1856. The Afrikander Bund not only set itself in opposition to the aggressions of the Outlander Party, but it went beyond the phase of opposition and adopted the positive and active policy of independence. ♦The year 1899. isj THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA The imlepeiulence sought for was nothing less than the emancipation of Jill South Africa from foreign domination, and the establishment of an African United States. Nor may we pass from the subject without I noting, by anticipation, the great strength and support which the Boers of the Transvaal suddenly discovered in the Afrikander Bund at the outbreak of the war in 1899. The Bund was behind the Boer. The Outlander class in the Orange River countries, constantly augmented in numbers and vehemence. The elements composing it were energetic and sometimes enterprising. They were the Transvaal miners par excellence. Many became traders; for the trade quickly follows the mine. Many new industries came on in the wave of out- landism. Meanwhile the Boer administration and the Boers themselves sought to keep their seats. They sought to hold and to exercise their authority. Their paucity of numbers might be contrasted with the tremendous mass of humanity which heaped itself up at Johannes- burg and other gold-producing centers. Then the mass assumed a threatening attitude. In the mass there was much discontent, dis- affection, opposition to Boer authority, and complaints at British indifference. Henry M. Stanley, describing the condition as he saw it and heard it at Johannesburg on the occasion of his visit to that place in 1897, two years after the Jameson raid, says : "At Johannesburg, however, different feelings possessed us. Without knowing exactly why, we felt that this population, once so favored by fortune, so exultant and energetic, was in a subdued and despondent mood, and wore a defeated and cowed air. When we tim- idly inquired as to the cause, we found them laboring under a sense of wrong, and disposed to be querulous and recriminatory. They blamed both Boers and British: the whole civilized world and all but THE TWO REPUBLICS 183 themselves seemed to have been unwise and unjust. They recapitu- lated without an error of fact the many failures and shames of British colonial policy in the past; gave valid instances of their distrust of the present policy; pointed to the breaches of the Convention of 1884, and the manifest disregard of them by the Colonial Secretary; described at large the conditions under which they lived, and demanded to know if the manner in which tlie charter of their lib- erties was treated was at all compatible with what they had a right to expect under the express stipulations of the Convention. ' Why,' said they, 'between Boer arrogance and British indifference, every condition of that Power of Attorney granted to Paul Kruger has been disregarded by the Boer, and neglected by the British.' " Such was the condition of the social, industrial and political ele- ments in the gold-bearing districts of the Transvaal during the first half of the tenth decennium. The Boer Burghers held their own, but the South African AduUamites wanted representation in the govern- ment. This the Republican constitution forbade, or permitted only after a tedious and rigid method of naturalization. Members of the Volksraad were divided into two classes. There were two Volksraaden, each body being composed of twenty-four members. We should call the Upper Raad a Senate, and the Lower Raad an Assembly, or House of Representatives. Qualifications for membership in these bodies were strict and rigorous. No one might enter either Volksraad until he should be thirty years of age. He must possess fixed property and be a Protestant. He must never have committed a criminal offense. The Burghers who might vote were also divided into two classes. The first class included all male white residents of the Republic, who had been such since the 29th of May, 1876, and who had taken part in the wars of 1881 and 1S4 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 1894. 11 also iiKdiuled such Burghers' sons as had reached the age of sixteen years or over. In the second class was included the naturalized male population of the Republic and the sons of such who had passed the age of sixteen. Naturalization might be gained after a residence of two years, by such persons as would take the oath of allegiance and pay the fee of two pounds sterling. Burghers of the second class might be promoted to membership in the first class by a special vote of the Volksraad, after the candidates had been naturalized citizens for a period of twelve years. These provisions made the way to the right of first- class Burgher suffrage, a steep and difficult cliff to climb. A foreigner could reach such right only after a citizen residence of fourteen years. In the exercise of the suffrage there were also great care and strict construction; burghers of the