South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 8)
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Title: South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 8)
Author: Louis Creswicke
Release date: December 3, 2007 [eBook #23692]
Language: English
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[Illustration: LIEUTENANTS MELVILL and COGHILL (24th REGIMENT) DYING
TO SAVE THE QUEEN'S COLOURS.
An Incident at the Battle of Isandlwana.
Painting by C. E. Fripp.]
SOUTH AFRICA
AND THE
TRANSVAAL WAR
BY
LOUIS CRESWICKE
AUTHOR OF "ROXANE," ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOL. I.--FROM THE FOUNDATION OF CAPE COLONY TO
THE BOER ULTIMATUM OF 9TH OCT. 1899
EDINBURGH: T. C. & E. C. JACK
1900
PREFATORY NOTE
In writing this volume my aim has been to present an unvarnished
tale of the circumstances--extending over nearly half a
century--which have brought about the present crisis in South
Africa. Consequently, it has been necessary to collate the opinions
of the best authorities on the subject. My acknowledgments are due
to the distinguished authors herein quoted for much valuable
information, throwing light on the complications that have been
accumulating so long, and that owe their origin to political
blundering and cosmopolitan scheming rather than to the racial
antagonism between Briton and Boer.
L. C.
CONTENTS--VOL. I.
PAGE
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ix
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE GROWTH OF THE TRANSVAAL 13
THE BOER CHARACTER 15
SOME DOMESTIC TRAITS 18
CHAPTER II
PAGE
THE ORANGE FREE STATE 24
THE GRONDWET 26
TRANSVAAL DISSENSIONS 29
ZULU DISTURBANCES 30
THE POLITICAL WEB 33
THE WEB THICKENING 36
THE ZULU WAR 38
ISANDLWANA 40
AFFAIRS AT HOME 43
TOWARDS ULUNDI 49
THE VICTORY 57
CHAPTER III
PAGE
SIR GARNET WOLSELEY AT PRETORIA 62
GLADSTONE OUT OF OFFICE AND IN OFFICE 65
COMMENCEMENT OF REBELLION 69
THE FATE OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT 73
LAING'S NEK 77
INGOGO 84
MAJUBA 86
THE SIEGE OF PRETORIA 95
RETROCESSION 99
THE BETRAYED LOYALISTS 101
CHAPTER IV
PAGE
THE CONVENTIONS 106
MR. KRUGER 110
GERMANS AND UITLANDERS 114
CHAPTER V
PAGE
MR. RHODES 118
RHODESIA--UNCIVILISED 120
RHODESIA--CIVILISED 124
GOLD 127
DIAMONDS 131
CHAPTER VI
PAGE
THE TRANSVAAL OF TO-DAY 136
ACCUMULATED AGGRAVATIONS 138
MONOPOLIES AND ABUSES 143
THE FRANCHISE 146
THE REFORM MOVEMENT 149
THE CRITICAL MOMENT 153
THE RAID 156
AFTER DOORNKOP 172
THE FATE OF THE MISCREANTS 177
THE ULTIMATUM 178
APPENDIX--CONVENTIONS OF 1881 AND 1884 191, 197
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS--Vol. I.
1. _COLOURED PLATES_
PAGE
DYING TO SAVE THE QUEEN'S
COLOURS. An Incident of the Battle
of Isandlwana. By C. E. Fripp _Frontispiece_
COLONEL OF THE 10TH HUSSARS
(H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES) 16
2ND DRAGOONS (ROYAL SCOTS GREYS) 32
OFFICER OF THE 16TH LANCERS 64
DRUM-MAJOR AND DRUMMERS, COLDSTREAM
GUARDS 80
COLOUR-SERGEANT AND PRIVATE,
THE SCOTS GUARDS 104
SERGEANT AND BUGLER, 1ST ARGYLE
AND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS 140
COLOUR-SERGEANT AND PRIVATE (IN
KHAKI), GLOUCESTER REGIMENT 172
2. _FULL-PAGE PLATES_
PAGE
CAPE TOWN, DEVIL'S PEAK, TABLE
MOUNTAIN, AND LION'S HEAD,
FROM TABLE BAY 10
A KAFFIR KRAAL IN THE TRANSVAAL 20
BLOEMFONTEIN, FROM THE SOUTH 26
THE DEFENCE OF RORKE'S DRIFT.
By Alphonse de Neuville 42
THE BATTLE OF ULUNDI: THE FINAL
RUSH OF THE ZULUS. By R. Caton
Woodville 58
THE ORANGE RIVER AT NORVAL'S
PONT 74
THE BATTLE OF MAJUBA HILL. By
R. Caton Woodville 90
WHERE COLLEY FELL. Rough Cairn
of Stones on Majuba Hill 92
THE MATABELE WAR--DEFENDING
A LAAGER. By R. Caton Woodville 118
"TO THE MEMORY OF BRAVE MEN."
The Last Stand of Major Wilson on
The Shangani River, 1893. By Allan
Stewart 124
A MATABELE RAID IN MASHONALAND.
By W. Small 128
KIMBERLEY, AS SEEN FROM THE
ROCK SHAFT 132
PRETORIA, FROM THE EAST. 138
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVES--BOUND
FOR THE GOLDFIELDS 148
JAMESON'S LAST STAND--THE BATTLE
OF DOORNKOP, 2nd January 1896.
By R. Caton Woodville 160
JOHANNESBURG, FROM THE NORTH. 166
3. _FULL-PAGE PORTRAITS_
PAGE
SIR HENRY BARTLE FRERE, Bart 48
GENERAL SIR EVELYN WOOD, G.C.B.,
V.C. 96
PAUL KRUGER, PRESIDENT OF THE
TRANSVAAL REPUBLIC 112
RIGHT HON. CECIL JOHN RHODES,
P.C. 144
DR. LEANDER STARR JAMESON 152
RIGHT HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,
M.P., Secretary for the Colonies 176
SIR ALFRED MILNER, K.C.B., High
Commissioner for South Africa 184
VISCOUNT WOLSELEY, Commander-in-chief
of the British Army 188
4. _MAPS_
PAGE
MAP OF BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA _At Front_
MAP OF THE BOER REPUBLICS "
MAP OF ZULULAND AND THE ADJOINING
PORTIONS OF NATAL 41
MAP OF COUNTRY ROUND LAING'S
NEK AND MAJUBA HILL 81
PLAN OF DISPOSITION OF FORCES
ON TOP OF MAJUBA HILL 89
MAP OF MATABELELAND 121
MAP ILLUSTRATING THE JAMESON
RAID 163
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE--VOL. I.
#1851.#--First Basuto war.
#1852.#--Sand River Convention, granting independence to Transvaal
Boers.
#1853.#--Province of British Kaffraria created.
Introduction of representative government in Cape Colony.
#1854.#--Convention of Bloemfontein and Treaty of Aliwal, granting
independence to Orange Free State.
Free State abandoned to Dutch.
#1855.#--Establishment of a Constitution for South African Republic;
not completed till 1858.
#1856.#--Natal created a separate Colony. 2000 German legion and
2000 German labourers arrived.
#1858.#--War between Orange Free State and Basutos.
#1859.#--First railway constructed.
#1865.#--British Kaffraria incorporated with Cape Colony.
War between Free State and Basutos.
#1867.#--First discovery of diamonds near Orange River.
First discovery of gold in Transvaal.
#1868.#--Annexation of Basutoland.
#1869.#--Discovery of diamonds near Lower Vaal River, where
Kimberley now stands.
Commercial Treaty concluded between Portuguese Government and the
South African Republic, which led to British claims to Delagoa Bay.
#1871.#--Annexation of Griqualand West (Diamond Fields). Basutoland
added to Cape.
#1872.#--Responsible Government granted to Cape Colony.
Cetchwayo succeeds his father, Panda, as king in Zululand.
#1872-75.#--Delagoa Bay arbitration.
#1874.#--Ichaboe and Penguin Islands annexed.
#1875.#--Delagoa Bay award.
#1875-80.#--Lord Carnarvon's scheme for making the different
colonies and states of South Africa into a confederation with common
administration and common legislation in national matters.
#1876.#--Fingoland, Idutywa Reserve, and No-Man's-Land annexed.
Acceptance by Free State of L90,000 for Griqualand West.
Khama, Chief of Bamangwato, seeks British protection against Boer
aggressions.
#1877.#--Annexation of Transvaal by Sir T. Shepstone, after the
country had been reduced to a state of anarchy by misgovernment.
#1877-78.#--Gaika and Gealika rebellion.
#1878.#--Walfish Bay proclaimed a British possession.
#1879.#--Zulu war. Transvaal declared a Crown Colony.
#1880.#--Basuto war. Sekukuni campaign.
Boer protest against British rule at a mass meeting held in December
at Paardekraal (now Krugersdorp).
They seize Heidelberg.
South African Republic established.
December 16.--Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorius proclaimed South
African Republic by hoisting flag on Dingaan's Day. Kruger made
President on December 17. British treacherously surrounded at
Bronkhurst Spruit, December 20, when about 250 of 94th Regiment,
after losing nearly all their men, surrendered. Colonel Bellairs
besieged in Potchefstroom, but Boers retire when shelled. December
29.
--Captain Elliot treacherously murdered while fording the Vaal.
#1880-81.#--Reinforcements sent out December and January.
Griqualand West incorporated with the Cape.
#1881.#--Transvaal rebellion. Pretoria Convention, creating
"Transvaal State" under British suzerainty.
Sir George Colley takes command of our troops, January. His attack
on Laing's Nek repulsed with heavy loss. Colonel Deane and Majors
Poole and Hingiston killed.
#1881.#--Severe engagement near Ingogo River, Feb. 8. British
repulsed after 12 hours under fire. Sir E. Wood joined Colley with
reinforcements. Orange Free State neutrality declared. Colley and
Majuba Hill, Feb. 27; Colley killed with 3 officers and 82 men; 122
men taken prisoners.
Sir F. (now Lord) Roberts sent out, Feb. 28.
Armistice proposed by Boers, March 5; accepted March 23.
Peace proclaimed, March 21.
Potchefstroom surrendered with honours of war in ignorance of
armistice, April.
Commission appointed to carry out Treaty of Peace, April 5.
Convention agreed to, ceding all territory to Transvaal, with the
Queen as suzerain, and a British resident at Pretoria, Aug. 8.
Convention ratified, Oct. 25.
Evacuation of Transvaal by British troops began on Nov. 18.
#1884.#--London Convention restoring to the Transvaal the title of
"South African Republic."
Annexation of Damaraland by Germany.
Boer Republics of Stellaland and Goshen set up in Bechuanaland.
Boers seize and annex Montsioaland; sanctioned by proclamation;
withdrawn on remonstrance.
Ultimatum by Sir H. Robinson, requiring protection of frontiers.
British annexation of Southern, and protectorate of Northern
Bechuanaland.
Basutoland made independent.
Port St. John annexed.
British flag hoisted in Lucia Bay, Zululand (ceded to England in
1843, by Panda).
#1884-85.#--Sir Charles Warren's expedition.
#1885.#--Annexation of Bechuanaland to Cape Colony.
#1885.#--British protectorate over Khama's country proclaimed as far
as Matabeleland.
Discovery of great goldfields in Witwatersrandt, Transvaal.
#1886.#--Opening of principal goldfields in Transvaal.
British Government put a stop to Boer raids into Zululand, and
confined them to a territory of nearly 3000 square miles; to be
known as the "New Republic."
#1887.#--British annexation of the rest of Zululand.
British treaty with Tonga chiefs, in which they undertook not to
make treaties with any other power.
#1888.#--"New Republic" annexed to South African Republic.
Treaty concluded between British and Lo Bengula, the Matabele king,
in which he undertook not to cede territory to, or treat with, any
foreign power without British consent.
#1889.#--Charter granted to British South Africa Company.
#1890.#--First Swaziland Convention, giving Boers certain rights to
a railway to the coast.
British and German "spheres of influence" defined by formal
agreement.
#1891.#--Southern boundary of Portuguese territory fixed by treaty
with Great Britain.
#1893.#--Responsible government granted to Natal.
Matabele war.
#1894.#--Malaboch war.
Question of "commandeering" British subjects raised in South African
Republic.
Second Swaziland Convention, placing Swaziland under Boer control.
Annexation of Amatongaland.
Annexation of Pondoland.
British subjects exempted from military service by Transvaal
Government, June 24.
Protest by British Government against closing the Vaal Drifts, as
contrary to Convention; Nov. 3. Agreed to Nov. 8.
#1895.#--Crown Colony of Bechuanaland annexed to Cape Colony.
Proclamation of Reform movement by Uitlanders in Johannesburg
(National Union), Dec. 26.
Jameson Raid--he crossed the frontier with a force from Pitsani
Pitlogo, Dec. 29.
Sir H. Robinson telegraphed to Jameson to retire, Dec. 30.
Mr. Chamberlain and Sir H. Robinson sent order to stop hostilities,
Dec. 31.
#1896.#--Dr. Jameson's party, outnumbered and without resources,
defeated by Boers near Krugersdorp, Jan. 1.
Fight at Vlakfontein, and surrender of Jameson, Jan. 2.
Johannesburg surrendered unconditionally by advice of British
Government, Jan. 2.
Dr. Jameson and other prisoners handed over to Sir H. Robinson, Jan.
7.
#1897.#--Judicial Crisis in South African Republic.
Annexation of Zululand to Natal.
#1899.#--Petition of Uitlanders to the Queen, May 24.
Conference, at Bloemfontein, between Sir A. Milner and Kruger, May
30. Terminated without result, June 6.
British Despatch to Transvaal, setting forth demands for immediate
acceptance, Sept. 8.
Unsatisfactory reply, Sept. 16.
Troops despatched to Natal, Sept. and Oct.
Insulting Boer Ultimatum, making war inevitable, Oct. 9.
Orange Free State joins with the Transvaal.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE BOER REPUBLICS.]
[Illustration: GENERAL MAP OF BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA]
SOUTH AFRICA AND THE TRANSVAAL WAR
INTRODUCTION
The Transvaal War--like a gigantic picture--cannot be considered at
close quarters. To fully appreciate the situation, and all that it
embraces, the critic must stand at a suitable distance. He must gaze
not merely with the eye of to-day, or even of the whole nineteenth
century, but with his mind educated to the strange conditions of
earlier civilisation. For in these conditions will be found the root
of the widespread mischief--the answer to many a riddle which
superficial observers have been unable to comprehend. The racial
hatred between Boer and Briton is not a thing of new growth; it has
expanded with the expansion of the Boer settlers themselves. In
fact, on the Boer side, it is the only thing independent of British
enterprise which has grown and expanded since the Dutch first set
foot in the Cape. This took place in 1652. Then, Jan Van Riebeck, of
the Dutch East India Company, first established an European
settlement, and a few years later the burghers began life as
cattle-breeders, agriculturists, and itinerant traders. These
original Cape Colonists were descendants of Dutchmen of the lower
classes, men of peasant stamp, who were joined in 1689 by a
contingent of Huguenot refugees. The Boers, or peasants, of that day
were men of fine type, a blend between the gipsy and the evangelist.
They were nomadic in their taste, lawless, and impatient of
restrictions, bigoted though devout, and inspired in all and through
all by an unconquerable love of independence. With manners they had
nothing to do, with progress still less. Isolation from the
civilised world, and contact with Bushmen, Hottentots, and Kaffirs,
kept them from advancing with the times. Their slaves outnumbered
themselves, and their treatment of these makes anything but
enlivening reading. From all accounts the Boer went about with the
Bible in one hand and the _sjambok_ in the other, instructing
himself assiduously with the Word, while asserting himself liberally
with the deed. Yet he was a first-rate sporting man, a shrewd
trafficker, and at times an energetic tiller of the soil. The early
settlements were Rondebosch, Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein, in the
valley of the Berg River. Here the Dutch community laboured, and
smoked, and married, multiplying itself with amazing rapidity, and
expanding well beyond the original limits.
Dutch domination at the Cape lasted for 143 years after the landing
of Van Riebeck, but gradually internal dissensions among the
settlers resulted in absolute revolt. Meanwhile the Dutch in Europe
had lost their political prestige, and the country was overrun by a
Prussian army commissioned to support the House of Orange. In 1793,
in a war against allied England and Holland, France gained the day,
and a Republic was set up under French protection, thereby rendering
Holland and her colonies of necessity antagonistic to Great Britain.
After this the fortunes of the Cape were fluctuating. In 1795
Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig brought about the surrender of
the colony to Great Britain. Later on it was returned to the
Batavian Republic at the Peace of Amiens, only to be afterwards
recaptured by Sir David Baird in 1806. Finally, in 1814, our claim
to the Cape and other Dutch colonies was recognised on payment of
the sum of L6,000,000 sterling.
Now for the first time began the real emigration of the British.
They settled at Bathurst, near Algoa Bay, but though their numbers
gradually swelled, they never equalled the number of the inhabitants
of Dutch origin.
At this time South Africa was an ideal place for the pioneer. The
scenery was magnificent. There were mountain gorges or kloofs,
roaring cataracts, vast plains, and verdant tracts of succulent
grasses. There was big game enough to delight the heart of a race of
Nimrods. Lions, elephants, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, antelopes, and
birds of all kinds, offered horns, hides, tusks, and feathers to the
adventurous sportsman. All these things the nomadic Boer had
hitherto freely enjoyed, plying now his rifle, now his plough, and
taking little thought for the morrow or for the moving world outside
the narrow circle of his family experiences. With the appearance of
British paramountcy at the Cape came a hint of law and order, of
progress and its accompaniment--taxation. The bare whisper of
discipline of any kind was sufficient to send the truculent Boer
trekking away to the far freedom of the veldt. Quantities of them
took to their lumbering tented waggons, drawn by long teams of oxen,
and put a safe distance between themselves and the new-comers. All
they wanted was a free home, conducted in their own gipsy
fashion--their kraals by the river, their camp fires, their flocks
and herds, and immunity from the vexation of monopolies and taxes.
And here at once will be seen how the seeds sprang up of a rooted
antagonism between Boer and Briton that nothing can ever remove, and
no diplomacy can smooth away. The Boer nature naturally inclines to
a sluggish content, while the British one invariably pants for
advance. The temperamental tug of war, therefore, has been one that
has grown stronger and stronger with the progress of years. The
principles of give and take have been tried, but they have failed.
Reciprocity is not in the nature of the Boer, and without
reciprocity society and States are at a standstill. The Boer is
accredited with the primitive virtues, innocence, sturdiness,
contentment. If he has these, he has also the defects of his
qualities. He is crafty, stubborn, and narrow, and intolerant of
everything beyond the limits of his native comprehension.
Innovations of any kind are sufficient to fill him with suspicion,
and those started by the British in their first efforts at Cape
government were as gall and wormwood to his untrammelled taste.
These efforts, it must be owned, were not altogether happy. There
was first a rearrangement of local governments and of the Law
Courts; then, in 1827, followed a decree that English should be the
official language. As at that time not more than one colonist in
seven was British, the new arrangement was calculated to make
confusion worse confounded! The disgust of the Cape Dutch may be
imagined! The finishing touch came in 1834. By the abolition of
slavery--humane though its object was--the Cape colonists were
exceedingly hard hit; and though the owners of slaves were
compensated to the tune of a million and a quarter (the slaves were
valued at three millions sterling), they continued to maintain a
simmering resentment. Added to this came the intervention of the
missionaries, who attempted to instil into the Boer mind a sense of
the equality, in the sight of Heaven, of the black and the white
races.
At this time 12,000 Kaffirs had crossed over the border and invaded
the settlements, dealing death and destruction wherever they went.
They were finally repulsed by the British, and Sir Benjamin D'Urban,
the Governor at the Cape, proclaimed the annexation of the country
beyond the Keiskamma, on the eastern boundary of the Colony, as far
as the Kei. But no sooner had he accomplished this diplomatic move
in his wise discretion, than orders came from the British Government
to the effect that the land was to be restored to the Kaffirs and
the frontier boundary moved back to its original place--Keiskamma.
Sir Benjamin D'Urban carried out these orders much to his disgust,
for he deemed the annexation of the province to be necessary to the
peace of all the surrounding districts. But this was neither the
first nor the last occasion in the history of Cape government on
which men of practical experience have had to give way before wise
heads in Downing Street arm-chairs.