first-class had a right to vote for members of both Volksraaden; that is, in effect, the Upper Volks- raad was elected by first-class burghers only. The second-class burghers were entitled to vote for members of the Lower Volks- raad only; with that the political power of such burghers ceased. Out of this condition came a breach between the Outlanders and the administration of the Republic. The Outlanders complained that they were taxed without representation. They said that they were entitled to vote. They said that the Boer constitution was oppressive, absurd, mediaeval. They said that their rights were disregarded, their citizenship denied, their character depreciated and derided. They said that they had made the Transvaal; that is, they had made it worth something; that they had developed the mines; that they had built the railways; that they had organized stock companies and made business; that they outnumbered the Boers two < D c/i U E H O 5l h u u Q u Q 2 D K H E O b3 h CO Cx] U RIBBiS^r? u < M M < Ui X H O THE TWO REPUBLICS ' 1S7 to one in many places, and that the government of the majorit}' by the minority was monstrous; that even if they succeeded under the hard conditions in electing one of their own number to a seat in the Lower Raad, he, their representative, could not speak Dutch, while English, the language of civilization and progress, was not permitted. In the present case, the leading Outlanders, having their center at Johannesburg, got together and organized the Reform Party! It was the object of this party to get themselves emanci- pated from the control of the Transvaal Republic. They would not pay taxes unless they could vote. They would not build railways for other people. In the city of Johannesburg, such was the situation in 1893-94. And the other mining cities were even as Johannesburg, but not so great. The Reform Party made itself known on the streets. The Reform Party proclaimed insurrection against the existing order. CHAPTER XI THE JAMESON RAID On the 26th of December, 1895, an important manifesto was issued by the National Reform Union at Johannesburg, addressed to the people of the Transvaal, setting forth the reforms demanded by the Uitlanders. These may be summarized as follows: 1. The establishment of the republic as a true republic under a constitution approved by the whole nation. 2. An amicable franchise and fair representation. 3. The equality of the Dutch and English languages. 4. The responsibility to the legislature of the heads of the chief departments. 5. The removal of all religious disabilities. 6. The establishment of independent courts of justice, with the security of adequate pay for the judges thereof. 7. Liberal education. 8. An efiBcient civil service with adequate pay and the pension system. 9. Free trade in African products. This manifesto closed with the following significant words : "We shall expect an answer in plain terms, according to your deliberate judgment, at the meeting to be held on January 6." The manifesto was followed three days after its date by this telegram from Mr. Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, addressed to Sir Hercules Robinson, Her Majesty's High Commissioner for South Africa: 1()0 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA "Strictly Confidential— It has been suggested, although I do not think it probable, that an endeavor might be made to force matters at Johannesburg to a head by some one in the service of the Company advancing from Bechuanaland Protectorate with police. Were this to be done, I should have to take action under Articles 22 and 8 of the Charter. Therefore, if necessary, but not otherwise, remind Rhodes of these Articles, and intimate to him, that in your opinion, he would not have my support, and point out the consequences which would follow." On the following day, December 30, Sir Hercules Robinson cabled to Mr. Chamberlain as follows: "I learn on good authority movement at Johannesburg has collapsed. Internal divisions have led to the complete collapse of the movement, and leaders of the National Union will now probably make the best terms they can with President Kruger." A few hours later, the Secretary for the Colonies cabled to Mr. Robinson : " Your telegram received. Are you sure Jameson has not moved in consequence of collapse ? See my telegram of yesterday." Within the same hour that this message was sent, Mr. Chamberlain received the following from the High Commissioner : "Information reached me this morning that Dr. Jameson was preparing to start yesterday evening for Johannesburg with a force of police. I telegraphed at once as follows: 'To the Resident Commissioner in the Bechuanaland Protection. There is a rumor here that Dr. Jameson has entered the Transvaal with an armed force. Is this correct ? If it is, send a special messenger on a fast horse directing him to return at once. A copy of this telegram shall be sent to the oflBcers with him, and they shall