This action on the part of the Government was as the last straw to
the overladen camel. The patience of the Dutch Boers broke down. The
introduction of a foreign and incomprehensible tongue, the abolition
of slavery, and finally the restoration to the despised Kaffirs of a
conquered province, were indignities past bearing. There was a
general exodus. Off to the neighbourhood of the Orange and the Vaal
Rivers lumbered the long waggon trains drawn by innumerable oxen,
bearing, to pastures new and undefiled by the British, the irate
Boers and their household gods. It was a pathetic departure, this
voluntary exile into strange and unknown regions. The first
pioneers, after a long and wearisome journey to Delagoa Bay, fell
sick and retraced their steps to Natal only to die. The next great
company started forth in the winter of 1836. Some went to the
districts between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers--the district now
known as the Orange Free State; others went into the country north
of the Vaal River--the district now called the Transvaal; while
others again went beyond the mountains to the district now named
Natal. Here the Boer hoped to lead a new and a peaceful life, to
encamp himself by some river course with his kraal for his sheep and
his goats, the wide veldt for his carpet, and the blue dome of
heaven or the canvas of his waggon for his untaxed roof. But his
hopes were of short duration. The poor trekker--to use the vulgar
phrase--had fallen out of the frying-pan into the fire. He had fled
from the "British tyrant" only to encounter the Matabele Zulu
savage. A terrible feud between the Bantu tribes was then causing
much violence and blood-spilling, and the Zulu chief Moselekalse,
having driven the Bechuanas beyond the Limpopo, had established the
kingdom of the Matabele. With this chief, the Boer Potgieter and a
party of burghers, on exploration intent, came suddenly into
collision. Some of the Boers fled, the rest were promptly massacred.
Those who remained alive made plans for self-defence. They lashed
their waggons together to form a laager, and within it placed their
women and children in partial safety. They then gave the warriors of
Moselekalse a warm reception. The fight was maintained with great
energy, the Zulus raining assegais over the waggons, while the Boers
returned the compliment with their firearms. For these they had
plenty of ammunition, and relays of guns were loaded and handed out
gallantly by their women from within the laager. The Boers were
victorious. Their aim was true, their pluck enormous, and after a
sharp engagement the enemy were forced to retire. The savages were
not vanquished, however, till terrible damage had been inflicted on
the laager. Not content with the loss of many of their number, their
sheep and their cattle, the plucky Boers started forth to punish the
Matabele. Though few in number the burghers had the advantage of
rifles, and succeeded in triumphing over the enemy and establishing
themselves at Winburg, on the Vet River, to west of Harrismith.
Later on the Boer farmers prepared to trek into Natal. They had
prospected the place and found it entirely suited to their
agricultural needs. Water and game were plentiful, and the whole
country was fertile as a garden. Here they proposed to settle down.
At Port Natal--now known by the name of Durban--was a party of
Englishmen with whom the Boer explorers got on friendly terms. Both
Englishmen and Boers were aware that the district was under Zulu
sway, and it was decided that the chief, Dingaan, should be
interviewed as to the approaching settlement of the Boers. The wily
Zulu received his late enemies with every show of amity. He offered
them refreshments, he made entertainments for their amusement. He
finally agreed to cede such territory as was demanded by the Boers,
provided they would secure to him certain cattle that had been
stolen from him by a chief named Sikonyela. This the Boers agreed to
do. They promptly travelled to see Sikonyela, and by threats,
persuasions, or other mysterious means, extracted from him his
ill-gotten gains. With the restored cattle the whole party of Boers
then passed on their way from Drakensberg to Natal, full of the hope
of finally making a settlement in a region so well suited to their
pastoral instincts.
On again visiting the chief Dingaan, they were again received with
honour. More festivities were arranged, and the date of the signing
of the treaty was fixed for the 4th of February 1838.
The day came. The burghers arrived in the customary picturesqueness
of woollen shirts, round hats, rough coats, and leathern
veldt-broeks. Dingaan, amiable to excess, insisted that they should
accompany him to his kraal, and there make a formal leave-taking.
They were requested to leave their arms outside as an earnest of
good faith, and, with some suspicion, they acceded. Their reception
was splendid. Their health was drunk, the calabash passed round, and
then--then, at a given signal from the chief, the Zulu hordes rushed
in, fully armed and raging. In less time than it takes to describe
the deed, the defenceless company of Boer farmers were slaughtered
in cold blood--slaughtered before they could lift even a fist in
self-defence! This horrible act of treachery served to do away at
one fell swoop with the whole Boer party. Their bones, piled in a
heap without the kraal, alone remained to tell to their kindred the
tale of their undoing. The Zulus then proceeded in their tens of
thousands to attack the nearest encampment, and cut down all who
came in their way. Men--women--children--they spared none. The
tidings being carried to the outer encampments of the Boers, they
prepared themselves for the worst. They and their gallant _vrows_,
who fought with as cool and obstinate a courage as their husbands,
resisted the onslaught staunchly and successfully; but they paid
dearly for their boldness. Their cattle were demolished, and their
numbers were miserably thinned. Some thought of retiring from Natal;
some contemplated revenge.
The pathetic state of the Boers attracted the sympathy of the
Englishmen then in Natal, and they joined hands. Potgieter and Uys
then commanded a force, and marched out on the enemy, but
unfortunately fell into an ambush and were slain. Among the dead
were the commandant Uys and his son.
Then the Englishmen, not to be behindhand in the fray, came to the
rescue. Though there were but seventeen of them, they went out
accompanied by 1500 Hottentots to meet the enemy. They followed the
retreating savages beyond the Tugela, when suddenly they found
themselves face to face with a fierce multitude of 70,000 Zulus. A
conflict of the most terrible kind ensued: a conflict the more
terrible because at the same time so heroic and so hopeless. From
this appalling fight only four Englishmen escaped. These had
succeeded in cutting their way through the enemy; the rest had been
surrounded, and died fighting valiantly, and were almost buried
among the dead bodies of their antagonists.
But this was not to be the finale of the Boer resistance to the wild
Zulu. The above tragic engagement between the Englishmen and Zulus
took place in April 1838. By December of the same year they had
gathered themselves under the banner of their fine leader Andries
Pretorius, a farmer from the district of Graff Reinet, and started
forth again to meet the treacherous Dingaan, and pay him the debt
they owed him.
A word or two of this Pretorius, after whom the now notable town of
Pretoria was named. He was a born leader of men: he was a Cromwell
in his way. At that date he was forty years of age, in the prime of
strength and manhood. He was tall, and vigorous in mind as well as
in body, calm and deliberating in counsel, but prompt and fiery in
action. His descent is traced from one Johannes Pretorius, son of a
clergyman at Goeree in South Holland, one of the very early
settlers--a pious and worthy man, whose piety and worth had been
inherited by several generations. Like the rest of his countrymen,
Pretorius would brook no control. Though he was indubitably brave
and immensely capable, he had the conservative instincts of his
race. He shrunk from all innovations, he disliked everything
connected with civilisation that might in the smallest degree
interfere with the personal liberty of the individual. Freedom was
as the very breath of his nostrils, and here was the great link
between this really exceptional man and the body of his pastoral
followers.
Pretorius, bent on the punishment of the treachery of Dingaan, set
out, as has been said, with his expedition in the winter of 1838.
This expedition has been named by the Boers the Win Commando. He had
but three small pieces of cannon and a force composed of about four
hundred white men and some native auxiliaries, yet the admirable
tactics of Pretorius, the stout hearts and fine shooting of his
followers, combined to bring about a victory over the Zulus. These
were totally routed, and lost one third of their number.
The bravery and splendid persistence of the Boers filled all hearts
with admiration, particularly when, after several well-directed
attacks, they eventually succeeded in utterly breaking the Zulu
power. Dingaan was dethroned and driven into exile, and his kraal
and property burnt. A Christian burial service was read over the
place where lay the bones of the assassinated Retief and his
companions. The date, the 16th December 1838, on which the Zulu
power met its first check from white men, is one ever remembered in
Boer history. It goes by the name of Dingaan's Day, and is annually
celebrated with great rejoicings throughout the Transvaal.
The Boers had now succeeded in inspiring wholesome awe in the heart
of Panda, the new chieftain who occupied the place once held by his
brother, the exiled Dingaan. He was not a person of bellicose
disposition, and thinking discretion the better part of valour, was
ready enough to swear to keep peace with his late enemies. In these
circumstances the Boers with prayer and thanksgiving were able to
pursue the promptings of their long-checked ambition. Soon several
hundreds of waggons drawn by long teams of oxen came lumbering into
Natal, for the purpose of establishing there the Republic, which had
so often been planned out in imagination and never yet found any but
an abortive existence. This ideal State was eventually formed and
called the Republic of Natalia, and it enjoyed for several years an
independent existence.
As Natal became the first cause of armed conflict between the
British and the Boers, its then position in regard to the
authorities at the Cape may as well be reviewed. Though the new
Republic maintained its perfectly independent existence, its
inhabitants were still mentioned by the Governor of Cape Colony as
British subjects. It must be remembered that prior to the
occupation of Natal by the Boers, and the formation of their
cherished Republic, the Governor of Cape Colony had issued a
proclamation announcing his intention of occupying Natal later on,
and stating that the emigrants--who were then making active
preparations for the attack of Dingaan--- were British subjects. In
Great Britain, however, the authorities had not yet decided to
follow the advice so often given by their representatives at the
Cape. They were still declaring it inexpedient to extend their
territory, and likewise their responsibilities, in South Africa. But
the incursion of the Boers in the neighbourhood of Port Natal put a
new complexion on affairs. The British Government began to open its
eyes to the value of a seaport, with two good harbours on the South
African coast, as a colonial possession. It could not fail to
recognise also that the members of the new State were already bitter
foes to the British and their ways; and that it would be dangerous
to allow them to establish themselves as an independent power on the
coast, and entirely throw off their duty of allegiance. Accordingly
Sir George Napier, the then Governor of the Cape, sent troops to
occupy Natal. He remained undecided as to the mode of dealing with
the emigrant Boers, however, for, while declaring them British
subjects, he yet was not prepared to afford them protection from
attacks of the natives. It is scarcely surprising that this
half-and-half paternity of the Government failed to satisfy the men
whose kith and kin had fallen in their numbers at Weenen and the
Hill of Blood, and the consequent disaffection of the Boers grew
deeper as signs of British authority increased.
But at first, in the rest of their territory outside Natal the Boer
Government remained unmolested. Their district was bounded by the
sea and the Drakenberg mountains, the Tugela and Umzimubu Rivers,
and there for a time things went well. Pretorius was Commandant
General in Natal, Potgieter Chief Commandant in the allied Western
Districts. The legislative power was in the hands of a Volksraad of
twenty-four members, whose ways were more vacillating and erratic
than advantageous. "Every man for himself and God for all" seemed to
be the convenient motto of this assembly, except perhaps on urgent
occasions, when Pretorius and Potgieter were called upon as joint
dictators to settle some knotty problem relating to external
affairs.
At the close of 1840 this Volksraad commenced negotiations with the
Cape Government with a view to getting their independence formally
recognised. The Governor at the Cape was again in the old quandary.
While he personally desired to put an end to troubles from within
and without by establishing a strong government over the whole
country, he was crippled by the Ministry at home, which was
consistent in maintaining its policy of inconsistency, and tried to
maintain its hold on the Cape, while steadily refusing to increase
Great Britain's responsibility in South Africa.
The demands of the Volksraad (presented in January 1841) were
scarcely acceptable at headquarters. The nature of them is
interesting, and shows the then attitude of people who described
themselves as "willing and desirous to enter into a perpetual
alliance with the Government of Her Majesty."
They bargained that the Republic of Natalia was to be acknowledged
as a free and independent State, in close alliance with the British
Government. If attacked by sea by any other power, Great Britain
might interpose either by negotiation or arms. If Great Britain were
at war, however, the Republic was to remain neutral. Wine, strong
liquors, and articles "prejudicial to this Republic," were to be
taxed more highly than other things, which would be taxed as for a
British Colony. British subjects residing in the Republic would have
equal protection, and the same taxes as burghers, while in case of
war every assistance would be given to a British or Colonial force
marching through the territory. The slave trade would not be
permitted, and every facility for the propagation of the Gospel
among the neighbouring tribes would be afforded. The Republic
guaranteed to make no hostile movements against natives in the
direction of the Colony without permission of the Governor, unless
circumstances of violence, or the inroad of tribes, rendered
immediate action obligatory.
There were other clauses of less importance which need not be
specified. Suffice it to say, that while these terms were being
considered, a cattle and slave-stealing Boer raid, headed by
Pretorius, took place. The excuse for the proceeding was the lifting
of certain of their own cattle, but the action served as an object
lesson for those in power at the Cape. The Volksraad was politely
informed that the Boers were still British subjects, and a letter
from the Home Government to Sir George Napier was received, stating
that Her Majesty "could not acknowledge a portion of her own
subjects as an independent Republic, but that on their receiving a
military force from the Colony, their trade would be placed on the
footing of the trade of a British possession." But the Boers flouted
authority--they refused to accept the situation. They put forth a
proclamation appealing against the oppression of man and to the
justice of God, with all the fervour of the Old Testament Christians
they were.
The arrogance of Pretorius and his crew had now so seriously
increased that Sir George Napier, seeing danger ahead, decided to
establish a camp near the border of the State, and Durban was
occupied. Captain Smith, in command of some three hundred men, made
a rapid march across country to Natal, merely to be informed that
the Boers had placed themselves under the protection of Holland.
It may be noted that when this statement reached the ears of the
King of Holland, he emphatically repudiated it. He addressed the
British Government, saying "that the disloyal communication of the
emigrant farmers had been repelled with indignation, and that the
King of Holland had taken every possible step to mark his
disapproval of the unjustifiable use made of his name by the
individuals referred to." Captain Smith, who fortunately had not
been imposed upon by what the Boers considered their neat ruse, made
preparations to attack them. But he overestimated his own or
underrated his adversary's strength. He fell into ambush and lost
heavily. He was then driven to entrench himself in Durban. One of
his men managed to escape, however, and by riding to Grahamstown
through dangerous country, contrived to convey the intelligence of
Captain Smith's misfortune, and to bring reinforcements to his aid.
These reinforcements arrived in Durban harbour on the 25th of June
1842. At sight of the British frigate and the goodly display of
redcoats, the Boers, who had been besieging Captain Smith for a
month with three guns and six hundred men, made good their escape,
leaving Pretorius no alternative but to make terms. Thus Natal
became a British possession.
In 1844 the place was declared to be a dependency of Cape Colony.
Many of the emigrants admitted themselves to be British subjects and
remained there, but the great majority took to their waggons and
lumbered back across the Drakenberg to their old settling-place.
There the original Voortrekkers had scattered themselves on both
sides of the Vaal River, and helped to found the Transvaal and the
Orange Free State. As may be imagined at this juncture, the natural
hostility to the British, which has now become part of the Boer
character, was growing apace. The voluntary exiles from Natal, on
moving to the north of the Orange River, determined to evade the
British, and proclaim the whole of that locality an independent
Republic. The authorities at the Cape, however, frustrated the new
struggle for independence. They laid claim for Great Britain to the
whole territory east of E. long. 22 deg. and south of S. lat. 25 deg., with
the exception of the land already owned by Portugal or by friendly
native chiefs.
[Illustration: CAPE TOWN, DEVIL'S PEAK, TABLE MOUNTAIN, AND LION'S
HEAD FROM TABLE BAY.
Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen]
It may be remembered that one of the causes of the great Trek was
the restoration of their province to Kaffirs, thereby according
to the blacks an independence that was not enjoyed by the Boers.
No astonishment, therefore, will be felt at the exasperation of the
Boers when they found that the Cape Government had entered into
treaties with the Griquas--treaties which seemed to them to promise
more freedom to the savage than was accorded to themselves.
Grievances of many kinds--some real and some ridiculous--continued
daily to occur. Things serious and things trivial were liable to
cause them equal indignation. According to Livingstone, the ignorant
followers of Potgieter--who were posted at Magaliesberg, a thousand
miles from the Cape--were moved to wrath merely by the arrival of
Herschel's great telescope at the Cape Observatory! What right, said
they, had the Government to erect that huge instrument at the Cape
for the purpose of seeing what they were doing behind the Kashan
mountains?
But of just grievances they had several, and these Pretorius, as
spokesman of his people, wished to lay before the Governor at the
Cape. Sir Henry Pottinger, who occupied that post in 1847,
unfortunately declined the interview; consequently affairs went from
bad to worse. In the end of the year Sir Henry Smith arrived as
Governor of the colony, and great things were expected of him. He
knew the native races, he knew the Boers, and they both knew him.
Pretorius, who was arranging a final emigration from Natal, was
summoned to confer with the new Governor. Sir Henry wished to gauge
the feelings of the farmers prior to issuing a proclamation (dated
February 3, 1848), declaring the Queen's sovereignty over the whole
country between the Orange and Vaal Rivers to eastward of the
Quathlamba Mountains. According to Pretorius, the conference was an
unsatisfactory one. He assured the Governor that his people would
never consent to it. Sir Henry Smith nevertheless considered himself
justified in taking the step, and the Home Government, whose policy
it had been to consolidate the peaceful native States along the
border, eventually coincided with his view.
No sooner was the proclamation generally known than the horde of
Pretorius' followers flew to arms. They swept southward, driving
every British official beyond the Orange River. Major Warden, the
Resident at Bloemfontein, where a British fort and garrison had been
placed some two years before, was forced to capitulate.
Sir Harry Smith, on becoming acquainted with the news, at once
offered a thousand pounds for the arrest of Pretorius. He also began
a march to the front. The Governor thought that he had but to come,
see, and conquer; but he was mistaken. He had tough work before him.
The Boers, about a thousand strong, had entrenched themselves in a
formidable position. They were superior in point of numbers, horses,
and guns to Sir Harry's forces; but he pursued his way, nothing
daunted. He stormed the position, and, after a hard fight, scattered
the enemy. They fled from Boomplaats, where the engagement had taken
place, and hastened back across the Vaal to their native haunts. The
date of the battle was the 29th of August 1848, and the father of
President Kruger is said to have been the first man to fire a shot
at the British on that occasion!
After this period various dissensions arose in the Boer camp between
Pretorius, who styled himself "Chief of the whole united emigrant
force," and Potgieter, who looked upon himself somewhat in the light
of a rival. While these worthies fell out Sir Harry Smith saw the
annexation carried through, and the territory of the modern Free
State was united to Cape Colony, under the title of the Orange River
Sovereignty. The contumacious Boers took themselves off with their
leader across the Vaal, and fresh European settlers came in and
established themselves in the fertile plains that were deserted. For
some time after this things prospered, and Sir Harry saw before him
the prospect of a new self-governing Dutch colony, which would
resemble and equal those of Natal and the Cape. But he reckoned
without his host, and all that he had taken the trouble to do was
ultimately undone. In 1852 the Government at home declared its
policy to be the ultimate abandonment of the Orange River
Sovereignty. For this pusillanimous policy there were several
reasons, the greatest being a fear of a Basuto rising and the
trouble it would entail. The British Government therefore decided to
maintain its rights over the Transvaal no further, and by the Sand
River Convention, signed on the 17th of January 1852, the emigrant
farmers beyond the Vaal River were given the right to manage their
own affairs, subject only to the condition that they should neither
permit nor encourage slavery.
About this time commenced the threatened rise of the Basutos in the
neighbourhood of the Orange River territory. The Basutos are a
branch of the Bechuana race, who had been formed by their chiefs
Motlume and Moshesh into a powerful nation, which could hold its own
against Boer or Zulu. With this race the Home Government desired to
have nothing to do, and the Colonial Office, viewing the political
game as not worth the candle, definitely withdrew from the Orange
River Sovereignty, leaving the Free State to come into being, and
devise its own plans for overawing its enemies on the other side of
the border. Accordingly, in 1854, Sir Harry Smith's programme of
annexation was entirely wiped out, British sovereignty renounced,
and the Orange Free State left to become a Republic and take care of
itself!
CHAPTER I
THE GROWTH OF THE TRANSVAAL
Fifty years ago there was no Transvaal. To-day its area is rather
larger than Great Britain. It extends over some 75,000,000 acres.
Originally, at the time of the great Trek, a small portion of land
was seized from natives who fled before the pioneers, and settled in
what is now known as Matabeleland. Other Boers soon joined their
comrades, and, by applying the steady policy of "grab and hold" (a
policy that, unfortunately, has not been imitated by ourselves),
they gained strip on strip and acre on acre of land till the
Transvaal became the vast province it now is. It expanded first into
a portion of Zululand; later on, lapped over into Swaziland. By
degrees it encroached on the British boundaries, and most probably
would have gone on encroaching had not active steps been taken to
save the north from the invaders.
The original _Voertrekkers_, or pioneers, came in three detachments.
British-born subjects, but discontented with British civilisation,
they moved on from Natal, whence they were chased by the Union Jack,
and settled themselves first in land captured from King Umziligatze,
secondly in Lydenburg and Dekaap, and thirdly in the Zulu country.
The history of this Zululand expansion remains to be told. At
present it is interesting to follow the geographical growth of the
state which has become so troublesome, and whose self-assertion has
increased according to its size.
Originally each Boer was entitled to a farm with a minimum of 6000
acres of the "Transvaal," and this custom of apportioning 6000-acre
farms lasted as long as the Kaffir lands lasted. The Boers, always
working on the principle that "God helps those who help themselves,"
helped themselves freely, sometimes with bloodshed and sometimes
without, until they became owners of vast tracts of country, whose
boundaries had never been discussed, far less fixed.
Land was apparently cheap at that time, for trustworthy authorities
declare that it was purchasable at from a farthing to a penny per
acre.
The area of the Transvaal before the Boers began to migrate there
has been eloquently described as the hunter's Arcadia. Mr. Gordon
Cumming gives a graphic account of the scene:--
"It was truly a fair and boundless prospect. Beautifully wooded
plains and mountains stretched away on every side to an amazing
distance, until the vision was lost among the faint blue outlines of
the distant mountain ranges. Throughout all this country, and vast
tracts beyond, I had the satisfaction to reflect that a never-ending
succession of herds of every species of noble game which the hunter
need desire pastured there in undisturbed security; and as I gazed I
felt that it was all my own, and that I at length possessed the
undisputed sway over a forest, in comparison with which the tame and
herded narrow bounds of the wealthiest European sportsman sink into
utter insignificance."
The number of elephants and lesser game bagged by Mr. Gordon Cumming
after this touching meditation fully bore out his hopes.
But the most interesting account of the Transvaal, before the
invasion of white men, is to be found in Captain William Cornwallis
Harris's account of his expedition into the interior of South Africa
in the years 1836 and 1837. He paints the new country in colours
lively and alluring:--
"Instead of the dreary waste over which we had lately passed, we
might now imagine ourselves in an extensive park. A lawn, level as a
billiard-table, was everywhere spread with a soft carpet of
luxuriant green grass, spangled with flowers, and shaded by
spreading _mokaalas_--a large species of acacia which forms the
favourite food of the giraffe. The gaudy yellow blossoms with which
these remarkable trees were covered yielded an aromatic and
overpowering perfume--while small troops of striped quaggas, or wild
asses, and of brindled gnoos ... enlivened the scene.
"I turned off the road," he continues, "in pursuit of a troop of
brindled gnoos, and presently came upon another, which was followed
by a third still larger--then by a vast herd of zebras, and again by
more gnoos, with sassaybys and hartebeests pouring down from every
quarter, until the landscape literally presented the appearance of a
moving mass of game."
Further on he describes the extensive and romantic valley of the
Limpopo, "which strongly contrasts with its own solitude, and with
the arid lands which must be traversed to arrive within its limits;
Dame Nature has doubtless been unusually lavish of her gifts. A bold
mountain landscape is chequered by innumerable rivulets abounding in
fish, and watering a soil rich in luxurious vegetation. Forests,
producing timber of the finest growth, are tenanted by a multitude
of birds, which, if not generally musical, are all gorgeously
attired; and the meadows throughout are decked with blossoming
geraniums, and with an endless profusion of the gayest flowers,
fancifully distributed in almost artificial _parterres_. Let the
foreground of this picture, which is by no means extravagantly
drawn, be filled in by the animal creation roaming in a state of
undisturbed freedom, such as I have attempted to describe, and this
hunter's paradise will surely not require to be coloured by the
feelings of an enthusiastic sportsman to stand out in striking
relief from amongst the loveliest spots in the universe."
A recent traveller discourses pathetically over the changes that
have come over the country, which at that time was described as "the
Zoological Gardens turned out to graze." He says the lawyer and
financier thrive where in recent years the lion and the leopard
fought for food, and townships have sprung up on spots where living
Boers have formerly shot big game.
As an instance of the truth of this lament, one may make some
quotations from Mr. Campbell's valuable article, "The Transvaal, Old
and New." He says, "The advent of British folk and British gold and
brains led to a change, and land, by reason of British purchases,
became more valuable, and beacons and boundaries became necessary."
Here we may see the thin end of the wedge. We may picture the first
lawyer and the first financier advancing with Arcadia parchment and
bank-note in hand.
The Boers steadily sold their best and surplus lands, and these the
British as steadily bought, till the value rose from their original
price of one penny an acre to half-a-crown, and then five shillings.
Subsequently, in many cases, as much as ten, and even twenty
shillings an acre was offered for ordinary raw arable land. But of
that time too much has to be said to be recounted here.
THE BOER CHARACTER
In discussing the events of the past with a view to obtaining light
on the development of the present, it is needful, and indeed just,
to inquire into the character of the Boers as a race. It is a
complex character, with multitudinous lights and shades, so subtle
and yet so marked, that they are difficult to define accurately. It
is therefore necessary that the opinions of many writers on the
subject of the Boer temperament should be taken--of writers who have
made it their business to look upon the subject with the eye of the
historian rather than the eye of the advocate, and who may be
trusted to have given their verdict without passion or favour.
But regarding one fact connected with the case, all writers of
practical experience are inclined to agree. They declare that the
Boer of the past was a very much finer fellow than the Boer of the
present--finer morally and physically; and that in his obstinate
determination to resist the march of progress he has allowed himself
to suffer deterioration. The reason for this deterioration is not
difficult to comprehend. In the first place, as we all know, nothing
in creation stands still. We must advance, or we go back. Both in
moral and in mental qualities we must maintain our vitality, or
practically ossify!
The Boer, from having been essentially a sporting man and a free and
a robust tiller of the soil, has come under the influence of
schemers, who have played upon his natural avarice, and polished his
inherent cunning, till these qualities have expanded to the
detriment of those earlier qualities for which the Boer of to-day
still gets credit, but which are fast dying out of the national
character.
In one respect there has been little change. In the matter of his
native piety he remains as he was. The Boer, if one may use a phrase
recently coined by Lord Rosebery, is an "Old Testament Christian."
No one can describe his race better than the writer who says of the
original settlers in 1652, that "they are a mixture in religion of
the old Israelite and the Scotch Covenanter." There is some question
about Boer hypocrisy, and Dr. Theal says on the subject, "Where side
by side with expressions of gratitude to the Creator are found
schemes for robbing and enslaving natives, the genuineness of their
religion may be doubted." But it must be remembered that in bygone
centuries the world's morality differed much from that of the
present day, and therefore the Boer, who has not progressed in
proportion to the world at large, can scarcely be judged by the
ethics of the world at large. To be just, we must look at him as a
being apart, and place him always in the frame of the seventeenth
century. Some historians declare that the Boer borrowed from the
French refugees much religious sentiment. Other authorities--and
these, considering the Boer disinclination to expansion, seem to be
right--declare that under the French influence he deteriorated.
[Illustration: COLONEL of the 10th HUSSARS.
(H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.)
Photo by Gregory & Co., London.]
He was by nature bloodthirsty and cruel, but these qualities always
found for themselves a comfortable apology in the Old Testament. The
Boer prided himself on his likeness to the Israelite of old, and his
enemies to the Canaanite, whom it was doing God a service to
destroy. He kept all the rites of the Church with rigid punctuality.
He partook of the Communion (the Nachtmaal) once every three months,
and the whole community gathered together from great distances to
share it. The observances were made the occasion for rejoicing and
merrymaking, for the holding of fairs, the transfer of cattle,
the driving of bargains in hide or ivory, or other goods necessary
to traders. He has been described by a friend of his people "as,
according to his own lights, a citizen pioneer, a rough,
God-fearing, honest, homely, uneducated Philistine."
The opinion of his ancient enemy, Cetchwayo, differs, however, from
this estimate. Sir Frederick Godson has told us that this potentate
informed his brother, who was his captor, that the Boers were "a
mean, treacherous people, people who trusted no one, not even each
other, and their word was not to be trusted." He had had ample
opportunities of forming a judgment by experience. And there are
many of us nowadays who are inclined to agree with him. Cetchwayo
further asserted that "the British were making the greatest mistake
they ever made in befriending them; for if they had not rescued the
Boers from him, he would very soon have eaten them all up."
As regards the military organisation of the Boers, it may be
described as similar to that of the Republic of Greece or that of
mediaeval England. Every man, from the age of sixteen to sixty,
considered himself a soldier. Every man, when the country demanded
his services, was ready to get under arms--to protect his hearth and
home in the face of a common enemy.
The country was divided into districts, and these districts were
subdivided into wards. To each of these wards was appointed a
field-cornet, who had military duties when a commando was called
out. The officer who took the chief command of the field-cornets was
styled the commandant. This arrangement first originated in the
early days of their emigration to the Cape, when the natives,
lawless and inimical, were perpetually bursting out without rhyme or
reason. Naturally prompt defence became necessary. To many people
the Boer appears to be a "first-class fighting man." Certainly he is
determined, obstinate, and, in his peculiar fashion, brave. But
there are others who can recall events in the battle with Dingaan,
in the tragedy of Majuba Hill, which scarcely add to the honour of
the Boer as a soldier. It has been said that the Boer prefers to do
his fighting without risking his skin, but this may be somewhat
unjust. He is ready enough to risk his skin, but he is equally ready
that some one shall pay for the risk, and he makes him pay by fair
means if he can--if not, by foul.
However, Livingstone knew his man, and thus it was that he wrote of
him: "The Boers have generally manifested a marked antipathy to
anything but 'long shot' warfare, and sidling away in their
emigrations towards the more effeminate Bechuanas, have left their
quarrels with the Kaffirs to be settled by the English, and their
wars to be paid for by English gold." Obviously their methods of
warfare were, to say the least of it, curious. Sometimes they would
drive a battalion of friendly natives or slaves in front of them,
and shoot down their enemies from behind the shelter of these
advanced guards. Occasionally they employed a method similar to that
used against the Zulus of Dingaan. According to Livingstone's essay,
written in 1853, and not published till after his death, "the Boers
approach the Zulus to within 300 or 400 yards, then fire, and retire
to a considerable distance and reload their guns. The Zulus pursuing
have by this time come sufficiently near to receive another
discharge from the Boers, who again retire as before. This process
soon tires out the fleetest warriors, and except through an
accident, or the stumbling of a horse or its rider's drunkenness, no
Boer ever stands a chance of falling into their hands. The Boers
report of themselves that they behaved with great bravery on the
occasion." In fact they said that they had killed from 3000 to 5000
Zulus, with the loss to themselves of only six men. Mr. Fisher, in
his book on "The Transvaal and the Boers," avers that in the
subsequent war with the Griquas--who, being the bastard children of
the Boers, possess many of their peculiarities--the two opposing
parties kept at such ludicrous distances that the springboks quietly
grazing on the plains between were frequently shot instead of the
combatants.
SOME DOMESTIC TRAITS
For the domestic character of the Boer we will consult the
Scandinavian traveller Sparrmann, who gives us one of the earliest
sketches of the Boer "at home." Though the illusion that the
industrious and cleanly Hollander was merely transplanted from one
soil to another is somewhat dispelled, the picture is generally
acknowledged to be a true one.
"It is hardly to be conceived," he wrote in 1776, "with what little
trouble the Boer gets into order a field of a moderate size ... so
that ... he may be almost said to make the cultivation of it, for
the bread he stands in need of for himself and his family, a mere
matter of amusement.... With pleasure, but without the least trouble
to himself, he sees the herds and flocks which constitute his riches
daily and considerably increasing. These are driven to pasture and
home again by a few Hottentots or slaves, who likewise make the
butter; so that it is almost only with the milking that the farmer,
together with his wife and children, concern themselves at all. To
do this business, however, he has no occasion to rise before seven
or eight o'clock in the morning.... That they (the Boers) might not
put their arms and bodies out of the easy and commodious posture in
which they had laid them on the couch when they were taking their
afternoon _siesta_, they have been known to receive travellers lying
quite still and motionless, excepting that they have very civilly
pointed out the road by moving their foot to the right or left....
Among a set of beings so devoted to their ease, one might naturally
expect to meet with a variety of the most commodious easy-chairs and
sofas; but the truth is, that they find it much more commodious to
avoid the trouble of inventing and making them.... Nor did the
inhabitants exhibit much less simplicity and moderation; or, to
speak more properly, slovenliness and penury in their dress than in
their furniture.... The distance at which they are from the Cape
may, indeed, be some excuse for their having no other earthenware or
china in their houses but what was cracked or broken; but this,
methinks, should not prevent them being in possession of more than
one or two old pewter pots, and some few plates of the same metal;
so that two people are frequently obliged to eat out of one dish,
besides using it for every different article of food that comes upon
the table. Each guest must bring his knife with him, and for forks
they frequently make use of their fingers. The most wealthy farmer
here is considered as being well dressed in a jacket of home-made
cloth, or something of the kind made of any other coarse cloth,
breeches of undressed leather, woollen stockings, a striped
waistcoat, a cotton handkerchief about his neck, a coarse calico
shirt, Hottentot field-shoes, or else leathern shoes with brass
buckles, and a coarse hat. Indeed, it is not in dress, but in the
number and thriving condition of their cattle, and chiefly in the
stoutness of their draught oxen, that these peasants vie with each
other. It is likewise by activity and manly actions, and by other
qualities that render a man fit for the married state, and the
rearing of a family, that the youth chiefly obtain the esteem of the
fair sex.... A plain close cap and a coarse cotton gown, virtue and
good housewifery, are looked upon by the fair sex as sufficient
ornaments for their persons; a flirting disposition, coquetry and
paint would have very little effect in making conquests of young men
brought up in so hardy a manner, and who have had so homely and
artless an education as the youth in this place. In short, here, if
anywhere in the world, one may lead an innocent, virtuous, and happy
life."
When viewing this study of rustic indolence, we must remember also
the conditions under which it was found. The natural fertility of
the country, the demoralising influence of slave-owning, the great
heat of the climate, were responsible for the change that so soon
came over the primitive Dutch character. Dr. Theal's account of the
Boer adds colour to the picture given by the Swede, and shows us
that a certain sense of refinement was lurking in the stolid and
not too picturesque disposition:--
"The amusements of the people were few.... Those who possessed
numerous slaves usually had three or four of them trained to the use
of the violin, the blacks being peculiarly gifted with an ear for
music, and easily learning to play by sound. They had thus the means
at hand of amusing themselves with dancing, and of entertaining
visitors with music. The branches of widely extended families were
constantly exchanging visits with each other. A farmer would make
his waggon ready regularly every year, when half the household or
more would leave home, and spend a week or two with each relative,
often being absent a couple of months. Birthday anniversaries of
aged people were celebrated by the assembling of their descendants,
frequently to the number of eighty or a hundred, at the residence of
the patriarch, when a feast was prepared for their entertainment.
These different reunions were naturally productive of great
pleasure, and tended to cement the friendship and love of those who
otherwise might seldom see each other. The life led by the people
when at home was exceedingly tame. The mistress of the house, who
moved about but little, issued orders to slaves or Hottentot females
concerning the work of the household. If the weather was chilly or
damp, she rested her feet on a little box filled with live coals,
while beside her stood a coffee-kettle never empty. The head of the
family usually inspected his flocks morning and evening, and passed
the remainder of the day, like his helpmate, in the enjoyment of
ease. When repose itself became wearisome, he mounted his horse,
and, with an attendant to carry his gun, set off in pursuit of some
of the wild animals with which the country then abounded. The
children had few games, and, though strong and healthy, were far
from sprightly."
[Illustration: A KAFFIR KRAAL IN THE TRANSVAAL.
Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen.]
A dislike for the English seems to have been felt by the Cape Dutch
very early. This dislike later hostilities must have heightened; but
as far back as 1816 we learn that even shrewd and sensible farmers
were heard to declaim against our methods of scientific agriculture,
and resist all efforts at its introduction into their work. One of
them, when informed of the saving of time and labour that certain
implements would effect, answered with characteristic conservatism.
"What," said he, "would you have us do? Our only concern is to fill
our bellies, to get good clothes and houses, to say to one slave,
'Do this,' and to another, 'Do that,' and to sit idle ourselves and
be waited upon. As to our tillage, or building, or planting, our
forefathers did so and so and were satisfied, and why should not we
do the same? The English want us to use their ploughs instead of our
heavy wooden ones, and recommend other implements of husbandry
than those we have been used to; but we like our old things best."
This preference for the old instead of the new has been the rock on
which friendship between Briton and Boer has split. All ideas of
reform have been met with suspicion--a kind of suspicion that,
though now confined to the Boers, was very prevalent in Europe a
hundred years ago. The present writer in extreme youth met here, in
advanced England, a grandam of ninety (the mother of a very
distinguished politician), who stated that she could "never make a
friend of a man who took a bath." It will be seen by this how
prejudice may become a matter of habit all the world over.
Mr. Nixon tells a story of an equally conservative Boer. This worthy
went to a store at Kimberley with bundles of tobacco for sale. The
Boer carefully weighed them out with some scales of his own that
were evidently an heirloom. The storekeeper reweighed the bundles,
remarking on the antiquity of the scales, and observing that they
gave short weight. He suggested the use of the store scales as the
standard for computing the price, which was to be fixed at so much a
pound. But the Boer would not hear of it. "No," said he, "these were
my father's scales, and he was a wise man and was never cheated, and
I won't use anybody else's." The storekeeper dryly remarked that he
did not desire to press the matter, since he found himself a gainer
by L12 in consequence of the Boer's conservative instincts!
Many writers urge that the Boer is naturally uncivil, that he lacks
the true feeling of hospitality. The original Boer, before he was
seized with a hatred for the British, was more justly speaking
lacking in civility than what we term uncivil. He knew nothing of
the art of being obliging to his fellow-creatures, merely because
they were his fellow-creatures. He would entertain a stranger, and
ask nothing in return, but he would do so without courtesy, and
would put himself out of the way for no one. The traveller might
take him or leave him, conform to his hours and habits entirely,
and, to use the vulgar phrase, "like them or lump them" as his
temperament might decide. "Africanus," who, in his book on "The
Transvaal Boers," writes of them with judgment and without
prejudice, gives a very true sketch, which exactly describes the
strange blend of piety, indolence, ignorance, and ferocity which we
are endeavouring to study. He says--
"The Dutch farmer is in some respects very unlike his supposed
counterpart in England. His pursuits are pastoral, not agricultural,
for in most parts of South Africa the want of irrigation renders the
cultivation of cereals impossible. His idea of a 'farm' is a tract
of at least 6000 acres, over which his flocks and herds can move
from one pasture to another. His labourers are all natives, and
though, before the advent of storekeepers, he used often to make his
own clothes, boots (veld-schoen), and harness, he looks on actual
farm-work as a menial pursuit. He was, and is, wont to pass whole
days in the saddle, but, to an English eye, his horses seem unkempt
and often ill-used. The magnificent herds of game which wandered
over South Africa sixty years ago tempted him to become a keen
sportsman, but he has never shown much 'sporting instinct,' and the
Boer is responsible for the wanton destruction of the African fauna.
The unsophisticated Boer is a curious blend of hospitality and
avarice; he would welcome the passing stranger, and entertain him to
the best of his ability, but he seized any opportunity of making
money, and the discovery that hides and skins were marketable
induced him to slaughter antelopes without the slightest
forethought. That the Boer is no longer hospitable is very largely
due to the way in which his hospitality has been abused by stray
pedlars and ne'er-do-wells of various kinds. He still retains a
sincere and primitive piety, but his belief that he is a member of
the chosen people has sometimes tended to antinomianism rather than
to strict morality. His contempt and dislike for the Kaffir has
preserved the Dutch stock from taint of black blood, and although
there is a large Eur-African population, it has sprung partly from
the old days of domestic slavery, partly from the laxity induced by
the recent influx of low-class Europeans. The Boer has a strong
national feeling, and although not exactly daring as a rule, he is
perfectly ready to risk his life in what he believes to be a good
cause. He fights better behind cover than in the open, and has a
profound contempt for soldiers who expose themselves unnecessarily.
At the same time, he is capable at times of embarking on a forlorn
hope. As regards his private character, his notions of honesty and
of truth are lax. But then, from bitter experience, he assumes that
the stranger will try to cheat him, and it is not surprising that he
should consider a certain amount of _finesse_ justifiable. He is
comparatively free from that drunkenness which is the besetting vice
of the low-class Englishman in Africa.