be told Her Majesty's THE JAMESON RAID 191 government repudiate this violation of the territory of a friendly state, and that they are rendering themselves liable to severe penalties.' If I hear from Newton that the police have entered the Transvaal shall I inform President Kruger that Her Majesty's government repudiate Jameson's action ? " It will be seen that the signs were ominous of serious trouble and the wire under the ocean throbbed with the important messages flashing back and forth. Momentous events were in the air. On the same day of the transmission of the last despatches Sir Hercules Robinson telegraphed the Colonial Secretary : "1 have received the following from the British Agency in the South African Republic : 30th of December. Very urgent. President of South African Republic sent for me, and the General then read to us a telegram from Landdrost of Zeerust, that a number of British troops have entered the Transvaal Republic from Mafeking and cut the wire, and are now on the march to Johan- nesburg. I assured the President that I could not believe the force consisted of British troops. The General then said they may be Mashonaland or Bechuanaland police, but he believed the informa- tion that a force had entered the state, and he said he would take immediate steps to stop their progress. His Honor requested me to ask your Excellency whether this force is composed of Britisli troops or police under your Excellency's control, or whether you have any information of the movement. I replied that I had heard a rumor to the same effect, and have telegraphed to inquire, adding that, if true, the step had been taken without my authority or cognizance, and that I have repudiated the act and ordered the force to return, immediately." On the evening of the same day, Mr. Chamberlain telegraphed ]\Y2 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA to Mr. liohiiison: " In reply to your telegrams relative to the situation in South African Republic, your action is cordially approved. I pre- sume that Mr. C. J. Rhodes will cooperate with you in recalling Administrator of Matabeleland. Keep me informed fully of political situation in all its respects. It is not clearly understood here. Leave no stone unturned to prevent mischief." On the last day of the year, Sir Hercules Robinson cabled that in consequence of a telegram from the British Agent in the Trans- vaal, he had ordered the Agent to send without delay a thoroughly competent mounted express with this message to Dr. Jameson: "Her Majesty's Government entirely disapprove your conduct in invading the Transvaal with armed force. Your action has been repudiated. You are ordered to return at once from the country, and will be held personally responsible for the consequences of your unauthorized and most improper proceeding." On December 29, which was Sunday, Dr. Jameson, accompanied by Sir John Willoughby, the Commandant of the Chartered Com- pany's forces, rode out from Mafeking with a force whose numbers have been given at from 400 to 600 men. They took with them three Witworth and eight Maxim guns. Their first act was to cut the telegraph wires and they had hardly crossed the border into the Transvaal, when they were met by an official of the Republic, who warned them to withdraw at once. Dr. Jameson's written reply was: " Sir: I am in receipt of your protest of above date, and have to inform you that I intend proceeding with my original plan, which had no hostile intentions against the people of the Trans- vaal, but we are here in reply to an invitation from the principal residents of the Rand to assist them in their demand for justice and the ordinary rights of every citizen of a civilized state." THE JAMESON RAID 193 It will be remembered that a messenger mounted on a fleet horse was sent with an order of recall to Jameson, who was over- taken near the Elan River. After reading the order, Jameson coolly replied to the messenger that he might report that the order had been received and would be attended to, and then the raiders rode on. No sooner was news received of the crossing of the frontier by the raiders than the burghers, who had been commandeered, made haste to intercept the party, which was encountered about fifteen miles out of Johannesburg, where the fighting opened a little past midnight on the first day of the new year. Jameson and his men were daring, but no more so than the Boers, among whom were some of the best rifle shots found any- where. They are cool, brave and almost fanatical in their devo- tion to their country, and whatever policy is fixed upon by the President and his associates. Full of self-confidence, the raiders rode onward until they came in sight of Krugersdorp, where a halt was made and notice given that the women and children must leave the place at once, as Jameson intended to take possession of it. In giving this notifica- tion, however, the leader of the invaders, to use a homely expres- sion, counted