"Although he is incredibly ignorant, and very self-satisfied, it is
somewhat irritating to notice the way in which the town-bred
Englishman is apt to depreciate him. It is not so certain as the
latter thinks that an ignorant peasant is necessarily a lower type
of man than a 'smart' and vicious shop-boy.
"The most unpleasing trait in the Boer character is his callousness,
amounting to brutality, in the case of natives and of animals."
It must always be remembered that in discussing the early Boer we
are discussing the peasant, and that neither his ignorance nor other
shortcomings must be viewed in comparison with the failings of
persons of a higher social grade. When the Boers left the Cape
Colony they had no knowledge of what the word education meant. The
state of public education in 1837 was deplorable. There were
missionary schools and a few desultory teachers, who had in very few
cases the mental or the moral qualities to fit them for the task of
instruction. The most they did was to teach the young idea how to
read or scribble its name. For this they received trifling fees, but
doubtless these fees were no more trifling than the services
rendered. Such free schools as existed, and were nominally supported
by Government, were so indifferently managed that they were treated
with contempt, even by the farmers. So long as they could thumb out
their favourite passages of the Psalms, and sign what few documents
they required, they were content. Of their ignorance they were even
inclined to be proud. Their own notions of geography and history
seemed to them infinitely preferable to any that might be offered,
and in this state of blissful ignorance they trekked away from Cape
Colony to learn no more. When they started forth, some, it is
averred, imagined by steadily working north they would reach
Jerusalem; others, covered with faith, and armed with gospel and
sjambok, sincerely believed that eventually they would reach the
Promised Land.
CHAPTER II
THE ORANGE FREE STATE
The young State, almost before it was fledged, found itself engaged
in military operations with the Basutos, and an arbitrator nominated
by the British Government was appointed. But the good offices of the
commissioner were to no purpose; despite the defining of boundaries
and the laying down of landmarks, the natives broke out afresh. An
engagement followed, and the Basutos were defeated. As a
consequence, a large tract of land (the conquered territory) was
annexed by the Free State, yet even this was insufficient to quell
the fury of the farmer's inveterate foes, and later on they broke
out afresh, only to be again overthrown. In the year 1861 they
appealed for help to the Governor of the Cape and were declared
British subjects. It was then that a definite boundary line between
Basutoland and the Orange Free State was laid down. The population
of Basutoland is estimated at about 130,000. The people are by
nature warlike and energetic. Some authorities declare them to be
the most intelligent of the Kaffir tribes. They are a branch of the
Bechuana race who were formed by their chiefs, Motlune and Moshesh,
and held their country--the Switzerland of South Africa--against
both Zulu and Boer. This aggressive and ferocious tribe was devoted
to plunder, and remained well-nigh exempt from punishment in
consequence of its mountain fastnesses, which were almost
impregnable. The Basutos formed a continual menace to the Boers of
the Free State until Great Britain assumed their direct control in
1884. It is now governed by a Resident Commissioner under the High
Commissioner for South Africa. It is divided into seven districts,
and subdivided into wards, presided over by hereditary chiefs allied
to the Moshesh family. Laws are made by proclamation of the High
Commissioner, and administered by native chiefs. Europeans are not
allowed to settle there.
But to return to 1854. The relations between the two Boer States
soon became strained. Jealousy commenced and continued to simmer.
Then the Boers, alarmed lest the Government would again follow them
up, and lest their treatment of the natives should be investigated
and stopped, began to discourage the presence of visitors across the
Vaal. Of course missionaries were the most unwelcome of all.
With the terms of the Sand River Convention they had soon become
impatient, and to help to an understanding of this impatience some
of the Articles of the Convention may be quoted:--
_Article 1._--"The Assistant-Commissioners guarantee in the fullest
manner on the part of the British Government to the emigrant farmers
beyond the Vaal River the right to manage their own affairs, and to
govern themselves according to their own laws, without any
interference on the part of the British Government, and that no
encroachment shall be made by the said Government on the territory
beyond, to the north of the Vaal River; with the further assurance
that the warmest wish of the British Government is to promote peace,
free trade, and friendly intercourse with the emigrant farmers now
inhabiting, or who hereafter may inhabit that country, it being
understood that this system of non-interference is binding upon both
parties."
_Article 2_ arranges, in case of misunderstanding, for a subsequent
delimitation of boundaries.
_Article 3._--"Her Majesty's Assistant-Commissioners hereby disclaim
all alliances whatever, and with whomsoever of the coloured nations,
to the north of the Vaal River."
_Article 4._--"It is agreed that no slavery is or shall be permitted
or practised in the country to the north of the Vaal River by the
emigrant farmers."
_Article 5_ provides for mutual facilities and liberty to traders
and travellers on both sides of the Vaal River.
_Article 6_ allows the "emigrant Boers" to obtain ammunition in
British colonies and possessions, "it being mutually understood that
all trade in ammunition with the native tribes is prohibited both by
the British Government and the emigrant farmers on both sides of the
Vaal River."
_Article 7_ stipulates for the mutual extradition, "as far as
possible," of criminals, and mutual access to courts of justice.
_Article 8_ validates, for purposes of inheritance in British
possessions, certificates of marriage issued by the proper
authorities of the emigrant farmers.
_Article 9_ allows free movement of all persons, except criminals
and absconding debtors, between the British and the Boer
territories.
As we see, the Convention had declared that slavery would not be
practised in the Transvaal, but though the original declaration may
have been made in all good faith, the Boer by degrees, and after the
lapse of years, found it expedient to acquire native "apprentices,"
who could not change master nor task without permission. They began
to fear that these natives could not be dealt with, as they were in
the habit of dealing with them, without fear of comment from such
British visitors as came across them; and they therefore attempted
to block up the path of travellers, refusing them a passage through
the Republic, and in some instances ordering the expulsion of
visitors across the Vaal. About this time one of the most gruesome
of all the many massacres in which the Boers were concerned took
place. One Potgieter (not the Potgieter who was the rival of
Pretorius), in charge of a small party of thirty men, women, and
children, went forth to barter ivory unlawfully with Makapau, a
Kaffir chief. The Kaffirs, owing the Boers a grudge for many a day,
pounced on the whole party, leaving not one behind to give an
account of the awful tragedy. The chief Potgieter was flayed alive,
and his skin made into a kaross or cloak. The Boers were swift to
revenge. President Pretorius, with an army of some four hundred, set
himself to track down the assassins. The Kaffirs fled at the
approach of the enemy, enclosing themselves in a huge cave, where
they hoped to escape detection. This cave was blockaded by the
Boers. Here the unhappy blacks went through all the horrors of
famine and thirst, and when their agony became unbearable, and they
sallied forth in desperation in search of water, they were
remorselessly shot down one by one. Nine hundred in all were killed
outside the cave. Within was more than double that number who had
perished in the frightful agonies of starvation. President Kruger
himself was a witness of the terrible scene, and took an active
share in his countrymen's revenge. And this was not the first nor
the last time in which he figured conspicuously in the bloody
records of his country's history. It was only on the occasion of the
Jameson Raid that Oom Paul awakened to sentimental qualms regarding
the spilling of blood.
[Illustration: BLOEMFONTEIN FROM THE SOUTH.
Photo by Wilson, Aberdeen.]
THE GRONDWET
To thoroughly grasp the methods of the New South African Republic,
it may be interesting to study some of "the Articles" of a Grondwet
or Constitution, which superseded those originally adopted by the
Potchefstroom Raad. The Grondwet was started in 1857, and was framed
entirely to suit the then condition of the Boer community. The
ordinary idea of a written constitution was at that time unknown,
and the meaning of such words as "rigid" or "elastic" was, of
course, beyond their comprehension. These only developed a
significance when the judicial crisis of 1897 put a fresh face on
Republican affairs.
_Article 4_ states that "the people desire no extension of
territory, except only on principles of justice, whenever the
interests of the Republic render it advisable."
_Article 6._--"Its territory is open to every stranger who submits
himself to the laws of the Republic; all persons who happen to be
within the territory of this Republic have equal claim to protection
of person and property."
_Article 8._--"The people claim as much social freedom as possible
(_de meest mogelyke maatschappelyke vryheid_), and expect to attain
it by upholding their religion, fulfilling their obligations,
submitting to law, order, and justice, and maintaining the same. The
people permit the spread of the Gospel among the heathen, subject to
prescribed provisions against the practice of fraud and deception."
_Article 9._--"The people will not allow of any equality between
coloured and white inhabitants, either in Church or in State."
_Article 10._--"The people will not brook any dealing in slaves or
slavery in this Republic (_will geen slavenhandel, noch slaverny in
deze Republick dulden_)."
Before passing on to other sections, Article 10 calls for attention.
In spite of its terms, the Boers of that period had a practice which
might be described as sailing very near the wind. The "apprenticeship"
of children taken prisoners in the native wars was uncommonly like
slave-owning. They were called "orphans"--sometimes they had been made
orphans by the conquerors--and they were then "apprenticed" to the
Boer farmers till grown up. Though opinions differ on this point, it
has been asserted by those who know that there was a curious system of
"transfer" connected with these so-called apprentices, and that even
when grown they seldom gained their liberty save by escape.
Further articles entrust legislation to a Volksraad chosen by vote
of the burghers, providing at the same time that the people shall be
allowed three months' grace for intimating to the Raad their views
on any prospective law, "those laws, however, which admit of no
delay excepted." Others constitute an Executive Council, "which
shall also recommend to the Raad all officers for the public
service"; others refer to the liberty of the press; restrict
membership of the Volksraad to members of the Dutch Reformed
Congregations; state that "the people do not desire to allow amongst
them any Roman Catholic Churches, nor any other Protestant Churches
except those in which such tenets of the Christian belief are taught
as are prescribed in the Heidelberg Catechism"; and give the
Volksraad the power of making treaties, save in time of war or of
imminent danger.
The members of the Raad were to be twelve in number at least, and
were to be between the ages of thirty and sixty. They must be
burghers of the Dutch Reformed Church, residents, and owners of
landed property in the Republic; no native nor bastard was to be
admitted to the Raad. At the age of twenty-one every burgher,
provided he belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, was entitled to
the franchise. The election of the President to a five years' term
of office was in the hands of the burghers, and in this office he
was to be supported by an Executive Council consisting of the
Commandant-General, two burghers qualified to vote, and a Secretary.
All the able-bodied men of the Republic, and if necessary natives,
were liable to military service.
No sooner was the Grondwet arranged than Marthinus Wessels
Pretorius, the son of the chief Andries Pretorius,--who died in
1853--was elected President of the South African Republic. The next
few years were spent in internal dissension, consequent on the
ambition of the President and the jealousy of his political rivals.
Finally Lydenburg, which had struggled to proclaim itself an
independent Republic, yielded, and affairs relating to the
government of the country seemed to be mending. Still there were
always Messrs. Kruger and Schoeman, two adventurous politicians, who
kept things lively in the councils of the State. On the retirement
of Pretorius from the Free State Presidency in 1864, and his
re-election to that of the South African Republic, Mr. Kruger was
appointed Commandant-General, and for the time being his ambitious
longings were appeased.
At that period the white population consisted of merely about thirty
thousand all told. The native community almost trebled the Dutch.
Mr. Bryce, in his "Impressions on South Africa," describes the then
state of the affairs of the Republic as anything but satisfactory:
"There were hundreds of thousands of natives, a few of whom were
living as servants under a system of enforced labour which was
sometimes hardly distinguishable from slavery, while the vast
majority were ruled by their own chiefs, some as tributaries of the
Republic, some practically independent of it. With the latter wars
were frequently raging--wars in which shocking cruelties were
perpetrated on both sides, the Kaffirs massacring the white families
whom they surprised, the Boer commandos taking a savage vengeance
upon the tribes when they captured a kraal or mountain stronghold.
It was the sight of these wars which drove Dr. Livingstone to begin
his famous explorations to the north. The farmers were too few to
reduce the natives to submission, though always able to defeat them
in the field, and, while they relished an expedition, they had an
invincible dislike to any protracted operations which cost money.
Taxes they would not pay. They lived in a sort of rude plenty among
their sheep and cattle, but they had hardly any coined money,
conducting their transactions by barter, and they were too rude to
value the benefits which government secures to a civilised people."
TRANSVAAL DISSENSIONS
Among other things an attempt was made on the part of the Boers to
annex the Orange Free State. President Pretorius crossed the Vaal in
1857, at the head of a large commando, with the intention of seizing
on the neighbouring territory. He was doomed to disappointment,
however, for his intended raid was stopped by the timely resistance
of the forewarned President of the Orange Free State. An encounter
was happily avoided through the intervention of Mr. Kruger, and
finally the two Republics decided to mutually recognise each other's
independent States.
But the ambitions of Pretorius merely smouldered. He still kept a
greedy eye on the Orange Free State, and machinated for the union of
the two States into a gigantic whole. He therefore refused the
Presidency of the Transvaal for that of the Free State, in the hope
of gathering into his own hands the reins of both governments. He
was again disappointed, however, and in 1864 he returned and was
re-elected President of the Transvaal.
The return of Pretorius was the signal for temporary peace. During
his second Presidency, however, the little rift within the lute--the
rift of insolvency, which eventually wrecked South African
independence--began to be observable.
Mr. Nixon, who took great pains to acquaint himself with the true
state of the country, says "that the intestine disturbances and the
incessant Kaffir wars had well-nigh exhausted the finances of the
Republic. The exchequer was only tardily replenished under a loose
system of taxation. The Boers have never been good taxpayers, and no
Government has been able to enforce the proper payment of taxes due
to the State. A decade after its establishment the Republic was
practically insolvent. Even as early as 1857 the Government was
compelled to issue _mandaten_, or bills, wherewith to raise money to
buy ammunition, and to pay its servants. In 1866 a regular issue of
paper money was sanctioned by the Volksraad. This was followed by
further issues, until, in 1867, a Finance Commission found that
there were more notes in circulation than had been authorised by the
Volksraad. Nevertheless, the financial requirements of the State
became so pressing that still more issues had to be made, and in
1870 there were over L73,000 worth of notes in circulation. The
notes were declared a legal tender, but the Government were unable
to keep up their value by artificial methods. They fell to a low
ebb, and passed from hand to hand at a discount of about 75 per
cent, from their nominal value."
In 1867 occurred two events which served to change the whole
political and financial outlook of the Transvaal. Diamonds were
discovered in the district of Kimberley. Gold was unearthed in
Lydenburg. From that hour a procession of European miners began
slowly to march north from the Cape. A highway was opened up between
the two promising districts, and diggers of every race, pioneers
bent on the propagation of modern ideas, teachers, missionaries, and
traders of all kinds, attracted by the promise of wealth, flocked to
the scene and settled themselves among the trekkers.
ZULU DISTURBANCES
After this period, when, as stated before, small but promising
quantities of gold had been unearthed, it was no longer possible to
prevent parties of miners and speculators from trickling into the
Transvaal, to the annoyance of its inhabitants. Outside, too, there
were troubles, disputes, and skirmishes with the Zulus, and further
north was waged a fierce fight between the Boers and the chief of
the Bapedi, one Sekukuni, whose father had signed away his
independence to the Boers, and who refused in his turn to abide by
the conditions of the compact. In this fight Sekukuni was
successful, and the Boers, worsted and discontented, and believing
that the Almighty was displeased with them and with their President,
Mr. Burgers, retired from the campaign. At the same time, in the
south, Cetchwayo was itching to be on the warpath, and the general
state of affairs suggested a possible annihilation of the Transvaal
by an uncontrollable horde of natives. Things went from bad to
worse, and in October 1876 Lord Carnarvon remonstrated with the
President of the South African Republic regarding the unprovoked
barbarity of the Sekukuni war, which had again been renewed. The
reason for the interference of Lord Carnarvon is to be found in the
following despatch, forwarded by Sir Henry Barkly, the then Governor
of the Cape:--
"As Von Schlickman has since fallen fighting bravely, it is not
without reluctance that I join in affixing this dark stain on his
memory, but truth compels me to add the following extract from a
letter which I have since received from one whose name (which I
communicate to your lordship privately) forbids disbelief:--
"'There is no longer the slightest doubt as to the murder of the two
women and the child at Steelpoort by the direct order of Schlickman,
and in the attack on the kraal near which these women were captured
(or some attack about that period) he ordered his men to cut the
throats of all the wounded! This is no mere report; it is
positively true." And in a subsequent letter the same writer informs
me that the statements are based on the evidence, not alone of
Kaffirs, but of whites who were present.
"'As regards the even more serious accusations brought against Abel
Erasmus' (the Kruger's Post field-cornet), 'as specially alluded to
in my letter to President Burgers, on the 28th ult.' (viz. of
treacherously killing forty or fifty friendly natives, men and
women, and carrying off the children), I beg to invite your
lordship's attention to an account derived, I am assured, from a
respectable Boer who accompanied the expedition, and protested
against the slaughter and robbery of friendly Kaffirs, committed by
order of the above-named field-cornet.
"'Should I not shortly receive such a reply from the President to my
letters of last month, as to convince me that his Honour has taken
effectual steps to check such outrages and punish the perpetrators,
I will enter another protest, if only for form's sake.
"'Seeing, however, that Aylward, who is said to boast, whether truly
or not, that he took part with his brother Fenians in the murder of
the police constable at Manchester, as well as in the attempt to
blow up the Clerkenwell prison, had succeeded Schlickman in the
command of the Steelpoort Volunteers, I question whether the
Government of the South African Republic has the power, even
supposing it to have the will, to put a stop to further atrocities
on the part of this band of "Filibusters," as they are commonly
styled in the newspapers.
"'In my opinion it will be requisite to call in the aid of British
troops before this can be done, and I am not without hope that one
of the results of the mission on which Sir T. Shepstone is about to
start, will be a petition from persons of education and property
throughout the country for such an intervention on the part of her
Majesty's Government as will terminate this wanton and useless
bloodshed, and prevent the recurrence of the scenes of injustice,
cruelty, and rapine, which abundant evidence is every day
forthcoming to prove, have rarely ceased to disgrace the Republics
beyond the Vaal ever since they first sprang into existence.'"
Von Schlickman was an ex-Russian officer, commanding a force of
filibusters which had been engaged by the Transvaal Government, and
his men being unpaid, were allowed to reimburse themselves by cattle
or land seized from the natives.
As a natural consequence, the war assumed a character of
unrestrained ferocity. On receiving this information Lord Carnarvon
wrote that his Government "could not view passively, and with
indifference, the engagement of the Republic in foreign military
operations the object or the necessity of which had not been made
apparent."
The quarrel with the chief had originated, as stated, in a Boer
claim to his land, and the Boer President in replying urged the
natural right of the Boers to all the land of the Transvaal. The
chief magistrate at that time was President Burgers, a man who, if
report may be believed, was far superior to those with whom he
associated. This man, a Cape Dutchman, and sometime minister of the
Reformed Church, had been called to the onerous post of President of
the South African Republic in 1872. He was bent on the advancement
of his nation, and his intelligence was remarkable. He was a man of
sterling character, fanciful, enthusiastic, an idealist even, with a
horror of slaveholding, and a hankering for the pure life of the
humanist. In a measure he was too much in advance of the people with
whom he was connected. To them he was something of a Freethinker, a
man too ready to judge for himself while the Gospel was at hand to
judge for him. Such liberal views were not in accord with peasant
limitations. His desire to raise his country to the level of other
nations, to bring commerce and railways within touch of his people,
savoured of heresy. The appreciation for civilisation was so strong
within him that he is even said to have carried it to extremes, to
have favoured the prompt and regular payment of taxes, and to have
executed an elaborate design for an international coat-of-arms! Now
this reformer, like most reformers, was not appreciated among his
own people. He had no police to support him, no means of putting
pressure on those who should have served his cause. The Conservative
party, with Mr. Kruger at their head, did their best to circumvent
every innovation and to save themselves and the country from what
they believed to be the dangerous inorthodoxy of their President.
Mr. Burgers in his posthumous "Vindication" outlines some strange
hints regarding the character of his compatriots, which outlines may
now be readily filled in by personal experience. He therein asserts
that had he chosen to publish to the world a faithful description of
the Transvaal Boers, they would have forfeited the appreciation
gained from the Liberal party in Europe. Mr. Burgers' reserve is
much to be regretted, as a few sidelights thrown on the Boer
character at that period might have helped to educate the Liberal
party of whom he spoke, and thereby saved much of the vacillation of
policy for which the country now has to suffer.
[Illustration: SERGEANT-MAJOR of the 2nd DRAGOONS.
(ROYAL SCOTS GREYS.)
Photo by Gregory & Co., London.]
THE POLITICAL WEB
Before going further, we must examine the situation between the
Governor of the Cape, the President of the South African Republic,
and the Home Government.
When we look back at Boer history, we find the details of annexation
and restoration repeating themselves with the consistency of the
chorus of a nursery rhyme. What the Government of the Cape
accomplished the Government at home proceeded promptly to undo, till
the problems connected with Boer liberty and British rights became
so tangled and so intricate that they could only be solved by the
sword.
It may be remembered that in 1854 Sir George Grey, the then Governor
of the Cape, applied himself to the puzzle. He started with the best
hopes. He saw before him a vista of labour, of argument, of
contradiction, but the tangles, he believed, could eventually be
smoothed out. In the anxiety to avoid trouble and responsibility,
and possibly in an amiable desire to conciliate the parties at home,
the Imperial Government had conceded territories and alienated
subjects without having made an effort to discover the wishes of the
people, or to try a free form of government suited to South Africa.
He was in favour of a Federal Union wherein the separate Colonies
and States, each with its local government and legislature, should
be combined under one general representative legislature, led by a
responsible Ministry, specially charged with the duty of providing
for common defence. This plan of Federal Union seemed to appeal to
the Burghers of the Orange Free State, for the Volksraad decided
that "a union of alliance with the Cape Colony, either on the plan
of federation or otherwise, is desirable." Sir George Grey was not
permitted to pursue his policy, for the British Government decided
against the resumption of British sovereignty over the Orange Free
State. The same forward and backward movement, the same sort of
political _chase et croise_, was again carried on from 1876 and 1877
to 1881. It was decided that a Federal Union should be created
between such African Colonies as were willing to join. To further
this scheme Sir Bartle Frere, after a long and arduous career in
India, was appointed Governor and High Commissioner by Lord
Carnarvon, the then Colonial Secretary. But Sir Bartle was too late.
Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who had been sent out to the Transvaal on
Special Commission to confer with the President on the question of
Confederation, had already annexed the Transvaal. The reasons for
the annexation were many and excellent. Firstly, the Transvaal
Republic, vulgarly speaking, was out at elbows. It was bankrupt,
helpless, languishing. The sorry sum of 12s. 6d. represented the
entire wealth of the Treasury. The Zulu chief Cetchwayo was waiting
to "eat up" the Boers, and the Boers were unceasing in their efforts
to encroach on Zulu territory. But the deplorable state of affairs
is better described by quoting Sir T. Shepstone's letter on the
subject.
"It was patent to every observer," writes Sir T. Shepstone, "that
the Government (of the Transvaal) was powerless to control either
its white citizens or its native subjects; that it was incapable of
enforcing its laws or of collecting its taxes; that the Treasury was
empty; that the salaries of officials had been and are months in
arrear; that sums payable for the ordinary and necessary expenditure
of government cannot be had, and that such services as postal
contracts were long and hopelessly overdue; that the white
inhabitants had become split into factions; that the large native
populations within the boundaries of the State ignore its authority
and laws; and that the powerful Zulu king, Cetchwayo, is anxious to
seize upon the first opportunity of attacking a country the conduct
of whose warriors has convinced him that it can be easily conquered
by his clamouring regiments." He again writes: "I think it necessary
to explain, more at length than I was able to do in my last
despatch, the circumstances which seem to me to forbid all hope that
the Transvaal Republic is capable of maintaining the show even of
independent existence any longer, which induced me to consider it my
duty to assume this position in my communications with the President
and Executive Council, and which have convinced me that, if I were
to leave the country in its present condition, I should but expose
the inhabitants to anarchy among themselves, and to attack from the
natives, that would prove not only fatal to the Republic, but in the
highest degree dangerous to her Majesty's possessions and subjects
in South Africa."
The proclamation of the annexation of the Transvaal was issued on
the 12th of April 1876, and on the previous day Sir T. Shepstone
wrote: "There will be a protest against my act of annexation issued
by the Government, but they will at the same time call upon the
people to submit quietly, pending the issue. You need not be
disquieted by such action, because it is taken merely to save
appearances, and the members of the Government from the violence of
a faction that seems for years to have held Pretoria in terror when
any act of the Government displeased it. You will better understand
this when I tell you privately that the President has from the first
fully acquiesced in the necessity for the change, and that most of
the members of the Government have expressed themselves anxious for
it--but none of them have had the courage openly to express their
opinions, so I have had to act apparently against them, and this I
felt bound to do, knowing the state and danger of the country, and
that three-fourths of the people will be thankful for the change
when once it is made."
As a matter of fact the annexation was received with rejoicing all
over the country. "God save the Queen" was sung, and special
thanksgiving services were held in many of the churches. The Union
Jack was run up, the Republican flag hauled down without a
dissentient voice. The arrival of British troops--the first
battalion of the 13th Regiment--was hailed with curiosity and
pleasure, the Boers with their women and children turning out to
meet it and hear the band play. The financial effects of the new
departure were magical. Credit and commerce were at once restored.
Valueless railway bonds rose to par, and the price of landed
property was nearly doubled. On the Queen's birthday, the first
after the annexation, the 24th of May 1877, the native chiefs were
invited to attend, and the Union Jack was formally hoisted to the
strains of the National Anthem. This same flag was within a few
years ignobly hauled down during the signing of the Convention at
Pretoria, and formally buried by a party of Englishmen and loyal
natives. But for the time being all seemed pleased with the new
state of affairs. As Mr. Haggard says, it is difficult to reconcile
the enthusiasm of a great number of the inhabitants of the Transvaal
for English rule and the quiet acquiescence of the remainder at this
time, with the decidedly antagonistic attitude subsequently assumed.
His description of the situation in "The Last Boer War" seems to be
more near the truth than any forthcoming: "The Transvaal, when we
annexed it, was in the position of a man with a knife at his throat,
who is suddenly rescued by some one stronger than he, on certain
conditions which at the time he gladly accepts, but afterwards, when
the danger is passed, wishes to repudiate. In the same way the
inhabitants of the South African Republic were in the time of need
very thankful for our aid, but after a while, when the recollection
of their difficulties had grown faint, when their debts had been
paid and their enemies had been defeated, they began to think that
they would like to get rid of us again, and start fresh on their own
account with a clean sheet."
In the management of affairs it appears that Mr. Burgers began to
set an example of the policy which Mr. Kruger has since followed:
the policy of trying to sit on either side of the fence. Mr. Kruger
has struggled more and more violently to accomplish this feat as the
years advance and he advances in years. He has tried to grab the
advantages attendant upon the possession of gold mines and schemed
to acquire a great financial status, and yet at the same time to
keep up his affectation of piety and to maintain his pristine
condition of bucolic irresponsibility. Brought face to face with Sir
T. Shepstone's scheme for annexation, Mr. Burger privately
encouraged the proposed action of the Government--he and his
colleagues even stipulating for pension and office--while publicly
he lifted up his protest against the innovation.
The Boer, with his usual craft, had decided that the British
Government should set him financially on his feet, which feet he
meant promptly to use for running away from his responsibilities.
Some declare that the policy of Sir T. Shepstone was premature, that
he should have waited until the Boer had soaked further in the
slough of insolvency into which he was fast sinking. But Sekukuni
was threatening, and on the south-eastern frontier Cetchwayo, with a
force some thirty thousand strong, was waiting his opportunity. The
promise of the future was a general holocaust, in which Boer men,
women, and children, farms and flocks would be annihilated. Sir T.
Shepstone, had he been other than a Briton, might have stayed his
hand and waited till the Boers were effectually swept away, but
being a Briton he acted as such, doubtless arguing that,
"As we under Heaven are supreme head,
So, under him, that great supremacy,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold."
THE WEB THICKENING
It must be remembered that between the Zulus and the Boers no
boundary line had ever been fixed, and that for over a dozen years
the Zulu chiefs had repeatedly implored the British Governor in
Natal for advice and help in their dealings with these aggressors.
It had been part of the Dutch policy--if policy it may be called--to
force the Zulu gradually to edge further and further from the rich
pasture lands sloping eastward of the Drakensberg Mountains, and
spreading to right and left into the north and west of Zululand.
Little notice had been taken of their petitions, and the Zulus had
determined to take the law into their own hands. Cetchwayo,
therefore, when the news of our annexation of the Transvaal reached
him, was like a wild beast baulked of its prey. He was anxious for
an occasion for his young warriors "to wash their spears" in the
gore of his enemies, and was naturally disappointed to find them
under the protection of the white man. The Natal Government
attempted to soothe him--to promote peace. He remained sullen and
simmered. He vented his spleen by putting several young women to
death for having refused to marry his soldiers. On being
remonstrated with by the Natal Government, he expressed himself with
engaging candour. His own words, without comment, describe the
character with which we had to deal.
"Did I ever tell Mr. Shepstone," his Majesty cried, "that I would
not kill? Did Mr. Shepstone tell the white people I made such an
arrangement? Because if he did he deceived them. I do kill; but I do
not consider that I have done anything yet in the way of killing.
Why do the white people start at nothing? I have not yet begun. I
have yet to kill. It is the custom of our nation, and I will not
depart from it. Why does the Governor of Natal speak to me about my
laws? I shall not agree to any laws or rules from Natal, and by so
doing throw the large kraal which I govern into the water. My people
will not listen unless they are killed, and while wishing to be
friends with the English I do not agree to give my people over to be
governed by laws sent to me by them. Have I not asked the English to
allow me to wash my spears since the death of my father, Upandi, and
they have kept playing with me all the time, treating me as a
child?" ... A good deal more followed in this strain. Since his
accession the gallant Cetchwayo had decided to "wash his spears" in
the blood of his neighbours, and whatever the British might have to
say in the matter, wash them he would. It was obvious, therefore,
that a ruffian of this kind, backed by a bloodthirsty following, was
a permanent danger to our Colony of Natal and to its white
inhabitants. Something must be done to remove the disquiet caused by
the utterances of the savage. Sir Henry Bulwer (the Governor of
Natal)--to conciliate the king and to allay his fears lest his
territory, like that of the Boers, should be annexed--proposed that
a commission should investigate the rival claims of Boers and Zulus
on border questions, and settle them by arbitration. But what Sir H.
Bulwer proposed Sir Bartle Frere, High Commissioner in South Africa,
disapproved. He felt that Cetchwayo and his host would be a standing
menace to the borders of Natal. Nevertheless he agreed to a
discussion of the vexed boundary question between Boer and Zulu, in
which the commissioners declared unanimously against the claims of
the former. Certain land only to west of the Blood River, held by
the Boers and unchallenged by the Zulus, was confirmed to the Dutch
settlers in their occupation of the same. But to this decision Sir
Bartle Frere considered it expedient to add some saving clauses.
These demanded, first, that Cetchwayo should adhere to the
guarantees he had given and not permit indiscriminate shedding of
blood; second, that he should institute from his existing military
system the form of tribal quotas; third, that he should accept the
presence of a British Resident; fourth, that he should protect the
missionaries and their converts; and lastly, that he should
surrender certain criminals and pay certain fines. His Zulu Majesty
was given thirty days to consider the subject. Instead of
considering he flouted it. The result was war.
THE ZULU WAR
According to the opinion of Sir Bartle Frere there was, and for a
long time had been, a growing desire on the part of the great chiefs
to make this war into a simultaneous rising of Kaffirdom against
white civilisation. A spirit of mutiny had been in the air since the
terrible events in India in 1857, and there was a general conviction
among the native tribes that the authority of Great Britain would
eventually be overthrown. Now the most powerful of all the native
tribes in South Africa were the Zulus, whose military organisation
had long been celebrated, and who had earned a great reputation
since the days of Gaika, and more especially in the time that
followed when Chaka, who was a born warrior, brought the gigantic
army into a state of marvellous efficiency.
A few words regarding the career of this great chieftain may be
found interesting, for to him is accorded the credit of the
indubitably warlike and brave disposition of his countrymen. This
man, who has been at times called the Attila and the Napoleon of
South Africa, was born in 1783. He became chief officer to
Dingiswayo, a man of remarkable ability, who studied European
military systems and modelled on their principle a highly efficient
army. Chaka, heir to a chieftainship of the Amazulu tribe (the Zulus
proper), took the fancy of Dingiswayo, who elevated him first to a
post of high command, and eventually to the vacant Zulu
chieftainship. On the death in battle of Dingiswayo, Chaka assumed
the command of both tribes, to which he gave his name. The already
excellent army he proceeded to improve till it became one of the
most efficient military organisations ever originated in an
uncivilised country. The whole kingdom was ordered on a military
footing, and expanded so wondrously that the original two tribes at
first commanded by Chaka became an hundred, each tribe having been
defeated in warfare and incorporated in the Zulu nationality. His
policy, unlike that of Cetchwayo later on, was not to destroy but to
subdue, and thus he soon ruled with undisputed sway over a complete
empire covering the desolated regions of Natal, Zululand, and the
modern Boer States. His methods of military training were entirely
Spartan; his discipline was a discipline of iron. Disobedience was
met with the penalty of death. To tread out a roaring bush-fire, or
capture alive a wild beast, were some of the tasks imposed as daily
training for his would-be warriors. An order was an order, and this,
however dangerous or seemingly impossible, had to be obeyed by
individual or regiment on pain of the most horrible forms of death.
It may easily be imagined that this stern regime was calculated to
create a military following of the most brave and adventurous order.
Naturally enough, all the other Kaffir tribes looked to the Zulus as
their leaders and champions in the contest. Captain Hamilton Parr
tells a tale of an old Galeka warrior who said to a native
magistrate, "Yes, you have beaten us--you have beaten us well; but
there," pointing eastward, "there are the Amazulu warriors. Can you
beat them? They say not. Go and try. Don't trouble any more about
us, but go and beat _them_ and we shall be quiet enough." This
anecdote serves to describe the general sentiment of disdain for
British authority which Sir Bartle Frere detected almost immediately
after his arrival among the natives, and to account in a measure for
what has been declared to be his high-handed policy. He was
convinced that we could never expect peace among the chiefs until we
had satisfied them who was master. A lesson was necessary to show
that the British Government could govern and meant to govern, and
that lesson he felt must be taught sooner or later. For a long time
Cetchwayo had been instigating rebellion and preparing for war. As
may be seen from Lord Carnarvon's letter of the 24th of January 1878
to Sir Bartle Frere, the Government was fully conscious of the
existing necessity to protect the Transvaal and to maintain British
prestige in South Africa. The despatch runs: "It seems certain that
the Zulu king has derived from his messengers the unfortunate idea
that the Kaffirs are able to cope with the Colony on more than equal
terms, and this belief has, as was inevitable, produced a very
threatening change in his language and conduct towards the Transvaal
Government. It is only too probable that a savage chief such as
Cetchwayo, supported by a powerful army already excited by the
recent successes of a neighbouring tribe over the late Government of
the Transvaal, may now become fired with the idea of victory over
her Majesty's forces, and that a deliberate attempt upon her
Majesty's territories may ensue. Should this unfortunately happen,
you must understand that at whatever sacrifice it is imperatively
necessary that her Majesty's forces in Natal and the Transvaal must
be reinforced by the immediate despatch of the military and naval
contingents now operating in the Cape, or such portion of them as
may be required. This is necessary not only for the safety of the
Transvaal, for the defence of which her Majesty's Government are
immediately concerned, but also in the interest of the Cape, since
a defeat of the Zulu king would act more powerfully than any other
means in disheartening the native races of South Africa."
On this subject Sir H. Bulwer wrote: "There has been for the last
eight or nine months a danger of collision with the Zulus at any
moment." And in November 1878 he said: "The system of government in
the Zulu country is so bad that any improvement seems hopeless. We
should, if necessary, be justified in deposing Cetchwayo."
Consequently, Sir Bartle Frere was not surprised when all efforts to
reduce Cetchwayo to yield to British demand failed. As time went by
it became clear that enforcement of these demands must be placed in
the hands of Lord Chelmsford and the military authorities, and
accordingly, on the 10th of January 1879, the Commander-in-Chief of
the forces of South Africa crossed the frontier.
As the frontier extended for some two hundred miles, to assume a
purely defensive attitude would have been impossible. Our forces so
placed would not have been sufficiently strong to resist an attack
made at their own time and place by a horde of some ten to twenty
thousand Zulus. Lord Chelmsford had no alternative, therefore, but
to invade Zululand.
ISANDLWANA
The force under Lord Chelmsford's command was divided into four columns.
These were composed partly of British soldiers, partly of Colonists, and
partly of blacks. The first column, under Colonel Pearson, crossed the
Lower Tugela; the second, under Lieutenant-Colonel Durnford, R.E.,
consisting of native troops and Natal Volunteers, was to act in concert
with column three; the third, under Colonel Glyn--but directed by the
General, who assumed all responsibility--crossed the Buffalo River; and
the fourth, under Colonel Evelyn Wood, entered Zululand from near
Newcastle on the north-west. The plan was for the four columns to
converge upon Ulundi, in the neighbourhood of the king's kraal, where
fighting might be expected to begin.
[Illustration: MAP OF ZULULAND AND ADJOINING PORTIONS OF NATAL.]
The crossing of the Buffalo River was effected without difficulty or
resistance, and ten days after the central column formed a camp at
the foot of the hill Isandlwana (the Little Hand). On the morning of
the 22nd the Commander-in-Chief advanced at daybreak, for the
purpose of attacking a kraal some miles distant. The camp at
Isandlwana was left in charge of a force of some eight hundred mixed
troops--regulars, volunteers, and natives. Strict orders to defend
and not to leave the camp were given, but in spite of these orders
portions of the force became detached. Suddenly, unobserved by them,
there appeared a dense impi of some twenty thousand Zulus. The
savage horde rushed shouting upon the small British detachments,
rushed with the swiftness of cavalry, attacked them before they
could unite, and swooping down with tremendous velocity, seized the
camp and separated the British troops from their reserves of
ammunition. In face of this warrior multitude our troops were
defenceless. A few moments of wild despairing energy, a hand-to-hand
struggle for life between the white man and the bloodthirsty savage,
groans of wounded and yells of victory, and all was over. Of the six
companies of the 24th, consisting of more than half the infantry
engaged, but six souls escaped. The rest died where they fell, with
no kindly hand to give them succour, no British voice to breathe a
burial prayer. But some before they dropped managed to cut their way
through the ring of Zulu spears. Two gallant fellows, Lieutenants
Melvill and Coghill, almost succeeded in saving the colours of the
first battalion of the 24th Regiment. They made a bold rush, but
merely reached the Natal bank of the Buffalo to be struck down. The
colours, wrapped round Melvill's body, were discovered in the river
some days afterwards.
The Zulu plan of fighting, in this case so successful, is curious.
The formation of their attacks represents the figure of a beast with
horns, chest, and loins. While making a feint with one horn, the
other, unperceived in long grass or bush, swoops round and closes in
on the enemy. The chest then advances to attack. The loins are kept
at a distance, and simply join in pursuit.
The news of the disaster spread fast. Sir Bartle Frere, on the
morning of the 24th, was awakened by the arrival of two almost
distraught and wholly unintelligible messengers. Their report, when
it could be at last comprehended, seemed too horrible for belief.
That they had escaped some terrible ordeal was evident; that they
were members of the company of naval volunteers that formed part of
the General's army, their uniform proclaimed. But of the General
they could say nothing--he might be dead, he might be missing--all
they knew was of their own miraculous escape from a scene of
slaughter. Colonel Pulleine they declared was dead, but further news
had to be awaited with anxious hearts.
Meanwhile Lord Chelmsford had heard the horrible news. The camp had
been seen in the possession of the Zulus. Worn and weary with heavy
marching in a baking sun, he and his troops began to retreat. At
nightfall, thoroughly jaded, they returned to a grim scene. All
around lay the still silent dead--the corpses of the comrades they
had parted with but a few hours before. There, amid the pathetic
wreckage, were they forced to lay them down to rest!
Fortunately the Zulus, having plundered the camp, had made off, and
the British force was able the next day to proceed to the relief of
Rorke's Drift. At Rorke's Drift the now world-celebrated defence of
Lieutenant Bromhead, of the 24th, and Lieutenant Chard, R.E., took
place. These young officers had been left with one hundred and four
soldiers to take charge of a small depot of provisions and an
hospital, and to keep open the communication with Natal. Some hours
after the disaster of Isandlwana their post was attacked by
Dabulamanzi (brother of Cetchwayo) and over three thousand of his
finest warriors. The little garrison had made for themselves a
laager of sacks of maize and biscuit-boxes, and behind these they
defended themselves so stubbornly and so heroically throughout the
night of the 23rd, that the Zulu chieftain, discomfited and
harassed, eventually retired. For their magnificent pluck the two
young officers received the Victoria Cross. Their action had saved
Natal from invasion by the enemy. Of the little garrison seventeen
fell and ten were wounded. The loss of the Zulus was about three
hundred.