his chickens before they were hatched. In order to enter the town, the horsemen had to ride directly between two kopjes, as they are termed, affording a powerful position to the Boers, who had taken possession of them. When the raiders came in sight, the defenders adopted the tactics often used by the Kaffirs, and which is a favorite one among American Indians. Small bodies presented themselves as disputants of the advance, and after a feeble resistance, began 104 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA falliii-; hack. Thv'w object was to lure Jameson and his men in front of the strong position where a numerous force of riflemen wore eagerly waiting for them to come within range. In other words. th(^ Boers set a trap for the invaders into which they rode. Before he suspected anything of that nature, Jameson found the lire too hot to be borne, and he contented himself with throw- ing a few shells into the town, when he fell back and took the road leading through Randfontein, past Brink's farmhouse at Dornkop. Two troopers were killed there, but the Boers adopted the same tactics as before, reserving their real attack until the invaders came within reach of their full force. On the other side of Dornkop, the defenders held both sides of the road, and when darkness descended, Jameson found himself in a most critical posi- tion, for, although he was on a small kopje, the Boers commanded the point from every side. At the time Jameson first appeared, the number of Boers con- fronting him was about 1,200 or 1,500, but all through the night others continued to join them until their force was tripled. All of these splendid marksmen were mounted and armed with Martini- Henry rifles, which they knew how to use with wonderful effec- tiveness. They were threatened by a grave danger for a time, owing to the fact that they had expended so much ammunition in resisting the attack on Krugersdorp, that little remained, but special trains were run out from Johannesburg which fully made up the hick. The Uitlanders blew up the line between Langlaate and Krugers- dorp, but foolishly waited until after the supplies had gone past, so that not the slightest help was given to Jameson. Fully com- prehending the danger of his position, Jameson continued shelling THE JAMESON RAID 197 that of the Boers. He used electric lights to locate the enemj', but they were effectually hidden by the boulders and rising ground, and received scarcely an injury. Thus it came about that, when morning dawned, the raiders found they were caught in a trap, froni which their only escape was by breaking through the lines of the Boer riflemen. With great gallantry Major Coventry led a charge against the kopjes, but he was defeated by the peculiar action of the Boers, who made no attempt to shoot the riders, but killed their horses. What they wished was to make the men prisoners and they took this means of doing so. The unharmed riders, being suddenly dismounted, had no other recourse than to scramble among the reeds and behind anything that offered a screen, for in no other way could they escape, even for a short time. Thus the fighting went on for four hours or more. The time came when the leader saw that it was all up with him, and early in the forenoon he hoisted the white flag. The Boers seemed to distrust the flag of truce, but when the raiders piled their arms in the middle of a square and lined up, they rushed forward and took the whole force prisoners, including, of course, their arms and ammunition. A good many men had been wounded, but, as has been shown repeatedly in the last war, the Boers treated the unfortunate ones humanely. Brink's farm house. as it was known, was turned into a hospital to which the injured of both sides were carried, where immediate attention was given them, while the prisoners were escorted to Krugersdorp. It is said most of them were utterly exhausted, and so famishing that they were on the point of fainting, which they would have done but for the prompt relief given by their captors. 11 198 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA When the scene of the battle was inspected and the dead of both sides buried, it was observed that the destruction of the horses of the raiders had been particularly severe. The assertion was often made that the Boers had lost a good deal of their skill in marksmanship, owing to the killing off of the big game in their country; but, though they may have lacked the astonishing expert- ness of their fathers, it was indisputable that they were still splendid shots. There will never be any question as to the great bravery shown by Dr. Jameson and his followers in attempting to make this raid into the Transvaal. Dr. Jameson w^ell knew the char- acter of the enemy to which he would be opposed, but the profound belief in his own powers, which feeling animates almost every Eng- lishman, caused him to scorn the difficulties of the situation and to move forward