[Illustration: THE DEFENCE OF RORKE'S DRIFT, 22nd to 23rd JANUARY
1879.
Painted by Alphonse de Neuville, Etched by L. Flameng.
Reproduced by special arrangement with the Fine Art Society,
London.]
Colonel Pearson's column, as we said, crossed the Lower Tugela near
the sea, with the intention of joining the other columns at Ulundi.
On the way thither he was attacked by a Zulu force at Inyesani. This
force, though it more than doubled the strength of his own, he drove
back with heavy loss, and marched to the Norwegian Mission station,
Eshowe. On his arrival there on the 23rd of January, he learnt the
awful news of the disaster, and instantly sent his cavalry back to
Natal, fortified his station, and waited there the arrival of
reinforcements.
The third column, commanded by Colonel Evelyn Wood (consisting of
1700 British soldiers, 50 farmers under Commandant Pieter Uys, and
some 300 blacks), reached Kambula in safety, and fortified a post
there. Colonel Wood harassed the enemy by frequent sallies, however,
and on one occasion the attack on the Zlobane Mountain lost about
ninety-six of his men. Among these were Colonel Weatherley, his
young son, and Commandant Uys. The following day the British laager
was attacked by a horde of Zulus, who were routed. In this
engagement Colonel Wood, Colonel Buller, and Captain Woodgate
especially distinguished themselves.
Lord Chelmsford, with a force of soldiers and sailors, marched in
April from Natal to the relief of Colonel Pearson at Eshowe. He
arrived there in safety, after having encountered and beaten back
the Zulus at Ginginlova: yet it was not until the 4th of July that
the troops eventually reached Ulundi, where the final battle and
victory took place. But of this later.
AFFAIRS AT HOME
Two days after the arrival of the news of the disaster at
Isandlwana, Parliament met. The reverse in Zululand naturally
engrossed all thoughts. Questions innumerable were addressed to
Government, as to the strength of reinforcements to be sent out--as
to the further necessity for war at all--as to the so-called
high-handed action of Sir Bartle Frere, and the so-called blunders
of Lord Chelmsford. Scapegoats were wanted, and, as a natural
consequence, the two most energetic and hard-worked of the Queen's
servants were attacked.
A political pitched battle was imminent. The Ministers declined to
withdraw their confidence from the Lord High Commissioner, though
they passed on him censure for his hasty and independent
proceedings. That the members of Government had a high appreciation
of his great experience, ability, and energy was apparent, for they
declared they had "no desire to withdraw in the present crisis of
affairs the confidence hitherto reposed in him, the continuance of
which was now more than ever needed to conduct our difficulties in
South Africa to a successful termination." On the 19th of March 1879
the Secretary of the Colonies wrote to Sir Bartle Frere, to the
effect that Ministers were unable to find, on the documents placed
before them, "that evidence of urgent necessity for immediate action
which alone would justify him in taking, without their full
knowledge and sanction, a course almost certain to result in a war."
The day for discussion of South African affairs in the Upper House
arrived.
Lord Lansdowne moved, on the 11th of March, "That this House, while
willing to support her Majesty's Government in all necessary
measures for defending the possessions of her Majesty in South
Africa, regrets that the _ultimatum_, which was calculated to
produce immediate war, should have been presented to the Zulu king
without authority from the responsible advisers of the Crown, and
that an offensive war should have been commenced without imperative
and pressing necessity or adequate preparation; and the House
regrets that, after the censure passed upon the High Commissioner by
her Majesty's Government, in the despatch of March 19, 1879, the
conduct of affairs in South Africa should be retained in his hands."
A keen debate ensued. The Opposition clamoured for the recall of Sir
Bartle Frere, as the example of independent action set by him might
be followed by other and more distant representatives of the Crown.
The war was ascribed to Lord Carnarvon's impatience for South
African confederation and his "incurable greed" for extending the
limits of the Colonies, and the annexation of the Transvaal was
declared to be a mistake, unless the Government was prepared to send
out a large military force to South Africa.
The Government combated these arguments. They denied they had
censured Sir Bartle Frere, and stated that they had passed no
opinion on his policy, but merely asserted as a principle that "Her
Majesty's advisers, and they only, must decide the grave issues of
peace and war."
It was argued that war with Cetchwayo was inevitable sooner or
later, and that the Lord High Commissioner had thought it advisable
to be prompt in the matter. His conduct, it was true, had not the
entire approval of the Ministry, but every one knew it was unwise to
change horses in crossing a stream, and his action had not been such
as to outweigh the many considerations which required the
continuance of his service in South Africa.
Lord Beaconsfield, addressing the House, defended Sir Bartle Frere,
and expressed opinions on the policy of confederation as opposed to
that of annexation, opinions which afford so much instruction in
regard to our relations with the Transvaal that they are best
repeated in their entirety.
"I generally find," he said, "there is one advantage at the end of a
debate, besides the relief which is afforded by its termination, and
that is that both sides of the House seem pretty well agreed as to
the particular point that really is at issue; but the rich humour of
the noble duke (Duke of Somerset) has again diverted us from the
consideration of the motion really before the House. If the noble
duke and his friends were desirous of knowing what was the policy
which her Majesty's Government were prepared generally to pursue in
South Africa, if they were prepared to challenge the policy of Sir
Bartle Frere in all its details, I should have thought they would
have produced a very different motion from that which is now lying
on your lordships' table; for that is a motion of a most limited
character, and, according to the strict rules of parliamentary
discussion, precludes you from most of the subjects which have
lately been introduced to our consideration, and which principally
have emanated from noble lords opposite. We have not been summoned
here to-day to consider the policy of the acquisition of the
Transvaal. These are subjects on which I am sure the Government
would be prepared to address your lordships, if their conduct were
clearly and fairly impugned. And with regard to the annexation of
the province, which has certainly very much filled the mouths of men
of late, I can easily conceive that that would have been a subject
for fair discussion in this House, and we should have heard, as we
have heard to-night, though in a manner somewhat unexpected, from
the nature of the resolution before us, from the noble lord who was
recently the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the principal
reasons which induced the Government to sanction that policy--a
policy which I believe can be defended, but which has not been
impugned to-night in any formal manner.
"What has been impugned to-night is the conduct of the Government in
sanctioning, not the policy of Sir Bartle Frere, but his taking a
most important step without consulting them, which on such subjects
is the usual practice with all Governments. But the noble lord
opposite who introduced the subject does not even impugn the policy
of the Lord High Commissioner; and it was left to the noble duke who
has just addressed us, and who ought to have brought forward this
question if his views are so strongly entertained by him on the
matter, not in supporting a resolution such as now lies on your
lordships' table, but one which would have involved a discussion of
the policy of the Government and that of the high officer who is
particularly interested in it.
"My noble friend, the noble marquis (Lord Salisbury), who very
recently addressed the House, touched the real question which is
before us, and it is a very important question, although it is not
of the expansive character of the one which would have been
justified by the comments of the noble lords opposite. What we have
to decide to-night is this--whether her Majesty's Government shall
have the power of recommending to the sovereign the employment of a
high officer to fulfil duties of the utmost importance, or whether
that exercise of the prerogative, on their advice, shall be
successfully impugned, and that appointment superseded by noble
lords opposite. That course is perfectly constitutional, if they are
prepared to take the consequences. But let it be understood what the
issue is. It is this--that a censure upon the Government is called
for, because they have selected the individual who, on the whole,
they think is the best qualified successfully to fulfil the duties
of High Commissioner. The noble lords opposite made that
proposition, and if they succeed they will succeed in that which has
hitherto been considered one of the most difficult tasks of the
executive Government; that is to say, they will supersede the
individual whom the sovereign, in the exercise of her prerogative,
under the advice of her Ministers, has selected for an important
post. I cannot agree in the general remark made by the noble duke,
that because an individual has committed an error, and even a
considerable error, for that reason, without any reference either to
his past services or his present qualifications, immediately a
change should be recommended, and he should be recalled from the
scene of his duties.
"I remember myself a case not altogether different from the present
one," continued Lord Beaconsfield, alluding to Sir James Hudson, who,
when Minister at Turin, had been charged with having expressed himself
unguardedly upon the subject of Italian nationality. "It happened some
years ago, when I was in the other House. Then a very high official--a
diplomatist of great eminence, a member of the Liberal party--had
committed what was deemed a great indiscretion by several members of his
own party; and the Government were asked in a formal manner, by a
Liberal member, whether that distinguished diplomatist had been in
consequence recalled. But the person who was then responsible for the
conduct of public affairs in that House--the humble individual who is
now addressing your lordships, made this answer, with the full
concurrence of his colleagues--denied that that distinguished
diplomatist was recalled, and said that _great services are not
cancelled by one act or one single error however it may be regretted at
the moment_. That is what I said then, with regard to Sir James Hudson,
and what I say now with regard to Sir Bartle Frere. But I do not wish
to rest on that. I confess that, so keen is my sense of responsibility,
and that of my colleagues, and I am sure also that of noble lords
opposite, that we would not allow our decisions in such matters to be
unduly influenced by personal considerations of any kind. What we had to
determine is this, Was it wise that such an act on the part of Sir
Bartle Frere as, in fact, commencing war without consulting the
Government at home, and without their sanction, should be passed
unnoticed? Ought it not to be noticed in a manner which should convey to
that eminent person a clear conviction of the feelings of her Majesty's
Government; and at the same time was it not their duty to consider, were
he superseded, whether they could place in his position an individual
equally qualified to fulfil the great duties and responsibilities
resting on him? That is what we had to consider. We considered it
entirely with reference to the public interest, and the public interest
alone; and we arrived at the conviction that on the whole the retention
of Sir Bartle Frere in that position was our duty, notwithstanding the
inconvenient observations and criticisms to which we were, of course,
conscious it might subject us. And, that being our conviction, we have
acted upon it. It is a very easy thing for a Government to make a
scapegoat; but that is conduct which I hope no gentleman on this side,
and I believe no gentleman sitting opposite, would easily adopt. If Sir
Bartle Frere had been recalled--if he had been recalled in deference to
the panic, the thoughtless panic of the hour, in deference to those who
have no responsibility in the matter, and who have not weighed well and
deeply investigated all the circumstances and all the arguments which
can be brought forward, and which must be appealed to to influence our
opinions on such questions--no doubt a certain degree of odium might
have been diverted from the heads of her Majesty's Ministers, and the
world would have been delighted, as it always is, to find a victim. That
was not the course which we pursued, and it is one which I trust no
British Government ever will pursue. We had but one object in view, and
that was to take care that at this most critical period the affairs of
her Majesty in South Africa should be directed by one not only qualified
to direct them, but who was superior to any other individual whom we
could have selected for that purpose. The sole question that we really
have to decide to-night is, Was it the duty of her Majesty's Government
to recall Sir Bartle Frere in consequence of his having declared war
without our consent? We did not think it our duty to take that course,
and we do not think it our duty to take that course now. Whether we are
right in the determination at which we have arrived is the sole question
which the House has to determine upon the motion before it.
"The noble duke opposite (the Duke of Somerset) has told us that he
should not be contented without being made acquainted with the whole
policy which her Majesty's Government are prepared to pursue in
South Africa. If the noble duke will introduce that subject we shall
be happy to discuss it with him. No one could introduce it in a more
interesting, and, indeed, in a more entertaining manner than the
noble duke, who possesses that sarcastic faculty that so well
qualifies him to express his opinion on such a matter. I think,
however, that we ought to have had rather longer notice before we
were called upon to discuss so large a theme, which has now been
brought suddenly before us. If the noble marquis who introduced this
subject had given us notice of a motion of this character, we should
not have hesitated for a moment to meet it. I have, however, no
desire to avoid discussing the subject of our future policy in South
Africa, even on so general a notice as we have in reference to it
from the noble duke. Sir Bartle Frere was selected by the noble lord
(Lord Carnarvon), who formerly occupied the position of Secretary to
the Colonies, chiefly to secure one great end--namely, to carry out
that policy of confederation in South Africa which the noble lord
had successfully carried out on a previous occasion with regard to
the North American Colonies.
"If there is any policy which, in my mind, is opposed to the policy
of annexation, it is that of confederation. By pursuing the policy
of confederation we bind States together, we consolidate their
resources, and we enable them to establish a strong frontier; and
where we have a strong frontier, that is the best security against
annexation. I myself regard a policy of annexation with great
distrust. I believe that the reasons of State which induced us to
annex the Transvaal were not, on the whole, perfectly sound. But
what were the circumstances under which that annexation was
effected? The Transvaal was a territory which was no longer defended
by its occupiers. The noble lord opposite (Lord Kimberley), who
formerly had the Colonies under his management, spoke of the conduct
of Sir Theophilus Shepstone as though he had not taken due
precautions to effect the annexation of that province, and said that
he was not justified in concealing that he had not successfully
consummated his object. The noble lord said he had not assembled
troops enough in the province to carry out properly the policy of
annexation. But Sir Theophilus Shepstone particularly refers to the
very fact to show, that so unanimous and so united was the sentiment
in the province in favour of annexation, that it was unnecessary to
send any large force there to bring it about. _The annexation of
that province was a necessity--a geographical necessity._"
[Illustration: Sir HENRY BARTLE FRERE, Bart.
Photo by Maull & Fox. London.]
TOWARDS ULUNDI
It may be remembered that Lord Chelmsford's original idea had been
for Colonel Pearson's column to march from Eshowe to the chief's
kraal at Ulundi. In consequence of the disaster, however, Colonel
Pearson decided to remain where he was. He constructed a fort for
the protection of the garrison against an army of some 20,000 Zulus
lying in wait between Eshowe and Tugela. On the 30th of January all
the troops came within this embryo fort, and as tents were
forbidden, officers and men had to make the best of what shelter the
waggons afforded. The troops spent the time in completing the fort
and cutting roads, and early in February excellent defences were
completed. Though in hourly expectation of attack they seem to have
kept up their spirits, for an officer in Eshowe wrote:--
"The troops inside consisted of three companies of the 99th
Regiment, five companies of the second battalion of the 3rd Buffs,
one company of Royal Engineers, one company of the Pioneers, the
Naval Brigade, a body of Artillery, and nineteen of the Native
Contingent, amongst them being several non-commissioned officers,
whom we found exceedingly useful, two of them being at once selected
as butchers, whilst two were 'promoted' to the rank of 'bakers to
the troops.' Others attended to the sanitary arrangements of the
garrison, and altogether they were found to be also exceedingly
useful. As a portion of the column, the company of Pioneers under
the command of Captain Beddoes did a great deal of very important
work. This company was composed of ninety-eight natives, one
captain, and three lieutenants, and their proceedings in connection
with the making of the new road were watched with much interest.
They worked with the Naval Brigade, about three companies of
soldiers, and several men of the Royal Artillery. This road was
found useless, in consequence of the numerous swampy places at the
foot of each of the numerous hills which occurred along the route.
Very thick bush had to be cut through, and at first but slow
progress was made. The road, as is generally known, took a direction
towards the Inyezane. Whilst out on one occasion, the road party saw
a torpedo explosion which took place about three miles from where
the party was working. It had been accidentally fired by Kaffirs,
who were unaware of the clangers connected with the implement, and
it is believed that several of them were killed. The road was
altogether a bad one. The relief column used it on their way up, but
only the Pioneers and the mounted men went by that route on the way
back. In fact, it would have been useless to have attempted to use
it for the passage of waggons. Whenever the road party went out they
were fired on by Kaffirs, but of course shots were returned, and
many a Zulu warrior was knocked over whilst the work was being
proceeded with. Everything in camp was conducted in a most orderly
manner. We were roused at half-past five sharp, and at eight
o'clock, sharp, lights were out. For one month we existed very
comfortably on full rations, but at the end of that time we were put
on short rations, made up as follows:--One pound and a quarter of
trek-oxen beef, six ounces of meal, one ounce and a quarter of
sugar, third of an ounce of coffee, one sixth of an ounce of tea,
one ninth of an ounce of pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of salt.
"Life of course was very monotonous. The bands of the two regiments
played on alternate afternoons, and every morning they were to be
heard practising outside the entrenchment. The most pleasant part of
the day was just after six o'clock, when we used to be enlivened in
the cool of the evening by the fife and drum band playing the
'Retreat.' The water with which we were supplied was indeed
excellent, and the bathing places, I need not say, were very
extensively patronised. The grazing was not nearly sufficient for
the cattle, and from the first they must have suffered very much
from want of nourishment. You will have heard of the fate of the
eleven hundred head of oxen and the span of donkeys which we sent
away from the camp in expectation of their reaching the Lower
Tugela. They left us in charge of nineteen Kaffirs, but at the
Inyezane they were attacked by a large body of Kaffirs. The natives
in charge of the cattle decamped and reached the fort in safety, and
the enemy got possession of the whole of the cattle, which they
drove off. The donkeys were all killed with the exception of one,
and this sagacious animal surprised everybody in camp by returning
soon after the Kaffirs had come back."
The prices of food at this time were scarcely in keeping with those
of the London market. A bottle of pickles fetched 25s., and a ham
L7, 10s.! Milk was purchasable for 23s. a tin, and sardines for 12s.
As may be imagined, the arrival of Lord Chelmsford at Eshowe was a
matter for general thanksgiving. One who was present records in
_Blackwood's Magazine_ the joy on the arrival of the first
outsiders: "On the afternoon of the 3rd of April, the column
detailed on the 31st of March (about 500 whites and 50 blacks, and
the mounted infantry, with one gun) left the fort under General
Pearson, to meet the relief column.... A solitary horseman was seen
towards 5 P.M. galloping up the new road to the fort. He had an
officer's coat on, and we could see a sword dangling from his side.
Who is he?... He proved to be the correspondent of the _Standard_.
'First in Eshowe,' he said, 'proud to shake hands with an Eshowian.'
A second horseman appeared approaching the fort, his horse
apparently much blown, Who is he?... The correspondent of the
_Argus_ (Cape Town). They had a race who would be first at Eshowe,
the _Standard_ winning by five minutes!" Thus ended happily the
crushing anxiety under which Colonel Pearson and his party had
lived, and the foretaste of the future triumph seemed already to
remove the memory of many weeks of bitterness.
Serious differences of opinion soon arose between Lord Chelmsford
and Sir Henry Bulwer, the Governor of Natal, but on the intricacies
of these it is unnecessary to dwell; suffice it to say, that they
were in a measure the cause of Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival on the
scene somewhat later, as Sir Garnet united in his own person both
supreme civil and supreme military power.
A complete account of the movements of the various columns during
the dreary months that elapsed before the final victory at Ulundi on
the 4th of July cannot be attempted here. The history of skirmishes
and raids, of daring sorties, of captures of cattle, and gallantry
of troops, of hopes and disappointments, of successes and scares, of
hardships and horrors, would fill many pages that must be otherwise
occupied.
Yet one tragic and memorable event of the war cannot be passed over,
for we lost a gallant volunteer whose young life was full of promise
and distinction. At the beginning of June the Prince Imperial of
France, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, having studied at the Military
College at Woolwich, and desiring to see war in all its reality, was
attached to the Quartermaster-General's department at General
Newdigate's camp. He set out with a reconnoitring party consisting
of Lieutenant Carey of the 98th Regiment, six men of Bellington's
Horse, and a Kaffir. The place they intended to reach was situated
between the camps of Lord Chelmsford and General Wood. Having gained
a picturesque spot near a brook which forms a tributary to the
Tlyotyozi River, the Prince decided to sketch. He was a clever
draughtsman, and had some ability in recognising the capabilities of
positions. The party afterwards moved on, examining various empty
kraals by the way. At one of these they halted, and the Prince gave
orders to "off-saddle" for an hour. The place seemed deserted; there
were remains of a recent cooking fire, and a stray dog or two
sniffed suspiciously at the strangers. Round this spot near the
river tambookie grass about six feet in height formed a screen. The
officers made coffee, turned out their horses to graze, and lay for
a short rest in the peaceful security of a complete, or seemingly
complete, desolation.
But unknown to them, fifty Zulus, tiger-like, had crawled from
ambush and were preparing to spring. It was from the cover of the
river vegetation that they eventually burst forth. A hurried order
to remount, and the crash of rifles at a distance of twenty yards
followed. The tragic scene is well described by Mr. A. Wilmot in his
"History of the Zulu War":--
"At this time the party were standing in a line close to their
horses, with their backs to the kraal and their faces turned
eastward, the Prince being in front and nearest to the Zulus. Then
with a tremendous cry, 'Usutu!' and 'Lo, the English cowards!' the
savages rushed on. The horses immediately swerved, and some broke
away. An undoubted panic seized the party; every one who could
spring on his horse mounted and galloped for his life. There was no
thought, no idea of standing fast and resisting this sudden attack.
The Prince was unwounded, but unable to mount his charger, which was
sixteen hands high and always difficult to mount. On this occasion
the horse became so frightened by the firing and sudden stampeding
as to rear and prance in such a manner as to make it impossible for
the Prince to gain the saddle. Many of the others saw the
difficulty, but none waited or tried to give the least assistance.
One by one they rushed their horses past, Private le Tocq exclaiming
as he went by, lying across his saddle, 'Depechez-vous, s'il vous
plait, monsieur!' The Prince, making no reply, strained every nerve,
but, alas! in vain, to gain the back of his horse, holding his
stirrup-leather with his left hand and the saddle with his right.
With the help of the holster he made one desperate effort, but the
holster partially gave way, and it must have been then that the
horse trod upon him and galloped off, leaving his master prostrate
on the ground. The Prince then regained his feet and ran after his
friends, who were far in advance. Twelve or thirteen Zulus were at
this time only a few feet behind him. The Prince then turned round,
and, sword in hand, faced his pursuers. From the first he had never
called for help, and now died bravely with his face to the foes,
fighting courageously to the last.
"It is thought that the Zulus hurled their assegais at him, and that
he quickly fell dead, pierced through the eye by a mortal wound."
There is a certain sad satisfaction in remembering that this noble
youth, the hope of France, the worthy descendant of a great name,
should have died as a soldier and without more than a moment's
suffering.
The rest of the party had galloped off at full speed, thinking each
was engaged in the business of getting away. Lieutenant Carey, who
has been blamed for not having stood by the Prince in his perilous
position, shouted orders and imagined they were followed, and in his
hasty retreat had not time to do more than believe the whole party
thus surprised were galloping away together.
Arguments regarding this deplorable affair have been so many that it
is best to quote the evidence taken at the court-martial and the
statement of Lieutenant Carey:--
"The Court is of opinion that Lieutenant Carey did not understand
the position in which he stood towards the Prince, and, as a
consequence, failed to estimate aright the responsibility which fell
to his lot. Colonel Harrison states that the senior combatant
officer, Lieutenant Carey, D.A.Q.M.G., was, as a matter of course,
in charge of the party, whilst, on the other hand, Carey says, when
alluding to the escort, 'I did not consider I had any authority over
it after the precise and careful instructions of Lord Chelmsford as
to the position the Prince held.' As to his being invariably
accompanied by an escort in charge of an officer, the Court
considers that the possibility of such a difference of opinion
should not have existed between two officers of the same department.
The Court is of opinion that Carey is much to blame for having
proceeded on the duty in question with a portion only of the escort
detailed by Colonel Harrison. The Court cannot admit the
irresponsibility for this on the part of Carey, inasmuch as he took
steps to obtain the escort and failed in so doing. Moreover, the
fact that Harrison was present upon the Itelezi range gave him the
opportunity of consulting him on the matter, of which he failed to
avail himself. The Court, having examined the ground, is of opinion
that the selection of the kraal, where a halt was made and the
horses off-saddled, surrounded as it was by cover for the enemy, and
adjacent to difficult ground, showed a lamentable want of military
prudence. The Court deeply regrets that no effort was made after the
attack to rally the escort, and to show a front to the enemy,
whereby the possibility of aiding those who had failed to make good
their retreat might have been ascertained.--Signed by General
MARSHALL; Colonel MALTHUS, 94th Regiment; Major LE GRICE, R.A."
On this report a court-martial was summoned by Lord Chelmsford for
the trial of Lieutenant Carey for having misbehaved before the enemy
on the 1st June 1879, when in command of an escort in attendance on
the Prince, who was making reconnaissances in Zululand; in having,
when the Prince and escort were attacked by the enemy, galloped
away, and in not having attempted to rally them or otherwise defend
the Prince. The Court, under the presidency of Colonel Glyn,
consisted of Colonels Whitehead, Courtney, Harness, Major Bouverie,
and Major Anstruther.
Judge-Advocate Brander prosecuted, and Captain Crookenden, R.A., was
for the defence.
When the Court opened the plan of the ground was proved.
Corporal Grubb said the Prince gave the order "Off saddle" at the
kraal, and "Prepare to mount." The Prince mounted. After the volley
he saw Carey putting spurs to his horse, and he did the same. He saw
Abel fall, and Rogers trying to get a shot at the Zulus. Le Tocq
passed him and said, "Put spurs to your horse, boy; the Prince is
down!" He looked round and saw the Prince under his horse. A short
time after the Prince's horse came up, and he (Grubb) caught it. No
orders were given to rally.
Le Tocq was called and said: The Prince told the natives to search
the kraals, and finding no one there they off saddled. At the volley
he mounted, but, dropping his carbine, stopped to pick it up. In
remounting he could not get his leg over the saddle. He passed the
Prince, and said in French, "Hasten to mount your horse." The Prince
did not answer. He saw the Prince's horse treading on his leg. The
Prince was in command of the party. He believed Carey and the Prince
would have passed on different sides of a hut in fast flight, and it
was possible that Carey might have failed to see that the Prince was
in difficulties. It was 250 yards from where he saw the Prince down
to the spot where he died.
Trooper Cochrane was called and said: The Prince was not in the
saddle at the time of mounting. He saw about fifty yards off the
Prince running down the donga with fourteen Zulus in close pursuit.
Nothing was done to help him. He heard no orders given, and did not
tell Carey what he had seen until some time after. He was an old
soldier. He did not think any rally could have been made.
The Court then adjourned to the next day. On reassembling, the first
witness called was
Sergeant Willis, who stated that he had seen Trooper Rogers lying on
the ground by the side of his horse, close to the kraal, as he left
the spot. He thought he saw the Prince wounded at the same time that
Trooper Abel threw up his arms. He thought the Prince might have
been dragged to the place where he was found after death, and that a
rally might have been made twenty yards beyond the donga.
Colonel Harrison being called, stated that Carey was senior
combatant officer, and must therefore have been in command of the
party. Carey volunteered to go on the reconnaissance to verify
certain points of his sketch. The Prince was ordered to go to
report more fully on the ground. He had given the Prince into
Carey's charge.
Examined by the Court, Colonel Harrison stated that when the Prince
was attached to his department he was not told to treat him as a
royal personage in the matter of escort, but as any other officer,
taking due precaution against any possible danger.
Dr. Scott (the Prince's medical attendant) was then called, and
stated that the Prince was killed by eighteen assegai wounds, any
five of which would have been fatal. There were no bullet wounds.
The Prince died where the body was found.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
The defence called again Colonel Harrison, who testified to Carey's
abilities as a staff officer, and said he had every confidence in
him.
Colonel Bellairs was also called, and stated that it was in
consequence of the occurrence of the 1st June that Carey had been
deposed from his staff appointment the day previous to his trial.
Lieutenant Carey here submitted that his case had been pre-judged,
and that he had been punished before his trial.
The following is Lieutenant Carey's statement:--
"On the 31st May I was informed by Colonel Harrison, A.Q.M.G., that
the Prince Imperial was to start on the 1st June to ride over the
road selected by me for the advance of the column, for the purpose
of selecting a camping-ground for the 2nd June. I suggested at once
that I should be allowed to go with him, as I knew the road and
wanted to go over it again for the purpose of verifying certain
points. To this Colonel Harrison consented, reminding me that the
Prince was going at his own request to do this work, and that I was
not to interfere with him in any way. For our escort, six Europeans
of Bettington's Horse and six Basutos were ordered. Bettington's men
were paraded at 9 A.M., but owing to some misunderstanding the
Basutos did not turn up, and, the Prince being desirous of
proceeding at once, we went without them. On arriving at the ridge
between Itelezi and Incenci, I suggested waiting for them, but the
Prince replied, 'Oh no; we are quite strong enough,' or words to
that effect. We proceeded on our reconnaissance from there, halting
about half-an-hour on a high hill overlooking the Ityotyozi for the
Prince to sketch. From here the country was visible for miles, and
no sign of the enemy could be discovered. We then descended into the
valley, and, entering a kraal, off saddled, knee-haltering our
horses. We had seen the deserted appearance of the country, and,
though the kraal was to the right, surrounded by mealies, we thought
there was no danger in encamping. If any blame is attributable to
any one for this, it is to me, as I agreed with the Prince that we
were perfectly safe. I had been over this ground twice before and
seen no one, and the brigade-major of the cavalry brigade had ridden
over it with only two or three men, and laughed at me for taking so
large an escort. We had with us a friendly Zulu, who, in answer to
my inquiries, said no Zulus were about. I trusted him, but still
kept a sharp look-out, telescope in hand. In about an hour--that is,
3.40 P.M.--the Prince ordered us to saddle up. We went into the
mealies to catch our horses, but took at least ten minutes saddling.
While doing so, the Zulu guide informed us he had seen a Zulu in the
distance, but as he did not appear concerned, I saw no danger. The
Prince was saddled up first, and, seeing him ready, I mounted, the
men not being quite ready. The Prince then asked if they were all
ready; they answered in the affirmative, and he gave the word,
'Prepare to mount.' At this moment I turned round, and saw the
Prince with his foot in the stirrup, looking at the men. Presently I
heard him say, 'Mount,' and turning to the men saw them vault into
their saddles. At this moment my eyes fell on about twenty black
faces in the mealies, twenty to thirty yards off, and I saw puffs of
smoke and heard a rattling volley, followed by a rush, with shouts
of 'Usutu!' There was at once a stampede. Two men rushed past me,
and as every one appeared to be mounted, I dug the spurs into my
horse, which had already started of his own accord. I felt sure no
one was wounded by the volley, as I heard no cry, and I shouted out,
'Keep to the left, and cross the donga, and rally behind it!' At the
same time I saw more Zulus in the mealies on our left flank, cutting
off our retreat. I crossed the donga behind two or three men, but
could only get beyond one man, the others having ridden off. Riding
a few hundred yards on to the rise, I stopped and looked round. I
could see the Zulus after us, and saw that the men were escaping to
the right, and that no one appeared on the other side of the donga.
The man beside me then drew my attention to the Prince's horse,
which was galloping away on the other side of the donga, saying, 'I
fear the Prince is killed, sir!' I immediately said, 'Do you think
it is any use going back?' The trooper pointed to the mealies on our
left, which appeared full of Kaffirs, and said, 'He is dead long
ago, sir; they assegai wounded men at once.' I considered he had
fallen near the kraal, as his horse was going from that direction,
and it was useless to sacrifice more lives. I had but one man near
me, the others being some 200 yards down the valley. I accordingly
shouted to them to close to the left, and rode on to gain a drift
over the Tombokala River, saying to the man at my side, 'We will
keep back towards General Wood's camp, not returning the same way
we came, and then come back with some dragoons to get the bodies.'
We reached camp about 6.30 P.M. When we were attacked our carbines
were unloaded, and, to the best of my belief, no shots were fired. I
did not see the Prince after I saw him mounting, but he was mounted
on a swift horse, and I thought he was close to me. Besides the
Prince, we lost two troopers, as well as the friendly Zulu. Two
troopers have been found between the donga and the kraal, covered
with assegai wounds. They must have fallen in the retreat and been
assegaied at once, as I saw no fighting when I looked round."
The court-martial condemned Lieutenant Carey, and he was sent home
under arrest. But eventually, owing to the intervention of the
bereaved Empress, and many sympathetic friends, the unfortunate
officer was released. The news of the calamity was received with
profound grief throughout the country. Some mourned the death of a
Prince, some sighed over the extinction of Napoleonic hopes,
officers regretted the loss of a promising comrade, and mothers
spent tears of sympathy for the great lady, Empress and mother, who
had thus been bereft of her only child.
THE VICTORY
To return to the progress of the war. On the 26th of June the
long-expected junction of the columns was on the eve of being
effected. Cetchwayo was pretending to make overtures for peace,
though at the same time his people were endeavouring to enter into
alliance with rebellious Boers. He even sent the sword of the Prince
Imperial as a peace-offering. On the envelope, however, his
amanuensis, one Cornelius Vjin (a Dutchman), pencilled the fact that
the king had 20,000 men with him. The reply of Lord Chelmsford was
as follows:----
"If the Induna, Mundula, brings with him the 1000 rifles taken at
Isandlwana, I will not insist on 1000 men coming in to lay down
their arms, if the Zulus are afraid to come. He must bring the two
guns and the remainder of the cattle. I will then be willing to
negotiate. As he has caused me to advance by the great delay he has
made, I must now go to the Umvolosi to enable my men to drink. I
will consent, pending negotiations, to halt on the further bank of
the river, and will not burn any kraals until the 3rd of July,
provided no opposition is made to my advance to the position on the
Umvolosi, by which day, the 3rd of July, at noon, the conditions
must be complied with. If my force is fired on, I shall consider
negotiations are at an end, and to avoid any chance of this, it is
best that Mundula come to my camp at daybreak or to-night, and that
the Zulus should withdraw from the neighbourhood of the river to
Ulundi. I cannot stop the general in command of the coast army until
these conditions are complied with."
Of course nothing was seen of Mundula, and preparations were made
for the reception of the enemy. Newdigate and Wood laagered their
waggons and prepared for the arrival of an impi of some 20,000 Zulus
advancing from Ulundi. On the following day a large force under
Colonel Buller advanced to Nodwengu kraal, and some stragglers were
killed. One of these was struck by Lord William Beresford, who, in
the sporting manner characteristic of him, cried, "First spear, by
Jove!"
On the morning of the memorable 4th of July the army, crossing
Umvolosi River, marched to a higher plateau--where once the Zulus
had vanquished the Boers--there to prepare for battle. The Zulus,
some 20,000 strong, after many war dances and cries, were marshalled
forth by their king to an open plain between the Nodwengu and Ulundi
kraals. Our troops were formed up in a hollow parallelogram, in the
centre being the native contingent with ammunition waggons. The four
sides of this parallelogram were formed of eight companies of the
13th Regiment, five of the 80th Regiment, the 90th, 58th, and 34th
Regiments, together with the 17th Lancers and the mounted
irregulars. At the corners and centre artillery was placed.
The Zulus advanced steadily, in horn fashion, with their
characteristic coolness and courage. The deadly fusillade from our
guns had no perceptible effect. On and on they came, surging in a
dense brown crescent, till within twenty yards of the British lines,
when, with the hail and storm of bullets crashing and blinding them,
they hesitated! That moment's hesitation was fatal--their one chance
slipped! A few warriors rushed onwards, many wavered, and gradually
the powerful horns were broken and disorganised. Then our Lancers
with a gallant charge dashed into the fray, plunging into the black
swarm that still met fury with fury. Captain Edgell was killed, and
many other officers had miraculous escapes. Once the enemy strove to
rally, but the effort was hopeless, and the magnificent Zulu
warriors were forced at last to turn and flee. Their defeat was
signal. Though the enemy numbered 20,000 to 5000 of our troops, the
Lancers with the Irregular Horse did splendid work, and ere all was
over 1000 Zulus bit the dust.
Then came the final march to Ulundi. This place, wholly deserted,
was fired, and while the sky glowed with red and gold reflections of
the conflagration, the victorious forces, worn out yet triumphant,
returned to the laagered camp they had left at daybreak.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF ULUNDI--FINAL RUSH OF THE ZULUS. THE
BRITISH SQUARE IN THE DISTANCE.
Drawing by R. Caton Woodville.]
The first news of the victory was carried to the Colony by Mr.
Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent of the _Daily News_, who was
himself wounded in the struggle. Starting instantly after the
decisive battle, in fourteen hours he rode a distance of 110 miles
to the nearest telegraph station at Landman's Drift, on the Buffalo
River. In thus exposing his life in the interests not only of his
journal but his country, he for ever associated himself with one of
the most interesting and thrilling campaigns of the century.
Lord Chelmsford's despatch gives a concise description of the day's
work:--
"Cetchwayo, not having complied with my demands by noon yesterday,
July 3, and having fired heavily on the troops at the water, I
returned the 114 cattle he had sent in and ordered a reconnaissance
to be made by the mounted force under Colonel Buller. This was
effectually made, and caused the Zulu army to advance and show
fight.
"This morning a force under my command, consisting of the second
division, under Major-General Newdigate, numbering 1870 Europeans,
530 natives, and eight guns, and the flying columns under
Brigadier-General Wood, numbering 2192 Europeans, 573 natives, four
guns, and two Gatlings, crossed the Umvolosi River at 6.15, and
marching in a hollow square, with the ammunition and entrenching
tool carts and bearer company in its centre, reached an excellent
position between Nodwengu and Ulundi, about half-past 8 A.M. This
had been observed by Colonel Buller the day before.
"Our fortified camp on the right bank of the Umvolosi River was left
with a garrison of about 900 Europeans, 250 natives, and one Gatling
gun, under Colonel Bellairs. Soon after half-past seven the Zulu
army was seen leaving its bivouacs and advancing on every side."
"The engagement was shortly afterwards commenced by the mounted men.
By nine o'clock the attack was fully developed. At half-past nine
the enemy wavered; the 17th Lancers, followed by the remainder of
the mounted men, attacked them, and a general rout ensued.
"The prisoners state that Cetchwayo was personally commanding and
had made all the arrangements himself, and that he witnessed the
fight from Gikarzi kraal, and that twelve regiments took part in it.
If so, 20,000 men attacked us.
"It is impossible to estimate with any correctness the loss of the
enemy, owing to the extent of country over which they attacked and
retreated, but it could not have been less, I consider, than 1000
killed. By noon Ulundi was in flames, and during the day all
military kraals of the Zulu army and in the valley of the Umvolosi
were destroyed. At 2 P.M. the return march to the camp of the
column commenced. The behaviour of the troops under my command was
extremely satisfactory; their steadiness under a complete belt of
fire was remarkable. The dash and enterprise of the mounted branches
was all that could be wished, and the fire of the artillery very
good. A portion of the Zulu force approached our fortified camp, and
at one time threatened to attack it. The native contingent, forming
a part of the garrison, were sent out after the action, and assisted
in the pursuit.
"As I have fully accomplished the object for which I advanced, I
consider I shall now be best carrying out Sir Garnet Wolseley's
instructions by moving at once to Entonganini, and thence to
Kmamagaza. I shall send back a portion of this force with empty
waggons for supplies, which are now ready at Fort Marshall."
All were rejoiced that Lord Chelmsford should have been able to gain
this victory before the arrival on the scene of Sir Garnet Wolseley,
and there were many among his friends who regretted when he
resigned.
The following quotation from the _London Gazette_ explains the most
conspicuous of the brave deeds that were done during this campaign,
though there were many more which came near to rivalling them, so
many, indeed, that it would have been impossible to have given
honours to all who deserved them:--
"WAR OFFICE, _June 17_.
"The Queen has been graciously pleased to signify her intention to
confer the decoration of the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned
officers and soldier of her Majesty's army, whose claims have been
submitted for her Majesty's approval for their gallant conduct
during the recent operations in South Africa, as recorded against
their names, viz.:--
"Captain and Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel Redvers H. Buller, C.B., 60th
Rifles, for his gallant conduct at the retreat at Zlobane on the
28th of March 1879, in having assisted, while hotly pursued, by
Zulus, in rescuing Captain C. D'Arcy, of the Frontier Light Horse,
who was retiring on foot, and carrying him on his horse until he
overtook the rear-guard; also for having on the same date and under
the same circumstances conveyed Lieutenant C. Everitt of the
Frontier Light Horse, whose horse had been killed under him, to a
place of safety. Later on Colonel Buller, in the same manner, saved
a trooper of the Frontier Light Horse, whose horse was completely
exhausted, and who otherwise would have been killed by the Zulus,
who were within eighty yards of him.
"Major William K. Leet, first battalion 13th Regiment, for his
gallant conduct on the 28th of March 1879, in rescuing from the
Zulus Lieutenant A. M. Smith of the Frontier Light Horse, during the
retreat from Zlobane. Lieutenant Smith while on foot, his horse
having been shot, was closely pursued by the Zulus, and would have
been killed had not Major Leet taken him upon his horse and rode
with him, under the fire of the enemy, to a place of safety.