in an almost hopeless enterprise. Perhaps there was a deeper design in the raid than history will ever be able to show conclusively, but, as that may be, it required a bold spirit to carry out this design, and no better selection could have been made than that of Dr. Jameson. It is quite evident that the plans of Jameson were entirely disarranged when the reinforcements of Uitlanders in Johannesburg failed to come to his assistance. Jameson had been promised 2,000 men from Johannesburg, but, owing to the activity of President Kruger, the Uitlanders were unable to carry out their part in the program. Hundreds of armed burghers poured into Johannesburg, and an outbreak on the part of the Uitlanders would have been the signal for a general slaughter. Kruger quickly served warning on the "Defense Committee" in Johannesburg, and this notice was emphasized by a display of force which demonstrated the hopelessness THE JAMESON RAID 199 of any attempt to go to the aid of Jameson. As a result Jameson was informed by the Defense Committee that an armistice had been concluded with President Kruger until the high com- missioner visited Pretoria, and, consequently, no help could be given to him. Dr. Jameson's men were brought to Pretoria. The burghers were greatly excited over the affair, and, had not judicious counsels prevailed, the prisoners might have been harshly treated by the enraged farmers. As soon as the news reached England Mr. Chamberlain cabled to President Kruger asking him to show magnanimity in the hour of victory. Oom Paul replied that the case of the prisoners would be decided strictly according to the traditions of the Republic, and that there would be no punishment which was not in accordance with the law. The case, therefore, was referred to the judges of the High Court of the South African Republic and they sentenced Dr. Jameson and his associates to be shot. President Kruger decided, however, that in presenting the Transvaal side of the case to the world, that magnanimity would count for much in gaining the sympathy of otlier nations, and he declined to allow the sentence to be carried out. He refused to sign the death waiTant and ordered the prisoners turned over to Her Majesty's Government on the Natal frontier, as soon as Johannesburg was disarmed. It has been stated that one of the conditions insisted upon by President Kruger for the release of the raiders was that Johannes- burg should be disarmed. The city was notified on the 6th of January, 1896, that no discussion of grievances would be permitted until such disarmament was made. This was the ultimatum, and, to render it effective, the English agent. Sir Jacobus De Wet, was 200 TlII^: STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA sent with a message by the High Commissioner from Pretoria, which was thus delivered: "Men of Johannesburg, friends, and fellow subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, I regret I am before you under such painful circumstances. I deeply sympathize with your griev- ances, but circumstances have so changed that I have to ask you to do a thing which would, perhaps, pain many a heart." He begged them as men to use their judgment, and not to allow their English blood, English courage and English valor to override their judgment. Every human being, unbiased in mind, believed in pluck, perseverance and determination in Englishmen. (Loud cheers.) He had to announce that Jameson and his brave fellows — misguided, but brave — (tremendous cheering) — were pris- oners. A terrible mistake was undoubtedly made by some one, which had placed them in a most awkward and painful position, and he rejoiced to announce that Jameson and his men were to be honorably handed over to Her Majesty's Government — (loud cheers) — and to be dealt with according to the laws of Great Brit- ain, but one condition was that the men of Johannesburg should lay down their arms. ("We will not," and prolonged groans.) As their friend and loyal subject and servant of the Queen, from the time of his manhood to the present moment, he appealed to them as Britons not to act idiotically, not to refuse to give up their arms. (Cries of "Who to?") To-day was not the time to let feelings of enthusiasm carry them away. It was the time to be guided by judgment and counsel, and to let these prevail over national senti- ment. He was expressing the wishes of the High Commissioner, who, at his request, allowed him to come, and, if possible, avert bloodshed. He appealed to the men of Johannesburg to set aside THE JAMESON RAID 201 the national feelings by which they were fired. They might fight bravely like lions, but he would tell them it was utterly impossible for the men in Johannesburg to hold their position. (Dissent.) If they fought, with all their pluck and determination, they would have to die. (Cries of " Never.") If they did not care for their own lives, as men with brave hearts did not, let them consider women and children — (cheers) — and many other innocent people who had nothing to do with the movement. Let them consider the position of this town, which might be in ashes if Johannesburg persevered in the present course. He put it, could they by all their pluck and bravery hold this place? They would be starved out; they would perish from famine and thirst. He was in sympathy with the men of Johannesburg, but begged and besought them as a fellow-subject, and as representative of the Queen on behalf of the High Commissioner, to consider their position. They were not surrendering through cowardice. There was no disgrace in that. (Cries of "What are the conditions?") Well the Government of the Transvaal was disposed to be lenient. It is worth bearing in mind that the President of the Transvaal Republic voluntarily surrendered to a representative of the Queen, every man who had taken part in the invasion of his country. Before this release took place, the prisoners drew up a memorial to President Kruger, thanking the government and officials with whom they had been brought in contact during tlieir imprison- ment, for the great kindness shown them throughout their incar- ceration. And as to how England punished these breakers of her laws, that is another story. On June 11th, Jameson and his leading associates were brought before an adjourned session of the Bow 202 THE STOUY OF SOUTH AFRICA Street Police Court, London, charged with a violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act by making a raid into a friendly state. The prisoners were fifteen in number, and, as they entered the court room, with Jameson at the head, he was the only one who showed an appreciation of the gravity of the situation in which they were placed. He was grave and thoughtful all through the hearing, while the others smiled, nodded to acquaintances in the court room, and seemed to look upon the occasion as a fine oppor- tunity to place themselves on exhibition before their admiring countrymen. A correspondent thus sketches the appearance of the prisoners: "Jameson has an interesting, and, by no means, a bad face, though not as strong as one would expect. His eyes are fine — wide apart and rather pathetic— and he has a good big forehead, perhaps a little exaggerated by baldness, but his mouth and chin do not look unusually positive. He wears a brown mustache, trimmed close, and in age appears to be about forty. His eye is clear and his color good, but fatigue and care were evident from his whole appearance and demeanor. In physique he is thick set and short — quite the least imposing by far of the party; but he has the only intellectual face among them. Henry Frederick White, one of the leaders, is the handsomest of them, a tall, mili- tary man, with an air of good breeding and distinction. The Hon. Robert White, is quite vacant looking, as is also Captain Coventry. Colonel Grey is also handsome, in a way, but heavy; Sir John Willoughby looks intelligent enough, in all conscience, but his face is cynical and repellent." Sir Richard Webster represented the Crown, and some of the most distinguished barristers in England were arrayed on the side THE JAMESON RAID 203 of the defense. The depositions of the witnesses were taken down in long-hand to be sworn to and signed then and there. This made the proceedings tedious, but many stirring episodes of the raid were brought out, and one especially was listened to with keen interest. That was the testimony of a Dutch lieutenant, told simply and modestly. He had been under arrest by the Jameson column, but afterward took part in the first skirmish near Krugers- dorp. He was met on patrol duty, his horse taken away and he was disarmed, whereupon he asked his captor why they did that, "when no war had been declared or anything." When he was asked how many men he had he expressed surprise that they should expect him to answer such a question. His horse was finally restored to him and he was left behind on a two hours' parole to stay where he was. He kept his parole and at its termi- nation galloped off with such speed that he rejoined the Boers and took charge of his battery before the raiders arrived. The magistrate discharged nine of the accused, but held Jame- son, the two Whites, Coventry, Willoughby and Grey under £2,000 bail each. The grand jury found bills of indictment against the prisoners, whose trial took place in the latter part of the following month. There could not have been a more inopportune date for them, for on the same day, the report of the investigating committee of the House of Assembly of Cape Colony was given out. It was an act of high moral courage on the part of the Cape Parliament to censure Rhodes, but the great British leader was reproved for his part in the affair. In view of the remarkable character of the case, the attorney general demanded a trial at bar before the Queen's Bench Division 201 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA ,)f ili(> lli