"Surgeon-Major James Henry Reynolds, Army Medical Department, for
the conspicuous bravery during the attack at Rorke's Drift on the
22nd and 23rd of January 1879, which he exhibited in his attention
to the wounded under fire, and in his voluntarily conveying
ammunition from the store to the defenders of the hospital, whereby
he exposed himself to a cross fire from the enemy both in going and
returning.
"Lieutenant Edward S. Browne, first battalion 24th Regiment, for his
gallant conduct on the 29th March 1879, when the Mounted Infantry
were being driven in by the enemy at Zlobane, in galloping back and
twice assisting on his horse, under heavy fire and within a few
yards of the enemy, one of the mounted men, who must otherwise have
fallen into the enemy's hands.
"Private Wassell, 80th Regiment, for his gallant conduct in having,
at the imminent risk of his own life, saved that of Private Westwood
of the same regiment. On the 22nd of January 1879, when the camp at
Isandlwana was taken by the enemy, Private Wassell retreated towards
the Buffalo River, in which he saw a comrade struggling and
apparently drowning. He rode to the bank, dismounted, leaving his
horse on the Zulu side, rescued the man from the stream, and again
mounted his horse, dragging Private Westwood across the river, under
a heavy shower of bullets."
CHAPTER III
SIR GARNET WOLSELEY AT PRETORIA
Our disaster at Isandlwana caused enormous excitement in Pretoria.
Great and unconcealed rejoicing among the Boers took place; work was
suspended, all heads were put together to make capital out of Great
Britain's misfortunes. Notices were sent out on the 18th of March,
summoning the burghers to a mass meeting to be held some thirty
miles from the town. These meetings, it must here be noted, were
scarcely attended by invitation. A large number of the people
appeared on compulsion, brought "to the scratch" by threats. One of
the menaces, a favourite one according to Mr. Rider Haggard, was
that those who did not attend should be made "biltong" of when the
country was given back. Biltong is meat cut into strips and hung in
the sun to dry. The result of the notices, backed by threats, was a
meeting of some three thousand armed Boers, who evidently meant
mischief.
The threatening aspect of the Boers caused the corps known as the
Pretoria Horse, a corps raised for the purpose of acting as cavalry
on the Zulu border, to be retained for service in and around the
capital. While matters stood thus, and the general discontent seemed
to portend even further hostilities, Sir Bartle Frere went to
Pretoria for the purpose of discussing affairs with the Boer
leaders. These all clamoured for their independence. They had gone
as far as to assert it by stopping posts, carts, and persons, and
sending armed patrols about the country.
Nothing definite resulted from this attitude, however, for before
very long the conclusion--the successful conclusion--of the Zulu war
appeared imminent, and those in revolt against British authority saw
plainly that there would shortly be troops in plenty at hand to
restore law and order. Consequently for the time being they
subsided. The loyal inhabitants of the Transvaal entertained Sir
Bartle Frere prior to his departure, and at the public dinner given
on that occasion at Potchefstrom, he took the opportunity to assure
them that the Transvaal would never be given back! It may be
interesting to some to know, that at a public meeting on the 24th
of April in Pretoria, within a week of the breaking up of the camp
which had been threatening its safety, the following resolution was
passed:--
"This meeting reprobates most strongly the action of a certain
section of the English and Colonial press for censuring, without
sufficient knowledge of local affairs, the policy and conduct of Sir
Bartle Frere, and it desires not only to express its sympathy with
Sir Bartle Frere, and its confidence in his policy, but also to go
so far as to congratulate most heartily her Majesty the Queen, the
Home Government, and ourselves, on possessing such a true,
considerate, and faithful servant as his Excellency the High
Commissioner."
Having made allusion to Sir Bartle Frere's departure, it may be as
well to explain that before the battle of Ulundi it was arranged
that Sir Garnet Wolseley should be sent out from home to supersede
Lord Chelmsford in the command of the army, Sir H. Bulwer as
Governor of Natal, and Sir Bartle Frere as High Commissioner of the
Transvaal, Natal, and all the eastern portion of South Africa. Sir
Garnet reached Cape Town on the 28th of June, and proceeded without
delay to Natal. But, as we know, before he could reach the seat of
war the battle of Ulundi was won.
The fighting was now at an end; the Zulus expressed themselves
beaten, and Cetchwayo, after an exciting chase, which space does not
permit us to describe, was taken prisoner on the 28th of August. He
was afterwards removed to Cape Town, and rooms were given him in the
castle. Hostilities having happily terminated in Zululand, Sir
Garnet Wolseley then started for Pretoria. He there finally set up
the government of a Crown Colony with a nominative Executive Council
and Legislative Assembly.
One of his first acts on reaching Pretoria was to issue a notable
proclamation. It ran thus:----
"Whereas it appears, that notwithstanding repeated assurances of
contrary effect given by her Majesty's representatives in this
territory, uncertainty or misapprehension exists among some of her
Majesty's subjects as to the intention of her Majesty's Government
regarding the maintenance of British rule and sovereignty over the
territory of the Transvaal: and whereas it is expedient that all
grounds for such uncertainty or misapprehension should be removed
once and for all beyond doubt or question: now therefore I do hereby
proclaim and make known, in the name and on behalf of her Majesty
the Queen, that it is the will and determination of her Majesty's
Government that this Transvaal territory shall be, and shall
continue to be for ever, an integral portion of her Majesty's
dominions in South Africa."
On the same subject Sir Bartle Frere, writing to England, said that
he was very certain "that to give up the Transvaal is as little to
be thought of as surrendering Ireland or India." In his opinion the
Boer malcontents were few and inconsequential, most of the leaders
and instigators being foreigners, who were personally interested in
making themselves prominent, owing to the prevailing notion that the
country would be given up. As to the effect of the abandonment of
the Transvaal on the prospects of confederation he said: "To every
colony concerned such a step would appear as a confession of
weakness, of infirmity of purpose, and of disregard for solemn
pledges and obligations, which would destroy all respect, all wish
to belong to a Government which could so behave."
In writing to Sir M. Hicks Beach, in December 1879, Sir Bartle gave
his personal impression of the feeling in Pretoria at the time of
the annexation:--
"When our power of enforcing the law and upholding the authority of
Government were at the lowest, in April last, ... experienced men
at Pretoria gave me, through Colonel Lanyon, the following estimate
of the strength of parties in the malcontent camp. The educated and
intelligent men of influence, who advocated the most extreme
measures, or were prepared to acquiesce in them, were reckoned at
not more than eight. Three, or perhaps four, were men of property
in the Transvaal; the rest foreign adventurers, with no property
and little weight beyond that due to their skill as political
agitators. Their unflinching and uncompromising followers in the
Boer camp were not reckoned at more than eighty. The disaffected
waverers who, according to circumstances, would follow the majority
either to acts of overt resistance to Government and lawless
violence, or to grumble and disperse, 'accepting the inevitable,'
were reckoned at about eight hundred at the outside. The rest of
the camp, variously estimated as containing from sixteen hundred to
four thousand in all, but probably never exceeding two thousand
five hundred present at one time, were men brought to the camp by
intimidation, compulsion, or curiosity, who would not willingly
resist the authority of Government, and would, if assured of
protection, prefer to side with it."
Viewed in the light of later events, these opinions are extremely
interesting and cannot be disregarded.
[Illustration: OFFICER of the 16th LANCERS.
Photo by Gregory and Co., London.]
Before passing on, it is necessary to state that during the period
from 1878 to 1879, the native chief Sekukuni--Cetchwayo's dog, as
the blacks called him--had become obstreperous. He had been engaged
in raids into the Transvaal--raids of the same character as those
which, as has been already mentioned, had helped to bring about the
collapse of the Republic. Colonel Rowland's expedition, which
started in November 1878 for the suppression of this ruffian, was
baffled by fever and horse sickness. Colonel Lanyon in the following
June returned to the attack, and was on the eve of success, when Sir
Garnet Wolseley (who arrived late in that month) sent orders to
cease operations. These orders he found, on reaching the
Transvaal, to be a mistake. Sekukuni was not a person to be trifled
with nor ignored, so the campaign began again in November, with the
result that within a period of eight days the chief's stronghold was
taken and himself made prisoner. About fifty Europeans and some five
hundred Swazi allies were killed or wounded.
Here we see, within one year, how much was done for the protection
of the Transvaal at the cost of British money and British blood.
Looking back, it is easy to perceive that, but for our intervention,
the South African Republic would have been slowly but effectually
swallowed up. Cetchwayo and Sekukuni between them would have made a
meal of the Transvaal.
The brilliant and complete success of Sir Garnet Wolseley was highly
praised, and the names of Colonel Lanyon, Captain Clark, R.A., and
Captain Carrington especially mentioned as deserving a share of the
credit for the accurate information they had collected during the
previous months.
So much having been done for the security of the Boers and for the
maintenance of British prestige, it is no marvel that Sir Garnet
Wolseley thought himself justified in expressing the trend of
British policy in plain terms. At the dinner given at Pretoria on
the 17th of December 1879 he took the opportunity of making the
British programme well understood. He declared with emphasis that
there could be no question of resigning the sovereignty of the
country. "There is no Government," he said, "Whig or Tory, Liberal,
Conservative, or Radical, who would dare under any circumstances to
give back this country. They would not dare, because the English
people would not allow them!" At that time it was evident that Sir
Garnet had never heard the story of the philanthropic Belarmine, an
individual who gave himself to the she-bear to save her and her
young ones from starvation. Or, if the tale was known to him, he
probably took it for what it was worth, and never foresaw that the
British Government would emulate the action of the self-sacrificing
lunatic, and spend precious blood for the sole purpose of nourishing
and resuscitating the powers of a languishing enemy.
MR. GLADSTONE OUT OF OFFICE AND IN OFFICE
But British speeches and proclamations had ceased to impress the
Boers. They had had too many of them, and they began to think the
British Government a somewhat knock-kneed institution whose joints
had ceased to hold together. Sir Garnet Wolseley, however, with
characteristic energy and determination, dealt with the malcontents
one by one, converting them, and causing them to sensibly consider
on which side their bread was buttered. Indeed, so diplomatically
did he conduct his work, that a sop was given to the aggressive
Pretorius, who, instead of being put in prison as he deserved, was
offered a seat on the Executive Council, with a salary attached.
This he was inclined to jump at, but, at the time, public feeling
ran too high to allow of his making a decision. The fact was that
the political speeches delivered by Mr. Gladstone in the south of
Scotland, during the months of November and December 1879, were
putting a new complexion on affairs. They were reprinted all the
world over, and they were profusely circulated among the Boers. The
Boer leaders and obstructionists at once saw in this British
statesman their saviour, and were convinced that, on the return of
Mr. Gladstone to power, their independence would be assured. They
therefore sent Messrs. Kruger and Joubert as a deputation to the
Cape, and these two gentlemen persuaded the Cape Parliament to
reject the Confederation Scheme then being proposed by Sir Bartle
Frere. Selections from the attacks on the Government, from which the
Boers then derived their encouragement and support, are here
reprinted in order that the sincerity of Mr. Gladstone's attitude
may be examined.
Speaking in Edinburgh, he said of the Government:--
"They have annexed in Africa the Transvaal territory, inhabited by a
free European, Christian, Republican community, which they have
thought proper to bring within the limits of a Monarchy, although
out of 8000 persons in that Republic qualified to vote upon the
subject, we are told--and I have never seen the statement officially
contradicted--that 6500 protested against it. These are the
circumstances under which we undertake to transform Republicans into
subjects of a Monarchy."
Now, Sir T. Shepstone's despatches show that the ground on which the
Transvaal was annexed was because the State was drifting into
anarchy, was bankrupt, and was about to be destroyed by native
tribes. He said "that most thinking men in the country saw no other
way out of the difficulty," and Carlyle has taught us what is the
proportion between thinking men and the general public. He also
said, in the fifteenth paragraph of his despatch to Lord Carnarvon
of the 6th of March 1877, that petitions signed by 2500 people,
representing every class of the community, out of a total adult male
population of 8000, had been presented to the Government of the
Republic, setting forth its difficulties and dangers, and praying it
"to treat with me for their amelioration or removal." He likewise
stated, and with perfect truth, that many more would have signed had
it not been for the terrorism that was exercised, and that all the
towns and villages in the country desired the change.
Mr. Gladstone went on to say:--
"We have made war on the Zulus. We have thereby become responsible
for their territory; and not only this, but we are now, as it
appears from the latest advices, about to make war upon a chief
lying to the northward of the Zulus; and Sir Bartle Frere, who was
the great authority for the proceedings of the Government in
Afghanistan, has announced in South Africa that it will be necessary
for us to extend our dominions until we reach the Portuguese
frontier to the north. So much for Africa."
At Dalkeith he remarked:--
"If we cast our eyes to South Africa, what do we behold? That a
nation whom we term savages have, in defence of their own land,
offered their naked bodies to the terribly improved artillery and
arms of modern European science, and have been mowed down by
hundreds and by thousands, having committed no offence, but having,
with rude and ignorant courage, done what were for them, and done
faithfully and bravely what were for them the duties of patriotism.
You may talk of glory, you may offer rewards,--and you are right to
give rewards to the gallantry of your soldiers, who I think are
entitled not only to our admiration for courage, but to our
compassion for the nature of the duties they have been called to
perform--but the grief and pain none the less remain."
At Glasgow he continued in the same strain:--
"In Africa you have before you the memory of bloodshed, of military
disaster, the record of 10,000 Zulus--such is the computation of
Bishop Colenso--slain for no other offence than their attempt to
defend against your artillery, with their naked bodies, their
hearths and homes, their wives and families. You have the invasion
of a free people in the Transvaal, and you have, I fear, in one
quarter or another--I will not enter into details, which might be
injurious to the public interest--prospects of further disturbance
and shedding of blood."
These speeches, as may be imagined, did an incalculable amount of
mischief. Besides fanning the smouldering sparks of discontent, they
served up catchwords wholesale for that section of the British
public whose political machinery is largely fed by catchwords. But,
as has been decided by axiom, "any stick will serve to beat a dog
with," and the Transvaal difficulty was a convenient weapon for the
attack on the Government. The real feeling of the Boer community was
an outside matter, and, as we shall presently see, had nothing to do
with the case, though in March 1880 Mr. Gladstone had the
satisfaction of receiving a letter from a committee of Boer
malcontents, wherein "he was thanked for the great sympathy shown in
their fate." The thanks were a little premature. In April 1880 the
elections took place, and Mr. Gladstone came into power with a
large majority. Then he was asked the great question: Would he
maintain his oft-repeated pledge to retain the Transvaal, or would
he continue to take up the tone of his Midlothian denunciations?
The riddle was shortly to be solved. In the debate on the Queen's
Speech the Prime Minister thus expressed himself: "I do not know
whether there is an absolute union of opinion on this side of the
House as to the policy in which the assumption of the Transvaal
originated. Undoubtedly, as far as I am myself concerned, I did not
approve of that assumption. I took no part in questioning it nor in
the attempt to condemn it, because, in my opinion, whether the
assumption was wise or unwise, it having been done, no good but only
mischief was to be done by the intervention of this House. But
whatever our original opinions were on that policy--and the opinions
of the majority of those who sit on this side of the House were
decidedly adverse to it--we had to confront a state of facts; and
the main fact which met us was the existence of the large native
population in the Transvaal, to whom, by the establishment of the
Queen's supremacy, we hold ourselves to have given a pledge. That is
the acceptance of facts, and that is the sense in which my right
honourable friend, and all those who sit with him, may, if they
think fit, say we accept the principles on which the late Government
proceeded. It is quite possible to accept the consequences of a
policy, and yet to retain the original difference of opinion with
regard to the character of that policy as long as it was a matter of
discussion."
And shortly after he wrote to Messrs. Kruger and Joubert:--
"It is undoubtedly matter for much regret that it should, since the
annexation, have appeared that so large a number of the population
of Dutch origin in the Transvaal are opposed to the annexation of
that territory, but it is impossible to consider that question as if
it were presented for the first time. We have to deal with a state
of things which has existed for a considerable period, during which
obligations have been contracted, especially, though not
exclusively, towards the native population, which cannot be set
aside.
"Looking to all the circumstances, both of the Transvaal and the
rest of South Africa, and to the necessity of preventing a renewal
of disorders, which might lead to disastrous consequences, not only
to the Transvaal, but to the whole of South Africa, our judgment is,
that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish her sovereignty over
the Transvaal, but, consistently with the maintenance of that
sovereignty, we desire that the white inhabitants of the Transvaal
should, without prejudice to the rest of the population, enjoy the
fullest liberty to manage their local affairs. We believe that this
liberty may be most easily and promptly conceded to the Transvaal as
a member of a South African Confederation."
THE COMMENCEMENT OF REBELLION
When the Liberal Ministry came into power, it will be observed, Mr.
Gladstone's attitude changed, and that he was compelled to abandon
the sympathetic tone of his Midlothian speeches. How far he really
meant to be bound by the promise made that "the Queen cannot be
advised to relinquish her sovereignty over the Transvaal" is not
known, for later on, in June 1881, in a letter to the Transvaal
loyalists, he explains that there was "no mention of the terms or
date of this promise. If the reference be to my letter of the 8th of
June 1880 to Messrs. Kruger and Joubert, I do not think the language
of that letter justifies the description given. Nor am I sure in
what manner, or to what degree, the fullest liberty to manage their
local affairs, which I then said her Majesty's Government desired to
confer on the white population of the Transvaal, differs from the
settlement now about being made in its bearing on the interests of
those whom your committee represents."
This letter was a masterpiece of one whose talent for ambiguity was
becoming world famous, and a stone in shape of a loaf was thus
hurled at the heads of the expectant loyalists.
But to return to the events of 1880. Finding that the Premier was no
longer to be the mainstay of their hopes, the Boers began to renew their
agitations. These agitations, it will be remembered, during the end of
the Zulu war and Sir Garnet Wolseley's arrival in the Transvaal, were
merely suppressed, because at that time British ascendency throughout
the country seemed to be established. An excellent opportunity for
rebellion now suggested itself. The Cape Government was engaged with the
Basuto war. Sir Owen Lanyon, who succeeded Sir T. Shepstone in March
1879, had supplied a body of 300 or more volunteers--mostly
loyalists--to assist in the military operations, while the only regiment
of cavalry had been sent elsewhere by Sir Garnet Wolseley. Big things
have often small beginnings, and the Boer rebellion, that has brought so
many complications in its train, commenced with a very small incident. A
certain Bezeidenhout, having refused to pay his taxes, had, by order,
some of his goods seized and put up to auction. This was the signal for
the malcontents to attack the auctioneer and rescue the goods. So great
became the uproar and confusion, the women aiding and abetting the men
in their disobedience of the law, that military assistance was summoned.
Major Thornhill, with a few companies of the 21st Regiment, was sent to
support the Landrost in arresting the rioters, and special constables
were enrolled to assist him in restoring order. But these united
exertions were unavailing. All attempts to carry out the arrests were
openly set at defiance. This scene occurred on the 11th of November
1880. On the 26th Sir George Colley--who had relieved Sir Garnet
Wolseley as Commander-in-Chief--was applied to for more troops. Sir
George, who was daily expecting an outbreak of Pondos, and a possible
appeal for help from Cape Colony, merely suggested that the "authorities
should be assisted by the loyal inhabitants." This, it must be owned,
was hard on the royalists, who from that time to this have had to pay
dearly for their allegiance to the Crown. A mass meeting was held at
Paade kraal, where Krugersdorp now stands, and the rioters unanimously
decided to commit their cause to the Almighty, and to live or die in the
struggle for independence. Thereupon Messrs. Kruger, Pretorius, and
Joubert were elected a triumvirate to conduct the Government, and on the
16th of December 1880 (Dingaan's Day) the Republic was formally
proclaimed, and its flag again hoisted. The proclamation, dealing with
the events of the preceding years, and offering terms to her Majesty's
Government, was forwarded to Sir Owen Lanyon. The Boer leaders therein
expressed their willingness to enter into confederation and to guide
their native policy by general rules adopted in concurrence "with the
Colonies and States of South Africa," and at the same time declared that
they had no desire for war or the spilling of blood. "It lies," they
said, "in your hands to force us to appeal to arms in self-defence."
On the very day of the proclamation, however, blood was shed.
Commandant Cronje, with a party of burghers, marched into
Potchefstroom for the purpose of printing the proclamation. They
promptly seized the printing-office, and
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